Another glorious day

 Back again on the Alien vs Predator project! Today we'll have the (almost) final installment on this adventure, the Colonial Marines.

The basic games comes with a 5 men strong Squad, to which I added a Sergeant. Due to licenses, they are not the marines from the Aliens movie, but generic Colonial Marines. Any similarities with those is merely coincidental.

Hapone, Hips, Hoodson, Blake, Frest and Verbovskee

The minis are really cool. Awesome sculpts and fantastic casts. But remember, I'm painting my set and my pal's too. Besides the above, he also got another squad and a few bits, so I used them to make some minor conversions, in order to avoid having repeated minis.

I believe the running guy belongs to a different sculptor, feels a little bit out of scale

Conversions are pretty simple and subtle

I converted both of them. And left the Sgt untouched, no need for conversion here

He also got some more candy:

Well, these were to be expected

And of course this was to be expected!

You may remember I painted some special minis some weeks ago, including a Dutch Shaeffer and a Linn Kurosawa, both in video game aesthetics. Well, my pal also got these other 'regular' versions of the characters:

Looks like kind of Schwarzenegger in Commando, but with the bionic arm

Bases are oversized, yes, but it's the same size the other minis had, so I kept it this way

More stuff! This time it's a thing out of the Kickstarter. Precisely this pal I'm painting these minis for gave me an APC some time ago. I believe it's from Khurasan, now a discontinued item. As it's not a licensed piece, it cannot be an exact replica, but it's more than close enough for me:

Most glorious brick of resin

Three layers of highlighting and you could barely see them. Sigh.

As these are not the Marines from that movie, I thought I should change the adscription of the APC, and not enlist it as part of the USS Sulaco.

Given that both Nostromo and Sulaco obviously come from Joseph Conrad's Nostromo, I followed the same path and thus created the USS Costaguana.

Due to my poor skills you can read Costagoana, but I don't dare to touch it anymore

So here you have them all:

All right, sweethearts, what are you waiting for? Breakfast in bed? Another glorious day in the Corps!

I've tried to take a pic of the complete project, but I'm afraid I've already given my pal significant parts of his batch (storage at home is quite an issue these days!), so please accept my apologies and have this disappointing, incomplete shot, just to give an idea of what's this all about:

I've painted like more than the double of both Aliens and Predators

Is this the end of the project? Well, the end of the main body of the project indeed. But there's still a final installment of this whole AvP project! I'm already working on it, so I hope I can unveil the mystery soon!

9th anniversary!

 Here we are again!

Nine years ago I started a blog. Nine years, wow. Of course nowadays I cannot keep the same updating rate than I used to, but I'm still painting!

This year has been particularly slow. Raising the Suberlings takes most of the time and an unpleasant increase of responsibilities on the job is also alarmingly reducing the hobby time. I guess most of you are quite familiar with this, so what can I say, I'm just another regular guy in his forties!

Whatever the case is, 2021 is the year in which I have the least posts. Gasp! In my defense I'll say that I've been facing quite pharaonic, delusional projects, and I have even managed to actually finish some of them!

Let's keep track of what I've been up with since last November.

It actually hurts me to acknowledge that this project is in a hiatus since November 2020. Dammit:

I really need to resume this!

I've done some good old fashion Rogue Trader adventurers, pirates and so:

I've done a few fun side projects:

I got back to the World of Twilight:

When I talked about delusional projects, I mean stuff like this madness, the Conan KS game:

Still having nightmares from time to time

This project alone took most of my time and sanity points. But seeing it finished gives a sense of closure difficult to explain. Ahhhhh.

I also revisited some Orks:

And I got the privilege to paint this awesome bust:

Real life events moved me to play the only game I've managed to run this year, an intense game of Skirmish Sangin:

 If I didn't have enough with one KS, I also started to paint the other one I had pending for years, the Aliens vs Predator one, which I still haven't finished (the Colonial Marines are coming soon, I promise)

But well, you know, my star project this year has been the huge scratchbuilt monster, the Ork Gargant, Morkstroke:

Remember, it all started like this

One year later...

It's not yet finished, but close to!

This has been my blogging year! So not many posts, but I've tried that all of them had some juicy content.

