Yellow Peril!

It's been a busy ole week, both domestically and at work, but I have managed to dig this figure out from the pile, and splash a bit of paint on. If I'm not mistaken, it's a Mercenary from Critical Mass Games, and is a rather nice figure, as it happens. I included two frontal shots, as I missed the visor detail with the first one. I just love the trick of putting a little dot of white to simulate light reflection. So simple, yet so effective! Thanks to whoever came up with that one. I'm probably only thirty years behind everyone else.

I'm going to have to be a bit more liberal with the paint this weekend, but sadly it will all be on the dining room walls. Er, yes, I do mean emulsion, and not just a case of the shakes.

I even remembered to use the Picasa just for dummies picture improvement facility first this time, so I don't need to re-post.


Just for good measure, here's a shot of his sandwich and fizzy drink pouches.

You see, what happened was.......

Now I know this will come as no surprise to all you tech savvy types out there, but if you adjust your pince-nez correctly, assuming you are in a similar age group to me, and fiddle around a bit with the controls on Picasa, you can get a better result if you've made a Horlicks of the photography. Now it's not up to David Bailey standards, but I'm fairly sure that this is a little clearer than the pictures posted yesterday. The trouble with being a dinosaur is you can't hold the brush properly, and computers are tricky, devious,  malevolent dark magic items that defeat the less able. Alternatively, I could just use my eyes and brain a bit, but that hurts.

Pangalactic Legionaires

Okay, I've given in. I have a lead pile that grows constantly, as most of us do, and I had decided some time ago that I would stick mostly to humanoid minis, otherwise the backlog would be insurmountable. However, having seen the Pangalactic Legion from Rebel Minis, I'm afraid I cracked and sent off for some.

These are lovely figures, quite delicate in some areas, but I love the Anime style armour, particularly the leg and boot armour.

I'm conscious that this is a similar colour scheme to the same minis painted by Mr. Harold on his blog 'Clear Horizons', but it isn't an attempt to copy, honest Guv! The skin tones were inspired by a painting tutorial for GW's Tau race, and red is a colour I had wanted to use for some time, but thought it too gaudy for 'hard sci-fi' units, where subdued military style colours are possibly better.

I have read on several blogs how red is a difficult colour to pull off successfully, but I didn't want a very bright red, so I went with a base of GW Red Gore, 2 washes of Devlan Mud (yes, I still have a small stash), then highlight with base colour, second highlight with base + GW Blood Red, then a final highlight with Blood Red on its own. I'm quite happy with the result (for a change!).

There are 8 different poses in this pack, and 3 of each pose.

I like the variety of poses you get in the pack, and I also particularly like the weapon. It's reasonably convincing, and has a nice little circular magazine! I have no idea why that pleases me so much, but it does!

There is a variety of heads as well, which can be painted in different colours if you wish to depict different races within the Legion, or can be painted in the same colours to tie them all together. I shall opt for the second solution!

The skin tones were painted with a base of GW's Shadow Grey, with 2 highlights of base colour + white. Quite simple, and the eyes are GW's Golden Yellow.

So here are the first four all together. Spacejacker, if you're looking in, I think I am finally getting your tips about thinner paint, and making greater use of washes. Thanks mate!