My 2012 Output

Assassin

Servitors

Astropath

Scourged Forest Zuzzy Mat

Wounded City Zuzzy Mat

Graveyard trees

Mausoleum 1

Mausoleum 2

Mausoleum 3

Mausoleum 4

Graveyard Statue 1

Mausoleum 5

Graveyard Walls

Graveyard fences

Graveyard Gate

More Graveyard bits

Graveyard in situ

 

Riddick

 

Dark Judges

Lady Justice Malifaux Crew

Malifaux Objectives 1

Malifaux Objectives 2

Santiago Ortega & another creepy tree

Executioner

Robo Sheriff

Scales of Justice

Austringer

 

Veermyn

Veermyn Squad Leader and trooper.

Veermyn heavy weapon trooper and trooper.

Veermyn Commander

 

Space Dwarfs

Stormrage Veterans

Steel Warriors

More Steel Warriors

Space Dwarf Engineer

Space Dwarf Commander

Space Dwarf Artillery

10mm Evil Army

10mm Saruman

10mm Goblin spear unit.

10mm Nazgul mounted on Fell Beast

10mm Goblin spear unit 2

10mm War Trolls

10mm Mounted Nazgul

10mm Orc warriors

10mm Orc  & Goblin Heroes

10mm Goblin Wolf Riders

10mm Orc Stone Thrower

10mm Hobgoblin Wolf Riders

10mm Mounted Goblin Heroes

More 10mm Hobgoblin Wolf Riders

Blood Bowl Elf

Skeleton Robots

Cyber Reavers

Necron Scarabs

Chaos Android, Necron Warrior, Necron Warrior

Chaos Dreadnought

Terminators

Necron Lord

Fishmen

ALF

 

Thats my output for  2012.  Totals are ~104 miniatures (counting 10mm bases as one miniature) and ~55 terrain elements (which vary in size from a 28mm scale book to 6×4′ terrain mats).  It a little less than my output for 2011, but its still pretty good I think.  I reckon that I could push productivity up a bit more if I really tried, but then it might become more of a chore than a pleasurable pastime.  I suspect that future years will have about the same output, which really means that I should buy far, far fewer miniatures than I do currently.

My recurring late Summer-Autumn slump happened again this year.  Keeping this blog has made it apparent to me that the slump seems to be a recurring seasonal thing, which is interesting.  It also means that when it happens I now get a little less frustrated, as I expect it somewhat and have a rough idea of its frequency and duration.  Monitoring output was one of the goals in my blog mission statement when I started it a few years ago so this sort of information is interesting and potentially helpful I think.

My rough plans for miniature related things for 2013 will go up here soon.  Happy new year.

ALF

“Yo Willie!”

ALFs back, in pog form.  And more importantly, in 28mm miniature form.  I saw the green for this figure on LAF a year or so ago and it was subsequently made available by Four A Miniatures.

ALF avails of Earthside diplomatic immunity via some (slightly shiny) MiBs.

The figure is a little larger than I had expected.  Going by the publicity photos and the occasional shot or clip from the TV show I would have figured that Gordon Shumway was about 1m high.  IMDB confirms this as the characters height.  I find it sort of funny that a puppet character whose legs only feature in SFX shots has a true height, but there you go.

As you can see from the comparison shots , this Melmacian seems to be a bigger specimen than nineties television ALF.  The sculpt is immediately recognisable though.  Who is to say that ALF isnt a shorter than average example of the species than this particular cat eater  anyway?  Still, I would have preferred it if the figure was more petite.

L to R: 40k Rogue Trader era Imperial Assassin, Four A Alien Life Form, 40k 3rd edition Space Marine.

After a false start by painting the figure in a more orange tone, I went with a pretty straightforward basecoat-wash-drybrush affair on the fur.  I tweaked it here and there, but I didnt want to get too heavily into what should be a straightforward and quick paint job.  Possibly I should have spent a little more time on the floppy quiff, but after I got the face to a passable level I decided to leave it as is and move on to the next project.

ALF is likely to show up in some 40K skirmish games chez sho3box in 2013, likely as part of a radical Ordo Xenos Inquisitorial retinue.  He is a good proxy for a jokaero visually, although as aliens go ALF was pretty powerless.  He didnt have any particular abilities beyond those that a hairy one metre tall human might have as far as I can remember.  Correct me if I am wrong.

