Category Archives: Side projects

The last Banshee (for now) – Candy

23 Friday Mar 2018

Posted by in Fembruary Challenge, Side projects

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Hello chaps & chapettes, I have a very quick update to share today – it has been a funny week with not too much painting, but I did wrap up the last of the Ghosts of Gia*. I’m calling this one ‘Candy’:

 

‘…but Alex, why is her skin blue?’ I hear you ask… (you were asking that, right?)   Weeeell… Candy is actually the oddest of ‘odd ones out’ in the range, because she is the only one who isn’t wearing either a helmet or a re-breather! I was mulling ideas about how to deal with this, including toying with the idea of converting her, but decided to keep her ‘as is’. I then I thought to painting her as a mutant – some genetic twist that allowed her to breath the toxic atmosphere of whatever sump/hive/deathworld that the Banshees happen to come from. The idea grew on me – it was fun from a painting perspective, but it also says a lot about the ethos of the Banshees I think… I really like that they would accept a mutant into the gang, and that their shared femininity is more important to them than anti-mutant prejudice. Speaking of the gang, here’s the whole heart-breaking, life-taking, bad-assery of ’em:

 

So, that’s it for this week – told you it was a quickie! That also wraps up the Banshees for the time being*, and I’m really happy to have focused in on painting a bunch of ‘realistic’ sci-fi women that were only ever made thanks to the determination of Annie Norman (of Bad Squiddo fame) to address the paucity of believable female minis in the hobby. Thank you too to Cupcakesandmachetes for including this effort on your ‘Celebrate the Ladies’ event – there’s some great stuff going on over there, and I’m glad that Annie’s work is represented.

Next week I’ll have a cool bit of scenery to finish & share with you all, (trust me, you’ll love it!), plus I have a few half-finished Eru-Kin that might get done as well. Hobby time gets a bit choppy after that with holidays & work travel coming up fast, but we’ll see how it all goes. Have a great weekend & catch you next week :-)

 

*I’m actually missing one mini from the first run of the Ghosts of Gia, (fuck knows where she’s gone!), plus the second Kickstarter is due to drop through my letterbox any time now… Yey!! :-)

Second February challenge – ‘finish a neglected model’

01 Thursday Mar 2018

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Hello again, and Wow, second post in two days guys – been a while since I’ve done that! This one is nice and quick, because I managed to crank out a mini last night (as per Azazel’s ‘finish off a neglected mini’ challenge for February… talk about taking it to the wire!) This guy is something that I’ve had kicking around for a couple of months, and is the most ambitious bit of sculpting that I have tried to date…

He was inspired in part by watching Westworld over Christmas, (absolutely brilliant series btw), by the artwork of Simon Stålenhag, (especially this picture), and of course by Clint Eastwood’s ‘man with no name’ in The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. I was disappointed with the results if I’m honest, and I don’t think any of the professional sculptors out there need to be worried for their jobs, but I figured that I should just get over myself and paint the bugger. He looks much better for being painted I think, and I’ve gone from seeing him as a symbol of how shit my sculpting is to actually quite liking the fella. I’m quite pleased with the freehand on the poncho :-)

I imagine him as being the sole survivor of a Necron mass extinction event, who has ‘lived’ to see a frontier human population grow on his homeworld. Separated from the influence of his dynasty, he has had to adapt to being an independent creature, and has decided to attempt to blend in with the humans. I don’t imagine that many in the Imperium would necessarily know what a Necron is, so he might be accepted on the fringes of a backward society… who knows how such a creature might evolve! I don’t know if this concept has legs or not, but I may expand on it at some point…

Anyway, that’s all for now folks – have a good weekend & catch you all soon

Fembruary challenge – Siouxsie

08 Thursday Feb 2018

Posted by in Fembruary Challenge, Side projects

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Happy Thursday folks, and I’m delighted to share my first competed mini for Fembruary with you all. As a reminder, I’m laying down the following gauntlet:

“Dear reader, no doubt you have heard of Orctober, Deadcember, Slaanuary, and all the various themed months of the year… I would like to propose that we add Fembruary to the list – a time of year for us to collectively challenge the male domination of our collections, and commit to painting some female miniatures for a change…”   I’m delighted with the uptake so far – thank you to all who are mucking in, spreading the word and getting involved! Time for me to step up as well, eh? :-)

So… my February contribution is going to be trying to paint Annie Norman’s (of Bad Squiddo Games/Dice Bag lady fame) ‘Ghosts of Gia 1’ collection, plus ‘Olivia Nutron Bomb’ from BOYL last year. These 10 minis sum up everything that I want Fembruary to represent – the celebration of grown-up, non-sexualised representations of women within our nerdy little hobby universes. No silly battle heals or unnecessary/unfeasible cleavage here – what Annie succinctly describes as “Believable Female Miniatures” in her mission statement. It has been a slow start, what with basing and undercoating, but I have started with ‘Angel’ from the Ghosts of Gia range:

 

You can probably guess that I’m running with an early punk/goth/glam rock vibe for this project, (plus whatever other tropes make sense to bring in) – hence ‘Angel’ becomes ‘Siouxsie’, leader of an outcast Escheresque gang called ‘The Banshees’. She was fun to paint – quite a simple sculpt in many ways, with a few odd bits here and there, but fun nonetheless. I’ve added in plenty of little details to add that Oldhammer flavour, and gone for a wide palette on the mini… slight downside to that is that my youngest Son saw this mini and asked me why she had a tree on her head… now I can’t un-see the tree!! I don’t think Siouxsie would have ever seen a tree though, so I suspect the irony would be lost on her :-)

One thing to note – the spray undercoat was shockingly rough, which is not uncommon this time of year in the UK – winter and all that. However, I actually don’t mind that effect if the model supports a rough and ready approach – it would suck on shiny Ultramarines, but is fine on a Scavvie if you know what I mean. In the case of Siouxsie, I think it works nicely.

Anyhow, that’s all for now dudes, but plenty more to follow as the month progresses!