Even more Scavvies, and an alligator with a blunderbuss

 When I was younger, I used to hate preparing miniatures - which is why a lot of my earlier models have huge mold lines, odd little spikes where I snipped them off the frame and very dodgy basing. These days, I'm the opposite. I find something quite satisfying in doing the boring preparatory work, making the models look ready and smoothing the bases down with clay so that you can't see the slots.

Anyhow, this week I've been doing some more on the Eschers - they are turning into a horde, rather than a gang - but that's for later. I also did some more filthy maniacs for the scavvies.

The guy on the far left is an old official scavvy leader. Like the beastmaster on the far right, his left arm feels a bit wrong and overlong, although in fairness it's easy for arms to look too short or too long when they're clothed and flailing about. I wasn't sure that I liked the model until I got going on it, and now it's come out alright. There's lots of interesting detail, but it's not too excessive.

The two in the middle are based on Civil War models. The standing guy is an English Civil War soldier, with a medieval musket and Frost/Stargrave bits and bobs. The kneeling guy is an American Civil War model with a Frostgrave head and arms. Really, the historical bodies are just there to provide a basis on which to hang the crazy scavvy stuff. 

The next chap is an old Necromunda wyrd beastmaster, a psychic dude who can control the various horrible animals that dwell in the city. He's technically a hireling rather than a gang member, but he looks like the sort of villainous nutjob who would at home in the scavvy ranks. I didn't actually like this model all this much, but once I got going it worked out okay.

And I also made another Scaly. This one has the much-feared scatter cannon, a sort of huge blunderbuss that functioned much like a grenade launcher.

This model was made from the body of a Privateer Press trollblood soldier (the head went missing many years ago) with the head of a GW lizardman. I rather like him.

To an extent, the scaly is a bit of a test model. I've got a few really old trollblood models, and it occurs to me that they might make a nice unit. I think they could be quite good. But that's for another time...

The Scavvy Horde Grows, and Acquires an Alligator

 Hello again! I've been making some more scavvies for the horde. Here are four more scumbags, made out of all sorts of stuff.

By and large, they're Frostgrave Cultists 2 and Stargrave Scavenger bits. The two on the left have WW2 bodies - I've forgotten where they come from. I've also added a few Games Workshop odds and ends. 

Back in the day, scavvy gangs could use some of the underhive's other nasty inhabitants - which was lucky, as scavvies are pretty weak on their own. They had the option of taking one or two "scalies", which were lizard-like mutants who were very tough and strong, and carried heavy weapons. 

I'm not sure if this was GW riffing on the old urban myths about alligators living in sewers, but I decided that my chaps would have a literal alligator to help them out. I used the "Bloody Barnabas" model from Privateer Press' Hordes game (which currently seems to be somewhat defunct). Here he is.

I'm quite pleased with his coat.

And here is the whole gang together. They'll be getting some more reinforcements soon - they need it!

More Fun With Zombies and Scavvies

 Now that normal service has been restored, I have more pictures for both of you who read this blog. This week, I've been working on some of Necromunda's less flamboyant inhabitants: the rancid, low-living scavvies and their plague zombie friends.

The second batch of plague zombies included some damaged models. It seems that, many years ago, I converted them to introduce some variety, with mixed results. I took the opportunity to do some repairs before painting them.

I ordered a sprue of Frostgrave female cultists (sold under the name Frostgrave Cultists 2). These are really good models, with a ragged, crazy look. The cultists wear masks and bandages, and carry nasty-looking weapons. Some of the arms have a groping pose that works well for zombies.

And here is the second bunch, painted up. As with the first lot, I used a limited range of colours for the clothing, all of them drab and grubby. I kept with three shades of skin: bloodless blue, rotting green and recently-dead yellow. They work as individuals but there's enough overlap to make them seem like a unified mob.

Not too shabby! Actually, very shabby. But still.

