"Never Give Up!"

 "Never Surrender!"

This 28mm scale metal model of Galactic Explorer 1A is manufactured by “Crooked Dice Game Design Studio” and can be bought individually as MINI 1927 from their Space Travellers range, or as part of their four-figure DEAL 492 Galactic Explorers I. Sculpted by Ari Níelsson, the miniature is clearly based upon actor Tim Allen's character Jason Nesmith/Commander Peter Quincy Taggart from Dean Parisot's 1999 science fiction film "Galaxy Quest".

The figure was primed with a couple of coats of "Vallejo" Neutral Grey, before having his boots, trousers, hair and much of his torso layered in "Citadel" Abaddon Black. I then 'picked out' his insignia, epaulettes and Ion Nebulizer with a smidgeon of "Vallejo" Gunmetal and splosh of "Citadel" Nuln Oil. I also applied quite a heavy dry-brush to Taggart's pants and top, so as to slightly break up the predominantly black colour scheme.

"CoolMiniOrNot" WIPs - Work has finally started on Squirrel Girl in earnest

Lastly, I tidied up all the "Vallejo" Neutral Grey areas, drowned the entire model with (more) "Citadel" Nuln Oil, and patiently dry-brushed the Commander's upper tunic with a little (more) "Vallejo" Neutral Grey. I did consider applying some "Vallejo" Heavy Sienna to the miniature's hair, as per the 'official' display paintjob by "Mystic Spirals". But in the end decided that the movie version of the NSEA Protector's leader looked a lot darker - so stuck with the original "Citadel" Abaddon Black colour scheme.

Along with my Galactic Explorer, I have made some more progress on my (admittedly grand) design to paint a number of 40mm plastic Marvel United gaming pieces to use with the Marvel Multiverse RPG (MMRPG). As a change of pace though, I have momentarily swapped out the Kronan gladiator Korg I have been slowly working on for the much more dynamically-posed Squirrel Girl instead.

"Athena Miniatures" WIPs - This young apocalypse survivor is close to completion

This rejig of my painting priorities is only temporary, as I will need Thor's super-strong former foe when I play the MMRPG's Escape From Planet Hulk starter scenario. However, I have recently picked up the hardback copy of the ruleset, and discovered it has the statistics for Doreen Green's bushy-tailed alter-ego inside. This has encouraged me to put some (more) paint on the "CoolMiniOrNot" figure somewhat sooner than I was expecting, as I now may well swap Squirrel Girl into my team's roster instead of one of the super-heroes which come with the starter set.

Furthermore, I have quite quickly slapped a few coats on one of the models from Survivors Set 4 by "Athena Miniatures". I actually own two of this particular adolescent survivor of the apocalypse after owner John Caboche kindly snuck a couple of freebies into my most recent order - so I'm rather keen to at least get one of the duo tabletop ready as soon as possible...