Copplestone Archaeologists

Ages ago, back in 2017, I painted the female archaeologists from Mark Copplestone's excellent Back of Beyond range. Now, much later, here are the male ones, available from North Star;

These guys are quite well tooled-up compared with their female counterparts and I see the two outer figures being more as adventurers and minders than actual academics. Still, all that firepower should come in handy when the inevitable nasties and horrors turn up.

Unlike the female ones, who I gave detailed biographies, I've only got as far as giving these chaps names.  From left to right they are; Giorgi Dolidze, a Georgian soldier of fortune, Giles Andover-Fiste, a member of the MCC and a gentleman amateur archaeologist, Doctor Petros Sarkisian, a famous Armenian archaeologist working at the Sorbonne and Hans Jansson, a Swedish explorer.

They seem a suitable bunch to pitch up almost anywhere looking for rare and arcane artefacts, scruples optional, no doubt.

Clearly, these are highly suitable for Pulp, Cthulhu Mythos, eldritch horror and other similar settings. They were huge fun to paint, because they are such nice figures. 

Hurrah! Back to painting figure.

No more scenics for a while. It will be figures for the next few weeks, I think. First up, some characters for What A Cowboy;

I think that these are all Wargames Foundry minis. I was kindly given them by someone at the club because I'd mentioned that my Mexicans were a little bit outgunned. Anyway, these two have what appear to be single shot rifles or carbines, so that is an improvement.

The guy in the middle is clearly a military sort, maybe a former French officer who's wandered north to get away from the madness of the Habsburg Maximilian I imperial experiment.

I hope to see them in action on the table at some point.
 

Renedra fencing

Still doing scenics. Now it is Renedra 28mm scale fencing. First two lengths of ordinary wooden fencing;

I think that this is pretty nice fencing, but I think the wattle fencing below with the gate sections is even nicer;

OK, fencing isn't the most exciting thing ever, but it is very useful on a gaming table.

I'm pretty happy with how they have turned out and I think I'll probably get more of the first set at some point, because I'd like to have some shorter lengths and maybe some corners too.

Sci fi trees

Well, to pilfer from Radiohead, Fake Plastic Trees, loads of 'em (27 actually). The Bad Squiddo Ghost of Gaia is for scale purposes.

There isn't much to say about them. They are disassembled IKEA plastic plants stuck onto MDF bases with blobs of green stuff, coated in ballast and given a blast of varnish to fix the ballast in place.

I think I may have to weigh the bases down, probably with metal washers or something, but I think they'll do for science fiction landscapes on distant planets.

The backdrop is one of the Jon Hodgson Handiwork Games sci fi ones.

Another little diorama

 Strange lights had been seen in the ruins of the old abbey on the hill. A woman from the government and a group of armed ATS women went to investigate. German agents were suspected.

No one expected alien beings. The big questions now were "Why are they here?" and "Were they allies of the UK or Germany?"

The ATS group all all by Bad Squiddo and the aliens are Radon Zombies of the Ionosphere by Bob Murch, available via North Star.

This was a fun idea and I think it came out OK. 

The Ruins are from Renedra and the background is by Jon Hodgson.

The technical (ha!) details are the same as in previous posts of my dioramas, i.e. the camera was a Pentax K-70 DSLR and Pentax  DA 1:3.5-5.6 18-55mm AL WR standard zoom lens, mounted on a tripod. The picture was shot using aperture priority with an aperture of f25 and an ISO 400 film speed. I used a JJC TM electronic remote shutter release to prevent any camera shake. I staged the picture in my lightbox, which has variable brightness LED lights.

Four Renedra plastic 28mm huts (scroll down to see them all)

I've had these kits lying around for a couple of years, maybe longer. I thought it was time to get them put together and painted.

First, a simple wooden hut;

Next a stone hut;

A wattle and daub one. I think that this might be my favourite;

And finally, a Norse hut on a larger base. I added a few Gamer's Grass tufts on this base.;

Behind every hut is a nice Jon Hodgson backdrop (books available from the Bad Squiddo website).

These are very simple kits, generally three roof pieces and four walls, the Norse one being a little bit more complicated. It also comes with various accessories like truckle beds, a fire and various pots. I haven't made the beds and pots up yet, though. I'll find a use for them, I expect.

