Sand Golems!

I really can't mention the old Mage Knight line enough on this blog. It continues to be a repository of miniature possibilities that is second to none. Exhibit 49-B, the Sand Minions!

I will eventually be needing some Sand Golems for my Dark Sun RPG sessions, so in cruising eBay, I came across this mini, and it was perfect. I ordered a pair ($1.00 ea.), and right out of the box they require little to no alteration to fill the desired monster role. After popping them off of their bases and re-basing them appropriately, I touched up the paint job slightly (re-painting some weird blue bumps on their bodies gray). I then flocked, painted, and dry-brushed their bases, and whammo, instant Sand Golems!








Here they are side by side with a Reaper Dragon man Shaman (also excellent for DS!):





And some random battle shots:






Later this week I hope to show off some re-purposed Reaper spell effects.

As always, thanks for checking out the blog!

--Scott

Painted Bug Warriors!

I took so many shots of these guys for the Aegis Figures blog I had to post a few up here as well. As the guys on the Lead Adventure Forums keep pointing out, these guys will work just as well as Victorian Science Fiction figures as Thri-Kreen for Dark Sun. And that's the point, really.






Thanks for checking them out!

--Scott

Aegis Update!

Over at the Aegis Figues blog I have posted an update with the first castings of the Bug Warriors (re: Mantis-Men) I'm doing for my own company.

Here's a quick peak--more pics on Aegis!



Thanks for checking them out!

--Scott

RAFM 15mm Space Pirate

I came across the remnants of this pack while rummaging around in my unpainted 15mm sci-fi bin. I'm getting the itch to paint 15mm sci-fi again after following this thread on LAF, so I pulled out one of the remaining guys and slapped some paint on him.





There was frankly not a lot of detail on his face, and I decided to take advantage of the weird mold line bisecting it to create kind of a "Deathlok" effect. If this guy is the first member of my 15mm Star Mogul salvage team, then I suspect he is some dead hard robo-hunter down on his luck enough to sign up with the crew.

Here's a shot of him with another RAFM figure and a 15mm.co.uk security robot:



I've owned the Star Mogul game since Origins 2006. I could see extracting its excellent campaign rules and marrying them to AE Bounty's much slicker combat mechanics. Something to muse on.

Next up, back to Dark Sun!

--Scott

Dark Sun Characters: Mul and Half-Giant

As I prepare more minis for the DS session this Saturday, the conversions are coming at a furious rate!

This time round I have a pair of new figures to show off, a Mul Fighter and Female Half-Giant Fighter. Both could figure in Saturday's adventure, but I could also see using them as player character models for myself or a needy player.

The female half-giant is another great Mage Knight find. Points to anyone who can ID the origin figure, as I tore her from her base so long ago, I forget! The Mul is a converted GW Chaos Marauder.





Note the nice size difference between the burly Mul and the Half-Giant--I think it's the perfect scale balance.



More later this week, including a return to 15mm sci-fi!

--Scott

Dark Sun: Gith Drone?

Finding appropriate miniatures for DS has been an ongoing challenge, but I've forgotten that sometimes the answers to these questions are right under my nose. The Gith are debased descendants of Githzerai and Githyanki, a savage and psychic race well-suited to the harsh environment of Athas. I needed a suitably savage looking mini that could be modified to represent these unique looking threats.

I found my answer with Old Glory's Ghost Miniatures Orcs.

With a bit of green stuff, I cobbled together this nifty conversion:





The Ghost Orcs are cast from lead, and they're quite easy to convert and work with. Some have more armor than others, but with a bit of green stuff for the head and facial hair, I think they will be spot on!



More to come this week as I ready my second session, the first installment of Marauders of the Dune Sea!

--Scott

The Baron's Blog

I wanted to share some of the great model work and game posts Baronvonj is showing off on his blog.

His series of Basement Cons is tremendous viewing fun--wish I lived in the Baron's neighborhood!

Here's a shot of one of his recent SuperSystem battles:



As you can see, the Baron is not mucking around!

Great and inspiring stuff!

--Scott

Dark Sun: Prepping for Marauders of the Dune Sea

I ran my first DS game last Sunday night and it was a blast. Now I am planning on running the newly published official adventure, Marauders of the Dune Sea (MotDS). This adventure has about 16 encounters worth of monsters and foes--that's a lot of models to represent on the battle-grid!

If you know me at all from this blog, you know I am going to try and do this as best I can, getting as close to representational figures as possible.

I'll spend my next few DS posts discussing some of the challenges in finding and converting figures for this task. While I am at it, I will also spot in a few non-DS posts for folks who might be interested in some of the other stuff I am doing.

Anyway, to start off, MotDS features an encounter with a race of nasty, little subterranean aberrations called Hejkin. Finding analogs for these guys in 28mm has not been easy! For one thing, they're small in D&D terms. They would normally occupy a 20mm round base. I've been fishing around on eBay and I may have found the solution. Again, I have Mage Knight to thank. The Satyr from MK Dungeons should provide me the base I need for the conversion. Check it out:



I'll be cutting the horns off and re-working the feet into more bird-like analogs. I have also considered swapping the heads out all-together with GW Moria Goblin heads, but I don't think I have the will for that. We'll see...

