Turbo Kid and Apple

These figures from Imitation of Life pay homage to Turbo Kid and Apple. I painted them for the  'Romance' theme of the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge.

Trailer:

Buddy, the Six-String Samurai

This is an homage to Buddy, the guitar-wielding ronin of Six-String Samurai. In the post-apocalyptic far future of 1997, Elvis has died and Buddy must travel to Lost Vegas to become the new king of rock 'n' roll. On his journey, he is accompanied by The Kid.

Buddy

Buddy and The Kid

The Kid

3D prints from Imitation of Life.

Christmas Cultists

These festive fundamentalists are 3D prints from Imitation of Life.

I'm trying out Speedpaint 2.0, with mixed results. Early days.

40K Lamenters Combat Patrol

In WH40K 10th edition, 'Combat Patrol' is a great way to get into the grimdark. Each faction has a fixed small force list with slightly pared-down rules. There's no listbuilding, which I really appreciate.

Here is my Lamenters Combat Patrol. Just twelve figures (and a teleport beacon). Some of the base details are from Imitation of Life, and the decals are from GW and Forgotten Chapters. Not the chequers or bleeding hearts- all painfully freehanded. Curved pauldrons are a real challenge to chequer. The purity seals are Sigvald Burgundy Contrast.

Lamenters Combat Patrol

I tried stippling highlights for the captain's cloak. It sort of came off. I do like all the bling/ drip he has. He's on a 50mm base. The half-mask is a throwback to the original metal captain.

Lamenters Terminator Captain

I went for classical blue on the terminator librarian. I tried a few different ways of painting the runes on the armour, so it is a bit of a multilayered globby mess. The force axe, in Contrast (ahem), was easy with Aethermatic Blue Contrast over white. I tried to do the grip chequered as well.

Lamenters Terminator Librarian

Terminators! These new sculpts are really good. I gave them white veteran helmets, and the sergeant has a black stripe. They also have a teleport beacon on a Renedra 25mm base. I added some extra struts to it.

Lamenters Terminator Sergeant

Lamenters Terminator with assault cannon

Lamenters Terminators

Teleport homing beacon

Finally, an Infernus squad. A black drybrush gives a great effect on their pyreblasters.

Lamenters Infernus Squad Sergeant

Lamenters Infernus Squad

So, it's not a force list I would have crafted, but the fixed nature of Combat Patrol makes the choice easy. I think the flamers will be great against infantry hordes at close range but little else, whereas the Terminators have real sticking power but no numbers. If I ever actually play a game...

What you're really here for: the Skull-o-meter™

Captain 22

Librarian 15

Terminators 35

Infernus squad 14

Total: 86

Xmas-a-tron

This was my first entry in the 13th Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge. It's a free 3D sculpt from Imitation of Life. I used Contrast paints over a metallic undercoat- fast but not wonderful, especially under harsh LED lighting. I retook the pictures under a more natural light which I prefer.

The original lighting

Season's greetings, meatbags!

Invertebrates of the Underhive

Individually pathetic, swarms of rockworms can be a significant threat. They can be found in the Underhive as well as the Ash Wastes. Underhive rumours persist of rockworms growing to prodigious size...

The lost male cries plaintively.

Should have left the door closed...

These are Rockworm Grubs from Imitation of Life. I'm trying out the new Army Painter Speedpaints range. These are mostly Slaughter Red and Pallid bone. Slaughter Red in particular dries nice and matte with good shading.

I originally had these on thicker GW style bases, but the aesthetic proportions weren't satisfying. Then I tried some multibasing, but still wasn't happy. The svelte Renedra bases were fine in the end.

This chap is delightful, and free:

I do like the idea of a big game hunting Rogue Trader retinue- a magos biologos, deathworld veterans, beast handlers, indigenous trackers etc. Pith helmets, xeno-elephant guns, grimdark David Attenborough/ Steve Irwin stuff.

Arthropods of the Wasteland

I'm of the opinion that you can't have too many vermin for your games. Many years ago, I picked up these Reaper Bones scorpions:

My 3D printer has churned out a swarm of giant ants and a hive entrance (from Imitation of Life):

I'm conscious that all my stuff recently has been rusty browns, so I went for green. A pretty sloppy highlight to tone down the very saturated Army Painter Orc Flesh, and dot in the eyes and jaws.

When I was a vulnerable lad, the TV advert below was somewhat formative. I'm sure Aussie males of a certain age will agree!

Sic 'em, Rex!

Five Parsecs. Campaign game 10. The armoury job

"My lord, we have obtained pict-feed of the attack on our armoury."

"Our security are on the left, and the criminal attackers come from the right."

"Our arms cache for the upcoming struggle was between them."

"We were aided by a mutant- abominable, yes, but they have their uses."

"They tried to rush us on one side of the complex."

"Our security responded with a plasma weapon."

"The villains had an abhuman of their own. Disgusting."

"In the confusion, one of the saboteurs slipped round the back and killed a guard."

"Dramatically, he killed a second."

"At that moment, all the lights went out- coincidence? We think not."

"The mutant's powerful but primitive blunderbuss couldn't find a target."

"The mutant soaked up a lot of hits before going down.
Won't have to pay his retainer now!"

"The saboteur planted a device-
but didn't see the response force arriving behind him."

"Pinned like a milliasaur in a trap."

"And our plasma took out their beast."

"They slunk away in the darkness and blew up our armoury. Who were they?"

Gallius Marbec accepted a mission from his mysterious local contact to destroy an arms cache and thus maintain the balance of power. The Guild Troops were bolstered by a scaly and a plasma gun. There was a static firefight on one side while Konrad slipped around the back and, in a risky move, killed two guards to gain access to the armoury. Unexpectedly, the lights went out and reinforcements arrived, taking Konrad out- but not before he planted a melta-bomb... The scaly took a lot of punishment before going down, but Chugger also took a hit. Gallius withdrew and blew up the cache. He spent his payment on medical services for Chugger and Konrad, who are still in the infirmary. His team's activities are drawing all sort of attention, including a shadowy group who have a similar task for  him...

Big crusty lizard mutant from Imitation of Life

5PfH generates 2D6-and-pick-the-higher-result number of enemies per mission. In my first few games, I was rolling 5s and 6s and getting hammered. Recently, I've been rolling 1s and 2s and having very short games. For this game and going forwards, I'll use some difficulty toggles from the Trailblazer's Toolkit to make it more of a challenge. 

I really enjoy the random events in 5PfH- lights going out, reinforcements arriving- these both changed the scenario.

I forgot to use Konrad's 'luck' attribute when he got gunned down, so used it post facto to explain how he escaped captivity and survived a big explosion!