SuperFigs Conversion: Draco!

My Sky has come up with a dynamite conversion on his Steel City Supers blog.

Here's a pic of Draco:



Great use of bits from the entire line!

Thanks, Sky!

--Scott

Off The Shelf: Cowboy Wars!

Just saw True Grit today and it was magnificent! An Oscar-worthy performance from Jeff Bridges reprising the role of Rooster Cogburn. Anyway, it motivated me to dig out some of my Cowboy Wars figures from a few years back. We played the hell out of Legends of the Old West (I love that game!) and we mainly used CW figures to do it.

Here are shots of two of my favorites from the line that I use in most of my gangs:



As you can see from the above shot, the best thing about the CW line is that you get the figure both mounted and dismounted. This is perfect for different CW scenarios.







I'll take some more shots of the whole gang at some later date. Definitely more where this came from!

--Scott

Uranian Weaponer

If you're anything like me, you have a shoebox of abandoned projects. In my case, many of the figures in the shoebox have been primed, and some are in various stages of completion.

The other day I dipped into my box and pulled out this little gem, a Weaponer of Uranus from the Blue Moon Aliens and Spacemen range. I love these chunky, pineapple-headed dudes, and I thought I'd paint up this guy for use in my upcoming Steam-Opera games.








Here's a comp shot with another Blue Moon mini that I use for Gamma World:



The Uranian's flesh tone was achieved using my new Foundry Conker Brown 3-step. Very nice and easy to blend between steps.

Thanks for looking!

--Scott

Gatormen Posse!

At last, here are the long promised shots of the Gatormen Posse for Hordes.











These models were "speed-painted" using Army Painter Army Green spray primer. Once primed all green, I hit them with GW's Thrakka Green ink mixed with some glue. For the back plates I used GW Foundation Ork Hide. The back plates on the leader were done using a Medium Sea Blue from Vallejo.

The belly areas on all the models were done with Gretchin Green, also a Foundation color. I then went back in and did all of the non-green colors: wood, bone, feathers, etc. I am pretty pleased with the results, but for single monsters or solos, I will stick to my 3-step blending techniques.

Happy Christmas for those who celebrate it, and happy holidays to the rest! I am very thankful for everyone who makes checking this blog a regular part of their day!

--Scott

Quar Lugger Automaton!

As I am using the Quar in my homebrew RPG universe, with its Steam-Opera trappings, I decided that they would use small Automatons called "Luggers" to haul extra equipment, ammo, and supplies into battle.

These Luggers would be quite loyal to their Quar superiors, and the Quar in turn would develop a fondness for them.

I converted my first Lugger Automaton using one of Reaper's excellent Chronoscope robots.

Here's the results:







I was careful to give him plenty of Quar bits to carry around with him, including a spare firearm should one be needed!

Here's a comp shot or two:





And here are a few shots of the helmeted Quar fighter all by himself:





Finally, a neat shot of the Quar battle squad and their Lugger LT-1 discovering a dangerous Crab Droid lurking on the battlefield:





Hopefully, a few choice items I am waiting on will arrive over my short holiday break and I will have more stuff to show off. In the meantime, I still have to take some pics of those Gator Men I have been promising.

Thanks for checking out the blog!

--Scott

Hordes: Swamp Goblin Bellows Crew

I actually made some more progress on my Hordes force this past weekend. I added a 3-model Gatorman Posse unit, and the Swamp Goblin Bellows Crew. The Gatorman Posse was an interesting experiment in speed painting using one of the Army Painter sprays, and they will be the subject of another post this week. But for now, here are the Swamp Goblins:





At only 1 pt., these guys are not game breakers, but they can give my melee-heavy force a bit of cover by blowing a smokescreen as they advance. And they look cool, so that has to count for something!

Thanks for looking!

--Scott

More Quar Added!

I finished two more Quar. The test model was painted using a basecoat, wash, highlight method, but for these next two I went back to the Foundry 3-step blending. In this case the uniform was done with Rawhide A and B.





Here's a shot with all three Quar I've done so far:



Incidentally, these pics were taken on Old Glory's awesome 2' x 2' terrain squares. I've got the Hills With Rocky Outcrops and they are awesome!

Can't wait to get my two Militia Quar in the mail!

--Scott

Off the Shelf: Old Glory Pathan Tribesmen

Ask me what I think the best Old Glory 25mm/28mm historical range is and I will tell you, without hesitation, the Northwest Frontier bags. Among them, the Pathan (Afghan) Tribesmen bags deliver superb quality for a great value.

About 18 months ago I painted a selection of OG Pathans for some NW Frontier gaming and I've busted them out to show off.


















