Friday 11 December 2015

"By Your Command."

 "All base ships are now in range to attack the colonies."
These three 28mm metal Caprican Legion Trooper miniatures are made by “Nexus Miniatures” and are from their “Superhero Dinosaur Zombie Apocalypse” range. The figures were bought as part of the manufacturer’s ‘By Your Command’ deal and come in multiple parts with two different heads and a choice of hand-weapons. They make for cracking Cylons, as seen in the 1978 Science fiction television series “Battlestar Galactica”.
"Our raiders are all destroyed. Apparently, it was not as big a surprise as we had hoped for."
 The robots were initially all undercoated with “Citadel” Abaddon Black and two of the Centurions then had their numerous armour plates painted with Ironbreaker. These areas were then washed with Nuln Oil before being roughly dry-brushed, using a number 2 “Winsor & Newton” brush, with more Ironbreaker. The Cylon’s sword/dagger scabbards were then painted using a combination of “Vallejo” Charred Brown and “The Army Painter” Strong Tone Quickshade.

As I wanted the third model to represent the Commander Vulpa, from the two-parter “The Gun On Ice Planet Zero”, I gave the sculpt’s various areas of armour a coat of “Vallejo” Gold, as opposed to “Citadel” Ironbreaker, and then gave the Command Centurion a wash with “The Army Painter” Strong Tone Quickshade. Finally I ‘dry-brushed’ these parts with more “Vallejo” Gold.
Colonial Pilot WIPs - Once the warriors' trousers are finished, their brown jackets will be painted next
 I actually own six more of these characterful Caprican Legion Troopers. But having based and primed them, I don’t now plan on painting them until after the beginning of the Sixth Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge later this month. I have though instead continued painting the three ‘Colonial Warriors’ I started working on a short while ago. These miniatures, code NXDT Dino-Rangers (Helios, Galicia & Joey). have all been converted using the D-Ranger Helmets from code NX-16. 

34 comments:

  1. I loved the original Battlestar Galactica. Great job on these Blax.

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    1. Many thanks Natholeon. They'll be a few more Cylons coming before the end of the year... and perhaps some more in the new year.

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  2. Nice work, Simon. What I know we were supposed to root for the goodies, I always thought that the Cylons had better outfits and cooler ships.

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    1. Thanks Jez. Loved the Cylons. Though I was skill a big fan of the Colonial's brown and gold colour scheme, and their Viper helmets are so cool (imho).

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  3. Nicely done on the not-Cylons. :)

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    1. Cheers PulpCitizen. They're nice models and well worth a lick of paint.

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  4. Those Cylons are cool, I too preferred them to the Colonials (Except Starbuck, Athena and Cassiopeia of course!). I'm not so sure about the colonial figures though, not your painting of course, but the figs just look a little off to me somehow.

    Sorry,Cheers Roger.

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    1. Thanks Roger. The Cylons are nice. The Colonial Warriors' Viper helmets are a little large for their bodies and that's probably what's grating with your sensibilities. Indeed the human models are actually larger than the Cylons - which isn't right obviously. But once on the tabletop I don't think its all that noticeable. And a BatRep will be posted once I've finished these three warriors and my six remaining Cylons.

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  5. Blax, I've already mentioned how much I love the Galactica and these figs, which system will you use?

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    1. Probably "7TV" by "Crooked Dice Game Design Studio", with Apollo and Vulpa being the opposing cast leads. I can always email you the Statistics I create if you're interested and use the rule set? I'm just waiting until the start of the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge to paint up my six remaining Cylons, and it'll be game on :-)

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    2. I don't (at the moment) but always tempted by new shiny games and I love those minis :) all those to shows that I grew up with what's not to like. Please send

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    3. You may well be able to get "7TV" First Edition cheap these days as the Second Edition comes out very soon, and although I'll be getting it, I still have a lot of gaming to get through with all my original "7TV" expansions; so I'll be sticking with First Edition for a while yet :-)

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    4. You can download a print friendly (well ish) version of 7TV Second Edition.

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    5. Quite right Simon. I'm waiting for my printed copy personally and still trying to use all the expansions etc I own for the first edition :-)

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    6. Same here very excited for it. :)

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    7. Hopefully you'll get on better with the 2nd Edition, as I think you've said before you never got on with making Casts? I'll be happy to email my "Battlestar Galactica" casts out if anyone is interested.

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  6. I have to agree with the others that the Cylons look better than the human pilots. As you say,it's those overly large helmets that are so off-putting. I'm very much looking forward to your Battlestar Galactica batrep.

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    1. Thanks Bryan. These not "Battlestar Galactica" models by "Nexus Miniatures" are definitely characterful sculpts. But as many have commented throughout my postings of them, they also have some exaggerations; whether it be hand-blasters which clearly could never fit within the figure's holster or their over-sized helmets. It is a cracking range though and one I hope to extend even further in the New Year. Although I fear the Earth will be having some "V"isitors first ;-)

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    2. I don't think the helmets are actually oversized. Google Viper Pilots and you'll see what I mean. The guns are perhaps a bit bigger but you could replace them if you want to.

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    3. Cheers Simon. Those Viper helmets are a lot thicker than I remember, and certainly do seem to be more in scale with the figures than I thought. I guess its an optical illusion?

      I've no plans of changing the weapons as I personally like them. But others have commented upon their size. As you say they can easily be replaced, and although I stuck with the same gun, I have removed and repositioned the gun-hand of my helmeted Joey. Plus some of "Nexus Miniatures" Cylons do come with a choice of gun hands, which would require minimum alteration to use as a Colonial Warrior 'borrowing' one of his opponent's blasters.

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    4. It was what I thought on first seeing the greens but when googling the images found out how big they actually were!

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    5. The sculptor's attention to detail on these Colonial Warriors and all their buttons etc is first-rate imho :-)

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  7. Wow, that takes me back - nice work, very retro!

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    1. Cheers Evan. I'm a huge fan of this TV series, and hope to get enough "Nexus Miniatures" painted to have at least a small skirmish game posted before the end of the year.

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  8. Now that you mention it, those Caprican Legion Troopers do bear a passing resemblance to Cylons. ;)

    Very well done, Simon.

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    1. Thanks Finch LOL :-) Some of the armour was a little fiddly to reach in places. But they're nice characterful models and certainly look rather good on the tabletop; especially Vulpa, whose gold really attracts the eye (imho).

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  9. Fantastic job dude! They came out great!

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    1. Cheers Simon. Much appreciated. They are great sculpts :-)

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  10. Great job Bk! Love those Cylons dude! A BsG batrep would be awesome.Nice to see you having a themed December too.

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    1. Thanks Bob. A BSG BatRep is definitely on the cards. Glad you like the themed month. Thought I'd try and do one from now on just to pull my painting projects together somewhat.

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  11. Wait, where's the red eye effects!? :P

    Super cool mate. I need to dig out my dvd's again and introduce my 11 year old to the old series.

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    1. Cheers Dai. I did actually think of putting a very tiny ball of greystuff into each visor so I could 'pick out' their famous red eyes. But in the end kept the mini as is. Perhaps I'll go back at some point and do just that. Its a wonderful series and I hope your 11-year old will enjoy it enormously.

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