15mm Sci Fi project: Eden- new painted figures 11/11

[War Monkey]

The "Land Eel" is cool and "Happy Crow" is turning out great! Can't wait to see him painted.

That cave entrance tile looks absolutely Awesome! I can see how it can be use in all kinds of games! You could make some vegetation disks to stand in those craters for a different cave entrance or rock formations, maybe some kind of ruins of statues and blocks! I am so going to pinch this idea! 

[CookAndrewB]

That is a great idea, Monkey!

Next up will be to build some cave scatter and a couple cave-in blocks for hallways.

[CookAndrewB]

A couple quick updates. First, the landing platform for my asteroid mining terrain:


Consolidated Mining, or Con-Mine, is one of the oldest mining operations on Bakwotter. Their equipment and presence is easily recognized by its mustard yellow coloring.


This is a smaller platform as it is only meant for landing work crew shuttles. Ore mined is carried out to the mouth of the shaft, and is then hauled off the asteroid via tugs which use magnetic grappling to manipulate ore bins, or some smaller operations still use simple cable towing. There is no reason to land larger bulk freighters as tugs are more than capable of maneuvering payloads through the asteroid belt to a larger ship docked well outside of any potential risk of collision. As with the old Atari video game, shooting asteroids tends to simply make smaller and less predictable asteroids and so there are no efforts to dislodge stable orbiting masses for the sake of faster ore loading.

The next update is a sculpt. This critter is the Baylee Runner, a flightless avian mostly found in the equatorial swamps of Bakwotter, in the asteroid impact band.


Baylee Runners spend much of their time sprinting across the swamps, large mouth open, eating swarms of insects and particulate matter. Much like a baleen whale, the overall feeding tactic is to simply get as much in its mouth as it can and let its digestive tract sort out the good from the bad. Runners are nearly as tall as a 6' man (13mm-ish in tabletop height), and can easily weigh upwards of 500lbs, owing largely to the incredibly thick upper skull.


Somewhat of a cross between an Earth Ostrich and a Pachycephalosaurus, the Baylee Runner can attain speeds of 75mph and can maintain this speed for hours on end as it feeds. The skull helps protect the Baylee Runner from smaller asteroid strikes, and helps it to run through larger plants rather than trying to change direction at speed. In a rather gruesome adaptation, adult Baylee Runners will often have exposed skulls, having had the skin flayed off by crashing through trees, being hit on the head by falling objects, and by dashing through swarms of insects and grit. The particular feeding habit results in the partial sand blasting off of the skin. Younger Runners will have a fully colored skull until they have spent enough time feeding. Other colors are simply mating plumage, with both the males and females exhibiting a wide variety of bright colors. As the eye is recessed inside the skull (for protection, one would assume) it is necessary that the Baylee Runner be overly bright and visible in the dark and dreary swamp lands. While normally peaceful, it doesn't take much imagination to think about the damage that a 500lb beak shaped object travelling at 75mph can cause. Most deaths can be attributed to dumb luck, rather than aggression. Just one more reason to stay out of the swamps of Bakwotter.   

[War Monkey]

Good work on the platform and your bird is very much colorful. Do they travel in groups?

[Cacique Caribe]

Agreed.  That awesome bird needs company.

[zrunelord]

Basically they're suggesting you should make more Cook

Chickens, Chickkkens, BIG chickens 
Wonder what size of egg they make ... A frontier Runner Omelette joint would be a great idea also..

and just to remind you ... see again what I did for my press moulds for the McGraw gang...
If you need help just ask.

Keep it up...
Z

[CookAndrewB]

No, they are primarily loners. No reason to run in herds when you A) want to eat all the bugs yourself, and B) make a larger target for falling objects to destroy the entire flock. This is fitting with baleen whales (Blue, Humpback, etc) which tend to be solitary and rather nomadic. Like ostriches, and whales, they would be in larger numbers while mating but otherwise... not so much.

That is, perhaps, my way of saying "I'm not totally confident I could sculpt another one right now"

[CookAndrewB]

So, I'm starting to work on replacing all of my commercially bought figures with sculpts that I have made. That effort is going to take some time, but that is ultimately where I want to be with this particular gaming effort. I'm more than capable of making 15mm sculpts with character and overall the experience is more meaningful for me that way.

So I'm re-sculpting Super Salad and Bubba as my first two replacements for my main crew.

