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Author Topic: In The Grim Darkness of the Future, I Do Whatever I Want (A few additions)  (Read 31020 times)

Offline ZeroTwentythree

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Time for Adventure!


Offline ZeroTwentythree

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These little fellas will serve as Void Rippers for Five Parsecs, and probably other roles in both sci-fi & fantasy games.







Offline DivisMal

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Creepy - in a good way. That reminds me of the old Amiga classic Manhunter by Sierra.

Offline Ockman

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Read the entire thread, in one go - what a lovely collection of minis you've got!

Offline ZeroTwentythree

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Creepy - in a good way. That reminds me of the old Amiga classic Manhunter by Sierra.

Thanks! Not familiar with that game. (My first real computer was a C64 but never got an Amiga.)


Read the entire thread, in one go - what a lovely collection of minis you've got!

Thank you! I have been participating in a fantasy painting challenge since the beginning of the year, but now that it is over I am switching gears. I have some scavengers started on the painting table right now. Also just starting to experiment with sculpting & casting some alien fungi.

Offline ZeroTwentythree

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Re: In The Grim Darkness of the Future, I Do Whatever I Want (BIG update!)
« Reply #125 on: January 09, 2023, 03:51:15 AM »
So I've got something like a New Year resolution, except it wasn't really that. Rather it was a result of me complaining on Instagram about how much that format has failed to keep me in touch with the people and projects that I like, and a realization that forums such as this are more personal, less "curated" by algorithms or filled with ads, and get me the content that I want to see (YOURS!) The twist is convenience... most of my personal time is when I am away from a computer and apps like IG and other just work better on a phone. But I have a new 2-in1 PC that's a little more portable than my old 17" beast and although it's going to spend a lot of time docked on a desk for work, I'm hoping to use it to get back to forums like Lead Adventure!

So it's been about six months since my last entry and I STILL haven't actually played Five Parsecs or any sci-fi games (I've been buying/reading several other sets of rules too.) But I have done some painting.


Ages ago I took a course in small scale resin casting with a local artist We each made a quick, small sculpt then created a mold, and made several castings.

After messing around with resin and jewelry molds with my daughter earlier this year, I pulled out the old silicone mold and... it has way more life in it than expected! So I've been messing around with clear resin and inks, casting gems with/for my daughter and making more of these little things that I see as the first of several potential "alien fungi" for gaming terrain. I painted one of the original castings up just before I started my casting experiments. Here's where I am at today, the blue/sapphire was my latest color. Regardless of the inks & colors, my plan is to paint them. The inks/colors are for me to experiment with before trying to produce something with that sort of translucent quality in a more refined finial format.




These are some board game figures I bought from eBay and painted with color-shifting paints and ink. (They will serve as Distorts for Five Parsecs.)





I painted some Reaper dinosaur figures that I picked up on eBay to fill the role of Carnivore Chasers & Razor Lizards in Five Parsecs. These were speed-painted, using Citadel contrast paints for the color. Dinosaurs in space? "Life, uh, finds a way." ;)









Although they initially earned their living as a salvage crew, some members of the Belegost eventually turned to mercenary work. Particularly some of the older crew who had fought many battles defending their claims, eventually realized they could cut out the salvage work and render services based on their hard earned battle prowess -- usually at a better wage. So it was that the Belegost Scrap Wagon diversified their operations into a salvage wing and a mercenary wing. The Anvil and the Hammer, as they started calling it, based on the ancient traditions of their people.

As explained above, I am painting up the Skull & Crown "Space Scrappers" and Satyr Art Studio space dwarfs with two sub-factions inspired by two different aesthetics within among the figures. The more heavily armored become the mercenaries, and the less armored figures (also with less military looking weapons in many cases) become the salvage crew. I'll keep the color palettes similar, but with more variety among the salvage crew.




I finally finished my planetary nomads / scavengers.  All Mark Copplestone sculpted figures, a mix of old and not-totally-old-but-not-exactly-new. ;)




This was my test figure for a squad of goblin space pirates. Figures from Alternative Armies.

Although mainstream Eldar society disregards it, and most of the the other races know little of or care even less for it, there is a theory that the minor race known as "Goblins" in the Traders's Tongue are actually an offshoot of the Eldar. The basis of this theory is that the Melkor Event on the remote, and some say cursed, moon Thangorodrim. The moon had been settled by a small group of Eldar explorers/entrepreneurs looking for mineral wealth. Although it is certain that *something* was found there, no one knows exactly what. The Event instantaneously transformed the moon into a dark mountainous, crystalline mass and presumably wiped out all life inhabiting it. The final coherent transmission from the last remaining Eldar mining station simply reported that it was, "something wonderful."



I never finished the squad, which were supposed to be my "Orctober" challenge.



Originally I had different plans for these two, but they ended up being my test figures for a small mercenary band. Figures from Satyr Art Studio.


