Spoken like a true Furyan

 Another quick palette cleanser paint job after all those ww2 uniforms, here is the last homage mini from my Sedition Wars Kickstarter minis collection. 

This is Riddick the main character from the very cool sci-fi trilogy Pitch Black, Chronicles of Riddick and Riddick respectively. (Main character played by Vin Diesel)

Being all dressed in menacing black, only liberties I took with the scheme was to give him a very pale skin tone to better contrast with his dark outfit and to also give his goggles purple lenses (In the films it’s his eyes that are purple as he can see in the dark.). Blacks are thanks to a base of GW Black Templar Contrast paint, which I am very fond of as painting black is a pain in the rump at the best of times. (The pics don’t show the depth in the shade but… eh)

His base was painted up in the same scheme as the other Sedition Wars minis I painted earlier this year.

Next up, I have another surprise sculpt and the aforementioned (in my last post) ww2 Canadians. We will see what appeals most.

Stay well out there!

- Dai

Two by Two , Hands of Blue

 I haven't had much time for painting in my down time of late, but I managed to get some colour on the final sculpt of my Firefly homage minis, River Tam. She joins the four other figs from Mike McVey's Sedition Wars Kickstarter exclusives and is a nice representation of the character from the film, "Serenity" which was supposed to be a conclusion of sorts to the Firefly series. I'll not go into just how well, or not, that film filled that role as that's old news now but it did expand on the River character a LOT so I think she was a good inclusion in this set. My only complaint on this sculpt, like the others in the four-some is her soft facial details, so sadly I did not attempt to add better definition with freehand or some such as, damn, that face is a small one! (From far away, she looks fine I think in any case.)

I searched online for reference pics of this dress to work out which colour was correct, but there aren't many clear ones and others where some show a royal blue and others a green or turquoise. I went with the Turquoise-ish look in the end. 

Only one film homage sculpt left to do, so that's coming up, though not sure when exactly as I'm now got 4 WW2 commandos that I'm about 30% done with, so hopefully next post I'll show those off. 

Hope all are well and staying safe out there,

- Dai

The hero of Canton!

 This weekend saw me getting a little time to slap some paint on yet another of my Sedition Wars Kickstarter exclusive minis, this time another homage sculpt to the Firefly sci-fi series based off of a beloved character of the ship's crew, Jayne Cobb. 

The sculpt is okay, though seems to be leaning a little too far back and looks uncomfortable. But like the others, he'll do! He's wielding his beloved assault rifle, "Vera" and is also wearing an approximation of the woolen hat his mum knitted him on the show. (Though the hat on the sculpt looks more like a 1920's American Football leather helmet with a hat band than a woolly hat to me. I plan at a later date to add a greenstuff bobble to help with this.) 

The referance images I found showed him wearing t-shirts with all sorts of different graphics printed on them, but those crossed bandoleers are in the way so I just added some sort of squigly-semi-kanji to his right shoulder in green and red and left it at that. 

I had a hell of a time trying to get his eyes painted and after the 5th attempt just said "sod it" and went with this 

I managed to find some more of these homage minis from this Kickstarter so they'll be painted up too after I've given them a good priming including the last of the Firefly lot, River.

Stay well and safe out there - Dai

Wash, change course and go for hard burn. We’re runnin’.

 Been a busy couple weeks, but I found time this weekend to add some paint to more of my Kickstarter minis from Sedition Wars by Mike McVey. These three are all homage sculpts to beloved sci-fi series and video game, cast in restic and so not even worth attempting to get mold lines off of. Paint jobs were all done quickly for a tabletop level in order to get them done and off the "Unpainted Mountain".

First up is Zoe Washburne, First Mate onboard the Starship "Serenity" and Captain Mal's right hand gal and closest friend. The sculpt was pretty spot on to the screenshots from the series, though her facial details were very soft, but from a distance, she looks the part I think.

Went with colours that were closest to the pics I googled. Love that she has her iconic carbine holstered at her side.

