Skrapbeasts...

Hello and Welcome back, 

Time for a trip to the world of Tapu, also known as the Gutterlands. 

A scrap prospector stumbles upon a Skraprunt while checking out a potential pile of junk. In case you are wondering dear Reader, a Skraprunt is the young of the fearsome Skrapbeast, native to the world of Tapu aka the Gutterlands. 

"Gah, eat lead ya pesky varmit*" 

"MEEP! MEEP! MEEP!"

* the prospector could possibly be a descendant of Yosemite Sam. He is about the same height and has two six shooters! I think I will name this figure "Gutterlands Sam". I might have to ginger up his beard. lol. 

"RRAAH!"

"MEEP!"

An enraged Skrapbeast smashes out of a pile of scrap. Mummy to the rescue. 

The Skraprunt began life as a lump of spare Milliput. It was shaped and a mouth added before the putty set. The eyes are stick on decorative beads. The legs were made from wire with Greenstuff putty added. The teeth was made from Greenstuff putty. 

The Skrapbeast's body was made from DAS air dry clay. The mouth and jaw was added later from DAS. The legs were made from cocktail sticks. The leg segments were sculpted over the sticks from Procreate putty. The same decorative beads also make the eyes. Greenstuff was used to make the teeth. The scrap nest was made from the contents of the bits box. 

These Skrapbeasts were made to be hazards for the Skirm game by @billmakingstuff. There is a possibility in Skirm when looting scrap piles for one of these beasties to wake up and rampage around the table. Link to the FREE rules.  I decided to make the beasts from putty rather than breaking up toys like Bill. Mainly because I didnt have any suitable toys to attack and I don't want to be the weirdo mugging kids for their toys. 

I decided not to base the Skrapbeasts as they can be perched on scrap piles to add an extra air of menace. 

The Skrapbeast attacks Gutterlands Sam.

These Skrapbeasts would also make nice monsters for a Post Apocalyptic setting. This was a interesting project. I have learned quite a bit and used numerous new materials, methods and tools. I do have other (larger) Scrap beasts planned. There is also plans to create my own critters. 

Gutterlands Sam figure is a Dwarf Engineer by Heresy Miniatures. It is a nice figure that comes with 2 pistol arms, a pick axe arm and shotgun arm should you wish to pose the figure in a variety of ways.

Thank for looking, take care out there.

Sandtreaders

Hello and Welcome back 

And now for something a little different. 

A Sandtreader train nearly flattens a Tengun officer. 

Sandtreaders are a docile large lizard like creature native to the world of Delijellbi. They were easily domesticated and found to make excellent beasts of burden. As the Sandtreader is at home in a desert environment, Delijellbi began exporting the beasts to other arid frontier worlds such as Wolfden or Maddans world.

A Sandtreader rider. 

Wild Sandtreaders spook a Corporation operative on Delijellbi. Wild Sandtreaders quite docile but will become aggressive around nesting time or with young Sandtreaders. Sandtreader herds can be hazardous when spooked and will stampede. 

The Sandtreaders are resin models in Crooked Dice Miniatures' Sci Fi line. They are nice models and make great scene dressing. The Sandtreaders could also be used as a objective or tabletop hazard. 

Thanks for looking and take care out there.

Starport Scum #11

Hello and Welcome back, 

We are returning back to the Wild Galaxy. 

Meet Ed Flangenut, available to hire as extra muscle for your crew. Ed started as a street ganger and matured to a Thug for hire. Ed is a old 40K Rouge Trader (Ed 1) pirate figure. For some reason they liked to sculpt them in that low crouch which makes getting decent pictures a pain. 

My Tengun Empire forces needed a officer. Although I suspect that will not make them any more effective on the tabletop (they have lost every game I have used them in). I use old Void Junkers, it seemed fitting to grab an Void Junker Enforcer (now carried by Seb games). This guy is for shouting at the down trodden Legionaries and executing anyone not following orders. Nice guy eh? 

Since putting together my Deep Space Engineering (DSE) corporation force I realised that they needed more bodies for those unpleasant encounters. As all the figures were male, I felt they needed some ladies for balance. This lady is the first female addtion for my DSE force. The figure is a old Grenadier future wars figure from Forsaken Games.

I have another that fits the force in the paint queue. With some luck I will get it painted soon. 

