Coulrophobia

Yesterday I finished a couple of minor demons for Frostgrave or Plague Bearers for Mordheim or who knows what game systems in the future. Models are lemures from Reaper Bones range.

And they're hungry. Hungry for fun.

Sectoids

Few days ago I finally painted a couple of Sectoids for my '94 X-COM Enemy Unknown themed Plague (or pretty much whatever) Strike Force.

I guess it's perfect time to start finishing these things, as Deadzone second edition has been released for the kickstarter backers.

I'm not sure what Sectoids should represent in the game - unless I expand my choice of armies. They might be perfect Rebs, or something. Left one is holding Plasma Rifle and right one has Plasma Pistol.

Sectoid with Heavy Plasma might... no, it will look funny indeed.

Goat on Fire

I've usually posted a picture here if I have magnetised a Privateer Press heavy warbeast/warjack kit. And I'm continuing that trend.

This time I've magnetised Shadowhorn Satyr and Riphorn Satyr. Kit was easy to magnetise and barely required any work at all. Every part, however, definitely needs a magnet unlike Warpwolf kit, which was every magnetiser's wet daydream.

Also included are three smoke pillars I've made over the last few months.

My terrain collection has a serious lack of trees and forest. This has bothered me a bit, since they are important area terrains in Warmachine. Nowadays I have a green grass mat, but before I got that I wanted some kind of terrain that could act as a forest on a grey surface. Bright green foliage would have looked a little out of place there.

So here you can see three "trees" from a smoldering "forest". They look nice, but they were a pain to work with.

They're made of some sort of insulation silicone which I heard are good for projects like this. Well, this particular brand, while probably perfect for intended purposes, was terrible for making miniature terrain. Fumes gave headache and shaping it was difficult. On top of that it was resistant to paint. Resistant. To. Paint. My choice of materials had clearly been a success.

I spent months coating them with extra layers of primer sprays and varnishes. Finally they felt sturdy enough to actually touch and paint. Paint no longer chips when you just look at them with a mental image of a paint brush glowing in your eyes. You can move them around safely, but I am a little afraid of what will happen if one of them falls on a floor.

They've all been sculpted on a heavy bolt's nut to balance it correctly.

Decorated Veteran

A quick update before I need to start stressing out from other games I haven't yet written here.

Riven Bonds league is about 62.5% completed here.

I picked Circle of Orboros as my league faction mostly because I had one unused Blackclad Wayfarer model that I never got to paint, as it had such a terrible thick undercoat. Back in the days I had used the wrong kind of spray primer, the kind of that makes surface of your minis to feel and look like medium coarseness sand paper.

But here it was - a perfect excuse to try out some crazy conversions and otherwise tinker and tailor with the model.

This Blackclad Wayfarer represents my league model Sepoh Thalasland, who has Electrical Augmentation (frozen yoghurt tentacles), Crown of the Wild (the swarm of bats) and Wilting Totem upgrades. Crown of the Wild is the Bat Swarm model from Reaper Bones miniature line, and Wilting Totem is some really, really ancient standard or something for Warhammer Fantasy Battles Mounted Chaos Sorcerer.

And, uh. The Electrical Augmentation. I tried to make some sort of arcing lightnings, but I just couldn't force myself into making dozens of tiny little arcs by hand. But I guess the looks are okay-ish. What I should have attempted instead would have been first attempts at object source lighting techniques. Those beams would probably look a lot more lightningy if the close proximity of those beams would have lighted specific areas of the model.

But no. No trial and error here. I was too busy to get the model completed during the league. Had we played an official league, I would have had my league model completed two days after league ended, or something...

Sectopod

Finally complete.

GR 77 Sectopod, who will use rules of Plague Strider in games of Deadzone.

All things considered I think it turned out well and has some resemblance to the original. At least more than the Chryssalids I finished a while ago. However, it annoys me a little that there is nothing from the real Strider miniature here. I'd like to use as much pieces from original models as possible (some kind of perverted loyalty to the game I play, caused by Privateer Press' conversion policies? No idea, really.)

The miniature I used as the base was Grymn Walker from Hasslefree Miniatures.

