I foresee a few difficulties ahead with getting much painting done.

I hasten to add that these are not negative difficulties. They are small furry white ones and their names are Ralph and Dora.

Ralph on the left and Dora are our two new West Highland White Terrorists, They are full of beans and getting into everything. I am spending much of my time keeping an eye on them and stopping them from chewing unsuitable things such as cables, the rugs and pretty much everything else.

They do go to sleep occasionally, though.

And sometimes they look really sweet when they fall sleep in a little furry heap. They like sleeping on the back of the sofa.

They really are lovely little puppies, or as we sometimes call them for obvious reasons, "pluppies". 

Hopefully, I'll be able to grab a few hours here and there when they are tired, because despite how it sometimes feels, puppies do spend a large part of each day asleep.

Daisy, our surviving 14-year old Westie sister seems OK with them, although they do seem to get on her nerves occasionally and there have been growls and the occasional flash of teeth. The puppies will learn that she needs her space. It was heartening to watch all three of them playing on Sunday morning, though. Daisy was doing play bows and being all waggy and playful with them. I think it's going to turn out fine.

So, fewer minis will be painted for a while, but we now have Westie pups which makes everything better.

The Shinobi Academy

When I was looking at my Bad Squiddo Onna-Bugeisha figures, I wanted a theme for some of the figures. It occurred to me that I could invent a Ninja (or Shinobi) training school, where young women could be schooled in all the disciplines and techniques of Ninjutsu.

Therefore, I decided to use the figures below as instructors and pupils at my fictional Shinobi Academy.

First, the Chief Instructor and two of her most experienced members of staff.

I decided that they would all wear a simple grey kimono with a pale blue obi, with the exception of the Chief Instructor who would be allowed to wear whatever she chooses, although I used the same blue as the obi of the other figures for her tunic to create a degree of unity.

Next, some students. First, the very youngest pupils, who are learning the basic skills and are not yet permitted to use actual weapons with sharp blades.

And finally a pair of senior students, who are trained to the level where they can be trusted to take part in a range of covert activities, generally, but not always under the supervision of those who have already graduated from the Academy.

Once again, the bases have been finished with the excellent tufts by Gamer's Grass, available from Bad Squiddo.

Ninjas!

 Bad Squiddo female Ninjas, to be precise.

I decided against a black colour scheme, and kept them pretty much to the way they look on Annie's website. I think that the grey colour scheme works pretty well, because, as anyone who drives at night knows, people wearing grey can look pretty invisible in low light, as well as in complete darkness.

Here they are from behind;

I like the poses of these two a lot, especially the one who is creeping forwards through the undergrowth waiting to strike as soon as her enemy comes into view.

Ninjas are also known as Shinobi in Japanese and, as we all know from live action films as well as from from anime, shinobi were deployed as assassins and spies. Their heyday was in the Sengoku period between 1467 and the beginning of the Tokugawa Shogunate in 1615. Most of what we know about them comes from folklore and popular fiction

They are lovely crisp casts, as one always expects from Bad Squiddo and paint up really nicely. The bases are finished off with Gamer's Grass Tufts, also available from Bad Squiddo.

These will be great for all manner of different game systems, I think.

Some more finished minis!

Two more figures painted. This time from the Copplestone Future Wars range. 

These are listed as Power-armour troopers but I see them as armoured combat droids for my ROTOR rules. They could, of course be suitable for any science fiction rules you might have. These guys are pretty big, around 4cm tall and have heavy weapons and powered fists, so a tough nut to crack.

My idea for these, apart from having one as a heavy hitter in a ROTOR Reiver team is that they have been hanging around for a long time, maybe as heavy security for an industrial complex or perhaps a scientific or mining location. Therefore, I wanted them to look a bit battered and battle-worn. So, lots of small areas of raw metal and a bit of rust around the lower legs. I also wanted them to look like decommissioned military droids so I painted on a ghosted dark green area where military insignia had been in the past.

You can see the rusty areas quite nicely on the rear view of the two droids above. When I painted them, my aim was to bring out as much contrast as possible, so plenty of dry-brushing and darkening the recessed parts of the figures.

To do this, I used some Army Painter Strong Tone (the stuff in the dropper bottles, not the tinned version) painted all over the models after an initial priming coat of PSC US Olive Drab spray before adding in the bare metal areas and the layers of dry-brushing with Vallejo Olive Green, Desert Yellow and finally Iraqi Sand, finishing off by adding on the rust glazing, using AK Light Rust Wash.

