"NASA Eventually Lost The Space Race..."

"...To Alexei Leonov and his fellow cosmonauts in 1969."

This 32mm NASA Astronaut is produced by "Black Site Studios" for their "Lunar" skirmish game, and was created using "Elegoo" Water Washable Resin on a Mars 3 Pro 3D Printer. The STL (Standard Triangle Language) file comes as part of the company's Two-Player Digital Starter Set, but has been converted in order to better represent a pistol-packing space sapper.

As a result the figure's empty hands were carefully snipped off with a pair of modelling clippers and replaced with cast resin ones carrying a Markam S11 pistol and an explosive charge. Both of these 'bitz' were taken from the sprues I had left over from assembling my initial American faction using the aforementioned starter box, and readily adhered to the 3D print with a spot of super-glue.

"Black Site Studios" WIPs - Four Soviet Cosmonauts carrying mass shotguns

The miniature was stuck onto a "Citadel" 30mm circular stand, and undercoated with "Two Thin Coats" Celestial Blue. It was then drenched in "Citadel" Drakenhof Nightshade, and dry-brushed with (more) "Two Thin Coats" Celestial Blue to help better bring out all the space suit's various details. In addition I applied a combination of "Vallejo" Heavy Blue and "Citadel" Drakenhof Nightshade to the piece of insulation material running along the edge of the astronaut's backpack in order to slightly break up the monotony of the spaceman's palette a little bit.

The model's hand-weapon was quickly given a lick of Citadel "Abaddon Black", layered in "Vallejo" Gunmetal and shaded with "Citadel" Nuln Oil. Whilst his detonation device was 'picked out' using a combination of "Citadel" Abaddon Black, "Two Thin Coats" White Star, and some watered-down "Citadel" Agrax Earthshade so as to match the colour scheme on the charge's game card. Lastly, his helmet's visor received a coat of "Vallejo" Heavy Sienna, a couple of strokes of Gold, and a splash of "Citadel" Agrax Earthshade.

"Wizkids" WIPs - The Black Mask, the Black Canary and the Penguin

Sticking with "Lunar" I have also made some significant progress on some more Soviet Cosmonauts from the range, which I recently 3D printed. Apart from a couple of the Russians being 'mirrored' using "Chitubox", these figures have not been converted, as I want to build up a sizeable number of communist goons to use as potential 'gun-fodder' in my collaborative games using a homebrew adaption of "The Silver Bayonet" by "Osprey Games".

Finally, I suddenly seem to have been bitten by the "Wizkids" bug once again after a good couple of years. This is largely due to me wanting to play some villain verses villain battles set in Gotham City, using many of Batman's arch-enemies, and realising that I don't actually have a couple of the Dark Knight's most notable Rogues tabletop ready. As a result I've dusted down some old "Heroclix" figures of the Penguin and the Black Mask, as well as a fairly straightforward sculpt of the Black Canary - to use as a potential random encounter during my games...