Those Who Work, Those Who Sell, Those Who Record -- Those Folks

 In the beginning of time God made the earth. Not one word was spoken at the beginning that one branch of mankind should rule over another..."
   - Gerrard Winstanley

some regular folks

Moving up in the world, we've reached the working and middle classes - a real mixture of 'just folks'. These are mostly Eureka Miniatures again, slightly small and slight among the more classic GW-style Crooked Dice, but it works for a diversity of a population. Probably. They also go with the kids I've done in the past.

folks, part one

These are all Eureka, specifically bought for a vaguely West African theme. I looked at a lot of Malian and Tuareg fashion for these and had a great time. I think I had intended for more freehand than I did in the end, but I also got them done pretty quickly for me, so that's fine.

boy

I think I might have him herd the horrible servitor yaks, that mental image is very funny to me.

girl

I cannot get the indigo right for vaguely Tuareg, and this is a recurring theme.

old guy

nurse

I decided something about her pose made me think of a tired nurse drinking a cup of tea, so I picked out some colours that googling 'nurse, Mali' got me. I think decided to give her some face markings like those on a local priestess. These moulds sure are worn though, with some serious lines that I couldn't resolve.

some woman

I am aware that a lot of these civilians are dark-skinned, risking an unintentional mirror of colonialism, where the local folks are all black but the cool fancy guys are all white. While that works for the horrible future, it's also a bit glum, so I did make sure to mix up skin tones a bit.

another woman

I really love this sculpt. Hope I did her justice! 

lady

Another lady. Her orange and white outfit was inspired by this photo of Tinariwen.

Her handbag was 'I'll just paint stuff and see what happens. Brown and white I guess?

women be shoppin' for...grains?

This woman was fun, inspired by a Bambara mud-dyed fabric called bògòlanfini. Really pleased with how she came together in the end.

Okay, so they were mostly women, children, and regular folks without clear class markers. I took some snapshots and then kept going...

folks, part two

These are more clearly identified with specific jobs, although they still run the gamut from 'literal shit-carrier' to 'senior archivist'. Couple of merchant or shopkeeper types in here too, as we'll see. Mostly Crooked Dice now, but a Eureka and a Macrocosm as well.

shit-carrier

I mean, he's wearing big thick gloves, carrying a bucket, has some kind of heavy collar around his neck. If this isn't some indentured loser with literally a shit job, then I don't know anything. And I know lots of things.

Great fun to do, especially painting up that ragged tunic. Once I decided on how I was layering that, it really all came together. The upside-down Delta comes from I think a Knight transfers set - I get a lot of transfer sheets and keep them in a big pile until I go hunting for one.

squat courier

I've had this sitting around for ages, a lone guy from my squat project. I'm pretty sure he's from Macrocosm, but I can't find him on the webstore. From a long-ago Kickstarter, but he doesn't quite match any of my planned squads so I've made him a civilian.

He's either in an official role as a courier or postman and they have a sick uniform (although not in Administratum grey/white...) or he's a freelance courier and is one of those guys who gets his clothes almost entirely from army surplus. Which is how I think of him. Just some weird loser with a crummy job.

mad preacher or something

A weird guy from Crooked Dice, I think they're marketing him as a mad preacher or something. I love this lunatic in his go kart. Hell yeah.

I did paint him as that insane guy at the local markets, which I think was the idea.

architectural transportation consultant

A lovely Eureka sculpt (although the worn-out mould doesn't do her any favours), and I decided to paint her as everyone's favourite lover of architecture-related transportation solutions.

bootlegger

A non-Colony 87 sculpt for once, I saw this guy on Crooked Dice's website and had to have him. He fits right in as a smuggler or local beer guy or whatever. As I was painting him, I decided on the pink shirt, pearl buttons, jeans combination and damn he works. Really, really proud of this one.

jeans butt

That pink shirt came out so dang nice.

space guy

Now I'm not the sculptor or anything but I will eat my hat if this wasn't specifically intended to reference Moebius art, so I did my best to get the vibe right. You tell me if it works.

here's the back as well

And here are the two pieces I stared at as I painted:

'Starwatcher', Mœbius

also Starwatcher? also Mœbius

I'm pretty sure I'm right, but even if it wasn't completely intentional, can't go wrong with Mœbius-inspired colour schemes. Another one I'm pleased with, although the tunic didn't quite get me there.

everyone loves a little half-cloak

Another fun one. I decided on greenish greys for his clothes and a sea-green gas mask instead of metal or my usual unpainted ceramite. 

The cloak was a fun experiment - very thin Krag Brown that came out splotchy and uneven, and then all over with a new tub of Skeleton Horde contrast (a paint that lives up to the hype). Love how it came out.

80s guy

I knew I wanted this guy to have an orange visor and then struggled with colours for the rest of him - but it worked! He's hell of 80s! Hell yeah!

Experimented with worn brownish black leather, using the Goonhammer - sorry, Tabletop Battles - guide.

archivist

Now this guy is wearing Adeptus Administratum white robes - and nearly pure white, if really stained - so he's probably pretty senior. Again a lot of fun, doing stained and oily steels and slightly tarnished bronz, with grimy robes and colourful wiring. Way harder than he needed to be, but it all came together in the end.

Blood-filled tubes, of course.

