As a general rule, I'm not that keen on buying painted figures. Apart from a very few exceptions (such as gifts from friends), I prefer to paint my own figures - I like the process, and the ability to interpret colour schemes and overall look.
The other day, I broke this philosophical approach when I bought this set of 6 figures on ebay, listed as an Imperial Guard / Necromunda gang:
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| Ebay auction pic. |
The small photo was intriguing - Confrontation Bounty Hunters and miscellaneous Rogue Trader figures with added weapons - exactly the kind of figure I like to make myself. The paint job looked reasonable, as was the price, so I was pleased to buy them.
The figures, when they arrived, were nicely built, and painted to a very acceptable standard. I decided to take the quick and easy route to getting them on to the table - a quick touch up and rebasing. I also decided that I didn't really like the military parade arms on the guy with the red and white shirt, so I replaced them with a heavy stubber (V.E.R.A gun from Victoria Miniatures).
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| Autogunner made from a RT guardsman with a modern head and plastic arms from a Chaos cultist. Heavy gunner made from a Confrontation Bounty Hunter with Victoria Miniatures arms. |
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| Guardsman made from a Confrontation Tech ganger with a Victoria Miniatures head & Tempestus Scions gun. Sergeant made from a Confrontation Bounty Hunter with plastic arms (also Scions?). |
Minor flesh touch up on both the hellgunner and sergeant. Both had a wash of orange on their cables to deepen the colour.
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| Guardsman made from a Confrontation Bounty Hunter with a Tempestus Scions gun. Psyker made from a Rogue Trader Titan Pilot with plastic arms. |
Minor flesh touch up on the second hellgunner, while the psyker had his flesh, coat and collar repainted.
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| The finished 6-man squad. |
The resulting team is perfect as a squad of bounty hunters or Imperial Guard Kill Team...with the Confrontation link on three of the figures, probably from the Necromundan 8th Imperial Guard regiment (aka the Spiders). I suspect they'll come in handy!
Just brilliant, time saved, models look great and tie with your own production, that's a double win for me.
ReplyDeleteEfficiency in action I reckon ;)
DeleteWell they turned out great. Amazing what some judicious touch-ups can do! The psyker is particularly nice.
ReplyDeleteEngaging smug mode right about now!
DeleteThose are great conversions, and you've finished them off beautifully. A great gang for pulling off all sorts of shady operations!
ReplyDeleteJust my thoughts exactly. I suspect these guys aren't the sort to be trusted.
DeleteYou do come across these type of minis for sale from time to time i.e. painted up well, obviously by someone who had/has talent, but gave it all away. Most of the minis for sale that are poorly painted, I suspect, are from people who "grew out" of the hobby and that's the level their skills got to before the chucked it all in.
ReplyDeleteGreat find Jon, your touch-ups & tweaks really made a difference. They look bad arse :)
You're absolutely right, most stuff is pretty poorly painted, but there are gems.
DeleteThey do look pretty mean, don't they? I've realised I need to drill the gun barrels though!
Nicely re-purposed!
ReplyDeleteNow to see these used in a game?
I hope to indeed, hopefully not too long!
DeleteQuite nice, and how fortunate to find something prepainted that is so useful.
ReplyDeleteIt's a double-edged sword - I don't get to make the design decisions, but it cuts out 80% of the time to get a figure to the table!
DeleteNice find mate, who's a lucky boy then! Your tweeks are spot on, but great that you've kept them mostly as is - testament to the person that did them in the first place :-)
ReplyDeleteI think the tweaks were largely due to preference, rather than anything else. They really could have been left as they arrived.
DeletePreference is important for keeping everything consistent. They look great! (And sure, they looked fine before too. But now they look great . . . and they fir your table.)
DeleteFit is very important within a collection - these were 90% there, but I couldn't resist tweaking ;)
DeleteCool!
ReplyDeleteHa, I wondered who I'd sold them to. It's a small world.
ReplyDeleteYou've done a really nice job of touching them up and those bases look really good too. Nice one.
It's a small hobby I guess! Thanks for passing them on - I really like the work you put into assembling and painting them :)
DeleteVery nice! For a supposedly dull colour scheme, you have made them 'pop'. :)
ReplyDeletegreat stuff
ReplyDelete