My priorities right now are finishing the Gargant and the AvP game. I really need to get back to my mining town board, and I have like tons of old school Orks patiently waiting for their turn. Apart from that, the usual stuff. Projects I started years ago, projects I started months ago, projects I'm about to start any moment :D

I invite you to keep on board, to comment whatever you thing I could/should do to improve the blog and well, just to sit and enjoy! Year ten starting in three, two, one...

Ork Gargant. Da armz

 I may be late for Orktober, but I haven't been idle!

I have finished the arms of the beast (hooray!), and that's quite a milestone in the project. Let's see what we have here:

Ork Gargant arm. Human hand shown for scale purposes only

The other side looks quite similar

I have to look for it, but I know the glyphs really say something, they are not random

Finally, a 3/4 top view. The thing is insanely full of details

You can see I just took the same path I took with the body, obviously. Yellow primer spray and several layers of Iyanden Yellow Contrast. The rest is just regular brushwork. It's deceivingly time-consuming, but it's most definitely an enjoyable work.

Let's go for the other arm:

The same random human hand is shown for scale

I didn't notice I painted a Black Widow glyph until it was late

Moar glyphs'n'stuff!

Really trying to say something

I'm sticking to the Moon theme, as it's a Bad Moon Clan Gargant

Yup, that's a Dreamworkz logo. A moon and an Ork with an axe :D

But... how do the arms look when mounted on the body?

Dun dun dun...

DA GARGANT (Orks on da shoulda for scale)

Side view

Other side view

I'm pretty happy with how it's turning out so far, but remember, it's not finished yet!!

I still have the banner and the box left!

Whatever the case, the Gargant itself is finished, and I'm enjoying every step. I suspect that the box will be quite a challenge, but that's a problem for the future me. For now I can go full 'Whiiiir' 'Whomp' 'Dakka dakka' 'Blast' 'Die, you hummie!'

Moar stuff comin' zoon!

A few AvP special features

 Just before I put my hands on the AvP marines faction, I remembered I had some special minis I hadn't painted, so the moment was as good as any other to get those away from the queue.

First of all, a monster I previously knew nothing about, I have to confess. The so called Alien King. I honestly thought there was no larger, more terrifying creature than the Alien Queen, but Prodos proved me wrong.

Hail to the king, baby

Even with my hand for scale, you can hardly get an idea of the size of this monstrosity

Just a refresher. That's a regular Alien. That's the Queen. Ripley's nemesis. You all remember

That is the King. I guess it's a victory of the patriarchy

What can I say. I don't think this thing is even playable, nor that it makes any sense in a game this scale. But there it is. Though the theory for painting it is essentially the same than the regular Aliens, I didn't drybrush it, but highlighted the model using metallics and used inks a little bit more carefully. The result is but a menacing Alien, yet bigger. Because bigger means more badass, apparently.

Let's move on. I had more stuff to do. There are a couple of special characters that came out from the videogames world, rather tahn the movies. Well, sort of.

Major Dutch Schaeffer first appeared, of course, in the original Predator movie. After that, with Schwarzenegger not being back for the sequel, the character moved onto videogames, where he got a bionic arm and this aspect:

Catachan? What is Catachan?

Lieutenant Linn Kurosawa comes also from the AvP videogame. I'm afraid I'm not into the game, so this is the first time I've heard of her.

Nephew of Akira Kurosawa

Next character is known as Specimen 6. Again from another videogame, it is (she is?) quite a fearsome Xenomorph. The miniature itself is a tiny vignette, a pretty striking one, yet not easy to photograph.

Yeah, Number Six was quite different in Battlestar Galactica

I bet she's screaming but you know... in the space no one can hear you scream

Taking pics to Aliens is deceiving, to say the least. The metal bases and the reflection of the light on the bright surfaces of the Xenomorphs make it tricky to find the right angle. Then add my total inability to take decent pics and you have it all :S

The last vignette is called One Last Mission. And it's the ultimate challenge for my puny photo skills. My final boss:

I hope you get an idea of what's happening!

Stomp that bug!

Where does the metal end? Where does the Alien begin? Aaaargh. Looks much better in hand

With these I can close another chapter. Now I can say I only have the Colonial Marines to finish the project. Well, I said that last time, I know. But this time it is true!

I believe.