#7 The Magnificent Martians

In my career as an artist I’ve help bring more than a few games to life. I’ve worked with some pretty amazing publishers, including Alderac Entertainment, Bethesda, Crafty Games, Hammer Creative, and IGN. But there’s one thing I’ve always wanted to do, something I really need to cross off my bucket list. For a long time I’ve dreamed of writing my own game. Of creating the game that I would want to play most, and of taking charge and doing it from the ground up.

Well, I did it. Sort of. I’ve written a set of rules, illustrated them (with the help of a few talented artists I am lucky enough to call friends) and laid out the text and design elements for print in Adobe.

The Magnificent Martians is a miniature wargame set in the distant future, on the wild frontiers of terraformed Mars. Players control a small but magnificent posse of seven heroes (or antiheroes) and work to build a frontier town through a series of campaign based tabletop skirmish battles.

If you think the idea of a spaghetti western on mars sounds fun and you would be interested in playtesting the game, drop me a message. In return I’m offering a free digital pdf copy of the game on release, as well as a credit in the book for being part of the playtest team. If you’re interested send me a message though the contact link on this website or by leaving a comment below, and I will send you a confidentiality agreement and a copy of the basic rules. I’ll be posting a lot more about this project in the future as I move closer to a release date! Thanks for reading.

#6 Most of a Thunderbolt

I snagged a couple more Rogue Trader era miniatures for my Guard army. Two of these specifically, (Trooper Brock and Space Punk) had been on my hit list for a while now so I’m happy to have found them for a reasonable price. I painted them up in bright greens and yellows like the rest of my guard and I think they look pretty good. I’ve really been enjoying painting single piece metal miniatures recently. It’s so much more relaxing for me when I don’t have to worry about gluing together fiddly plastic bits. And these sculpts have so much character, I love especially Trooper Brocks biker vibes and wicked cool shades.

I also picked up another GW model for my guard army that I’d been chasing for some time. Ever since I read Dan Abnett’s Double Eagle, I knew I had to paint a Thunderbolt Imperial heavy fighter for my army. Double Eagle is easily my favorite Black Library book and, honestly, one of the best scifi novels I’ve read.

Unfortunately, the Thunderbolt is a Forgeworld kit, and as such, prohibitively expensive. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great kit, and totally worth the cash if you have it to spare, I just don’t. But I did manage to acquire this on eBay:

Sigh. Big Sigh. It’s most of a Thunderbolt. Sure it’s a little busted, and missing a few rather important bits but I think I can rescue it. I’ll keep you updated in future posts with progress photos. This one’s going to take a while.

#5 Cowboys on Mars

Today decided to kick my ass. Just bad news, on top of bad news. Sometimes it’s like that I guess. So I drown my sorrows in paint… I have beer but paint seems like a better, more constructive solution. I discovered this line of Western miniatures from Artizan. They really are a joy to paint. Amazingly sharp, clean, metal castings, all hand sculpted.

Here’s two of the Artizan miniatures on the left, along with a plastic modular cowboy from Great Escape Games. The Great Escape kits are also really wonderful. Each box has loads of spare bits and bobbles so you can really put together some interesting looking guys. I wanted this one to be a grave digger, so I borrowed his shovel arm from a box of Fire Forge Games peasants. It was a perfect fit and totally looks like it could have been part of the original kit without any sanding or greenstuff at all. It’s nice when things work out like that.

Here they are again, this time with a different Great Escape Games cowboy. I swapped the head for a space ape from Northstar Miniatures. Chimp cowboy here may be one of my favorite things I’ve ever painted. I went out of my comfort zone with him and attempted pinstripes on his pants, I was certain I was going to muck him up but the paint gods smiled on me and it game out perfect on the first try.

So why am I painting cowboys?… Well they’re going to be a band of Martian desperados. It’s all part of a super secret project. I’m sure I’ll have more to write about this soon, but now’s not the time. Right now I need to paint and chill, and recover. Be kind to each other. Thanks for reading.