Offline DivisMal

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Re: In The Grim Darkness of the Future, I Do Whatever I Want (Big 2023 update!)
« Reply #126 on: January 09, 2023, 05:58:30 AM »
I read your post on IG some days ago and fully agree—thing is good old forums are slowly dying. People use FB (even worse if you ask me), reddit (never knew why) or IG. Thank goodness LAF is still pretty active. TMP, however, has significantly declined, Frothers is dead (or worse), Oldhammer is vanishing and others mostly concentrate on GW and other big stuff.
Even worse with blogs…

Apart from being able to access the information I want without getting disturbed by bodybuilders „accidentally“ wearing yoga pants and filming their dubious stretches, miniatures world and political madness, forums are much better (the only way?) to archive information. I often look up older threads here or at TMP to get ideas for 15mm, for instance.

Your update looks splendid, and it’s nice that you can enjoy time with your daughter doing casts of jewellery. My favorite part, however were the space goblins!

May I ask where you got theye plastic „distorts“ from? They look cool and might work in 15mm, too.


Forgot to answer this:
Thanks! Not familiar with that game. (My first real computer was a C64 but never got an Amiga.).

Yeah, if you hadn’t an Amiga (or PC), it’s a fairly obscure title. Quite good but not sure if it wanted to go Blade Runner or Monty Python.

https://www.mobygames.com/game/amiga/manhunter-new-york/screenshots
« Last Edit: January 09, 2023, 06:04:16 AM by DivisMal »

Offline Major_Gilbear

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Re: In The Grim Darkness of the Future, I Do Whatever I Want (Big 2023 update!)
« Reply #127 on: January 09, 2023, 08:43:02 AM »
Good to see you back! :)

Your comments on posting over various media sites are interesting, and seem to broadly correlate with others'. Namely, that whilst there is certain a convenience in using FB, IG, and others, plus the immediacy of getting "likes" etc on what you post, the overall experience seems to be rather more fleeting and harder to look back on to see your progress. From the point of view of people like myself who avoid social media, it's virtually impossible to find older posts or to stumble onto much of anything when searching. I gather that Google also downgrades search results from Wordpress too, so finding new material to enjoy that way is also more difficult.  :?

Anyway, I like the Satyr Art Studio figures - they're new to me, but I gather they're out of production now?

Offline Tactalvanic

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Re: In The Grim Darkness of the Future, I Do Whatever I Want (Big 2023 update!)
« Reply #128 on: January 09, 2023, 09:14:03 AM »
Yay - welcome back - great update.

The "modern" approach of short soundbites and only data relevant is the latest is, as others are commenting too, the preferred way today.

Why do we want all that old/off-trend/not advertised stuff?

Because we do. at least LAF is still going strong.

Offline Pattus Magnus

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Re: In The Grim Darkness of the Future, I Do Whatever I Want (Big 2023 update!)
« Reply #129 on: January 09, 2023, 10:55:20 PM »
Lots to like in your update! I like the painted figures and that sounds very cool to be trying some resin casting.

Offline ZeroTwentythree

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Re: In The Grim Darkness of the Future, I Do Whatever I Want (Big 2023 update!)
« Reply #130 on: January 10, 2023, 04:18:31 AM »

The second half of 2022 was difficult because work got busy, I was traveling a lot, and if I had free time I didn't want to be in front of a computer. But making forum updates is difficult on a phone. Ultimately I thought about how much I missed seeing other people's projects, being able to search out specific things, and the more fact that forums are more "social" than "social networks" are. I don't always respond as much on other people's projects as I'd like (again, I hate "typing" on a phone) but I hope to improve. After my rant on Instagram and some thoughtful responses from other people, I started thinking about that "be part of the solution, not part of the problem" thing. I'll still use IG, and post in the Oldhammer Community on FB, but I want to get back to LAF, my blog (and other people's blogs*) and maybe some other forums.

*When Google killed Reader that was devastating to me. I used it to keep up with a whole list of people/projects on Blogger. I used Feedly to try to keep up, I don't remember if it was just the interface or what but it didn't last long for me. I need to look back into that and see who's still blogging. That was one of my favorite formats, where each blogger was essentially the center of the own "forum" in a sense. On that topic, this was an interesting article on personal blogging vs. big social media. https://www.theverge.com/23513418/bring-back-personal-blogging

Your update looks splendid, and it’s nice that you can enjoy time with your daughter doing casts of jewellery. My favorite part, however were the space goblins!

May I ask where you got theye plastic „distorts“ from? They look cool and might work in 15mm, too.

The distorts are large, those bases are probably around 40mm. I got them on eBay, they are from a Boardgame, "Fireteam Zero."

I picked up some new resin, dyes, and some gem moulds for her and mould making silicone for me. We're on hold until the weather warms up, as I prefer doing the casting in the garage to avoid any fumes in the house.

Good to see you back! :)

Your comments on posting over various media sites are interesting, and seem to broadly correlate with others'. Namely, that whilst there is certain a convenience in using FB, IG, and others, plus the immediacy of getting "likes" etc on what you post, the overall experience seems to be rather more fleeting and harder to look back on to see your progress. From the point of view of people like myself who avoid social media, it's virtually impossible to find older posts or to stumble onto much of anything when searching. I gather that Google also downgrades search results from Wordpress too, so finding new material to enjoy that way is also more difficult.  :?

