More Cobra

A second squad of Cobra goons. I wanted to differentiate them from last week's crew. Some googling showed that some version of Cobra had darker face masks. That seems like the easiest way to switch them up. 

I wonder if I should have painted their shoulder pads black? I may go back and do that.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with this set of proxies. Nice detail, the wash makes the cartoonish colouring I was looking for work.

There are a couple of more figures that I want to pick up to complete this set of troops but I will need to wait for some to comeback into stock to make the postage worthwhile.

Up next: Either 6mm ancients or some misc sci-fi.

Cobra troopers

Awhile back, I'd painted up two Pulp Figures figures as Cobra Commander and Destro. The problem was finding minions for them to command. A good option looked like these guys from Victory Force Miniatures but they never responded to me. 

I was cruising through Pulp Figures catalogue and, on a lark, looked at their German Jet Troopen. Minus the jet packs and these guys looked pretty much the part. 

The helmets are perhaps a bit too coal scuttle and the weapons are obvious WW2. But Cobra always struck me as proxy Nazis anyhow.

I painted this squad with red masks, which is what I remembers from the cartoon. I just free-handed a quasi-Cobra logo on the armoured plating. I think they'll do a pulp era baddies.

Up next: Some more Cobra

Colonial Warriors

There are six colonial warriors in Tangent Miniatures' line. I bought them all but got two Apollo's and no Jolly (he is on his way). These are pretty good figures, 3-D casts rendered in metal.

First up, we have Starbuck, Serena, and Apollo. I think Serena was supposed to be Sheba, but looks nothing like her (the likenesses of female sculpts are not as good as the males). So I made her Serena. Who needs two Athen's anyhow?

Next we have Boomer, Sheba, and a generic guy I made by cutting the head off the extra Apollo and glueing on one of the helmeted colonial heads that came with the set. Boomer is good but had a lot of flash. Sheba is supposed to be Athena, but looks nothing like her and Athena is also left-handed. The figure looks a bit like Anne Lockhart so Sheba it is. Generic guy could be the Rick Springfield character (Zak?) or maybe Ensign Greenbean.

Overall, these were fun figures to paint. I am still waiting for Jolly to arrive. The figures match the Crooked Dice Cylons that I have pretty well. I also have an MDF RAM APC from Warbases. It looks complicated and ultimately not that great so it goes to the bottom of the project pile.

Galactica Bridge Crew

Tangent Miniatures has two groups of colonial figures. These are the bridge crew that I am super pleased to have. Again, 3-D sculpts cast in metal. 

Athena and Adam look the part. Athena sort of looks like Maren Jensen. Adama looks more Ernest Borgnine than Lorne Green. These painted up well. 

Cassiopeia is a pretty good likeness. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what Cassiopeia's footwear was in the show. Lots of stills show bare legs but none showed her shoes. Since she is planet-side, I gave her books like the mom's at pre-school wore. Col. Tigh is a good likeness.

Up next: Colonial warriors.

Some leadership for the Cylons

A few months back, I painted up some Cylons from Crooked Dice. Nice figures and fun to paint. I was bemoaning the limited range when I stumbled across Tangent Miniatures' new range that seems designed to fill in the gaps.

These are 3-D rendered models that are cast is metal. Today, I have some leadership for the Tin Can. The Imperious Leader is kind of useless from a gaming perspective but he came with the bundle. He really needs to be on the top of a column (like a old film canister or something).

Lucifer was one of my favourite characters (better in the books than on TV). He posed two challenges: first his outfit is pretty plain. I used ouse highlight and washes to try and give him some depth. The second was his electronic brain (which was a clear dome filled with 70s electronics and glowed a bit). I decided to use a wash over the silver and that worked out okay.

Baltar is meh. The figure sort of looks like John Colicos. I used an old still to paint him. Again, meh.

Up next: Some opponents for the Cylons.

Field hockey team

I was looking for some female characters to add to my pulp/sci-fi collection. A challenge is finding female poses that are not either sex workers or wearing chainmail bikinis.

Crooked Dice has a nice set of school girls holding sports equipment so I bought some. Overall, great figures except the faces lack definition.

What I like about these figures are their versatility. Are they a modern sports team caught in the apocalypse, battling zombies or neo-Nazis? Note the small tears in some of the clothes. I played this up by dirtying the clothes with washes.

Or are they a street gang from the 20s or 30s, protecting their neighbourhood from gangsters and lizard people? Or are they a bunch of Slayers, activated early to help Buffy close the Hellmouth?

The figure above on the right is either summoning someone closer or making a rude gesture, but with two fingers. I was pretty happy with the colour palette I chose and thrilled to not be painting tartan.

There is quite a range in ages in this set. The figures below seem to include a teacher (left) and a very young pupil (right). The red head is holding what I think is a lollipop but I painted it as a ping-pong paddle. A tiny bit more depth on the faces would have been useful for the washes to catch on.

There is some very nice detail on the backs of the figures, including the teddy bear and someone's go-bag. The field hockey player has both some cobbled together armour and a wicked-looking knife (perhaps field hockey has changed since I was in school?).

Up next: Probably some 6mm and maybe also some more sci-fi. 

Last of the pulp

I'm finishing up the last of some 28mm Pulp Figures gangster that I got for Christmas. First up are a boss, his safe, and either his secretary or a reporter (pose could work for either).

There were also some henchmen. I hate the paint job on the brown guy. The middle guy looks like Vincent price (I think he was supposed to be a doctor or scientist). Our friend on the right is an accountant but looks vaguely like everyone's favourite failed Austrian painter.

Finally, I have two pulp villains (skull guy and the red hood). I've been thinking how much I enjoyed Gotham and having non-super villains so painted these with that in mind.

Up next: Probably some 6mm ancients.