Those Who Venture

Still firmly in the 'scum' category, although Prospector Gan Havelock at least approaches respectable, being a freelance surveyor rather than an... ugh adventurer.

meet all sorts out here

More Crooked Dice miniatures, from their Colony 87 range. Some of these have only been in the collection for weeks as opposed to my usual years. I've grouped these as vaguely adventurers, as they're all a bit armed and rowdy to really be anything else, although Havelock could have as easily fit into the next group (working and middle class types).

Really had fun with these - I always say that for Colony 87 though.

Gan Havelock, Prospector

Started with the easiest one, as I decided to closely match Will Beck's concept art, which made this easy. Coat the same colour as the base, blue and white for his drone, greys and browns for the rest, unpainted ceramite and yellow sample canisters. Easy. Face details are a little shallow, though.

Bounty Hunters

These two were originally designed to be Don Quixote and Sanchos types, but they wound up feeling very earnest by the end. The lanky human, wearing a stillsuit and carrying a modified xenos rifle, especially felt like a worn, lean space ranger type (admittedly, I am re-watching Babylon Five), noble if exhausted, wandering but never lost.

His squat offsider is more grounded and practical. The vest is in grey to echo his friend's stillsuit, while his other gear is all practical browns -- except the helmet and shoulder pads, which are in yellows like my RT-style/era squat army. Maybe he's long exiled from home. Why is he with this baseline human on this godsforsaken planet?

Really enjoyed this cloak, which I did in sandy colours up from Skrag Brown via Vallejo Desert Yellow and Citadel Zamesi Desert, ending with ZD + Mummy Robes. Really meditative.

murderer

This gal was a challenge. Painting white on white is always tricky. I knew I wanted her to have a ceramic helmet, and blood-red gloves, but took discipline to stick to an otherwise-white palette. Her eyes wound up blue, although I had originally intended to use blood effects. Decided against it to avoid her looking like undead rather than a creepy space assassin.

Is she an android? Why would I tell you?

jet biker

I love a model that comes mounted and on foot. Doesn't happen enough these days!

I started with a brown undercoat because I knew I wanted to use shades of brown - but in the end they are all a little close to each other. I had also intended to give the jumpsuit a camo pattern, but in the end I felt like the miniature was too detailed to sustain it.

Helmet was something I couldn't decide on and left until the very end (after I had already painted it black too, natch). I realised it needed to be lighter to pull away from the rest of the figure, and after spending a day considering getting into Legion, I realised that the classic white-and-orange would work great. And it does.

The jetbike was done using this Sons of Horus tutorial except the grey-black weathering - again, because the model is already pretty detailed and the highlighting gives you a battered effect. Once more I was having trouble deciding on the colour for the bike. Realising the the figure's browns were kind of orangey (very very 'kind of'), I figured a greenish shade would balance it... and I wanted an excuse to paint sea green anyway, which I am really loving lately.

Lots of shades on the metals to give that oily but not tarnished effect I enjoy, too.

And that's this lot!

The next pile of civilians is pretty big, although they should be easy enough. I may paint this other thing I've had on the undercoated pile for a few months though - it should also be easy and gets the thing done...........

Those Punks

Climbing the social ladder, from animals to cops, to outcasts and punks.

punks and skum

A mix of manufacturers, meaning a range of scales and styles, but I think they all work together as a group. This group of misfits and sods were fun as hell to paint, letting me muck about with colours (I've been using a lot of pink and green lately), as well as some experiments with skin tones and -- well, let me get into it.

Those Who Protect

Following on from animals: space cops.

pigs are a kind of animal, after all

These were all hell of great sculpts to paint, even if being armed kind of puts the 'civilian' aspect of this project as a bit of a lie. But I've done armed folks before and I will again. 

These are mostly Crooked Dice pieces from Colony 87: Wave Four, while the Judge is a Kev White sculpt from Diehard Miniatures. I'm pleased with how they've all come out, so let's show 'em off!