I also started work on a batch of scavvies. Scavvies are filthy and inbred, but they are still live humans, so these guys would be looking more lively. There are official GW scavvy models from the 90s, but I'm not too keen on them: they've got that unexciting, slightly cartoony quality that was common in GW at the time, and they're nowhere near as well-sculpted as the Escher ganger. 

I wanted them to look crazed and feral, and the Frostgrave cultists worked perfectly for this. Some of them were given left-over Stargrave arms, using the most basic-looking rifles. It's easy to make nice, dynamic poses with the plastics.

In painting them, I used fairly drab, earthy colours to suggest dirt, rust and worn-out gear. I also gave them bits of red clothing, to suggest danger. They're at least partly inspired by the Reavers from the film Serenity.

They look charming. I do enjoy making these weird models out of bits and bobs: there will be more scavvy soldiers to follow. After the neatness and bright colours of the Eschers, it's interesting to paint these filthy maniacs.

Converting Old Mantic Models: little space soldiers, a demon mercenary and The Thing

I had a bit of free time over the weekend. Here in the UK, it was unpleasantly hot, and I spent as much time as possible indoors. I opened the big box of random sprues, and found a bunch of old Mantic miniatures.

Mantic have made some decent stuff - their skeletons are particularly good, and used to be dirt cheap - but they have produced some... less fantastic miniatures. Their plastic goblins are pretty awful: they've got very little detail, they're made from some horrible plastic-resin material, and it's generally quite hard to tell what the heck is going on with them. However...

I've long been of the view that the most important bits of a miniature (unless it's some insanely complex GW sculpt with books, banners and the like) are the head and the weapon (or at least the hands). What this means is that by attaching a good head and arms to a ropey body you can distract from the bad parts enough to end up with something acceptable. In this spirit, I waded into the goblins.

I threw the original heads and arms away. Instead, I used Perry Miniatures Afghan arms, and the WW1 style heads from the Wargames Atlantic "Bulldogs" sprue. A little bit of cutting was required to get the heads to go on properly, but nothing elaborate. The only problem with the guns was that it wouldn't be possible to arrange them so that the models were taking aim. No great issue there, as you get loads of guns on the Afghan sprue.

I really, really like the positions of some of these models. That's largely down to the excellent Afghan arms, which allow for a lot of interesting options.

I painted the bodies brown, and highlighted with successive drybrushes. I didn't bother to pick out any details, as it's not worth the bother. The heads were painted bright green: partly to fit in with another batch of goblin conversions I did a while ago, and partly to get away from the idea that these were short WW1 Tommies. The hands and exposed flesh of these little chaps was painted blue.

The end result is quite decent, I think. The goblin bodies are always going to be a bit rubbish, but the new arms and heads really improve the models.

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The second part of today's post continues the "random Mantic models" theme. Again, I've got no idea how I ended up with these miniatures. 

First up is a plastic orc, who was thankfully made out of a much nicer and more normal material than the goblins. He's a neater, crisper sculpt, but still nothing special. I gave him a horned head from the Frostgrave demons sprue. His arms and gun come from a Mantic "plague" warrior, who has a lot of spikes on his arms and shoulders, which went well with the head. I painted the whole thing red: he reminds me of the trolls from the Shadowrun game. I imagine him as some kind of thuggish mercenary.

The final creature is the most interesting, I think. This was made from the body of the plague soldier who provided the red chap with his arms. The body has a stretched, twisted quality, and looked as if it was about to turn into something else. All of this made me think of The Thing, and so I got some bits together and turned him into a warping, shape-changing monstrosity.

I liked the idea that his head wasn't needed anymore, and would just flop to the side while horns and tentacles burst from his body. Having the big tentacle and the spikes all pointing the same way gives the model a sense of movement. I sculpted an eye to replace his head and act as a focal point.

The model was painted in flesh tones, with a lot of washes to vary the colours. I undercoated in black and then painted a variety of odd colours to sit under the flesh: bright red, camo green and blue. Hopefully this makes the flesh more unwholesome and variable. The head was deliberately left rather lacking in detail: it's no longer important to this creature, after all.