Anyway, I've got a half-dozen of these suckers on the way at $1.00 a piece, so at least the investment is small.

Next DS post I think I will discuss the issues with trying to find suitable models for a female Half-Giant.

--Scott

Dark Sun: Another Mage Knight Conversion

As conversions go, this is a mild one.





I took a Mage Knight Sect Hunter from the Nexus set and tore off the metal shield. I replaced it with the barrel of a Tyranid weapon--making it look like some kind of organic animal shell.

Here's a closer look at the conversion for the shield:



I also replaced the glaive head with a stone spear tip made from styrene.

A quick and dirty re-paint was done on the entire mini to finish her off. I've got my eye on a bunch more MK figures as I get ready to run my second DS game, the Marauders of the Dune Sea published adventure from Wizards.

I'll be sure to share them as I do them!

--Scott

Rezolution: Sci-Fi Indians!

A while back I converted some of Aberrant Games' CSO "classic" troops into sci-fi Indian troopers. I utilized heads of Old Glory's WWII and NW Frontier lines of historical minis. I really like the uniforms, gear, and weapons on these guys, and the heads and scarves I added seem to match them quite well.











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These guys will come in handy when I want to run any cyberpunk style RPG's or games set in South Asia.

--Scott

Dark Sun: Halfling Warrior

First off, Happy Labor Day! If you have the day off, great, and if not, thanks for looking in on things here. I hope the blog makes your holiday work-day go a little faster.

Finding appropriate Halfling models for my DS game has been tough. They're feral little buggers, and any armor or weapons they have should be from natural materials, not metal. Chronopia Swamp Goblins are actually a pretty decent fit, and I used this fellow below as a villain in last night's DS session. He was Onglac, Halfling Wilder and Bounty Slayer.





Perhaps a trifle over-armored, but he did the job! And here is a comp shot for size reference of the three most recent DS miniatures I've worked on:



Thanks for reading!

--Scott

Dark Sun: Cilops Mage Knight Conversion

Dark Sun has some crazy monsters. The Creature Catalog is replete with strange and deadly threats, and modeling them for D&D games can be a challenge.

Page 25 features large natural beast called the Cilops. I've been using Mage Knight figures to adapt humanoids for DS, but I thought I would try my hand at a proper monster.

The base for this figure is a Mage Knight Thorn Crawler. I highly recommend securing a few of these. They're great minis!

Anyway, a bit of green stuff allowed me to create this monstrous centipede's single eye.










And here's a comp shot with the Tharn for scale:



More DS stuff to come!

--Scott

Heavy Gear: Bashan Mount

I love Heavy Gear. Love the models, love the background. It provides a different Mecha vibe from BattleTech, a different flavor if you will. Anyway, we used the Bashan Mounts for play-testing with Galactic War I over the last year or so.

This figure goes together beautifully, and has the benefit of looking scale neutral, so that you could use it with 12mm (Heavy Gear), 15mm (GWI, Stargrunt, etc.), or 28mm (Shadowrun, Rogue Trader). For 28mm games, it would make an excellent attack drone.







I painted this in a quick and dirty style, starting with an Army Painter metallic undercoat, then stippling on some military green colors. The base was cut for thin styrene card.

--Scott

Dark Sun: Tharn Bloodtracker

Here's another great mini suitable for D&D Dark Sun RPG gaming. It's a Tharn Bloodtracker from the Hordes skirmish game by Privateer Press.









Sold in a box of six similarly equipped minis, I split the box with my buddy, Bill, and we each ended up with three. These figures will make excellent elves or half-elves for Athas. Her equipment and clothes definitely have the necessary DS vibe.

The Hordes line has some other figures that will be useful for DS, so I'll try to acquire and profile them as I go along. More DS stuff this weekend, along with a brief visit back to Heavy Gear!

--Scott

Announcing Aegis Figures!

I have been thinking for a while that I wanted to start a small garage company to do boutique projects independent of some of the other stuff I have done. Well, I finally stopped ruminating and did it. If interested, please follow the following link for the lowdown on Aegis Figures, my new mini-company:

http://aegisfigures.blogspot.com/

Thanks for checking it out!

Meanwhile, this weekend I hope to post some images of a Tharn Bloodtracker I've been working on, and maybe a few other surprises! Long weekends are great for blogging!

--Scott

Dark Sun Character: Human Female Gladiator

The Gladiator Wars range from Old Glory does have some excellent figures suitable for Dark Sun. I've done some minor conversions on this female gladiator to maker more suitable for the DS RPG sessions I'll be running.





I added the shoes and the loin cloth. The rest seemed perfect for DS. I'll need a few more such figures to fill out the encounters I am planning!

--Scott

Skaven Assassin!

Looking through the Skaven army book, I found a listing among the characters for an Assassin. This is an easy way to add 120 pts. to a Skaven army by only painting one model. And he is fairly effective if used well!

I decided to convert my own plastic Assassin from available bits. Here he is!







I decided to give him a magic blade, hence the blue effects.

At this point, he'll usually be hiding in my Clanrat horde.

I think the next step with the Skaven will be to await the release of the Island of Blood boxed set and start in on the 40 Clan Rats you get with it. I need a second large infantry unit.

--Scott