Griffin Miniatures Greys - Chrome paint on the saucers

[The Dozing Dragon]

Lovely figures! Never got them unfortunately.

[Daeothar]

Last night I was able to glue the remaining wide poses onto their bases. It was a matter of cutting the puddle bases out from between the feet and carefully bending and reposing the legs and feet to fit onto the limited real estate of the 25mm bases.

Luckily, the sculpts are all quite spindly, so with the use of a pair of round pliers (originally intended for jewelry making) this was pretty easy.

Then I also used those pliers to do some limited reposing to create subtle differences between copies of the same sculpts. This mostly meant twisting the head in a slightly different direction, bending arms up or down etc.

I did a few hand-swaps too, but pinning those was extremely fiddly due to the slight build of the Greys. Still; they turned out well enough, so I'm satisfied.

The only ones still to be done are the two extra floating chairs. But those can only be done once I putty the bases, as they'll be floating on top of metal wire, and that needs a good base to be stable.

There's also a few minis left (top left), but those will become crew on some, to be created, flying saucers. So they're the donor minis for some weapons, hands etc. in the aforementioned swaps and I reckon resculpting those missing limbs will be better done on partially obscured models

[Inso]

That all looks rather splendid . I'm looking forward to seeing that horde painted up... and woe betide any adversaries getting in their way too!

[Commander Roj]

Jealous! I didn't get one of the chair type as I think they came after the first release. Yours must be the largest Griffin Grey's army out there! I've ended up using mine in a Stargrave crew. Copplestone Grey's as the higher caste and the Griffin figures as the warrior caste.

[Commander Roj]

Grey crew for Stargrave:

https://brigademodels.co.uk/mws/blog/?s=A+new+hope

[Ultravanillasmurf]

Nice work on them.

I remember the greys from Harbinger, and was looking forward to the Cravid.

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...

Yes, that was one of the reasons (though as some heavies for some chaps who hang around the former planet Pluto).

[Daeothar]

Thanks guys

...Yours must be the largest Griffin Grey's army out there!...

I think I'm close, but I did see some pictures online of a Griffin Grey army consisting of upwards of 60 miniatures, which makes theirs a tad larger than mine (58). But who knows what will happen in the future, eh?

I've been able to putty all the bases and glue the ground cover down, but especially the first bit turned out to be quite the slog. I did this in two legs, as I was thoroughly done with the process about halfway through. This was also the point where I had to mix up a fresh batch of putty, so I left the second half for the next day.

And yes; I have used up a substantial part of my precious last stash of ProCreate on the mundane task of base filling as opposed to intricate sculpting, but it was all I had on hand, and keeping it in the freezer for years will not prevent it from eventually going off anyway. So best use it when it's still soft enough, right? Still a shame the product has been discontinued; it's always been my favourite putty...

Putting on the sand/shale/pebble mix on the other hand was a breeze and over quite quickly.

Now I need to base the two floating chairs, but because of their floating nature, this will be a separate step. That will be next though, so I can then primer them as one huge batch. And only then can the actual painting begin. And I promise some more closer shots once the paint starts flying...

[Major_Gilbear]

Wow, I remember these from when you first posted them up! 

And yes; I have used up a substantial part of my precious last stash of ProCreate on the mundane task of base filling as opposed to intricate sculpting, but it was all I had on hand, and keeping it in the freezer for years will not prevent it from eventually going off anyway. So best use it when it's still soft enough, right? Still a shame the product has been discontinued; it's always been my favourite putty...

I'm still sad and frustrated this brilliant putty has been discontinued. I never got on with GS, and so ProCreate was just perfect for me. Hopefully in the future someone else picks up the baton and puts it into production again.

[Daeothar]

Fingers crossed indeed... 

Last night I tackled the two floating chairs. I used my tried and true method of basing flying/floating models using metal wire, since I really do not like traditional flying bases. The clear (but still well visible) plastic pillar onto which the model balances is really off putting to me. Not to mention the huge potential for breakage. Also; because it is straight, and usually positioned underneath the lowest portion of the model, it simply looks to be sitting on top instead of actually being airborne.

So I use a curved piece of paperclip wire, which is attached to the model by pinning, but always somewhere on the back, so the area beneath the model is empty. Which I feel enhances the idea that the model is actually aloft.

The chairs have a hole in them (coincidentally in the exact place I'd want the wire to go), made to fit the top nub of a transparent flying base, so that requires a bit more drilling, to give the wire some good purchase.

Fun fact: when drilling the hole at the angle the wire should be at, you'll end up right in the crotch of the seated figure before you know it. Putting the wire in resulted in something pointing skywards and rather obscene 

So that had to be repaired, but I had the ProCreate out anyway, so that was an easy fix. I then redrilled the hole, straight up instead of at an angle, and that yielded a solid result.

The wire was then put through a hole in the plastic base and glued to the underside of the base. I then added weight to the base by glueing in pieces of metal off-cuts, which were in their place extra secured by some putty, which I smoothed out with the bottom of the base by pressing the base onto a slightly oiled up area on my desk.

For extra weight, I then added a small washer to the top of the base, and camouflaged that with more putty.

This makes the base heavy enough to make sure the miniature doe not topple over on the table, even when bumped.

I then superglued the wire into the hole in the chair and puttied the remaining hole closed. Finally, I added the ground cover with some watered down PVA (not photographed; sorry) and they were done.

Next stop: priming!

[hubbabubba]

Do you not have any photos of the 'aroused' version of the grey commander?

I think you should have left it as it was, it would have provided interesting plot motivation for the alien invaders

(And I totally agree with you about flying bases.)

[Daeothar]

'We have come to multiply!'

Sadly there's no photographic evidence, but I'm sure you can fill in the blanks yourself

Anyway; I repaired the hole with ProCreate, so that should keep him satisfied...

Yesterday I primed (grey) and undercoated (white) the entire force. I had to split them into two parts, as I did not have enough blutack and wooden strips to spray them all in one go!

So now they're truly ready for painting. Here's to hoping my bottle of Vallejo blue/grey shade is still up to the task. Because it's more than half empty already and these lads require at least two coats...

[Inso]

They'll look brilliant as a complete force .

[Daeothar]

Last night the first (blue/)grey wash went on. They'll need two, but they're now officially Greys (again) 

[Commander Roj]

They look good already. Quite astonishing that a range like this can just disappear. Quite sad really, but it is great to see your force.

[Daeothar]

Cheers

And yes; those moulds have not evaporated (probably). Would they still be lying in the back of somebody's shed perhaps?

I remember collecting Cell Entertainment's 1999 ranges and setting up a fan site for the game. Cell Entertainment went under years before already and for years it was unclear where everything had gone.

The moulds are still missing, but I was contacted many years ago through my fan-site by some bloke who actually had the entire studio collection of miniatures, including prototypes, unreleased miniatures, greens, etc. His asking price was reasonable considering the amount and rarity of it all, but out of my league at the time. I offered to buy a part of it, but then communication from his side stopped.

He presumably found another buyer and it has all gone dark and missing again (and I'm still kicking myself for not finding a way to buy the lot).

Point being; it's well possible that at some time, the range will change hands again, and perhaps the buyer will do the smart thing, and release them again. I mean; there certainly is a market for them...