Saturday 1 December 2018

"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.

22 comments:

  1. Good stuff Simon! Your Lord of the Toons project sounds brilliant 🙂

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    1. Thanks very much, Ivor. I'm really looking forward to the AHPC and seeing how far into the Lord Of The Toons project I can get. Lots of Knights, ELves, Halflings, Dwarves and Undead to paint :-)

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  2. Love those Astronauts such a cool looking faction they make.

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    1. Cheers Simon. Hopefully I can start getting some group shots done, once I get the astronaut painting process going full steam.

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  3. Great work on the 15 mm bits, some nice looking sculpts on those treemen for the painting challenge

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    1. Thanks Dave. The "Toon Realms" sculpts are all excellent imho, and should be a lot of fun to paint once I get going.

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  4. Nice work on the Moongrunts and Nox, BK -well done. :)

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    1. Thanks Leon. Trying to clear the decks a bit of 15mm, but still got a lot to finish to complete my mini-challenge of finishing 90 points worth.

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  5. I like your astronauts. The white is excellent and makes them really stand out on the battlefield. Cudos for picking out the visors and guns in such a small scale, expertly done. The red on the Nox is excellent, so strong and vibrant, really nice job. Those toon Ents are very characterful, nice sculpts and your LotR twist for them is a great idea. You are certainly building up to your painting challenge with all cylinders firing!

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    1. Cheers Undercoat. I've been really enthused by both "The Ion Age" and "Ground Zero Games", and have a lot more yet to paint & post. But I am also now slowly starting to build up more and more minis ready for the end of December and the AHPC, and "Toon Realms" will prove an important supplier of entrants for that event ;-)

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  6. Nice work on the Moongrunts :)

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    1. Thanks Tamsin. Really been enjoying these 15mm.

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  7. Really nice and eclectic range work as ever.

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  8. All very nice Simon, but those Astronauts are the stars of the post for me, I was a bit (well quite a lot TBH) dubious about the grassy bases when you first said that's the way you were going to go, but I have to admit the white figures to stand out against them really well.

    "Lord of the Toons" that's Alan Shearer isn't it? :-)

    Cheers Roger.

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    1. Thanks Roger. Yes, I'm sure there still are those who don't like the astrounauts on green-flocked bases, but I like them well enough, and they should look alright when the US Lunar Force are facing non-astronaut foes.

      Sorry, Alan who? ;-)

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  9. Two piece 15mm figures ? Well, I can;t see the join in these excellent looking figures, great paint-job on them and what contrast to the evil-looking Nox. You forces for this are swelling rapidly.

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    1. Cheers Joe. The backpacks come separately and can be quite fiddly to attach tbh. I'm hoping the red of the Nox really helps them stand out on the tabletop against the grey and blackish blue of my Prydian Forces.

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  10. Moonraker is what comes to mind when I look at those fab astronauts. So good!

    Love the Ent stand-ins. Lord of the Toons indeed. LOL

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    1. Thanks Dai. My favourite Roger Moore Bond film!!! Lots more "Toon Realms" stuff to come, and I'm really looking forward to getting a load of these models painted so I can get some fun BatReps in :-)

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