Front should be more curved and the somethings above Sectopod's weapons should also be larger. The amount of milliputty I had to use was intimidating, and I decided not to try to go for 1:1 look-a-like, as it wouldn't have ever finished, and the whole model would have looked like Sectopod's behind.

As a side note... trying to find a view of Sectopod that shows it's back was a real challenge that tooks hours.

For funsies I took a picture where I tried to include all aliens finished so far, but blind as a I am, I somehow managed to leave one muton and celatid too far to the right.

Oh well.

It's over 100 points painted Plague for now. I tried to do an accurate calculation, but those damn Apocalypse Spitters made it impossible, as I don't know what they would represent in game. Also I don't know if I should count the plague hounds in or not. Meh. My personal first world problems.

Plague Faction Starter (almost) finished

I finished some Deadzone miniatures few days ago.

Stage 3A General was converted into a muton with plasma pistol and alien grenade. I'm not entirely happy how the model looks, but it was absolutely the hardest model from faction starter to "mutonise". Considering that I think it turned out okay.

Two Stage 2A models were converted into... something. They're going to represent Chryssalids, but they don't really look much like them. Head is from Mesaan Grunt from Hasslefree Miniatures. I could have probably got a little better look-a-like if I would have seen the trouble of converting Chryssalid legs into backwards pose.

There's some trouble in the color scheme, too. In the game itself Chryssalids have a very dark palette, and yet in the autopsy reports they're quite bright. I did some sort of a compromiss between the two, with the end result not looking like either of the original color schemes. Chryssalids didn't definitely turn out as showcase models, but I'm sure they're passable when it comes to playing Deadzone. After all they're always lurking in the shadows there.

I took a couple other pictures too. One with all mutons I have converted and their terror mission units, the Silacoid and Celatid. Last pictures got all the original X-Com aliens I have converted.

Stage 1A is still unfinished because it hasn't got any good counterpart in Ufo Enemy Unknown. A friend did have a really good idea, though - it might be a huge blob of Silacoid, as silacoids did have an impressive melee capability, but were so slow that they never got to use it. Only not-fitting aspect would have been the disturbing command value, but hey, what do we know about the leadership capabilities of the silacoid mass?

Apocalypse Now

I finished a Silacoid for Deadzone plague as X-Com aliens project.

It's just a Barbie doll's shoulder joint and some green stuff. I really have no idea what it might represent in the actual game, because the only small based melee-only thing plague has is the plague hound - which is fast and die to an angry word. And Silacoid was the slowest alien in original X-Com and really tough. I guess it's just for the atmosphere.

Anyway.

I've been converting some Chryssalids too, and I used Mesaan Grunts from Hasslefree Miniatures for their head. Then I ended up with two torsos with only legs. Converting them to Spitters from X-Com apocalypse was pretty darn easy, and of course I had to do exactly that. The funnel head is green stuff and hands are from old plastic Games Workshop Vampire Count zombies. I probably won't do more Apocalypse aliens, because, well, they don't have that X-Com feel to them (though I did enjoy the game back in the days...)

As a side note... now I have all the aliens that Muton terror missions used for Deadzone. Whee...!

May I present you two dogs and their mut(t)ons?

I know I should be writing up a game from last week, but I'm burdened by a few other writing projects.

So I'm just leaving these here.

I finished converting a couple of more Stage 3A's into mutons for Deadzone, but to be honest they weren't such a story for success as the last one...

The problem with these guys was that they had a lot more clothes on, so their anatomy was bound to be rather... interesting. But hey, they're aliens, right?

I wish I had taken a couple more pictures, since the first one makes me wonder if one plasma shell actually blew up in the barrel of that gun.

Anyway, with that particular muton who is helding the weapon with one hand I realised that I can actually use heated metal in the "sculpting" process. Thanks to that I had to use a lot less Green Stuff, and it gives me a little bit of hope with that HMG guy. They may not be perfect beauties, but they're made with love.

As for the plague hounds, I decided to take almost eye hurting bright tone for their flesh. Eventhough X-Com Enemy Unknown doesn't include any canine monsters (I doubt Reaper is a canine...) I wanted these to look at least remotely fitting for Enemy Unknown setting.


