Crazy Space Dogs and Angry Space Cats

A while ago I previewed some of the amazing Felid troops from Khurasan miniatures. I picked these up just as soon as they became available and they've been languishing in my To Be Painted Mountain Of Lead (TBPMOL). I have just about a platoons worth of foot troops and 6 of the amazing grav bikes.

Originally I was going to paint them in either a sort of desert tan colour or maybe an attempt at tiger stripes with white chest and bellies, but I thought the former too boring and the latter too corny. I was sat at my painting station brooding over pallets as AGG wandered by. I asked her what colour she thought I should paint them and she replied, without hesitation, "Purple". "Purple," said I, "why purple? It's not very military, or terribly inconspicuous?". "So," she replied, "they're space cats, they can wear what they like and still look cool." How right she was.

So these chaps got a white undercoat and then a liberal wash of purple ink (an old GW one called - and considering GW's frankly downright bizarre naming policies on paints I can hardly believe that it's this and not something like Throbbing Vein Purple - simply "Purple Ink"). Some got a watered down wash and others a neat ink wash, which accounts for the shading differences. I have noticed that the ink doesn't adhere or cover as well as paint. It very quickly rubs off the raised areas, and there are some areas on the undercoated figures where it just would not flow onto. Even when applied directly with a brush, it just pooled away from a few spots. Weapons were picked out in black and Boltgun with Catchan Green for the ammo hoppers, and I painted Hobbes style Tiger faces with white and orange.

The Bike needs a bit of cleanup work here and there, I've splashed "over the lines" in a few places, but I like the overall scheme.

Here they are enjoying some of my new scratch built stackable hill sections too.

I also picked up some of the Critical Mass Games Protolene Khanate figures to use as crazy space dog pirates. These were painted according to their function. Line troops are in red (ohhh....redshirt, bad luck), support weapons are in green, leaders in black with gold or silver trim and specialists in dark blue. I figured that they're space pirates, so they want to look scary - they show their "Fierce Face" when attacking, plus dogs are colourblind, so maybe they don't realise that they really stand out on the battlefield.

 The figures were all primed white and again painted with GW inks, in this case red, green, blue and black (obviously). I tidied up the bits where I didn't want the primary colour to be with a bit of white and then used the old GW Flesh Wash, Windsor and Newton Peat Brown and Chestnut inks and GW black for the faces and hands. Weapons were black with a few Boltgun highlights and the armour accents were Boltgun and Shining Gold.

Heavy Weapons

Business end of the Space Pirate Boomstick!

I also had a pack of the 15mm.co.uk Lawdogs which I painted up as protolene attack hounds, or Protohounds as I have dubbed them.

 And here they are also playing on the nice new stackable terrain...

I'm pretty happy with how they've come out, and they are nice, quick paint jobs too. The Protolene are just about done, plus I picked up a sweet ride for them too in a Dr Who Chula attack ship from the Dr Who Micro-Universe range.

I still have about half the Felids to do, and I'm looking around for some suitable vehicles for them to spill out from. I'd like something consistent with the bikes, so it needs to be grav. I'm pondering the Old Crow Glaive APC with Grav drive for them, but may hold on until Salute and have a looksee.

Odds and Ends

A few odds and ends that have been rattling around for a while no. The first is a WIP on some GZG UNSC Light Infantry. These were the first codes to be released, and they didn't include a missile launcher at first, so the chap on the far right below is a quick conversion from the prone SAW gunner with a length of styrene tube added to make a PMS/L system. The colour is a basic blue, but I may add some contrast with either a funky dark blue/light blue urban or digital camo pattern or maybe just pick out the knee, elbow and shoulder pads. The visors are about 6 or 8 layers of green ink over black, letting the ink pool slightly at the base of the visor.

The next are a couple of Androidz toys I picked up at an end of line sale at Toys R Us. I thought I'd give them a go, as they were only £1 each, They've been lightly modified with a spare machine gun and Gatling gun from the now defunct Mad-Max/Carwars style game Krash from Cell Entertainment. I've actually painted both of these since this picture was taken, and they look.... OK.

Next we have another kitbash waiting to be painted. Again, this is from Poundland and featured a giant moulded plastic propeller on the back and a pull-back-and-go motor inside. I opened it up and did a rotor-and-motor-ectomy on it. The engines on the back are now actually the die-cast metal inserts from the Androidz above, which actually look quite good as some sort of turbine or jet engine. I've also added a spare missile pod from a 1/72 Apache kit and a spare machine gun from an old Dark Future car. It's basecoated and just waiting for a paint job. I'm thinking probably some sort of desert tan and earth colours, with a big sharks mouth on the front.

Next are another couple of tank kitbashes. These are French WW2 tanks, a Char-B and Renault R-35 Tankett in 1/76. Both have had various Tau weapons added to them and are awaiting their paints. I'm reluctant to try the salt and hairspray technique again, after the last failure, so may resort to more traditional weathering methods.

Finally we have a shot of my painting station, a genius idea by AGG after she moved in. It's an Ikea laptop desk which is fixed to the wall in one of the alcoves beside the chimney breast in my dining room. It's also my entry into the Benchvent show us your workspace competition.

It holds all of the hobby stuff I need to hand, and can close up and not look hideous when not in use. Previously I used a big (2' by 3') 1/2" thick board with edging on it and foam pads on the bottom as my hobby tray, to avoid drilling more holes in the table, but this meant getting it out every time I wanted to paint, and then packing everything away again as soon as we needed the table again. With my new painting station, and a couple of Really Useful Boxes with paints in divider trays, I can set up and pack away in just minutes.