Thursday, 16 June 2016

"Destroy Blake."

"Where there's life, there's threat."
This 28mm model of Lady Winterly is produced by “Crooked Dice Game Design Studio” and can be bought together with Travers, a “hard military brutalist", as code SKU: Deal 15 from their Classic Miniatures range. A “cold political calculator” and wearing a dress somewhat similar to that worn by actress Jacqueline Pearce in the April 1979 "Blake's Seven" television episode "Star One", the miniature makes a terrific proxy for Supreme Commander Servalan.

As the figure was going to be mainly white in colour she was initially undercoated with some "Vallejo" White before being washed with Pale Grey. The Federation leader’s costume was then dry-brushed with more White, before I picked out her areas of flesh using a combination of Heavy Skintone and watered-down “Citadel” Reikland Fleshshade. Finally her earrings and heavy eye shadow were picked out using “Vallejo” Turquoise and a dab of “Citadel” Asurmen Blue.
"Nightmare Of Eden" WIPs - These menacing Mandrels need their claws and eyes painted next
Sticking with my current interest in Late Seventies science fiction television programmes I have managed to undercoat and dry-brush five Mandrel models from the “Doctor Range” of miniatures sold by “Black Tree Design”. I have high hopes for these impressive-looking humanoids from the planet Eden, as I plan to use them with my pre-ordered copy of “Lost Patrol” by “Games Workshop” to game the four-part story “Doctor Who And The Nightmare Of Eden”.

I actually have a lot of ideas surrounding the "fast-paced game of kill-or-be-killed", and hope to use it in order to create quite a few "Doctor Who" based scenarios set both within a jungle environment and elsewhere as well. I've even bought some hexagon-shaped pieces of MDF with which to create some 3D tiles, so expect to see the Timelord battling Voc robots on board a huge sandminer vehicle in the near(ish) future.
Super-hero WIPs - The Human Torch, Hank "Beast" McCoy and Captain America
I have also recently been playing an awful lot of “Wizkids” “Avengers Verses X-Men” “Dice Masters” game, and as a result of using Beast, Spider-Man, the Human Torch and Captain America in many of the battles, have found myself slowly progressing four “Heroclix” models of the aforementioned super-heroes. Indeed I’ve become so taken with the "critically acclaimed dice building game" that I have already almost finished my dynamically-posed sculpt of the X-Man Hank McCoy, and both washed and dry-brushed Johnny Storm. 

28 comments:

  1. Smashing work Simon, Servilan is looking great and a nice figure that very well painted., Nightmare of Eden was one of my favourite stories so I'm looking forward to seeing those Mandrels finished.

    How big are you hex tiles? heroscape size 40mm? or bigger like the Kallistra stuff.

    And I didn't realise you used figures with the Dicemasters game, I though it was just special dice like the old Dragon Dice game, I kept looking at them with a view to working them into a figure based wargames set of rules but never got around to it.

    Cheers Roger. (P.S. sorry I've not been around commenting this last week or so but things have been mad busy, I'll explain all in my weekly post).

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    1. Very kind of you to say Roger, and you were much missed by me I assure you. Servalan needed painting quickly as I want to use her (along with Avon) for my third "AvB7" BatRep next month. So I'm pleased she turned out okay.

      The Mandrels are great models imho and come in two different poses, so once these are done I'm sure to get five more to help bulk out their numbers. Its hard to know quite how many I want on account of not having yet played "Lost Patrol". The tiles are MDF 40mm ones I bought ages ago; again I'm not sure if the size is right or not until "Lost Patrol" arrives. I do own many "Kallistra" tiles though too.

      You're quite right, you don't use minis in "Dice Masters". It just uses dice with the heroes rules on the cards. But I thought for the BatRep you'd appreciate a 3D visualisation of events; especially as I plan to use Police Officers, Henchmen to represent the game's sidekick pawns. And I do plan to do a few BatReps with these rules - especially as its now expanded into Dungeons & Dragons.

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  2. Big B7 Fan so must say good job on Survalan. She looks really good.

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    1. Cheers Clint. I'm rather pleased with her, though she was a swine to paint with that white dress.

