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! 

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!

Sci-fi floors... 3

Here are whole load of pics of the resin floors I've cast and painted so far. Gonna see some action pretty soon. Thinking of running a sci-fi game using the X-plorers rules with some additional rules for different races like elves, dwarfs and hobbits so I can use my RT figures. Will also be a change to the rules to allowing killer robots!

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.

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.