Painting Challenge: Week Five - 6mm Micro Armour

Week Five of my painting challenge sees my three-month project's subject return to 6mm "GHQ" miniatures and five more bases of Modern British "Micro Armour". This should mean I'll be able to finish off both my second Rifleman Section and Saxon APC Battalion Asset, and thus finally field a basic British Army platoon.

 

In addition I also hope to complete a few more North African resin buildings by "Baccus 6mm" so I can populate a couple of recently acquired MDF bases and create some 'Built Up Areas' for my battlefield.

 

Meanwhile, behind the scenes, I'm still slowly trying to complete a few more bases of "The Ion Age" 15mm Prydian Army models. Once finished I'll be able to game some small 'Rogue Trader era' exchanges between the 'Imperial Guard' and LV-426 Aliens, using the "Science-Fiction Companion" setting of "Savage Worlds".

"Too Slow Lawbreaker!"

Having recently painted a handful of Street Judge models from the "Judge Dredd Miniatures Game" by "Mongoose Publishing", I was looking forward to painting the man himself, Judge Joseph Dredd. Unfortunately I've not had the best of times with model MGP10153 Judge Dredd 1, and whilst much of this frustration is doubtless down to my skills with a brush (or rather lack of), the sculpting on the model itself has also contributed to my dwindling enthusiasm for the project.

As with the other far-future lawmen I've painted I used "Coat D'Arms" Black for Dredd's uniform, and then Vallejo" Heavy Green with a "Citadel" Thrakka Green wash for his knee pads, boots, gloves, belt and elbow pads. His belt buckle, shoulder pad, badge and chain, and shoulder eagle were painted using "Vallejo" Gold and "Citadel" Devlan Mud.

A simple enough colour scheme which annoyingly took several applications on certain parts of the model. Such as the somewhat crushed 'iron fist of Mega-City One' where I really struggled to find where the glove finished and the elbow pad started, and Dredd's red helmet trim, which seemed to simply disappear once it got round the back of his head. I even had to paint on the downward stripes on the helmet's gold badge as there appeared to be no raised detail on that particular area. 

This has all lead to me rather disliking this figure, and as a result, for now at least, he's simply going to be one of my nameless Street Judge extras. Luckily I'm also painting the alternative "Mongoose Publishing" Judge Dredd sculpt (Code MGP10155), so, hopefully having given that model a better paintjob, I'll still be able to field the law's number one judge, jury and executioner as a wildcard (for "Savage Worlds").

Ultimately I can always use this model as the Chief Judge Fargo clone Judge Rico, who graduated from the Academy of Law in 2122 having actually been assessed by Joe Dredd himself; and that way I can field two Judge Dredds.

 

Having spent so long to finish this legendary senior Street Judge (and he was already half-painted at the start of the week) I've continued to 'potter' away at some more of my "Heroclix" plastic miniatures by "Wizkids", with a view to quickly finishing off three of these figures over the next few days.

"Judges Can Bleed Too"

Despite spending the past few days slowly progressing the small handful of the "Mongoose Publishing" Street Judge models I've set aside to paint this week, I've actually ended up finishing one of their figures from their 'Perps and Mercenaries' range first.

 Sold under the "Judge Dredd Miniatures Game" brand as MGP10183 Blitzer, or alternatively as JD20114 Mobster Blitzer by "Warlord Games", this 28mm metal miniature was reasonably simple to paint, despite some minor casting flaws on the inside of his clenched fist.

The model was predominantly painted with "Vallejo" Heavy Bluegrey and a "Citadel" Nuln Oil wash. His flesh was painted using an undercoat of "Vallejo" Heavy Skintone, which was then washed with an old pot of "Citadel" Ogryn Flesh, before being highlighted with more "Vallejo" Heavy Skintone. The majority of the mobster's gun was simply painted with "Citadel" Boltgun Metal and (more) Nuln Oil. But in order to break it up somewhat, the firearm's grip and under-barrel were painted using "Vallejo" Heavy Sienna and "The Army Painter" Quickshade Strong Tone.

Finally, and actually after some thought, I painted the model's hat using a combination of "Vallejo" Heavy Brown and (more of the) Quickshade Strong Tone ink by "The Army Painter". With this colour scheme in mind I now plan to later buy a second mobster miniature and paint it with an opposing brown suit with grey hat; the Blitzer brothers? 

 With a view to completing this week's painting goal of finishing five 25mm models, I've quickly based and undercoated a number of "Heroclix" plastic miniatures by "Wizkids". This is predominantly because I'm presently really struggling 'wrestling' with some of the casting/sculpting flaws I've encountered with the current batch of 'Justice Department' figures on my painting table. Therefore if my enthusiasm levels for the "Mongoose Publishing" models does fail, I can quickly complete these (essentially) single-colour super-heroes and arch-villains instead. 

Ground Zero Games Xenomorphs - Final Part

I've completed another six stands of my 15mm alien models by "Ground Zero Games". I actually still have a handful of these miniatures left over, including two which I'm halfway through stripping down, having seriously over-painted them. However I think I can only get so many blog posts out of code SG15-X01 Xenomorphs, and the two model variants the plastic packet contains, so I don't plan to paint the last few LV-426 life-forms anytime soon.

