I got very inspired by John Yorio at the 54mm or Fight when he painted his Sci-fi Warhammer miniatures and a Space Marine for his son. I'm impressed how he managed to bring out the details in the miniatures. I found this so inspiring that I wanted to try a similar project my self, but as I'm not into Warhammer miniatures it had to be some readily available 'Space Marines-Army men' I brought to the workbench in july (but not completed before now).
Since I'm not into GW I had no preferences to paint these 'Marines', but this year it's actually 40 years since the TV-series "V" was aired, and I saw it on Swedish television the first time. Perhaps I could turn a handful of these 'Space Marines' into lizzard troopers??
The miniatures
The bucket of futuristic soldiers are usually available in regular toy stores from time to time:
I picked out the reddis/brownish figures as these were closer to the uniform-color I was looking for in the first place.
I'm also very impressed by all the figure-conversions made by James at
Quantrill's Toy Soldiers, so I decided to try a simple one and just remove a bayonet and add visors to their helmets with miliputty.
This time I only primed them with 'plastic-primer' from a rattle-can...
...and a orange color-primer. I hoped that the primer would serve as base for the uniform color, but it didn't match so well...
So the uniform needed to be painted as well. Here are all the basic colors added:
And then they're given a dirty brown-ish wash, drybrushed with a lighter color and adding texture to their bases:
Some close-ups of the completed figures:
The Spaceship
My figures needed a space-ship so I found a 'Skyfighter' for free at Thingiverse, re-scaled it so it would look about right size for my figures and 3D-printed it. Even if it was 3D-printed as a kit the Spaceship needed a lot of filling and sanding:
Then it was given a couple of coats of spray filler, which revealed that further filler and was needed.
Then it was given a couple of final layers of spray filler, and the last parts added:
Finally some paint to bring it all together:
I'm looking forward to finally deploy these V-miniatures and their landing-craft in an upcoming game soon. Please follow the blog for updates.
You have really brought the very best out of these figures, they look excellent. I await developments with interest…
ReplyDeleteAlan Tradgardland
Thank you Alan!
DeleteI don't think the scenario I'll create for the upcoming wargame will be 1984-ish. Perhaps The Lizzard's sent a reconnaissance patrol to earth much earlier.
Thanks for the compliment! You did a good job on the figures, inspirational, as I enjoyed that series too. I still have the VHS cassettes!
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome! -Yours looks great!!
DeleteAnd thank you! Do you still have a workable VCR to watch them??
A while ago I threw away a lot of old VHS as our VCR weren't any good anymore. You can't even get them second hand anymore.
Roger, you have turned inexpensive figures into gaming miniatures. This must be considered a very successful project. Same with the alien craft. Nicely done. Some time back I painted twenty 'Galoob' 28mm plastic figures into aliens from the 70s tv series 'UFO'. (I later swapped them for some 54mm.... both parties were happy, lol.)
ReplyDeleteMichael Butterfield
Thank you Michael!
ReplyDeleteWith 20 miniatures you can field a real battle. I only made 6 (for now) as this is the number of members the modelled Skyfighter can hold. Norwegian television in the 70ies was real sad business, so I was not familiar with 'UFO'.
The 'V-series' was aired on Swedish television as we cold recive with own antennas.
For the record, UFO was made by Gerry Anderson. It was a sci-fi series arguably more suited for adults, but also popular with a younger audience. Numerous British stage actors appeared as guests, and everything about it was special. It is considered a classic series to this day. While 'V', in comparison, suffered from its Hollywood TV-production, storyline, and some of the acting, IMHO.
DeleteIt seems like these are two different sci-fi series which are not comparable. Another interesting fact is that V was the most expensive series to be produced for television at that time.
DeletePoor Gerry was always under stress keeping to his budget, and his small production company had to be savvy how they spent their limited funds. They also had to adjust storylines to appease tv network bosses in the US. Still, Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet, UFO, and Space 1999 have aged well, and still acquirer new fans. Yes, you are right, UFO is very different, not really comparable, but do try to view some episodes, I think you will be impressed.
DeleteI didn't fint it on the streaming guide, but I found a playlist on Youtube. In High definition too:
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUA9kG1DciUwkpW9earbzux_rdj9-bb8j
Each episode is an independent story, but occasionally it gives further insight into the Aliens, and why they are visiting Earth. Several episodes are about the main characters, and how they stand up to the stress on their personal life. I hope you find it of interest. Regards. Michael Butterfield
DeleteThank you Michael, I'll have a look at them.
DeleteRegarding "V"; a remake of the series was made in 2009 which ran for 2 seasons until 2011. This remake was very different from the original mini series and was really terrible. The 1984 version is still my favourite.