Machen's Oldfangled Minis

i appreciate the explanation; now the Dire Wraiths' legal situation makes sense. Maybe they can return to Marvel under another name, then.

I knew about Jeeg, but had no idea about the Transformers / Micronauts connection. I always wondered about Megatron being a giant handgun and Soundwave turning into a huge cassette player, since neither form works as camouflage. Now I finally know why. Thanks!
 
Hello friends,

Today I have "Manta Claws," a sci-fi "Misfit" by Tim Prow / Diehard Miniatures.

He's the first of a small sci-fi Chaos warband that I intend to slowly and sporadically paint, which will consist of both classic GW sculpts and new Oldhammer-style sculpts. "Manta Claws" is my favorite "misfit" from Prow's Diehard line. A spider / mantis / cyborg / chaos mutant, he's the stuff that little monster-loving boy's and nostalgic old men's dreams are made of. I made one change to the figure, replacing Prow's original crab claw arm (see link above) with a spare mantid arm that I happened to have by Bob Ridolfi. I liked Prow's claw, but its connection point with the body seemed a bit narrow and hard to pin, so I was worried it might break off too easily. Fortunately the mantis arm looked great and allowed for a stronger connection.

Manta Claws 1.jpgManta Claws 2.jpg

Manta Claws 5.jpg Manta claws 4.jpg
 
Hello fellow crazy people,

I've painted a Chaos baddie buddy for my Mantis mutant guy. This one is a minor kitbash, just a headswap (he had a boring normal human marine-looking head before) and I changed a symbol on his left shoulder pad to a chaos icon. His costume had a sort of 2000 AD / Judge Dredd look about it, so I leaned into that.

Dark Legion Dark Huntsman Warzone.jpg

Not all followers of Chaos are mutants; some are just assholes.
This one is possessed, and this is his chilling story:

Officer Phil Philtrum.jpg
(The base model is a Dark Legion Dark Huntsman from Warzone, currently available from Prince August.)

Phil Philtrum was a good cop. He had an immaculate flat-top haircut and a spring in his step, and his unparalleled ability to whistle "Flight of the Bumblebee" made him everyone's favorite policeman. But when a vicious killer targeted his own family, officer Philtrum turned in desperation to a dark power that promised him extra-judicial vengeance.

Surprisingly, that wasn't a good idea.

Dark Legion Dark Huntsman Warzone 2.jpg

Philtrum was given a whispering bone helmet that told him the location of the villain's hidden lair, promising him victory if he put it on. Most people would think twice about wearing a creepy, whispering helmet made of bones, but Philtrum donned it and used its arcane power to cut through the killer's automated defenses, forcing his terrified nemesis to his knees. But when Philtrum delivered the killing blow, the villain's blood spattered his helmet, seeping into its dry, thirsty cracks and releasing the demon trapped within. The helmet fused with Philtrum's screaming skull while the demon inside devoured his soul. (It hurt like hell.) Now the demon, still clad in the remnants of Philtrum's old officer's uniform, pursues its own warped brand of justice . . .

And the most terrifying thing of all
is that officer Philtrum no longer has one.
 
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I had no idea the Thagomizer was now official. I think my brother had the comic on his wall. (He wanted to be a paleontologist. He's an evolutionary biologist now instead.) And Manta Claws looks great. Fantastic Machen! Looking forward to more.
 
Hi folks,

Today I have one Spaceknight and three Judges to share.

The Spaceknight is a repainted Heroclix model of Javelin, about whom there's not a lot to say. In the original comics his real name was Darin, he was colored as uniformly green as Firefall was uniformly red, and he wielded a - you'll never guess it - javelin. One of his more notable deeds was clashing with Galactus's stony herald Terrax, another Marvel character I intend to paint some day.

Terrax vs Javelin.jpg

The PVC spear that Javelin came with was much too bendy, so I had to replace it with a polystyrene one.

Javelin 1.jpg Javelin 3.jpg

Javelin 2.jpg​

On to the three Judges.

The "Heroclix Indy" release included many prominent 2000 A.D. characters. I read somewhere online that Tim Prow sculpted all of the 2000 A.D. models in it, which is certainly possible as Prow has done work for Wizkids, but I honestly don't know for sure.

There are many Judge Dredd models out there to choose from, but in addition to being comparatively inexpensive, I think the Heroclix edition has a particularly good pose of the Judge in action, so I stripped and repainted it.

Judge Dredd 1.jpg Judge Dredd 2.jpg

I like that the sculptor gave Dredd's lawgiver a dial to represent its various payloads, which Judges verbally switch between. "Armor Piercing! Rapid Fire! Hi-EX!" (Look for the red needle in the hemisphere on top of the gun.) Now for our next Judge . . .

Judge Death 1.jpg
Greetingssssss!​

Judge Death. There have been a number of classic Judge Death models from a number of companies. None of them quite captured Death's iconic pose - hand outstretched, reaching out for his victim's heart - as well as I wanted. The heroclix model came close, though, so I kitbashed it with arms taken from Wyrd Miniatures' Sorrows, which were suitably gaunt and grasping.

Judge Death 2.jpg Judge Death 3.jpg

Someday I'd like to paint all four Dark Judges.

Last but not least, I'm happy to introduce a new Judge:

Judge Clukk.jpg
JUDGE CLUKK
Scourge of Poultry Slavers across the Galaxy​

Judge Clukk is sold as "Chukk trooper II" by Alternative Armies, under their Grinning Skull Miniatures range. The sculptor, Will Grundy, has a cartoony sculptural style that sometimes verges on impressionistic, but as with all good humorists, he makes it work to his advantage. I will admit, though, that the eyes on this model were so vaguely rendered that I couldn't tell what Grundy intended (goggles, maybe?), so I sculpted the "Cyclops" visor over them with green stuff.