As a reminder of how these characters currently look: Super Salad


And Bubba:


This is Super Salad's new pose:


I think this suits him much better as a rather flamboyant and naive character. He will get the cape, and other accessories befitting his personality. Definitely going to need another codpiece 
 

Bubba, however, works in this rather stoic pose.


He is going to lose the sword thing (was never part of his gear anyway), and will get a redesigned space-goat look. Before I add more putty to this frame, I need to get busy building a new weapon for him.

Since Bubba currently has two brothers (Ant and Decaf) I'm thinking that once Bubba is re-sculpted I will take the Ant and Decaf characters and rework them a little to be less a team of space goats and make them more diverse. The entire goal, and fun, of this is to have a wide array of wacky alien creatures so I really don't want to duplicate figures over and over.

And, tomorrow, the freshly painted Happy Crow will make his appearance. He has turned into my universe's version of Hannibal Lecter, and I believe I have done him proud in that way.

[War Monkey]

Those are looking great! I have been bitten by the sculpting bug too!

I haven't done much lately, but I have a list that I want to do. My plan is to make armatures this evening.

I hope to make some additional creatures sometime soon! I haven't painted anything yet but I am surely enjoying the sculpting part.   

[CookAndrewB]

Yeah, 15mm seems to be a sweet spot for my sculpting efforts. They aren't so big that they take a ton of time and effort, and they end up looking pretty decent with a coat of paint. 

As promised, Happy Crow, AKA The Butcher of Derulium Prime, wanted for the massacre on Orphanarium-7, and current record holder of "largest lighter than atmosphere conveyance constructed of organic being encasement."


His scenic base is from his prized skin blimp. This really puts the "Happy" in the Crow, if you follow my meaning 


After claiming his prize from the good people at Believe it, OR ELSE! Happy decided to lay low in a far off corner of the galaxy. Perhaps a humble little mining establishment? There wouldn't likely be many law officers out there, and most of the miners were probably on the run from the law for some minor infraction anyway. Not a crowd that is likely to call the Crime Spotters hotline. So he grabbed his trusty weapon, boarded the skin Blimp (he needs to come up with a better name), and set sail.


The weapon was earned by stabbing a Quarelian bounty hunter through the 7th lingual artery, resulting in an immediate "pop" of pearlescent blue blood as if the fearsome alien was little more than a water balloon. Some people would find this feat impressive for the little waddling Happy to pull off, but the truth is that Happy murdered the Quarelian in the galactic equivalent of a truck stop bathroom while the alien was taking a dump... or however one might describe their excretion process. Not a particularly honorable kill, but Happy doesn't concern himself with things like honor and fairness. He was washing his flippers in the sink and noticed the bounty hunter had taken the weapon off to do his business. Happy didn't want an angry Quarelian hunting him down, so he decided that in order to simply take the shiny new toy he would need to kill the beast where he sat... or was it laying down? Hard to say, but Happy gleefully jumped over the stall wall and stabbed it in the face. He didn't even bother washing his hands again before leaving the bathroom whistling a happy little tune, lugging the large weapon and daydreaming about where he could test it out. The answer, it turns out, was Derulium Prime and I think we know how that turned out...


The base is a mix of body parts, A torso here (right of the face above), a butt there (left of the face) and so on. Happy's base paint was a little dull, so I added some markings here and there. Perhaps they indicate some former life before pursuing "galactic serial killer" as a vocation? Maybe the green suit is the equivalent of his people's janitorial outfit, or perhaps he was a fast food drone? It is hard to find clothes for that body, so he tends to just keep wearing the same thing over and over. Thankfully, blood of all types seem to wash right out! A handy trait for janitorial or fast food work, indeed.

Happy got sculpted up in a single sitting. Not overly complex in shape or large in size, but he fits in perfectly. Again, I say 15mm is a nice sweet spot in the sculpting world for me.

[War Monkey]

Happy looks, well, "Happy"! Good for him one must always be happy what ever your vocation is. 

[Ockman]

Lovely sculpting

Lovely paintjob

Lovely backstory

...just lovely! 

[Cacique Caribe]

Andrew

Lol.  Those last photos show things that would be right at home in the Junk Head universe:



Dan

[CookAndrewB]

Ock: Your graffiti was good stuff! Quite the fun bit to play off of, and such a simple and childish character obviously lent itself to something really dark.

Dan: I hadn't seen that before, or only in passing. Man, that is a serious undertaking on the creator's part! Very cool though. I do see a bit of the odd black penguin guys in Happy Crow.


If only they had little flipper wings!

[Cacique Caribe]

Yes, please do!

Dan