Griffin Miniatures Greys - WIP flying bases

[Daeothar]

I just wanted something easy and different to paint up, without any pressure, as I'm sort of running over at work and socially, and the little time I am able to spend on painting, I want to be able to actually finish something. This means using simple washes, glazes, drybrushing etc, but that's why I picked something 'non-critical' in my lead-pile.

So, yesterday evening, in a spare hour, I dug up some Griffin Miniatures Greys I had bought here on the LAF several years ago. They were previously based and painted, so I simply (and irreverently) oversprayed them with white, enabling me to paint them tonight.

But they got me thinking; I know these miniatures from way back in Harbringer Magazine and I liked them even then. But they never made it big outside of a small initial run I believe, because Griffin Games dropped the ball pretty hard (which then also got punctured, burned, blown up and run over with a truck).

I've got the 'Invasion Force' squad, with only the pose of the leader (bottom row, second from the left) slightly different (Mine has got some sort of a mechanical probe-fist (for lack of a better word ) on his left hand) from this picture:



But I also have a (grand?) leader on a hover chair to go with them.

Judging from the few pictures I could find on the web, there are also at least a version with two pistols, and one with a bandolier and some sort of orb in his left hand. And I recall there are even more.

Does anyone have a definitive list of miniatures in this range?

Because if this squad is as fun and quick to paint as I expect, I might want to get me some more...

[matakishi]

I don't know of a list.
Here are pictures of mine, I've owned more than these which I sold on unpainted but those didn't contain any different poses. The robots are from Copplestone and aren't part of the range, the saucer is a Glencoe kit.

[Daeothar]

Well, I got pretty far, but was not able to finish them (just yet).

They're largely done, but I still need to tackle the hardware; weapons and chair. I was thinking of a Men in Black look; chrome. I have a pot of Vallejo Liquid Silver which I haven't tried out yet, so this might be the perfect opportunity. Also, some small corrections here and there might be in order; I spotted a few in the picture already...

I'm hoping I will be able to squeeze in another hour or so of painting tomorrow evening, which will probably be enough to finish these guys off.

I was right though; these are a blast to paint, so I might eventually take on the difficult quest of attaining more of them...

[Inso]

Mechanical probe fist?

I think you must have my squad that I converted .

I don't know whether you got them painted by me or not... but when I sold them, they had brown, lipped bases and were painted in a slightly tan colour. The leader in the chair wasn't fully painted.

I could probably find a picture...



I only converted it because the leader had an un-formed arm . It's green stuff... so be careful if you ever strip it .

[Daeothar]

Funny that

It's definitely them; the colourscheme, the conversion, right down to the basing material. However, they were based on coins and not on lipped bases. Perhaps they were handed down even further? Or perhaps the lipped bases were removed somewhere along the line? I might even have done it myself, but if I did, I can't recall doing that.

At any rate; good to know about the conversion. I had been planning to maybe take a drill to its tip Luckily the paintjobs were very light, so I didn't have to bother stripping them. Might have been a nasty surprise otherwise...

As it is, before undercoating them white, I did add some of my own basing material (fine sand, course sand, very fine shale and some 'larger' pieces of shale) in small patches to the bases, to better blend them in with my regular basing technique (which I use on most of my 'outside' bases), but that's the only alteration I made.

Oh, and I pinned the flying chair with a piece of paperclip wire to a washer base. I'll get some better pictures of that once they're finished (hopefully tonight).

Interesting to see how some miniatures travel from owner to owner over the years, with each adding something to them...

[Daeothar]

The silver took quite a bit longer than expected, and in the end, I'm figuring I could just as well have painted them with bog standard water based acrylics. But hey; it's another experience and skill...

The Liquid Silver has a finish like... silver, so the chrome effect I was after it is not. But the isopropanol makes the paint dry almost instantaneously, which can be useful.

I then did some pinwashing with a black oil paint and white spirit between the metal surfaces and skin areas, which worked as well as always.

A final highlight of old Citadel Mithril Silver finished it off.

