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Sunday, October 31, 2021

The Fourth Man

I'm not sure if this is what the sculptor intended, but to me this guy looks like a villainous character as portrayed by Orson Welles. So I'm callling him The Fourth Man. 
 

Saturday, October 30, 2021

Bruiser with a Pig

I painted this fellow today, another miniature from Pulp Figures. Why, you might ask, is he carrying a pig? Stephen speculated this might be "Tom, Tom, the piper's son" who of course "stole a pig and away he run." This seems pretty plausible to me, as Bob Murch, who sculpts these wonderful miniatures, seems to take a lot of his inspiration from history and popular culture. 
 

Friday, October 29, 2021

Tor Walks Again

I never thought I'd have my own min-Tor Johnson, but here he is, straight out of Plan 9 from Outer Space. 
 

Wednesday, October 27, 2021

They Say It's Her Birthday

It's my birthday too, yeah! Wait, no it isn't. Today's birthday glory, at least as far as The Earliad is concerned, belongs to Sylvia alone, who remains Best Wife Ever and my very favourite little pal, partner, and pulchritudinous paramour. Bonne fete, Sylvia! 

 

Tuesday, October 26, 2021

"Villains"

I
I'm glad you can't swim
Like our victims
Who also can't swim
And nothing - nothing will keep you together
You can't beat us
No never no never 
Because we are villains
Just for all time 

I
I will be King
And you
You'll be nothing
No nothing
Will drive us away
We will be villains
Just for all time
We will be us
Just for all time


I can remember
(I remember)
Standing
By the wall
(By the wall)
And your guns
Shot into our chests
(Into our chests)
And we kissed
And we refused to fall

And the shame
Was on neither side
Oh we will beat your
Forever and ever
We'll never be heroes
Not for one day

We won't be heroes
We won't be heroes
We won't be heroes
Not for one day

(With apologies to David Bowie.) 

Monday, October 25, 2021

ZBs

Here's a 28mm-scale arcade cabinet I painted a few days ago. It's called ZBs (pronounced "Zee Bees); the player aims the crosshairs on the screen at the evil, golden Zee Bees and attempts to blast them from the stars. 

Not one of my better efforts. 

 

Sunday, October 24, 2021

Fearsome Furniture

Sean bought me this sinister 28mm-scale bed of the type you might find in a Hollywood-ized horror interpretation of a lunatic asylum. It'll be quite useful in games where one of the protagonists needs to be captured and immobilized. 
 

Saturday, October 23, 2021

Sturges Stands Tall

Assuming you follow the main quest line, you'll meet Sturges fairly early when you play through Fallout 4. Here's the 28mm-scale version of Sturges, cimplete with his tools. The photo is a little washed out in some places and too dark in others, but I'm okay with this paint job. It's good enough for Sturges to hit the table as a settler in Fallout: Wasteland Warfare. 
 

Friday, October 22, 2021

Visible Courser

Here's a mini I'm pretty happy with--a courser from Fallout 4. 
 

Thursday, October 21, 2021

Xerxes Mahogany

Here's Ambassador Xerxes Mahogany, another HeroClix repaint. This time, I repainted a Bele figure, one of the half black/half white aliens from "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield." 
 

Wednesday, October 20, 2021

The Landing Party

A while ago I found a deal on a blind batch of Star Trek HeroClix figures. I bought a bunch because HeroClix figures scale very nicely with most of my other miniatures. All you have to do is separate the mini from its HeroClix base, glue it to a generic 28mm base, and voila, you have a painted miniature ready to go. 

I didn't even mind getting a bunch of doubles, because this gave me the opportunity to repaint extra Chekovs, Sulus, Rands, and McCoys into all-new, never-before-seen Starfleet officers. So from right to left, allow me to introduce you to Lieutenant Nadeem Nakai, Lieutenant Shakira Moore, Ensign Ralph Weber, Ensign Terbish, Lieutenant Commander Present Tense, Ensign Bailey Nickels, and Lieutenant Commander  Graphite Pueblo. 

Oh, who's that fellow in the shadows on the far left? More about him tomorrow. 

 

Tuesday, October 19, 2021

A Raider's Bounty

I painted a bunch more cargo containers for Fallout: Wasteland Warfare, along with some ammunition boxes, a pair of wall-mounted computer terminals, and a Raider I messed up. If you zoom in, you'll see that he's wearing a black hood to mask his identity. At least that's how I've decided to cover up the horrible job I did of painting his face and hair. 

There's also a pile of entrails and a cauldron. I had a bit of fun with the flames heating the cauldron; the entrails were painted in about a second thanks to using contrast paint. 
 

Monday, October 18, 2021

Barrels of Ooze

A few days ago I painted these ancient barrels and the noxious goop they've leaked into the environment. Radroaches feast upon the slime. I'm pretty happy with the rust effects and the ooze itself. 
 

Sunday, October 17, 2021

A Slave No More

This guy's pretty grimy from his time in captivity, but he's free and defiant and armed for revenge. 
 

