Slinkers and Stinkers

It has taken me altogether too long to get these four models finished off! They've sat on my desk for months in various stages of completion, and I'm kind of glad to have finally got them done.

They're Ur-Ghuls from the Blackstone Fortress box, and while I love the aesthetic and design, I really dislike the fact that there are only two poses that are incredibly similar. I would love a box with these creepy blighters in a wider range of poses, creeping and skulking their way across the tabletop.

The only alteration I made to the base model was filling in the deep holes above the mouth with some liquid green stuff, smoothing out the head a bit more. Painting was quick - I used a really diluted glaze to apply the purple tone over a light grey basecoat, then dry-brushed on a couple of lighter greys.

On that note, I've become a complete convert to using makeup brushes for dry-brushing and now have a set of about a dozen in various sizes for about half the price of a single hobby-specific one.

As to what these are going to be used for... well, they're perfect weird mutants for hunting my Stalkers, weird aliens for Stargrave, Nullmen for Frostgrave, and they may or may not make an appearance in future Rangers of Shadow Deep games...

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Disclaimer: All links to third-party sites are solely for the purposes of sourcing the products I have discussed, if anyone is so inclined. I have simply linked to the original manufacturer or the source I used (but feel free to shop around!) and make no money from people clicking through.

Chernobog

The kitbashing urge remains strong... even as the painting urge remains zero! Fortunately, the Stargrave plastics offer ample opportunity to muck around with plastic and build some random stuff!

Since I first saw the AK-looking weapon in the Mercenaries kit, I've known that it would eventually find its way onto a Stalker-type model to accompany my existing zone raiders. Moreover, one of the torsos in the same kit (the one with the chest pouches) was a vaguely near-future SOF-style get-up. I even grabbed a helmeted head, backpack, and grenades from the same kit, causing me to worry that I was building a 'stock' figure for the first time in ages!

Fortunately, my desire to add stuff to the model to really kit him out like a seasoned zone raider meant that I had to dive into my bits box to find some random gubbins. There's a Geiger counter bit of tech on his left hip that's off the Necromunda Van Saar sprue, and a bedroll from... somewhere. Canteen, holstered pistol, knife, and a couple of extra pouches from various Warlord WWII kits rounded out the ensemble.

So, I give you Chernobog, an ex-Spetsnaz operative, now active in and around the Zone. 

Still need to finish off a couple of things (filling some gaps with green-stuff and drilling out the gun barrel), but otherwise he's ready for basing and painting!

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Disclaimer: All links to third-party sites are solely for the purposes of sourcing the products I have discussed, if anyone is so inclined. I have simply linked to the original manufacturer or the source I used (but feel free to shop around!) and make no money from people clicking through.

Stalk The Line

A distressingly long time ago (November 2017!), I built myself a Stalker for Eastern European post-apocalyptic action. He has seen little action, as it happens, but the recent release of Zona Alfa has given my interest in the genre a kick in the pants.

As before, I grabbed a load of Warlord Games WWII plastics and a bunch of their modern zombie-survivor special forces, and bashed the lot together!

First up, a shotgun-toting scout. This chap has actually been sat on my desk since November 2017, as I built and started painting him immediately after finishing the first Stalker! The arms from the special forces sprue aren't as generic as the WWII ones, so only fit on certain special forces torsos (usually at a strange angle). This is the only figure I was able to put together that had a relatively natural pose! Still, I really like the hunched, cautiously advancing pose.

This guy is, hands-down, my favourite of the bunch. At first, I worried that it was a little too close to the pose of the original Stalker, but it ended up coming together perfectly. The balaclava head is from the special forces sprue, and didn't sit particularly well on the WWII body, so I went to the green stuff and added a fleece collar. This bulked out the shoulders a bit, and blended the head into the body, while also giving a bit of pop to a mini that might have come out a little dull otherwise (due to the grey balaclava). The AK has had the magazine clipped off, while the spare mag in the left hand was originally intended for an StG 44.

