Painting Update - Enemy Spotted Studios

Howdy everyone,

I hope that everyone’s summer is going better than expected and that all is well in your respective spheres of influence. I wanted to share a quick post with you and give a quick update on my painting progress over the last week or so.

I was able to get through a couple of blister packs of figures from ESS and their In Country line. While their direction has gone more ultra-modern plus or future-modern (not sure if that is a genre, but sounds right in my head), ESS had a really great range of modern figures that my local gaming store…<<cough, Red Dragon, cough>>…had stocked for some time. The figures were a mix of metal and resin and had a great amount of detail.

The last two packs that I finished were “Gas Mask Operators”, resin…and “Killteam Operatives” that were metal. So I’m thinking the Killteam were maybe some of the first figures that ESS released. Anyway, I had a great time painting these minis up…my only beef being that the Killteam figures were a little tricky putting together. Particularly, the left arm for 2 of the minis were a little difficult to discern, so there is a chance that I may have assembled them incorrectly. I did have to make some adjustments and ‘fixes’ as I was putting them together.

However the finished product turned out really well. Inspired by Spectre Miniatures and the covert/overt operative packs, I painted up both packs as closely to each other as possible so that I ended up with a Killteam figure also wearing a gas mask for when the op goes sideways or is a little more intense and they need to lay down some smoke or gas.

Enjoy the pics. You’ll see, one of the figures was inspired by Matt Damon’s first kick at Jason Bourne, complete with a red bag.

Cheers.

Both crews, similarly painted…I took the minimalist approach to their bases, but also wanted to depict them as if they were just walking down the street and slipped into action.

“You with the red bag!! Don’t move!”…

The gas mask crew, similarly dressed as the crew above…I think my favourite is the dude in the yellow leisure/sweatsuit…I had ALOT of fun painting him up.

2026's Trek up Mt. Shame

Painted

15mm         59

28mm+       44, +8

Terrain      +38

  

Bought       103

Progress    +38

Accounting Catch-Up

Howdy folks.

I hope your week is going well comma and that your weather is letting it get outside and enjoy some time outdoors. Having taken stock this week of my Cangames activities and post Cangames reports, I thought it was high time To do some workstation cleanup and figure out where exactly I stood in terms of miniatures painted miniatures bought and overall progress as we’re roughly about half year complete or maybe I should say we’re grudgingly just over the half your mark this week.

To be honest, I have not been taken a very close look at what I was buying, but I know I had picked up a few things this year that I hadn’t encountered for yet. Anywho, I had picked up a few figures this year from local gaming stores and I had started to go down the rabbit hole of sci-fi and space gaming, which led me over to the Aliens franchise and then I got interested in seeing what I could find from the “Another Glorious Day in the Corps” game line from Gale Force 9, it is out of production now, so it’s a little challenging, but I figured that the miniatures would work well across a wide range of genres. 

Anyhow, having taken the time to do the review. My numbers are now up-to-date and I almost have a new challenge to see if I can paint through the small bump or foothill in my trek up shame mountain. We’ll see what the rest of the year brings and how much I can get through this collection on top of the objectives I had set in January.

I think this picture captures most of it, but I know I’m missing a bolt action book that I bought that came with a free figure a couple of Star Wars legions boxes (Bossk and the battlefield supplies scatter terrain), Oh, and a couple of used Marvel figures that I bought at Red Dragon (Captain America and Kraven).

Have a great weekend folks.

2026's Trek up Mt. Shame

Painted

15mm         44

28mm+       19

Terrain      +38

  

Bought       103, +103

Progress      -2

Painting Update - Enemy Spotted Studios Moderns

Hello everyone,

Here's hoping your summer is going better than expected. This is just a quick post showcasing some great looking figures from Enemy Spotted Studios that I finished up a month or two ago, but didn't have the chance to post up or get pictures of until now. These are 2 separate packs...but I guess given the revamp of In-Country or INX and the ESS website, they may not be available anymore...

The first pack was the Advanced African militia, which I ended up painting up to fit in a variety of conflict zones. However I ended up using a bunch of shots from the current Rwanda/DRC conflict and leaning more towards the paint schemes of the belligerents there (DRC army and M23), which explains the salut to the olive/lime green rubber boots.

The second pack was a blister of 4 figures labeled Security Team Support (at least that’s what i think they were called) and was an excellent compliment to the previous blister that I had painted of the Security Team pack from ESS. Given that I had used some pics of Wagner operatives in Mali, I again hit the internet to find some suitable pictures of support troops to inspire my painting.I think they will fit in well. All together, and along with my pack of African Regulars, I think any of these packs will be able to work together as friends or enemies.

Enjoy the pics.

Advanced Militia…

A few close-up shots…

I tried to paint in some texture on all the figures with their smocks…I like how they turned out, and the varied lines give some great depth to the troops uniforms.

The support troops…anti-tank missile on the right, RPD on the left, and rifleman in the middle. Heavily influenced by various pics of Wagner operatives in Africa.

