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 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 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 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!

Those Who Work

The lifeblood of Empire.

♪ ♫ one of these is not like the others ♪

The end of the world has sapped a bit of my motivation, I'm afraid. The fact that I am horrific on my brushes doesn't help, and my usual small detail brush is getting a bit bristly, meaning that it's even more difficult to get any work done.

Also, we got a kitten.

Thistle

Still, I spent the past few days getting started on my Old World Army Challenge Project gnomes and doing these working-class folks as a palate cleanser. (I then ran out of white undercoat, so getting the gnomes done might be a bit of a challenge!)

Three of them are from the Colony 87 range, the same as the majority of my civilians. The lady with all the gear is from Crooked Dice's Paranormal Exterminators range, although I just picked her up cheap in an order from Bad Squiddo a couple years ago just because she looked like fun.

For more photos, we go below the cut...