Melmacians come in a lot of shapes and sizes and a perverse part of me now wants to paint up a few more.  That way madness lies however.  I am very unlikely to actually do it.  Probably.

Painting this figure has also made me want to get some of my 28mm cat miniatures painted.  A gyrinx companion for said Ordo Xenos Inquisitor both makes sense thematically and taps into ALFs shtick.  Thats going to happen for sure.

Fishmen from Space

Its astro-amphibians today.  These two fish-folk are Laserburn miniatures made by Citadel in the 1980s.  The first “Rogue Trader” edition of the Warhammer 40,000 rules spun out of the Laserburn rules in some respects.  A number of familiar elements like bolt guns and jump troopers made the leap to 40k and some others, like these fishmen, did not.  Mores the pity.

I got these two little guys from Wargames Foundry.  As might be expected from miniature designs about thirty years old, the sculpts and style are a little retro, but a lot of fun all the same.  The castings were crisp and clean.

Despite his distaste for xenos in general, Pat the Astropath appreciates his fishmen guides ability to conceal him from the Veermyn patrols of Gangrenia IX.

I went with a Lrrr/Swamp Thing green and brown look on one of the fishmen and a tropical fish blue and yellow on the other.  The brighter figure worked out better in the end, with the green and brown guy turning out a little drab for a pulp sci-fi fishman.  During most of the painting process the yellow guy looked a bit too gaudy, but I like how he turned out in the end.

The figures were pleasant to paint.  The big angler fish mouths are entertaining looking and were good fun to paint in particular.

An icthyo sapien scout guides a Squat Engineer and his bodyguard through the toxic marshes of Glaukoma VII.

I like these guys.  I hope to use them as scouts in an Inquisitorial retinue at some stage.  I think that I could easily squeeze them into a variety of other pulpy sci-fi games.

Painting these models has put me in the mood to tackle the handful of Kroot that I have had knocking around for a few years.

L to R: Foundry Fishman, GW 40K 2nd Ed plastic Space Marine, Foundry Fishman

 

Necron Lord Hector Decimal

Lord Hector Decimal addresses his troops using traditional binary cant.

Hector is the leader of my skirmish sized Necron force.  I traded for the model which was originally supplied as part of one of the plastic croissant shaped Necron vehicle kits.

L to R: Space Crusade Chaos Android, Necron Lord, Necron Warrior.

The Necron aesthetic has got more ornate in recent years and panto villain leaders have taken the place of the mute and faceless Lords that used to be in charge.  There was online bitching and moaning about this change as you might expect, but I am in favor of that shift.  Who wants to spend all of that time assembling and painting a force that literally has no character?  Not me.

Lord Decimal rolls his optics at yet another report of botched plans.

This cloaked, crystal ball and glaive wielding mech looks like all of his nefarious schemes will be bungled by his his incompetent minions every Saturday morning.  I like him all the more for it.

Hector is a little further removed in concept from the Skynet influences than most of the previous miniatures for the project.  Daft as the Terminator setting is, even the seriously thick Skynet AI is unlikely to start issuing capes to future human killing robot designs.  That said Skynet taught a newly forming AI to sing “Donald Wheres Your Troosers” in an episode of Terminator: The Sarah Connors Chronicles (1.07 in to the video), so anything is possible.

The figure is off the peg apart from the addition of a 30mm base.  The supplied 25mm base is far too small for the larger Necrons like Hector.  Speaking of the larger Necron models, I have a few of those in the pipeline.  They are similarly ornate miniatures to Hector here, so I added some height to his base, something that I dont normally do.  With the cape and the increased height there should be no mistaking who is in charge.

“We meet again… for the last time!“

Terminator Necrons #2

The silver ranks of antagonistic anthropomorphic automata swell today with these Copplestone “Terminator Robots”.

These models are part of the Copplestone Future Wars range which is itself an updated version of the old Grenadier Future Wars range currently sold by EM4 (I think.  I am pretty sure).  Both ranges were sculpted by Mark Copplestone and the design of these guys is identical to the EM4 Skeleton Robots except for three factors: the overall size, the weapons and the head.

