Friday 20 September 2019

“I Am Locutus Of Borg.”

"Your life as it has been is over. From this time forward, you will service us."
This 32mm scale resin miniature of Locutus of Borg is produced by “Modiphius Entertainment” and can be found inside the company's eight-figure strong Iconic Villains boxed set for “Star Trek Adventures”. “The Borg designation forced upon Starfleet Captain Jean-Luc Picard after his assimilation in late 2366”, this intended “spokesperson for the Human race” made his first appearance in the June 1990 “Star Trek: The Next Generation” televised story “The Best Of Both Worlds”.

Having re-based the Borg Queen’s “equal counterpart” onto a 28mm lipped circular plastic base, the figure was primed with two coats of “Citadel” Abaddon Black, heavily dry-brushed using some “Vallejo” Heavy Charcoal” and later much more lightly dry-brushed with “Citadel” Ironbreaker. This technique allowed me to provide the assimilated Picard with an all-encompassing metallic-looking highlight, plus gave me an opportunity to properly see all the cables, ribbed tubing and metal implants which snaked about his body and populated his bald head.
Captain James T. Kirk stands alone against Locutus of Borg
I then applied some extra “Citadel” Ironbreaker to Locutus’ mechanical Borg arm, much of his facial circuitry, and on several of the wires coiling around his legs. These areas, along with my original dry-brushing, were subsequently tidied up using a little more “Citadel” Abaddon Black and shaded with Nuln Oil. In addition, his armoured stomach coverings were ‘picked out’ using a combination of “Vallejo” Heavy Charcoal and “Citadel” Nuln Oil.

According to “Star Trek: The Next Generation” make-up artist Michael Westmore, the Borg’s paler skin demonstrated that “as humanity was drained away so was the colour of life”, so I was keen to give Picard the selfsame necrotic look I have used for all my Borg. As a result I layered his face with “Vallejo” Heavy Bluegrey, washed it with “Citadel” Nuln Oil and finally added some extra dabs of “Vallejo” Heavy Bluegrey to the man’s nose, cheek and brow.
"Black Tree Design" WIPs - This Auton has been primed, shaded, and dry-brushed
With Locutus now mostly finished, I applied some “Vallejo” Dark Vermillion to his electronic eye-piece and shaded it with a spot of “Citadel” Bloodletter. I also managed to ‘squeeze’ in a few dabs of “Vallejo” Dead White into the Borg’s eyes, and tidied the surrounding sockets up with either a smidgen of “Citadel” Abaddon Black or a little line of “Vallejo” Heavy Bluegrey.

With such a detailed miniature now 'in the books' I have begun work on a much more straightforward pilot piece by "Black Tree Design". This Auton is from the infamous company's "Doctor Who" range, and is hopefully the first of a somewhat large faction I'm planning to progress featuring both the Nestene Consciousness' life-sized factory-floor plastic dummies and their more 'friendly-faced' variants manufactured at Farrel Autoplastics...

22 comments:

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    1. Certainly not me, Fran. I've just opened another box of ten more!! LOL!!

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  2. Great work on Locutus Simon, and off to a good start with your who models

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    1. Thanks Dave. The Auton recipe looks fairly simple to paint :-)

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  3. I do very much like your Borg figures, Simon. As someone who has only just started using grass tufts on my bases (WW2 only ATM), may I ask what you use for the grass effects on your bases? It does look very effective.

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    1. Cheers Bryan. I usually just dab some PVA glue around my models' feet and then stick them in a tub of grass flock (predominantly made from typical model train brands tbh). I just softly press the flock down and give them a couple of hours to dry. I then repeat this process for the areas where the flock hasn't really taken. Tbh, this does sometimes make their feet a bit hard to see, as the flock sits up against the mini, but it doesn't bother me.

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  4. Great work Simon, but I will *not* be assimilated! :)

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  5. What a great pose and cracking paint job Simon.

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    1. Cheers Michael. Really good sculpt imho, and a pleasure to paint.

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  6. Smutty remark deleted! The borg are looking better and better and those auton is very good too

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    1. Thanks Phil. Hope to have the first of my Autons finished soon, as the "Doctor Who" bug is definitely biting once again.

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    1. Cheers Andy. Plenty more "Star Trek" to come too :-)

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  8. Borg Picard looks nice, as you say a lot of detail in there when I looked at the close ups. Good job. The Auton looks interesting too. I also didn't realise that Blacktree Design were infamous! Do tell!!

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    1. Thanks very much Undercoat. I'm afraid my relationship with "Black Tree Design" is coming to an end, as I'm still waiting for my latest order some months later - and that's despite them repeatedly promising that it'll arrive soon. Plus they've had the cheek to email me asking me to back their Kickstarter soon!!!

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  9. Great bit of brushwork picking out all the details on this figure - quite possibly your best yet imho and an excellent addition to the Borg forces.

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    1. Cheers Joe. Glad you're enjoying the Borg forces. Just some reinforcements to go and then that entire faction is complete.

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  10. Nice work on the Borg mate. The skin colour is spot on.

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  11. Locutus looks fantastic Simon! Really well done on a super cool sculpt.

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    1. Cheers Dai. That's really kind of you to say. Definitely my fave of the Borg sculpts.

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