Star Trek Away Missions - Kirk Box

05.02.2025

A few weeks ago I posted a quick WIP of minis that included Trek figures that were mostly done. It didn't really take another 2 weeks to finish them up, but a good chunk of that time was still trying to do my best detail work ever.

Star Trek minis are something I haven't painted before, although I've had plenty of them to paint for a long time. It's a category that internally I hold myself to a higher standard. I'm a Trek(ker/kie). I've got shelves upon shelves of Trek whatnot. That and GI Joe are the cornerstones of my pop culture collecting these days. Unlike a lot of other minis and their accoutrements, I should know what Trek stuff looks like. Plus, there's no making up of random colors along the way - this stuff is well defined!

The Away Missions minis are bigger - probably 32-35mm - and also come with slightly oversized heads. Not to the Chibi extreme, but luckily for me oversized enough that I can actually add some facial details to my paint work. Pupils. Everyone has pupils. I dare say properly aligned pupils, too.

The Kirk box came with Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and Checkov. No red shirts this time around. While I was a little worried about getting those department colors correct, a base coat of plain red, blue, and an orange tinted yellow I don't remember the name of all worked, followed up by some similar tinted contrast paint that helped get the tone right and acted like a wash for the recesses.

My 2 points of pride in painting these were the rank embroidery on the sleeves, and Kirk's hair. The hair was a shade of brown for the base, and then yellow contrast on top. I think it worked well. Really well.

I still messed some stuff up, and most of that I was able to go back and cover up well enough. While the scale of these definitely put them in the "I'll never use them" category, they were the skill test I needed. It's one of the few times I'll say I think I'm on the higher side of average painter skill.

Next time on minis from games I'll never play: The Scottyless Scotty Box.

Permalink gaming miniatures Star Trek Star Trek Away Missions

Cyberpunk Calamity Control

04.30.2025

This time I remember why I picked up a random pack of minis for a game I won't ever play - I like the bald guys in the suits. They're generic enough to be bystanders in any game. Plus, I like suits. Suits are good for painting because you can go into as much detail as your mood at the time warrants. John Wick 100% black everything - it can work. Pinstripes. Fun to try, as are an attempt at almost any pattern. Turned out that when it came time to paint these I was in a matching coat and pants, vest with some color mood.

The other 3 minis were... weird. Woman with skirt and a gun fits the general motif of the 2 bad suited guys. Other 2 women with some kind of armor going on... no idea what to make of those. Maybe that comes from not knowing the game? As it was, these managed to get a splash of whatever color I was painting some one/thing else at the time. That happens when I have no real vision for a mini.

Another round of nothing spectacular, but also nothing horrible.

Next time on minis from games I'll never play: Something that's not Cyberpunk Red Zone.

Permalink Cyberpunk Red Zone gaming miniatures

Cyberpunk Cub Hunters

04.28.2025

I'm not completely sure why I picked up the Cyberpunk Cub Hunt pack, but whatever cool idea I had for painting these didn't stick around until I opened up the box. There's nothing bad about these minis, but after they were primed there was nothing that really stood out, either.

These minis require arms and head attachment to the body. Like a lot of production-printed minis, the necks are way too long for the divot they fit into. Every time I try to shorten the neck, I end up going too far and the necks never look right. This time, I just left things as they were.

Nothing special or new tests on the paint jobs for these. I pretty much stuck to Army Painter Speed Paints and just focused on not glopping on too much at once. I don't know what cubs these guys are hunting in the Cyberpunk (Red Zone) Universe, but now they're ready to hunt amok.

Next time on minis from games I'll never play: MORE Cyberpunk Red Zone.

Permalink Cyberpunk Red Zone gaming miniatures

Malifaux - Samantha Thrace

04.26.2025

This week, a bevy of little posts covering what I've (finally) finished painting for the first third of the year, starting with a single mini from Malifaux of Samantha Thrace.

I've never played Malifaux and I never will. I've gotten a few minis from the game over the year as they always have an interesting look, and sometimes look like they might fit into some type of game I might play. Samantha here doesn't fall into that latter category. This was just a mini I came across that looked like it would be fun to paint. That's a Miniature Market category for me that equates to adding to my wishlist and see if it ever goes on sale/I need filler to reach free shipping. Samantha decided to go on sale at some point.

While I really like the colors on the box art, I wanted to try a different direction and test out some purple for an upcoming Prince mini I'll get around to painting. Like most times I try to hit a large area with contrast paint, there was more pooling that I wished for on the top of the long coat. Overall this is on my my middle-of-the-road quality paintjobs. Ok for the table top, nothing really messed up, but also nothing noteworthy to brag about. Except some of the base - I had fun adding some Citadel grime to the metal grate on that one.

Next time on minis from games I'll never play: Cyberpunk Red Zone.

Permalink gaming miniatures malifaux

Homebrew 5PFH Expansion

04.18.2025

Part of my lack of blog updates have been due to playing with ChatGTP to make expansion(s) for Five Parsecs From Home. Part AI learning, part game design, part.. well, goofing off. After a couple of months I think my effort to inject GI Joe and Cobra into a minis-game is sharable. With that, I now make a short post and share PDFs to download. I may go into a long diatribe of how this all came about later. Maybe.

Permalink 5PFH game dev vs Factions(PDFs)