(Lead) Mountain Musings - "Papsikels Miniatures” February 2023

"Do You Have Any Faith, Sister?"

After last month's dismal effort to reduce my peak of plastic by supposedly focusing upon the remaining 15mm World War Two Germans by “Battlefront Miniatures” I need to complete my 50-point strong “Flames Of War” German Beach Defence Company, I thought I'd spend the next four weeks concentrating upon a range of figures I'm currently 3D printing like the Volkswagen Wolfsburg Plant - namely, "Papsikels Miniatures”.

This company actually have two different Patreon subscriptions covering Science Fiction and Cyberpunk models, which can both be accessed via their penny-saving "Add On" pledge. I'm currently still working my way through their backlog of super-generous welcome packs and monthly releases with an eye upon playing some "Aliens verses Predator verses Terminator" games in the near future.

Papsikels Miniatures WIPs - Some figures being progressed from the "Papsikels Massive Sci-Fi Welcome Pack"

In addition, their Shadowrun-flavoured Cyberpunk models have got me interested in revisiting "X-Crawl" by "Goodman Games", so I have already started producing some Cyber Ravager sculpts on my "Elegoo" Mars 3 Pro 3D Printer to use as a potential band of "superstar athletes taking their chances in a live-on-pay-per-view death sport." For starters though, I'll be sticking with the plethora of various Xenomorphs and E-1000 Annihilators I've already got on my painting table, with the notion that I can always use them as futuristic 'dungeon denizens' at a later date.

Of course I still have a fair few other 'irons in the fire' too with a handful of Sardaukar by "Big Mr Tong", B2 Droids by "Nyverdale Tabletop" and a ton of Golemmar Gnomes by "Artisan Guild" waiting in the wings. But most of these figures are actually close to completion and should be ready for next week's Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge (AHPC) submission window. Indeed, if things go to plan then I should be able to enter some twenty plus 28mm-32mm scale figures into the event as 'a one hundred point bomb.'

January 2023 - "Big Mr Tong" has already taken a strong lead after just one month

The AHPC has certainly sparked a major increase in my output over the past month, with me experiencing one of my most productive starts to a year since I first began recording my output almost a decade ago. This success has predominantly been due to the large number of “Big Mr Tong” sculpts I've pigmented, most notably their aforementioned "Dune" inspired Sardaukar, as well as his marvellous Sentry Robots (from "The Black Hole).

However, I did also surprise myself by painting a few old 28mm metal models from my "The Lord Of The Rings" collection by "Games Workshop". Admittedly, I am hoping to play some more of the Nottingham-based manufacturer's "Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game" once I've reinforced my Isengard army with some Warg Riders. But much of the motivation to revisit Middle Earth principally came from the opportunity to collect some bonus points during the AHPC - something I had previously promised myself I wouldn't get distracted by...