20/01/2020

Big damn heroes

Though I said (or at least I remember so) that I would favour small projects in order to see them completed, the truth is that I've commited myself to larger scale stuff. That's one of the reasons behind the current slow pace of the blog. On the bright side, whenever I have something to show, it's rewarding to see lots of painted minis at once.
This case is the perfect example. I got the Firefly Brigands and Browncoats game:

Take my love, take my land, take me where I cannot stand...
The thing is that a couple of friends got it too. And they both asked me if I could paint their copies. Long story short, I'm currently painting three sets at the same time. Don't believe me?

...I don't care, 'cause I'm still free, you can't take the sky from meeeee
The good guys, the crew of the Serenity, have two minis each. A casual pose and an action pose. Whenever I read the rules (or get someone to read the rules) I'll learn why. The thing is that I have the nine characters (a couple of expansions had to be purchased -in triplicate, of course). Two poses each. Three copies each. 54 minis. And that's just the good guys!

Well, the only way to approach a project like this is breaking the problem into smaller problems. One character at a time. So let's start with Captain Malcom Reynolds, alma mater of the whole thing.


Though Nathan Fillion wears different outfits during the series and the movie, this is clearly the most recognizable one. Besides, the casual pose mini is just this pic taken into a fig; so I just had to follow this colour guide to get this:

He aims to misbehave
I didn't take WIP pics as I thought it would have been unbearabe for you to see the process on the 54 minis :D

First mate Zoe Washburne has a lovely causal mini and a not so great action pose mini (as it happened with Cap Reynolnds, IMO). Once again I took a pic as a reference.


Same thing about the outfit, this was the recognizable one
A thing series tend to forget about (specially sci-fi shows) is that actual people do change clothes. It's pretty common to see a character wearing essentially the same during the whole span of the movie or the series. But it's a thing that didn't happen in Firefly, and such a simple thing gave the whole show much more depth than you could imagine. Even with characters like Wash, who used to wear jumpsuits:

It's Mr. Hoban Washburne for you
Even him had different Hawaiian shirts!

An the action pose is wearing this vest:
In fact the jumpsuit is this one for both minis (just take a look at the pockets). So with all this in mind I got this (that's the closest I could get to that shirt!):

I am a leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar
Next character is one of my personal faves in the show, Kaylee (Kaywinnet Lee Frye). A nice casual pose mini but maybe the worst action pose mini of the bunch, I'm afraid; not becasuse of the sculpt itself, but in casting terms.

I hope you are not getting bored of seeing then tripled!
The core of the crew is completed with Cobb Jayne, the hired muscle of the Serenity. The challenge here is that the casual pose mini is wearing the infamous cap his mom sends him in 'The Message' episode, and it was tricky to find the art on the shirt he's wearing:

It will be trickier to paint that on a mini
I suspect the action pose is wearing this t-shirt:

For I think it's directly inspired in this pic
He's bearing his most beloved Vera, his Callahan full-bore auto-lock. Customized trigger, double cartridge thorough gauge.
It's a weapon he doesn't use in Serenity, the movie. However, at this point, I was having fun and I was in no rush. I decided to use the yellow t-shirt he's wearing at some point in the movie. It is distinctive and adds an element of colour.

This is the best pic I could find as a reference to paint it:
 




So this was the result:

The hero of Canton, the man they call Jayne
Let's move forward! Apart from the core crew we can find Inara Serra, who rents a shuttle for her companion bussinesses. Both casual and action minis wear this dress:


Funny thing, the action pose mini uses the bolt caster we can see in Serenity, but she doesn't wear that outfit.


Well, that made it easier and quicker for me to paint:

I love the minis, but the sculpt could have been better
Shepherd Derrial Book was quite an interesting character the TV show didn't have time to develop (nor had the movie). Quite a shame, as the hints here and there were really cool. It was the comic book The shepherd's tale which told the full story of his life.


The action pose bears the gun he uses in the 'War Stories' episode
Not sure if Book's book has all its pages

Finally, the Tams, another central element in the show and later in the movie. Dr. Simon Tam's casual pose mini looks to be inspired by this pic:


But there's no way I dared to replicate that vest. I chose this other one:



The stethoscope was added in the sculpt, but I like how it complements the mini.

I couldn' find a pic of the first-aid kit. I think it's the only thing I made up though all this project
River Tam's casual pose mini is clearly based on this pic:

While the action pose comes directly from the Serenity final fight scene.
First pic I found, I think you get it
Then here you are:

Yeah, I also find the three girls dancing a little bit disturbing
So. This is it. Of course by now you need pics of all of them together as a crew!


For me this pic is worth of all the effort
And yes, of course I'm singing The Ballad of Serenity as I'm writing this
Just a final remark. You may (or may not) have noticed that I'm building a sci-fi desert mining town. Yes, it truly will serve for my Rogue Trader/WH40K games. BUT.
Wouldn't you have thought I had specifically this in mind too?