Judge Clukk 2.jpg
As a chicken owner, I can't help but love this model.​

To give a sense of Judge Clukk's scale, here's a photo of all my painted lawmen so far, good and bad:

Judges.jpg​
 
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Thanks, guys.

Judge Clukk is my most recent paintjob. I painted Dredd and Death almost two years ago, but since I hadn't shown them here yet and they complement Clukk, I decided to include them. Hopefully my painting has improved a bit since then.

You're right about the powerboard, twisted moon, although I didn't see that until you mentioned it. Maybe I'll outfit Javelin with the Silver Surfer's board sometime.
 
ah, always preferred the Mk1 lawgiver design to the mk2. It's good that even such a more modern figure picks it over the Mk2 ^_^
 
I have a "Five Body Problem."

Angrygriffon and Symphonicpoet recently made comments in another thread about finding it hard to paint squad members one after another, preferring to jump around between painting highly varied miniatures. I can absolutely relate: whenever I attempt to paint a squad in sequence, it becomes a chore, and as soon as it becomes a chore, it loses its purpose and stalls out. In fact, I've never painted a five-member squad of anything - four is the most I've achieved so far.

But sometime before this coming Christmas, I'm expecting to receive a kickstarter pledge of Star Schlock, a skirmish game of 70's and 80's sci-fi tropes that I'd really like to try playing with painted miniatures, which would also be a first for me. Playable forces in Starschlock consist of five-person squads, so by Christmas I'd like to have a few different squads painted and ready to go. Star Schlock will come with a bunch of its own miniatures to paint, but that will take me forever, and I like to mix things up anyway, so my first games will be with unofficial figures. In the event that Starschlock's rules disappoint me, I'll make home rules or find another ruleset.

So I'm starting a running tally of my various squads to track my progress on reaching the magic #5 squad member total for gameplay. After this, I'll copy the tally to the first post in this thread and update it there so I don't clutter this thread with future updates. So this thread will continue to focus on pics of painted minis as I finish them, except that every time I complete a five-man squad, I'd like to do a "group shot" post. Don't worry, there will still be plenty of one-off, oddball figures that don't fit in anywhere. ;) Brand-new squads are also likely to pop-up, impractically and unpredictably as the mood strikes me.

I've already posted pics of most of the painted miniatures in the list below, but it also "spoils" a few I haven't put up yet.

5 person Squad progress:

Tzeentch blue horrors: 4

Unarmed Civilians: 4 (Not a fighting squad, and rather than aim for five total, I want to keep a percentage of my ongoing output civilian for flavor and storytelling purposes.)

Warzone Brotherhood: 3

Chaos Space mutants / raiders: 2, with a third one nearly completed. I'm currently feeling the momentum with these guys; the fact that Chaos mutants are so varied by nature has made painting them in sequence feel like less of a chore.

Doctor Who Cybermen: 2

Doctor Who Mandrels: 2

Marvel Spaceknights (from Rom): 2

Diehard Miniatures Eru-Kin (Space Slann): 1

Greenskins: 1 Ork, 2 "groblin" gretchen types

Guardians of the Galaxy: 1

Half-Life Head-crab Zombies: 1

Stegron and dinosaurs: 1

Warmachine Drudges: 1
 
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True, but it's nice to have goals.

Speaking of which, today I'm a step closer to having a Chaos mutant squad. This one's by Phil Lewis. As Kev Adams is the "goblinmaster," I think Phil Lewis was Warhammer's original "mutant master," as attested to by his famous kitbashes featured in White Dwarf. Lewis sculpted this figure called a "Janusian" in an oldhammer style at a larger scale (32mm,) and it's currently available from Miniature Figurines. It comes in both fantasy and sci-fi varieties, as do Lewis's other mutant figures from Miniature Figurines.

Oldhammer Chaos mutants ran the gamut from frightening to straight-up goofy. This one's on the sillier side, and I love its old school "everything but the kitchen sink" approach to Chaos mutations: two heads, and a reptile leg, and two insect arms, and an insect leg, with cybernetic armor, and, of course, pouches galore.

Janusian 1.jpg

Janusian.jpg Two Face.jpg
Lewis's two versions of the sculpt: "Janusian" (sci-fi) and "Two Face" (fantasy).
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Hello sentient sapiens,

I was making good progress towards my five-guy mutant squad, and we can't have that, so I started a new five-man squad of space convicts. (Worry not, Phil Lewis mutant #4 is already in progress. I just can't move in a straight line when doing hobby projects.)

Cyborg and Ork convicts.jpg

The first two members of my group of escapees are a repainted Heroclix Tharok (of DC's Fatal Five from the Legion of Superheroes comics), which I liked for its classic / silly exactly 50/50 half-man / half-robot design, and an Ork convict from Mantic's Dreadball Xtreme game. The Ork's wearing an explosive collar, as are all members of the associated "Long Rock Lifers" space convict Dreadball team, in case anyone's looking for sacrificial canon fodder.

For me, these guys will be story and scenario fodder. There are so many fun sci-fi scenarios to play around with involving prisoners, escapees, penal troops, etc. The Ork's wearing his chains, but Tharok could even fill in as a civvie (who just happens to love orange) in a pinch.
 
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