The base edges need touching up, some eye-searing mistakes need cleaning up and they need a good coat of varnish, but I'm calling them finished.

I did the whole squad in about 5 hours, everything combined, including drying times, so that's definitely a new speed record for me. They were simple minis to paint though, and the end result is pretty dire up close, as the pictures will attest, but I'm still happy with them. I finally managed to finish some miniatures, and that feels good.

So here's to hoping the mojo remains...

[Bravo Six]

so I might eventually take on the difficult quest of attaining more of them...

I gotta see how you get on with that. I've been trying to find ONE set for years now. 

[OSHIROmodels]

Missed these before, very nicely done 

[Hobby Services]

I gotta see how you get on with that. I've been trying to find ONE set for years now. 

You and me both.  And probably quite a few other folks.  Griffin did a terrible job of getting these to market.

[Daeothar]

Yeah; I consider myself pretty lucky having been able to pick this batch up. I don't have high hopes, but when I see any of these offered for sale, I'll be all over them... 

[Commander Roj]

I got a set just before Griffin collapsed. Great shame. The moulds must be out 5here somewhere. There was also advertising for a bio-mech race, the Cravids. There were photos of the minis, but AFAIK, they were never sold.

[Daeothar]

I remember those. In fact, I came across the adds in Harbringer again when I was researching the Greys just before I started slapping paint on them.

They instantly reminded me of the Invid from the (never completed) 3rd Robotech season (Genesis Climber Mospeada) and had they become available, I would certainly have gotten me some...

[Bravo Six]

 I remember those as well. I think Griffin really dropped the ball and did a dis-service to the hobby for sure. But I digress..... you are indeed a lucky chap and I LOVE how yours turned out Daeothar!

[Hobby Services]

I remember those. In fact, I came across the adds in Harbringer again when I was researching the Greys just before I started slapping paint on them.

They instantly reminded me of the Invid from the (never completed) 3rd Robotech season (Genesis Climber Mospeada) and had they become available, I would certainly have gotten me some...

Oh yeah.  Noble knight Games had the whole run of Harbinger on sale this week andit had me thinking about the Griffin Minis ads and how much I regretted not getting ahold of them.  Think I've still got one or two of the subscriber handout figs from the mag, too.  Kind of miss the days of physical gaming magazines, although I'll concede the internet is so much handier.

[Daeothar]

So... I didn't realise it has already been 6 years since I painted this squad. Time flies and all that. Just call this an Alien Resurrection 

It had always been my intention to eventually expand this one squad into a viable tabletop army, but acquiring more miniatures from this long OOP range is a bit of an adventure. Unless someone, like for instance Matakishi, decides to sell their entire army on the LAF and you're lucky enough to nab them before anyone else

That's right; the minis that Matakishi showcased earlier in this thread have made their way to me in the meantime. I irreverently stripped them to the bare metal, and then stored them for several years. But always with the intention to one day integrate them into my own fledling force.

And today is that day.

After finishing off my second Armadillo shuttle (check it out in my Lightyear thread), I decided I needed a large lot to paint, so I will be able to finally make my yearly target of 100 28mm (equivalent) miniatures again. And considering this lot is 47 minis tall, I'm fairly certain that this will be the big push I needed

Firstly I sorted them by sculpt, just to get a idea of the inventory. Then I started basing them. For now I've based all those that fit onto 25mm slottas without tampering. there are some particularly wide/heroic stances in there that will require some creative reposing, but that will be for another session. I will use putty to integrate the puddle bases, which will also strengthen the bond with the bases.

There were some miniatures with breakages, and I've mended one by pinning the leg to the broken off foot (running pose, so the one foot was the only contact point with the base). But the others will be repurposed as pilots for some, to be scratchbuilt, flying vehicles.

Oh; I opted for slottabases because I've got tons of them and also because the forces I will be putting them up against are also all on slottabases (or on bases with the same height profile). This does pose an additional challenge, as my existing squad was based on coins. So I might have to rebase that lot as well...