29 August 2022

The good, the bad, and the ugly

The galaxy can be a lawless place, with rogues, malcontents, ne'er-do-wells and general scum lurking on every planet. And that's just the cops. Don't get me started on the civilians.

No scenery today as I arsed up the last bit I was making, although I might do a post about it just for the comedy value. Instead, here's three new additions to my rapidly-growing sci-fi collection.

John Bishop is a Space Marshal, as you can tell from his gold star. At one point John was still human but years of upholding the law in the roughest parts of the universe have left him more machine than man.

I guess with all the Reaper minis I paint it was only a matter of time before I ended up with a Western/cowboy model, so why not combine that genre with sci-fi? John's a decent sculpt and would fit into The Mandalorian with ease.

I don't know much about Westerns as it's not a genre that's really ever grabbed me (sorry, Joe!) so I had no idea where to start with colours. I thought about a deep blue as John's a member of law enforcement, but given his robotic look I went with Tinny Tin, a reddish-brown metallic, over a Chocolate Brown basecoat.

I washed all the metallic paint with Seraphim Sepia to give it more depth and then highlighted it with more Tinny Tin. His stomach and arm cables are Flat Red and I painted his belt Black and his holsters Mahogany Brown and Flat Earth. His hat is Forest Flesh over Khaki, and to ram home his cyborg state I painted his eyes with dabs of Vermilion.

It took me a while to work out what the emblem on his belt is but I'm pretty sure it's the state of Texas, which makes sense given he's a marshal and it's also where Reaper is based (the poor sods).

Keryx was once Bill Stevens, a violent convict who was sentenced to death for murder. He was executed and then brought back to life as a cyborg assassin by a shady corporation. He promptly escaped from the lab and went on the run, selling his services as an assassin to the highest bidders.

Keryx was the first of this trio to be painted. I was originally going to do a basic silvery job on him, but decided he'd look better with some colour, so after basecoating all the metallic bits Neutral Grey I went for Park Green Flat highlighted with Sybarite Green for his main shade. 

I used Iron Warriors, Leadbelcher and Plate Metal washed with Nuln Oil for the metal areas, and Black Grey for his gun. The power line is Averland Sunset and whoops, I forgot to paint on the black hazard lines. 

Like John, to hammer home the cyborg look he's got a Terminator style Vermilion eye but his other one is still human. There's a bit of a Peter Weller Robocop look to his features, so props to Reaper for that.

Zerch is an arms dealer on a backwater planet. Need a gun? See Zerch. Need a rocket launcher? See Zerch. Need a phased plasma rifle in the 40-watt range? You get the picture. Zerch has been in trouble with the law many times but always comes up smelling of roses. People aren't sure why but it could be because the local police just got a shipment of shiny new phased plasma rifles in the 40-watt range. 

If Zerch looks a tad familiar, it's because Roger over at Rantings From Under The Wargames Table painted him a few weeks ago and did a better job than me. Zerch doesn't have a name on Reaper's site, where he's just described as a "space henchman". I decided to give him a name and a promotion.

I painted him in pretty basic colours as Zerch isn't the type to flaunt his wealth. His trousers are Chocolate Brown and Flat Earth, his boots are Black Grey and his top is White highlights over Off-White.

I did think about giving him red-orange skin, but ended up using Yellow Ochre shaded with Agrax Earthshade. I added some Ivory to the Yellow Ochre for the highlights.

As I said above, I buggered up the latest bit of scenery but will write up the post anyway to give you all a laugh. Ta ta for now!

20 comments:

  1. Great painting on all 3 Matt, the colour choices add a lot of character to all 3 sculpts. Sorry to hear about the scenery, but do look forward to reading your entertaining post about it. With all the sci-fi models you have now, have you decided on a gaming system to use them with ?

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    1. Thanks, Dave! They were fun to paint and I could go a bit wild with the colours. I have bought a rulebook for a scifi game called Space Station Zero which I hope to try out this weekend!

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  2. Wild west in space ? - Why not, except of course it beggers the question of "West of where ?".
    ALl three of these sculp shout "Sci-Fi" and your colour choices just add to the overall effect of a futuristic genre.
    Scenery great, until it isn't.

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    1. Cheers, Joe! Wild West in space is basically The Mandalorian :-) And you're right about scenery, it's a ton of fun until it goes wrong...

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  3. Wonderfully strange and super painting, what's not to like?

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    1. Thanks, Michael, "wonderfully strange" is one of my goals when painting these :-)

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  4. Oh those have come out very nicely, I've seen the John Bishop fig on Reapers site, but not been overly impressed (It probably doesn't help that he's named after a terrible "Scouse" comedian! 😁 But your painted version has rather changed my opinion of him, that is a really nice figure, not a nice as Keryx though, the green on him is superb, not a colour I'd have thought to use but it works so well!

    And as for the henchman, I wouldn't say I did him better, different, but defiantly not better, though for some reason the flesh tone on your version make him look more evil to my eye.

    Cheers Roger.

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    1. Thanks, Roger, I too wasn't that keen on John Bishop but took the plunge and he's a lot better than I thought. I went with green on Keryx to get away from the usual red/blue/black and it turned out really well. As for the henchman, I think your Hawaiian shirt wins out over my plain white one :-)

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  5. Sorry to hear about the terrain, but at least you were able to crank out some cool minis! Zerch is my fave, as he could be used in so many scenarios. I really like the Ochre skin on him. Rogers is pretty interesting too with the pinkish skin. I like them both a lot, so now I'm going to go paint a whole rainbow of Zerches! Just kidding! Or am I...?! The green was also a nice choice on Keryx. He could fit as a superhero/villain too.

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    1. The terrain piece isn't a complete disaster, but you'll find out when I post about it, Faust :-) Keryx could go both ways in terms of allegiance, and Zerch looks cool for what's basically a throwaway mini.

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  6. John@justneedsvarnishTuesday, August 30, 2022

    These are great, Matt! :-) Can't pick a favourite, I like 'em all! I'm probably thinking I'd like a plasma rifle in the 40 kilowatt range - 40 watts sounds too much like a dim light bulb to me (and I can't be bothered to do all the maths behind it)!

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    1. Cheers, John! The plasma rifle line is nicked from The Terminator, I've been dying to use it for ages :-)

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  7. Nice trio! Zerch is my fav. Just a gormless alien - love it!

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    1. Haha! Thanks, Dai, and Zerch might look a tad gormless but he'll happily set his goons on you :-)

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  8. Haha, loving them, you made my day :)

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    1. Cheers, Suber, glad I could make you happy :-)

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  9. You don't like Westerns!? I may have to take back all the nice things about you being a "real" American now haha! ;) I think it is a bit of a generational thing as my Dad loves them and I grew up watching them and can appreciate them but I've always enjoyed Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, and Marvel more.

    With that said, I love this latest batch of minis. Western characters really work well in Sci-Fi as Star Wars has proven time and time again so I really like your Space Marshal. He kind of reminds me of Wild West Exodus, in fact. It is a steampunk and supernatural wargame set in the American West basically. The other two minis came out really well and will fit right in with your growing collection, I reckon! :)

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    1. Thanks, Jeff! I've never got into Westerns for some reason, although I know there are some great movies in the genre. Well, there is one I love: Blazing Saddles :-)

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  10. They are all so good (both the painted minis and the painted backstories) - but Zerch is my favourite. If you speak to him, please let him know that I'm in the market for a neuro-disruptor.

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    1. Cheers, Matthew! I shall pass on your request to Zerch :-)

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