Sci-fi cars

Quick update today with few pics, as I'm not painting as much as I would like these days.

One of the things I should take a little more care about when gaming is scenery. A proper game needs proper ambientation. It's not been since recent times that I have been purchasing and converting scenery pieces to make my battlefields a little more attractive. Among my long term ideas is building up some decent urban setting, so I need some sci-fi buildings and stuff. I have a few crates and things like that, but that doesn't even begin to cover my needs.

As my buying list is quite a mess random, I lack any priority when it comes into purchasing cool stuff. So, though you may legitimally be expecting some buildings, you won't have them today, sorry. They will come, that I promise, they will come...

Anyway, cars are also part of any decent urban scenery, so I'm bringing you a couple of them for today. Some time ago I got this one from Antenocitis (a real must see web):

 

Glamourous futuristic car

 

Applying yellow was a total pain in the **s, but the sports car looking deserved it. If I was to paint it again I would for sure try another different scheme, but it works for now.

Besides this one, I recently purchased a second hand sci-fi car by Scotia Grendel (I guess they don't even need any introduction). I tried a different approach for this one:

 

Sports car with a machine gun. Welcome to the future

 

The white & orange scheme was something I was eager to try, and this was a nice opportunity. The machine gun suggested any kind of enforcement vehicle, but I didn't want to make it a police car or anything like that, but the corporate concept looked appealing to me. I thought of painting any corporate logo on the side, but I was too lazy for that, I just painted a number and let it go.

 

Not sure if sports cars or police cars in disguise

 

I still need to buy tons of scenery; I have a few mdf laser cut buildings patiently awaiting for their moment to come, and I am constantly seeing new options... I'd really like to get my hands on them! Whenever I manage to build them up, I'll keep you updated!

The Phantom of the Opera

Another different thing for a change (again)! Organ music, please!

[Daaaaa Da-da-da-da-daaaaaa...]

I had thought for a long time about doing this, and I finally got the chance. As the title suggests (ehm, maybe more than 'suggest'...), I am aiming for this guy:

 

I look angry because there is no mini of me all over the market

 

I needed to use a proxy, and I finally found it in the wonderful Andrea ranges. I would use this 54mm. Dracula:

 

No, I'm not going to sing

 

The kit looks his way:

 

I won't be using the bats nor the candelabrum

I was not specifically aiming at the Gerald Butler lookings, but that Bela Lugosi face was not exactly the aspect I was expecting for the Phantom of the Opera. Fortunately the mask would help me much indeed:

 

I also repositioned the hand

Here you can see the mask

I chose to paint and model on the go, in different steps. I had to paint the inner cloak as I would not reach it later. Onece glued, I could keep on converting the mini. As you can see, I softened a little the cheek marks to make him look a little younger. He had to be middle-aged, but not old.

 

I also wanted a gentleman's cloak, not a vampire's one

Some colour!

The scenic base also needed some attention. I tried to give it a damp aspect, being the underground tunnels of the Opera:

 

I tried to be a little bit atmospherical. I was listening the musical while painting

I then realized there was one thing about the Phantom that I didn't like. I had not been able to identify it. The 'old man' issue was still there, but I didn't know what was it. It finally appeared to be the shape of the head. The hair so stuck to the skull gave the man quite an older aspect. I added some volume:

 

Phase one. You are beginning to hear the music softly in your head

Phase two. In dreams he sang to meee, in sleep he came...

 
The rest was just a matter of painting the brocade on the vest and some other details:

 

That voice which calls for meeee, and speaks my naaaameee

And do I dreeeam agaaain, for now I fiiind...

The Phaaaaaaaan-tomoftheOpera is theeere, inside my miiind

 

I have enjoyed a lot (indeed) converting and painting this one. The pics somehow burn the colours, but there are different tones of black (the suit, the inner cloak and the outer cloak).

If only I could find a 54mm. girl properly dressed, I'd just love to do a diorama of the Phantom and Christine. Boat scene maybe or something like that. If you know any suitable mini, I'm open to all ideas :).

Finally, if for any chance you are not that fond of organ music, I'll leave you with this other version ;)

Hope you like it all!

ISAF Project. Vehicles

Back to the Afghanistan project again :)

The last pieces I'm assembling for this (for the moment!) will be two vehicles.

I got this Humvee and got it painted in Spanish Army colours:

 

Presumably finished

 

But when I had it finished I begun to think. 'Well, it is really close to the Spanish model, but... Not close enough'. You know, the kind of stuff that comes to mind from time to time. It simply didn't work for me no more.

Sooo... let's get hands dirty!

Step 1. Some green stuff will be needed to fix that

Step 2... Hey, what's that?

I used a stowage kit from another model to make the bumper. When properly cut, it looked more or less the way it was supposed to be. The wire cutter is just some plastic cut & glued to give it that shape.

 

Details. Tiny details make all work

The same on the back

 

Then I painted the sign these vehicles bear to avoid local cars breaking the security distance:

 

Keep distance in Dari. More or less

 

So the vehicle definitely looks like this when finished:

 

It also has Spanish military plates

If you don't keep the sign clean, nobody's going to see it!