Thanks for looking and take care out there. 

New and old Wastelanders

Hello and Welcome Back,

I have managed to get a few more Post Apocalyptic figures finished. 

As mentioned in a previous post I feel my Wastelands needs more mutants. 

Here is Gribble, he scavengers the Wastelands looking for items to trade at the local townships. Gribble is a Ramshackle Games figure of the same name. 

" I am just here for the guzzoline....have you seen my teeth?"

Old Max...the now aging road warrior is still out there wandering. I couldn't resist buying the figure. I am afraid that I can't remember who makes the Old Max figure, even Google has proven fruitless in finding the manufacturer. .

Here comes Levi, playing the backing track to life in the Wastelands (as if life wasnt tough enough!). Levi is a another member of the Robot and Android Liberation Front (RALF) and tours the wastelands looking for robots and androids to "liberate". If the .bin or .exe file and pamphlets won't free the machines from a life of slavery, then there are many other RALF members happy to do it by force. Levi is painted in the same colours as his RALF brothers and sisters. Levi is a Ramshackle Games figure of the same name. 

Thanks for looking,

Take care out there. 

Rustlords and Skrapknights additions

Hello and welcome back, 

We are back on the Post Apocalyptic world that is known as Mattblackgod’s world. I have been slowly fleshing out the Skrapknights and Rustlords factions. 

Patrols of the Rustlords and Skrapknights clash while random scavengers look on. 

Rustlords Warriors. These resin figures are Vulcan and Staveley Ramshackle games. They have been left as Curtis intended. I decided on green flesh for the Staveley figure as I think the Wastelands needs more mutants. 

Skrapknights Warriors. These resin figures are Orbseer, Staveley and Vulcan by Ramshackle games. The Orbseer figure will be the Skrapknights version of Merlin. Staveley had the shield swapped out for a fantasy skeleton's one. The axe was replaced by a 40K space Marine powersword. A Space Marine Scout biker shotgun holster was added at the waste to give the figure a potential Boomstick. The Vulcan figure had the helmet replaced by a Void Plastic Junkers one. I have decided to paint the Skrapknights robes in a more colourful fashion in the style of medieval knights, which should help distinguish the two factions on the tabletop. 

There will be more additions to both factions in future. 

Thanks for looking and stay safe out there.

June Hobby Progress

Hello and Welcome back,

Time for my hobby Progress update for June.

June has been a busy month in the real world. Birthdays, chasing workmen, trips and a new car. It has left little time to get some Blog posts up. There is a pile of figures waiting for pictures and writing up.

Hobby wise, it has been a plate spinning appoach with several things on the go at the same time. I bet it isnt a surprise that there wasn't much finished. I did manage to paint some random figures.

There has been a lot of scratch building. A couple of scrap beasts and more junk piles for Skirm. Speaking of Skirm, I pushed on to make a Rusters force for Skirm. It is still work in progress as this is taking a lot longer than I anticipated. I have been working on them for nearly two weeks now and they still aren't finished. I am also looking for a suitable figure in the pile to make a leader for them.

I am waiting on Forlone Hope (some extra figures for the Rusters, I must be mad making more), Heresy and Ramshackle orders.

Some old figures have had a dettol bath, they are all earmarked to become either members for my planned Alien Zoology expedition team or colonials for Skirm or my Corrosion setting. Luckily the figures should be useable for all of these settings or games.

Figures finished* = 0 (total 7) *Figures that needed bases finishing from 2024

Figures painted = 10 (total so far 70)

Figures reworked = 0 (total so far 6)

Vehicles finished = 0

Vehicles reworked = 0


Figures bought/arrived = 2 (total so far 46)

Vehicles bought = 0

I got a Mantic Forge Fathers Iron Ancestor and Artifactor Juggernaut figures for my Birthday. These two additions will be to provide support for my various Squat/Dvarg forces.

That's all for now.


Thanks for reading and take care out there.

May Hobby Progress

 Hello and Welcome back, 

Time for my hobby Progress report for May. 

May has been an incredibly productive month hobby wise. I managed to get a pile of figures by BMT3D painted (and one from Bad Squiddo and Borderlands). 

Thanks to inspiration by Skim and Billmakingstuff I turned out a pile of junk piles and converted & painted up two factions for the game. Big Red Mining Company and DEAP. 