Next up is a nice simple sculpt to represent Caprica 6 from Battlestar Galactica. I think this is a pretty good representation of Trisha Helfer's character and she painted up quickly. Again, her facial detail was sadly a little soft but I feel she'll do. I previously painted her "tech-zombie" version a "little while ago" (5 1/2 years ago! O_o) which can be found HERE.

Platinum blonde and red dress, how could any hetro-male say no?

Lastly is a fig of a not-Isaac Clarke from the Dead Space video games. Not a bad sculpt and was simple to paint up. Though I was aware of them, I never played the Dead Space games as I'm not much of a fan of horror games, but I liked the look of this fellow so he was next on the paint table.

Next up will be the penultimate homage mini from my Sedition Wars Kickstarter collection. 

Hope all are well out there, stay safe and healthy - Dai

Getting awful crowded in my sky

 Two posts in two weeks? Not bad. 

Today's offering is a Kickstarter Add-on from the much maligned Sedition Wars boardgame produced by Coolminiornot back in 2012. Lots went wrong with that Kickstarter that I'll not go into as it's ancient history now, but I will say that all the minis that looked like they were going to be amazing from their initial sculpts, ended up being pretty bad due to them being produced in Restic. That stuff is just plain awful to work with (And because of that, I didn't do one darn thing with any mold lines), nuff said.

The first in this series, (An effort to further reduce my unpainted mountain.) is a "Not-Captain Mal" from the Western-Sci-fi series Firefly. I LOVED this series and it was a crying shame that FOX did the dirty to Joss Wedon, causing his pet project to be canceled before it had a chance to show more of this very entertaining setting. 

Mal has his classic duster longcoat and sidearm. As he's the crew's captain, he's also pointing. I stuck with the classic colours he wore throughout most of the series which was nice and simple. Not my best painting but he's good enough for gaming and rpg's.

Lots more detail on his duster than int he show and I didn't want to add too much extra to it so stay true to the show. The base is a Sedition Wars specific base with nice subtle detail and just got a metallic treatment with black wash and some green added to the little circular recesses for a little spot colour.

Next up the final piece from the British/Commonwealth Support Group boxed set by Warlord Games, a Vickers MMG team. Also painted in Canadian greens, this team is going to add some nice small arms support to my Canadian Bolt Action lists.

Added a larger rock to this base just to make it more interesting to look at. LOL There were no Large rocks on Dieppe beach in the pics I could source, so a little artistic license on my part.

Next up, some more Firefly characters and some other theme'd sculpts from beloved sci-fi titles.

Zomtober 2016 (Week 1)

October is here and that means Zomtober in the hobby blogosphere. The rules are simple, paint at least one Zombie theme'd mini per week for the month of October and post it on your blog, Sundays being the submission date. Hard for me to do cos my home PC is a bag of shite and I hate the blogger app, so have to wait to post until Monday morning (Like now), but I'm sure that works too.

My plan this Zomtober was to work opn some WW2 German zombies that I'd kit-bashed out of the Warlord Games plastic German Grenadiers boxed set, but I couldn't get them based and primed in time for week #1. Instead I present this hastily painted Kickstarter exclusive Sedition Wars sci-fi zombie fig of not-Ripley & Newt from the Aliens film. As you can see, they've kind of merge-melted together and grown a tummy-mouth. Only thing really that is left to do is add Tamiya Clear Red for some blood effects, but my pot was unexpectedly dried up due to my son leaving it open! >_<

The WW2 German zombies are now primed and ready to paint up, so expect this very weekend a post showing how poorly I can paint up German uniforms! :)

Zomtober - Week 3

This is another Sedition Wars mini, though a Kickstarter exclusive, using the blonde Cylon "6" from Battlestar Galactica as it's inspiration. The sculpt has an ingame name, but I can't remember it, so she'll be Professor Patricia Heffer, former lead scientist on the science vessel where first contact with the nano-virus occurred. She had finally found a way to combat the virus and stop it's deadly spread, but sadly too late, as the virus had already infected her lymphatic system and she succumbed before being able to test out her cure.

