Five Things From A Place

Real Life is still a bit hectic, but another quick update!

First, I finished the five mercenaries I had been working on. Along with the two I previously painted as tests for color scheme, I now have enough to make a solid faction for Five Parsecs. I do have a bunch more of these figures (from Satyr Art Studio/Drew Williams) and will definitely get back to painting the rest of them. But first I want to keep getting a larger variety of small 5P factions done. 

I also finally painted this figure that I've had for ages. I think it's from Ramshackle. There was a horrible mould line (mould slip?) along the back that I had made a couple of attempts at sanding/filing off a various times over the past ten years or so. Probably longer. I finally just took a fresh blade to it and carved it out of all the folds of cloth. I thought they deserved a colorful hat and a splash of blood on one of the "scissor hands" to give it a pop of color.

Walking through Target last week I noticed some clearance items and scooped up a few for my sci-fi gaming....

Buzz Lightyear toys for cheap! The drop pods are very.... Grimdarkhammer. Even the robots that came with them can probably be put to use as security bots or something like that. The spaceships are a little on the small side, but I'm thinking about painting them with solid canopies and calling them pilotless drones. Reflecting real life, I've read a few articles about AI piloted fighters recently, and remotely controlled drones have been in use for a while, so this doesn't seem like a stretch for the grim dark future of stuff.

Two other impulse purchases.... My new brush holder. I feel like I need a legion of these...

I just received these limited edition figures from founder of the A Forest of Kings Facebook group. If you're interested in Native American, Messoarmerican, and/or pre-Columbian gaming and miniatures you should check it out (and get a couple of sweet figures). 

I discovered the group because of my interest in doing "new world" style fantasy skirmish game. I've not made much progress, but the idea was something like Mordheim but with oldschool froggy Slann, new-world undead, some Marienburg explorers, Sea Elves, and maybe others like Pestilens Skaven.

Back to the source.... Check out the group here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/273828859831681/

Back to Five Parsecs and sci-fi gaming, I've finally made some progress on my "Five Bananas From Home" project. I also rolled up the first battle and (painted or not) I hope to FINALLY play my first game this long holiday weekend. I would prefer to get outside, but it's supposed to rain the whole three-day weekend here. 

Speaking of bad weather timing, there is a local joke that every time there is a celestial event, we will be entirely covered with clouds and/or storms. But we had a pretty decent full solar eclipse (see my previous entry) and last week we also witnessed northern aurora! This has actually happened a quite a few times in my life but -- as the joke goes -- every single time it's completely overcast. Until this year! My wife came home and texted me that we needed to come outside. Even with semi-urban light pollution, it was really visible. But we got in the car and braved the unusual traffic to get to a spot along the lake (Erie) to get a better view. Very cool to have two big celestial events visible in Ohio within a short span! First pic is from our house, the other two are from the lake (very near by)

And Just Like That... Three Months Go By!

 

Apparently it has been three months since my last update. There has been a bit going on lately. For one, I had some down time due to a thumb injury...

I have also done a bit of travelling (survived a tornado near Chicago, an earthquake near LA, and less dramatic visits to Palm Desert/Joshua Tree NP, and Miami) for work. On the topic of work, I have also made a significant career change and taken a new job. To be honest... I've also been a bit uninspired lately. I think my head has just been elsewhere with everything else going on. Really, I'm not terribly good at keeping up with this blog lately either.

But there has still been painting going on, though no real gaming.

I wasn't very successful with my "Five Months From Painted Factions" but I did make some more progress. I built and painted some mutants!

I also painted Ambassador Khan Cern. He has no patience for your shenanigans.

Following up on my previous Five Bananas entry, I purchased my crew. Just tonight I started putting a bit of paint on them. More to come on that soon. "Soon." Like maybe in a few months again?

For now, I have also returned to painting the mercenaries that I had started working on before my thumb injury.

On the fantasy side....

Satyr Art Studio zombies...

...and some old Ral Partha zombies.

The middle figure is my D&D character, if the family D&D campaign ever gets started. Nettie Coldwater, middle-aged empty nester forest gnome turned druid. This is the second time I have painted this figure from Reaper Miniatures. The one on the left is the "stock" figure, and Nettie was converted a bit to more accurately reflect my character. The dog on the right was painted previously but I was thinking that it would be interesting if she brought her dog along with her.

Random daemon. Daemonette. Had the figure, figured I would paint it for my mixed-daemon horde. 

D&D figure, Grick. 

