I'm really impressed when I see fellow bloggers and wargamers just paints a lot of miniatures in a short time. Due to nice weather and 3 garden railway running sessions within a week, my recent painting projects has actually taken quite long time to finish. Here follows some updates on my Airfix Cowboy knock-off since my last blog-post. Here they have finally got their basic colors. I've taken 'liberties' with the painting scheme, but perhaps you can see where I got the inspiration from?
I think they looks good this way, but I prefer to give them a 'dirty - brown wash', and bring out the details with drybrushing in lighter colors. The details were not so crisp on these knock offs. I also added sand to the bases.
Then they're sealed with another coat of ModPodge as this will give them a though surface which alow handling during games without the paint coming off again.
Even if the ModPodge is flat I prefer to give my miniatures an even more 'dead flat' looking, so I give them an overspray of flat varnish.
When the final layer of flat varnish dries, I think they are about done...
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| Click on image for larger photo |
I think these miniatures are ready to see some action on the tabletop now. I like my
home brewed 'Wild West' rules, but perhaps any of you recommend some other free, fast and easy to play 'Old west' rules as well?
More Knock-offs
A while ago I fond some really cheap Army Men in my local toy store. In the blogpost I asked if someone knew the origin of these knock-offs? - I found an answer to that on an excellent (new?) Army Men website and blog called Toy Soldier Central. The 54mm soldiers which looked like WW2 paratroopers, was originally knock-offs of Forces of Valor's WW2 82nd Airborne miniatures:
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| This photo is from Toy Soldier Central |
This made me think if the more modern Army Men in the same bag perhaps was Forces of Valor knock-offs as well, and probably they are:
So, what's next?
I've had a bucket of 'The Force' 'Starship Troopers'-looking space marines for years and haven't quite decided what to use them for. Now I've finally got around to start painting a handful of them for an upcoming wargame. I really hope that I'll not use 'a billion years' to paint these miniatures as well.
I don't think a bayonet is needed on a blaster rifle, so I removed it. I also added visors to their helmets.
Another thing hitting the workbench this month is this 3D-printed model:
Even if they are printed as 'kits', the fit are usually far from perfect. In this case sanding was needed...
...followed by a good portion of filler.
I'm excited to see how this turns out.
Now I'm eager to use my recently finished 'Cowboys' in a game soon. Please stay tuned for updates.
The Space Crusade Space marines and Orks had bayonets on their weapons. I think the premise was that no matter how good the fire power close combat could still occur. This could be valid with particularly persistent horde aliens unfazed by deaths sustained.
ReplyDeleteI like the addition of the poncho to the cowboy.
Those space figures are only a hop step and a jump removed from contemporary infantry. The only thing I don't like is that they are significantly smaller than 54mm and so don't combine so well with other figures.
The 'Space Marines' are smaller than true 54mm figures, but many off my other knock offs are slightly smaller anyway so I think they will go along quite easily with other figures despite being small. If you use bugs or aliens for 'opposing forces' , the smaller size s not that evident.
DeleteThanks for reading and commenting.