"Action Man - The Name Hid The Identity Of The West's Top Intelligence Agent."

"That was Action Man's job - Security - That was why he was here."

This pair of 15mm scale two-piece metal astronauts are produced by "Ground Zero Games" and can be bought as Code MG15-USLF02 US Marine Corps Extra-Planetary Expeditionary Force Luna, Rifles Pack B. Part of the manufacturer's "Moongrunt" range, each set comes with six figures "as two each of three poses", and depicts the space-faring cosmonauts wearing M31 Protected Pressure Suits (PPS) with separate backpacks.

As with my previously painted US Lunar Force's figures, I applied a double undercoat of "Vallejo" Dead White over the miniatures and then heavily washed the duo with "Vallejo" Pale Grey, before dry-brushing them with (more) Dead White. I 'picked out' the astronauts' space-visors using a combination of "Vallejo" Gold and "The Army Painter" Strong Tone Quickshade, whilst their M225 Laser rifle/low-velocity grenade launcher combo (optimised for low-gravity vacuum use) weapons were treated to a coat of "Citadel" Ironbreaker and a subsequent double-shading of Nuln Oil.

"Black Tree Design" WIPs - Another Mandrel, the Ancient One and the Ice Lord Izlyr

In general I plan to base the vast majority of my "Moongrunt" infantry models as groups of three upon a medium-sized "Flames Of War" rectangular stand made by "Battlefront Miniatures". However, as I wanted this 'command stand' to represent Action Man during his "Race For The Moon" adventure, as published by "Purnell" in the Late Sixties, I decided to simply super-glue the secret operative to a small-sized base instead, and have the "movable fighting man" accompanied by a single companion.

Needless to say I have also found the time to continue rummaging around my collection of long-forgotten "Black Tree Design" figures, and found some more partially-painted "Doctor Who" miniatures to finally finish. Foremost of these was a fourth Mandrel model, which I have immediately started block-layering so as to quickly bring it's paint-job up to where I currently am with three more of the 'Fourth Doctor Era' monsters.

"Lord Of The Rings" WIPs - The mounted versions of The Shadow Lord and The Dark Marshal

But in addition, alongside a couple of plastic bags full of untouched vampiric Haemovores, I have also found their leader, The Ancient One, as well as an old sculpt of the Ice Lord Izlyer; which is probably meant to be Izlyr from Jon Pertwee's 1972 adventure "The Curse of Peladon". Both of these figures will need to have their early partial-paint-jobs redone, yet once completed should subsequently encourage me to a paint a plethora of their minions as an entourage during the Ninth Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge.

Finally, I have made a brief return to prepping and priming some more of my metal "Lord Of The Rings" models by "Games Workshop" for the aforementioned AHPC. Due to previously discovering I already own the foot versions of The Dark Marshal and The Shadow Lord, I have been busy scouring numerous boxes and plastic pots for their mounted versions. This labour of love recently finally paid off, so both Nazgul horsemen have been assembled, had their bent swords somewhat straightened, and been based too...