Wednesday 20 February 2019

"It Is Fortunate That These Clone Troopers Know No Fear."

"After Geonosis, homing spider droids became common staples of Confederate armies."
This huge 83mm tall plastic model of a Commerce Guild Homing Spider Droid was made by “Wizards Of The Coast” and is model 02 from their Bounty Hunters expansion for the manufacturer’s “Star Wars Miniatures Game”. “Effective against both ground-based and airborne targets”, the OG-9 homing spider droid “was designed to transport a large and devastating weapon throughout the battlefield” and made its first appearance during the Battle of Geonosis in George Lucas’ 2002 American epic space opera film “Attack Of The Clones”.

The anti-vehicular walker was initially ‘hacked’ from its ill-fitting circular base using a modelling knife and permanently repositioned upon a 120mm oval “Games Workshop” stand. It was then treated to a double undercoat of “Vallejo” Gunmetal Grey and heavily washed with “Citadel” Nuln Oil, in order to ‘cover-up’ the Baktoid Armour Workshop-built robot’s pre-paint scheme.
"Following the execution of the Separatist Council... all droid units used by the Confederacy were deactivated."
With the self-propelled artillery piece’s basic paint-job finished, I subsequently dry-brushed it with (the somewhat brighter metallic paint) “Citadel” Ironbreaker, and then enthusiastically applied some Strong Tone Quickshade by “The Army Painter” over all four of the walker’s all-terrain extendable hydraulic legs, precision homing laser (“mounted atop the droid’s round body) and anti-personnel cannon. These areas were later treated to a further light dry-brush of “Citadel” Ironbreaker.

Having completed work on the first of several science fiction-based vehicles which Phil Curran has very generously gifted me with, I have momentarily turned my attention towards some more partially-painted "North Star Military Figures" which have been sculpted to use with either "Frostgrave" or "Ghost Archipelago". My increasing interest in these two "Osprey Games" has been significantly increased recently by the arrival of some more expansions for the "Conan - Adventures In An Age Undreamed Of" role-playing game by "Modiphius Entertainment", and perhaps unsurprisingly I have 'dug out' Mark Copplestone's Hunter to represent the Cimmerian on my tabletop.
"North Star Military Figures" WIPs - A Minor Demon, a Hunter and a Zombie Snow Troll
Considering that the "Kickstarter" for this series of hard-backed volumes "based on the incredible character of Conan and of the Hyborian age" was actually due to deliver way back in July 2016, I admittedly didn't hold out much hope that I was ever going to receive my full pledge's worth of merchandise. But "Nameless Cults", "Horrors Of The Hyborian Age", Conan The Pirate" and "Conan The Brigand" certainly goes a long way to achieving two thirds of it, with the promise of my remaining books being sent in a third wave...

Alongside my version of Robert E. Howard's barbarian hero, I have also started to try and block out all the decaying innards, hair and bone on a Zombie Snow Troll, whilst simultaneously progressing a Minor Demon I received as a Secret Santa present a couple of years ago. I've rather embarrassingly actually uncovered quite the untouched horde of "Frostgrave" goodies, so intend to 'churn out' quite a few miniatures from the range over the next few weeks in a concerted effort to clear some drawer space.

18 comments:

  1. That spider droid looks great. Really nice model and really well painted. I want one!! Glad your Conan books have arrived, even if that seems like one back of a wait. Nice to see the Frostgrave models too. I think the art and minis from that range are just awesome. It is a really great fantasy universe. Makes me want a game. Hint, hint!

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    1. Thanks Undercoat. I'm certainly very grateful to Phil for giving the Spider Droid to me. Plenty of "Frostgrave" to come though I am eyeing "Conan" RPG rules for it...

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  2. Nice work mate. The basing contrasts nicely with it.

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    1. Cheers Simon. Simple stuff tbh, but effective :-)

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  3. I do like the Spider droid. It looks excellent.

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  4. The Spider Droid turned out really well Simon, nice progress on the Frostgrave mini's as well

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    1. Cheers Dave. I'm really pleased with the Spider Droid and certainly would have liked to have got my hands on a couple more if they weren't so expensive to get hold of these days. Perhaps "Salute" 2019 will have a few knocking about.

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  5. Oh wow! The spider droid looks great Simon, a lovely addition.

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    1. Thanks very much Michael. I really like it too :-)

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  6. What a cool mini that Spider Droid is!

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  7. Great looking spider-droid. Looking forward to the finished undead troll especially.

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    1. Cheers Finch. Hopefully I'll be posting quite a few "Frostgrave" in the coming weeks.

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  8. The spider droid looks excellent and very menacing.

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