Played with the idea of giving her lipstick or a darker lip colour, but decided that zombie ladies wouldn't really care about that stuff.

One aspect to this sculpt that appealed was that there are relatively few tech parts to pick out aside from her hand.

There's 13 days until I make the draw for my 200th Post competition. All details can be found here!

Zomtober - Week 2

I present to you the other two regular zombie sculpts from Sedition Wars for my Week 2 Zomtober submission.

Again, mold lines left alone and quick and dirty paint jobs.

Couldn't get good pics of these when I took them, but you get the idea.

Also managed some more work on my Confederate infantry. Man are they fiddly!

Next up, some more Sedition Wars Zombies - this time, some special characters who have been turned!


My 200th Post Competition is still open for entries until Halloween!

Zomtober - Week 1

As with last year's 6MMRPChallenge, this one also includes a month of October long section called Zomtober where those in the challenge (And others who just want to.) paint up and post up zombies from their collections.

My first week's post should have gone up this last weekend, but I was painting an ACW Confederate Artillery battery and starting on an Infantry regiment to support them, not even remembering I have zombie-responsibilities otherwise!

My intention was to work on some Redboxgames "lesser infernals" (Zombies) but my order has yet to arrive, so, I finally picked up a long neglected Sedition Wars fig and went to work on a sci-fi zed-head instead.

Yellow skin for a change, contrasting well I think with the red-orange torn overalls.

As you can see, mold lines untouched. This is due to these figs being made in Restic, which is a nightmare to work with and so I saved myself a big headache and just painted it up as is.

One thing Sedition Wars did was produce some super nice bases for their game. Paints up very easily and looks great with simple washes.

This bloke really looks a lot more intimidating than his ingame abilities would otherwise attest to. :)

More Zombies for Week 2 should be posted up this long holiday weekend!

Also don't forget my still running 200th Post Competition that's running until the end of the month!

Battle for Alabaster

On Tuesday my copy of Sedition Wars: Battle for Alabaster arrived. I bought into the Kickstarter campaign at the Biohazard level and also picked up a set of extra Kickstarter only dice and one each of the Kickstarter only extra miniatures. (The extras are all to arrive some time in March.)

This review will not include any in depth game play details as I've yet to play a game. I have read the rule book though and from that, I can say I am excited to try out the rules set and see how it plays in practice.

This game has been created by Mike McVey's "Studio McVey" and publicised and fabricated by Coolminiornot. Apparently it's been Mike's baby for a long time and only this year has he been ready to turn his dream creation into a reality. Kickstarter donations made it the highest earning board game project on the website until that date, beating the prior leader, Zombiecide by quite a bit. (This total has since been eclipsed by the Kingdom Death: Monster board game campaign.)

The Sedition Wars setting so far has introduced three factions - the Corporation backed "Vanguard", an elite fighting force with all the gizmo's and tech that corporate money can supply - the "Firebrand", a revolutionary organisation opposed to the current form of government and enemies of the Vanguard - and the "Strain", not necessarily a "faction" per the definition of the word, but counts as one anyway. The Strain is a nano-virus that can infect both organic material and technological devices and change them into space zombies or worse!

Battle for Alabaster includes rules and miniatures for just the Vanguard forces and the Strain; the Firebrand are reported to be included in their first expansion to this game, Arms of Sorrow along with some sort of Mercenary faction. So space troopers versus space zombie-monsters!

So first off, for pledging at the Biohazard level, you not only got a copy of the game, but also a limited edition resin figure of the Vanguard team commander, Captain Kara Black, a bad arse blond warrior woman,

 

A lithograph of the box art personally signed by Mike McVey himself and small patch of the vanguard emblem,

 

 

And a set of their Kickstarter custom dice. (I bought an extra set.) I really like the fonts used for the numbers on these.

