Painted Minis Arrive, Part 1: Gaters

If you have been following this blog for a bit, you may already know that about three months ago I did something I have never done before in my gaming career: I sent minis off to be painted for me. Now, I usually paint my own, and am fairly confident that I can produce a good figure. And I have bought pre-painted before, and been both very pleased and very disappointed. But I've never sent bare lead off to be painted for me. So this is a new one.

I chose to send the figures to White Ape Painting Studio, owned by Cathy Hamaker out of Indiana. Why not one of the big Asian studios? Two reasons: 1) Postage. Way too high for the 40-ish figures I was sending to be painted. 2) The economy. I am trying to promote 'buying American' when possible. The prices were pretty competitive with the Asian guys, especially when you took postage into consideration, and, well, I felt a bit better not having to deal with customs and all of that.

So, on to the reviews. Overall, I am pretty happy with Cathy's work. This first batch I am showing you are what I call Gaters in my VSF universe, but most of you would recognize them as Games Workshop Saurus (the old plastic ones from the boxed set that have been sitting about forever). I sent the mounted figure below as an example of the color scheme I wanted.

And this is what she returned to me today:

Really, not a bad match. You may be looking at the bases and saying to yourself "Uh... what's up with the bases?" That's my fault - I asked that she not do any base work so that I could get everything matching up. Once I do that, and hit it all with a shot of matte varnish, I think this unit of Gaters is pretty much done, although I do need a hero for it. Anyone with a nice metal Saurus hero type - a Temple Guard would work too! - give me a shout.

I'll be posting more - there are three more batches to go. So look for a new posting every day for the next few days.

Martian Rocks and Terrain

Inspired by our friend Eli of I See Lead People, I am trying to do at least 15 minutes worth of productive hobby work every day this month. I've started off well, making more terrain for my Mars table in the form of hills and rock outcroppings, etc.

Below, you see two pieces of that handiwork. The scenario for Historicon will require that the British get their mule train off the board between the long rock face in the foreground and the hill in the background of this photo. A road will be added , and is probably my next major terrain challenge for the month.

This photo shows the advantages of some good terrain: a Martian cannon sited on top of this rock has a very good field of fire for the battle. And cliffs to the front help to protect them from interference. This is another new piece.

My most recently completed piece is this cave. While it won't be used in the Historicon scenario, everyone needs a good cave or two, and it serves as a learning piece for something that will be in the scenario: a mine entry.
Details on construction and more photos of these pieces and others can be found on my terrain blog, Gaming Terrain.

Photos of Martian Rocks and Hills

Three different finishes on these rock formations. I'll create a poll over them, but I would like your input as to which looks best. All three rocks have essentially the same paint job and foundation: 1/2" pink foam, with black flat latex brushed on, then three colors of spray. The rock on bottom right shows this. The second rock, at the top of the triangle, got a spray of textured paint before the three-color spray, and also has a bit of iron oxide gravel on it. The third rock was painted and then I added a pretty solid coating of iron oxide gravel and fine ballast to the top.

Here's a long, ridge-like outcropping. The sloped edges are considered passable, the rugged nearly vertical edges are not. This rock, like all the others, has the three-tone spray paint on 1/2" pink foam. In the background you can see another hill, with another small rise added to it. In the scenario I am creating, the British must pass between this outcrop and the hill to reach their destination off board.

This formation is one of the most complex ones I have done so far, up to four layers thick, but I really like it. It makes for a pretty good high ground to hold, though there isn't much cover. It does provide a good vantage over most battlefields, so if you have a long-range weapon, this would be a good site for it. It's also difficult to scale, as most of the faces are cliffside.

The Brute!

Americans Unveil Steam-Powered Brute!

Designed and built by Baron von J of Unkerlant, and crewed by American soldiers, the new Brute-class of land dreadnought was unveiled last month. One hopes that construction notes may be forthcoming, but these European aristocratic inventors are notoriously secretive about their scientific process, you know. Additional information and photostats of the Brute may be found by directing yourself to the appropriate telephonic interweb location: http://baronvonj.blogspot.com/2009/05/brute-class-land-ironclad.html.

[Editor's Note: This is a really well-done scratchbuild that I was tipped off to by the Editor at TMP, via a news item he posted there. It's really nice work, and I recommend that you take a peek at the Baron's other projects. Very worthwhile, I think.]

Automaton Statistics (GASLIGHT)

A couple of days ago I mentioned (on TMP - www.theminiaturespage.com) posting the stats for the automatons here. So, late as usual, here they are:

Hoverbots [Hydra Miniatures]
Shoot: - Scuffle: 12 Save: 5 Start: 11 Sustain: 9 Speed: Soar 12
Weapon: Pincers (SRM -2)

Spiderbots [Wyrd Miniatures Steam Spiders]
Shoot: 7 Scuffle: 11 Save: 5 Start: 11 Sustain: 9 Speed: Steam 8
Weapons: Poison dart gun (6"/12", SRM -12), stinger

Serv-a-tons [Hydra Miniatures Minibots]
Shoot: - Scuffle: 10 Save: 6 Start: 11 Sustain: 9 Speed: Steam 6
Weapon: Pincers (SRM -4)

ToolBots [Reaper Miniatures: Chronoscope]
Shoot: 8 Scuffle: 9 Save: 8 Start: 11 Sustain: 9 Speed: Steam 6
Weapon: Chainsaw (SRM -4), Power claw (SRM-6) or Electrogun (12"/24", SRM-6)

Brass Soldat [Parroom Station Clockwork Soldier]
Shoot: 8 Scuffle: 10 Save: 14 Start: 12 Sustain: 12 Speed: Steam 10 Spin: 180
Weapon: Bayonet (SRM +3), Autocannon (24"/48", SRM +3, Radius 4", Divide 3)