Tag: Scrappers

Random Free War Dogs

I don’t buy many magazines these days. Even the mighty White Dwarf fails to attract me as I can’t get past all the adverts that make it more of a monthly sales catalogue.  You guys provide me with as much ‘new and shiny’ stuff as I need these days (and most of it doesn’t even need to be new…)  I did buy a magazine this month though, as it had a free figure sprue on the front of it…

I was wandering about on the Warcradle Studios website looking at their Wild West Exodus range when I noticed they had a free figure on the front of the June edition of Miniature Wargames. The free miniature mentioned was this set of two K9 Gun Dogs.

Pressed in very BRIGHT orange plastic it was a pain to prime using a standard rattle can. The vivid orange of the plastic was still visible in the deepest recesses even after three or four passes with a standard can of paint. I was at the point of obscuring the details on the flatter surfaces when I gave up, and tried to ram some primer colour on an old paintbrush into these areas to hide the last of the orange.

I would suggest you paint before building if you manage to get hold of these guys after reading this…

Even when finished I can still see orange in the deepest areas but only because I know its there…

I armed them with a Gatling cannon and Flamer but only because I wanted to save the third option, a missile launcher, option for use on a Gaslands car.

Scale wise they are quite big so they could be fielded individually in an existing unit, as an added support option, or as a small vehicle by themselves.  I have no firm plans for them as yet, but I did base them to match either my Nurgle 40k Army, the Steam Wars Martians or my Scrappers Crew…

Rogue Stars – Dogs Of War

Another couple of quick painted minis.  Hasslefree Smudgester in both his forms.

These got more attention to their heads and faces than the space suits.  Why?  I don’t know.  I just like them this way.  The suits have enough detail on them to work with a simple scheme.  The character in each figures face deserved more time to really bring it out.

Anyway, gruff cigar smoking space dogs can pull off purple. Can’t they?

Yeah, they can…

Salute Bits – Starting To Build Things

The jobs on the go in the shed recently (ever since I returned from Salute with a very mixed bag of purchases) have been a bit varied.  Quick jobs have been completed, in-between other equally quick tasks, as I build a few miniatures here and clean a bit of resin there.  Some older items have been mixed in, as and where needed, to make the batches more worthwhile.

An example of a Sunday afternoons work.

Sci-fi objectives in resin washed, trimmed and filed.

The recently completed statue topper. Basing for the Smudgester Elite. One half of a new Bushido crew cleaned and based to fit the old Bushido crew style. (Of note: The Fire Kami in the back – I have no bloody clue how it is supposed to go together, only 2 parts, and no obvious tab to join them.  Even the manufacturers website fails to have a clear picture of what the final figure should look like.  So, I crossed my fingers and stuck it where it looked like it would go…)

Smudgester 2 basing. Second half of the Bushido Crew and basing.

Resin cleaning and trimming again but this time with a more oriental theme.

Both resin sets are from the TTcombat range.  Their range appears to be growing quickly in a number of directions and mediums.  Resin, MDF and publishing new games on what seems like a monthly basis.  All in a year when other major British companies are going out of business.  If they keep this up they will be running the country in 10 years… Imagine that as a post apocalyptic setting for a game…

Scrappers – More Dog Faced Crew And Another Salute Statue

Another couple of items picked up at Salute, actually the first items I bought that day, are a pair of futuristic dogs from Hasslefree.  They got put together recently when I was doing about 3 or 4 other small jobs at the same time in the shed. If you tell the lady of the house that I can multi task I will never hear the end of it so, Hush!

I also dug out another older Salute figure, to get the statue treatment, while I was doing this years set. It proves I can be quite efficient with my time when I want to as well…

Hasslefree do a number of anthropomorphic animals (a posh term for animals in human poses – but only if I got the word right…)

These two are the same character in 2 differing guises.  I will be cheating and using them as a set of twins…  The first is Elite Smudgester with his ‘BFG’ (I will let you guess what that stands for) and a cigar and Zippo lighter.

The second is the alternate Smudgester, this time with a Pulse Carbine.  Both went together easily and had few, if any, mould lines or areas of flash to clean up.

Another clean and crisp miniature is the 2017 Salute figure. Supplied to the show last year by Warlord Games.  Soon to get the bronze statue treatment along with this years figure.

Undercoating And Getting Back On Track (Score So Far +1)

As these were put together last week, before my man-flu, they were ready for undercoating as soon as I could warm up a space (and a can of spray).

In hind sight (a wonderful thing you know) these chaps would have been nice to paint up in an almost Star Trek manner. The Officer in a yellow uniform. Maybe the clipboard carrying ‘Doc’ in blue and plenty of red shirted security guard types.

In the end the uniforms reminded me of the bridge of a different star ship.  Namely a Star Destroyer.  I don’t know why but when I see the uniform of the officer, on the left of the picture, I think of Star Wars and the Imperial officers of the fleet.  The high collar and chest ribbons are the reason I think.

Either way it is also because I am lazy, and just painting them all one colour will be easier…

I have undercoated these guys too.  I will not be marking them as a -1 point fail, as I managed to put them away as soon as they were dry.  With that done, I should not get any further distracted away from The Plan.

As I was feeling smug about putting the Juves away (and as I had a can of grey paint in my hand) I recoated the bases of these again.  Their first undercoat and initial paint job was done weeks ago but, as Coronasan correctly pointed out, they needed metal washers adding to their bases to make them less top heavy.

Still not sure how to finish these off but the lights were done weeks ago and I noticed today that I always look at them from the top so never see the orange light.  They will need some work to take them past just plain grey lamp posts. That can wait though, as they are also not on the plan (unless I claim that they should be done sooner as they are used as the race gates in our games of Gaslands).  Until then they have been put away like the Juves…

Score for post +1 point / Total score +1

The New Year Plan – Wandering Off Plan Again (Score So Far 0)

I obviously need to wear blinkers in the shed.

