Abregado Fusiliers: 2nd Squad

Just before the temperature in my flat made Mustafar look like a chilly place, I fled the city... Not before I managed to finish the second squad of my Abregado Fusiliers, tho:

Blue Squad of Abregado Fusiliers' Besh Company

All the squad's members were converted from regular Rebel troopers as described earlier. An easy head- or armswap is already enough to make your forces look more interesting. Nevertheless I went a bit further and sculpted new heads and limbs for the Mon Cal captain and the Ithorian Z-6 trooper.

Abregado Fusiliers: Fleet Trooper Conversion

If there's a classic Star Wars species that's underrepresented in Star Wars Legion, it's the Twi'lek. Naturally I can't have a Rebel force without some of those guys...

Abregado Fusiliers: Conversions

I did some modelling yesterday and some fine young recruits have arrived to bolster the ranks of the Abregado Fusiliers (my Legion Rebels).

All of the miniatures in my second squad are conversions since I want to avoid too many duplicates in my army. For most of the miniatures I simply swapped arms or heads which already added a lot of individuality. You might have to cut away some of the material to make the parts fit and you obviously need to fill in some gaps later on. I'm quite happy that simple conversion techniques work so well. Legion miniatures coming in fixed poses instead of multi part kits was a point of concern for many but even a couple of simple headswaps can take you a long way...

 

The heavy weapons specialists carry a sidearm on their backpacks. It's a good idea to use some Instant Mold to make a mold of the Ion trooper's E-11 and a add a copy of it to your converted heavy weapons specialists. Since I'm on vacation and just brought minimal tools with me, I just used vegetable oil as a release agent and pressed some Green Stuff on the oiled model.

The Z-6 trooper and the squad leader got some more attention because I really wanted my Rebels to have more aliens in their ranks. (You may have noted that the Duros is missing from the troopers. I swapped his head with one of my AT-RT pilots so don't worry. He's still part of this rebellion...) The squad leader was converted into a Mon Calamari by sculpting a custom head and reworking the forearms and hands. I went for a slightly younger looking Mon Cal here mostly to avoid having to sculpt all those wrinkled areas prominent on Ackbar or Raddus.

The Z-6 trooper needed even more attention... The Z-6 is a ridiculously oversized weapon and I wanted an alien that didn't only compensate for that in size but also fluff-wise... I guess a peaceful Ithorian was the obvious choice:

"Podrik 'Pod' Cobb was an accountant on Abregado-Rae until he got beaten up by a bunch of drunk Imperial officers in front of a Twi'lek nightclub in Le Yer. He joined the local Rebel cell's medical corps the very next day but soon found out that the distinctive sound of 166 RPS stopped the recurrent dreams of him being tortured by men in Imperial uniforms. His squad mates don't quite trust him..."

Oak and Iron, Guard Me Well,...

... or else I'm dead and doomed to hell!

I painted the next Westerosi knight. Some might already have gotten it from the title or recognized the coat of arms (a green shooting star above an elm tree proper on sunset), others (even those who have read the books...) might still be guessing who could be meant. May I present:

Ser Duncan the Tall and his pert squire Egg, sometimes better known as Dunk the Lunk (thick as a castle wall) and, well... those of you who have read the Hedge Knight Novellas of GRRM will know what Egg stands for. I don't want to spoil those who haven't come accross Martin's Ice and Fire short-stories (or the Hedge Knight graphic novels) yet. 

Some thoughts on the model: Well, I don't know what Egg has done, but somehow he has managed to fall off Maester (the mule). Now, he's trying to catch up with him. 
Maester on the other hand doesn't care. He's heavily laden with a cask of Arbor Gold and the luggage of Dunk and Egg and quite satisfied being rid some of the weight.
We can't see the face of Ser Duncan cause of the helmet, but it's quite probable that there's a big grin. He just spurs his horse, hoping that Maester will follow him. Egg has kidded him the whole day, so that's what he earns...

The model used for Ser Duncan is a 5th edition Bretonnian knight, slightly converted. The horse is from Ebob. Way better than the GW ones. The mule Maester started his life being an Ebob pony. I did some minor conversions here as well. Egg is a Foundry model with a plasticcard-shield added.

Since all heroes in Impetus are regarded as being mounted (most heroes in Westeros are knights, so this is ok for me...), I decided to base most of my cavalry models on half-width bases. Gaining some interchangability, it will be a nice way to to show the unsteady allegiances of the Westerosi nobility.

I promise there will be more mounted knights on the bases to come... Not less than three miniatures of which at least two are knights seems to be the way to go for me.

Some Photoshop-voodoo. Sorry guys, but I had to practice...

Roadside Shrine

Just finished the roadside shrine with the Warrior's statue. Hope it will give the games some Westeros-flavour.

I'm thinking of doing a goodswood next. Does anyone have some spare GW trees? They would make great weirwoods...

WIP: Ours is the Fury!

I couldn't wait working on the general of my Impetus army, Robert Baratheon, Lord of the Stormlands, known as "The Usurper". Base-model is the "Count of Vendome" of the Perry Agincourt range. I sanded off all the heraldry, resculpted the livery and added his famous warhammer and antlers.

I'm still uncertain about the antlers. These are just taken from a 5th Edition Bretonnian knight and don't have the "aggressive" look I aimed at.

