Rogue Stars - Mercenaries

Howdy everyone,

Happy end of February...hard to believe that March is literally hours away...or I guess already upon you depending on your zone.  I have maintained my e-silence over the past month but have still plugged away at painting.

I have to admit, over the past month I made a slight deke from Vikings over to the science fiction realm...I received the Rogue Stars book and some figs for Christmas and I thought I'd give them a go on the painting bench.

While I haven't had the chance to read through the rule book in great detail, I do enjoy the artwork and concepts of the ruleset...there are a multitude of options available to game in numerous settings with many possible random events effecting table setup and effect on your squad/section of sci-fi troops.

Taking a look at the possible 'factions' for my squad, I elected to theme my group as mercenaries to start...I like the looks of the Assassin, Sniper Bot, and the Baron...and thought they'd go great together as a futuristic Mad Mike or Badlands like crew.

Hope you enjoy the pics.

The Crew...the Baron's collection of futuristic misfits. I really like how these guys turned out.  The figures have a good weight to them, had a bit of flash on them but didn't take to much to prep.  Given the futuristic setting, I thought I'd try a different gritty sci-fi theme to the basing...in many sci-fi movies I've seen there are always long corridors of grated flooring to walk on...

The Assassin...I started with this fig first...I wanted to have a common look amongst the figures rather than just their base material...so I thought I'd start with a red jumpsuit with dark blue highlights... 

 I guess I think of the Bot as Bender with a big f'ing gun...a lot of attitude, a healthy hate for humans and flesh bags, with a little bit of larceny and loose morals thrown in for good measure...

Keeping with the theme of the crew, I painted this Bot up in Vallejo gunmetal and in the final steps, I added a couple of drops of dark blue with the gunmetal to give the Bot a subtle blue hue...I like how it turned out...I also painted a couple of pieces of armour a different colour to show wear and tear in the line of duty...

Finally, the Baron...maligned, bitter, with a healthy anti-authority streak, the Baron was drummed from the Corps...instead of hiding in the cosmos, or hiding within the Far Foreign Legion...he instead recruited his band of misfits, and spends great effort in making sure his former superiors do not forget him... 

Vikings!!

Evening everyone,

Hard to believe that February is nearly at the half-way mark...wow! Over the past couple of weeks, I have been at work prepping, basing, and painting a mixed array of Crusader Miniatures, Gripping Beast, and Artizan Vikings for: 1) personal shits and giggles, I wanted another warband for SAGA, and 2) for our clubs SAGA Age of the Wolf campaign.

So far, I am up to 4 points...and if I remember correctly, I think we're going up to 6 points for the campaign.  I chose the Vikings because there is a plethora of figures to choose from, I was able to find a couple of packs at North Bay Hobbies on clearance (Artizan figs, thank you Terry), I could have Berserkers, there was some great reference material (if I ever didn't want to read, I could just turn to the History Channel and watch Vikings...thank you Katheryn Winnick ), and hey, they're Vikings!!

For Christmas, I did get an awesome reference book which has come in very handy, The Vikings by Rene Chartrand has a great mix of overview and artwork that works for me right now.

Ok, so here's the Warband so far...4 points along with Ragnar leading the crew.

the Ragnar figure is from Crusader Miniatures adventurers 1 pack.

 

The warband...I am trying a new lighting setup...for the longest time I never wanted to use my flash, but in my latest attempt it sure makes a difference for me.

 

 

I have to admit, the Berserkers were a HUGE draw for me...I couldn't wait to paint them up...they were the first ones of the Warband that saw the brush...these are from Gripping Beast.

I chose to paint these fellows up in mid-combat pose with various wear and splatter that comes with close quarter axe combat...

The flash did a great job of showing the skins...

 

and a great job of showing the splatter and painting...I'm very happy with how they turned out.

VERY HAPPY!!

 

These Hearthguard figues are from Artizan...I really enjoyed the chance to paint up some great colours...I elected to go with 2 hearthguards...the difference between them is that one has capes/cloaks...and their base work has different coloured rocks.

I really like the variety in armour that these Hirdman are sculpted with...

 

I also took the opportunity to show some wear on the cloaks of the white rock Hirdman...I like the weathering effect and am pretty happy with the results.

 

 

Finally, rounding out my 4 pointer, I went with a group of Bondi...these guys have a great mix of armour, heads, and poses...the shields I attempted to freehand and keep them individual yet trying to have some common element amongst them...

 

My latest flash attempts are certainly growing on me...

 

Enjoy folks...more Viking goodness to come in the future.

 

Painted Totals:

 

28mm: 20

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edging into the New Year

Howdy everyone,

I have to admit, I have been approaching the internets and my blog writing with a mixture of trepidation, malaise, and overall arghhh-not right now...between the over coverage of certain "current events" and the American and Russian internet bots keeping my view count up...I just haven't been that much into the internet lately.

However, I certainly have been keeping up with my painting...as well, I thought I'd try a new tact with keeping my painting up...I am having a lot of difficulty keeping focus on projects, and yet the prep and painting of minis does help keep me sane...

So, I thought I'd post a pic of my wall of shame...and make it my goal to finish through as many of the blisters hanging off it as I could.  So, here goes:

 

This wall, built itself...certain pieces collected over the years...and some nostalgic items thrown in for when I'm down at my bench.

 



 

So, here goes with a different type of progress tracker over the year...by years end I hope to have a similar picture up...with a lot less blisters on the wall...coincidentally, if you look close, you'll see that each hanging package has another behind it.

 

Game on!

 

Cheers.