All the miniatures have been painted using my 'quick and dirty' method of dry-brushing "Vallejo" Heavy Bluegrey over a "Coat D'Arms" Black undercoat before washing them with "Citadel" Nuln Oil. They were then super-glued to "Battlefront Miniatures" plastic bases.

 

Once dry I then built up the areas around the models' bases with green stuff in order to create a simple slope. If I've one complaint about these "Ground Zero Games" figures its their thick(ish) stands, and that one of the poses seems to suffer horribly from 'giddy alien syndrome'. That is the pose has a terrible lean to one side which when simply glued flat to a base makes the model appear to about to fall over to one side. Hardly the terrifying 'H.R. Giger image' I want them to somehow capture and one of the reasons I moved away from my original plan to base three models on a larger 40mm x 60mm rectangular base.

As a result many of the models have had a small blob of greenstuff placed beneath their base in order for me to 'straighten' their pose. This meant I then had to fill in the gap between the figures' stand and the "Battlefront Miniatures" base, as well as smooth out the join so the metal stand didn't 'jut out' from my basing later on.

 

As soon as the green stuff had hardened I then gave each base a coat of PVA glue and covered them in grit and sand (using a combination of model railway scenic ballast and other grainy basing materials I've collected over the years). I then painted the bases with "Coat D'Arms" Black before applying a heavy dry-brush of "Citadel" Doombull Brown, and then a lighter dry-brush of "Rakarth Flesh". Finally all the bases were washed with Agrax Earthshade and given another coat of PVA to seal everything together.

Before I applied the "Games Workshop" static grass, I tidied the bases up by applying two coats of "Coat D'Arms" Black along the edges and treating these areas to a coat of "Citadel" Colour Varnish.

Muster First Patrol - Part One

These two stands of 15mm "The Ion Age" miniatures are from a combination of Prydian Army models found within IAF021 Muster First Patrol Command and IAF022 Muster First Patrol. They've been based on a couple of small bases by "Battlefront Miniatures" in order to indicate that the first contains a Sergeant (i.e. a wildcard for the "Science-Fiction Companion" setting for the "Savage Worlds" core rules system) and the other a heavy weapon.

 

In order to try and tie these infantrymen in with the "Rogue Trader" feel of my previously painted Prydian Retained Knights, I've sought inspiration from the old "Warhammer 40K" Imperial Guard; back when they were metal miniatures sculpted by Mark Copplestone and came with separate plastic arms and weapon sprues.

 

    As a result the Guardsmen were all undercoated with "Vallejo" Heavy Bluegrey, washed with "Citadel" Nuln Oil and then had their shoulder pads, boots, and chest armour painted with "Coat D'Arms" Black. Any leg pouches and backpacks were painted using a combination of "Vallejo" Heavy Sienna and "The Army Painter" Quickshade Strong Tone. All the weapons were coated with "Citadel" Boltgun Metal and then washed with Nuln Oil. In line with the old Imperial Guard colour scheme, I painted the Sergeant's chest plate, helmet insignia and shoulder pad epaulettes with "Vallejo" Gold and more Quickshade Strong Tone by "The Army Painter".

I've still quite a few more of these 15mm Prydian Army models from "The Ion Age" left to paint. But am currently 'cracking on' and concentrating on five (more) 25mm "Judge Dredd" miniatures by "Mongoose Publishing". The Mobster Blitzer figure is proving a joy to paint, whilst his Judge Dredd (sold as JD20001 Judge Dredd 1 by "Warlord Games") counterpart has so many of the miscast and poor sculpting issues that have so frustrated me with previous 'Mongoose Matt' miniatures from this range.

Painting Challenge: Week Four - 28mm Judge Dredd Minatures

The subject of Week Four of my painting challenge consists of five 28mm models, and as a result I'm going to spend the next seven days finishing off the "Mongoose Publishing" "Judge Dredd" Street Judge 'gang' I've been slowly painting and putting together over the past couple of months.

I've already got a couple of the range's 'older' models half-started, so have added two more Judge models from Matthew Sprange's September 2012 Kickstarter to my painting queue. This will allow me to 'field' a few Wildcard heroes along with my Extras when using the "Science Fiction Companion" setting for "Savage Worlds".

In addition I also plan to get started on painting the first of my Street Judge's criminal opposition, and the Mobster Blitzer (as sold by "Warlord Games") seems a good place to begin.

Ground Zero Games Xenomorphs - Part Three

I've finished painting a load more of my 15mm alien models from "Ground Zero Games" as part of this week's painting challenge; all from code SG15-X01 Xenomorphs.

 In addition I've also discovered a bag of "Pendraken Miniatures" from my 'lead mountain' which will be ideal as objectives and second stage xenomorphic parasitoids. The models are actually part of the North Yorkshire company's 10mm Science Fiction range, and but the egg cluster, eggs and face huggers actually appear more in scale with 15mm.