From AaronH - Eight RPG characters (40 Points)

This next entry is eight RPG characters. These are mostly Bones but there's a couple of other manufacturers and one custom sculpt in here.

Terry Jones

The first is a Gnome ranger from Reaper, I believe. Terry Jones is quite the straight man, delivering witting one liners as he romps through a dungeon.

There's a lot going on with this little guy.

Next up is the Ranger Arbach. He's the quiet, deadly sort. He's also a repaint. I finished him up last year but when I went to dull coat him it turned out I was holding a can of white primer instead.

Arbach the Ranger

This is a GW Ranger of the north. A very nice sculpt and hard to find these days.

Rear shot.

Arbach is the killer of the group, proficient both at range and in melee. He's been forced to tank due to the absence of more armored types.

Givney the goblin assassin.

This one is Givney. He's an NPC; a lowly goblin the party spared and who has turned into an absolute killing machine. As the DM I am ready for the little guy to die off since he keeps spoiling my big fights. He just won't die.

Givney is from Rebel Miniatures. They have a nice, small, run of goblin characters.

Next up is Anderman the Paladin. He's the one who spared Givney and has shown an alarming willingness to take the goblin's word for things.

Bones.

The paladin is a Bones sculpt. The detail is hit or miss and the faces are almost always way too soft.

Next up is Peter the Tiefling rogue. Peter has secrets but does trust Arbach. He's quite adept in the dungeon and is very good at finding traps.

I'm not sure where this model is from. The player ordered it and I painted it for him. The pose is very dramatic, to be sure. This is a very slim model, much more fine boned than the others.

Next up is Kizmet the Drow warlock. She also has secrets but they may be a bit more harmful to the party than Peter's. They've already gotten the party locked up once.

This is another Bone model. I've done a bit of conversion on her. She as originally a Sci/Fi character with a coin and a pistol.

Next up is a Bones model that was heavily modified by the player. This is Tak an-Sik, a tiefling cleric. He's in a constant state of battle with his shield, which is also his holy symbol.

Tak has mixed luck with weapons and often ends up grappling with opponents since he is less likely to hurt his friends that way.

Last, and by all means least, is Algor Ithim, the gnomish warlock. Algor is terribly charismatic and universally disliked by his party. He natters on constantly about his scientific theories and drives everyone nuts. He's managed to come through in the clutch a couple of times but he also has secrets.

This is another Bones model. The detail is better than most on him.

So that's the lot for now. There's more on the table and they should be coming off soon. I tend to keep random models around for when I have some extra paint. RPG characters are perfect for that since they don't require uniformity and pretty much any extra will fit somewhere.

A very cool collection of characters Aaron! You clearly put a lot of effort into the background for your games, matching personalities to miniatures which as a player must make things even more fun. 

It's clear from the first couple of images that you have an eye for a characterful paint job. The remaining images are a bit hard to get more than a feel for your paintwork - perhaps next time can you zoom in a bit more so we can really appreciate your efforts?

40 characterful points for your tally mate. Looking forward to seeing more!

Cheers,
Millsy

DavidB - End of the road- Anti-hero Army (150 Points)

First, thank you, Curt, for inviting me in to this season's challenge. It is truly more fun participating than just visiting and commenting. It is also harder to comment and view every entry while painting and submitting! I have no idea how you do it and submit wonderful entries yourself!

My brushes have been laid down, my final entry is the remnant of a gift my wife and kids got me and is also a proxy of my favorite story of any media. I am a Star Wars FANatic, and love all fiction fantasy and Scifi, but these fellows are very special.

The Alien Legion is like a French Foreign Legion (in Spaaaaaaace). They are volunteers, fugitives, cutthroats, prisoners, and worse. They are used to show a united everybeing empire for PR, but, they are given the missions nobody wants with equip nobody wants either. They get the nasty missions that is needed for any variety of reasons. They can count on their destination to be violent and messy. This makes the Alien Legion a violent and messy unit. They brawl lots, and steal among themselves and visit worse upon their enemies. These are a true Anti-hero Army of Outcasts

Sarigar is the blue skin half snake fellow whose whole race was slaves. He still bears the orange tattoos of slavery on his face. He now leads Nomad Squad as a CO. Jugger Grimrod is a greenskined humanoid who like knifes, hates authority, is a former prisoner, has a price on his head, speaks like an Aussie, and pals around with a brood of marsupial, midget, alien pickpockets. He was created when everyone was looking for a wolverine type character. I like him just as much as Logan! ;) 

Sarigar is a little out of focus, but he is a conversion from a Critical Mass snakeman and a Rebel Pangalactic legionnaire. just a head swap and a dab of orange paint for the slave tattoo. The donor of the head has the snake one now. Rebel minis are in the back and some critical mass viridian assassins are flanking him. One is a proxy medic while the other is a comms trooper.

