Wednesday 29 August 2018

"Stix Wins. You Die."

"Bang Bang."
These two 30mm tall metal figures of two Stix Brothers are produced by “Warlord Games” and can be purchased as part of a boxed three-model expansion set for the Nottingham-based manufacturer's "Strontium Dog" Miniatures Game. Ruthless Bounty Hunters "that will kill anyone for money", the clone Search/Destroy Agents were created by John Wagner, Alan Grant, and artist Carlos Ezquerra in October 1980 for the British anthology comic book "2000 A.D."

Originally undercoated using a double layer of "Vallejo" Dark Sand, the strontium-90 mutated siblings were washed with "The Army Painter" Strong Tone Quickshade and subsequently dry-brushed with (more) "Vallejo" Dark Sand. Their Search/Destroy agent badges were 'picked out' using a combination of Dark Red and "Citadel" Carroburg Crimson, whilst the stone-cold killers' numerous straps and broad-brimmed hats were treated to a coat of "Vallejo" Heavy Sienna before being shaded with (more) Strong Tone Quickshade by "The Army Painter".
Mei-Lin Mayfair 2.0 WIPs - The mini should make a good proxy for Major Motoko Kusanagi
In addition I painted the "unprincipled, untrustworthy and utterly ruthless" villains' hair with "Vallejo" White and "Citadel" Nuln Oil, as well as pigmented their skin using some "Vallejo" Heavy Skintone and "Citadel" Reikland Fleshshade. As I had previously left their brother's eyes "Vallejo" Black, given he was wearing a spaghetti western styled cowboy hat, I decided against 'spotting in' this pair's eyes too and instead simply highlighted around their cheekbones and nose with a dollop of "Vallejo" Skintone.

Having finished off some of Johnny Alpha's most famous antagonists I have made some more in-roads into my 'spur-of-the-moment' project inspired by "Ghost In The Shell" and utilising several models by "Statuesque Miniatures". One of this company's figures, Mei-Lin Mayfair 2.0, has particularly caught my imagination as a proxy for Major Motoko Kusanagi, and resultantly I have primed, shaded, dry-brushed and even started detailing the sculpt ready for the tabletop.
Khorgus Khul WIP - The Mighty Lord of Chaos has been assembled, based and primed
Stepping away from metal miniatures and instead turning to the hard-plastic of "Games Workshop" I have also started working on the General for my "Age Of Sigmar" Khorne Army, Khorgus Khul. This "Mighty Lord of Chaos" was actually rather straightforward to assemble as he only came in six pieces, but will clearly prove something of a challenge to paint considering all the warrior's incredible detail and 'hard to reach' areas.

Currently I only own 270 points of painted Khorne models to field on the table, so considering that bloodthirsty murderer costs a whopping 180 points in "The General's Handbook 2018", he should help me near my force's half-way point reasonably quickly; albeit the figure also comes with his formidable Flesh Hound of Khorne, Grizzlemaw on his unit's base too. Fortunately, repeated listenings of the audio novel "Realmgate Wars, Book 1 - The Gates of Azyr" by Chris Wraight is keeping me well-motivated as Khul features prominently throughout and is superbly voiced by Jonathan Keeble...

20 comments:

  1. Nice work on those Stix boys mate

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    1. Thanks Andy. Good to get them done, and I’m now looking forward to getting to grips with some of the range’s other figures.

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  2. Great work on the Styx Simon, the proxy Ghost in the shell model, is coming along nicely, to add interest maybe add some blue glaze shading, it will make the white pop more. Khorgus looks like he might take you a while

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    1. Cheers Dave. I’ve got a bit of a mash-up BatRep in mind for the Stix Brothers tbh.

      I’ve based the Major’s attire on the grey-white camouflage suit she wears in the film, so have relied upon the gloss varnish to give it some sparkle rather than any glazes. I’ll keep your top tip in mind though for some of the bots I’ve got on the painting table currently. I’ve a few colour schemes in mind of them, with white ceramic being one; albeit I like the idea of the Major standing out on the table top as the only white model...

