Monday, February 18, 2019

Dreadful Things: Troll King and the Axe of Dancing Doom

Unlike the guy from my last post, most of my commission customers actually pay for their job when it's done.  For example, I just finished up this conversion and painting job for one of my regulars.
 
 
The mini on the right started life as a Fractured Dimensions "troll deity" from one of their Kickstarters.  The Axe of Dancing Doom is a kitbash that started life as the weapon off one of Privateer Press' Khador shocktroopers, another of which has been swapped on to the troll in place of his original two-handed axe.

 
The task here was to make a troll king armed with a magical weapon for D&D use, specifically an axe of dancing - that is, a weapon that can float in the air and fight on its own for brief periods.

 
After cutting and extending both axe hafts a bit (they're ALMOST a perfect fit, but only almost) I added a pair of tiny craft store gems to the axe heads per request.  Have to admit I was a little disappointed by how soft the facet edges were, but I guess you can't ask too much out of stuff that small from the bead aisle.

 
I then built a coiling web of arcane energy out of wire-core plastruct rod covered with a mix of glue and putty.  The crackling green death magic both hides the joins and the spot where the shocktrooper's hand gripped the shaft, and provides a flight effect so the axe is properly dancing.

 
All in all it came out pretty well, and was an entertaining (albeit time-consuming) conversion project.  The troll figure itself was a very straightforward job aside from the axe swap.  Particularly fond of the fish and leg of...something on his belt.  I guess even troll deities and kings need to carry a snack in case they get peckish.


Friday, February 8, 2019

Down Memory Lane: A Retrospective of Old Glory/Blue Moon 15mm Scifi

Old Glory has a fair-sized range of 15mm scifi figures sold through their Blue Moon line, most of which have been around for almost a decade now.  They're well-made, have  a lot of sculpt variants per pack (generally ten out of ten unique poses, sometimes less), and are remarkably inexpensive if you're an Old Glory Army member.  Despite that, I don't see very many painted images of them online.  So I've gone digging through my old image files and dragged out some examples for a photo gallery post.  You'll have to excuse the wretched quality of some of the images, but they date back to 2011 in some cases and not exactly up to current standards.
 
You can see the Old Glory web store listings here:
 
 
Mix of Universalist Command (who are definitely not 15mm Eldar), Robot Legionnaires, Robot Legion Skirmishers, and Robot Legion Striders
 
 
Ten sculpts of Universalists


 
Only one of the Robot Legionnaires

 
And I think three of the Velon Skirmishers

 
Five sculpts of the Nevis


 
Five sculpts of Averums
 

 
Ten sculpts of Betelguesans, who make pretty good pulp Martians in green skin tones, or Star Trek Andorians with blue
 
 
Ten poses of Nova Patrol, who are also rather pulp scifi styled



Another mixed Universalist & Robot lot
 
 
Wraithguard?  What Wraithguard?

 
War Walker or Wraithlord Dreadnought, you decide.

 
Six poses of Zennox - one of the few packs that only has six figures
 

 
The Nevi make nice stablemates for the Zennox when you paint them in a similar color scheme


 
Ten poses of Aquans, who also make good Star Wars Rodians if you paint them green-skinned


 
Six sculpts for the Twanax, which are the other six-figure pack and much bigger than man-sized


 
Back to the Averums again, only five sculpts but you get two of each


 
Orion Republic power armor, ten sculpts that make fine Space Marine proxies
 
 
Ten different Mercantile Bond soldiers

 
Ten sculpts of Vletan Reavers

 
Ten variants of the Post Human Command sculpts, very nice generic scifi troopers

 
Ten Terran Confederation trooper sculpts, who also make decent Eldar aspect warrior types
 
 
What, more Universalists?

 
Fereen with Orbs, I believ there are only five infantry sculpts but the two drones also come in the pack, making a total of twelve figures despite what the store page claims

 
More Fereen, this time two sculpts mounted on huge Goranax, these are single-piece castings on 1" washers in the photo


 
There are a fair number of codes I don't have passable photos for.  Maybe I'll get around to fixing that some day. 

 

 




 
 

Tuesday, February 5, 2019

Full Thrust ORCDEF Starships from Studio Bergstrom

 
Latest starship painting project is a fleet of ORCDEF ship from Studio Bergstrom's Future Frontier range, originally designed by Rob May.
 

 
There are suggested Full Thrust stats and write-ups for these minis here:
 

 
If I were going to modify those stats based on gameplay, I'd probably swap out some or all of the graser-1 mounts on the larger ships (battlecruiser and up) in exchange for a single-arc graser-2.  Both the battlecruiser and battleship can easily fit one, with a leftover mass for a little more hull.  The superdredanought can manage a graser 2 and still retain one or two graser-1 mounts, especially if you trade in a hull box or two. 

 
That would give them a bit more reach off the prow, albeit at a cost of some closer ranged punch.

 
I've always liked these sculpts for the feel of sheer blocky power they radiate.  Using the catalog paint scheme they're very easy to paint, mostly just a matter of doing some edge highlighting and picking out details for the guns and engines.

 
Like all Studio Bergstrom minis they're remarkably cleanly cast, and most are single piece metal castings.

 
The battleship and superdreadnought (the catalog calls it a carrier) have resin hulls, with the engine caps cast in metal.  Assembly is very simple, although you may need to drill out the holes for your flight posts to widen them a bit, they're a bit tight as-is.