Those Who Fly

Space. The #grimdark frontier.

two pilots and a navigator walk into a bar...

Thistle has meant that even when I am home and my partner is not, I am not able to get as much work done as I actually want. It's worth it, but a little frustrating. Now that the gnome project is wrapping up, I can concentrate on other projects. Although, having said that, I think I've started... three new ones this week? Don't look at me.

This fellow is a Rogue Trader-era Pilot. I really liked this sculpt - so much that I didn't notice how outlandish his weapon hand and pistol are until I was actually putting paint on the miniature. He's also unusual for having sculpted-on eyebrows, which you don't see often.

Those of you in the #oldhammer community will notice that I stole a lot of the colouring from Mathias, who himself was inspired by Moebius. Moebius keeps coming up in my work on these civilians, and will continue to do so. I really am enjoying using colours that I usually stay away from.

This Navigator dates from the same period. I knew I wanted him to feel decadent, and creepy. It goes with his giant hands and elongated mutant skull. So his skin tones were done the same way I do my Dark Eldar (although I do notice that I'm a lot better now, a subject for another time) - some of my remaining Dheneb Stone, a purple wash, re-upped with Dheneb Stone.

His clothes were similarly weird colours, pale pinks and turquoises. Utterly inappropriate for the desert basing, but an immediate visual cue that this creep belongs in a spaceship and not on any terrestrial surface. It was fun, and I had a great time, even if the sculpt itself is a bit rough in places.

The only Colony 87 miniature in this set, Helena van Gaal is possibly the miniature that made me pull the trigger on getting the whole set. I don't remember. I do remember that I love her punky haircut, her piloting ports, and her old-school-style spacesuit.

She's a beautiful sculpt to paint, and I really need to practice skin tones more - I wish I'd done her better justice. Her hair colour was one I couldn't resist. I considered making her a blonde and letting the cut speak for itself, but I just love painting hair pink. I'm only human.

Space Girl 2, Dan Morton
Used without permission.

I did enjoy the process of looking for ladies in pulpy spacesuits. There are obviously a lot of designs that cross the line into other categories, but many are just fun in a way that you often don't get in modern po-faced speculative fiction.

'My carrot looks like a kraken', reddit user shitaki_taco writes

I am past the halfway point on the civilian project - which is to say I am past the halfway point on the civilian models which I own, and that is not necessarily halfway at all. As the Old World Army Challenge is over soon, I am also moving into new projects... and I have been looking up both root vegetables and early 19thC military uniforms lately. Curious.