Additional plans:

- Stage 2 as Chryssalid

- Plague Swarm as Celatid

- HMG guy probably needs to go as Heavy Plasma carrying muton, but somehow that doesn't feel right...

- Boom Stick as a Muton with Small Launcher

- CSW team as a Muton with Blaster Launcher (I might try to convert the loader as a pistol wielding muton and... uh... the weapon itself, whatever...)

- Plague Teraton as Reaper

- The floating psychic as either an Ethereal or Sectoid with mind probe, but especially if I go with a sectoid the base size thing might be hilarious...

Dead-Com: The Plague Unknown

First miniatures are fully painted and based for my probably most ambitious project ever when it comes to little toy soldiers.

I'm converting Deadzone plague miniatures into aliens from X-Com. This was mostly because I didn't like the appearance of Deadzone miniatures all that much, and none of the factions felt quite right for me. And in my long tradition of "playing things as they're not supposed to" I finally decided to start Plague with main focus being on Stage 3 and shooting.

Then I heard that the local Deadzone dealer (first game is always free and you can use my miniatures...) had been planning an X-Com homebrew expansion to Deadzone, and then things clicked. Visual style was then decided upon - X-Com aliens. From the '94 version.

For the moment I'm not looking for actual rules for Deadzone X-Com because I hardly know how to play the basic game. However, the project can be seen right in the Mantic forums, here, for anyone interested. And if there ever will be a playable set of rules, I bet this army conversion project will serve as a nice starting point for playing actual X-Com games.

I don't usually do astonishing conversions to my miniatures, because I don't think I got the needed skills. Or if I got the skills, I don't have the patience - which is quite funny. If someone had a mission to get me really bored, that person would have a hard time accomplishing his goal. But then when it comes to such projects as assembling, painting & overally finishing a miniature, I start rushing and leaving things only half done. Then the end result is usually rather ugly if I've tried to do any big conversions.

So... when I was going to make a Muton out of Stage 3 plague trooper and two Ethereals from two Reaper's cultist miniatures, I had to learn some patience. Every time I have tried to sculpt anything from milliputty or greenstuff in a big way have failed, because I just have to do everything in one go, even if it takes blood, tears and ten hours sitting in front of desk (yeah, in that way I'm patient.)

All in all it took days to finish these miniatures, but it took only a little while to paint them. I forced myself to add epoxy only one appendage at a time, and then leave things to cure overnight.

Results are far from perfect, but to my level of experience I'm quite happy with these. Only Muton's plasma rifle looks utterly ridiculous, and that's probably what I need to train next in the way of putty - making even simple details. Flash was quite unmerciful on the Ethereals, but I think they look nice enough for tabletop play. It's a shame I didn't cover the weird chest-belt with robes when I was still applying epoxy to the Ethereals - somehow I thought that some other detail than reddish orange robe would be welcome. But it wasn't.

A Hobby Post (magnetised Desecrator/Leviathan)

Since I've written something about my magnetising projects earlier, I guess I continue the trend with Cryxian spiderjack chassis.

I already own a metal Harrower, so I didn' actually have to magnetise the head plate. Keeping an eye on future releases, though, I glued it into place with only tiniest bit of super glue. Once it breaks I might even use blu-tack.

So, magnetising desecrator/leviathan was ridiculously easy. Shoulder joints conceal magnets perfectly. Only thing I ever did was to glue the magnets into shoulder sockets and cut the weapon ball joints for them to have an even surface.

Heads didn't need any kind of magnets, but it was a little tricky to drill a deep hole into the neck tab. Let's just say that Desecrator/Leviathan has been baptised in blood. Or perhaps Blood Creation would be better term? Though that's Legion stuff.

I took a little picture from the assembled chassis, with and without weapons. Of course the pictures haven't been focused too well, but you get the point. For any and all spiderjack enthusiasts out there, you can especially see one nice detail in first picture. Yes, you can actually glue this model to its base!

If you're wondering about the book, it's "Extraordinary Popular Delusion and the Madness of Crowds" by Charles Mackay.

