Scum and villainy (Copplestone half-orcs and WIP scratch-built buildings)

[Hobgoblin]

Thanks, guys!

Here's some even quicker and dirtier speed painting. I ordered a sprue of Stargrave troopers on a whim and got them assembled during Friday lunchtime. Today, I got them painted during half-time breaks while watching the rugby - through the simple expedient of just drybrushing everything the same colours and then adding a few details afterwards.

[DalyDR]

Those are nice.  "quicker and dirtier speed painting" you say?  Clearly I don't know what the hell I'm doing with a brush . . . 

[KGatch113]

Thanks, guys!

Here's some even quicker and dirtier speed painting. I ordered a sprue of Stargrave troopers on a whim and got them assembled during Friday lunchtime. Today, I got them painted during half-time breaks while watching the rugby - through the simple expedient of just drybrushing everything the same colours and then adding a few details afterwards.

The glass lens look great!

[Hobgoblin]

Thanks, both! There's really nothing to these: just two layers of drybrushing, some contrast paint over the weapons and then some details in bright colours.

The troopers got their first outing yesterday in a game of Mutants and Death Ray Guns. They proved mercilessly efficient, making short work of an outlaw gang led by Cad Bane. Excuse the 'raw' scenery!

[Golgotha]

The ones in dark uniforms look awesome. Nice original take on these...

[Daeothar]

There's a definite Rogue trader feel to these; must be the brightly coloured accents 

I really like them. I have a couple of Stargrave sets myself, and I find this quite inspirational indeed

[Hobgoblin]

Thanks!

I've recently repainted the bases on a lot of the earlier entrants on this thread. We always use one of two 'red desert' mats for our sci-fi gaming, so it made sense to homogenise the basing on the earlier figures. I'm also - gradually - applying matt varnish to the earlier ones, which were previously gloss only. It seems to smooth the roughness of some of the drybrushing.

On a different note, I'm surely not the first to note how well the Frostgrave wizard kits go with the Stargrave crew sprues. I'm very impressed with the new female crew sprue - here's the first use of its arms with a wizard body and head.

[Daeothar]

Stands to reason the Frostgrave and Stargrave sets are interchangeable, but your result is just flawless!

This opens up so much more avenues to kitbash and make unique miniatures

And the basing looks great, especially when they're all grouped together like that, in all their ecclectic glory; it ties them together quite nicely 

[Grumpy Gnome]

My thoughts echo those of Daeothar. 👍

[eilif]

Nice work on the troopers.

The wizard kitbash is cool. Looks like it has a bit more movement to the body sculpt than the rank and file Northstar sprues.

[Hobgoblin]

Thanks, chaps!

Any dusty sci-fi setting needs some primitive marauders to come howling out of the wastes at inopportune moments. These Copplestone half-orcs looked the part, I thought; I've got the rest of the range on order to make them a reasonably sized force.

I envisage three main uses for these fellows in our sci-fi games. First, they'll offer a challenge for players who want to eschew the pew-pew for some brutal hand-to-hand action. Second, they'll provide a consolation prize for any player who gets knocked out early from a multiplayer game ("OK, these guys turn up - you're in charge. They want to take as many heads as possible/steal some tech/destroy all technology."). Because they don't have guns, they'll represent a fair step down from the starting force, regardless of what rules we're using. Third, they'll act as a band of wandering monsters, which we usually include in our games to add some spice.

I'm going to add some accompanying beasts with the same markings as the shields. If I get through the rest of the Copplestone guys, I might supplement them with some of the new Crusader half-orcs.

[Golgotha]

Always loved these miniatures. They look great here too... repurposed for Sci-Fi. Do like the savage shield and particularly the eyes.

The ideas on how they could be used in game are cool too - lucky players indeed...

[Sunjester]

Superb!

[Hobgoblin]

Thanks, both!

Here's some crude WIP terrain (inspired by the legendary Spacejacker's instagram). This is one box-built building with various smaller structures that can either stand alone as small buildings or be placed on the big one as upper storeys.

Everything fits inside the main building for easy storage - and a few more bits and bobs should fit inside too: a couple more small buildings and various add-ons (turrets, satellite dishes, gun placements).

The paintwork is still very much work in progress, though I've since advanced the windows quite a bit. I'm going to do a lot of neatening up, staining and graffiti-using. The kids have also been building some buildings, so we should have a little outpost done by the weekend.

[Idle Doodler]

Very nice, although in all honesty I was quite taken with your 'raw' terrain! The bare box colour worked rather well with the gaming mat - nice and desert planet-like.

I've been following that instagram too, and am very envious of both your and Spacejacker's results.