While looking out the Boiler Suite Minions from the little stack of drawers at the back of the shed I found myself having to sort my way past other neglected projects that I had almost forgotten about.  I do wonder if I should inventory the old lead pile or just continue to ignore it.  Its a bit like having an embarrassing aunt and uncle that you have to invite to a wedding. You find yourself feeling obliged to go over and see how they are doing, but find yourself trying for the whole evening to avoid looking in their direction, just in case you make eye contact, hoping to try to put off the inevitable…

In my defence these figures fit the same purpose as the boiler suited minions in terms of fitting in to Fistful of Kung Fu. They maybe even slightly more suited to the role of Hollywood gangers than the boiler suited boys if I am honest.

Being Judge Dredd Juves they would be out of place without a couple of Sky Surfers to jazz them up a bit.  These guys got just as long spent on them as the boiler suited minions because the two surfers needed a bit of drilling and pinning to ensure they stayed together when painted.  I will undercoat them and then decide if they will go back in the drawer or get some paint.  At this point they are taking me back down the tally as they are definitely not on the list and if I decide to paint them I will need to work hard on completing something from the list to balance the tally again.

NOT ON THE LIST…

Score for this post -1 point / Total score 0

The New Year Plan – Progress Report – Boiler Suited Minions (Score So Far +1)

After three posts I have managed to get back to -1 for the tally of keeping to the New Year Plan, but I suspect I may be able to get out of this rut with the next couple of posts.

This time round we have the Boiler Suited Minions.  I finally managed to clean and build these chaps. A job that has taken about 2 or 3 years to complete as they were bought at a show in 2015 if memory serves me right.

Bought to help me field a Fistful of Kung Fu force that could also be used in Ospreys Black Ops, they may now feature in those games or as an evil villains henchmen in Scrappers or Rogue Stars.

These guys are all supplied with separate heads, as the 7TV range has a whole host of head swap options.  I have used the original heads and found that most do not fit exactly as planned.  Most needed either, a bit of shaping at the neck, or some extra glue to fit and fill any gaps. Slightly surprising for such nice, detailed figures.

They look like they will paint up well with easy one colour jump suits.  I fancy these guys as the more boring grey uniformed types so its likely they will get a spray can undercoat in the base colour then just belts, bits, guns and skin picked out in a contrasting colour.  There is enough variation in the range for leaders and specialists to be picked out so they should come in handy for a good few games.

As these are definitely on the list I will count it as a success and put myself on a positive score for the first time…

Score for this post +1 point / Total score +1

Project 2018…

A large box was dropped off just before Xmas by a friend.  Said box contained what he described as ‘A project for 2018’!

Said project is likely to be attempted in 2018, but if I decide to go into as much depth as he has done on his own 2017 project, then I may still be doing it in 2020…

A photo does the scale of this ship no justice as it is one of the huge, original Kenner toys from 1979.  Although it is missing a few parts they should be replaceable or fixable.  Then it’s on to the job of converting it into a useable 28mm spacecraft.

Addendum:  It has a battery compartment…  Now I just need to find some old C size batteries.  All to hear if the bad sound effects still work…

Scrappers – Rounding Off The Crew And Some Truly Dodgy Painting

So after a very satisfying win in our first game, I was all a flush with points to spend after the campaign stage of the game.  Enough to buy some new kit and at least 2 new crew members.  Therefore there was more hurried painting in the days between games, so as to be ready on time.

Luckily a quick paint job was all that was needed for the first of them.  I don’t know about you but when I look at this chap, I see a cyborg electric eel! So he is half machine, half shock inducing mutant eel-man…  With a gun…

In that moment of creativity and bouncing along with the first real win for me in months I feel I may have got carried away.  Stay with me as I explain the horror that is the paint job above…

As these are birds, and birds have feathers, and as feathers are usually bright (in my mind anyway…) I thought I would try a bird of paradise look for the first of these chaps.

Now, I have had some bad ideas in the past.  None was as obvious as after adding the first colour and noting that the figure doesn’t actually have feathers exactly but more of a fur ruff and woolly pant suit.

What made things worse was that a second one needed painting in a similar style or they would not look matched…

I think that I last painted things like this when I was 3 years old. When I used my fingers not paint brushes…

That was before I discovered ink washes though.  One heavy coat later and its almost hidden.

If birds of paradise were hooked on drugs, grumpy and cranky due to poor working conditions, and didn’t wash more than once a year you might see the resemblances.

All in all they fit the crew quite well.

Anyway, if you had such shocking feather/ fur colourisation you would be reluctant to wash too often as well… Wouldn’t you?

Scrappers – More Crew Members

As 3 figures does not make a well rounded scrappers crew, the next 3 were lined up to be finished off.  Three specialists (grunts with jobs) make up the next lot.

The first is a ‘tank’ slow, thick skinned and heavily armoured.  Second is a close combat specialist (although a read through of the rules makes me think that he maybe making a mistake bringing a knife, or two, to a gun fight…). Last of this lot is my little tinker.  Small lightly armed and quick mind and feet.  Who knows if I will need a tech boy but always worth bringing some brains.

After totting up the crew roster for the first six chaps, I found that I still had enough points left for a low tech, crossbow wielding dog boy.

As I finished planning my force for our first official game, I already had their reinforcements lined up ready in the painting queue.  As Scrappers is a campaign based game I expect to have enough points after the first game to hire a fresh faced new recruit (or replace a dead dude).  These three are from CP models.