Modern Russians

They're back! (See the unpainted versions here.)

Eureka's 15mm modern Russian Federal troops. I have yet to paint the versions wearing the Sphera helmet and the Maska version.

I went for a version of Flora camouflage. I used Vallejo 70879 Green Brown, 984 Flat Brown, and 894 Russian Green.

'Who lost a helmet cover?'

I stuck a bush onto support weapon bases to aid with visual identification on the tabletop.

AK74

Spotter (from AGL set) and officer

RPG-7

AK74 with GP-30 grenade launcher

RPG-22

Dragunov SVD

PK machine gun

2B14-1 Podnos 82mm mortar

12.7mm Kord HMG on 6T7 tripod

AGS-17 Plamya 30mm AGL on 6T7 tripod

Lovely figures, and a great range. I'd like to see some RPK LMGs, though, and some more leader figures. I hate seeing the close-ups as it makes the drybrushing look crude and nasty. Now I need some transport- I'm thinking Skytrex.

The truth is out there...

These are great 15mm minis from The Scene. I need some greys and some Chevy Suburbans...

Nothing to see here

Special Agents Sculder and Mully

And yes, I did try to paint 'FBI' on the badge...

QRF Deep Space Colonists

QRF SF04 15mm Deep Space Colonists.

I'll just say that the quality of this old set is not up to more recent competitors' efforts.

I like the concept of the mother and baby, and the not-Ripley/ Newt is the reason I got this set. The baseball bat figures are going to be useful for civilians in a variety of games.

These figures make good zombies... In hindsight, I think that one of them has a chestburster in flagrante. The other one's right arm was just about falling off at the elbow, which is a bizarre moulding failure given the position.

The set also came with six facehuggers; I gave them a very pale green colour to make them stand out more from the sandy basing. I based them on 15mm washers (I usually use 20mm). Here they are with Khurasan Space Demons and an Exterminator.

Check out my other colonists!

Pirate civilians

This is a Part 2- read about how they were painted and varnished here. I didn't do anything more to them other than touch up the bases.

These are the Village Mob from the Old Glory pirate range. I got them for pirate gaming but they could be used for other genres with ease. One (the black coat with red trim) was from the OG European Sailor pack who didn’t look the part for my RN crew (seen a little bit here).

Crates are from Battle Works Studios (Out of business...). Barrels and fences from Renedra. Buildings homemade.

15mm 'The Department' figures

Effigy Miniatures- excellent casting and sculpting.

"Rick, show this rookie around. I'm going to chat up that new nightclub singer."

"Vanessa! You're a fembot!"

I see the, well, fat detective as mostly Lieutenant Eckhardt from the 1989 Batman with a little of Blade Runner's Captain Bryant.

 

"Hey, Eckhardt! Think about the future!"

"If you're not cop, you're little people."

I was originally going to have the fabricants in different colours (like the 1990s iMacs!), but went for white instead, similar to the I, Robot and Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence films.

I, Robot

Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence

My cops need transport. Also, my wishlist for future miniatures would have to include a Roy Batty, Pris, Leon, Rachel and Eldon Tyrell. And a GitS range. And I'm going to have to make some roof fans. And a lot of signs. This is why I shouldn't do new periods.

An experiment with matt varnish

My ongoing experimentation with dipping continues…

Pre-dip

Pre-dip

Pre-dip

These pirate-era civilians (Old Glory Village Mob and a pair of Reaper barmaids) were undercoated with Army Painter Leather Brown. This gives a good hard coat without the need for primer, but it has quite an amount of shine and very low ‘tooth’. I block-painted the figures, spending a bit more time on the females (especially their faces). With the males’ faces I left dark areas around the eyes/ nose/ mouth and under the cheekbones. The sculpted faces are really nice and somewhat cartoony, and I don’t know if this was a necessary step. My feeling is that the face is the focal feature of a miniature and time spent here is not time wasted.

Anyway, I pressed on (they were really fast to paint, 5-10 minutes per figure tops) and painted over them with Walnut stain and left them to dry. I didn't water the Dip down far enough, and the miniatures are a bit dark for my tastes.

Post-Dip

Post-Dip

Post-Dip

I’ve divided the figures up and given each group a matt spray with either:

Army Painter. $A25 for 400mL

AKA 'Dullcote'. $A11 for 85g

Micador Mat Spray. $A11.95 for 450g

Here they are:

Micador.

Testors Dullcote. NB The barmaid is not matt varnished.

Army Painter. NB The scullery maid is not matt varnished.

My clear preference is for the Testors Dullcote. It's the most expensive and hardest to find in Australia. I'll respray the others and have a finished result post in the future. I can't confess to be entirely happy with them so far. I think I'll add a few highlights, which somewhat negates the point of dipping in the first place ie speed.

Dirty Deeds

15mm SWAT from Rebel Minis

When I first got these, I painted them a dark blue for use as SWAT (above), but recently repainted them as contractors. I'm happier with them now. They'll see use as contractors, MNU, SpecOps, etc. They need some transport.

I've painted a few guys' helmets tan to mark them as fireteam leaders.

The figures are OK; not much variety in equipment or poses; a smidgen on the small side when next to other figures, enhanced by the crouching poses. You don't really notice it on the tabletop.

Aren't you a little short for a SWAT trooper?

Incidentally, I noted a comic coming out next year, 'The Blackwater Chronicles':