Saturday, October 16, 2021

Container Your Excitement

I painted some containers for Fallout: Wasteland Warfare. I'm quite pleased with how the Vault-Tec logos turned out; they are very, very tiny, but my dry brushing game seems to have been on point during this painting session. 
 

Thursday, October 14, 2021

A Satisfying Synth

Here's a synth from Fallout: Wasteland Warfare. I've painted synths before, and while this one is far from perfect, it's the best I've achieved so far. I find synths challenging because some of them, like this one, don't have fake skin yet; it's kind of like painting the Terminator without his Arnie flesh. This time around I actually used a reference image from Modiphius, the company that makes the miniatures; that made things much easier. 
 

Wednesday, October 13, 2021

Super Mutant Deathclaw

Thanks to some advice from Sean, my latest deathclaw went from zero to hero. My original concept was a dark, muddy mess, but Sean suggested replacing the dusky blue highlights with bright green. Not only did this fix the highlights, it made my blood spatters somehow more gruesome and realistic. 

There's also a happy side effect: this deathclaw's colour scheme now resembles that of another Fallout antagonist, the super mutant. Perhaps as an infant this deathclaw was exposed to the Forced Evolutionary Virus (FEV) that created the super mutants...
 

Tuesday, October 12, 2021

First Year Schedule at the University of Alberta

While digging out more stuff to recycle or throw away, I came upon a 1987-88 day timer with precisely one thing written in it: my course schedule for my first year at the University of Alberta. 

Philosophy 240, Religious Studies 200, English 200, and Political Science 200 were all first-year intro courses for those particular fields. History 280 was, I believe East Asian history from...something to 1500. Anthropology 250 focused on--I think--racism. Or at least that's what I remember most about it. 

Ironically, my best subject that year was Religious Studies; I earned a 9 out of 9 on the old stanine system they used back then. I really liked the prof, and he liked me, inviting me to guest lecture a couple of times. Man, it was weird when I used to do stuff that involved other people and volunteering and so on...
 

Monday, October 11, 2021

A Sinister Synth

I've already painted a bunch of synths for Fallout: Wasteland Warfare, but this is the first one that looks at least reasonably acceptable on the table. For the first time, I'm happy with how the weapon turned out, and I finally managed to distinguish clothing from exposed robot parts at this scale. 




 

Sunday, October 10, 2021

At the Ready

Not one of my better paint jobs, but passable on the table. 


 

Saturday, October 09, 2021

Throwing Paint on a Burning Man

Here's Joshua Graham, AKA The Burning Man, a lost soul from the Honest Hearts storyline in Fallout: New Vegas. I quite like the way Josh's jeans and bandages turned out. I had slightly less success with his vest, but overall, I'm satisfied. 
 

Friday, October 08, 2021

Fancy Power Armor

I have quite a few characters clad in power armor, so to differentiate them I'm trying different colour schemes and other tricks. In this case, I imagined the suit of armor has been completely cleaned and refurbished, so there are no rust marks or other weathering. I also painted a couple of armor plates and other features in gold to represent fancier, newer pieces. 
 

Thursday, October 07, 2021

Canoes

I just finished painting these two canoes from Pulp Figures. One is for a Mountie and his dog, the other is for a trapper and his furs. I have not painted the Mountie, dog, trapper, or furs yet. Or the paddles, for that matter. 
 

Wednesday, October 06, 2021

Creepy Altar

This creepy sacrificial altar will be even creepier once I've painted the pair of figures that can be placed upon it. 
 

Tuesday, October 05, 2021

Old-Time Radio

Here's a 28mm-scale 1930s radio, part of the Pulp Figures collection. I can almost hear Orson Welles now...

Monday, October 04, 2021

Tod's Final Resting Place

I painted this gravestone from Bob Murch's Pulp Figures collection, specifically the Dracula Has Risen! set. I painted the bat black with grey highlights (sadly not really visible in this image); I painted the gravestone grey with a black ink wash for the text. "Tod" refers, I assume, to Tod Browning, director of Dracula, released in, of course, 1931. 

I'll integrate this gravestone into a larger graveyard terrain piece I have planned. 
 

Sunday, October 03, 2021

Cactus Stand

Here's a collection of cacti from Pulp Figures. I painted the plants in shades of green and based the collection with sand and shrubs. 
 

Saturday, October 02, 2021

Crash Callahan and Fred

Here's one of the first figure sets I've painted from Bob Murch's Pulp Figures line. This is Crash Callahan and Fred on the move! The set also comes with Crash and Fred standing and running, respectively; I haven't painted those poses yet. 

Fred reminded me a little of Snowy from the Tintin comics, so I painted him white. As for the cycle and Crash herself, I thought a dark red was racy and dynamic, with some metallic bits for the engine. 

Here's how the cycle and sidecar look when parked. The base is a standard 50mm base painted with a mixture of technical paints, base colours, and ink washes to look like a small strip of highway. 

Friday, October 01, 2021

Just Before the Awakening

Here lies an unholy assemblage of dead organs and limbs, sewn together by a mad genius and about to be imbued with life by lightning. A pitiful Wretch will soon arise! 

I painted Frankenstein's Monster in shades of black, white, and grey, aping, I hope, the look of black and white film.