I left the clothes in drab shades and painted the eye with a bright blue pupil, to draw attention. I've got to say, I'm really pleased with how it turned out.

Horrid, really.

Zoidberg meets the Mekon

After the big project of the space marine multi-tank, I made a few more space weirdos. I'd bought a frame of Perry Miniatures Afghan tribesmen, from 1880 or so, and I thought it would be interesting to turn them into futuristic types.

The tribesmen are all wearing long robes, and either have boots or sandals. These would work for civilians and mystic monk-types, who probably wander about in flip flops, but less well for hardened soldiers. I then realised that by combining some of the alien heads, I could make some familiar characters. 

So, here are Dr Zoidberg from Futurama and the Mekon from Dan Dare. 

Both models have a head and arms from Stargrave miniatures, and an Afghan body. Zoidberg's claws were sculpted around some cut-off tyranid spikes, and the Mekon's saucer was a hubcap left from a toy car.

Then we have two ladies. The woman on the right has arms from the Frostgrave female barbarians sprue. I imagined that the two blades are something like light sabers, and painted them as such. She was given a white and orange paint scheme vaguely remeniscent of a Buddhist monk, to suggest mystic powers. The other woman has arms from a Frostgrave female wizard. She might be a psychic casting a spell, or maybe just someone normal running away.

Then I just made a couple of randoms. This man has an old Frostgrave soldier body (they do look quite basic compared to later North Star plastics) with a Ghost Archipelago head (I think) and a bionic arm made out of leftover Necron parts. His robot friend is just a Mantic robot that I've had lying about for ages. It's made from that nasty resin-plastic stuff that Mantic used to use (and might still do), which isn't very nice to work with.

These were fun to do, but as usual the pictures don't do them any sort of justice. Oh well. I'm used to that by now. More big things next time (maybe)!

EDIT: I've noticed that the pictures look better if you click on them to make them bigger.

Even More Space Rogues, And Another Terrain Bit

 Last post, I forgot to add a piece of terrain. I also have been painting some more random Stargrave citizens. I really enjoy making these conversions, but they often end up on my desk for a long time, waiting for paint. 

The guy on the left has Stargrave head and arms, and a body from a sprue of zombies. I'm not sure who made them. He's some kind of angry redneck, and I painted him to look a bit like one of the guys in the old cartoon King of the Hill. 

Next to him is a female alien soldier. I always think of these guys as primitive androids, and painted her to fit in with the little unit of company robots that I made a while ago.

 

These two are made from historical bits. The crouching sniper has a body from a Perry Miniatures Afghan soldier and a head and guns from the Stargrave mercenaries. The lady in the purple shirt has a Bolt Action torso, and Stargrave head, arms and legs.

And this pair are unconverted metal miniatures from Copplestone. The guy on the left looks like a thug from the 1980s. The man on the right is some kind of dreadlocked cyberpunk. The thug is a pretty basic miniature and works fine, but the other guy is a really cool sculpt whole simplicity helps it greatly. He reminds me of one of the voodoo priests from William Gibson's excellent novel Count Zero.

And here's the bit of cyber terrain that I forgot about. It's some cheap leftover bits from some plastic robots (maybe Heroclix) with some bits and bobs stuck on for interest. The console is a Mantic part, and the aerial comes from a Necron gun. Beyond that, I'm not sure!

It's not Ripley, honestly

 Once again, I've gone back to finishing off some of the huge pile of random models that I've accumulated over the years.

First up, here's an entirely original space explorer, made with Frostgrave female crew bits and a barbarian's head. 

Second, I found a broken knight from a Privateer Press game, which I'd bought in a bunch of stuff ages ago. It was missing arms and a horse's head. I added a medieval head and used green stuff to make armour for the horse's neck, to fit the style of the body. The armour reminds me of bomb diffusal suits as much as medieval barding. The rider's arms came from an Atlantic Games "Grognard" soldier.

