The Last Blue Alien

Following on from the previous post, I dug out the remaining Blue and set to work fixing it up. This was another figure from the Reaper "Gray Alien Warrior" pack. It originally wielded a keyblade-looking sword, but I chopped off that arm to replace it with something I liked better. My original kitbash attempt was an assault rifle, but the arm and gun were too long and too thick; it looked ridiculous.

Today, I replaced that arm with a shortened female arm from the Project Z Biker sprue. It's thin enough to work on the little alien. This also gives the Blue an Uzi, which looks nice. There's no reason every sci-fi character needs to carry lasers.

As is frequently the case, I picked the color scheme on a whim. Red with yellow accents is a bold fashion choice for this dashing Blue adventurer. Black boots complete the ensemble. Thankfully, I had done the head and crackle paint basing when I did the rest of the Blues, so both parts match the others.

As a side note, I originally got my Blues out for the previous post after hearing a bit about the upcoming Stargrave skirmish game from Osprey. It looks to be like a science fiction version of author Joseph McCullough's popular Frostgrave fantasy skirmish game. Frostgrave crews are usually ten figures; if Stargrave is similar, these eight Blues will be a good start for a team. Even if they don't all fit what I need, if I need more (or more with weapons), the Reaper "Grays" are three bucks for a pack of three. Miniatures don't come cheaper than that.

Blue Aliens

I painted these aliens some time last year, but I somehow neglected to photograph or post them. They're Reaper Bones "Gray Alien Scientists (3)," "Gray Alien Warriors (3)," and "Gray Alien Leaders (2)," with some modifications. Of the eight, I completed seven, as the eighth died in a tragic kitbashing accident. (Perhaps it will be resurrected at some point.)

The first three of the little blue aliens are wearing orange and have a scientist/engineer feel to them. From left to right we have:

• A Blue with a tech backpack with what I painted as a light on the top. He's waving in a friendly manner.
• A Blue with a satchel and a datapad of some sort. This was one of the two figures in the "Leaders" pack, but I feel it's a good fit for a scientist.
• A Blue with a datapad and a cool head ring thing. It's actually a plastic orle from a Perry Miniatures Agincourt box. I tried for quite some time to find hats for these Blues, but in the end I couldn't find any that fit nicely. The orange and white orle really sets off the blue head nicely. Maybe they can't wear hats because of sensory organs/heat dispersal on the top of their heads?

These two Blues (and the two below) aren't in any sort of matching livery. They're probably space adventurers, so they can wear what they want.

On the left is what I think of as a duelist. It was an unarmed figure from the "Warrior" pack, but I added a sword from... somewhere? Possibly a Warlord games Pike & Shotte sprue. It's painted a shiny blue because SPACE SWORD.

Lefty's outfit is purple, but I wasn't satisfied with it plain so I added a series of white dots on the upper left quarter. Quite flamboyant.

On the right is some kind of gauntlet-wielding Blue. The white and gold of the tech pops nicely on the blue skin and grey jumpsuit. This alien is probably a psyker, focusing his powers through the gauntlet.

Finally, we have two true blue Blue soldiers. The left figure, from the "Leaders" pack, is some kind of cyborg with a huge arm gun and a targeter over one eye. I gave this one a basic dark camouflage pattern to make him look even more military. He definitely strikes me as the deadliest member of the crew.

On the right is what I envision as a bounty hunter. I tried to find a hat to make it look more like Cad Bane from Star Wars, but none fit. In any case, this Blue was from the "Warrior" pack and had a strange, alien blaster (or something) in its hand. I wasn't a fan, so I removed it and replaced it with a scoped pistol from a Project Z survivor sprue. I notice now that even though it's a skintight jumpsuit like everyone else's, I painted it to appear like there are black boots.

Back when I finished these figures, I took a few pictures and made them into a .gif to show the sweet crackle paint I used on the base. This is a Citadel Technical paint called "Agrellan Earth." You just sort of gloop it on and over time it dries into cracked desert terrain. Pretty sweet and easy, when it works right.

