40K-ishness along the Tartarus Rim

What are you using for the ground? Is that a blanket?

Cool! I was hoping anyone would show this mini along GW's Zoats. Well done, you made them all look as part of the same batch.

^Bulldoglopez,

Yes, it's a blanket. Or more technically a couple yards of synthetic velourishness from JoAnn's Fabric. I'm meaning to make something better, but at least it's a vaguely mottled desertscape looking blanket. It's . . . not perfect, but it works.

^Suber,

Happy to oblige. Glad they all look of a batch. That was very much my intention. I hope to use them as a unit from time to time, and they now form a complete RT squad. I have another OC copy that's due for conversion work to make five distinct models. And maybe I'll get a hold of the single bolt- excuse me, fleshboarer model. I'd absolutely love to have an RT acceptable tyranid army, which is supposed to be, at minimum, half zoat. (How I'll pull that off, I'm not sure. But then getting an unreleased RT tyranid might be so nigh impossible that I'll be better off learning to sculpt the things myself, in which case I can do it the hard way.

A final miniature for 2015 . . .



I'm calling her China "Ba Muoi Ba" Dang. (Ba Tram Ba Muoi Ba is a popular brand of Vietnamese beer. Three Hundred Thirty Three Beer, from the Saigon brewery.) She's yet another miniaturized friend. The actual individual is Chinese-Vietnamese-American. (Which is to say she is a Chinese-Vietnamese refugee of some war or other that I might possibly have family on both sides of now who landed in the United States as a child and adopted this sometimes misguided land of ours. If one is ethnically Chinese apparently one claims that no matter where one happens to live. And I've got a well documented soft spot for the Vietnamese among us. So there you go China. You're shrunk.)

Got the year end review up on Poetry O' the Symphonic if you're curious. Not a bad year. Another 80ish miniatures. Not quite two a week, but well more than one. Need to pick up the pace, of course, but don't we all?

Such a great thread - thanks for painting and sharing SP. Great work!

Very cool - nice work!

Got a little distracted with a move (ahem . . . several months ago) and I hit something of a painting funk. But I think I'm breaking out now. Here's the result:







And here he is with his compatriots . . .



There's more on the blog pots, of course. And I dropped the in progress pics into the miniature rescue thread. Seemed a good place for it, as this fellow came to me short an arm and a gun. Of course, I've tweaked it a bit since, as there's nothing like a large picture to help you find the flaws in a paint job. Anyone care to guess what I "fixed"?

This is a really cool thread. So much so I'm off to get some stuff from bolt thrower. Thanks!

Thank you! And glad to hear you're headed towards Bolt Thrower. They have some splendid stuff.

A small update:









More to follow as soon as I can get a day to use a camera . . .

These little vignettes are very evocative. I really like the backpatch on Mean Machine's vest, too.

Thank you paperclip. I spent a lot of time on that back patch. Quite proud of it. Hadn't even realized his name was called Mean Machine. But it seemed to fit so nicely . . .

Not a Judge Dredd fan? Gonna have to go up to 4 on this one!

^jon_1066,

I've nothing against Judge Dredd. The miniatures looked interesting to me in the 80s. But I never read comic books as a kid (weird huh?), so I had no exposure to him at all before Citadel and little enough after the Stalone film. I've grown to appreciate comic books in my adult life, but my familiarity is still . . . darn hit and miss. I've learned a little about Judge Dredd reading sho3box, but I'm still essentially an outsider. I will say I begin to appreciate the impact it's had on the genre, and I've enjoyed what I've seen. And I'm happy enough to know the cyber armed fellow who has recently found himself on the Tartarus Rim emigrates from such an acclaimed place. Moab III customs and immigration didn't ask too many questions. (They usually don't. It's essentially a formality.) So maybe there's some surprises in store there, huh? We'll have to wait and see what sort of occupation he seeks out in the wilds of space.

It was just a little joke - Mean Machine was a family member of the Angel Gang but he was just a nice kid with no evil or anger in him whatsoever. This didn't go down well with Pa Angel so he was turned into a cyborg with a dial on his forehead from 1-4. 1 is surly, 2 mean, 3 vicious and 4 brutal.

Okay. That was a fantastic joke . . . to Dredd fans. For what it's worth I'm thinking there's still some softie in him. Hard exterior, but actually a nice kid still, deep down there. And either way . . . a wonderful model.

As long as he doesn't get stuck on 4 and a half, that's when the real trouble starts!

THis really is a cool set of models. THey look really "comic book" in paint style, which works when they are all painted to match. I am also likeing the decepticon logo (and more ramshackle bits and bobs )

Thank you Curtis. Continuing on the same line, and maybe adding a bit of a Ramshackle Bob . . .

First we have another pair of Space Riders: Gobbrott . . .





and a creature I'm calling a Hulkus umberei or ambler. I think the below specimen is a bull ambler.





Getting off the new miniatures for a moment, I got a couple of exo-armor squats painted up, including my first ever chaos squat . . . though I'm ignoring that and letting him ride with his more law abiding brethren.







Got the Slann clann assembled for a family portrait.



And the new eldar are busy helping the rest of the party fend off a rather gruesome frontal assault.





Lastly . . . Gordon Frei, who recently fled to Moab III. His origins are unclear, but there is some rumor that he just walked out of the warp one day.





Curtis's original turned out better, I think. And I had no idea it was so similar. I wanted to do a kind of Gordon Freeman as an old man impression. And I wanted his skin to look very dry and rough, so I didn't really blend it any or use inks. Just color and highlight on top of black. Trying to get a very mutated look. Not sure I like it. Might go back and add ink and some blending after all. But anyway . . .

There is, of course, more prose on the blog in a post called Another Space Ride.

As an aside, is there a thread for Space Riders? I recall seeing one, but I can't seem to find it. My search foo is failing me.

One more brief diversion before getting hip deep in a larger project . . .

Another goat for the herd:



And here's the other side, along with a comparison to other similar goats: L to R - Demonblade Goatehead Gnasher, Spacelord Phagon, and Citadel Beastman.



There's just a touch of prose in a post called The Black Sheep in the Family, but it's a short post, so there's not too much there this time.