The paint job is somewhat menacing, in vaguely fascist-looking colours. I added a number to the horse's rear to suggest that this isn't a knight: it's Faceless Trooper 04, out to do evil.

And finally, a couple of female models that I've had for ages. The lady on the left was done in a cyberpunk style, and the woman on the right was painted in a dark blue business suit. They're not amazing castings, but they'd probably make decent random space people. They might be the quickest paint jobs I've ever done, including the plastic monopose termagants from last week.

More weirdness next time!

Bionic Ogryn

 Time for another space weirdo, except this one is a bit bigger. I had an old fantasy battle ogre bull lying around, painted thickly by someone else a long time ago. I'm not a big fan of the plastic ogres: I think they're fairly ugly models (and not in the right way), and they're quite boring, static miniatures. Not terribly inspiring.

So I chopped this guy up and turned him into a bionic 40k monster. He got a new leg, made out of an ork piston, plasticard, sprue and the dome from a Tau helmet. His left shoulder was a spare dreadnought claw, and the thing on his back is a faceplate left over from the knight armiger I made a little while ago. The pistol is a meltagun from the armiger, too. A bit of tank track functions as stomach armour. Lots of other little leftover bits add detail (ie I can't remember what they are).

The left arm came from an old sentinel. I think he's some kind of bodyguard or hired gun. I quite like models of this size: they can be modified quite easily, and will take a lot of extra detail. I painted him in the new way I've been painting metal, working up from dark brown, and used purple and red glazes on his skin to make him look unhealthy.

I reckon he explodes if you shoot the red button on his back. Perhaps I've been playing too many computer games. Next time, something a bit prettier.

Mechanics, hackers and a robot

 Well, I've just got back from the local gaming shop, and I'm surprised and slightly impressed to say that I didn't buy anything. Nothing really appealed. It's actually pretty hard to buy anything at all for less than £25 in a gaming shop. Some GW models are pretty cool and would be fun to make - the Kroot rampagers are appealing, as are the Adeptus Mechanicus Serberys raiders - but I'd only want to make one, and I'm not up for forking out for a squad of three. I wish the metal North Star models were sold more widely. 

Anyhow, here are some more miniatures that I painted this week. More space weirdos!

These first models are metal mechanics from Warmachine's Khador faction. Old Warmachine models are pretty variable, and many are downright ropey, but I really like these sculpts. They've got lots of character and great details.

These two scrawnier specimens are cyberpunk types. The lady is an unconverted metal miniature, probably quite old. I don't know the manufacturer. The man is based on a plastic zombie body (I'm not sure who makes it) with Stargrave arms and head.

These two are even more random. The bionic swordsman uses an English Civil War body, a 40k head, and Frostgrave demon arms. The robot is a 3D print that I got in a set of models. He's quite silly, but he was surprisingly easy to paint, and he will be a good match for the female robot that I painted a couple of months ago.

Space Civilians and Big Red Soldiers

 Even more random space people! This time, however, they're not based on Stargrave models. 

I've always liked the idea of making civilians and passers-by, either as objectives for games or just people to have standing around. When models aren't carrying guns, you can have all sorts of interesting poses. Here we've got a weird little alien dude, who started off as a Bolt Action Russian soldier. The soldier had huge boots - I think they had extra insulation - which I removed to make him shorter. He then got arms and a drum from a Perry Miniatures Afghan sprue, and a Stargrave head. I don't know if he's an annoying alien child or some kind of little priest.

The robot (I think of her as Sassbot, owing to her pose) is a Mantic Games Dreadball referee, with a new pointing hand from a WW2 sprue. She's fairly crisp for a Mantic model, and looks pleasingly silly.

Then we've got some soldiers. A few years ago, I quickly painted some baddies for the solo game Hardwired (well worth a look). These are plastic soldiers from Warlord Games' odd sci-fi wargame Beyond the Gates of Antares. It never appealed to me as a game, but it had a few interesting sculpts. I dug them out and tidied up the painting a bit.

