Sunday 3 January 2016

Not Big, Not Clever, Not Girls.

So... I haven't done any posts about minis for a while. There's a pretty good reason for this of course. I just haven't been doing that much painting lately. It's surprising just how much time it really takes to make shitty comics. And the constant going mad doesn't help of course. But it's not like I've been TOTALLY inactive on the painting front. So let's try and catch up a little shall we?



So, starting off we have the Uhul. 15mm Owlbearmen I acquired (appropriately enough) from 15mm.co.uk. However I can't really remember WHEN I got them. Has to be at least 6 months ago. Or was that just when I started trying to actually paint them?


Anyway, I couldn't really NOT get some of these fellas. After all, they're not just Owlbears. Their not even just Owlbear people. They're Owlbear people in 15mm scale. What this means is that next to your average 28mm figure what we have is basically an Ewok. Only it's also an Owlbear. An Owlwok if you will. That's far too hilarious a concept to pass up.


And of course I got the regular 15mm Owlbear whilst I was at it. Because Owlbears. You can never have too many Owlbears. Working in the smaller scale on these guys was a little tricky as I recall, but it has been a while. Does seem like it may present an interesting balance between 28mm and 10mm or smaller. More dudes on the field and more manageble in terms of the amount of space it takes up.


Around when I was working on the Uhul I'd also found some more GW jungle trees. Only this time it was a few I'd actually assembled back in the day. So I figured I may as well base them up and try and salvage them.


Whilst they do see to feature some less than idal angles on the branches due to them obviously being assembled in a rush and not properly supported back in the day I don't think it's really a big deal. Trees lean over all the time, and it's not like this is for a competion or anything. It's just scenery. As long as it looks ok on the tabletop, that's the main thing.


Then we come to the Grymm walker from Hasslefree. Again, no clue when the hell I ordered it, recieved it or even started working on it other than "Some time last year". It's something that I was tinkering with on and off for quite a while though, which if I'm being honest is really not a good way of working. I tend to lose the thread of whatever I was going for and end up leaving it as I'm not sure what else to do rather than deciding it's properly finished. As I recall I was going for a Stromtrooper vibe to the colour scheme. White on the armour plating, black underneath. It's a lovely piece, but it does have an awful lot of flat, open areas. Which is probably not a problem if you have a far steadier hand then me and like doing detailed insignia and other such signage.

Of course, in hindsight I probably should have had a go at urban camo or something, because there was something else that I really wanted to paint up like a Stromtrooper...


The Chuhac. Space Raptors. From space. I've loved the idea of these guys since I first heard about them. But they were only available in 15mm, which I found slightly offputting as they wouldn't really go with anything else I had.


And then I found out that you could actually get a few in 28mm scale. From 15mm.co.uk again, just to confuse you. But, much like the Uhul, far too fun of an idea to pass up. Now, I have to be completely honest, the minis were not without issues. Some imperfections, detail problems and miscast areas. And I didn't really do as good a job as I could have in patching these up prior to painting. Again, part of the off and on problem of how I was working I suppose. You forget where you were up to, and it's only later when you're actually trying to paint them that you notice the extra filling or whatever. But I suppose chipped and broken claws are probably a hazard of being a space raptor.


My main regret with these though is that I'd started painting them BEFORE Jurassic World came out. Otherwise I probably would have gone with different skin tones ala the Raptor pack in that movie. I confess I WAS tempted to paint the leader up with silver armour rather than white, because obviously promotional images of Captain Phasma from the Force Awakens were floating around. But I didn't go with that as I didn't really know if she was going to be rubbish or not. Were I to do one again I probably would go with a full on mashup of Blue and Phasma. Just have to hope whatever game I ended up using it in didn't have rules for getting ignominiously locked in a cupboard.

But yeah, Raptor Stormtroopers. White armour over black bodystockings, thus avoiding the slightly unfortunate look of being mostly naked. I'm reasonably happy with them. I think they look pretty good as a unit. But I do wonder if I could have done a bit better if I'd managed to work on them a little more consistently. If I do manage to get any more painting done this year I think I'm going to have make the effort to try and get it done in more regular, concentrated blocks. Whether or not that's practical remains to be seen. But at least I've managed to clear a few bits off my worktable.

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