This is all for now. I hope you understand I'm currently a little bit mentally exhausted. I'm switching from this project into any other thing and then I'll paint the baddies. Tripled, of course!!

32 comments:

  1. Estรกs fatal y me encanta.

    Mil enhorabuenas.

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    1. ¡Jaja, es un cumplido, gracias! Pero todavรญa queda trabajo...

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  2. Excellent, I hadn't even heard of this game. Well done!!!

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    1. Ohh, you should peek over it! The minis are better than one could expect from a board game and if you are a Frefly fan this s a must :)

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  3. Replies
    1. Gracias, la verdad es que ha sido un trabajo tedioso a veces, pero me quedo satisfecho :)

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  4. Replies
    1. Thank you! Though repetitive, the work has been rewarding in the end :)

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  5. Great work Suber. I love Wash's Hawaiian shirt.

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    1. Thank you! I had a rough time trying to sort that out. It was definitely impossible to replicate the pattern at that scale, so I had to study it and apply little colour stains, kind of an impressionist work :D
      I took care that the colours were in place according to the pic though!

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  6. I'm a big Firefly fan, I have to go look that game up.
    Thanks for breaking down the casual vs. action poses and their sources (or lack thereof). Also, they look great in your mining town.

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    1. Thank you! Then you definitely need to have a look at it. This reminded me of the GW LotR game, in which you had like seven different poses for the same character (which was cool!) :D

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  7. Very productive! They all look great.

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    1. Thank you! It's been time demanding, but I'm overall happy. If only I could have a 28mm scale Serenity!

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  8. Very nice! The miniatures look great in your setting, and I clearly need to check out a new game. Firefly is the most direct inspiration for what I'm trying to do myself. Anyway . . . Well done!

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    1. Thank you! Well, for sure the Tartarus Rim has this kind of vibe, which makes it as attractive as it is! I cannot speak yet of the game itself, but I cannot wait for playing it.

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  9. Geniales. Dan ganas de volver a verse la serie completa. Estoy seguro que ESE poblado minero sale en elgรบn capรญtulo ;)

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    1. ¡Gracias! Confieso que yo lo hice mientras los pintaba :P
      Jaja, volverรฉ a verla para cerciorarme :D

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  10. Great work! Thanks for explaining your choices in terms of outfit too.

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    1. Thank you! This time I really wanted to make such an explanatory post; it was mainly the point of trying to paint them accurately. It was really worth of the time :)

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  11. Super looking figures, excellent finish!
    Best Iain

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    1. Thank you! I didn't want to take any shortcuts here, that's why I took my time with stupid, unnecesary details like Jayne's yellow t-shirt, for example :P
      I hope the clients are happy :D

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  12. Me perturba un poco ver a la misma persona repetida tantas veces. Se supone que solo Jesucristo podรญa hacer eso :v

    Entiendo que debe ser un juego de colocaciรณn de trabajadores o algo: Manolito va a por pan, Manolito carga el lรกser mortal... Vamos que son "tokens" no miniaturas.

    Estรกs muy chulas!

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    1. Jaja, sรญ, un poco inquietante sรญ es :D
      Tengo ganas de probar el juego, pero antes tengo que pintar los malos (¡tres veces!)

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  13. Wow Suber! The attention to detail on these minis are excellent. Part of me wishes I had watched Firefly but part of me is hesitant because I know it got unfairly canceled. I have excess to the movie though and I might just give that a go.

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    1. Thanks! I have to say I first watched the movie when the theatrical release and only then I learned there was a TV show (and doing that I watched some spoilers!). However, I enjoyed the series hugely. It's a pretty straightforward show, and I think it's a total shame it didn't reach the numbers so it was cancelled. On the other hand, that's exactly the reason of its success, IMO. We all wanted more, we never got to the point of getting bored or tired. So well, games such as this one are part of the nostalgia trip :)

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  14. Fantastic paint jobs, Suber. I'd never have the patience to paint the same sculpts so many times. Seems you shared your attention equally on all of them!

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    1. Haha, thank you! I didn't think I had the nerve, but the only way to do this was painting all of them on a row. I would have gone crazy (ehm... crazier) if I had painted a full set, then another one and finally a third one. I should put my hands on the baddies, I think...

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  15. Still one of my favourite sci-fi shows. Lovely work on the characters, you managed to capture their essence really well.

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    1. Mine too! Thank you, I was really excited about painting these. Now I really need to get my brushes on the rest of the game!

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  16. This is a super awesome tribute to a brilliant show. I still lament its loss

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    1. Thank you! I miss the show too. I'm struggling to find the time to paint the baddies and then have a game!

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