Monday, November 20, 2017

Refreshing the Lead Drive

It's been a while since I wrote anything here as other shiny things have distracted me: some music, a little poetry. You know, the things that have to do with my usual handle. But I'm back into a more leaded mood. And as I got to sorting through the collection after a recent trip to New Jersey where I pretended I was once again fifteen I found that some of my miniatures really wanted updating. In particular this fellow here:


This guy is an old miniature from the Rogue Trader era "Adventurers" range. He was sold as an "Imperial Scout." It always seemed clear to me that he was a sort of Lawrence of Arabia type, but other possible references escaped me. I was quite late to Dune, for instance, and completely missed the significance of the "ornithopters" in the introduction. So it never occurred to me that there was already a rather solid precedent for Lawrence of Arabia (in Space). But now I know. And that which has been seen cannot be unseen, so I give you an updated scout with some very odd eyes indeed. He's keeping company with a newly arrived veteran who, it is hoped, will help to weld the local Reserve and Guard forces into a potent fighting unit.



But that's not the end of my updating. Oh no. I also had some Marines that needed touching up, others that needed repainting, and three quite lovely gigantic fellows passed into my safe keeping by another fan of old lead. You can see two of them below.



And here's the results of the updates pictured more clearly. The officer and the fellow with the explosive chucker on the left were merely touched up. The two fellows on the right were more complete repaints.



And the two ogres from above can be seen in the company of their friends below. Ogres one and three, from the viewers left, are the newer pair and two and four (in the pinstripes) the older.



The ogres, in fact, already have a place in the family. Seen below are "Little" Milton on the left, whom his friends call "Deedle Boy," Walther or "Shorty," George or "Yoon Doodle," and Rudy or "Rutz." Why yes, there is a story behind that. Why do you ask? The nicknames go with my grandfather and his brothers. (Of whom there were two more and two sisters as well, so there will be more ogres.) Five of the six brothers served in the Second World War and three saw combat in the Pacific, so it's only appropriate that their miniaturized (but still larger than life) selves should all have met in the service. They are a fractious, but generally good lot who enjoy nothing so much as hunting or fishing together. They seem to be on a bug hunt here.


And after a long and pleasant day chasing food there's really nothing quite so nice as a good barbecue and a cold beer.


Thank you for joining me on this short aside. Check back. There are a few things in the pipeline that should follow rather quickly.

Sincerely,
The Composer



19 comments:

  1. Are those Field Police Marines I see? Always loved their color scheme, and thought it was a shame no one really seemed to do anything with them.

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    1. Thank you! They're meant to be Crimson Fists in tribute to the Rogue Trader cover, since Niasmith's C100 Marines seem a pretty clear reference. The cover has no chapter badges on their shoulder pads; just arrows of the sort that would later be used as squad insignia for different sorts of squads. And I ran with that. Some of those, maybe, make them look like Field Police. Anyway, sorry for the confusion, but I'm glad you like it. My original Crimson Fist colors were a little darker than usual, as was most of my work back then. (Which is why the two new ones are a little lighter. Even when trying, I just can't get a blue quite that dark anymore. Different paints. Different style now. Just . . . can't quite seem to recreate that original color.)

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  2. Some beautiful figures here...and pictures, as usual!

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    1. Thank you! I'm suddenly struggling a bit with the pictures. Trying to use different cameras and lighting. Which . . . I'm hoping it will ultimately be an entirely positive thing, but it's throwing me off. So it makes me happy the few that got through the screening process work.

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  3. Great miniatures and entertaining read. I hope your hobby mojo stays high and you keep cranking out some great painted minis!

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    1. Me too! Mind you, I did get quite a bit done in other areas when I stepped away. Which needs to happen sometimes. But it's fun to get some stuff painted. And I REALLY hope I can manage to keep gaming at the new pace. I've gotten in several games this month alone! (More on that later.)

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  4. Always nice to see newly painted old metal minis!

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    1. Thank you Major. It was good to get paint on them. (Or fresh paint, as the case may be.)

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  5. Thank you sir! Here's to hoping I can face some of that nice off across the table against your very nice sometime soonish.

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  6. Greetings, Mr. C. I enjoyed learning about your new-old adventurers. Sweet modeling. FYI: hiding behind a tumble weed can be dangerous to one's health!

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    1. I'm not quite certain that it's a tumbleweed. I'd want to ask the scout. I figure he knows his business better than I. ;-) Not really sure what the direction of travel on that vegetation is, or precisely how they were standing in relation to it. Perspective does funny things. And the telephoto effect on those cheap Cerenese knock-off cameras. That said, I'll keep that in mind. I've typically kept my distance from the Terran sort, but not out of any particular caution. Just . . . happenstance. (And a tendency not to stop in the middle of the plains too much more than necessary. Some. Curiosity, of course. But not a whole lot. Usually jut trying to get to the other side.)

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    2. I see you also read Zookie The Xamoor's halo novels about life and limb in the wild wild asteroid fields beyond the outer rim. I'm impressed.

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    3. Is this the same Zookie as Zookie the Zamazonian? Rimmers eat up Zamazonian stories. Honestly, in some parts of the Rim folks eat up any story. (Though the Zamazonian stuff is generally regarded as the rarest of delicacies.) Things get quiet so you have a lot of time to read, watch old holos, or star in amazement at pictures of faraway places with luxurious things like showers that use water, or in some cases, even gravity. (To be fair, dust miners out past Blanding lead a special existence.)

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    4. Yes, it's the same Zookie. He spent most of his 1st life holding up at the old The Rock Grinder's B&B out on the eastside of Blanding. There in the dinning room, while washing ubiquitous dust particles which drifted into the B&B thru the plethora of cracks and holes in the structure's outer shell down his parched throats with triple shots of Nova Red, Zookie masterfully holoed, in the local jargons, his ten most famous novels re the Asteroid Badlands War. Just the thought of his artistic endeavors would make me cry if I had eyes. (Sniff)

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    5. I did not know he had spent a lifetime in that part of the Rim. That would explain why the dust miners love his work so. I've not been to the old Rock Grinder's. Next time I'm out that way I'll have to check it out. Fascinating connection. Thank you for telling me about it!

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  7. Very enjoyable post mate. love the old models and the story behind the Ogryns.

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    1. Thank you Generalissimo! The nicknames are just too wonderful and too colorful to keep to myself. They need to be shared. Honestly, there are some wonderful stories there generally. Milton was in the First Marine Raider Battalion, for instance. Milton and Rudy served together on Guam. John was a navigator in a B-25. All three of them in the Corps. (And later their youngest brother as well.) Obviously after the Sullivans there were certain restrictions on how many could be in any given place at once, but there were stories. Many stories. And civilian stories before and after, as well. Much as you'd expect with a collection of nicknames like that.

      Anyway, thank you again sir!

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