Embers of Alexandria (Part Five) and Spectral Wolf

The evil cult known as the Embers of Alexandria have recruited some new members. In addition, they've allied themselves with a spectral wolf (so that I don't have to make two separate blog posts today)!

Five of the six Embers are made of the traditional parts: Frostgrave Cultist bodies and heads with Stargrave arms and weapons. This batch has three with assault rifles and two with the shotgun/sword combo. The new Spark (with the swanky yellow hood) is made with Dead Man's Hand Gunfighter parts topped with a Cultist hood; he's got a double-barreled shotgun and real evil cowboy vibe going on. This brings the Embers of Alexandria up to 47 members: Three Sparks, eleven Coals, thirty Ashes, and three "other" "members."

The wolf is a Reaper Miniatures "Bloodwolf." It has six legs, so I figured I couldn't paint it as a normal wolf. With a simple, green paintjob of mostly drybrushing, it can work as either a spectral wolf or an alien wolf, depending on what I need at the time.

Rock Worms

Here are the two Rock Worms from the Core Space First Born Kickstarter. I didn't like the default color scheme (white armor with bright pink fleshy bits), so I opted for a yellowed brown for the armored carapace and green for the fleshy bits. These are pretty dynamic models and will be great for bursting up through the ground into any science fiction or fantasy campaign.

I'm not sure if I'd use these figures as "Large" or "Huge" sized figures for gaming. They're on 32mm bases, but they're significantly taller than most "large" figures, and there's implied to be more of each worm still underground.

The bounty hunter's sizable rocket launcher seems woefully insufficient for the task at hand. The bounty hunter regrets being chosen to show the scale of the rock worms.

There are a lot more miniatures from the Core Space First Born box that I've yet to paint--the only other one I have painted is the droid I called SAT-R9. I will probably do some more from the box soon. The plastic quality is mediocre, but the sculpts themselves are pretty nice.

Ogre Zweihander

Here's another figure from the excellent Wargames Atlantic Landsknecht Ogres box. It's all straight off the sprue, other than the metal eyepatch (made from putty) and the bronzed skull medallion (made from half a skull from the Citadel Skulls box). 

The color palette is on the drab side, with similar greys and greens with just a bit of yellow, bronze, brown, and oily steel for little accents. The beard is a grey-brown; maybe this fellow managed to reach middle age despite his dangerous occupation.

All in all, this is a good looking ogre.

Scifi Alien Sniper, Mountain Man, and Setla Brontoid Rider

Here are some more kitbashed science fiction figures! On the left is a purple alien with a sniper rifle (which is impossible to really see from this angle). The head and arms are from Stargrave sprues, but the torso and legs are from the Dead Man's Hand Gunfighters sprue. His hat is from a Pike and Shotte sprue; the jaunty hat matched with the kerchief gives him a space-French look.

On the right is a space mountain man made from a Stargrave body and gun arm, along with a Dead Man's Hand saddlebags arm. He also has a backpack from a Death Fields Cannon Fodder sprue; the backpack carries a lot of explosives. Presumably, this grey-haired fellow totes around a goodly stash of gadgets and explosives along with his pistol.

Finally, in the center, is a Setla riding a genetically engineered dinosaur that I'm calling a Brontoid. This thing was kitbashed from all sorts of bits, and I love it. The dinosaur itself is a cheap children's toy; it came in a pack of a dozen different kinds, but this one looked suitable for riding. I went with a dark blue and orange color scheme, and the molded ridges really look good. The brontoid's headset/bridle is made from a part from the Antares set, some putty, and a tiny bead to hold the reins. He also has a tiny biomonitor on his chest, which also allows him to talk (but he's not very bright).

The rider is another Setla (I've apparently painted 17 Setla now?) made from a Reaper Miniatures Gray Alien Warrior with empty hands. I cut off the lower half and repositioned everything to make it look like they're sitting. The empty hands are glued to thin brown thread to look like reins and give some reason for the hands to be in such a weird pose. Working with that thread was a nightmare, but I'm happy with the result.

The saddle is a faceplate from a robot, the backpacks are from here and there, the gun is from Warlord Games Spec Ops, and the big belly strap is just painted duct tape.

Space Landsknecht Ogre and Trooper

I love these Wargames Atlantic Landsknecht Ogres. Having already painted up one fantasy version, I opted to make a scifi version. And, of course, since every big guy needs a little buddy, I cobbled together a normal Human coworker for him. The Ogre is entirely made up of parts from the Landsknecht Ogre box. The trooper is a Warlord Games Landsknecht body with a Stargrave head and arms and a Napoleonic British backpack. The pieces didn't work together perfectly (mostly due to Stargrave being 10% or so bigger than the Warlord body), but she turned out pretty well with a little bit of putty for the gaps.

I went with basically the same color scheme as the Leland's Fusiliers battlemechs. The Vallejo paints used are Heavy Blue (72.143), Heavy Bluegrey (72.144), Gunmetal Grey (70.863), and a little Bronze (70.998) and Bonewhite (72.034). The orange is Craftsmart Orange Spice. The wash is Citadel Nuln Oil (old formula). The skin is Craftsmart Brown, Brown mixed with Craftsmart Golden Brown, then topped off with just Golden Brown. There are a few more little incidental colors, but that mostly covers it.

I'll probably end up doing more of these guys so that I have another cool little scifi mercenary group. This is a much more involved color scheme than the simple corporate security scheme I've done, but these Ogres are just so rewarding.