I did have to fill in a few areas with green stuff, no doubt my faulty construction techniques. They are absolute simplicity to paint too. I think that they look pretty good. All I need to do now is get them onto a gaming table.

My next task is some Renedra fencing to assemble and paint.

The perils of adventuring in the Badlands

Here's another little diorama I shot using my Renedra ruins;

I think that all the minis here were from North Star, including the plastic Ghouls and Zombies who are part of the Frostgrave "Undead Encounters" set of originally Mantic figures. The Grey Wizard is a Copplestone figure, the Elf warrior an Oathmark one and the rest are all Frostgrave minis. The evil Necromancer is a resin cast that was the subject of a North Star painting competition a couple of years ago (I took part, but didn't win).

Clearly, the Necromancer is a powerful spellcaster, seeing as he is able to unleash his foul underlings in daylight. Let's hope that the mysterious Grey Wizard has a few useful spells up his voluminous sleeve.

The camera and other details are the same as in my previous diorama post, in case you are interested.

I shot a few more similar scenes that I'll post every now and again.
 

The Battlezone scatter stuff....

 .... and this really is the last of it!

Below is a big piece of Battlezone pipework, which will fit in anywhere, seeing as one end rises from below ground and the other end has a couple of closures. The piece at the back is a length of 2cm plastic plumbing pipe stuck on a couple of little legs capped shut at one end and with a connecting piece at the other. It is designed to come out of the side of a building. Why might that be? Who cares, but it'll look good.

Here are a couple of large generators with attached pipework. These will fit in anywhere, ideally with a building at the end of the pipes.

There is also a platform made up from a few odds and ends and a pallet of some kind of cargo.

Finally, I've made a few barricades/roadblocks from a few odds and ends of doors and wall sections, held up with braces. These are bound to be useful. Everyone and everything needs to hide or shelter from getting shot at. In all of these pieces, I've chosen a grimdark colour palette, especially for the generators. Maybe how they work is an obscure and arcane secret, but so long as the initiates/operators chant the correct prayers the things will keep on generating whatever they generate?

Once again, my Bad Squiddo Ghost of Gaia is here to provide a sense of scale.

So, that's it for the Battlezone stuff.

Here's a small diorama I've put together

I've been playing around with my lightbox, DSLR and tripod.

In this photo, a group of Pirates from Bad Squiddo and North Star run slap bang wallop into a mysterious masked figure and his Stone Troll. Intent on finding plunder in the old ruins on the hill above the bay, they didn't think that anything nasty might be lurking up there. Things may not turn out well for these intrepid, if impetuous adventurers.

The Stone Troll is actually a North Star Frostgrave Coal Man and the mysterious masked figure is Malcor from the Maze of Malcor Frostgrave collection, also from North Star.

The background for this shot is a scene from one of my Jon Hodgson books and a small scenic piece I recently made using Renedra plastic ruins on an A4 MDF base.;

I primarily made this to use in photos but it should also be useful as actual gaming scenery. The twisting plants growing around the ruins are model railway wire foliage branches. The grass, gravel and earth are from a variety of sources.

For those of you who are interested in such things, I took this picture with my Pentax K-70 DSLR and Pentax  DA 1:3.5-5.6 18-55mm AL WR standard zoom lens. The picture was shot using aperture priority with an aperture of f25 and an ISO 400 film speed. I've recently bought a JJC TM electronic remote shutter release (cheaper than the Pentax model) which makes slow shutter speed photography a lot easier. I'm thinking about using my Sigma 50mm 1:2.8 DG Macro lens in future lightbox experiments.

The last of the Battlezone buildings

These are the last of the actual buildings. There are a few pieces of scatter that I'll put in my next post.

Above we have a nice piece that gives players the opportunity to put figures above street level. Below is a similar piece, with some nice railings added on, obviously for Health and Safety reasons. Once again, we have mysterious plumbing emerging from this building.

The final piece below is a complicated two-sided creation, with an upper gallery running along its length and a crawl space below that because nothing horrible ever lurks in crawl spaces in science fiction films, does it?

These last two pieces have a lamp post like the first one, but I had to cut that off in the photos to get sensibly-sized and shaped images.

The eagle-eyed will notice that the electrical panels on these buildings are all orientated differently. The ways of electricians are clearly as inexplicable as those of plumbers in the grimdark future.

I'm really pleased with how these pieces have turned out. They will be really useful on the table.

