Mitch Hunter

Today I painted up my second Capitol Doomtrooper; Mitch Hunter.  For most people who have a passing familiarity with the Mutant Chronicles universe Mitch Hunter is the main guy you tend to see on the cover of rulebooks and he has been a staple presence in every game (board, miniature, card, RPG) release.

The figure itself is very cool on it's own merits.  He has loads of gear and pouches so he is a bit more detailled than alot of Warzone figures of his original era but he isn't overdone (as special characters can sometimes be) to the extent that he doesn't fit in with the army he's meant to lead.

I'm very excited about finishing up some of the older Warzone figures I still had kicking around so I can dive whole-hog into the new stuff (which looks excellent) when it comes out.

-Jay

Doom Trooper/Sea Lion Officer Mitch Hunter

 

50 Figure Painting Challenge: Completed (3 of 4)

Another 13 Mobile Infantry finished this morning.  Shadowrun and Warzone have been doing a pretty good job of keeping me distracted lately but I'm finally almost done these guys...or girls.

-Jay

39 down, 13 to go!

 

...slightly closer up

 

 

Big Bob Watts

I can't wait and I can't resist...the other night I pulled out my box of remaining unpainted Warzone Capitol models and started working on them.

I've got some Free Marines and Sea Lions I'm doing as ongoing projects (16 Free Marines and 12 Sea Lions so more than a quick session worth of work) but in the meantime I've started doing some of the special character models I never got around to last time.

My favourite thing about Big Bob Watts is that he takes 'heroic' sci-fi figures to the Nth degree, if you're going to have a ludicriously oversized weapon then you should really go for broke!

I'm doing my best at matching the colour scheme with the Capitol models I painted in the long ago time.  When I've got a few done I'll mix them up together and see if they fit.

-Jay

One man fire support team!

 

...just in case you were still unclear on the size of those guns.

 

 

50 Figure Painting Challenge: Completed (2 of 4)

I put the finishing touches on 13 more of my Mobile Infantry today.  I thought I would wrap these up alot sooner than this but between Shadowrun and Warzone I've been super-distracted in terms of hobby projects lately.

At any rate another 13 are now done and I think it will be back to the distractions tonight!

-Jay

Group shot

 

Close-up

 

 

Street Samurai

When I started collecting Hasslefree Miniatures a few years ago with the intent of using them in a modern day survivial horror game there were a few figures that once I got them upclose didn't quite work (in my mind) for my intended purpose.  The great thing about putting that stuff aside and holding onto it until later is that one day it turns out to be exactly the figure you need for a game you didn't even know you were going to play.

Immediately prior to starting this blog last year I pulled out a few dozen unpainted Hasslefree Miniatures to paint and one of them that got put back was 'Grant'.  Grant looks amazing but he was slightly (and only slightly) too high-tech looking for what I wanted.  In fact the major sticking point for me with the figure was that his Ingram MAC-10 looked all modded up in the way I expected an Ingram Smartgun in Shadowrun to look.....

So now I'm looking at jumping back into Shadowrun and after downloading and printing the quick start rules I see I will need a Street Samurai figure who is; bald, armed with an Ingram Smartgun & 2 sidearms.

Welcome back Grant!

-Jay

Time to sweep the streets!

 

The longcoat of the law

I can always tell when I'm getting manic about a project because I start cranking stuff out faster than I need it and before I've even figured out whether I need it or not.

This morning while I was taking short breaks to let paint and washes dry on my Orc Hacker I used the time it freed up to paint another figure for a potential Shadowrun game.  This figure will make a great detective NPC and I had him laying around with some Rezolution stuff I bought a few years ago.  He's a fairly basic looking guy in a long coat with the exception that he has what looks like some sort of body armour fastened to the front of his coat.

I'm not sure whether I'll need him or not but he seemed too cool not to paint.

-Jay

Looks a little lightly equipped to stop a group...maybe he needs some friends.

 

Same guy from the back.  I definitely think the cargo pockets on the coat add a sci-fi feel.

 

 

50 Figure Painting Challenge: Completed (1 of 4)

Now that the time pressure is off (having already lost) our painting challenge I slowed down a bit and instead of painting to tabletop standard and moving on I've gone back to do touch-ups and finish bases before calling finished.

This is my first batch of 13 Mobile Infantry Troopers completely finished.

More to come.

-Jay

First 13 completely finished!

 

...and a slightly tighter shot

 

 

Orc Hacker

Apparently I've been big on gaming nostalgia lately (painting Starship Troopers, digging out my Warzone stuff, etc) and now with all the talk about Shadowrun on various forums lately a few friends and I have decided to return to one of our old favourite RPG settings.

Being the miniatures guy in our group I took stock of what I had already done that would work for Shadowrun (quite alot as it turns out) and then I started looking at obvious holes in my miniature collection I would need to fill.  The 2 things it looks like I need that I'm struggling abit to find miniatures for is meta-humans and hackers.