The Diehard Miniatures jetbike, another bead bot and some Borderlands Skags were also finished.

There was a fantasy chaos Knight too, which will be used in my Rustlords factions.

There has been no further work on the dusty space port town building. 

It hasnt been a good month for incoming figures (well it has, but the pile of shame is growling at me). The order from Ramshackle arrived and in true Curtis style had a couple of extra figures thrown in (thankyou Curtis). That lot are mostly painted and will be turing up in June's blog posts along with a recently finished old 40k pirate. 

EM4 order also arrived but I am waiting on Heresy. I also picked up some Black Powder Woodland Indians, which I will be using to make some Rusters for Skirm. I also got a handful of figures for making colonials. 

Figures finished* = 0 (total 7) *Figures that needed bases finishing from 2024

Figures painted = 42 (total so far 60)

Figures reworked = 0 (total so far 6)

Vehicles finished = 0

Vehicles reworked = 0

Figures bought = 43 (total so far 44)

Vehicles bought = 0

Drat. If I managed to paint just one more figure I would have had parity this month. The box on Woodland Indians bumped the figures up (24 figures). Still my painted tally still out weighs my bought figures. 

That's all for now.

Thanks for reading and take care out there.

Mercenaries by BMT3D

Hello and Welcome back,

I am on a roll with keeping on top of the Blog posts and productivity. 

Mercenaries are a common sight across frontier space. They are hired usually as a short term solution to protect assets, VIPs or to perform certain tasks that their employers want to deny. Mercenaries have a reputation for ruthlessness and sometimes a lack of loyalty. 

On worlds like Maddans world, they are often hired to deal with bandits. Some colonies and corporations also employ them to do their dirty work such as taking control of other (usually independent) mining settlements. 

The Maddans Independent Mining Corporation is now wealthy enough from mining the Ultesium ore to be able to employ mercenaries to protect their mines from Corporate or foreign takeover. 

With the exception of the Mech, these figures are a limited run by BMT3D and are inspired by some of the art work in the orginal 40K RT art work. They have that old school vibe that I like.

Mercenaries don't just arrive as infantry. Some free lance mercenaries bring big heavy Mech suits, which disappear from their orignal detachment usually during an intense battle. Such as the "Ursa". This walking tank soaks up damage and sports four rapid fire heavy machine guns. The Ursa's arsenal is powerful enough to take on lightly armoured opponents, swarms, hordes of GELFs and fast moving targets such as jetbikes, speeders and aircraft. 

Ursa is a Bear mech from the Borderlands box set. 

Thanks for reading and take care out there. 

Introducing the DEAP from Skirm

Hello and Welcome Back,

The DEAP (Deployable Environmentally Adaptive Peacekeeping) Troops are a faction from the Skirm game by Bill Making Stuff. As the name suggests, they are a peace keeping Bio Weapon designed to be dropped as seed pods in troubled areas. They then grow absorbing absorbing local DNA so they can survive in the local environment. 

These DEAP were living happily at the bottom of the Neon Sea in the Gutterlands where they were dumped, until some bright spark decided to go fishing with a black hole grenade. The vortex forced the DEAP onto dry land were their peace keeping and law enforcement programming has kicked in. 

In my own settings the DEAP are a kind of GELF and will make appearances in the Corrosion and Mattblackgod’s worlds settings (except on MBW they will be seen as mutants). 

These figures started life as Borderlands game Psychos I had laying about. In true Bill Making Stuff style, I cut off limbs and added toy crab parts. The psycho heads were replaced with GW plastic ghoul heads. Two heads has their eye sockets drilled out and glass beads added to make bug eyes. 

A suicide psycho had the grenade drilled out and a wire spear added. I didn't like the look of it as the Spear head was too small...and sharp! It was snipped off and a trimmed pole weapon from the bits box glued on. A peice of wire was stripped from it's insulation. The core were twisted and then wrapped around the join like rope. 

Making these guys has been a interesting learning experience. Hopefully I have picked up a few new ideas for future conversion work.

I think the DEAP offer interesting conversion potential. How would they look if their spore pods had landed in a forest, jungle or tundra? I bet those DEAP won't smell as fishy as this lot.

Thanks for reading, 

Take Care out there. 