I think that's a good place to rest on the civilians for now. I'm going to start on a platoon-sized project I put together, maybe while assembling another self-indulgent project. At some point, I'll get back to the things I actually wanted to be disciplined about this year -- but doing all these civilians is definitely clearing a bit chunk of backlog, so I don't feel bad at all.

See you all soon with something very different.

..oh wait did I post that other thing I painted yet? No. Well, I can post that while working on the project...

Those Who Venture

Still firmly in the 'scum' category, although Prospector Gan Havelock at least approaches respectable, being a freelance surveyor rather than an... ugh adventurer.

meet all sorts out here

More Crooked Dice miniatures, from their Colony 87 range. Some of these have only been in the collection for weeks as opposed to my usual years. I've grouped these as vaguely adventurers, as they're all a bit armed and rowdy to really be anything else, although Havelock could have as easily fit into the next group (working and middle class types).

Really had fun with these - I always say that for Colony 87 though.

Those Punks

Climbing the social ladder, from animals to cops, to outcasts and punks.

punks and skum

A mix of manufacturers, meaning a range of scales and styles, but I think they all work together as a group. This group of misfits and sods were fun as hell to paint, letting me muck about with colours (I've been using a lot of pink and green lately), as well as some experiments with skin tones and -- well, let me get into it.

Those Who Protect

Following on from animals: space cops.

pigs are a kind of animal, after all

These were all hell of great sculpts to paint, even if being armed kind of puts the 'civilian' aspect of this project as a bit of a lie. But I've done armed folks before and I will again. 

These are mostly Crooked Dice pieces from Colony 87: Wave Four, while the Judge is a Kev White sculpt from Diehard Miniatures. I'm pleased with how they've all come out, so let's show 'em off!

Those Animals: Tame (and weird)

 Couple of things mixed together here!

animals tame (and other)

Alright, getting some things crossed off the list. This lot have mostly actually not sat in the drawer for too long - in fact, two of the models only arrived a few weeks ago! Not too bad. But then again, the Necromunda Wyrd was in the pile for the failed Old World Army Challenge from 2023, so let's not brag.

melty men

First off, some melty men. Like last time's mootants, these are Thunderchild Miniatures. A few layers of yellows, contrasts, washes, drybrushes, glazes, picking out the white teeth and eyes, varnish. Fun and easy. Sorry they're not in the group photo, this is what happens when you break up the painting and photography but not the blog post (also are they even really in the animal theme? eh)

Those Guys

 Just some lads.

lads lads lads

I try to group the civilian posts by theme, but these lads (and the below robot) are all I've done in the past few months, so they can go up together. These four are available as Sailors at Crooked Dice.

yeah just headed to the space-pub for a space-schnitty

I randomly decided to make one chap a football fan because why not. The meaty bloke on the right is into the same punk band as one of my squats:

we ain't dead! say it a-fucken-gain!

bleep-blorp

Finally, we have the non-sentient P0-N3 bot, 'Bill', from Skull & Crown's Space Scrappers line. An absolute treat to paint up!

Those Scouts: Riders

Yeah, I'm gonna take my horse / to the old town road

Slann trading contingent, feat. Ometeotl the Outrider

wastelander horseman

Once again, these are hardly civilians, despite the fact that I continue to group these miniatures together under that tag. I suppose I will eventually call this setting something else - maybe if I finally paint any of the terrain I'm accumulating.

These two are mounted scouts; the one a baseline human, riding his actual horse across the desert sands. The other is as far as we can get from that, being a space frog riding a space velociraptor. 

Those Mercenaries

 A collection of local guns.

not exactly civilians

Today we have a handful of armed figures for the civilian project. At this rate, I'm basically recreating Gorkamorka (and yes, that is a spoiler for something planned soon), albeit with fewer orks.

scout

A classic Rogue Trader adventurer sculpt and as such as been done by many many others, which is part of why I wanted to buy him. He's been on my table for ages, as I wasn't sure how I wanted him to come out. Some of the off-whites came off a bit too close, so I'm not totally happy with him, but still - he looks pretty good to me.

I like to think of him as the best of the scouts for hire, preferring to keep to himself in the deep desert. His use of a shuriken pistol and apparently uncanny insight into the trackless wastes gives him a reputation as half-Eldar, despite the genetics making that impossible. Right?

old bandit

Another RT adventurer! Jason has also painted him up, but I've gone for a weather-beaten old raider style for him and his weird pistol.

I think of him as old friends with the scout - not as good at guiding clients through the wastes, but way more vicious in a melee with the mutie raiders and slaver tribes that might waylay a caravan winding through the cacti-spheres.

Madeline and Maximillian

"Mad" Madeline and "Max" Maximillian are a couple of local gunslingers. Sometimes raiders, sometimes caravan guards, sometimes just mean bastards. Always hired as a pair.

These sculpts were from a Facebook group and I was able to get some of the initial run a little while back - but thankfully they're now available at Crooked Dice as the Mannix Twins. Real joys to paint, and a lovely classic vibe.

Lastly, and finished only a few minutes ago, we have Ms Lovely Day.

Ms Lovely Day

No need to point out her inspiration! You can also get her via Crooked Dice (can you tell I did an order recently?). I've painted her up as roughly inspired by her origin, but she fits in with the rest of these gunslingers although slimmer, possibly teenaged.

It's a beautiful sculpt and fun to paint.

I undercoated some more civilians today, but also go back to work tomorrow, so we'll see if my painting time shrinks substantially. Stay tuned, desert wanderers!