Five Parsecs from Catching Up

It's funny, I've been planning and painting and rolled two separate crews (1st ed. & 2nd ed.) but still haven't played! I've been thinking about the game a bit lately, and how there's a of off-table development involved and I think that's appealing to my currently limited time & space for gaming.

As a result, I've been looking at catching up with my plans and posting of my progress!

First off is this beast. I've been painting a lot of random creatures, personalities, and 'bots that aren't necessarily part of the Five Parsecs rules, but I plan on making some modifications to make it my own campaign after a bit. I just sometimes see (or accidentally obtain) figures and really want to paint them and use them! This was painted many months ago, but I realized I never posted it here.

Some but not all of these were posted here before. These are my "eternals". I have both fantasy and sci-fi versions of each figures (mostly just basing differences.) They are from left to right, a/the Geier, one of my own sculpts that was briefly in production at a small manufacturer; the avatar of Death, a figure of complex and interesting history but now available from Ral Partha Europe; the avatar of Life, an unassuming figure and perfect foil for Death, from Reaper Miniatures; and lastly, Kev, a self-portrait limited edition sculpt by Kev Adams from Wargames Foundry. Somehow I ended up with two Kev figures. One acted (appropriately) as a hero in my now-gone goblin army for many years. Since I had another, I recently figured I may as well paint him up find a role for him in some sci-fi games!

Lastly, some recent figures. I'll be using these as Abductors for Five Parsecs. I was going to leave them out of my games, but saw these Reaper Bones figures at very affordable prices. But I was underwhelmed by the bent poses (tried fixing them with heat & ice water several times), soft detail, and difficult mold lines. I ended up doing a fairly quick paint job on them just to get them over with because I couldn't muster any additional enthusiasm for them. The photo is a bit rough, they do look half decent other than three of them leaning at awkward/unnatural angles.

Almost forgot, I narrowly avoided the Orks in Alabama not long ago...

Five Parsecs February

The first half of the month I was mostly working on my OWAC5 figures plus "extras." Those are essentially finishes and that update will be coming soon.

 

So now that I have some breathing room, I've turned back to the sci-fi/Five Parsecs/Alt Trader project.

I forgot to show these previously! Last month I painted two more Wraithguard, so I now have one each of those and the Ghost Warriors.

 

I'm working in finishing figures for my crew, and completed two more. Plus a psi-weasel.

 

Not much is known of the elusive psi-weasel. Their planet of origin is a mystery, and so far no one has even been able to narrow it down to any particular part of the galaxy. They seem to appear and vanish with equal abruptness. Each specimen that has been observed has exhibited unique psychic abilities, and it has been theorized that some sort of psionic teleportation may be responsible for their surprise comings and goings. But that is speculation, almost nothing is known for certain about these creatures among Imperial out Outland researchers. There are rumors, however, that the notorious Spaven naturalist/mutologist David Rattenborough has captured one and utilized it in developing a "rodent psy-bombs" that have recently been spotted in several incidents in the fringe of the galactic north.

 

Here's the crew in-progress. Almost done! I've updated the Crew Page too.

 

I decided that Kev is one of at least three Immortals that will appear in both fantasy games (he previously appeared leading WFB goblin armies in 6th/7th ed.) as well as sci-fi games. The fantasy Kev was painted +/-20 years ago. It's sad how much my painting has declined in the intervening years, at least on this figure. Space Kev looks like a cartoon version of the original. My eyesight isn't what it used to be.

On a personal, non gaming note, we've had a crazy winter, even for typical Cleveland weather. It's not that it's been particularly cold or snowy. In fact, we had a couple of "polar vortex" years where it was far far colder.  It's the fact that within a single week, we will go from 7 degrees (F) to 53 degrees (F) with everything from torrential rainstorms, to the world turning to a solid block of ice, then getting buried in 12" of snow, and then all melting two days later... and the cycle starts again the following week.

But today's break in the weather, warm (compared to 7 degrees) & sunny ON A WEEKEND... Hell yeah, grilling season has started! ;)

Undeadish Glamour Shot (testing new lighting)

Today I rearranged a bit in the corner of the basement where I paint and photograph. I moved a really bright suspended LED fixture that I recently installed across the room and swapped it with the one near my photo table. Also put it in a slightly better position. This one is brighter and a warmer color.

I had recently draped a sheet of greenish "teddy bear fur” that I won a few years ago over the storage boxes on the ledge behind the table. But as the weather is getting colder, I'm concerned that we will get mice moving into the basement (as has happened the past few years) and I was worried that I was creating a nice nesting spot for them. So the fur backdrop is now suspended from a bit of PVC pipe that is in turn suspended from a water pipe. On my to do list is making some larger trees for the background (and possible future gaming).

I unpacked the Undeadish (or at least most of what's painted so far) for some test photos to see how the lighting would work.

Orctober '16

Any codgers with a heart condition or prone to high blood pressure over "what is Oldhammer" are advised to avert thine eyes. Avert them! I shall not be vexed by thy judgements. Behold, the Ocrtober of ZeroTwentythree.

I used "Orctober" as an excuse to paint the last of the Foundry great orcs that I've got. Some day I'd like to get more, but they're generally out of my price range. I'll have to get a group shot with the few others I previously painted. (I should also try to sort out my lighting problems for photographs...)

Back to painting commissions & other stuff for a while. I'm sure I'll probably keep sneaking in a few of my own figures here & there.

Another Great Orc

I added a fourth Foundry/Warmonger Great Orc to the three I previously painted. I have two more awaiting paint, but four will get me the minimum I need to put on the table under my current plan.

Great Orcs and a German

Small update. I painted up a woman from Foundry's Ancient German range (will go on a command base,) and did a bit of rebasing on some previously painted great orcs (and a hobbit...) Both intended for use in the solo fantasy game I'm working on.