Finally, I finished the bases off with Gamer's Grass (available on the Bad Squiddo website) dry vegetation tufts and a mix of sandy and rocky ballast.

I am really very pleased with how these have turned out.

Another Bad Squiddo mini - a cyborg

 I finished this Bad Squiddo figure off yesterday afternoon and spray-varnished it this morning.

She is a cyborg, therefore containing robotic/synthetic components mixed with a human biological core. My vision for her is that she is an ancient warrior cyborg, perhaps trapped for centuries on a forgotten world, the last living remnant of the crew of an abandoned spacecraft or perhaps the guardian of some long-abandoned habitat.

To give her the appearance of great age, I decided on a bronze-based colour palette, so that her outer carapace, which protects the small amount of biological tissue inside, looks like an ancient set of powered armour. I wanted her to look battered, with an air of antiquity, a relic of a now-vanished imperial power. 

I dry-brushed her bronze armour with some old gold paint and also gave some small parts of her armour a very light dry-brush with a pale green colour. I also painted some of her mechanical components gunmetal with a raw steel dry-brush for highlighting purposes. The coppery effect on her face mask and "hair" was done with a wash of burnt sienna drawing ink over old gold paint.

The scrap of green fabric around her upper torso is all that is left of a once magnificent long cloak.

Who can imagine the life of such a being? A flickering remnant of humanity forever locked inside an ancient bio-mechanical frame and covered in power armour of great age and complexity. What thoughts, if any would such a being have? Would she even be sane after so long? 

I must say that I really love this mini.

Taking the post-apocalyptic dog for a walk

 I've not really had the painting mojo for a while. I keep starting things and then abandoning them either once they are undercoated or part way through painting them.

However, I knew I had to do something about this sorry state of affairs, so I got to work on a few things I got for Christmas. 

These are a set from the Bad Squiddo Ghosts of Gaia range and they are listed as "Wrenchmouth and handlers" but I prefer to think of them as two residents of the post-apocalypse taking their dog for a walk. I like the cute little puppy the figure on the left is holding up. Clealy the little 'un hasn't had its injections yet.

Here they are again, on their way back from the park.

These figures are the usual fabulousness that we have come to expect from Annie's sculptors and casters and they really are very nice minis to paint.

I shall be finding a use for them in all sorts of science fiction games, including my own ROTOR skirmish rules, once we are actually allowed to meet up and play with our toys again.

I have a few more figures primed and waiting for a brush session, so hopefully I'll have something ready to post in a day or two.

I think the key to getting stuff finished at the moment is just painting something I like, rather than painting for a specific project.

A couple more Victorian Science Fiction figures

I actually painted these two last year, but somehow forgot all about them until now. As some regular readers might remember, I had a lot of turmoil and anguish last year with one of my dogs, so I am pretty sure that is why they never got onto the blog. I have given the photo the title of "A Steampunk Hero and Heroine". They are from the North Star Steampunk range.

These two feature heavily in the illustrations in the original In Her Majesty's Name rulebook, so I felt like I really ought to have them in my collection.

As an aside, a new edition of the revised and updated rules will soon be available. Personally, I am really looking forward to getting my hands on a copy.

Anyway, such characters need names and a background, so here are;

Captain George Ruff-Diamond, late of the Rifle Brigade, is now employed by an undisclosed Mysterious Government Agency in an unspecified capacity. Capt. Ruff-Diamond travels widely across Europe and beyond and is a noted bon viveur, sportsman and explorer. He lives on private means although the source of his wealth is shrouded in secrecy. Capt. Ruff-Diamond is a close friend of Professor Henry Hardy and was once romantically-linked to his sister Miss Amelia Hardy, with whom he remains on friendly terms.

Miss Felicity Ward. Miss Ward is a noted writer of fantastical romances and books on such matters as Spiritualism and the Occult. A former student of Archaeology and History at Brichester University and the École Nationale des Sciences Arcanes in Bordeaux, Miss Ward has travelled widely in the Near East and Eastern Europe and is the daughter of the noted American Anthropologist Professor Charles Phillips Ward of Arkham, Massachusetts and his second wife, Lady Jacquetta Melchett, the noted painter and poet. Miss Ward is a noted fencer and horsewoman and is considered to be an excellent markswoman with both pistol and rifle.