The Copplestone range is slightly larger than the original range.  The scale difference is not enough to bother me much generally when applied to miniature humans.  As such it definitely doesnt bother me when it relates to evil skeletal robot types such as these.   I mean, whats the correct size for an evil skeletal robot?  In a break from tradition my evil cyber-hordes embrace individuality (because its more interesting to paint).

L to R: Copplestone Terminator Robot, Reaper Cyber Reaver, Copplestone Terminator Robot, EM4 Skeleton Robot.

The revised heads may have put off some potential buyers as they dont feature the leering skull look so representative of the Terminator franchise.  The heads look more like the sort of robot design seen on a  robot in a Judge Dredd or ABC Warriors story to me.  Which isnt to say that I dislike the head design, just that I can see why it may appeal less to people interested in creating a miniature force reminiscent of the Terminator movies.

I do slightly miss the glowing red eyes.  The eyes on these figures are empty slots.  The head design and the lack of glowing eyes combine to make the figures less “scary” than most of the figures in my skeleton robot force.

L to R: MB/GW Space Crusade Chaos Android, Copplestone Terminator Robot, GW Necron Warrior.

Necron Middle Management

In between the more slight Reaper Cyber Reaver and the EM4 Skeleton Robot above squats one of the first official Necron designs that GW made.  The figure was given away free on the cover of White Dwarf in 1998 or so and after recent exhumation made it to the top of my painting list.

L to R: Space Crusade Chaos Android, GW Necron Warrior (90s), GW Necron Warrior.

This as yet unnamed droid will feature as a hench-bot or lieutenant in my skirmish sized Necron force.  Dependable right digital manipulator or bungling robotic nincompoop?  Only time will tell.  Either way the more ornate and decorative style of the miniature compared with the later Necron plastics makes this guy stand out just the right amount.

The colour scheme follows the same pattern as everything else in this Skynet-ron project.  Everything is the same scheme as the test pieces: silver chassis, black weapons/trim with eyes, chest and weapon details in a glowing red.  Quick to apply and satisfyingly tech-noir to look at en masse.

ED209. But its sort of a Necron. And a Terminator.

“Please put down your weapon. You have twenty seconds to comply.”

This rather dated and crude yet decidedly fun model is a “Chaos Dreadnought” released as part of the GW/MB Space Crusade boardgame in 1990.  I picked up a copy of that game in 1993.

In Space Crusade the dreadnought model had some associations with the “Chaos Android” model, which is a prototype Necron.  I used an android as one of my test pieces for this project (and I have a few more due to be finished up soon).  As both model designs are already associated and both designs also feature daft robotic skull faces I decided to include this liked but neglected model in this project.

“You are in direct violation of Penal Code 1.13, Section 9.”

I figured that I could extend the concept from the Necrons and other skeleton robots to this guy, who easily fits in as some sort of Skynet Hunter-Killer (HK) or Necron canoptek unit like a wraith or whatever.  Add to this that I have been wanting to paint this figure since I first bought it (a staggering twenty years ago.  Christ.  I had twenty years to comply) and it all starts to come together.

“You have five seconds to comply. Four… three… two… one… I am now authorized to use physical force.”

Further fudging the inspirations and influences for this sub-project is the ED 209 from the original Robocop movie.  Robocop was released in 1987 and the visual similarities between the ED 209 and the Chaos Dreadnought designed and produced a couple of years later are obvious.

I wanted to give the model a little bit of the Omni Consumer Products look if possible, but without throwing it too far out from my more standard scheme for this project.

The more metallic look that I have gone for looks a little more like the design from the Robocop remake than the pale grey of the original ED209, but it fits better with the the other miniatures in the Necron/Skynet project this way.

The new design for ED209 from the upcoming Robocop remake.

The arm weapons on the model point slightly upwards due to their design and manufacture, which is a little weird.  Not weird enough for me to bother modifying the fitting so that they ended up parallel with the ground or anything though.

 

 

I magnetised the arm weapons instead of using the weak clip assembly.   Various combinations of the three arm weapons are visible in the photos above.  Allowing the weapons to swap out is theoretically useful in games of Space Crusade, so retaining that functionality was fun.  The weapons on ED209 will be interchangeable with any further similar models in this project.