Another greatcoated guy, this one hauling some salvage, while attempting to keep his rifle at the ready. The head is actually from a Frostgrave sprue, and required the collar be carved open a little wider to fit. I reckon it works out with a decent parka-ish effect. This one got a similar paintjob to the original Stalker, though I tried to keep the weathering a little more prominent, as if from fresh splashes rather than worn-in dirt. I'm not sure how well it worked out - I quite like the effect, but it might be a bit too different from the original model. My favourite aspect of this model is the sawn-off shotgun on his backpack - I found a full-sized field shotgun on a zombie survivor sprue and sawed it down to suit! There's nothing holding it onto the backpack, which would normally be a peeve, but... rule of cool!

This last one is my least favourite of the bunch. It just didn't really come together the way I'd hoped. While I do like the pose, the single rolled-up sleeve is a little odd, and I really had a hard time painting the face on this one. Getting the thin fringe of fleece on the cheek-flaps of the hat was a personal victory! He'll be an expendable scout, I suspect.

All told, I've now got a viable Zona Alfa gang of five figures (viable in terms of numbers - I still need to stat it out properly), and a hankering to kitbash some more!

The obligatory group shot. The original Stalker is at centre.

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Disclaimer: All links to third-party sites are solely for the purposes of sourcing the products I have discussed, if anyone is so inclined. I have simply linked to the original manufacturer or the source I used (but feel free to shop around!) and make no money from people clicking through.

Bucket List: Dr Shotgun

A few weeks ago, I decided to finally check off something that's been on my bucket list for some time – to get my very own model sculpted.

I dropped Giorgio Bassani a line to pick his brains about it. I've worked with Giorgio a fair bit on figures for the various Frostgrave lines, and the stuff he's been doing recently has just been phenomenal. Amazingly, he had enough time in his schedule to squeeze in a 28mm figure, and I jumped at the chance!

First thing was a concept – that was easy. A generic gunman with relatively low-key equipment, for use as a zombie survivor, a Delta Green agent, STALKER, or whatever merc-of-the-week was called for. Next, I put together a brief document outlining what I was looking for – costume, equipment etc. – and included some reference images to give Giorgio a starting point. Again, this was simple – I knew a flat cap was a must, ditto a shotgun, and the rest just fell together as I started pulling images.

References!

That done, I left it with Giorgio until, a week or two later, I received a work in progress sculpt with the pose and everything blocked out.

The work-in-progress sculpt.

I approved that, and Giorgio started putting in the details, and turning my concept into a full-blown little masterpiece (well, I'm biased, but I think it's great!).

The finished thing!

I chatted to Nick at North Star a line about getting him cast up, and over the conversation, we came up with the idea of offering him as a promo figure for Ash Barker's forthcoming Last Days: Zombie Apocalypse ruleset. And, lo and behold...

Not only has my little guy come a long way from a spur-of-the-moment whim, but he's also been christened Dr Shotgun! I could not be happier with how he's come out, and I hope he finds his way onto tables all over the world.

If anyone would like to get their own Dr Shotgun figure, pre-order Last Days through North Star (link). The figure's a freebie, so I'm not making any money off that shameless plug, but it's a great game, and worth checking out! If you'd like to learn more about Last Days, the Facebook group (link) is a great place to start.

Will I commission any more figures now I've got this out my system? Probably not. Am I tempted? Oh, definitely...

Generic SWAT

I've had the GW Primaris Reivers for a while now, with the vague plan of using their stripped-down Marine look for more generic SF troops. The UK has recently had a spate of snow, and I spent a weekend ensconced with various TV boxed sets and a pile of sprues. The Expanse, Killjoys, and Altered Carbon, especially, have a lot to answer for, and I decided to build a few generic SF SWAT-type guys using the long-ignored Reivers.

First decision was easy - lose the classic Marine look supplied by the backpacks and shoulder-pads and carve off the skulls on their chest armour. I did toy with keeping the helmets, with their new skull-like masks, but I wanted something more generic than that! Fortunately, I had a pile of bits from the GW Tempestus Scions, and grabbed a few of their helmets. This also had the effect of making the large Reivers (those are 40mm bases!) look more like guys in bulky suits rather than immense super-soldiers.

