101. It's Been A While, Hasn't It?

Hello.  Let's skip the usual rig-a-ma-role and get straight to the pictures.  I've painted some things and haven't shown them here yet.  So here we go.

I feel like this post will be very disjointed.  I'm going to veer from Cultists to half-naked women to Cowboys to spacemen.  I told you it's been a while, and while I haven't really painted all that much in that long of a time, I've still painted some and here it is.  Unless otherwise noted, everything is 28mm-30mm scale.  If you click on the pictures, they should enlarge.

First, let's finish off the Cultists from a previous posting.

These are the last of the Pulp Figures cultists that I own.  The left half of the pictures is their Evil Hooded Minion Master (PWM 06) and the right half is, well, my records show it as the same, but the website now only shows the first four, so I don't know.  Maybe they're being refurbished?

More corrupted business suits worshipping Yet Another Evil Entity, but at least these guys have a sense of humor, even if their book is written in blood.  Maybe he's a nice Evil Entity....

Next, we'll titillate with some cheesecake.  My wife didn't much care for these but I had fun painting them.  They were definitely a nice diversion from painting Cultists and Cowboys.  There is no cohesion among them, they are not part of any larger set; they're all single miniatures that only share the trait of being mostly undressed.  More or less.  They were fun to paint, as I got to try different skin tones, for variety.

All 10 of these were found in a big mixed box and purchased at GenCon 2017, then they sat in my closet until October 2024.  As best I can tell, they're all (except for one) old Ral Partha figures.  I'm pretty sure they're all still available from Iron Wind Metals.  From left to right they are:  

Female Warrior with Sword & Shield 10-310I; Warrior with Sabre & Shield 10-312B; Captive DF-545; Captive Andromeda DF-548; Executioners (2), Prisoner & Chopping Block 01-025 (but only one of the four); Female Beast Master Warrior II with Sword and Spear DF-574; Winsome Maiden 10-313G; Female Vampire DS-017; 03-712 Amazon Queen (note the link is to RalParthaEurope.co.uk); and the last one is...unknown.  I was unable to find her anywhere.  If you know, please leave a comment with a link!

Finally, we'll round out the round-up with a return to the Cowboys.  Here I present the Linguine Henchmen from Gunfighter's Ball by Knuckleduster Miniatures.

My previous post featured my painting of the Linguine Western Faction by the same company.

Several of the henchmen are immediately recognizable from "For a Few Dollars More," while the rest are, to me at least, more generic-looking.  But considering Knuckleduster seems to pride themselves on making miniatures that look like the characters from the movies or TV shows, I'm probably just not recognizing them.  And good luck getting any kind of a list telling you which miniatures are which characters!  That's a closely guarded secret.  <grump>

One thing I'd like to point out about the two figures to the left in the group photo (and the two singled out in their own photo) is that they were painted with The Army Painter Speedpaint 2.0 as opposed to my usual Reaper Miniatures Master Series paints.  I had been swayed by the joyfully sung praises of several Youtube videos and other blog posts, and I did do my due diligence to determine if the investment was worth the cost versus how much time it would save me.  I tried, I really did.

TL;DR version:  I hate them.  I might find isolated instances where I will use them, but IMO they're awful.  YMMV.  Don't bother wasting your breath in the comments about how I'm wrong simply because you like them; that's fine, please like and use them all you want.  I won't.  (But see below....)

I thought about repainting the two misfits but decided against it, in case I ever waver in the future as memory fades.  Now I can pull these two heinous monstrosities out and remember.  (But see below....)

Here are the photo references I used to help me paint the figures I was able to recognize.  Makes me want to go watch the movie again.

...And then I relented (regarding the Speedpaints).  I already had a box of plastic Cowboys from Great Escape Games for their Dead Man's Hand Redux game that I Kickstarted, plus more coming when that game arrived, so I felt justified in wasting ten figures on Speedpaints.  Here they are:

They were quick, I will admit.  Very quick.  It took me longer to prep them and pick the colors I wanted than to paint them, and all 10 were less than 3 hours (for me, that's fast).  But they look like trash.  Absolute Garbage with a capital G.  I even went back and tried to lighten them up.  I did everything the way the vlogs and blogs said to do.  It's just not for me.  Maybe you're O.K. with them, so more power to you.  Have fun.  I'm done with Speedpaints.  I DO want to get more figures painted, to get on the tabletop, but the truth is I ENJOY painting too much to use these any longer.

Anyone want to buy some lightly used Speedpaints?