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  3. And once again the painting factory that is Simon Moore produces more delectable eye candy. Be careful, or Wizkids will replace their existing workforce with just you...serried ranks of Heroclix on a conveyor belt that have to be painted just right...lol
    I've not heard of Lost Patrol, but am sufficiently intrigued to have a look. Like Roger, I'm curious as to the size of the hexes, as I do have rather a lot of Her Oscar which might suit.

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    1. Thanks ever so much Jez. I'm 'in the zone' as they say, currently. Indeed Hank "Beast" McCoy should be finished tonight, as I always like to have 3-4 complete minis on the shelf awaiting posting ;-) You;ll be hearing plenty about "Lost Patrol" on this blog if its as good as the reviews I've read, and "Dark Sphere" have just kindly emailed me to say its in the post :-)

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    2. Ah... "Heroscape"!! I did wonder what you were on about earlier when I saw your comment via my phone. I should have known that's what you meant :-)

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    3. So, this is GW's second attempt at the game then, as it was originally Catachan Jungle Fighters vs 'lurkers'. Watched a chap doing a play-through, and seems a pretty straightforward game with a clever tile-placing mechanic. Can see how it could be used for a cavern-crawl type game or even a space hulk - basically anything with an ever shifting labyrinth. Interesting. ..

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    4. Absolutely Jez. It seems very adaptable to other genres, and open to plenty of homemade rules such as jungle pit-traps, random encounters and different heroes/monster stats.

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  4. More great work Simon, particularly love the superheroes. I've seen the "lost patrol" advertised and thought it to be quite interesting, I'd like to see your spin on it.

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    1. Cheers Andy. Hopefully "Lost Patrol" will engage me as much as "Bushido" clearly has you, my friend.

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  5. A nice mix of figures on display here, Simon. That's a cool figure of Servalan. I'm not a fan of those Mandrels, but I do think that one of them would make for a perfect villain in a monster suit for a Scooby Doo scenario. I have all three of those Heroclix figures and I'm a fan of all three. They really are great sculpts.

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    1. Thanks Bryan. I'm pleased with Servalan, but can't believe you don't like the cuddly Mandrels!?! Perhaps you'll possibly warm to them once I've finished painting them. Surprisingly I seemingly cut off Captain America's head-wings for some reason, and then subsequently thought better of it and replaced them with green-stuff. It must have been some time ago though as I've been using grey-stuff instead for quite a while now.

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  6. I love that servalan fig and you've done a grand job on her. Look forward to seeing the Mandrels all finished up.

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    1. Cheers Gordon. Hopefully you won't be posting up too many distractions on your infernal blog, so I can get the Mandrels finished ;-)

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    2. Can't make any promises...

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    3. Indeed. Just ordered some "Antediluvian Miniatures" because of you!!! :-)

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  7. Well done with Lady Winterly Simon, white is such a tough one to pull off well and you have certainly done that here.

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    1. Thanks Michael. Much appreciated. Servalan's dress isn't quite as white as I'd have liked as the grey wash was a bit too thick. But it is not too far off, and she should look good on the tabletop surrounded by her black-suited Federation troopers.

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  8. Painting a figurewho is almost entirely black or white is very tricky, but you've done a great job on milady

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    1. Cheers Joe. Glad to get her finished, as her straps and dry-brushing near her head and hands was a bit of a nightmare.

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  9. That Winterly sculpt is still a good one to me. Love the makeup you've painted too, very well done mate. Here's hoping she'll perform as well ingame as she looks out of it.

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    1. Thanks Dai. She was a bit difficult to get right here and there. but should stand out well on the tabletop.

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  10. A swell lookin' dame, that Lady Winterly. You've done a great job on the mini. As others have pointed out, white is pretty unforgiving.

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    1. Cheers Finch. Not quite as white as I hoped. But she'll do well enough to be readily spotted on the tabletop imho.

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  11. You are so lucky with your Servalan Simon: Crooked Dice have discontinued this figure now, and are offering a new version (Servalan/Lady Winterly in a flowing gown) which I don't think looks quite as nice as this piece. The New Travis (Travers as CD call him) is a VERY good likeness of the second actor to play the part.

    I really love this Simon, and a cool rendering too :)

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    1. oh dear Steve, that's very disappointing, as like you, I much prefer this somewhat understated sculpt to the new version. The new Travis is excellent, and I have every intention of painting him up in order to field both versions simultaneously on the tabletop ;-) Thanks for the praise my friend!!

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