Tag: Science Fiction

Workbench

An Orktober Miracle!

Despite all of my grumbling and carrying on, I managed to get my box of Armageddon Orks finished by the end of October, including my two bonus round vehicles, which means I am the grand champion of miniature painters in my house. Since my wife has absolutely no interest in painting minis, my crown is secure once again!

I have to admit now that a challenge is actually incredibly motivating for finishing a project, so now I’m going to spend a few days figuring out what the hell my challenge is going to be for November. Nurgvember? Necrovember? Elvember? If you have any ideas, let me know!

Ork Big Boss

He’s not as big as he thinks, but he’s still the second toughest mamba-jamba in the army. Plus, he’ll be getting a super keen Pulp Alley card since he’ll be the boss fighter for the ork roster I’m putting together. Pulp Alley is cool, kids.

Ork Wartrakk

This one wasn’t wanting to cooperate and really wanted to be a pain in the butt today, but I remembered that it was a push-fit model and that I hadn’t glued it together, so I took it apart and painted it in sub assemblies. This isn’t something I do often with single figs, but I’m seeing the merit in it for vehicles! Fun machine, I’m tempted to pick up some bikes when the new kit comes out to back this guy up.

Big Mek Dakka Rig

The Dakka Rig is the stupidest thing in the world and I love it with my whole damned heart. It’s big, it’s got all kinds of fun details, and I have a feeling it’s a lot of fun to push around a table making pew-pew noises. The weld marks on the panel joins really pop out with a light metal drybrush, so this guy was actually easier to paint up than I had thought he would be!

That’s it! Happy Orktober for all who celebrate, see you in a few days!

Workbench

40k Ork Army Projekt: The Orktober Update!

I set a goal at the beginning of the month, and I’ve been kicking and screaming against it ever since. I wanted to get the rest of the Orks from the Warhammer 40k Armageddon Launch Box finished, and what better motivation than the big, rampaging annual tradition of Orktober?

My primary goal was to get the rest of the infantry (Boyz squads are already done) and command done by the end of the month, with a bonus-points awarded if the two vehicles manage to get finished along the way. I’m happy to say that the primary goal has been crossed off the list!

Gretchen Infantry

I’m not sure how they operate without a handler, but the 10 sneaky gits in the launch box came along pretty well! I struggle with little guys because I want to go all out on them, but they don’t need much to reach a good tabletop standard.

Painboy

He’s a creepy fellow, and his assistant grot really ads a lot to the fun! I spent a little extra time getting fresh and old blood on his smock for a little contrast pop with the green.

Bannernob

I painted the whole army with a mild pirate theme, and wanted this guy to stand out a little more, hence the vivid pink jersey.

Weirdboy

Probably my favorite model in the box, I love how the scenic part of the base looks like his psychic onslaught is just warping the hell out of the ground he’s standing on. I might make his eyes a little freakier, but for now? He’s good.

Warboss

He’s freaking huge. And such a cool sculpt. I put a lot of rust on the command models, just to make them look like they’ve been hauling that gear about for a while. I went ahead and made his look positively corroded. I’m really happy with the result!

I just realized that I forgot to photograph the Big Boss, so I’ll get him posted up tomorrow, possibly with the Wartrack and Big Mek Dakkarig! Happy Orktober, everyone!

Miniatures, Workbench

2020 Secret Santa Project, Part 2

Seeing as how my friends from my local gaming group can’t get together during the pandemic, we decided to do a miniature painting based Secret Santa project.

I was chosen to paint up a Mercenary from Infinity for my friend Brock. Infinity minis are a blast to paint, and the merc he submitted is one of the best figs in the game, so I was really happy to get to work!

I have to admit to a certain crutch with Infinity models, though! I tend to want their boots and gauntlets to look like they were made from high-grade plastics or ceramics, so I often paint them white. I wanted to do something a little different with this merc, since she has a lot of earth tones, so I went with a yellow scheme with Menoth White highlights.

The red tones were Citadel Contrast paints, which were then highlighted up to a warm orange. The reds help balance out the tones established by the yellows and browns, and also contrast her hair.

The hair started out with a turquoise glaze, which was then highlighted up to near white through some soft blue tones. The turquoise base is a pretty good contrast to the red tones. Normally, I would go more green on a project like this, but just happen to live in a country where red and green are considered Christmas colors. And no-one wants a Christmas themed mercenary!

At least no-one I know directly! Who knows, maybe there’s a market for that somewhere out there?

Miniatures, Workbench

The Secret Santa Project 2020

I know the pandemic has been horrifying on so many levels. There has been a catastrophic loss of life, and the economic hardships so many people around the world have been facing is truly heartbreaking. When thinking about those issues, it’s kind of hard to feel too bad about not being able to get together with friends to roll some dice.

But DAMMIT, I miss getting together with my game crew. They’re a great bunch of people, and they really help me blow off some steam at the end of a long work week!

So, this past Holiday we decided we would do a Secret Santa within our game club, where anyone who was willing to paint a standard sized mini would also be able to get a standard sized mini painted for them by someone in the group.

I seriously love everyone in this group, so I would be happy to paint something for any single one of them! And not having to paint part of the Pile of Shame? Sign me the freak up!

Who wouldn’t want to paint a mini of this guy? Say hi to Kur Keela from Mantic’s Star Saga!

I picked a cool Mantic mini from my backlog and dropped him off at Shiv Games, and then picked up the mini I was supposed to paint. I wasn’t surprised to see that I would be painting an Infinity model, since our shop is such an Infinity intensive group. I brought my project home, got to work, and three weeks later, it was time to see who had painted my mini!

I was shocked. My friend Randon is one of the best painters I know, and he ended up getting my turtle dude to paint. Now I have a badass mini with a badass paint job from a really good friend! While we may not be able to get together to game, this whole experience was a really cool one for all of us!

Tomorrow, I’ll share pics of the mini I painted for my friend Brock!

Miniatures, Workbench

Core Space: Skylark Crew

Core Space is one of those games that checks all of the boxes when I’m looking for a game: cool setting, great minis, and terrain? Well, Core Space is from Battle Systems, so the terrain is kind of a given.

I still haven’t played a game of Core Space, and anyone who knows me is probably having a pretty good chuckle at my expense. Yes, there is a pretty good chance that I’ll never play a game of Core Space. I collect and paint miniatures with the assumption that some day I’ll play them, but I know that I’ll just buy more minis to paint.

That’s why there’s four boxes of Runewars minis showing up tomorrow, by the way.

One of the great things about Core Space is the crew boxes, which give you a crew of space traders all ready to go. Sure, you can recruit NPCs, and even put together a crew from other crew sets, too. But getting a box with a crew set to go, and fiction behind them? That’s cooooool.

Jonathan Weaver is the captain, and he’s heading down a dark path. He wants to make it big, and the jobs are getting harder to pull off. He’s running guns and fencing goods, and that’s making his crew feel a bit at odds.

Marlowe Chibueze is Weaver’s conscience, but he also has to be careful because he’s an augmented human, and potentially a living weapon.

Faye Millicent is the rookie, and learning her way through the universe. She’s wondering if maybe she should have thought things through a little before signing on to the Skylark.

MAC is a contracted mercenary, who is using his earnings to continuously upgrade his gear, but no one knows what his end game is.

This is the fist crew I have finished up, but I pretty much bought everything there is for the game, so there’s a ton more to come!