Some more of the Battlezone buildings

Here is the next tranche of my grimdark sci fi buildings and installations. Once more, my Ghost of Gaia is here to set the scale.

I have no idea what the plumbing here represents. Who knows the workings of the minds of boiler engineers in the grim darkness of the future? Anyway, the windows offer some firing opportunities.

This above is just a wall, albeit a wall with some strange machines attached. What are they for? Maybe they are vending machines or 41st millennium ATMs? Anyway, walls are useful in skirmish games. Bad things can hide behind them. Maybe bad things like giant spiders with rayguns?

The final piece below is definitely a building, another one with some more inexplicable plumbing. I'm sure it'll look fine on the table. It's perfect for Xenos Rampant etc.

Mantic Battlezone sci fi buildings

Ages ago at the club's tabletop sale, I bought a big box of Mantic Battlezone plastic buildings, which I never got round to assembling until now. Here are the first few pieces. Scroll down to see them all.

The Bad Squiddo Ghost of Gaia is for scale purposes.

I'm showing two views of this final piece for today. This is because there is some nice detail on in interior. The down pipe in the interior photo isn't Mantic. It is a piece of 2cm diameter plastic plumbing pipe cut to fit.

I have to say that the separate components are tricky to put together and I eventually resorted to using model glue to ensure a nice strong bond. I didn't want my buildings coming apart in gaming use. In hindsight, I should have used greenstuff or Milliput to fill the more obvious gaps, but it is too late now.

Having said that, I am really pleased with the painted and based results. These pieces could be used in so many settings; gang warfare in the depths of a hive city, scavenging the remains of an abandoned mining base on a forgotten planet, post-apocalyptic survival against mutant or alien hordes, Games set in a wretched hive of scum and villainy or just on a battlefield between implacable enemies. The possibilities are endless.

I decided to go for a grimdark, worn-out and run-down feel to everything. That kind of look and feel appeals to me when it comes to science fiction gaming. There is plenty of rust on the walls, grimy floors and a general appearance of a civilisation fallen on hard times or outposts on hostile planets or moons.

I've finished everything off - a couple of weeks of hard slog, I have to say, and I'll post everything over the next week or so. 

I am planning to use some of these pieces with my Jon Hodgson sci fi backdrops to create some nice little dioramas. They will obviously have lots of uses in Xenos Rampant and with my own Reivers Of The Outer Rim rules, which I am currently planning to simplify and re-write.

More Wargames Atlantic giant spiders

About a year ago, I posted about the excellent Wargames Atlantic Classic Fantasy Giant Spiders. Back in January I decided that I really had to assemble and paint the rest of the box, and here are the results. I've taken two pictures of them. Firstly a simple shot showing the spiders against a plain backdrop and, when you scroll down a second picture set up as a small action diorama.

As you can see the six big spiders are absolutely huge posed with a Bad Squiddo Freyja's Wrath female Berserker (who I use as my Barbarian character for D&D). The smaller spider is the Barbarian's latest acquisition, Fluffy the giant wolf spider.

I wanted to use a simple but menacing dark palette for these spiders. After assembly, a tricky job,they were glued to 5cm MDF bases which were then covered with a mix of PVA glue and calcium sand (which is used in reptile vivariums). 

I undercoated the spiders in Halford's matt grey spray primer and, once dry, gave them a wash of Nuln Oil. Next I set about a series of dry-brushed layers in dark, medium and pale grey and then set them aside.  Once dry, I then finished off the spiders with a wash of diluted W&N Indian ink and, when that was dry, I picked out the fangs and eyes in a pale grey. The Indian ink had dripped down onto the bases, which was what I wanted and I finished the bases off with a simple wash of lightly diluted Agrax Earthshade

I should have made seven giant spiders and one large one, but somewhere over the last year, I seem to have lost the head/thorax part for one of the big guys, I might have to look at some kind of human/arachnid mutant at some point.

Anyway, as promised above, here is the diorama;

I'm pretty happy with this picture. I think it has come out really nicely.

The scene was set up in my lightbox, using a Jon Hodgson backdrop, a selection of my 3D printed ruins and a floor made from my Warbases dungeon tiles. I took several shots with aperture priority using different light intensities and different apertures, shooting at an exposure range between ISO 100 and ISO 800 with my Pentax K-70 DSLR. 

Egyptian ruins, plus a fountain.