The challenge with meta-humans (Orcs, Elves, Dwarves & Trolls for those of you not familiar with the game) is that although there are a ton of sci-fi meta-human figures out there almost all of them are meant to blend stylistically with Warhammer 40,000 and the look of Shadowrun is more near-future than far-future.  The challenge with hackers is that most of the hacker figures I can find are from the Infinity line which are absolutely amazing models but look a little too slick and polished (in my opinion) for a Shadowrun group.

For my first new figure, which is both a meta-human and a hacker, I settled on a figure I scavenged from a copy of Earth Reborn I got a few years ago with his head removed (it was a human with a gas mask) and replaced with an Orc head from an old D&D prepaint.  He`s still a little more high-tech and slick looking than I would like but he can definitely fit with the system.

-Jay

Orc Hacker

 

Terminators....no the other kind

Today I woke up feeling a little directionless.  For the first time in over a week I have to decide what I'm painting.  I do have 2 projects I need to get to work on fairly quickly but I thought I'd do a super-quick side-project today as sort of a warmup.

As I have mentionned several times previously there are often figures that you see as a hobbyist and you don't know what you need them for or when you'll use them but you are 100% certain that you do in fact need them, this is a pack of those figures.  Reaper Miniatures has in their Chronoscope line a bunch of figures that are clearly meant to represent characters from movies (they just added the girls from Sucker Punch to the line FYI) and some of those figures whether you want to game those movies or not seem like they can fit in elsewhere as well.  Today's pack is the T-800 Terminators, I'm sorry I can't remember what they're actually called in Reaper's line.  I figured these would make good security robots, or Ultron minions in a superhero game, or just a good stock bad guy when I'm short on ideas and I need something that will instantly make player sit up and think 'oh, this is serious'.

Very simple paint jobs obviously.  I worked through 2 shades of metallics then a wash then a metallic highlight but at the end of the day they're just 4 metal skeletal robots who are ready whenever I need them.

-Jay

They'll be back!

 

50 Figure Painting Challenge: Day 8 (The Agony Of Defeat!)

It's almsot the same margin of defeat for me as last time.  I was about 2 hours from being done when I got the e-mail letting me know I was now slugging it out for second place in our painting challenge.

Congratulations to Darren who not only won our challenge but did it in-spite of starting later than everyone else and without the benefit of cheater-dip.

Over the next couple of days I will post the crisper clearer pictures of my completed MI models and lament what might have been.....

-Jay

50 Figure Painting Challenge: Day 6

(Day 6 was yesterday, this should have gone up then)

Back to the Mobile Infantry!  So last night I got another 13 figures done for my MI troopers and got the bases, guns and flesh done for my last 13.  At this point I have 39 finished and my last 13 started, so I am conservatively 75% of the way done.

As I mentionned previously I am happy that this is all moving along but to be perfectly honest so far it's taken me almost exactly twice as long as I thought it would.  My original plan in terms of time frame was going to be to paint 13 figures per day from start to finish but between distractions and real-life creeping in I just haven't been able to keep up the pace I had originally set for myself.

If I keep going at the rate I have been (rather than the rate I was planning) I should be finished late Sunday night...which I have a sinking feeling we give me a second place finish (out of 4 participants).

Once I'm all done I'll post crisper photos of all the figures together.

-Jay

Getting close to the finish line!

 

A Blast From The Past: Warzone-Capitol Infantry

The internets are all abuzz with activity about the return of Warzone on February 15th.  Warzone was probably one of my favourite games when it first came out and I find that the background, imagery and artwork hold up really well to this day.

As I mentionned in one of my previous posts I do plan on revisting my Imperial Army and getting some more paint on that and I do have some Bauhaus stuff I was going to merge with my earlier space-facists (no idea when I'll get around to that mind you) but in the meantime I thought I'd show off my finished Capitol Infantry from a few years ago.  I had done these figures about 8-9 years ago when I wanted to field a force none of my opponents were playing and I basically speed painted them over the course  a weekend so the paint jobs are pretty basic but I think they hold up reasonably well as troopers fighting in a trench-like landscape sometime in the dark future.

Hope you like them!

-Jay

K-9 Handler

 

Infantry Officers

 

Light Infantry Troopers

 

Light Infantry Specialists

 

Heavy Infantry Troopers

 

Heavy Infantry Specialists

 

 

 

 

 

 

50 Figure Painting Challenge: Day 4

I managed to get a bit more painting done tonight.  Finished 7 more of the same figure I painted yesterday so I now have 26 figures done and 26 figures still to do, I'm halfway there!

I'm definitely feeling good about my progress so far, now the only question is did anyone else pull a marathon paint session and get ahead of me?

-Jay

Half done!

 

50 Figure Painting Challenge: Interlude Two

I decided to do another side-project to my Starship Troopers figures this morning as opposed to getting more work in on my Mobile Infantry.  I've always found these diversions help me keep up a regular painting schedule but while I'm in a race I don't think they're doing me alot of good.  Having said that when the basic figs with rifles are done I'm sure I'll be happy to have some other interesting stuff to supplement them with.