Those Animals: Tame (and weird)

 Couple of things mixed together here!

animals tame (and other)

Alright, getting some things crossed off the list. This lot have mostly actually not sat in the drawer for too long - in fact, two of the models only arrived a few weeks ago! Not too bad. But then again, the Necromunda Wyrd was in the pile for the failed Old World Army Challenge from 2023, so let's not brag.

melty men

First off, some melty men. Like last time's mootants, these are Thunderchild Miniatures. A few layers of yellows, contrasts, washes, drybrushes, glazes, picking out the white teeth and eyes, varnish. Fun and easy. Sorry they're not in the group photo, this is what happens when you break up the painting and photography but not the blog post (also are they even really in the animal theme? eh)

Those Animals: Baggage

Share the load.

green transportation alternatives

I haven't gone anywhere, I just haven't had much to share. It's been either too hot or too wet to paint, and I'm so busy at work - and consequently exhausted - that I haven't been able to schedule any games. But I have assembled, cleaned, and based a ton of new additions to the civilian project (and just in time to receive more Colony 87 from another kickstarter too, so I feel very embarrassed not to have done the last one...) -- and last week I was finally able to get out the spray undercoat. There are a couple of different things in train.

Let's start with a baggage train, eyyyy

Those Who Were Undercoated

 Winter has come, and I am once again unprepared.

Undercoated Family photo

It's too cold to undercoat any of the projects that I want to concentrate on, so I've dug up a handful of already-undercoated models from projects I stalled on - most from years ago - and done a little brushwork on them. Not included here are three models finished from my Age of Sigmar Flesh Eater Courts, because I'm going to do a big project post for those when the whole army is finished. I also have the original Escher gang that I didn't finish for the last Old World Army Challenge I was in, but I haven't been able to do much on those yet.

I'm also working on some terrain, and I'm prepping a bunch of miniatures for when the weather warms up so that I undercoat tons at once. I really ought to plan these things better. Maybe next year...

Gnow There are Gno More Gnomes To Paint

 Look at that. A second post.

the new villagers

Back in 2020, for the Old World Army Challenge, Old School Miniatures was kind enough to sponsor my entry: a small force of their wonderful alpine gnomes. I never considered the project complete, though; one regiment of spearmen was under-equipped, and I wanted to expand the cavalry regiments a little.

As part of my new focus on finishing projects (I know!), I have managed to actually complete the gnome army. I also wound up adding a second spearman regiment as well as a small pile of new villagers (above).

The force is fairly small in most editions, especially as Byron's list design eschews heroes in favour of wizards, but I'll be able to ally in Wood Elves or my old, ancient Empire army (whichever of these boxes that's in...) if I really need more points.

So, what's new?

Those ex-Slaves

You are not machines, you are not cattle - you are men!

there's power in a union

I've had these on my desk since they came out. Always love a narrative of working lads breaking their chains. It's even better if the chains are laser-powered. The pit slaves in Necromunda '98 had similar vibes, and the tale of Bull Gorg goes hard. It's tragic that we never got a miniature of him.

The ex-Slave Ogryn gang in Necromunda '17 fills a similar place, with the addition benefit of just straight-up lobotomizing some of the workers. grim But solves a problem! or does it

The gang (for which I'm yet to decide on a name) also fits into the vague 'civilians' project. These guys can be an outlaw gang of workers in revolt or they can used as flavour or muscle for various factions - all their 'weapons' are really tools, after all. This is why they have my desert basing instead of the grimy underdark basing you've seen before.

Those Guys

 Just some lads.

lads lads lads

I try to group the civilian posts by theme, but these lads (and the below robot) are all I've done in the past few months, so they can go up together. These four are available as Sailors at Crooked Dice.

yeah just headed to the space-pub for a space-schnitty

I randomly decided to make one chap a football fan because why not. The meaty bloke on the right is into the same punk band as one of my squats:

we ain't dead! say it a-fucken-gain!

bleep-blorp

Finally, we have the non-sentient P0-N3 bot, 'Bill', from Skull & Crown's Space Scrappers line. An absolute treat to paint up!