Just a few of my favorite sculpts from Khurasan Minatures Jade throne foreign battalion. Khurasan best captures the feel of the Alien Legion. 

Khurasan tractors, one with a mortar the other with Anti Air. I also have the tank crew, but I have yet to determine what sort of tanks and AFV they will get

The NCOs the snake man is Critical Mass, the front middle is Rebel minis, the rest are Khurasan.

It has to be that frikken gun, or Sarigar is shy!15mm is hard to photo well!

the officers/ characters in the middle is Jugger. 

The best place for the Alien Legion's best cutthroat is with a squad of Viridian Assassins, this is the ranger squad. Maybe Jugger is training them how to tick off Sarigar. 

I can field five 10 man squads, this is what a squad would look like.

A big pool of Alien Legionnaires.

Some pangalactic legionnaires with blades. for now each squad gets one to cut thru walls and "obstacles"

SAWs, rocket launchers, and more from all three manufactures. The Snake man is a conversion with a spare power suit weapon.

The only bits left from my gift upainted. the flyer is Rebel Minis, the AFV is Khurasan. they've been primered and airbrushed in shades of grey. I'm not sure who is going to get them. My wife figured I'd like it as it looks just like the APC from Aliens. I'm going to get more as 15mm has a lot of neat familiar stuff. But I got the Alien Legion! ;)

I kept the armor white and uniforms black like the comic book. It is a very good thing I did as I spent a lot of time painting the alien skins! Khurasan is the winner hands down, but I have every last JTFB they have. I'll be on the lookout for more proxy AL troopers and may someday fill out the full Nomad roster in 15mm or 28mm if somebody gets the license and makes them!

Instead of showing what I painted...Here is the Cadian 7th Black Platoon and two veteran squads in various not completed states.

This is what I cleared from my desk just to make room for the Alien Legion. All but two supers and the ratlings were begun in the challenge and not completed.

The brushes destroyed and the paint pots emptied. I'm very stingy with my paint and refill the pots with a splash of water every time they get used. In the end, they contain just a thin wash. These are totally spent.

I found this spacehulk game for $90 at the FLGS. I also picked up Malifaux figures and a starter box for 40k Dark Vengeance. I am to play the later in May and wanted the rules. I haven't read it yet, but the minis are nice. I also have two boxes of Woodland Indians from Wargames Factory and a box of USMC and a Stuart Tank from Warlord on the way. I also got a warning from my wife to be careful or she will ground me from buying minis again! :)

That is it for now. Hopefully we can do this again when the year winds down, it was a lot of fun! I have to go to a band concert for my youngest daughter, but after I will be watching the clock tick down and see what fun you all have come up with in the final hours! ;)

70 15mm troops

2 tracks with 1.5 crew

One tired old grunt! ;)

From Curt

Oh wow! I loved reading Alien Legion! These guys are so cool David. You've done such an amazing job in collecting various figures and converting others in order to capture the look and feel of the graphic novel. Wow wonderfully dorktastic. Simply stonking stuff. 

Can I have them. ;P  (Hey, if you don't ask you won't get...)

Great work David - It was a pleasure having you along for the crazy romp.

From DavidB - Terra Force 15mm SciFi (158 Points)

My opus for the week! I know there are three posts, again! But there is a very good reason...

I have been doing military and civilian overtime and last week I was really happy to venture out into the woods knowing I had a post AND submitted for the Comedic round. What is that you say, I didn't have an entry?!I missed another bonus round!? Well as my mind wandered in a 500m movement between points in land nav, I realized that I didn't post and didn't remember to take the time to even photo my work from last week!  Ooops!

I've been mentally kicking myself since. I did get two whole days off so I stopped kicking myself long enough to actually finish my very first 15mm force. (the Sci-Fi cops don't count as I will need more CoBs for my 15mm games) Terra Force is completed. More Terra Force may follow in the form of heavy infantry, but I already have malleable plans for a high-tech, neo-Sov, mid-tech, and a "swarm" army for opponents to my favored force.

Terra Force is a light infantry, fast response, recon unit. I am intending to use 5150 Star Army for rules, but a regular opponent is also going 15mm with Gruntz. He is basing his stuff by units, so I may need to make movement trays as my preferred basing is for skirmish and I haven't read Gruntz.

 

Above are my 8 man Ranger Team from Khurasan's SEAL team set. They are armed with assault rifles and have a sniper and SAW gunner. I really like these sculpts. Lots of movement and the detail is extremely good. I was almost tempted to get more for modern conflicts, but I like Sci-Fi because it is not what I actively do and is as far away from my duties to keep me comfortable. Still, they can be stand ins for any spec-op troops a modern gamer could want them for.

