Raedwald’s Sci Fi Thread (p.9 - Pilots)

[Daeothar]

That worked really well!

Also; shoulderpads hide a whole range of sins, and the arm does not look out of place  to me. Things have become better, but older sculpts often had much larger discrepancies. Just sayin'

[Metternich]

Very nice conversion indeed.

[Raedwald]

@Daeothar, @Metternich - Thanks both.

The next member of my Five Parsecs crew is a ‘Special Agent’ raised in an ‘Alien Culture’. This was a chance to use Hasslefree’s Ekaterina miniature. I had the basic metal figure (not a ‘resin master’), but the detail is still so fine and crisp.

Here I experimented with mixes of old inks, and was fairly pleased, despite ending up with a totally different result to what I’d planned. Then disaster stuck as I brushed on some varnish. My heart sank as I saw my brush turn red, and although the ink had had 2 - 3 days to dry it reactivated. 

Lots of the shading depth vanished and the figure looked badly sunburned  . Fortunately, touching up and repainting the flesh wasn’t too onerous.

Not sure how to prevent this, given that I do want to varnish my minis. Perhaps stick with diluted paints rather than inks… or give them a month to dry or something. 

Cheers,
Raedwald

[Malamute]

Very nice, I like her.

[has.been]

Would a couple of light sprays work?

[hubbabubba]

Niced colour scheme.

With regards to varnishing, get a cheap airbrush and compressor. Well worth the investment even if you only ever use it for undercoats and varnishing.

[Grumpy Gnome]

Great sculpt, great color scheme and great paintwork despite the varnish issue. 👍

[Silent Invader]

Nice!!!

[OSHIROmodels]

Lovely 

[Raedwald]

Thank you all for the kind encouragements!

@has.been, @hubbabubba - I’d considered a can spray, but have always shied away from air guns, due to an irrational aversion to such alien contraptions that require lots of cleaning between uses. You’ve really got me thinking twice though.

I’d been put off spraying varnish previously due to all the tales of frosting, if it’s too cold / too humid / too heavily applied… etc. If I can face the effort, expense and find the courage, perhaps that’s the solution.

Cheers

[has.been]

@has.been, @hubbabubba - I’d considered a can spray, but have always shied away from air guns, due to an irrational aversion to such alien contraptions that require lots of cleaning between uses. You’ve really got me thinking twice though.

I’d been put off spraying varnish previously due to all the tales of frosting, if it’s too cold / too humid / too heavily applied… etc. If I can face the effort, expense and find the courage, perhaps that’s the solution.

I also dread, but am in awe of, Air-Brushes.
Therefore I use 'Rattle  Cans'  The cheapest possible. Last few came from the erroneously named
'Poundland' at the hefty price of £2.50 a can.
I avoid spraying if it is too cold, wet etc. & go for light spraying. Two light coats are better than
one heavy one. This works fine for me, even over things that brush varnish would remove.
Hope this helps.

[Raedwald]

Hello all,

@has.been - Thanks for this, I’ve got some figures I want to try Speedpaints on later this year, so will definitely try out the spray (when the weather conditions are also in alignment!), cheers.

Next of the Prima Luce (my 5PfH crew) is a ‘scavenger’, so I picked my favourite Copplestone scavvy.

I’ve deliberately kept this one rough and ready, partly so I can use the same palette on my other Copplestone scavengers to paint them fairly quickly at some future date, and also to match my source of inspiration: a page out of an old William Morris calendar (see below).

Cheers,
Raedwald

[Scarper]

One of my favourite Copplestone figures. The muted palette suits him really well, and will hopefully bring the whole batch together. He looks well camo-ed against the inspiration page, which can only be a good thing!

[DivisMal]

One of my favorites, too! Great paintjob on him! 

[Raedwald]

Hi all,

The final member of my 5PfH starting crew (as I’m recycling a couple of older minis too), is a ‘bureaucrat’ and ‘ganger’. I therefore imagined an accountant, or money man (woman) for a criminal gang.

Minor conversion of a 90s Escher ganger combined the gangster vibe with some secretary/office worker elements - glasses, pencils in hair, duffle bag (for loot). Tried to add to the mash up with the colour scheme.

I pondered a few options for the gun housing, then wantonly ripped off MaaX’s scheme from the post he made on Monday  - thanks!

Cheers,
Raedwald