A few more rebased minis!

I posted these on LAF a while back but forgot to pop them on here. On the left is Gronk from the old citadel Strontium Dog pack. Next to him is marine Dmitri "Double D" Dorokov. This is the mini with the Phobos helmet from an earlier post. Finally a bot conversion based on a reaper robot with a gzg comms bubble for a head!

Re-basing and new photography!

So last week I decided to re-base my figures on 3mm mdf bases. Gone are the low profile 1mm bases I had been using. I really liked them a lot but honestly they may have been too plain and they just didn't have the right look and feel for a project based around vintage minis.  Basing is a real pain and I'm always looking for a method which is quick and looks good. And yet honestly prepping these mdf bases isn't all that quick. Each base gets a couple of neodynium magnets embedded in them and then a coat of matt black enamel. All this even before the minis are attached. Then a mix of cat litter and sand is glued on. The actual painting of the base is quick enough though using the same grey mix as the previous bases.

Also today I've tried a new lighting set-up for photographing minis. It consists of a daylight lamp above the figures with two desk lamps on the left and right. Photographing figures has been a major source of frustration for me over the years so this may a big step forward! 

Squat heavy...

Some pics of a Squat heavy weapon I've been tinkering around with. The Squats were some of my favorite figures back in the Rogue Trader days. They just had so much damn character a with that "irregulars" vibe. They looked like mercenaries or adventurers and that really fired the imagination.

The original face on this particular figure had a great big smile! I hadn't intended to change the face so much originally just adding some putty to his beard but after playing around he ended up getting a total face lift resulting in a much sterner face.

I worked a bit to get the hands to fit neatly to the handle of the conversion beamer. Also worked the area of the weapon that met the shoulder for a neat fit. Cutting a small section from of a cocktail stick gave me a small disc so I could make a sight that lined up with his right eye. It all comes together nicely now and will be painted separately.

Some more Orks...

Some more Orks this time troopers from the first box set. Got a lot of these figures so naturally a wee bit of conversion work is in order, if only to add a bit of individuality to my duplicates. Left to Right we have Punky, Cool Shades and Brillcream all lined up and ready for a planetary skirmish!!

Ork conversions!

I haven't had an awful lot of spare time to play around with minis these past few months hence the lack of posts but I'm still tinkering away when I get the chance. After concentrating on some old fantasy minis for a while my interest has swung back to sci-fi minis. I've dug out some more of my Rogue Trader collection and been getting some more minis up to the primed stage.

As things stand I'm gonna be needing a lot more Orks. Regardless of what rules I'd be using they're always going to be low quality troops and as such would need to out number most other races. Here's a pic of a couple I've messed around with.

A lot of gamers will recognise the fellow on the right as Hhruk from the 1980's space Ork Raiders boxed set. That's his right arm attached to the cork! It's been converted so he will be holding the gun low instead of up in the air. It'll make things easier to paint them separately. He'll end up being one of the leaders of the Orks when they make it to the table.

Don't know a lot about the fellow on the left but he can be seen in a White Dwarf advert from the time. Can't make out he was given a name. I've tweaked him in a few places and placed a spike on his helmet.

Phobos marine...

Here's a pic of the finished Phobos helmet marine.

Medic conversion...

Took a pic of this fellow today. The body was originally a medic which I didn't like all that much. Now for a while I'd wanted to put a different style of helmet on a power armour body thought I'd give it a go on this figure. Once I'd made the new helmet I decided not to glue it until I'd made a mould so I could cast it in resin. Will give me extras to play with and some for anyone else who may be interested!

Brother and Sister Reeves...

Probably my favorite trooper figure from the old marines is this Brother Reeves mini. Lucky I got 3 in a joblot! I've converted one into a female marine by doing a head swap with a female mini from ERM.  Will paint the parts separately and glue when finished.

Missiles incoming... 2!!

Remember this guy from the blogs very first post? Well I found the propeller bit off the rocket launcher on my desk and had a change of heart. Yes it looks totally daft but it is iconic in a way. I resolved to re-attach it after filing down the fins somewhat. Changed the face a bit too! Have to stop tinkering with greenstuff and get more painting done!

