Shadowforge Sci-Fi

The commission is done! Hooray! Here's a not-very-good picture:

15mm Essex Medieval Russian Army for DBA

While I was working on the commission, I had a few days where I was all set to work but for various reasons couldn't. Some problems with the shield decals left me with a weekend set aside for applying decals and painting but no decals, so I ended up painting up a bunch of the Shadowforge miniatures I've picked up recently, all of which came from the Sci-Fi line.

First up was the Politburo Worker Battalion. These are very nice figures, well sculpted and beautifully cast with minimal mold lines and little flash. They required almost no cleaning at all, and the multipart models (most have separate gun hands or arms, plus backpacks) went together very smoothly. None of them required any pining at all, and in many cases were cast with pins and corresponding holes. I found that many of the models held together without glue, which tells me that Shadowforge's mold maker really knows what he's doing. Out of the twelve miniatures there was only one flaw, a miscast rocket launcher in the heavy weapons set that was missing most of its arm. I contacted Shadowforge and they got a replacement part to me within a week (and that's sending it from Australia). So good on them. They're also nice guys.

The designs are sufficiently generic that these ladies could be modern or near-future soldiers. They could easily serve as Warhammer 40K Imperial Guard, but they are small compared to GW's models, and would look fairly puny next to a Catachan Jungle Trooper. I decided to go with a bright blue for their body armor and berets, drawing inspiration from the blue berets of United Nations peacekeepers, and might use these as near-future UN alien fighters. Or maybe some sort of hybrid of Morrow Project and Macho Women With Guns.

Politburo Worker Battalion

Politburo Worker Battalion Command

Politburo Worker Battalion Support Weapons

I'm far from finished painting these, but I've made progress on both sets of Shadowforge's Gangers and their set of Scavengers. Below are two gangers from Gangers Pack #2 and a Scavenger. I didn't like these quite as much as the Politburo models. Most are great and would work well in a game like Necromunda or any post-apocalyptic or cyberpunk game, but it seemed each set had at least one kinda lame sculpt that didn't compare with the rest. Also several of the models are carrying pistols with barrels that are just too tiny and thin. Realistic perhaps, but I prefer my guns oversized.

The Scavenger looks just like the chick at the coffee stand I go to in the morning.

While painting all of the above, I mixed in a few miniatures from other companies. I thought this Heresy sculpt, Ellie Mental, would fit in well with the Gangers. Since she's obviously supposed to be Leeloo from The Fifth Element I painted her to match Milla Jovovich's outfit in the movie. Like pretty much everything Andy Foster sculpts, this is an awesome figure with nice detail and a great sense of proportion that just pushes the edge of cartoony without being ridiculous.

I also picked up this truly awesome miniature from Khurasan Miniatures, the Genocidal Dictator. I absolutely love the pose. I painted her up to serve as a Commissar for the Politburo Workers Battalion. She comes with a choice of two hands, one with the cigarette as shown, another with a pistol. In a move that is truly rare amongst miniatures sculptors, she also comes with two holsters. One with pistol, one empty. Much like the Shadowforge casts, this required no pining and held together without glue, but it did have a brutal mold line cutting across the face. With no way to get a file in there, I ended up painting the mold line as if it were a scar passing straight through her eye.

Khurasan's Genocidal Dictator