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!