#3: Hold On to What's Good

Humans are strange creatures. We do a lot of unfortunate things. There’s a great deal to be upset about in the news lately. I’ve been thinking a lot since my last post here and maybe nostalgia isn’t a toxic impulse, maybe it’s a way to hold on to what’s good in a world that very often doesn’t give us much time to breath between tragedies. My hobby time is a way that I can relax, take time to process life events, and hopefully find a little joy doing something simple… something fun.

My friend Terry told me just the other day; “I can’t do all the good that the world needs, but the world needs all the good that I can do.” Words to live by for certain. Surround yourself with good people, do everything you can to make life better for others. But also, maybe, don’t forget to take care of yourself. Hang on to what’s good. Do things you enjoy, paint toys, make art, read a book. If you don’t learn to take care of yourself you burn out, and then you’re no good to anyone. It’s taken me 42 years on this earth to figure that one out. Not everything has to be deep or meaningful, sometimes it’s okay to paint tiny space laser soldiers too.

Did you know that school is out, and today is the first official day of summer break, and as such a very important and special day? My kids have told me that this is true many times today. So get out there and enjoy your summer. Find what’s good and hold on to it.

#2: Nostalgia is a Toxic Impulse

I had an interesting discussion with a younger co-worker at the hobby shop. I mentioned casually (as one does) that I thought early hand sculpted GW miniatures are sort of adorable. I will now provide evidence. Here’s Sargent Shovel. He’s a Rogue Trader era (1987?) Plastic Imperial Guard torso with a melty looking plastic head from the 1998 Catachan box (which is still in production because it’s awesome, you hush). His lasgun is from a random Judge Dred kit I had lying around. The Sarge is pictured here with Lord Inquisitor Hargen, who happens to be one of the two original Inquisitors featured in the first edition 40k rulebook.

I’m quite pleased with my paint job on these two little guys. My aforementioned co-worker commented while viewing some of the older GW sculpts that maybe they were sort of bad and really I only liked them so much because I was having trouble letting go of my childhood. She’s not wrong. But I’d like to think my affection for these old toys runs a little deeper than that.

I think there’s a certain charm to older hand sculpted miniatures that is missing from most of the newer releases. The creators of these miniature soldiers put a lot of love and attention into the work. If you look back at old Games Workshop catalogs or magazines the sculptors names were always displayed proudly next to each new release. If you played tabletop wargames you knew who the Perry brothers were. You could spot a Bob Olley sculpt from a mile away. Jes Goodwin and Bob Naismith were household names. This wasn’t just a product, this was art! Yes, sometimes it was clumsy. Yes, sometimes it was messy. But it was always a joy to look at each new sculpt. So much character was present in every new variant and each artist had his or her own unique style… his or her own individual spin on what the world of Warhammer looked like.

I don’t think most modern miniatures are sculpted the same way. Sure, they’re made on a computer now not sculpted by hand. That’s obvious. It’s also not my point. Current GW sculpts aren’t created in a dusty cluttered artists studio, they’re created in a board room by a team of Adeptus Administratum corporate mooks. The sculpts are no longer the vision of a small team of creatives brought to life by the tenacity and sheer force of will of a dedicated artist. Yes, there’s still artists involved in the process but they are answering to the Administratum, not their own creative whims. Those modern artists work hard and have a lot of talent, I have nothing but respect for them. The new GW sculpts are impressive, the level of detail on each model, the dynamic poses, the technical proficiency of the sculpters… I’m in awe of the artists abilities. But I’m not moved in the same way. Maybe it is only a foolish old man’s nostalgia. Maybe I’m desperately clutching at the last remnants of a life I’ve left behind. If that’s all it is I’m okay with that, but I believe there might be something more to it.

