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Showing posts from 2023

Assembling a motley crew.

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Over the last couple of years, we've seen an explosion in multi-part figure kits from a variety of manufacturers. This has been great for creating custom figures. However, it does leave a lot wasted plastic parts. Fortunately, companies (like Anvil Industries) now produce bodies/torsos/legs that allow a gamer to use those spare parts. The two pictures below show 8 Anvil Industries bodies that have parts from a variety of manufacturers added to them. At a glance I can spot Frostgrave, Stargrave, Fireforge, Games Workshop and Great Escape Games parts being used.

Strange New Worlds

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Some more 3D printed Star Trek inspired miniatures. Figures designed by Lost Heresy and printed by TwistedPinnacle3D. This time these miniatures bear a passing resemblance to characters from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. Here you can see Captain Pike as portrayed by Anson Mount and Una Chin-Riley as potrayed by Rebecca Romijn. Captain Pike and Number One Also, in the pack were these three crewmembers. Again, the figure with the extended arm resembles Anson Mount. The figure holding the mug looks like Dr M'Benga as portrayed by ‎Babs Olusanmokun. Lastly, there's a Nurse Chapel figure. This time I painted her in a uniform inspired by the outfit worn by Jess Bush as Chapel. Lastly, an Andorian Science Officer for my existing Andorian contingent.

League of Fatties

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In the Judge Dredd world, 'fatties' are bored citizens who have turned to gluttony as a means to pass the time. They are so gigantically fat that they need a belliwheel to prop up their prodigious gut. In the future, fatties can count as athletes: competitive eating is an international sport, ranging from the Olympics to criminal back-street eating games. Fatties were commonplace in the 2100s, when gluttony was one of the few traditional pleasures that wasn't illegal. This gave rise to both the coveted Mega-City Fats award and the first one-ton man, Big Lard Ringer and 'Two Ton' Tony Tubbs the worlds first two-ton man. I managed to find some 3D printed Fatties on Etsy and added them to the official ranges from Warlord Games and Mongoose Games. 3D printed by Starlettminiatures via Etsy Alongside Warlord Games 'League of Fatties' With an original Mongoose 'Fattie'

I am the law!

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The Justice Department is in control of all law and justice in Mega-City One (which covers most of the east coast of North America). Effectively the government, the military and law enforcement all rolled up into one. The Justice Department uses 'Judges', empowered to summarily arrest, convict, sentence, and execute criminals. The most famous Judge being the aponymous Judge Dredd. Now, I've been a Judge Dredd fan for many, many years. I played Dredd themed board games back in the 80s and invested in the Mongoose Judge Dredd miniatures games back in the 2010s and have a sizeable collection of Judge Dredd miniatures from Foundry and Mongoose. I saw these Street Judges for sale from a 3D printer. Advertised as 28mm, I would say that they are on the small 28mm side.  "Squad Assemble" Here's a couple of 3D printed Judges alongside a female Judge from the old Mongoose range. Height wise, they are compatible. Mongoose, 3D Print, 3D Print Now c

The Rebellion armed forces.

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Following on from a previous post where I had all my Empire troops on display. Here I have my Rebellion figures out in force (no pun intended).  Mostly based on the Rebel Commandoes seen in The Return of the Jedi, left and centre back row are from Midlam Miniatures and not available any more.  Back row right, are some Rebel Fleet Troopers designed by MrBigTong and printed by 3DKingdoms. Front row are a mixture of Stargrave, Rogue Stars and Colony 87 (I think). To be honest. I thought I had more dedicated Rebel figures, but I guess they are enough to be thorn in the Empires side!

Teal'c of Chulak

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Teal'c is a character in the military Sci-Fi TV series Stargate SG-1. Teal'c is a Jaffa warrior from the planet Chulak. As a Jaffa, Teal'c is a genetically modified human with an abdominal pouch that serves as an incubator for a larval Goa'uld. Although I never watched it religiously, I have always had a fondness for Stargate SG-1. Recently, I found myself binge watching it while I was getting over a bout of Covid. Stargate SG-1 really lends itself to gaming purposes. Given the military nature of the show, there is combat but additionally there is exploration and problem solving.  What really lends itself to gaming purposes is that you never know what's on the otherside of the Stargate and this really allows you to use what's in your collection. A long time ago, I picked up the 'not' Stargate figures from Hasslefree Miniatures . Although I gamed with them, I was never truly happy with their'not Teal'c figure as it was armed two machine guns. What

Defending the Republic!

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For some Clone Wars era gaming, I have a set of Clone Troopers led by a Jedi in Clone armour. The Clone Troopers are WOTC plastic figures and the Jedi is a Psi Paladin from Alternative Armies.

Force users

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Over the last couple of years I have been collecting lots of figures that wouldn't look out of place in the Star Wars universe. These are 'Psi Paladins' from Alternative Armies . I use them as former Jedi or 'Force' users who have some skill with a lightsabre.

My Jedi Knights

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Here is my little contingent of Jedi Knights. The vast majority are converted Frostgrave wizards. Also, there's a couple of Rogue Stars figures and lastly a Yoda/Grogu figure from Diehard Miniatures. All ready to take on a Droid army or to run from the Galactic Empire.