Hang in there, we're almost done.  This is a huge blog dump simply because I want to get it all off my hard drive.

Finally, the most recent figures are some Blue Moon Manufacturing BMM-204 Box 4 Four Musketeers (plus Planchet and horses).  These seem to be mostly mirroring the 1974 movie "The Four Musketeers" and I originally intended to paint them as such, but the movie costumes are actually dreadfully dull and didn't quite seem to match well enough for me to follow through with that idea.  So instead I just went with some nice bright colors to show who-was-who on the tabletop.

I also finally invested in a nicer photo "studio" from MacroMats using their Photography Full Backdrop Set (I caught it on sale).

And of course they need opponents, in the form of the Cardinal's Guard (also by Blue Moon, BMM-205).

Obligatory fight scene:

And FINALLY, I realized I completely forgot these.  They're 15mm scale, so they're easy to overlook.  Just some Rebel Minis Earth Force Marines Infantry.  The packs come with 21; I think these 7 came gratis from a convention somewhere, perhaps GenCon.

Whew!  I think that's everything I wanted to show.

Thank you so much for looking, especially if you made it all the way down here.

99. A Little Bit 'o Dis, A Little Bit 'o Dat

Edit Update:  It appears I update here SO infrequently, that even I don't remember what I've posted about.  Apparently, blog #98 has details on my Stargrave figures.  But hey, these are all new photos, so it warrants a whole new blog post.  I guess.

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Ah, my sadly neglected blog.  Well, I guess I better throw a few bones to the hungry masses clamoring for more content.

What's that?  No one reads this because I never post anything new?  How dare you blame the person responsible!

Anyway, with that silliness out of the way, here are some pictures of 28mm miniatures I've painted recently.  (And by "recently" I mean sometime in 2023.)

First up are some Stargrave Crew miniatures, although I actually bought them to use in Space Station Zero.  This link is from North Star, but I think I got mine through Wal-Mart.com.  The box makes 20 figures, but I only built 10; 5 for my SSZ Explorer team and 5 for my son's Pirate team.

From L to R:  my Commander, Medical Officer, Ace Pilot, Soldier and Chief Engineer.  I went with a blue color scheme.

I added lots of add-ons that are in the kit.

This is my son's team.  From L to R:  Commander, Soldier, Engineer, Ace Pilot and Medical Officer.  I gave them a green color scheme.  According to him, his Soldier and my Commander are brothers.

He wanted lots of bits added, too.  Fortunately, he wasn't picky about much else.

One thing he wanted in particular was some sort of insignia on their left shoulder.  He drew out what he wanted and told me what color to make it, and I did my best.  You'll have to click on the image to make it larger to see it, though.

Next up are some Pulp Figures 28mm miniatures that I've had lying around for a long time.  These weren't for any particular game that I have in mind, but they were a good "different" thing to paint after lots of plastic sci-fi.  But I was also in a bit of a hurry, as I sometimes feel the need to "get-it-done," so these are actually a bit plain.  I was going more for rich colors than I was for adding intricate details and paint-y bits.  "It is what it is."

These are "Evil Hooded Minions 1."  I went with a deep rich purple, as Purple Hooded Minions just has a nice ring to it.  The little round ball at the end of the pistol is, I think, a blob leftover from molding, but I thought it looked kind of cool.  Is the gun firing?  Is it a ray gun only the zombies have?  Who knows!

Purple is a difficult color to do well, for me, anyhow.

These are "Evil Hooded Minions 2."  I did not paint whatever-it-is-they-call-it when a lantern casts it's light on the miniature.  I'm not that good, and I really don't care.

I painted all of their pants' legs a business-suit grey, because it totally fits with my idea of Corporate Suits Worshiping Great Evil.  They do that anyway, right?

But not all Great Evil is the same, and some Corporate Suits want to worship some other, alternative Great Evil.  So that's this group, "Cowled Cultists 1."  I wanted a menacing color scheme (that wasn't purple), so I went with a deep, rich, blood red.

Deep, rich, blood red is also a difficult color to do well.  I tried my best.

The blood red cult has got a better idea of things, in my opinion, 'cause if I'm going to join a Great Evil Worshiping Cult, I'll probably join the one with the hot women in it.  These figures are "Cowled Cultists #2."

Obligatory action shot:  the two opposing factions meet!

Here's a look at what this Cultist is reading.  Careful, or you'll go mad!

Anyway, that's it for the moment.  I do have a few more new things but they'll have to wait until next time, the big 100 post.  Feels like it needs something special....

Thanks for reading!