#1: Eat the Rich

Since I’m unhappy with Elon’s acquisition of Tweeter (on account of him being a massive scum sucking corporate douche) I decided to try out this new internet thingy the kids are calling “blogging” or whatever.

Let’s talk Imperial Guard. I realized while fussing with Gdubs list builder app that my command squad needed a banner dude. Since my guard are a mix of guys sculpted from the early 80’s up to the present I wanted their standard bearer to represent all of them. Time to bust out the bits box, hobby knife, and super glue.

The body is from the Rogue Trader plastic imperial guard kit released, I believe, in 1987. The plastic is a bit worse for the wear but most of the detail is still there. His wicked cool gas mask head is from the new Cadian upgrade sprue GW just released. I also thought it would be a good idea to give him one beefy arm (Strongbad reference) with chainsword which I got from the new Necromunda Underhive Outcasts. The less beefy of his arms, the one holding the banner pole is from Northstar Miniature’s Oathmark Humans box (heresy I know, and I’m not even sorry). I also glued him on a tactical rock made from cork because he’s a short little dude and I wanted him to feel better about himself. Since I had the bits box out I also found enough parts to assemble a comms guy for my Adeptus Arbites squad. He’s for painting another day though.

Enjoy this picture of the old plastic guard box I shamelessly stole from google image search.

Next I brush on a base coat of Vallejo Model Air: US Dark Green. I use airbrush paints whenever I can, even when I’m not airbrushing. They just go on so much smoother. You could also use Citadel: Castalan Green for this step, the color is similar but like most Citadel paints it has the consistency of cottage cheese, no thanks.

Next I heavily dry brush the model using a cheap makeup brush from CVS and a mixture of Vallejo Model Air Insignia White and Citadel Elysian Green. This I do really quickly and not carefully at all. Most of the highlights I will immediately destroy by slathering on a heavy glaze of Liquitex Sap Green ink so there’s no reason to take to much time on this. He looks ridiculous now, like a plastic army man from the toy store, but trust the process, always trust the process. It’s so easy to get discouraged while painting in layers like this, I have to constantly remind myself that I have a plan, and it will all come together in the end (most likely).

Next I begin picking out some details in basic colors. I try to be as neat as possible here, giving myself a good base to work from. I use Citadel Cadian Fleshtone for his one beefy arm. I hate this paint because like the Castalan Green it also has that cottage cheese thing going on. I cut it with some (okay, a lot of) contrast medium and water and that seems to calm it down. Yellows go on with Citadel Air Averland Sunset. This is a much nicer, more well behaved paint. Thanks Gdubs.

I wash the whole model with a 60/40 mix of Citadel Contrast Medium and Citadel Guillamen Flesh Tone. This adds some easy shades, and also tones down the plastic army man green to a nice olive drab. once that dries I apply some very chunky edge highlights of Citadel Elysian Green. Good edge highlighting isn’t nearly as difficult as people would have you believe. I water down the paint a lot to get it flowing nicely, use a very thin sable brush. Using just a dab of paint for each line I slowly drag the point of the brush along the edges. It takes forever but I put on a good podcast and it’s no stress painting fun.

Next I add some thinner edge highlights. Citadel Air: Ogryn Camo on the cloth, Citadel Dorn Yellow on the corners of the armor. I also get over ambitious and paint some wood grain on the banner pole. Next I glaze the leathers with a few different inks, so the different leather bits have slight variations in color. Why do I do this? I can’t answer that. No one will ever notice but me. I also remember I have this waterslide decal. It fits perfectly on his badge. I decided the “C” must be for command squad. Perfect. I paint his visor three different kinds of blues with little dot of white ink (for the sparkles)! I Also clumsily sculpt a flag from expensive green play-doh. It looks terrible. I will do this differently next time.

So there it is, my command squad is at least 50% more rad now. I’m going to keep posting hobby stuff here since Twitter is getting so weird. It’s fun being able to write more than 280 characters. I hope reading them is also fun.