Mandatory comparison pic

 

On the other side, Afghan guys also needed some mobility:

 

No modification at all this time

That's a serious gun!

Once again, size comparison pic

Both vehicles look like this:

 

Ready to go

 

I still have to find a proper turret for the Spanish Vamtac, but it's fine for me for the moment.

 

I'm afraid I still haven't dared to seriously read the Skirmish Sangin ruleset, I believe I should take my excuses apart and definitely lear how to play...

Slaanesh Noise Dreadnought

Oooops! My bad!

Last day I didn't recall I also have this Forge World Dreadnought! D'oh!

Noise Dreadnought. Problem?

 I kept in in a different box and I had totally forgot about it, poor guy.

 

Of course I'm angry, you forgot about me, moron!

 

Not gaudy enough for these Slaaneshi bros, but...

 

Yup, my arm is a saw, terrible when my back itches

I'm Slaaneshi, so size matters

 

I painted this some time ago, that's why I had forgot about it. Hmm, the problem is that now it doesn't fit into my RT-ish Emperor's Children warband, as the style and design are quite different. I don't know, I could try, but I'm not sure at all...

Slaaneshi warband

All the guys as promised you last week!

Most of them are RT Renegades I painted up in purple and gold. As Slaanesh (un)holy number is six, all the squads will have six members. Six squads of six members each is too much, this is all I got.

First one. This is the leader:

 

What do you mean by 'your face is unexpressive?'

A standard bearer:

 

Having a problem with my face too?

And the rest of the guys:

 

Don't care, I still think I'm beauty

You might have seen the one on the left anywhere...

 

The whole squad looks like this:

 

Ooops! I'm just realizing the boss doesn't let you see the banner guy

The second squad is leaded by a guy you already saw in other colours:

 

New season's fashion

007's 'the man with the golden gun'

 

Not sure if a marine or a Daemonette in disguise

They look like this when together:

 

Pure Slaanesh

Well, we have two Squads, but, who is to lead these guys into battle? This one!

Yeah, I know it's from the Fantasy range, but I got the mini and it is cool!

The mini lacked one of the swords, so I replaced it with a spare one I had from somewhere else.

But... Yes, there is a 'but'... What is a Slaaneshi warband without Noise Marines? You saw Roy last week, let me show you the rest of them:

 

The vocalist has some ego issues

Absolutely ugly, absolutely Slaanesh

Let's rock, guys!

 

As you can see, they are a mix of pieces from 3rd Ed Noise Marines and regular Chaos Space Marines. I tried to spread the Noise Marines pieces all I could, but I must say I'm not really satisfied with this particular unit.

And this is the complete warband so far:

 

The lack of scenery is disturbing

So well, I guess it is enough for rumbling along the Galaxy!

I wonder when will they see some action...

Roy & the Daemonettes

Here I come in front of you to confess, my brethen, that I have failed.

I have not been able of achieving my goal. I tried but simply could not.

'What the hell are you talking about?' I pretend you say, so I can answer anyway.

I have not been able to paint this:

 

Classic 'Noise Marine'. Too much for me

 

40K-ers of old know exactly what is this and need no further clarification. For everyone else, let me briefly explain: Worshippers of Slaanesh, the Chaos god of excess and depravation, got themselves into a point in which their normal experiences were not enough. The world seemed dull and grey to them, as their way of life was more decadent everyday and discovered new things which made them unsatisfied of their previous ones. So they needed more extreme excesses: flashy colours, loud noises, extreme pain to feel anything... You know, BDSM was just soft kittens for them.

At some point they discovered/invented/whatever these sonic weapons. That was perfect, noise and destruction altogether. So 'Noise Marines' were born. Extreme colours and extreme noise.

Well, apart from that, late '80 were some crazy times, you know, and GW sculptors were quite fond of heavy metal. So we had Rokk Goff Orks and this model. What can I say, glam rock into 40K.

I have not been able to find any inner peace trying to paint that pattern nor anything even remotely similar to that. Sorry, pals.

Instead of that, I have a few Emperor's Children Marines painted in their classic purple/golden colours, so I went for that with this mini. This is what I got:

 

Won't say it's better, but I cannot do anything else

 

I'm not quite fond of this scheme either, but as long as I have some RT Renegades of old in these colours, I'll try to make up a warband and see what happens. I'll show the whole bunch quite soon, as I still have to complete some minis to fill in units.

So here we have Roy the Noise Marine, ready to rock all over the scenarios. He is doing his tour with his choir girls, these two classic Daemonettes:

 

Itchy? Let us help you

 

Daemonettes hypnotize their victims and make them believe they are in a lusty dream... till they come to them and tear them apart with her claws.

I have a bunch of Daemonettes sculpted by Juan Diaz, but got these two and had to paint them :)

So these are the rock stars, Roy & the Daemonettes. I believe it's a fancy name, don't you? :P

Hmm, while you wait for the rest of the warband to come along, I'll post this other guy riding a Steed of Slaanesh:

 

Hi ho Silver, away!

 

I'm thinking of repainting the Slaanesh Marine I showed you a few weeks ago in this post. It will probably be for good in order to get some coherence in this army... if coherence was an issue for Slaanesh!

Well, now you get an idea of what is coming...