Styrene Corridors

I finished one of the junction box cargo bays with another on the way. The above pictures are of the two rooms connected with one of my prototype doors. The doors are actually styrene clips that hold the rooms together and indicate the position of the door. Later I am going to drill holes at the top of the clip which will hold pegs that indicate whether the door is open, closed or locked. I'm not really happy with the initial door design. I plan on making more doors based off of some interesting packing material that I salvaged from a new printer.

The airlock in the third picture is removable and will have the same peg system as the doors. The figures in the pictures are the GZG "Not Firefly" crew.

More spaceship interiors to come. Next up are the crew quarters and the bridge.

A little Change of Pace

After being sealed in various flying or rolling tin cans, I am finally back on American soil. I did not bring my paints so I'm limited to modeling and painted with limited colors. I was trying to figure out what hobby project i will undertake during my month home, when i had an epiphany in the shower about how to make some really cool 15mm terrain.

I went to Lowes and bought a bunch of plastic junction boxes used for household wiring. After cutting off the external tabs, I embellished the interior with styrene and parts from an old spaceship model that i bought a few months ago. Above is my first attempt at one of these rooms. Its an engine room.

The idea behind using junction boxes for rooms is that they can be butted up against one another to create a whole bunch of different ship and or building interiors. They're also pretty cheap, about 1.50 from Lowes. And since its 15mm, it is reasonably compact and storable.

More ship interior moduals to come. Next up is a larger cargo bay made from two boxes. I also have a cool idea for the doors and bulkheads thats on the list of things to do.

Bald is Beautiful, Part Deux

He did it officer!

I've painted the 15mm gangers that I showed in the green stages in an earlier post. They painted up well, especially the aliens, of which I am particularly pleased. Again the bases are left raw sand for the time being while I figure out a basing scheme that I like. Again these figures are all from GZG and come from the ravengers, alien mercenaries, and crusties packs.

I have one last gang to convert and paint, the Knots. More on that in the coming weeks. I'll be heading home to the states for a month over Christmas, so I will not have the materials to paint anything. However, I do have several projects lined up, including the complete rebasing of my ancient German horde. Stay tuned for more hobby goodness!

Do You Feel Lucky....... Punk!

Here is the second major gang in my 15mm sci-fi city, the Hawks. The Hawks had their origins in a human supremacist movement but expanded into criminal activity shortly after. They are characterized by their distinctive coloured mohawks and intentionally rattly clothing.

The models are all converted from GZG ravagers. I trimmed down the hair with a pair of dikes and sharp knife. I sculpted the mohawks over the resulting bare head. The heavy weapons guy is a GZG alien mercenary "i.e. their not Fifth Element aliens" with a head swap and a greenstuff mohawk. I also added the belt feed over his shoulder with greenstuff. In hindsight I probably should have made the rounds on the ammo belt a little more pronounced. I'm still getting the hang of converting 15mm figures.

That being said I'm having a much easier time converting 15mm than I thought. You just have to "think in scale" and make sure you don't try and add details that are too small to be noticeable. If you look at some of the figures faces, i may have strayed a little with my knife, giving some gangers impressive scars. I kinda liked the effect and decided to go with it whilst painting.

I'm not sure what to do with the bases yet. right now they are just bare GW modelling sand. I may paint them to look like asphalt or just leave them the deserty colour in case i want to do some Post-apocalypse gaming.

I hope you enjoy them. There is more 15mm sci-fi street violence on the way!

It Ain't Easy Being Greens

I usually don't like to post pictures of unpainted figures. However I wanted to show off the conversion work on these figures before they get a lick of paint. Above are one of the three major hair-defined gangs that will inhabit my future city, the Domes. The Domes are known for wearing long coats, shaved heads, and shades that conceal their eyes.

The original figures are all from GZG. The humans (bottom picture)are their ravagers with haircuts and dusters modelled on where appropriate. The centre figure and the one on the far right are from their "not Firefly" pack. You can see where I greenstuffed the shades, long coats and collars where needed.

The aliens are also from GZG. The far left and right centre are from their new crusties pack. I got the pack for free with my Christmas deal. The figures are great with a lot of character, perfect for district 9 style games in an alien slum. I think I'll clip the guns off of the remaining figures and make them civilians. The far right is one of GZG's alien mercenary "not Fifth Element"aliens. I added the long coat and extended the gun with the muzzle of a plastic Kroot long rifle. The left centre came about as a happy accident. I was trying to remove the hair from a female figure in order to make another type of ganger. After the hair removal was complete, I found that I had made this cool spikey fringe around the models head. I'm not sue if I'll pain the model as a human with a wacky collar or as some funky alien with shoulder spikes. Either way she has descended into a life of crime.

Here are pictures from the originals from the GZG website.

More 15mm sci-fi stuff on the way! I have another gang and civilians painted up. I'm just looking for a better bulb for my light so I can do them justice in photographs.

I'm Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack...

After A long hiatus, I have finally gotten back to painting. I've spent the last two months acclimating to Durham and English university life. I haven't had much time for hobby related stuff between coursework and socializing(having the student bar 100 yards away from one's flat dosen't help either).

Since I'm planning to live transatlanticly for a while, I figured that a major move to 15mm would facilitate transporting figures across the pont. Also, on a student budget, 15mm makes more sense. There are some really great 15mm manufactures out there producing figures every bit as characterful as the best 28s out there.

Above are some splintered light Saxons that I have painted for a planned 15mm Dark Age skirmish project. These figures were a joy to paint, i lavished a little bit more detail than I normally would on 15's. The pictures are not my best work. but I'm getting used to photographing miniature in my room.

Stay tuned for some 15mm sci-fi. I took advantage of GZG's Christmas deal. I'm working on a whole gaggle of sci-fi civilians and gang bangers for a 15mm sci-fi city inspired by my friend Scott Pyle's Starport 3030 project.