The Warrior Protects

After I sculpted the saint's statue for Rusus, I did another one for myself:

The Warrior. He represents one of the aspects of the Faith of the Seven, the primary religion of George R. R. Martin's Westeros.
Funny little guy. Reminds me a bit of the figures of the "The Settlers" PC-games.

A Lannister Always Pays His Debts!

Centuries ago I promised Rusus to sculpt a little statue for his roadside shrine.
I nearly forgot this until yesterday, when I found a copy of the shrine.

Well, a Lannister pays his debts and I felt obliged not to dissapoint Rusus, so here it is:

The statue measures 10mm and is loosely based upon a statue of Elisabeth of Hungary which can be found in St. Elisabeth's Church in Marburg.

Sneak Preview of My Next Army

Hello everybody,

I'm in a hurry, so there are just some pictures of my first paint scheme testers and conversions I'm currently working on.

The army is intended for Impetus Phantasticus, so the round bases are just a temporary solution.

Enjoy.

Ghosts of the Past

No, it is not the Ghost of Chrismas Past, but some pictures of Elves (and a Bretonnian) I found on my hard drive. As promised, I have searched for a pic of my old High Elves army. What I found, were some well hidden treasures that bear witness to the progress I made in painting and sculpting over the years. Enjoy!

Picture No#1 shows the first miniature I ever painted. It's a Bretonnian archer from the 5th edition Warhammer starter box. Looks quite decent and it probably took me ages to paint it...^^ Unfortunately I can't tell you when exactly I did it. Has to be sometime 1998ish.


Next are the High Elven captains I told you of. Do you recognise the guy from the drawing?
Back then I used Milliput Super Fine White, an utility knife and a needle for my conversions. Didn't know there were better things to use. Although I would do some changes nowadays, I still like them. Crimson plumes and High Elves definitively fall into place.
The picture is taken in 2004 but I'm quite sure they are older. Late 2002 - early 2003...


Next one is an Êlnaith, an Elven Knight which was converted from an archer and a Rider of Rohan. It was the last miniature I did for my elven army and I never finished the whole squad I originally planned. As you can see, the sculpting and painting is already much smoother than that of the captains. Nonetheless I wouldn't use my old technique for painting white anymore.^^
The miniature was converted and painted in Summer 2004.


After a longer break I sculpted this female Elven archer in January 2006. I did it after I had some great days on the Kauzenburg convention, a gathering of users of the tabletop-hdr.de forums. I had some great chat with Ebob there and he encouraged me to do some more sculpting, and so I did.
This miniature was supposed to be the first official "FINiature". A company called "Noha Studios" was about to cast it, but unfortunately the miniature broke during the moulding. Nevertheless they managed to make 2 copies of it. One has been painted and was gifted to Ebob, the other one is still with me, but slightly damaged, due to the ruined mould...


Last Elf I did, was this banner bearer. He was made as a trophy for the winner of Kölns Klamm 2006 (Cologne's Deep), a tournament of the LotR Strategy Battle Game. Although I'm not quite confident with the paint job (the highlighting on the banner is much to strong), I think the sculpt itself was pretty good... I really should have made a copy.



Hope you liked this nostalgic trip to the past although I don't know how someone could benefit from these wooly thoughts. Perhaps I just got carried away...

High Elf Trumpeter 28mm - WIP

...and even as the Moon rose above the darkness in the west, Fingolfin let blow his silver trumpets and began his march into Middle-earth, and the shadows of his host went long and black before them.

J.R.R. Tolkien - The Silmarillion

I love this scene from "The Silmarillion" and it ispired me to sculpt this trumpeter. The High Elves were my very first and still favourite Lord of the Rings army. It's a shame that GW always neglected them. My Elves contained several conversions with sculpted helmet plumes, so I decided to keep this fine tradition.


Actually the miniature is to be regarded WIP. It still needs to be sanded and cleaned and I even spot some areas I might have to redo. Hope you like it anyhow, but I couldn't await getting some feedback on it.


The idea of attaching plumes derived from a drawing I made back in 2001 or 2002. It shows "Finarfin", my RPG character for MERP. I even translated this picture into a miniature (just a conversion, no scratchbuilt) and used it as a captain of the High Elves, but unfortunately I don't have the miniature here to take any pictures.

FOR PONY!

I moved last week, so unfortunately my paints and brushes are still lost somewhere in the depths of my junk room. It was a lucky twist of fate, that I found my sculpting tools first, cause I just recently thought about a character I would love to see as a miniature… Well, I'm quite confident with this new Finiature. It still needs some sanding, but all in all I like the result. The miniature is in 28/30mm scale (close to the Discworld figures).

Allow me to introduce Richard. Chief Warlock of the Brothers of Darkness, Lord of the Thirteen Hells, Master of the Bones, Emperor of the Black, Lord of the Undead, Lord of the Dance, Mistress of Magma, and mayor of a little village up the coast.

For those of you, who are not familiar with Looking for Group: It’s the pale guy with the hood who likes to kill things…Besides, if you didn’t know this comic up to now: Read it! It’s totally worth it. For those of you, who don’t like reading, this vid might convince you that Richard is a great guy!

Enjoy, err… For pony!