 First, the fountain;

This is another 3D print from Dungeon Scenes. The murky green water has been given a coat of acrylic gloss varnish. I allowed the green paint to go up the walls of the fountain, hoping to create the effect of algal growth. I think it looks OK. The 28mm guy is for scale only.

Next a number of resin pieces from The Square, who can be found at many trade shows. These are all based up for desert-based gaming;

Spot the 28mm guy, he's looking pretty small against these pieces.

These were easy enough to paint; base coat spray, dry-brushing in lighter colours, a wash here and there to bring out the details, a few bits of Gamers' Grass and lots of sandy ballast. Job done.

Hopefully these will get plenty of fantasy, pulp, VSF and eldritch horror use.

I'm going to have to get back to painting actual minis now. Sadly, the painting mojo is still hiding somewhere.

More 3D printed stuff - this time science fiction

This time it is sci fi terrain pieces.

 Once again, this is all from Dungeon Scenes. The figure is for scale purposes only.

I thought that I would go for a Grimdark theme for these pieces rather than shiny clean advanced technology or a Mandalorian-style dusty Cowboys in Space look.

The big rusty blue thing at the back has been painted to be an abandoned installation of some kind, mainly because I had previously dropped it and one of the sticking up pieces had got broken. The two generator type pieces are clearly the kind of ancient technology that suits a degenerate and xenophobic civilisation that doesn't really understand how its machines work, or maybe it is alien tech that does abominable things in strange and incomprehensible ways?

The hexagonal sensor array (or whatever else it might be) at the back isn't as Grimdark as the other pieces, especially the bronzed tower.

I'll get these in front of some of Jon Hodgson's sci fi backdrops at some point.

The two generators could definitely feature in Pulp or VSF games, as well as more conventional science fiction settings.

Overall, I am pretty pleased with how they have turned out, even though this photograph doesn't really do them justice. 

Quite a lot of 3D printed ruins

A couple of years ago, I bought a load of 3D printed scenic items at the club's Tabletop Sale from a guy who trades as "Dungeon Scenes" and who can be found on Facebook, here. For a variety of reasons I'd not got round to painting any of the stuff until now. Here are various bits of ruined buildings, you'll have to scroll down to see everything.

First, some nice ruined arches and columns (the Bad Squiddo Amazon is for scale purposes only).

Next, a corner piece with arches and another piece which shows an overgrown red tiled floor and low walls.

Finally, seven pieces from a much larger ruined building. This could represent a manor, church, an abbey or maybe some kind of Elven stronghold?

Obviously, all the above could feature in fantasy games, pulp, horror or historical settings and I am planning to use them as parts of the scenery to sit in front of Jon Hodgson's backdrops.

I found these remarkably easy to paint. I washed and dried them off before priming them in Halford's grey plastic primer, which pretty much provided the base coat and then the rest of the work was dry-brushing and adding grassy flock mix and other odds and ends of vegetation. I'm very happy with the climbing plants entwined around the windows in the final photo. They are wire-stemmed model railway small scale trees and really add some nice atmosphere.

I have some sci fi bits and pieces to paint up next, and I have also finished off a small fountain piece which I need to get varnished.

Some figures I painted back in the 1990s

I was looking through some old PC backups on DVDs last week and I found a file of photos I took in 2005 with my first digital camera. They were of some Warhammer 40K figures from the 1990s. So, here they are. There are some more of my comments at the bottom.

There were a few more pictures in the file that were either out of focus or simply not very good in terms of painting quality. These were definitely the pick of the bunch, although I can see a lot of mistakes with them. There are also plenty of places where they really needed tidying up and splashes etc being removed. Some of the shading is pretty terrible and I can see lots of things I'd do differently now.

A few figures that have been hanging around for years

These were figures that I got with the Congo Mungo Ma Lobeh campaign supplement, which features the real female explorer Mary Kingsley.

The picture above is Mary Kingsley and her adversary in the campaign, Uguwa, a powerful sorceror. The picture below features two bearers. Bearers are always useful for all manner of games set in Africa.

I have to admit that I've never actually played the campaign, mainly because we stopped playing Congo at the club ages ago and no one seems interested in picking the game up again. However, all is not lost, because these figures could easily be used in all manner of Pulp games.

I'm happy to finally get these painted up, even if they do end up sitting in a storage box until a suitable need arises.