Rusty Scrap Piles

Hello and Welcome back,

While useful for a Post Apocalyptic setting, I made 6 of these rusty scrap piles as objectives for the Skirm game. A further 2 were made and a larger pile as terrain was also produced as I was in the zone. 

The objectives were based on 50mm bases. Skrim needs 25mm but I thought that would be difficult to make a decent looking scrap pile on such a small base. The inspiration for making these models came from a Bill Making Stuff video on YouTube.

All of the scrap piles started with a pile of tin foil flattened to make a heap shape. These were then superglued into position. Hot glue may have been a better option as the glue would have filled the gaps between the base and foil heap.

Then piles of junk salvaged from the bits box (in this case bits of hexagon platformer kits, cut up plastic junk, on toy bullets, model kit parts, figure casting tabs by Ramshackle games, model missles, bits of wire, 1/32 car wheels and other scrap) were then hot glued onto the piles in a random haphazard fashion.

The piles were primed with Matt Black (what else?) spray primer. When dry the piles were given zential priming with white spray primer. The whole thing was painted in textured paint which was a mix bicarbonate of soda, dark brown craft paint and pva glue in equal parts. This takes a while to dry but gives a nice old rusty pile effect. 

The piles got some orange and brown spots added and some light rust paint (army painter). A dark wash was added to make the details pop, such as they where.  

The bases then got a coat of textured paint which is a mix of bicarbonate of soda, fine sand, course sand, pva glue and yellow ochre craft paint. I tried to get paint on other areas of the models as sand gets everywhere. Once dry they got a Coat d arms Bone drybrush. 

I added some flame grass tufts as I figured anything growing would be contaminated by the rust. 

These piles were quick and easy models to make. It is deeply satisfying raiding the bits box and grabbing items of plastic to cut up to make junk. I recommend it. 

I have plans to make larger peices in future. Time to get those bits box emptied! Although I can guarantee that I will probably want those bits for another build a week later.

Thanks for reading,

Take care out there.

Splut

Hello and Welcome back 

With all the conflicts across human space, pirate activity and hazards of space travel there is quite a few drifting wrecks and hulks. When discovered these drifting wrecks and hulks often attract explorers and salvage teams. 

A small number of these hulks have strange amoeba like creatures nesting aboard them that Spacers call "Jellies". It is not known where these bugs orginate or how they get aboard the wrecks. One theory is that they are a form of mutated bacteria. They are hostile and some teams never escape the hulks as the Jellies swarm them. It has been found that lazer and plasma weapons are effective on these creatures. 

Splut is a different form of these creatures being larger and polymorphic. It is intelligent and able to produce limbs or weapons. Splut was found living peacefully with the Jellies. It seemed he could keep them tame and under control. This link was discovered by Splut's next "companion" as the creature formed a psychic bond to them. 

"Just what are you?"

Due to Splut's nature it is hunted by corporate and government agents from across human space. It's previous companion lost his life creating a distraction so Splut could escape. This effected Splut and he has become hesitant in forming a link with another human. Splut fled by hiding on vessles to frontier space, Spluts polymorphic nature allowing it to hide with easy. 

Currently Splut is carefully looking for a new companion to form a bond with, but it knows it is being hunted and doesn't want to get another companion killed.

The figure came from a small Sci fi play set, from Home Bargains for a mighty £1. The set provided a few useful bits for models. It was too good not to use.

Thank you for looking and take care out there.

Another Beadbot enters the Fray

Hello and Welcome back,

I started this beadbot last year for the Bangarang game. It was stalled for some time after the spray primer went strange giving the model a strange grainy effect. 

I can only surmise that maybe there was some bicarbonate soda still on the model. In future I will have to spend more time cleaning a model before primingit. After some time trying to scrape and sand the primer off, it got close to being ready for a repaint. 

Some of the dodgy primer remained so I decided that this bot would now be a bit ccorroded. Some of the details were lost during the clean up, mostly rivets. The missing rivets had holes drilled to make it look like they had fallen out.

My plan was always to paint this bot in a style similar to the Wigan Warriors Rugby league kit. It was to be the beginning of my plan to paint a few more Beadbots in other sports teams paint schemes. All I need to do is build more. That said I have 2 beadbots and a scrapbot, so I think that's enough for a game of Bangarang. 

Thanks for reading and take care out there.