Anyhow, these guys have the advantage of being taller and bulkier than humans without looking like Space Marines. Ironically, the colour scheme I gave them reminds me of one of GW's marine chapters: the Blood Ravens or Doom Budgies or something like that. The painting is a bit rough and ready, but they'll make good heavily-armoured villains.

I do have a vague plan with all of these models. I've got the Stargrave rules and a one-player campaign, and I thought that I might have a go at it during the Christmas break. It looks like pretty good fun.

Even More Stargrave Weirdos!

 This week, I painted a couple more of the Howling Banshees. I could actually make the unit up to 10 strong, but the two models I've got are duplicates, and it might look a bit odd. Given that these are unlikely to see combat, they look fine for now.

Anyhow, I didn't take any photos of them (they look a heck of a lot like the models in the last post!) but I did make some more Stargrave people.

These guys are made from old English Civil War models and a Frostgrave Ghost Archipelago crewman.

Here they are with paint. I also painted a bog-standard Stargrave mercenary (the third guy along), although I added a head from the Crewman sprue. 

The two on the left were based on English Civil War models. The guy on the left has a slightly ninja-ish feel, and I painted him in bright colours to suggest that his clothes are made of some synthetic fibre. The shape of the models, especially the baggy trousers and long socks/boots/puttees, reminded me of an rich, old-fashioned hunter, so I painted the second guy in muted colours. Perhaps he's off hunting grouse with his machine gun, which is a terrible plan for a load of reasons.

The third guy is pretty standard. I just wanted bright colours. The chap on the far right happened to have a really nice pose. I painted him as if he's been wearing formal clothes - with a cummberbund! - and has drawn a pistol to deal with rival spies.

I also took the opportunity to photograph some of the random scumbags that I've assembled, mainly based on the Stargrave Scavengers 1 models. I imagine they're a bunch of feral survivalists/cultists/yokels/guerillas/cannibals, or something like that. 

These guys are purely made from the Scavengers 1 frame:

These models are made with the Scavengers 1 frame, with other bits from North Star Games:

And these guys are made of bits from North Star and other (mainly historical) companies:

 I don't play many games, and I'm more interested in making random little guys than assembling a massive army (even my Eldar force is pretty small, at the end of the day), and I'm happy doing that. I've got a couple of bigger projects that I'd like to do over the Christmas holidays, which should be fun. 

Making Space Adventurers From Historical Models

Personally, I think Conan the Barbarian got it wrong. Crushing your enemies and all that is pretty good, but making little space people out of increasingly unlikely old miniatures is way better. I've been back at the Stargrave people, enjoying sticking new heads and arms onto historical miniatures.

Here are a couple of space adventurers. The woman on the left has a Bolt Action Russian body, with Stargrave head and arms. I reckon she's some kind of well-off rebel. The lady on the right is a standard Stargrave plastic model. She's a dodgy corporate bureaucrat, together with jolly company hat.

And now for something weirder.

The rest of these guys were made from old plastic English Civil War infantry. I think they might be Perry models; they're pretty ancient and weren't doing anything useful in my cupboard. So... they became space people. I removed the heads, and left off the arms. 

Here they are painted.

The man on the left is based on a musketeer. I gave him a Stargrave head and arms from a Wargames Atlantic Grognard space soldier. They both looked quite old-fashioned and military, which suits the marching pose of the body. I painted him to look neat. I think he's either the crew of a spaceship or perhaps the leader of a militia.

The chap on the right was based on a pikeman. He's got a Wargames Atlantic face and helmet, and Stargrave arms. He looks as if he's stopping a citizen. "Please stand still while I scan you for witchcraft".

And here are the other two.

These guys were also based on pikemen. I noticed that all the base models were facing the same way (which makes sense in a pike regiment), so I gave this chap a left-handed gun to "turn" the model to the left. I also cut his lower left leg and turned it slightly, for a more forward-facing pose. Lots of bits were added to his waist to break up his Civil War shape. His head has goggles and bandages, rather like the invisible man. He was painted to look like a grotty bandit, with a fairly drab colour scheme that reminds me slightly of the Afrika Korps. To make him more sci-fi and visually interesting, I painted his lenses red.