The Galactic Empire armed forces.

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Here are my figures from the various branches of the armed forces of the Galactic Empire, such as the Imperial Army and Imperial Navy and the Stormtrooper Corps, as well as agencies such as Imperial Intelligence aiding the Imperial Military. The figures are from a variety of sources and have been collected over the last couple of years.

Stormtrooper Heavy Weapons

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As part of an 'End of Summer' sale, I bought some 'Shocktrooper' Heavy Weapons. Designed by MrBigTong and printed by 3dkingdoms. Obviously, they are Stormtroopers from Star Wars. They are armed with a mixture of Heavy Weapons, namely the DLT-19 heavy blaster rifle, the T-21 Heavy Blaster and the E-Web heavy repeating blaster. They'll be useful for bulking up my Stormtrooper squads in games of Galactic Heroes, Fistful of Lead: Bigger Battles and Xenos Rampant.

Colonists, Prospectors or Intergalactic Janitors?

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Recently rediscovered some old figures in my collection. I'm not sure where they are from, I think Westwind, but cannot find them online anywhere. They needed some TLC. So I stripped them back to bare metal and started again. The figures were originally unarmed, so I took the opportunity to make some hand and head swaps with items in my bits box. You can see from the pictures that there are five different poses and that I have three of each pose. I tried to plan my swaps so that each figure in a group of three was slightly different from the rest. The tools that I used are from a model railway shop called Scale Link Ltd. Although designed for O Gauge trains, they fit quite well with 28mm figures. The headswaps are from a number of different ranges. To provide a sense of uniformity, I gave the figures the same colour overalls. So they could be a maintenance crew, prospectors, colonists, civilians etc.

The Nth Doctor...

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So what do you get if take an Artizan Designs 'Thrilling Tales' figure and swap a hand holding a pistol for a hand holding a Sonic Screwdriver? The answer is the Nth Doctor. This is designed to be an incarnation of 'The Doctor' from Doctor Who. Calling him the Nth Doctor means he could be a future or past Doctor. Essentially, he's my own creation for Doctor Who gaming that gives me some flexibility for story telling without getting bogged down with continuity. Outfit wise, the Nth Doctor is inspired by the Mortdecai costume worn by Johnny Depp in the film of the same name. A MadMan with a Box.

More Not-Mandalorians!

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Back in June, I receieved an email from Anvil Industries about their forthcoming 'The Brotherhood' Pre-Order. For those of us who don't have a 3D printer, they were doing a limited print run of their 'The Brotherhood' miniatures. Why was I interested? Well as you can see from my pictures below, they have a passing resemblance to Mandalorians from Star Wars. So here is the first two painted up.

Converted Star Wars toy

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Back in the 1980s, Palitoy in the UK (Kenner in the US) released a series of small vehicles for their Star Wars figures. The range was called Mini-Rigs. The Mini-Rig vehicles, which did not appear in any of the three films of the Star Wars original trilogy, were fairly inexpensive models designed to carry one character and thereby increase play value at a lower cost than the larger toy vehicles. One such Mini-Rig was the MLC-3 Mobile Laser Cannon, a small, one-person tank used by the Rebel Alliance on the planet Hoth. The original MLC-3 A few years back, I managed to pick up a MLC-3 from eBay. It was missing the transparent dome and as a result was relatively inexpensive. Somewhat inspired by a TX-225 GAVw "Occupier" combat assault tank (seen in Rogue-One), I decided to convert the MLC-3 into a tank for 28mm gaming. Now, in what might appear to be sacrilege to Toy Collectors, I took the off the lifting hatch. I then used plasticard to fill gaps, to cover the various holes and

IG Series Droids

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Picked a couple of 3D printed IG Series droids from ebay. Although designed for the Star Wars Legion game, they fit in quite nicely with the other 28mm miniatures that I have. Although the paint schemes are based on IG-11 (grey, metallic) and IG-90 (red) respectively, for gaming purposes, they will be used as other members of the IG Series. "Assassin droids are incredibly dangerous. They're walking armories.."

A Fistful of Mando's...

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Finally finished painting my 'The Brotherhood' figures from Anvil Industries. Six more not Mandalorians ready to join my clan. Got to thank all the Mandalorian cosplayers out there, they provide real inspiration for colour schemes. Anvil Industries 'The Brotherhood' Here are all of my Mandalorian type figures. The majority are from Die Hard Miniatures and include the proxy Din Djarin, Grogu, Boba Fett and Bo Katan figures you can see. The rest are from Anvil Industries and there's a solitary Wizards of the Coast figure at the back. This is my clan for the foreseeable future. This is the way!

Weequay Pirates

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More 3D printed miniatures. This time Weequay pirates from the Star Wars universe. Weequays were a sentient species from the planet Sriluur common throughout the galaxy. Weequay possessed tough, leathery skin resistant to desert environments and blaster fire. Many Weequay were mercenaries, pirates, and bodyguards for the Hutt Clan.