Couple these wonderful models with excellent British and Sikh figures and you can run some rip-roaring battles at a nice price. These figures also scale well with Wargames Foundry's NW Frontier ranges.

--Scott

The Quar!

This is a long story about how I learned to love the Quar, but I think it's worth telling.

It's funny sometimes when you let your players participate in RPG world-building with you. Six months ago I ran a 3-part, Savage Worlds Steam-Opera mash-up that was basically Star Wars, but with all of the major tropes replaced with steam-punk equivalents. Blasters were Lightning-Guns, and the Force became the Essence. Hyper Drives were replaced with Essence Accumulators, and the list goes on and on...

I wrote a up a roughly 10-page breakdown of the campaign environment, populating it with cool races that I new I could readily get minis for. I used Bob Naismith's Aruks, because they kick ass, and I had a bunch of them from way back. I threw in plenty of re-purposed Mage Knight steam robots for the various Automatons in the setting (the functional equivalent of droids), and I added some cool tentacle-faced guys I called the C'Thul, a cursed but noble race.

I also left it up to my players if they wanted to create a race, they could add it in. That's when my good buddy Rico created Colonel Apa Pok. Apa Pok happens to be a Quar, and Rico had taken a liking to the miniatures before I started my game, traded for some, and now was looking for an excuse to use one. So the Quar entered my Steam-Opera universe as residents of one of the Six Moons, part of the planet Kulthea (a name and world map ripped from my awesome Shadow World Master Atlas published more than 10 years ago by ICE).

I had not thought much about the Quar when they were released; they were cool, well sculpted (Aaron Brown, I am a big fan of yours!), but maybe I thought them a bit silly. That is until Rico brought Apa Pok and his two bumbling henchmen into my campaign--one is an Aruk, the other is a Sligg (Reaper, you need to make more Sliggs, please).

Here is Rico's dynamite paint job on the illustrious Colonel Apa Pok:



He fits in great in the campaign, and as I mentioned, he comes with two hilarious henchmen who often do more harm than good! Here are the three of them together:



We adapted Savage Worlds' excellent follower rules to create a special Merc Captain edge for Apa so he could have two Henchmen at the Seasoned level. It has worked out fine so far.

So I got the itch to return to this campaign, and I was looking through the character sheets and saw Apa Pok's sheet, and I realized that I really wanted to paint up some Quar of my own to use in the game. I promptly traded Rico unpainted metal for unpainted metal, and took possession of 5 Quar troopers. I also popped onto Zombie Smith's site and ordered a couple of their excellent Quar Militia troopers.

Anyway, here's my first test-paint on the Quar. I have to say, these figures are very cool, and fit my campaign very well.











And here's a comp shot for some scale with a normal 28mm human figure:



Anyway, more Quar to come over the holidays, I hope!

Thanks for reading!

--Scott

We Got Spirit, Yes We Do!

My favorite G.I. Joe character has long been Spirit, the Native American tracker whose epic duel with Storm Shadow (check 4:08 of that clip) in one of the original Joe cartoons cemented him in my mind as the team's ultimate badass.

A while back I acquired Shiv, one of GW's Warhammer 40K Last Chancers for the Imperial Guard. It's pretty obvious once you see him where the inspiration for Shiv came from.

Last night I finally got around to painting this awesome model up, and here he is!










Pretty sure this guy is a Perry Brothers sculpt, and that explains why he is so technically good, but you can almost never go wrong channeling a character like Spirit!

--Scott

Hordes: Bull Snapper

Here's the latest addition to my Hordes Blindwater Congregation force. This light warbeast for Hordes will help me complete my 15 pt. raiding party.








Here's a comp shot with the Croak Hunter:



This kit was not a pleasure to build. On some kits, PP has a maddening tendency to over-engineer a model. Too many pieces from unnecessary cuts that defy reasonable explanation. On this kit, the Bull Snapper's upper jaw/head was separated from its lower jaw/head (this same unnecessary cut was done on the Wrastler as well). I have seen plenty of croc models from Reaper and Crocodile games where models are cast with toothy, gaping jaws all in one piece with no loss of detail.

Also, at $18.99, this model is a little on the shrimpy side. I did not shrink when I paid $49.99 for the Blackhide Wrastler because the value was there, but in this case, I was a little taken aback. Had I not had to do the extra work in assembly, I might have been less disappointed.

Anyway, the model is done. I am happy with the final product, and he'll be an important part of the warband. I will, however, not be adding a second one. I don't do duplicate poses in skirmish games, and the manner in which this model is built makes modding him beyond my capabilities.

After a break, I'll tackle some oldies but goodies from PP, the Gatorman Posse.

Later this week, I'll feature another installment of Off The Shelf, and also show off some other stuff I've been plucking away at.

Thanks for checking out the blog!

--Scott