Wednesday 19 November 2014

"I Hate Personal Violence, Especially When I'm The Person."

This 28mm metal model is one of the two miniatures found within packet Future Freedom Fighters 2 by “Crooked Dice Game Design Studio”. I wanted to base this retro space liberator on the “Blake’s Seven” television series character Vila Restal, as played by Michael Keating, so as a result I have tried my best to replicate the colourful costume the lowly Delta grade criminal wore during his early stories.

To begin with the model was undercoated with “Vallejo” Heavy Brown and I then used Heavy Sienna followed by a wash of “The Army Painter” Strong Tone Quickshade. The petty thief’s upper garments from the British science fiction programme were a little less easy to replicate, especially his actual top which seemed to be a dark mixture of purple, black and dark blue. In the end I opted for an undercoat of “Vallejo” Charred Brown, and gave this ‘Color’ a wash of more Strong Tone Quickshdae. This simple compromise seemed to capture the deep dark look of the garment without the necessity for painting in lots of multi-coloured stripes and bands.

Vila also wears some sort of dark-coloured emblem on his jacket so I painted this with Heavy Violet and then washed it with “Citadel” Badab Black to help it ‘mix-in’ with the surrounding blackish-brown top. The sleeves were painted using “Vallejo” Heavy Blue and then washed with “Citadel” Nuln Oil. I find this Shade doesn’t quite darken the underlying colour as much as its now sadly ‘out of production’ predecessor, so it can make a useful alternative wash if I don’t want everything to look depressingly dark. The shirt was painted using a combination of “Vallejo” Heavy Warmgrey and “Citadel” Druchii Violet. I must confess I’m not too impressed with the Shade as it seems to be a little too ‘goopey’ for my liking. Finally I painted up the thief’s toolbox with “Vallejo” Heavy Bluegrey and Heavy Red (with a wash of the “Citadel” Shade Carroburg Crimson).
Having finished Vila Restal model I now only have the second Freedom Fighter from his “Crooked Dice Game Design Studio” code to complete and I’ll have finished my “The Way Back” mini-project. Although ideally I hope to also finish the cult TV company’s Tweedy Mattison ‘not-Eleventh Doctor Who’ miniature within the next few days as well.
I’ve also managed to base these five models from code PLT09 Kojar Of The Forest Tribe by “Pulp Figures”. These are great Bob Murch sculpts and consist of the Jungle Man with his wife, son and daughter; as well as Bongo The Chimp. All of which have been based in preparation for the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge, which starts in a couple of weeks.

10 comments:

  1. Vila was such a wonderful character and you've done him proud here. Good progress on Tweedy too, another miniature I wouldn't mind adding to my collection.

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    1. Thanks Michael. "Crooked Dice" not only do a couple of tweedy's but also a Tweedy head set with him wearing a fez, bearded and with a cowboy hat on. Very nice they are too.

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  2. As I've said before, I'm not a big fan of Blake's Seven but you've painted Vila very well. What I am interested in, however, are your jungle family. What an excellent set of minis. They look like they'll be fun to paint.

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    1. Cheers Vampifan. I've actually ordered some more from Bob's jungle fever range as I thought these were superb sculpts. So get ready for giant gorillas, dinosaurs, natives and a man in a fedora with a whip ;-)

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  3. Very nice job on Vila, Tweedy's coming along nicely too.
    The jungle family look full of character, I love Bongo dude!

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    1. Thanks Bob. Bongo is great isn't he. As my above reply to Vampifan states I've ordered some of his larger brethren as I was so impressed with these.

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  4. Nice work on the Freedom fighter and nice progress on Tweedy and the second member of the FF Crew. Don't remember seeing those pulp figures before. They look great!

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    1. Cheers Simon. The other "Crooked Dice" minis are ticking along as I get ready for the painting challenge. Loads more "Pulp Figures" on the table getting based as I type.

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  5. Tweedy's looking great. Like those pulp minis a lot.

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    1. Thanks Finch. The pulp stuff really is energizing me for the Painting Challenge :-)

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