Those Who Work: Prospector

 A civilian painted a little while ago!

make sure your helmet is polarised against radiation, kids

This guy had been sitting on my desk for a long time, but I managed to finish him over Christmas. He then sat in my photos account! I was hoping to get more civilians painted to post him with, but the Old World Army Challenge started up, and that's that.

Not really much to say - he's from the Genestealer Cult range, which have a great unified aesthetic for mining and industrial workers, while being grounded in Warhammer 40,000's setting. I demilitarized him a little, giving him a mining laser and the wrench arm, but there is no conversion work.

..so, yes, he still has grenades and a pistol holster. Hellsreach-style planets are dangerous places!

There are still loads more civilians in my pile of inspiration or whatever we're calling them these days, but I really need to get cracking on their terrain.

Those Scouts: Riders

Yeah, I'm gonna take my horse / to the old town road

Slann trading contingent, feat. Ometeotl the Outrider

wastelander horseman

Once again, these are hardly civilians, despite the fact that I continue to group these miniatures together under that tag. I suppose I will eventually call this setting something else - maybe if I finally paint any of the terrain I'm accumulating.

These two are mounted scouts; the one a baseline human, riding his actual horse across the desert sands. The other is as far as we can get from that, being a space frog riding a space velociraptor. 

Those Animals: Wild things

 A handful more critters for the desert.

small local fauna

I've painted a handful of small creatures to sprinkle around the gaming table. The lava dog thing comes from Northstar, the rest from an indie company the name of which I've misplaced. They sure are cute, though.

armadillo analogues

lizard analogues

thingies

some kind of heated-rock monster?

Those Mercenaries

 A collection of local guns.

not exactly civilians

Today we have a handful of armed figures for the civilian project. At this rate, I'm basically recreating Gorkamorka (and yes, that is a spoiler for something planned soon), albeit with fewer orks.

scout

A classic Rogue Trader adventurer sculpt and as such as been done by many many others, which is part of why I wanted to buy him. He's been on my table for ages, as I wasn't sure how I wanted him to come out. Some of the off-whites came off a bit too close, so I'm not totally happy with him, but still - he looks pretty good to me.

I like to think of him as the best of the scouts for hire, preferring to keep to himself in the deep desert. His use of a shuriken pistol and apparently uncanny insight into the trackless wastes gives him a reputation as half-Eldar, despite the genetics making that impossible. Right?

old bandit

Another RT adventurer! Jason has also painted him up, but I've gone for a weather-beaten old raider style for him and his weird pistol.

I think of him as old friends with the scout - not as good at guiding clients through the wastes, but way more vicious in a melee with the mutie raiders and slaver tribes that might waylay a caravan winding through the cacti-spheres.

Madeline and Maximillian

"Mad" Madeline and "Max" Maximillian are a couple of local gunslingers. Sometimes raiders, sometimes caravan guards, sometimes just mean bastards. Always hired as a pair.

These sculpts were from a Facebook group and I was able to get some of the initial run a little while back - but thankfully they're now available at Crooked Dice as the Mannix Twins. Real joys to paint, and a lovely classic vibe.

Lastly, and finished only a few minutes ago, we have Ms Lovely Day.

Ms Lovely Day

No need to point out her inspiration! You can also get her via Crooked Dice (can you tell I did an order recently?). I've painted her up as roughly inspired by her origin, but she fits in with the rest of these gunslingers although slimmer, possibly teenaged.

It's a beautiful sculpt and fun to paint.

I undercoated some more civilians today, but also go back to work tomorrow, so we'll see if my painting time shrinks substantially. Stay tuned, desert wanderers!