Monday 17 December 2018

"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... 

18 comments:

  1. Nice job on the 'Action Man' stand it looks good. Got some cool minis coming up. I am planning to try and attend my local game store more next year to get some gaming in. I am thinking of getting into the LOTR again. So shall look forward to seeing you progress with these.

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    1. Thanks Simon. I should be posting plenty of “LoTR” in the New Year once the AHPC begins :-)

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  2. I do love the Nazgul and the LOTR rules!

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  3. Great work on the Action Man stand Simon, more Dr Who models to look forward to, and More LOTR models for AHPC as well

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    1. Thanks Dave. I'm hoping to really push through a lot of "Moongrunt" and "GZG" minis during the AHPC, as they're reasonably straightforward to bulk paint; as opposed to 28mm which I struggle with.

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  4. I llike the bulkiness of these figures and you've done a greta job on them and more Dr. Who stuff to look forward to too !

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    1. Cheers Joe. Lots more "Action Man" to come, and definitely much more "Doctor Who" too :-)

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  5. Really nice work on the Action man figures, those spacesuits look superb! Nice collection of DW minis too, looking forward to seeing how the turn out, and the LOTR stuff is always a joy to see, some of the best stuff GW ever produced.

    Best of luck with the analogue by the way.

    Cheers Roger.

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    1. Thanks ever so much Roger. I'm really pleased with how the "Moongrunt" 15mm stuff is turning out, and hoping to clear out both US Lunar Starter Boxes over the next few months - plus the Chinese ones too!! I've another "Doctor Who" post coming up next, and there should be plenty of "LoTR" posted soon once the AHPC starts in less than week. :-)

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  6. All looking very splendid Simon, and the fact that you find stuff like this by just rooting around in your drawers (Oo-er missus!) is amazing :-)

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    1. Thanks Greg. I have a bit of a backlog hidden away in drawers throughout several rooms [blush].

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  7. Very nice Simon! The LOTR is definitely being seen on quite a few blogs I follow - which is always a good thing 🙂 Can't wait to see more

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    1. Cheers Ivor. I think the AHPC will certainly cause many a “LoTR” mini to make an appearance over the next three months :-)

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  8. Nice astronauts, they look great. Nice paint job. The Nazgul look tremendous, really nice sculpts, can't wait to see them fully painted. More interesting Dr Who creatures! Any more little gems in your lead mountain I wonder?

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    1. Thanks Undercoat. I've managed to start prepping a lot more of the "Moongrunt" minis for the AHPC, so am hoping to get a lot finished over the next few months. The "Games Workshop" named Nazgul are outstanding imho, and its really going to be hard not to buy the ones I'm missing before I've finished painting the ones I currently own. Heh... there's plenty more "little gems" in my lead mountain to come I assure you :-)

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