"The Astronaut Looked Like A Man From Mars."

"He wore a silver flexible suit of rubber and nylon against the freezing airless nothingness..."

These three 15mm scale two-piece metal astronauts are produced by "Ground Zero Games" and can be bought as Code MG15-USLF03 US Marine Corps Extra-Planetary Expeditionary Force Luna, Heavy Support Lasers. Part of the company'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 I have already previously painted one of the US Lunar Force's buggys, I decided to apply precisely the same palette to its infantry, so applied a double undercoat of "Vallejo" Dead White over the entire trio. The models were then heavily washed with "Vallejo" Pale Grey and dry-brushed with (more) Dead White.

"Nox operate in Tesserans (eight) and Ordo's (thirty-two)."

I 'picked out' the astronauts' space-visors using a combination of "Vallejo" Gold and "The Army Painter" Strong Tone Quickshade, whilst their M237 Rapid-Pulse Support Laser weapons were treated to a coat of "Citadel" Ironbreaker and a subsequent double-shading of Nuln Oil. Due to having already elected not to differentiate my "Moongrunt" miniatures from my 'regular' 15mm models with a moon-like basing method, I flocked their stands using static green grass as normal.

Sticking with 15mm science fiction figures, I have also completed working on three more Nox from the "The Ion Age" Code AIAF001. These "elite troops taken from the best of the ordinary legionaries" have been super-glued onto medium-sized “Battlefront Miniatures” plastic stands and will form part of a five-element unit of the Shia Khan Empire's finest warriors that I plan to field using a set of home-made rules.

Grove The Treeman and a Grove's Shrub WIPs - The models have been primed "Vallejo" Heavy Sienna

All three figures were primed with two layers of “Vallejo” Heavy Red, heavily washed with “Citadel” Carroburg Crimson and later dry-brushed with (more) "Vallejo" Heavy Red. The ribbed piping on their "Segmentum powered armour" and backpacks were then pigmented using "Vallejo" Black before I applied my usual mix of "Citadel" Ironbreaker and Nuln Oil to their formidable firearms.

Finally, I have been busy preparing the first of a large number of models manufactured by "Lucid Eye Publications" as entrants for the Ninth Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge. With the event's theme being inspired by "The Fellow Of The Ring", I thought these characterful "Toon Realms" sculpts would make for a 'tongue-in-cheek' Lord Of The Toons and have resultantly started priming Yewan Grove The Treeman and four of his Grove's Shrubs as a fun proxy for Treebeard and his fellow Ents.