In the finished pictures, above, you can also see that I used my Army Painter Wasteland Tufts to decorate them a little further once they were dry.

Finally, here's a shot to show the size of these Blues. They're a bit on the short side. Here it's beside Southpaw, a man with a fairly normal 28mm scale body. The Blue is about a head shorter. Beside a Reaper Miniatures human it would be even shorter.

I should also point out that in the background of all of these shots you can see part of the awesome Battle Systems UK "Cyberpunk Core Set." It's really good, modular, and easy to use stuff.

6Gun Mercenaries (6/6) - Fifth Batch

Here's the final (for now) batch of mercenaries. These three are all loud, and they bring some heavier firepower to our little squad.

My naming convention for these guys is, in general, [Color] [Hat/Hair], but there are only so many relatively natural hair colors to go around. Thus, the soldier on the left is Bleached Hair since I already have a blond on the team. He's wielding a blackened AK-74, making him the fourth soldier to do so. Unlike most of these guys, he actually seems to care about carrying enough ammunition. Aside from the magazine loaded, he has another one strapped to it jungle style, and a final one strapped to his backpack. He's not going to run out of ammunition. He probably has a few more magazines in his backpack, too. (He also has a pistol. Preparation is key.)

The middle soldier, Blue Hat, carries a 40mm grenade launcher (a Milkor MGL). Whether it's loaded with frag grenades, smoke, or whatever else, it brings some explosive options to the group that it otherwise lacks. He also has a shotgun strapped to his backpack since a grenade launcher isn't great in close quarters.

On the right is Black Hat with a M249 light machine gun. Firing from a 200-round belt, Black Hat can lay down heavy suppressive fire for his teammates. It's a machine gun. What else would you want? Black Hat doesn't even feel the need for a sidearm.

With that, my team of 6Gun Mercenaries is up to 15 total members (ten loud, four covert, and one "other"). For now, that's all I'll be doing. I still have enough parts to make two more of them (armed with an AK74, LMG, shotgun, or Dragunov). Presumably I'll make them at some point if I find a need or have a whim.

Below is a picture of my spreadsheet that I've been using to keep track of all of these guys. 15 total troops. Not too shabby. Ready for skirmish games, RPGs, or whatever else catches my fancy.

 

6Gun Mercenaries (5/6) - Group Photo!

 

Here we have a group shot of the entire current 6Gun Mercenary organization. On the left are the Assault Team and on the right are the Covert Team. The drone straddles the line.

From left to right, The Truck, Green Hat, Red Hair, Purple Scarf, [Manbun Fingergun], Red Hat, Orange Hat, Blond Hair, Drone Operator, Beige Hat, Tracked Drone, Brown Hair, Grey Hair, and Brown Hat. Quite the team.

This shot also includes their only current vehicle. It's a Kinsmart 1/46 Scale diecast imitation of the "2014 Chevy Silverado LTZ Crew Cab 4x4." I have done no painting or modification to it at all. It may be a tad on the large size compared to the figures, but it fits pretty well. I'm considering putting a mount in the truck bed for a machine gun to turn it into a real technical, but for now, four or five of the operatives can tool around in semi-luxurious comfort, both on road and off.

Now, you might notice that this is post 5/6 of the 6Gun Mercenaries. That's because I still have another batch that I'm working on. In order to bring some heavier firepower to the group, the three new fellows will bring a grenade launcher and a light machine gun to the field, along with another assault rifle.

6Gun Mercenaries (4/6) - Fourth Batch

 The fourth batch of mercenaries rounds out both the covert and assault groups.

On the left, Beige Hat brings some heavier firepower to the covert team with a silenced MAC-10 machine pistol. He's also the second member of the covert team to sport a ballcap.

