Robotech Unboxing

Apparently, Fall is the season for Kickstarter fulfillment. Less than 2 weeks after receiving my Arena Rex package, my "Wave 1" box arrived from Palladium Books and Ninja Division, including most of the critical models for the all-new Robotech RPG Tactics.

I'll say this: It's a big box, and it's full of plastic toys to play with. In this entry, I'll take a look at the contents of the shiny new box, before moving on to a more complete miniatures review.

Arena Rex

I just received a package from Red Republic Games. Inside were a handful of figures from their freshly launched skirmish game, Arena Rex. I haven't painted anything yet, but I am impressed with the resin castings they shipped to me.

Each model is rendered in a low-density, light-weight resin. I was a bit surprised by how light everything felt, but it captures detail beautifully, and it seems to hold up to the process of normal figure preparation perfectly well.

I took the time to look over what they sent and assemble the one figure you see above. I wasn't in love with all of their concept art, but I did like a lot of it, and, in spite of some unexpectedly long delays in the sculpting process, the resulting sculpts are quite impressive.

Firestorm Armada Directorate Redux

I just thought I'd post a short update on what's going on on my work bench. I haven't abandoned the fey project featured in the last few posts, but progress has been slow. I'm going to try to get a little more done before I post another update.

In the mean time, some of you may recall my post about color experimentation on Directorate warships from Firestorm Armada.

I was reasonably happy with the results, but it never translated exactly how I wanted it to onto bigger and more complicated ships. Among other things, I thought a little more color can help out. Pure black is not very visually exciting.

Fey Project 3: Gaze into my eyes

The sheer number of awful eye cliches and puns available to title this post boggles the mind. Would "An eye for an eye" have been better? What about "The eyes have it?" I'll spare you the other options. Chances are that at least a couple have already popped into your head whether you like it or not.

This installment is about one of the most daunting parts of any miniature: the eyes. Since my woodland fey project is all about playing with advanced techniques and pushing myself, I decided it would be a good time to tackle some of the more complete eye painting methods out there.

Eye of the tiger, baby.

Fey Project 2: Overkill Basing

As a part of the "Woodland Fey" display piece, I've been working on, I built my very first scenic base with Sculpey. While I am very happy with the tree stump and associated textures (at least for a first crack at the problem), the rest of the base was still pretty bare.

In past cases, I might have covered it with some basing grit before painting it, and then stock on some assorted clump foliage or flock to add color and interest. I have had good results with that kind of technique in the past. For thei project, on the other hand, I wanted to keep pushing for some more interesting basing materials.

Woodland Creatures - Fey Project, Part 1

My latest project is the result of a very special request. I am working on a display piece, based on one of Reaper Miniatures' Warlord figures. The request was to paint up a fairy, or similar creature of the wilds, and this figure fits the bill. As an added bonus, I am experimenting with large-scale display base construction, using Super Sculpey polymer clay. This installment will focus mostly on that. Future entries will cover paint and other basing work.

Super Sculpey is a a bakeable clay. The polymer remains pliable and sculptable for months, or even years, left on its own. To harden it, you need to make it in a 140°C (275°F) oven for 15-20 minutes. That alone makes it way different from the two-part epoxy putties that I am used to, and that is not the only difference...

Advanced Construction

Over the summer, I received the first of several miniatures from the Ironwind Metals LAM project that ran on Kickstarter. (LAM being the accepted Battletech abbreviation for "Land-Air Mech" - the transformable mecha of that particular universe.) I am not ready to post the paint-up for this project just yet, but the build itself was quite an undertaking, so I thought I'd post it now.

This particular model is for the Mk.1 Stinger LAM. I chose to get the hybrid mode version, half way between mecha and fighter jet modes. As you can see, the mini comes in quite a few parts. Note that the hex base was not included with the model.