The Not Quite As Large But Hairier Alien

 A few weeks ago miniatures sculpting legend Bob Olley was selling some converted figures on eBay. At the time I didn't get round to bidding, but instantly regretted it. Carmine over at Indelible Inc. did bid however, and after completing a squad of 5 alien mercenaries based on WOTC Star Wars Yuzzem, had one spare. 

Check out Carmine's cool squad.

Carmine very generously offered it up for grabs in the Great Yuzzem Giveaway, and I ended up being the lucky recipient as I promised to include the model in my Super Hairy Alien Mercenary Squad.

Miniatures Without Borders Raffle

I just wanted to give a shout out to a really cool charity project being organised by Alexander Winberg of Echoes of Imperium:

2020 has not been an easy year for anyone and it feels like the bad news just keep coming.

We decided we needed to do something, provide a positive message and try to bring together people around a noble goal. We hope to show just how amazing this community is and what we can do when we set our mind to it.
This is why we have launched Miniatures Without Borders, a charity raffle for Doctors Without Borders. All the money we raise will go directly to DWB so the more tickets you buy the more you help.
As an added incentive we have put up a whole host of miniatures as prizes! There are close to 30 prizes provided by members of our incredibly community and you could be the lucky winner!

Please join us on this journey to help out a truly deserving organization, it is worth it.

Miniatures Without Borders

So how can you help? Get yourself over to the Miniatures Without Borders raffle and enter to have a chance to win some really cool miniatures donated by fantastic modellers such as
Ana Polanšćak of Gardens of Hecate, Isaac Tobin of Weirdingsway, Jean-Baptiste Garidel of Leadplague, Johan Egerkrans of The Convertorum and famous mystery guests.

Here are some of the prizes on offer:

You could also win my little diorama of Trish Carden sculpts!

There are just over 3 days left to enter, with each raffle ticket costing just £5. Head on over to Miniatures Without Borders and you might just be lucky!

The Unexpectedly Large Alien

Completely out of the blue, an ebay auction caught my eye last week. It was for a set of three 'People Eaters' - digital sculpts being sold by a 3D print seller. The models were cute in a Monsters Inc. type way, and I thought they might be fun little creatures, described as they were as an average of 20mm tall.

Except they weren't 20mm tall...they were 55mm-60mm tall! My tiny cute aliens were now big hulking brues (but still cute). I've since discovered that the three digital sculpts were by Ill Gotten Games from their Urzan Liberty Corps Kickstarter - it turns out that the 20mm scale refers to tiny teddy bear commandos, not the big alien beasties!

I decided to paint up my favourite of the three, a three-eyed, mono-horned furry beast with fairy wings. I got rid of the wings, roughly covered the unsightly cut marks and painted it up in around 45minutes.

The Citadel Guard - A New Mordheim Expedition

I'm not entirely sure when it was that I started getting interested in Citadel Lone Wolf range. I'm not by inclination a fan of pre-slotta miniatures, or a long-time devotee of the Lone Wolf books. But at some point, I looked at Citadel's 1984 Lone Wolf miniatures, and thought they looked cool.

Image from Stuff of Legends.

As these things go, I acquired a couple of the Citadel Guard. Then, perhaps a few months later, a Guard Captain. At some point last year I picked up the Bandit. And then I started formulating the idea of a little warband of the Citadel Guard. I could do a few head swaps perhaps. I could add the Bandit with some other crossbowmen. I could commission John Pickford to sculpt me some heads and shields.

Taking a Rest as the World Burns

Six weeks ago a new challenge was launched over at the Oldhammer Facebook group, celebrating the brilliant illustrations of Tony Hough. Tony's artwork was ever present in GW's output of the late 1980s, gracing the pages of Rogue Trader, Realm of Chaos books and White Dwarf. He also single-handedly drew most of the claustrophobic illustrations for Space Fleet. I'm lucky enough to own a couple of Tony's originals, and he ranks as one of my favourite GW artists. 

Here are the rules of the challenge:

The aim will be to recreate one of Tony Hough's incredible and evocative scenes into miniature form, sculpting, painting or even better, both, and this time you have 6 weeks to complete the task so right until the 30the of June on midnight!

I knew instantly that I wanted to evoke the brilliant illustration that features as a two-page spread on p126-127 of the Rogue Trader rulebook. The artwork shows a mercenary, or perhaps an Imperial Guardsman relaxing on an access ramp, tending to his weapon. In the back ground, a second character is guiding in an insectoid spaceship. The whole scene is set in a cavernous hangar of some kind.

The Black Maria - An Inquisitorial Transport

I've wanted to make some sort of special forces vehicle for a little while, and had originally bought the Zinge Industries APC conversion kit for my Imperial Guard Kill Team. But it had sat, assembled and unpainted for a couple of years. Having recently completed my Inquisitorial Commandos, I figured I could dust down the APC and paint it up for them.

The Shop on the Corner - A Necromundan Trading Post

Hopefully you're not bored of seeing buildings constructed from old Necromunda bulkheads, as I've finished a couple more!

This time I've delved into the world of commerce with a general store topped by another hab unit (a mixed commercial and residential unit if you like!).