The blue bases denote these are my NCOs. from left to right we have Rebel Minis Star Army, and Critical Mass Games Arc Fleet Recon, on the right are Rebel Minis militia in boonies and respirators. All three lines work very well together, Khurasan are chunky but great detail, Critical Mass are tall and leggy with crisp detail, and Rebel Minis are a bit softer and shorter than the other two. I do like the mixture in the troop mass though!

Terra force has it's CO from Critical Mass (he is front rank left) the other four officers are from the Star Army Rebel Minis command set. The flanking officers in the back row are my PLs...cuz they have maps in their hands. That makes them very dangerous. The troopers will pat them down later and make sure they do not also have a compass!

Terra force has two rocket launchers, two plasma/flamer gunners, and four Critical Mass troopers with really big guns that I'm going to refer to as SAW type weapon.

Besides the Ranger's sniper, I have 4 Critical Mass snipers and two Rebel Minis sniper teams.

And the bulk of Terra Force's manpower, 50 rank and file troopers

Terra Force is complete!

13 man teams

The Old Man with the HQ section

Nova! don't even think about it!

I'm going to have to find a better way to store/transport them now!

50 troopers

8 sergeants

8 SSW troopers

4 sniper/marksmen

2 sniper teams

and a 8 man Ranger Team

From Curt:

I'll state right now that my favourite pic of the lot is the one with Nova peering over the table. What an absolute sweetheart!

This is a fantastic opening volley for this week David! I really like the cohesive look of the entire force, from the walkers, vehicles right through to the snipers - wonderful stuff.  I also admire your use of colours on the base rims to denote the various squads/functions. 

Well done!

PS: And yes, you definitely need a better storgage solution for these brave fellow.

From DavidB - My First 15mm as Cops...because cops is the theme apparently! (70 Points)

(my gun clerics...one was hiding with the cops in the box when this photo was taken)

Here are my first ever 15mm troops. These are the Police, Gun Clerics, and Merc squad from Rebel Miniatures. I was authorized by SWMBO to trade a swath of 1990's Magic cards to Rebel Mike for a bunch of Rebel Mini products. These were selected because "Equilibrium" starring Christian Bale was a great 'Pistol KungFu' movie which was pretty much Fahrenheit 451 redone. The Cops also remind me of them as well as the special police unit in the Manga"Jin-Ro"The Wolf Brigade.The Mercs?....a long time ago Rutger Hauer did a film where androids ruled the wasteland and mankind's few survivors lived deep underground. Rutger was a new Droid tasked to eliminate any droid deemed a threat to mankind's return. One group that was a threat was a all female android team of ruthless assassins that the Rebel Minis mercenary squad resembled.

These were all selected because I "thought" they'd be easy!  HA!

I have been painting on them for almost three weeks which is enough time to figure out most of what will not work. I still have a long way to go to perfect the NMM technique and I still do not like how plastic their weapons look. I seem to do better with NMM in 28's, but it is not consistent there either.

Here are the Police with rifles, sidearms and knifes as the future is very rough! The yellow base is officer or command, the blue represents squad leaders and the red is for marksmen/snipers and weapon teams. I went with a dark blue for contrast to the black armor and painted the respirator goggles yellow. I tried several different greys and wash combos on the guns and still haven't found the sweet spot.

Part of my trouble is I usually do three layers of color for base, mid, and highlight. On 15's it does not work too well for me. I have discovered that washes are my best friend! some areas just need the base coat and hue is just as important as chroma in this scale.

21 uber armed and armored coppers! They have four fire teams of five; Team Red, Team-Gold, Team-Blue, and Team-Green. an armor plate was given a lick of paint on the right arm to denote team.

In Rutger's movie, the assassins all had black hair, I went for a more varied spectrum with these.

I painted them after I painted the cops and found them to be a little easier. Maybe I had already learned, or maybe the colors used here were easier to work with.

The Gun Clerics were 8 models in 4 poses and also went a lot easier than the police.

Just because I'm going to use these in 5150 and Grunts, I made one in a blue coat to be my police commissioner. the grey and blue coat is his aide. four black coats were given a sinister red trim and will be my gun clerics while the other in grey will be my stand-in for Mr Bale. The Ginger in the green frock is the boss of the mercs!

I haven't given up as my 15mm birthday gift was enough stuff to proxy Alien Legion and that is just not available in 28mm. Since I've been tooling around 15mm websites and stores, I've found proxies to Tron, 5th Element, Blade Runner, and nearly any other Scifi  movie or comic book you could think of. I'll keep on with it, and hopefully I will feel confident enough to get cracking on the Alien Legion before Old Man Winter stops blowing!

21 cops

8 gun clerics

and 6 mercs

35 15mm scifi skirmishers!