Close combat marine...

Here's a WIP pics of a RT era close combat marine I've been working on. Reckon he's pretty much finished just a little more weathering perhaps. Painting the yellow parts was tricky. Not a colour I'd look forward to painting again! I've painted the blue/black and white stripe pattern on the lower leg to link him to the two other marines I've currently painted up.

Backpack prep...

Photo says it all really! I had been prepping marine backpacks indiviually as I needed them but decided to get a batch ready all in one go. The speed I paint this is probably a years worth of backpacks!

Three's company...

Got a couple of new arrivals in the post today. Some additional versions of the Brother A Skull mini I won on ebay recently . Makes my total of this particular figure up to three. Probably all I'll ever need but you can't be too sure of these thing!. The two new figs are now enjoying a dettol bath. Will probably paint these in different contrasting colours. I may paint one up in the colour scheme with which he originally appeared in the White Dwarf advert.

Zombie marines!!

When I bought this Brother Meredith figure I knew I'd be painting him up as a marine zombie. That got me thinking about a horde of marine zombies but the cost this mini now goes for on ebay is too much to make a this an option for me. Thought it'd be fun to cast up some myself.  Hence the greenstuff body which I'll cast to make some dollies and then sculpt some variants to the pose. The gun is a converted plastic marine bolter which I'll be using on the figures. This needed to be shortened and the magazine made smaller in order for it to be more like the size of the metal bolters.  I probably make the zombie heads as seperate castings in order to give more variation to the finished figures. Hopefully these will be ready for some Halloween games of Space Crusade!!

Having another look at the bolter it needed to be smaller still so trimmed the top and remodelled it. Reckon it's a good match for the older bolters now.

Work bench pics...

Some pics of minis on the workbench atm. Something was bugging me about the halflings rifle so I tried to add some detail to it.

Rebased a foundry swat mini and based a Brother Meredith mini. The original Meredith figure leans forward at quite an angle so I've stood him up a bit. This meant some sculpting on the right leg armour and new feet.

More figs ready for priming.

Painting in progress...

Here's a snap of the figures currently under the brush. Think the halfling has been a WIP since the start of the year! Need to get these finished so I can get on with some new minis!

Contemptor class Dreadnought

Recently aquired 3 vintage marine dreadnoughts and the plan is to assemble them in the RT configurations. First up was a Contemptor class with its four bolters. I think this is a wide body variant with the short legs option. I think I prefer the smaller legs even if they don't look capable of much mobility! A bit of putty work tidied the model up. A really satisfyingly heavy lump of vintage lead!

Chainsaw warrior...

Converted Chainsaw warrior figure. Repositioned gun arm and them swapped the cast gun for a plastic marine bolter. Head repositioned and hair/beard to be grizzled up a bit when painted.

Ongoing repairs... 2

Spent a bit of time painting the plasma marine today and noticed the flamer pistol could have done with a little tidy-up with some putty. If I ignored this stuff I'd get more minis painted!

Ongoing repairs...

Some putty work mid paintjob. Sometimes its only when painting a mini that problem areas on the mini become apparent. The curve of the left leg armour had made painting the stripes neatly quite tricky to get neat so a bit of putty sorted that area out. There right foot was a bit miscast so that got some attention too.

The part that needed the most work was the piping behind the helmet something which was missed during clean-up.  It was seriously miscast and since it would be pretty apparent on the finished mini it needed a quick resculpt.

 

Missiles incoming!!!

Part of an ongoing RT era sci-fi project is this metal heavy weapon marine with plastic missile launcher. Was a pretty easy convertion to get the launcher to fit. First up separated the handle grip from the launcher and fitted that to the hand.

Had to greenstuff the launcher a bit to make it fit the shoulder.  Mostly making the shoulder arch smaller. Added a few details here and there. Filled in the hollow that would have accommadated the marine backpack on the original plastic marine figure. Removed the "propeller" part from the back of the weapon. What exactly was it suppose to do?!!

Everything fits together pretty well. I'll probably paint the marine and weapon separately and pin them once finished.