In the middle, the overall commander of 6Gun. While it's not his actual name, I keep thinking of him as Manbun Fingergun because (a.) he has a manbun and (b.) he's making a fingergun pew-pew gesture. This guy looks like he's tough-as-nails. His pants are worn through at the knees, he's scraped up, and he's carrying:
    AK-74 Assault Rifle (with black finish)
    Pistol
    2 Frag Grenades
    Hatchet
    Gas Mask
    Fingergun! PEW-PEW

On the right, Brown Hair brings a duffel-bag to covert team, along with his silenced pistol. What's in the bag? Technical equipment? Demolitions equipment? Lunch? In any case, if anyone on the team needs to be carrying some extra equipment, it will be him.

Together, this brings Covert Team to four members and Overt Team to eight members.

6Gun Mercenaries (3/6) - Third Batch

 This batch was put together as I ran out of other pieces and waited on a second order. It's an eclectic mix, bringing together a drone operator with two more shotgunners. Yes, this meant shotgunners outnumbered riflemen, which felt very strange.

On the left, Drone Operator. Wearing a VR headset and holding a small controller, he's a technician more than a soldier. His only weapon is a pistol tucked into his backpack. While his display screens aren't much to look at, I did do some little squiggles on them that turned out OK. Below the picture, check out the Tracked Drone that I painted up for him as well.

In the middle is Blond Hair the shotgunner. He has a carbine strapped to his backpack, so he's ready for anything at close range.

On the right is Red Hat. He stands stoically, surveying the battlefield. Not much else to say about him, but I think he turned out well.

I neglected to note in the previous entries on these guys that their color scheme allows them to serve as henchmen for my previously-painted supervillian, Nox, should the need ever arise. I guess I have enough for a decently-sized minion squad now.

6Gun Mercenaries (2/6) - Second Batch

 

This batch features two more overt troops and one more covert operator. I've found painting in batches of three works well for me since it isn't too many to be overwhelming, but it also allow for at least some assembly-line painting.

The left soldier is a sniper, wielding a Dragunov rifle with a pistol backup. Depending on the game system, Purple Scarf might be defined as fielding a generic sniper rifle (as in Zona Alfa) or a designated marksman rifle up to heavy sniper rifle (as in Spectre: Operations). As he has the only sniper-type weapon of anyone I've built yet, he's pretty flexible in that regard.

The middle soldier is my first shotgunner. Orange Hat is running forward, assaulting a position, and is one of the only operatives who remembered to pack extra ammunition (seen here as red 12-gauge shells strapped to his backpack).

The right soldier isn't wearing his mask, which means he must be important. (Don't worry, he has his mask clipped onto his belt.) In this case, I see Grey Hair as the commander of the covert forces. He's older, greying, but has a lifetime of experience guiding him.

6Gun Mercenaries (1/6) - First Batch

I have mercenaries for fantasy worlds, mercenaries for Battletech, and mercenary spaceships (and probably more mercenaries I'm forgetting), but there's a sizable hole in my collection when it comes to modern and/or scifi mercenaries. Toward the end of 2019, I decided to put some together and now they're mostly done.

Looking at my options, I decided to go with Anvil Industries despite the facts that're resin, expensive, and ship from the UK. They are also incredibly customizable, beautifully detailed, and perfect for what I was looking for. Besides, since I only get around to painting three or four miniatures in a month, the costs are spread out enough to satisfy my budget.

Like I said, these are beautiful sculpts. Also, the ability to pick different heads, bodies, legs, weapons, and other bits from their wide range of options is amazing.

With all that said, here's what I'm going for. This is my mercenary company, 6Gun, which I've used (primarily as antagonists) since the (Classic) Spycraft game I ran in college.

Their clothes are beige while their armor, backpacks, and jackets are expresso brown. They wear gas masks and gloves, which I thought could represent being cleaners or something (in the criminal sense). I just like the look. Each also tends to have an accent color. In this case, from left to right, these guys are Green Hat, Red Hair, and Brown Hat.