Magnetising warjacks is all nice and sweet (as in sugary). Of course it is a little extra challenge for aspiring hobbyists, and bang for your buck for those on limited budget (such as myself), and additional versatility to army construction... but I didn't mean those. Magnetising warjacks gives you the ultimate ability to do absolutely retarded things like this, and not regret it once glue sets:





And last but not least (oh well, let's admit it's least), I finally got my filthy little hands on some Risen. I've had Kraken on painting table for quite some time now, and these three guys will be the final little extra on such a centerpiece model. They will represent corpse tokens for Collector.

Pureblood/Stalker and some rye

I've been tired and uninspired to get any actual games in and played, but during past couple of days I got something else done to show up here.

I magnetised Pureblood Warpwolf and Warpwolf Stalker from the plastic warpwolf kit. I didn't bother with Feral, because I already have one. And I'm the type of player who rarely takes twice the same option when it costs so many army construction points!

I am very pleased with the paintjob. Though to be honest, I've been painting it and the two other models since I finished Bog Trog unit leader.

The two other models are miniatures intended for Chronicles game system. Because I finished them and wouldn't bother to take pictures of them separately, I decided to put them next to the warpwolf.

But please, don't ask why the heck I'm shooting them on a rye bread. I do not have a good answer for that. Not a bad answer either. There is no answer.

Warpwolf Stalker parts aren't finished yet, but if I'd have wanted to be painted in this picture, I would have probably had to wait for another month or so.

Well.

Here you go.

Continuing Slayer/Reaper/Malice with Erebus

Well, I bought the Erebus upgrade kit. And wanted to magnetise it.

However, it was a lot more... adventurous thing than making a soul swirl base for Malice. The loin cloth and shoulder thingies were difficult to magnetise, and in the end, I didn't magnetise the shoulder stuff.

I toyed with the shoulder things, first I was thinking that maybe I could thin the metal parts enough to slot them steadily to recesses between torso and shoulders. Well, didn't really work, but then I wondered how I would do if I put some wire to them.

Until my cloud castle falls down, they seem to be easily detached and inserted, and don't drop from use.

Loincloth was a nasty one, too. I put a magnet into Slayer torso's butt and then put quite a lot of milliputty to the loincloth and placed a magnet there too, but had to fix its position so that the loincloth wouldn't snap to the magnet on to the torso vertically.

Anyway, after some work (painting obviously was the fastest part, the Slayer could transform into Erebus. And back, if needed.

Woldwatcher goes to personal trainer

After good experiences with Megalith and Wold Guardian I have built up some interest in Circle's wolds, though earlier I have passionately loathed them.

Well, I still do, in a way. I can't stand the models of Woldwarden or Woldwatcher. But I decided trying to overcome that by using milliputty on the woldwatcher.

I have never "sculpted" anything on models for real. Only fixed up stuff and some minor tweaks, maybe, but nothing on this scale.

First, when I toyed around with the assembled Woldwatcher I noticed it fit perfectly on a small base. Sure, it would have been quite big small based model, but it wouldn't have looked too big on a 30mm base size. Then, comparing it to another medium base models, I was even more disappointed.

So, I started beefing it up.

There is what I came up with. Easiest parts were obviously making the shield arms a lot larger. I knew I didn't have the skills to do anything real fancy. In fact, the pelvis proved to be too much for me. It looks so much like a mess that I may actually have to do something to it post-finishing the model. And I'm lousy at getting back to models I consider finished.

Anyway.

I took a comparison picture with another medium base model. And I think I succeeded making the 'watcher look more like a warbeast and not like a wimpy, ugly... thing. I guess certain coarseness doesn't matter that much in a stone constructs as in, for example, sleek elven designs.

Then I basecoated the thing.

Though some of the milliputty doesn't blend to the actual sculpt all that well with basecoat on, I was still quite proud of my first, real attempt at serious conversion.

What really saved me was milliputty's structure. Once it was hardened overnight it was easy to trim areas that looked really uneven or just plain ugly with a hobby knife. Sadly I didn't have good tools to work with the pelvis area, and thus it came out looking like crap.

And today I finally finished painting the model.

It isn't based yet and when I'm making the base I think I have to do something with the huge feet. Maybe make them look a bit smaller by putting some grass next to them or something.

But here is the picture:

All in all, I'm sure this particular wold will make appearance in my future Circle of Orboros lists.