No Shortage of Distractions - Airborne

Howdy folk.

I hope the summer has come and gone well for everyone. I cannot believe that we are already hitting the end of September. I thought I’d pop a quick post so that I have at least one for the month. I haven’t been sitting still, work is, well…work. Never a dull moment and always busy. In between those times, I have been continuing to put paint to brush a brush to figures.

With September upon us, it was rather fitting that I found my way into catching up on a classic as well as a really great mini/limited series. Both of which came about because I got sudden inspiration to dig into the bowels of lead mountain and pull out some of the last frames from the Battlefront “Open Fire”…which I guess has become replaced by “Hit the Beach.” I had finished a large portion of this box years ago, but had left the infantry alone. So, I went in and grabbed the US airborne platoon that came in the box..and while I was there, I pulled out a purchase I made many years ago and was keeping in wait until the time was right.

So, September was the perfect time to watch “A Bridge Too Far”, which I had not seen in quite some time.

As always, a classic with an amazing ensemble cast. Watching this led me to my Open Fire box…which led me to painting up the US troops, which led me to “Band of Brothers” which has similarly led me to the first US Parachute Company box, the one that came out with 3 platoons. 

So, distractions…yeah, I’ve got tons of them…but am having fun painting up some figs that I found pretty intimidating to paint years ago. And which is starting to lead me back to Flames of War. So yeah, got that going for me. I’ll see if I can take some progress pics.

Take care folks. 

Movie Icon and Highly Notable Supporting Character

Howdy everyone,

 

I hope all is well in your respective areas of operation. Fall is certainly upon us and I hope Thanksgiving past and to come see you well. As I mentioned in my last post, September was certainly a month that flew by...and to be honest this October has certainly felt some of that momentum.

 

Nonetheless, the brush must continue to wave to and fro...wave? Sure...

 

For this post, I thought I'd share a couple of unique characters from Spectre Miniatures and Wargames Illustrated respectively. They are certainly movie character inspirations and I would easily say at least at the icon level and for our WI sculpt, at the very least a highly notable supporting character.

 

I give you 'the Hunter' from the Predator/Alien franchise by Spectre and Captain K from Jo-Jo Rabbit by Wargames Illustrated. Both figures were a lot of fun to paint up..and I have to admit I was slow to approach them because I wanted to make sure I got my painting spot on for these two. 

 

I've been a fan of 'the Hunter' for as long as I can remember...you know, back when he had his own start to the genre, lol. I do enjoy the mashup with Alien that we've seen in the past while. As for Capt K, I truly enjoyed JoJo Rabbit...a very clever movie with a great amount of satire with some pretty intense emotion. I'm a definite fan of Sam Rockwell and his performance...like many in the film...was simply outstanding. If you haven't seen it yet, for the love of god, get some popcorn and strap in, its a great film...highly recommended.

 

For the Hunter I played a considerable degree of liberty with paintscheme and armour colour. For Capt K, he was pretty straight forward and just a lot of fun to add the splashes of colour to his customized uniform that you don't normally get to with historicals, especially WW2.

I hope you enjoy the pics. Cheers.

Painted

15mm           30

28mm+         56, +2   

Bought          25

Progress      +61

Painting Update - Studio Miniatures

Howdy folks,

I hope all is well in your corner. Definitely a bit of a rainy day over here, so a perfect opportunity to drop a quick painting update. This time, I wanted to share a few pics of some Studio Miniatures movie inspired tough-guys. I’ve posted their figures before and am pretty happy with the sculpts and the results. 

The latest figs are Snake from Escape from New York, Doc Brown from Back to the Future, and I’ve tackled him before, John Wick. I had misplaced a few figures at one point and ended up reordering the figs…and of course found them right after the package arrived. We’ll call this fella John Wick the first movie, and this latest John…Wick 2. 

Like I said, this is a quick post. Enjoy the pics…and if you’re ever looking for figures of some of your favourite movie characters, then I would definitely head over to Studio Miniatures…they even have Monty Python!!

The latest trio…Doc Brown, Baba Wick, and a classic, Snake Plisskin…

Classic good guy wears black…and I thought I would give him some leather holsters to break up the pattern. As well, ended up using some green stuff to fill in the gaps in the base and then kinda went with a minimalist approach to the base, just enough to offset the black scheme.

This time I went with a much lighter suit colour as well as a different facial tone to make some subtle changes from my first take on Mr. Wick…trying to capture an Indigenous look…the base as well is just a quick minimalist take and break up of shapes…nothing specific, but again just shooting for some differences in appearance from Wick #1.

Definitely one of my favourite movies from the 80’s, Back to the Future, and Doc Brown’s character were a lot of fun. Pretty quick to paint up, I’m looking forward to finishing up Marty and they can tackle time travel together.

Painted

15mm               30 

28mm+             30, +3

 

Bought              25

Progress          +35

The 2nd Post Over Christmas...

For the second post over Christmas,

I have to share with you,

2 pop icons...from Studio Miniatures 

and a figure from HassleFree.

 

 

Howdy folks,

 

I hope everyone is well...1st post down...and here's the second...I bought these 2 powerhouses quite some time ago. Gotta say, they have a really great level of detail and were really easy to paint up. Being a big fan of Indie and John Wick...they were a real treat when I say them on Studio Miniatures website.

 

Please enjoy the pics...constructive comments and feedback are always appreciated.

 

Take care, stay safe.

Hike up Lead Mountain 2020

 

Painted:

28mm               59 (+2)
15mm               135

Bought:            2

Progress:          +192

Painting Update - Random Figs

Hello everyone,

Over the past summer I made some effort to tackle figures that, while bought with the bestest of intentions, unfortunately got into the painting waiting room and drew a 3 figured service number.  Amongst that crew of recently 'NEXT' or 'served' was a trio of packs from Artizan, Hasslefree, and Reaper.

Dr. Klomps Laboratory was a purchase I made at NorthBay Hobbies during one of my drop-ins while driving through...I always like to try to support LGS's.  The figures looked good, I liked the theme, and I figured they could fit into pretty much anything from WW2 with some weirdness, post-war, or even some fantasy.

The figs were pretty good to paint...Dr. Klomp screamed mad scientist and I couldn't help but think of Red Skull while I was painting him.  His goons were pretty easy to decide on...laboratory smock and a secret police typical suit.



From Hasslefree I finally got around to painting up his version of Ash.  I recently finished watching the Ash vs. Evil Dead on Netflix...incredibly entertaining, and Lee Majors is his Dad!! Simply gold! The figure looks great and is excellently sculpted...lots of detail on this one! It painted up quick and was a hoot the entire time.



Finally, the last pack was the Brass Bull from Reaper...this was a really easy purchase from Cangames a few years ago...in the end it was dead easy to paint up and really tested the highlight and shadow techniques.  At first, I was going for all brass/gold...I can't remember what made me change, but at some point I went with lower limbs, tail, and horns as gunmetal/silver.  The spine of the beast I painted up with Vallejo Desert Yellow...the main body was Vallejo brass...the body was hit with a mix of army painter strong tone wash and citadel sepia...and any silver was hit with nuln oil.  The best setting I could imagine for this one was somewhat Frostgravey and the Northern City...

Thanks for the views and your time...cheers.

2019 Expedition up Mt. Lead.

Painted:
28mm-ish     41 (+5)
15mm           3

Bought:        11

Progress:   +33