Group shot of the militia with the “Wagner” troops. I think they mix well together and could be used for a variety of scenarios.

Running up that Lead/Plastic Hill...

Painted

1/200             4 

15mm          46    

28mm+        16, +8

Fabricated

     

Bought        0 

Progress   +66

Painting Update - Enemy Spotted Studios

Howdy folks,

Here’s hoping that the summer is treating you all well so far. The weather here has definitely been on the warm side, especially for a guy who really likes winter weather. So with the remnants of Beryl projected to make its way north, I thought I’d post the latest batch of figs to come off the workbench.

I picked up a blister of African Regulars from Enemy Spotted Studios; 8 figures that have some pretty dynamic poses to them. I really like the team leader pose. Anywho, I wasn’t sure how to paint them up,so I hit the google for some inspiration. Looking at various pics of Kenyan, Nigerian, and South African troops I ended up settling on a bit of a mix between them…but if I had to narrow it down, I’d say the paint scheme was leaning more to the Nigerian side.

The figures themselves look really great. Like I said, they are pretty dynamic. I did have some issues with assembly and arms lining up with hands…that kind of thing…but I’m really happy with how they painted up and the results.

Enjoy the pics.

You can see the leader in the front rank, second from the right with his left arm pointing forward.

Journey up Lead/Plastic Mountain

Painted

15mm         27 

28mm+       43, +8

Fabricated

Terrain          2

Bought          8

Progress   +64

Danger Close - Another Test-Run

Howdy folks,

I hope all is going well on your sides of the internets. Well, as the title says, this is another play test of the Danger Close rules from Empress Miniatures. This time out, I had a little help from Duncan…I wanted to get his thoughts on the flow and mechanics of the game. So,we both squared off against each other and gave the rules a try. Spoiler Alert, it was another successful go with the rules, I think they are nice and simple, and yes, I am horrible at rolling the dice…Duncan soundly trounced all over my team.

So with that, here are the main details of the game and some pics to enjoy…take care.

The details: 

The crew: Duncan and I each had a fireteam of 5 personnel, fairly standard armament - carbines and one SAW (squad automatic weapons, ala C9, M249, etc.), I think we included optics (give a modification on spotting and shooting), and body armour of some type. 

Objective: again, I didn’t really think of any going into this…I ended up dropping a bag of weapons in the middle of the table and each crew was tasked with retrieving it.

Thoughts: again, fairly straightforward, but it was really good to get the perspectives from Duncan. There is a little bit of administration that goes into the game, token keeping stuff and whatnot. There were some ‘holes’ in the rules, but again nothing that some improv couldn’t fix. I think the biggest thing is that the tables can be a little problematic and confusing…I didn’t notice that too much the first time, but it was definitely a factor in our game.

And now, the pics:

The layout, kit bag of guns (blue bag) in the centre of the table. Duncan at the top, deployed and moved in behind some barricades. I’m ingress in from the bottom of the pic, between the two buildings on the right.

Slowly making my way up the table.

I made my way into the building…and Duncan made some pretty great rolls to snipe my guys on the inside.

Outside, I am having success spotting Duncan’s crew, but my die rolls suck hard…

Another one bites the dust…sniped..and down. 

And the rest of the team is feeling the pain.

Last Post of the Year - Modern and Old West

Hey folks,

For the final post of the year, I thought I’d share with you a few figures that I just recently finished. I finally got some Great Escape Games figures off the workbench and put some paint to them and a few figures that I happened upon at my LGS, from Enemy Spotted Studios (ESS).

The Great Escape Games figures were originally released as part of their Dead Man’s Hand game, and with the re-release, I’m sure they’ll figure in the game again…not to mention they’ll work with any other Old West game. It was good to finally get to these figures, I’ve had them for a number of years…and it made a great reason to watch a western or two - Young Guns and Hell on Wheels definitely had some good characters to be inspired by. Buckshot Roberts looks pretty much like Brian Keith’s character in Young Guns, and Common’s as Elam Ferguson in Hell on Wheels looks a near spitting image to the Ely Fergus, and the Preacher - well there are too many to list by name, but are some great examples on the Silver Screen.

Enemy Spotted Studios is a company that is totally new to me. I discovered them online end-summer/early fall and their two lines In-Country (ultra modern) and Killwager (sci-fi). They are a US based company with physical and digital store offering on-demand physical models and STLs - what I particularly like about the company is that the figures have a very dynamic look and appeal, and the company’s business model is to support Veterans causes with a 10% portion being donated to Vet’s programs. As well, they offer their rulesets as free digital downloads on their website. I was pretty happy to see some inventory when I was at Red Dragon a while back, and a little disappointed when I dropped by a few weeks ago and saw that everything had been sold…a good problem to have for ESS, but a little disappointing nonetheless. Anywho, I bought their INX Security Team blister, 4 unique figures each with a very dynamic pose. They were a lot of fun to paint up.

I hope you all have a Happy New Year, all the best, and enjoy the pics.

Painted 

15mm          133

28mm+          62, +7

Bought         131

Progress      +64