Skeleton Robot Assault

Lastly, I normally avoid square bases on my figures.  Circular bases just look better as far as I am concerned.  The square base on the Chaos Dreadnought is convenient in games of Space Crusade however, so I kept it.

T800 Terminators

Continuing with the Skynet-rons, todays bunch of bad ‘bots are the closest models that I have to the endo-skeletal bad guys from the Terminator franchise.

L to R: Space Crusade Chaos Android, EM4 Skeleton Robot, Reaper Cyber Reaver, GW Necron Warrior.

The figures are Reaper Chronoscope “Cyber Reavers” that I bought from a gentleman on LAF in February 2010.  That means that these little guys have gone from the package to painted faster than most of my miniature purchases…

L to R: GW Space Marine, Reaper Cyber Reaver

Like everything in this project so far, the Cyber Reavers have been quickly painted in an identical fashion to the test pieces.

L to R: Mongoose Judge, Reaper Cyber Reaver, GW Rogue Trader era Assassin.

What I quite like about these skinny fellas is that they are very slight.  They look like they could at least sort of be hidden under a 28mm scale layer of flesh if required.  As you can see in the comp shots, the Cyber Reavers are quite petite models.

Eighties stop motion, blue screen goodness.

Three of these models had interchangeable arms.  That meant that all of the figures could be armed.  It also meant that I could assemble one figure that wasnt holding any weapons at all and another armed with a pair of weapons, both classic Terminator poses.  So I did.

+++BEEP+++
+++I AM A ROD PUPPET+++
+++BEEP+++

I suppose that if I were to ever play “proper” 40k with these guys they could be used as Flayed Ones, but as that is not likely to ever really happen it doesnt matter.

I was tempted to paint one of the Reavers in a bloody fashion, as if it had recently been covered in flesh but I didnt bother in the end.  I already own plenty of blood splattered miniatures.

Necron Scarabs

These tiny robot drone guys are probably the easiest miniature painting task that I have had for a while.  They look kinda cute anyway I think, despite how straightforward they were to paint.

Plan view. Thats a 20mm base.

In 40k games scarabs are mounted in multiples on large bases to represent swarms.  As these miniatures are intended for use in skirmish games I mounted my scarabs individually.

L to R: GW Scarab, EM4 Skeleton Robot, GW Scarab, GW Necron Warrior

The design of the scarab is only vaguely insectile – more like some sort of generic robot drone thing really – so I can see these models with multiple duties.  They would be suitable as Mega City One Justice Department spy-in-the-sky cameras for example, which might be useful for a scenario some time.

Terminator Necrons #1

As noted previously, I have been experiencing a seasonal slump in my painting routine.  In an effort to jump start the process I decided to get stuck into a quickly painted, high turnover project starting with some Necron test pieces.

L to R: Space Crusade Chaos Android, EM4 Skeleton Robot, GW Necron

This approach has worked to an extent and the skeleton robot/Necron/Cyberdyne (Skynet-rons? I dunno) project is progressing at an acceptable pace.  Pictured here are the latest models to roll off the Skynet conveyor belt.

L to R: Mongoose Judge, EM4 Skeleton Robot, EM4 post-apocalyptic guy

The project has also inspired theottovonbismark to get working on some of his old robo-skeleton figures.  Tag-teaming with him has helped to keep project enthusiasm levels up.  Its always fun to tackle hobby projects in tandem.

L to R: EM4 Skeleton Robot, GW Space Marine

The first guys finished since the test pieces are the EM4 “Skeletal Robots” shown.  They were originally Grenadier Future Wars figures sculpted by Mark Copplestone I am pretty sure, now manufactured by EM4.

These figures are obviously inspired by the Cyberdyne look shown above.  As such they are less hunched than the Necron or Chaos Android figures shown before.  The Skeleton Robots are arguably a little large to be reasonably expected to pass themselves off as a human when covered in human meat, even human meat of Schwarzenegger like proportions.  Not that it matters for my purposes of course.

The figures were nicely sculpted and cast as I would expect from both Copplestone and EM4.  I quickly painted the lot in an identical fashion to the earlier test pieces.