Anyway, I like the Satyr Art Studio figures - they're new to me, but I gather they're out of production now?

Thanks! I have gone through a couple of social media purges in the past few years. Mostly Facebook, where I first unfriended everyone except maybe a 20-ish close friends/family, then a few months ago I dropped everyone other than my wife. At this point I only use it to keep up with a few hobby groups/communities and a couple of stupid but amusing meme pages. lol But it's still got that brief, shallow feeling you mention above.

Satyr figures seem to come & go. I get the impression that sculpts are cast in a big batch and sold while stock lasts, and then replaced by newer figures/projects. Some of them have found permanent homes with other small manufacturers (like Troll Soup.) I don't think the sister marines are available currently, not sure about all of the space dwarfs either.  https://satyrartstudio.ecwid.com/


Yay - welcome back - great update.

The "modern" approach of short soundbites and only data relevant is the latest is, as others are commenting too, the preferred way today.

Why do we want all that old/off-trend/not advertised stuff?

Because we do. at least LAF is still going strong.

Thanks! I think I'm much more in the mood for LAF these days, provided I can convince myself to sit in front of a computer (rather than phone) more. And carry that computer more when I'm traveling!


Lots to like in your update! I like the painted figures and that sounds very cool to be trying some resin casting.

Thanks! I experimented with some resin a while ago and I'm looking forward to trying some more. In addition to the funky fungi above, I had a set of Fomorian/Fimir heads and tails I sculpted and cast for converting other figures that I had mixed results with. (Project currently languishing...)


Work is going to be busy most of January, and my current hobby focus is on the Old World Army Challenge, so I may not be posting many updates in the Future Wars forum. But I'm hoping to catch up on other people's projects while I spend quite a bit of time traveling! More space goblins, sisters, and dwarfs are still ready and waiting for paint on my desk, though! A few terrain projects as well.


Offline ZeroTwentythree

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Re: In The Grim Darkness of the Future, I Do Whatever I Want (Big 2023 update!)
« Reply #131 on: January 10, 2023, 04:34:58 AM »
Ooh! (Or is that "Ooo"?) I realized I didn't post the small follow up to my diversion into Adventure in one of my previous entries.




I felt that Finn & Jake needed some friends. Just a lighthearted side project. Maybe I'll do more, maybe not.



So far I came up with Reaper's "dire penguins" and a slime, on which I added a scratch built tiara to (try to) match that of Slime Princess. Just like Finn & Jake, she's gotten older and, er, evolved/devolved a bit.  lol




Offline DivisMal

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Re: In The Grim Darkness of the Future, I Do Whatever I Want (Big 2023 update!)
« Reply #132 on: January 10, 2023, 04:59:41 AM »
With all that grimdark of modern reality we could all use some more light-hearted wargaming! Dire penguins look like a gang, the slime will be the king of all!

Offline hubbabubba

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Re: In The Grim Darkness of the Future, I Do Whatever I Want (Big 2023 update!)
« Reply #133 on: January 16, 2023, 01:35:57 PM »
Nice work, I like those distorts, very useful figs.

It's cool to see new stuff from you.

Offline ZeroTwentythree

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Long time no update!

Life has been.... busy and complex. It was all I could do to get through the bare minimums for the Old World Army Challenge (see the Fantasy Adventures forum). But I'm catching up a bit here.

It's funny, I've been planning and painting and rolled two separate crews (1st ed. & 2nd ed.) but still haven't played Five Parsecs! (Or Planet 28!) I've been thinking about the Five Parsecs a bit lately, and how there's a of off-table development involved and I think that's appealing to my currently limited time & space for gaming.

Anyway, catching up...



I painted this big fella months ago. Not sure what it is, how I'll use it, but it looked like a great sci-fi beastie. Its a plastic board game mini that came with the figures I used as Distorts.




I posted some of these previously, but not all. Here's a group shot of my "Eternals" I have both fantasy and sci-fi versions of each figures (mostly just basing differences.) They are from left to right, a/the Geier, one of my own sculpts that was briefly in production at a small manufacturer; the avatar of Death, a figure of complex and interesting history but now available from Ral Partha Europe; the avatar of Life, an unassuming figure and perfect foil for Death, from Reaper Miniatures; and lastly, Kev, a self-portrait limited edition sculpt by Kev Adams from Wargames Foundry. Somehow I ended up with two Kev figures. One acted (appropriately) as a hero in my now-gone goblin army for many years. Since I had another, I recently figured I may as well paint him up find a role for him in some sci-fi games!




Lastly, some recent figures. I'll be using these as Abductors for Five Parsecs. I was going to leave them out of my games, but saw these Reaper Bones figures at very affordable prices. But I was underwhelmed by the bent poses (tried fixing them with heat & ice water several times), soft detail, and difficult mold lines. I ended up doing a fairly quick paint job on them just to get them over with because I couldn't muster any additional enthusiasm for them. The photo is a bit rough, they do look half decent other than three of them leaning at awkward/unnatural angles.

 

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