The final weirdo has a head and arms from the Stargrave female crew sprue. When I sprayed the model black, the outline and pose reminded me of a ninja. So, she got a black paint job. The eye-slit in her helmet stresses this. I really like her shape: she's got an aggressive feel, as if about to kick down a door.

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Everything I've Learned About Converting Historical Models Into Space People

By and large, I reckon that most historical miniatures could be converted into space people. For one thing, science fiction covers a lot of bases, from the near-future of cyberpunk to the wild designs of Moebius, and artists like John Blanche often riff off real historical costumes anyhow. You might have difficulty where a model is wearing a very recognisable garment, or where the body isn't properly covered. It's going to be difficult to explain why someone is running around in space dressed in flip flops and a kimono. Perhaps they're some kind of deadly monk who swears off other kit. Or a psychic who can conjure their own protection. Or just a non-combatant. You just need to make them look like that. 

Heads

First up, I'd suggest keeping some female heads. For one thing, you might decide that someone in armour is a woman, so you need a head for that. Also, a lot of historical/real world models are slighter and a bit smaller than SFF models, so it would make sense to use female heads for them. I've found that female heads work really well with Bolt Action bodies. When covered in armour and gear, it's likely that a fair number of women would look a lot like slightly smaller men.

Also, head swaps can really improve a mediocre model. I don't think that the Bolt Action Soviets are particularly great miniatures, but the Stargrave heads are newer and better-detailed. The head is often the first place you look when looking at a miniature, so it helps a not-brilliant body greatly if the head is good.

Shapes and Silhouettes

Converting a model isn't a matter of where the model/piece came from, but what it looks like. A gun barrel could become an exhaust pipe, a club or even a walking stick. It's a matter of turning the piece around and thinking "What can I use this for?".

When using bodies from other ranges, it helps to look at the overall silhouette of the model and play to it or disguise it as necessary. The main things about the English Civil War infantry are: (i) the long jackets, with visible collars; (ii) the trousers, which are very baggy up to just below the knee, where they meet the big socks (I'm pretty sure these are not the technical terms); and (iii) the belts and bags slung across the body.

With these models, I wanted to hide some of the stuff slung across their chests, especially the "apostles", the little wooden cartridges that musketeers use. (They look a bit like small bottles, and perhaps you could paint them as such). The easy way to do this is to cover them up with arms that hold rifles or shotguns and, if needed, with backpacks. You could cut them off, but then you'd still need to put something over the top. 

You can also break up the silhouette by adding new elements, particularly shoulder pads and stuff on their belts. I don't think any real army has ever had big shoulder pads without corresponding armour, but it's a classic science-fiction look. Likewise, adding a load of extra bits and bobs (particularly grenades!) to a model's waist firstly shows that they've got modern tech and breaks up the shape of the original historical model.

Painting the Conversions

Painting these guys is pretty simple: just don't paint them the colours that they would be in real life. For these models, I deliberately avoided red and orange clothes, which were big in the English Civil War (so was blue, but less famously).

When painting, you can use colours to draw the eye to the bits you want to stand out. I didn't want people to look at the lower legs and feet of these models, so I've left them very dark and only vaguely highlighted. You can also disguise the origin of the model by painting historical bits in non-historical colours (so, a metal breastplate might be bright red). 

A good trick is to link parts of the model by painting them the same bright colour. On the blue soldier, I've painted both his sash (historical) and his shoulders and cuffs (sci-fi) the same light grey. This helps give the impression that they ought to be together. Likewise the sci-fi helmet and Civil War body armour on the shiny soldier.

And that's pretty much all I know. Thanks for reading this far. Here's the company lady and her android bodyguards. I'm not sure what I'll paint next. We shall see...