 



 

I have to say it was a good deal and value for monies spent, I'm a rather happy hobbyist. There's 50 or so nicely detailed miniatures in the box, 5 double sided board tiles (50cmx50cm) a horde of push out card tokens, plastic nano, infection and shield counters and the rulebook which is admittedly rather poorly proofed, but nonetheless beautifully illustrated.

Each miniature comes with it's own full colour two-sided stat-card which are about normal playing card size and will need some sort of clear protector as health points are kept track of directly on them.

Each Miniature also comes with a setting designed custom base. The large bases only come in one design, but the small come in 6 and I like them all. Crisp sculpts and varied enough to keep the look fresh.

 



The bases have pegs for both the infection and shield markers and are a nice snug fit so shouldn't fall apart during the game. Red for Infected - you can be infected multiple times - and blue for shield.

On to the models though! Forgive the fact that I've got no pics of assembled examples, I haven't had time to get on to that just yet.

Here's the basic level Strain zombies and Vanguard troopers.

Nice amount of variation in sculpts and the detail is crisp and well done considering these are board game miniatures.

The Vanguard have hero models too and they are pretty cool - heavy weapons expert, captain, sniper and medic. I love the sculpts. There's also a floating Tank Drone that is pretty cool looking too.

Whereas the Strain get more advanced versions that the lower level zombies can morph into during game.

The Strain also have personalities to use, though I think they are mission specific until you decide to play outside of the pre-written campaign. These things are large and include my favourite sculpt in the box, the Grendlr.

 

 

Lastly, for pledging during the Kickstarter campaign at the level I did, I got a bunch of extra figs included in a separate box so I can run bigger games. All with bases and their own stat cards.

 

 

 

 

And that's it. I think it's going to be a good game. I've tried not to read much about the game play online so I can go into it with an objective attitude and I'll maybe post up later what I think of the game play then. I am really excited for March to come around so all the Kickstarter exclusive miniatures can arrive as there's some REALLY cool stuff to come. Cheers.



A Challenge (Part 5 - Havok Squad start)

With the Herald completed, I can move on to next month's commitment. I've decided to work on my Havok Squad (They've only sat in my Chaos to do box for 3 years..... ).

Here's the squad of 7 pre-prime, they are currently drying after being sprayed black with Krylon in preparation for base coats.

Due to the drying paint, I decided to work on some more of my Brits, this time a Machine Gunner platoon. It's mostly made up of Forged in Battle miniatures (Aside from the platoon command section.) which are not as nicely detailed as the Battlefront sculpts and a little larger, but they were a gift and I'll not be a ponce and not use them just cos they are different. Once on the table they'll look fine as they shred Nazi infantry with the rest of the Tommies. ;)

(Also, my copy of Sedition Wars STILL hasn't arrived..... The FedEx tracker page says it's been in Sacramento since Friday. I'm slightly annoyed to say the least.)

A Challenge (Part 2 - Herald WIP)

Quick WIP of the Herald for January's hobby pledge.

Base colours and initial washes of Browns and blacks respectively. The model has kind of snail ooze modelled into it coming out from under it's "foot" - other Ooze-like effects in my CSM's thus far have been done in a fluorescent-type yellow-green, so I thought, the Herald being a daemon, his own yucky secretions would likewise be the same colour.

(Hard to tell in the pics, but those disembodied heads are a drab green.)

In other news, after reading a few reviews of the latest Flames of War book, "Operation Market Garden", I went and got a couple extra Sherman Fireflys off of Ebay for my Brits. With 17 pdrs now a whopping AT15, I think loading up with as many options to field such powerful guns as possible is the order of the day. Next on my list of FoW purchases will be some M10 Achilles for even more anti tank action. Can't wait to get a copy of this book to see all the new lists - it's said that it has brought the Brits as a faction back as a force to be reckoned with. One question - Archers, or no Archers? ~_^

(Also, my copy of the Sedition Wars board game should be arriving any day soon this week apparently! So Stoked!)