Outside of a choice of pistol and sword or bolt-carbine, I didn't have much to think about - the kit goes together really nicely. The most work I had to do was filling a hole in the back of the torso that would normally be covered by the backpack with a mix of sprue shavings and polystyrene cement.

Painting was, deliberately, simple. I wanted a classic dark, plain, look with just the eyes as a spot colour, so out came the greys. I picked out a few details (belt clips, magazines, gun barrels etc.) with silver and diverged from the original plan a little by painting their webbing dark brown rather than black. Final touch was the eyes - red touched up with orange for a nice Helghast effect.

Well-camouflaged against the local terrain...

I rather enjoyed doing these guys. Whatever else they do, GW make some nice toys. I have another 4 still on the sprues (there are 5 per sprue, but I really dislike one of the poses), and might see if I can find some bitz from other Primaris kits to allow me to give them some heavier weaponry.

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Disclaimer: All links to third-party sites are solely for the purposes of sourcing the models/components I have used or discussed, if anyone is so inclined. I have simply linked to the original manufacturer (but feel free to shop around!) and make no money from people clicking through.

Stalk This Way

I'm a fan of the 'Eastern European Apocalypse' settings of video games such as S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl and Metro 2033 (not to mention the Pripyat level in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare - perhaps the single finest game level ever made!), and the original inspirations for them - Boris and Arkady Strugatsky's Roadside Picnic (set in Canada, mind you) and Dimitry Glukhovsky's Metro 2033 novels.

I do love the Lead Adventure minis designed for these kinds of settings, but I much prefer to work with plastic than with metal. So, when I was mucking around with some spare sprues recently, enjoying a bit of kitbashing for kitbashing's sake, I started slotting together some Warlord Bolt Action WWII and modern plastics (from their zombie range) to make some modern-ish figures. Pleased with the fit of the pieces, I decided to take a little break from Fantasy and indulge my interest by building some Stalkers.

There is a clip in that AK... honest!

I started off with what I had lying around - Warlord USMC and Airborne (acquired as part of a half-arsed attempt to build a Crimson Skies-style 'fractured USA in the 30s' force. Unfortunately, these guys didn't have the cold-weather feel that I really wanted, so I bought some Winter Soviets, giving me a ready supply of greatcoats and fur hats.I also grabbed some modern special forces as a source for weapons and less old-fashioned-looking kit.

This guy, then, is my first completed Stalker, and incorporates parts from pretty much all of my source kits: greatcoated body, satchel, and spade from the Soviet infantry, rifle arm from the special forces, head and backpack from the USMC, and left arm from the Airborne. All goes together nicely, though my one real gripe is that the neck joint is a bit on the tight side for the USMC heads. The special forces arms are a little more slender than the WWII stuff, but not so much that it's glaringly obvious.

Painting was a doddle - my wash-heavy style isn't going anywhere anytime soon, and it suits post-apocalyptic figures more than it would some (F&IW French, for example...). I wanted something civilian, but vaguely military (military surplus, really!) with the kitbash, and carried this through to the painting - mismatched gear, a military-looking green poncho on top of the rucksack, civilian cap etc.

Just noticed the mote of dust on top of his hat... Curses!

The only real bugbear was weathering the boots and the bottom of the greatcoat to look grubby - easy enough to apply, but it took a couple of attempts to stop it looking as though he'd been wading through a river of mud!

All told, I'm really happy with him. The mix of modern and WWII parts worked out to give the overall effect I was after and I'm pleased that I trusted to my gut and added a few more pouches (much like a Rob Liefield character design, you can never go wrong with more pouches) to lend a feel of being seriously prepared. Mixed in with the other couple of Stalkers I have under way, he's going to look like a real grizzled survivor of the Zone.

I'm now starting to doubt that there is actually a clip in that rifle...

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Disclaimer: All links to third-party sites are solely for the purposes of sourcing the models/components I have used or discussed, if anyone is so inclined. I have simply linked to the original manufacturer (but feel free to shop around!) and make no money from people clicking through.