Lando was always my favourite character from the original Star Wars trilogy. I particularly liked his guard outfit from Jabba's palace. That said, I've gone with the Cloud City vibe for my Bob Olley version of Lando, as it also allowed me to make Lobot.
I'm now getting to the point where a fully painted set of Bob Olley's Iron Claw space pirates is a realistic outcome in the near future (I have 6 left to paint). This set of three brings me up to 11 out of 17. Happily, there are still some fun characterful figures to come!
I 've really been enjoying painting my Bob Olley space pirates as not-Star Wars figures. I reckon every Star Wars group needs droids and aliens, so leant into it with the most recent group.
I spent the week painting up another small group of Bob Olley sculpts for my not-rebel commandos. This time it's another pair of late-1980s Iron Claw space pirates, plus a Kryomek alien. They're starting to look like a nice-sized strike force for destroying bunkers, comms relays and such!
Although it's an acquired taste, I really like Bob Olley's sculpting style. The heavily creased cloth and exaggerated faces make for fun miniatures to paint. Over the weekend, I was chatting with my friend Mr Saturday over the delights of Olley figures and upcoming projects. Then we played a massive game of the Battle of Hoth.
When I got home, I couldn't resist digging out my Iron Claw space pirates and a few ancillary Olley sculpts. "I bet they would look good painted up as rebel commandos", I thought...
Another pair of slann to add to my warband. This time it's a combat specialist accompanied by a rather more brutish slann! Mixtecas is a converted Warhammer Fantasy slann, and his larger companion is a Phrogg from Ral Partha Europe.
| The temple guard defend their ancient ruins from human aggressors. |
Following on from the previous couple of slann-themed posts, I was filled with enthusiasm to finish painting all the Rogue Trader slann and get a bucket-list project completed. I've wanted to get a full set painted for more years than I care to remember! With around half the set painted, it seemed like a good idea to blast through the remaining seven figures. And here they are:
I'm continuing with the focus on my space slann for the moment, making the most of my enthusiasm for painting them! As mentioned in my previous post, I wanted to try out a complementary but variant skin colour for the slann. I have used a nice de-saturated orangy-red (Citadel's Wild Rider Red) which I've highlighted with a pale flesh paint and am very happy with the results. I think I'll use this in a rough 1:2 ratio with the deep red I've been using for the slann to date.
Back in the early 2000s I planned a space slann army for 40k. The project never got off the ground as I moved towards smaller skirmish games, and most of the slann have long since been passed on. I did however keep the slann leader that I had planned to use - this was a conversion that was done for me by sculptor and Golden Demon winner Jeff Wilhelm. 20 years on, I have finally got round to painting up this long-neglected slann!
| Originally intended for 28mm gaming, this slann will also see use in 54mm. |
A final pair of gangers to bring my Confrontation dogskin gang up to ten members strong. This means that I can field them as a Stargrave crew, and have just about enough members for a short Necromunda campaign.
I wanted something relatively quick and easy to paint up as my first figure of 2023, so I decided to pick something from my boxes that was long overdue. I'm a firm believer in salvaging all of the off-cut components from my conversion projects as they nearly always get recycled into new projects. This figure is a good example of that, using the torso of the Imperial assassin who donated her legs to a chaos cultist in November 2018, and the body of a fantasy cleric whose head is now sported by a renegade Inquisitor.
| The new Navigator flanked by a junior member of the house and her personal servant. |
If you've been keeping an eye on the blog over the last month or so, you'll know that I've put together a 6-strong Five Parsecs From Home crew. I've also been using them to spark other sub-projects, with a 10-strong Stargrave crew foremost in my mind. The final addition to this project is my last Stargrave crew member in the form of a classic Bob Olley squat.
Technically this post is made up of a couple of spin-off projects from a spin-off project. I painted up the unreleased space slann to bulk up my Five Parsecs from Home crew into a Stargrave crew. Then the Colony 87 figure and terrain pieces just followed suit!
Every crew should have a militaristic heavy. You know, they might be the silent hard-as-nails mercenary with loads of gear from a crack commando unit, or the over-confident arrogant muscle-head with an over-fondness for loud ballistic weapons. Someone who can bring some decent firepower to the party if it all starts to get a bit tasty!
*Asslessman maintains that these have no power source so must result in him walking like he's wearing ski boots.
When I was planning my Five Parsecs crew I was thinking along the lines of a group of Inquisitorial operatives, so an assassin was an obvious inclusion. I'm fond of the diminutive female assassin from the RT adventurers range, so it was a good opportunity to paint her up.
A few weeks ago my good friend cheetor mentioned the Modiphius Five Parsecs from Home rules as something we ought to explore for future gaming sessions. The game requires a 6-strong starship crew for narrative solo or co-op skirmish gaming. The crew is mainly humans but with the option to sprinkle in some robots and aliens. Over the next few days my response was pretty much as follows:
| My initial assemblage of miniatures for Five Parsecs (note, not all of these models made the cut!) |
Back in 2014 my mind was blown when Steve Casey showcased the unreleased Rogue Trader Adeptus Mechanicus figure on his Eldritch Epistles blog. The figure was from the collection of Bryan Ansell and I instantly both desired it and resigned myself to never owning it.
Happily I was recently able to acquire my own copy of the figure and wasted no time in painting it up!
Sometimes a syndicate boss might want to discover which of their rivals is having an affair with their closest lieutenant. Sometimes a grieving family might want a cold murder case resolved long after the official authorities have halted their enquiries. Cases such as these require an enquiring mind and delicate touch - they often fall into the hands of a private investigator.
I'm bookending my hobby output quite nicely by finishing off the year with the last 3 squat pirates from the crew that I started in January. I'm really pleased to have got this iconic set of 10 squat pirate sculpts painted with a couple of additions (a squat adventurer, the dwarf pirate and of course the big ugly ogryn). I do have some transport planned for the crew, but for now they'll just have to put their boots on the ground!
The last 3 additions are a nice selection. There's a Time Bandit-esque squat in retro pilot gear, a classicly styled crewman with headscarf and eye-patch, and the frankly maxed out fella with the braided beard, hook and horned hat.