This morning I painted a Neo-Dog which is a cybernetically enhanced dog that is used primarily by Pathfinders in ST but can also be bought as 1 off upgrades.  Mongoose used to sell whole K-9 units but sadly for me all I have is the single Neo-Dog from the 'Heroes Of The Mobile Infantry' box set.

Check back in later tonight for an update on the actual main project.

-Jay

Woof!

 

50 Figure Painting Challenge: Day 3

What was I saying the other day about hobby A.D.D.?
Tonight I SHOULD have been painting my next batch of 13 troopers but instead I got sidetracked and spent a couple of hours converting some figures for an upcoming game.  When I got back to my Mobile Infantry it was much later than I intended.

Long story shory I got 6 more figures almost finished today.  I just have to clean up the black bits and do the eyes.  I should be able to do that in an hour before I leave for work tomorrow.

So at this point (calling those figures "done") I've got 19 figures finished and 33 left to go.  Basically I'm 40% done after 3 days, that's not a bad pace but I doubt it's enough to keep me at the front of the pack.

Hopefully tomorrow will produce a better result and I can keep myself from getting distracted by shinny things.

-Jay

6 more!

 

50 Figure Painting Challenge: Day 2

Timing is everything isn't it?  After meandering through my painting projects for most of the last 2 years with no particular goals or deadlines I take on this painting bet and within a few days find myself with commitments to get nearly 100 new models for 2 separate projects done in a fairly short amount of time.  Will this distract me?  Probably.  Will it stop me?  I don't think so.

Tonight I managed to finish my first 13 troopers, apologies for the poor picture quality I took the photo in my painting area not my photo area.  Hopefully tomorrow I'll put up a better picture alongside the next work-in-progress shot.  So basically I'm 25% done (13 done, 39 left) with another 13 figures roughly half done.

If I can just keep my old adversay Hobby A.D.D. from kicking in I should be fine.....

-Jay

First 13 done!

 

50 Figure Painting Challenge: Interlude

I got up early this morning as planned but after I made my coffee and got everything sorted out I just wasn't feeling the urge to paint those Mobile Infantry.  Still I was sitting at my desk and thinking I should get something useful done, so I decided to speed paint a single MI Officer model.

This figure represent a command level officer and member of the military intelligence unit in the Starship Troopers universe.  What made him appealing was that his simple colour scheme meant I could get him done in under an hour and still have a little time to put in some much needed work on my troopers.

Later tonight (much later tonight) I should be posting an update on my actual trooper models.

-Jay

SICON Advisor

 

50 Figure Painting Challenge: Day 1

After all the build up I finally got brush in hand and got down to it tonight and realized it's been a long time since I assembly-line painted models.

My basic plan is to paint my figs in 4 groups of 13.  There are 4 variants of the trooper models so basically I'm painting 13 identical figures before moving onto the next batch.  The exception is that anytime I put on anything that has an extended drying time (washes & texture paint mostly) I'm working ahead on the next batch of 13.

In my head the plan tonight was to get the first 13 completely finished and to get the next 13 to the point where I could easily finish them tomorrow night.....I fell well short of both goals.  My first 13 are probably 75% done which means it should take me about 2 hours to finish them tomorrow but my next 13 are barely started.  I still feel good about the progress that I made and if I can catch an extra hour or two in the next couple of days I'll be back on track, otherwise I may have set myself up for second place finish (at best).

Tomorrow should be an interesting day.  I'm hoping to get some painting done in the morning to start catching up a bit on my schedule.

-Jay

It begins!

 

Rogues Gallery: January 2013 (better late than never?)

One of the suggestions I received last year to improve the blog was to post a month-end summary showing what painting a figure or two a day looked like at the end of a full month (thanks for the suggestion Justin!).

January's Rogues Gallery looks a little light as I only painted 18 figures this month which is probably the fewest I've done in a month since I started the blog.  What I do like about this month's collection though is that although I had specific uses in mind for all the figures I painted there is definitely alot of stuff this month that will cross over into multiple games.  In fact other than Bat-Bane I'm pretty sure every other figure here has multiple uses.

On the plus side February's collection will probably be the largest number of figures I've painted in a single month since I started this, whether I win the painting challenge or not I will have 52 more figures done by the end of the month.

So without further ado, here's what an hour here and an hour there can look like in your miniature collection when you add it up at the end of the month.

-Jay

13 figures full painted + 5 touch ups =18 total

 

Standing on the starting line!

Kick-off for the painting challenge is tomorrow!  My 52 troopers are now primed and ready to roll.

I've got a simple plan that should allow me to finish all 52 fairly quickly.  I'll post the timeline for completion once we're actually done, I know that sounds backwards but declaring the pace I'm going to paint at ahead of time seems like a surefire way of losing.

I also managed to complete my last 2 'test' models for the project so I thought I would show those off today as well.

See you tomorrow with my first update!

-Jay

Just looking for some troops to lead into battle!

 

Ah, there they are!