Dwarf With No Name.

Giant flies/stirges.

Painted a couple of tiny bunny toys, inspired by the Black Rabbit of Inle.

Fungus infected ant swarm.

I was fortunate to live within the path of the recent total eclipse in the US. I could not get a good pic during the total eclipse, and really didn't want to spend that brief time messing around with my phone trying to take pics instead of fully enjoying the experience. But here's the closest thing -- I got a couple of decent pics of the approach to totality.

OWAC April - Clan Skryre

This month's entry is up at the Old World Army Challenge site. I used my wild card month to paint mostly Skryre troops/monsters/contraptions.

Pics below, but click the link above for the full entry.

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A comparison shot of the new (red) Satyr Art Studio jabberwock with the old ones from Ral Partha & Citadel.

Families and Dragons

Last year I had a bit of eBay drama that left me with a headless dragon. I didn't want to let a classic sculpt go to waste, so I made do with a substitution. :) He looks so sad, I figured I'd give him a pet dog to help cheer him up. Not sure where I got the dog from.

Body & wings are old Tom Meier sculpt from Ral Partha. Head is a spare from the Satyr Art Studio trolls.

Speaking of dragons, I've been on a bit of a roll with them. Yet another old Tom Meier/Ral Partha dragon. Cold drake, more specifically. This one is a repaint of an old figure from my childhood.

I also finished the whole owlbear family. Mama had to go through some reconstructive surgery. I had to sculpt a new beak after dropping her and half of the original broke off. Owlbro & eggs are from Westfalia, the rest are 3d prints I received for Christmas, sculptor unknown.

Speaking of families, I've had these two Reaper half-orcs partially painted on my table for a couple of YEARS. I recently was inspired by the idea of them being a family of successful merchants dealing in exotic wares. Figured they also needed a kid (forget where I got them from). Pet and caravan coming soon. But right now I'm stuck on colors for dad's clothing!

More Mercenaries

 

I accidentally painted a couple of test figures for another mercenary band for Five Parsecs and other sci-fi games. These are from Satyr Art Studio.

Deadcember 2022

 

The last few months have been busy, so no updates and not much painting. But with the holidays came some much needed time off work, and December means Deadcember. So I've finally had some quality time at the painting table. 

Skeletons from Citadel & Marauder. Some of the last that were still unpainted!

Undead lord from Heartbreaker.

Me. Sculpted 20 years ago by me. Recently replaced the axe with a rusty scythe.

Skeleton command, champion from Heartbreaker, standard & musician from Satyr Art Studio. I'm still undecided about that to paint on the standard.

Zombies by Satyr.

Little skeleton familiar (or is it a dwarven liche...!) from Diehard

Belegost Scrap Wagon

 

BELEGOST SCRAP WAGON

 

Although they initially earned their living as a salvage crew, some members of the Belegost eventually turned to mercenary work. Particularly some of the older crew who had fought many battles defending their claims, eventually realized they could cut out the salvage work and render services based on their hard earned battle prowess -- usually at a better wage. So it was that the Belegost Scrap Wagon diversified their operations into a salvage wing and a mercenary wing. The Anvil and the Hammer, as they started calling it, based on the ancient traditions of their people.

As explained above, I am painting up the Skull & Crown "Space Scrappers" and Satyr Art Studio space dwarfs with two sub-factions inspired by two different aesthetics within among the figures. The more heavily armored become the mercenaries, and the less armored figures (also with less military looking weapons in many cases) become the salvage crew. I'll keep the color palettes similar, but with more variety among the salvage crew. I just finished the first half of the mercenaries, above.

Crew Complete and Eternal Death

A little bit of progress on the sci-fi project. I completed the final figure I needed for my Five Parsecs crew: G-Roy, the fame seeking special agent. Figure by Satyr Art Studio/Drew Williams.

 

 

Now I need to get enough terrain on the table for a game, and to finish painting a bigger variety of opponents. Working on both, you can see some of the more recent small terrain pieces in the bacground of these latest photos.

I've also decided to follow up on my previously painted pair of "avatars" of Life & Death I decided they are eternal and needed a second set of figures to match the sci-fi basing. Death is finished, Life is partially painted and should be done soon. I photographed death with the Astro Zombies in the background. Seems like a logical pairing. I'll have to figure out what sort of minions/associates Life would have in a sci-fi setting. I was thinking of dryads for fantasy, but that won't necessarily translate well to the sci-fi setting.