I wanted to have two different types of operators, normal troops and stealthy agents. This first test batch has some of both. Two of the troops are the armor/backpack overt type, wielding AK-74 assault rifles. The other troop is dynamically posed in a leather jacket with a silenced pistol. You'll see more of both types as we progress through each batch of these mercenaries in the coming posts.

Owlbear

Sometimes you just need some monsters for monster hunters to hunt. Enter the classic Owlbear. It's a large CR 3 monstrosity whose purpose in life is to provide filler encounters on the way from place to place.

This is a Reaper Bones owlbear from the Bones 4 Kickstarter. I can't seem to find it available anymore, as Reaper has already replaced it with a Reaper Bones Black version that's significantly different. Edit: They now appear to be selling it as "Bones: Lowland Owlbear" (January 2021).

In any case, this was a quick project on a whim, took less than a day despite its size. The fur and spikes allowed for fast and effective drybrushing across most of its surface. It won't win awards, but some day it'll be a fun 45 minutes to an hour for a scrappy team of adventurers.

To give a sense of the scale, I've thrown together the following meme-tastic picture showing him next to the pike-wielding mercenary as they prepare to rumble.

Anachronist Punks

Sometimes I undertake projects that don't make much sense, even at the time. This could easily be considered one of those projects. I was reading through the enjoyable rulebook of Joseph McGuire's "Reality's Edge: Cyberpunk Skirmish Rules" and found out that you could take two Ganger models where you could normally only take one of another kind of operative. They're cheap, they're disposable, and I do like having more bodies on the field.

So I turned to what I had on hand. Cyberpunk is a weird genre and it allows weird combinations of styles. I decided these two fellows are the founding members of the Anachronists gang (so that I could use a mashup of different parts). Kitbash time!

Since I have a lot of Warlord Games Landsknecht bodies lying around, that was the base. Both guys have mercenary bodies. Broadsword guy also has both arms from a landsknecht sprue, while orange/purple guy has one of their sweet hats.

Next, their weapons are from the Warlord Games Project Z line. Broadsword guy had his other hand replaced with a pistol hand. Orange/purple guy has both of his arms replaced with bare modern ones, giving him a "stylish" look. He's wielding a combat knife and a Walther MP.

Finally, just to give the broadsword guy another little non-renaissance bit, he was given a hat from the Warlord Games Soviet Infantry (Winter) sprue. A man walks down the street in that hat, people know he's not afraid of anything.

In terms of paint scheme, I went with whatever color combinations I felt like. Their outfits are close enough that I didn't feel their colors had to be related at all.

While they make no sense and I don't know if they'll ever see a gaming table, I really like how these guys turned out. They were a fun kitbash if nothing else.

Young Warden

 

I've previously posted a miniature for my half-orc character, Warden. As I noted then, the miniature didn't really fit the character and I've never been satisfied with it. Thankfully, I received a more appropriate miniature in the Bones 4 Kickstarter, and I finally got around to painting it recently.

While the quality of the mini's production leaves a lot to be desired, the design of the sculpt itself is perfect. He's a guy in a long coat with a bag and a sword. He's tall (as all Reaper miniatures are) and has a good air of solid calm to him. This is a much better fit for the character.

The base features my go-to basing element: The Army Painter Wasteland Tufts, which comes with 77 tufts in three sizes. They're a great balance between "looks nice" and "ease of use," which is important because I don't enjoy basing.

Now if I could only play the character again sometime....

Smilebert Barrelbuddy

Halflings are supposed to be happy, right? Well, Smilebert is always happy. Or at least, he's always smiling. Painted up from a Reaper Bones "Bergamot, Halfling Scout," Smilebert is the product of a rare non-good/neutral campaign. He's an evil paladin of Cyric with a whip and a sword.

He is meant to look creepy. I'd say he pulls it off well.

Maybe too well.