      Khorgus has a lot of detail, mate, an awful lot actually, but having painted my five Khorne minis for “Shadespire” I already have a palette in mind, and a lot of him is going to be brass armour as a result - plus I can’t really reach a fair portion of the mini, so that’ll be remaining black :-)

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  3. Great selection of minis. The stix brothers look fab, really like them. The Major figure looks nice and having watched Ghost in the Shell recently I was impressed with its overall futuristic look, so can't wait for her to be done. The Khorne Lord is a great model too. Overall good post.

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    1. Thanks Undercoat. I’m looking forward to getting all three of the Stix Brothers on the table, and was actually tempted to dig out some of my “Indyclix” and “Wargames Foundry” versions too at some point; albeit the scale differences between the different manufacturers is rather off-putting.

      The Major should be finished sooner rather than later, on account of me suddenly being so enthused with the project. But expect plenty of WIPs on Khul too though, as he is going to take some dedicated painting sessions to get finished.

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  4. Great work on the Stix brothers. Mei-Lyn would make a great not Milla Jovovich in Ultraviolet. I'm looking forward to Khorgus Khul being painted, even as I prepare my Khorne Army for a trip to E-Bay.

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    1. Cheers Phil. Hmmm... Ultraviolet eh? Good idea. Sorry to hear about your Khorne woes, are you selling to fund a different force?

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    2. I'm just selling all my 40K stuff off as I'm not going to play again and shifting all attention into fantasy as I have the Mordheim and Frostgrave rules should skirmish gaming raise its ugly head as well as a ton of Dungeon Saga and Zombicide Black Plague figures to finish.Bye bye SF ... old friend ... sniff !!!

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    3. "Sniff" indeed, Phil. That's very sad. I take it not even "Kill Team" and its 5-man squads will encourage you to retain a small smattering of "WH40K" models then? And speaking of "Dungeon Saga", perhaps you'd care to join a few of us for Dungeon Saga'Tember?

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  5. Yay on getting through the Stix lads! For such boring sculpts, they paint up rather nicely mate.

    The major is a good'n too. Had you seen Hasslefree miniatures' not-major sculpt? Have been eyeing that one for a long time myself:

    https://www.hfminis.co.uk/shop?product=tomoko~hfa059&category=modern-%26%0D%0Apost%252dapoc~modern-adventurers

    (They also make a decent not-Batou as well)

    I am struggling through painting one of GW's current Beast of Nurgle kits with that very complaint - Their sculpts have become SO FLIPPIN BUSY! Don't envy you on that Khorne fellow at all.

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    1. Thanks Dai. I'm rather pleased with how the Stix Brothers turned out, and now glad I did one as a pilot piece first so as to 'feel out' their dirty sand-blasted overcoats.

      I hadn't seen "Hasslefree Miniatures" Major, but that is indeed a good one :-)

      Lots of "AoS" minis coming, all of which are uber-busy sadly, so expect some slow going on my behalf as I plough slowly through them ;-)

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  6. Nice work on the styx, mean and moody!!

    That is a lovely sculpt from Statuesque, I saw here the other week on Bryans Woin blog, and was sorely tempted, you are not helping that situation!

    Cheers Roger.

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    1. Cheers Roger. I'm hoping to get some more of the "Strontium Dog" range done at some point this year, but for now I'm prepping for our Dungeon Saga'tember challenge in a few days time.

      "Statuesque Miniatures" are great and have some corking ranges too, which I've only tapped into for now. Expect a lot more to come though as they've really captured my imagination :-)

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    2. The guilt, the guilt ... miniatures rustling at the bottom of the plastic pile ... paint me, paaaaaiiintttt meeeeee!!! Damned Kickstarter temptation, .. with all stretch goals.

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  7. Nice job on the remaining two brothers they turned out great :)

    You have some cool models coming along gonna the paint bench

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    1. Thanks Simon. Really please with the Stix Brothers, and the "Games Workshop" models are first-rate when it comes to detail :-)

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  8. Big thumbs up for these two, butjust hpw many Stix brothers are there ?

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    1. Cheers Joe. No-one actually seems to know how many Stix Brothers there are, as they're clones. But they generally appear in groups of two to three in the comics.

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