Monday, January 13, 2014

From Curt: 28mm Post-Apocalyptic 'Metro 2033' Neo-Soviet Militia (25 points)


I thought I'd mix things up a bit and add a few more figures to my 'Metro 2033' themed post-apoc collection. This here is a group of Lead Adventure Neo-Soviet militia, known as 'Igor and the Red Gang'.

I really enjoy the character of the models from Lead Adventure Miniatures. They're almost cartoonish in their features but they still retain a disturbing sense of lethality about them - how fun is that!

Like my other stuff for this project I've gone with an ash-waste style groundwork punctuated by bits of shattered red brick. The bases are a bit over-stylized but its seems to work with the figures.

I decided that the LMG gunner should exhibit a bit of sartorial flair with a jaunty polka dot neck scarf thrown over his shoulder...


...and the older bearded fellow with the long-barreled RPK-74 is sylin' & profilin' with a pair of gold-rimmed Armani sunglasses....


...whereas the more taciturn, cigar-chomping section leader proudly retains his cossack jodhpurs with their distinctive red piping.



Finally, I thought for this submission that I'd add something new to the setting and so finished a resin debris terrain piece I had recently ordered from Armorcast.  


This chunk of resin portrays an abandoned wreck of what looks to be a Ford Ranger (or perhaps more appropriately, a Skoda light duty truck). It's a very nice single-piece casting with loads of interesting details to pick out. It painted-up quite quick. I added some of the broken brick motif that I use with my figure bases to help tie them together. To finish it off I dug out out my MIG weathering powders and went fairly heavy on the poor beast, especially with the dust, thinking that anything abandoned in a post-apoc setting would be under a heavy coating of grime and dust. 


A great set of figures which were loads of fun to work on. This group of old Cold Warriors will give me 25 points to add to my total.

Not sure what's next. I really need to get my 'vehicle' entry sorted, but I feel a short visit back to the heat of Indochina may be in order...

54 comments:

  1. Great job! I especially love the basing on these guys. And I agree with the Lead Adventure minis. Really great character on all of them and nice choices of subject

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Samuli. They are a great range of minis. Their Victorian steampunk and Renaissance stuff is beautiful as well, but I'm not entirely sold on this latest quasi Hobbit Tolstoi range. Who knows, maybe it will grow on me.

      Delete
  2. Full of character! And I have to agree with Samuli, the basing is great.

    ReplyDelete
  3. You've just got to love these figures they are real characters, love the style of painting great job

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Kent. They are a load of fun to paint. The sculpting is very clean and defined so it almost seem like paint by numbers!

      Delete
  4. Yes give yourself some bonus points for the excellent bases. The figures and the bases are absolutely superb.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Clint, but no bonuses for me. Nonetheless I do appreciate the sentiment. Cheers!

      Delete
  5. Very nice painting work, Curt. Wonderful aplication of the colour and great details!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Juan! I have very high regard for your use of colour and blending so that is great praise indeed.

      Delete
  6. I like everything about this, from the dusty look to the seat of the trousers, to the mudflaps on the hats and all the weathering on the truck and terrain. I've never used powders before, but one day would like to explore them. Can I ask you how you got the reflection on their glasses to look realistic?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks very much Anne, I'm delighted you like them. The lens flare effect is fairly easy to pull off (Greg is a whiz at this if you look at his tanks). I usually pick 2-3 shades of the lens colour I want to work with, then from top left to bottom right i go from dark to light tone in distinct waves. I then place a bright white dot in the upper right or center to mimic the lens reflection. Done. Here is a short and effective tutorial:

      http://www.advancedtautactica.com/viewtopic.php?t=6790

      For black lenses I cheat and simply place a white dot in a black field. Works surprisingly well! One thing to remember: Make sure the white dots are in the same relative position from lens to lens or it looks 'off'.

      I hope this helps!

      Delete
    2. Oh, and you can give the whole lens a thin coat of gloss if you want to tart up the effect even further.

      Delete
    3. Thank you Curt. The illustrations in the tutorial are great and I can understand how it is achieved. I've got it bookmarked for future reference.

      Delete
  7. Great work and not something you see often.
    Cheers

    ReplyDelete
  8. Superb work (as usual). I like the guy with the Armani sun glasses - very chic'

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Miles. I reason he must have found them in an abandoned Capitalist shop and decided to liberate them for use by the People's Proletariat. That and they looked darned cool!

      Delete
  9. Seriously cool! Reminds me that I haven't read Metro, which I bought on your recommendation!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's a good beach read. I believe it has been optioned for a movie as well which could be interesting.

      Delete
  10. Lovely figures Curt - full of character and great painting :)

    ReplyDelete
  11. Awesome painting! They really look like some cutthroats somewhere in Postapocalyptistan. I have some of the Lead Adventure figures somewhere in my lead mountain too. They're absolutely great figures.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 'Postapocalyptistan'! Love it. I'll have to remember that. Thanks Nick!

      Delete
  12. Great Figs Curt! I look forward to seeing them on table.
    Cheers
    PD

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, we should get these lads out for a run soon.

      Delete
  13. I understand armani specs assist with the LMGs in terms of accuracy...

    Great work dude!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Indeed. The Capitalists knew something about optics so why not roll with it...

      ;)

      Delete
  14. Awesome figs under any conditions - but you managed to do these AT THE SAME TIME AS RUNNING THIS COMPETITION??! Amazing work all round Curt!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you very much Lord Hill. I can only (barely) keep up due to:
      1) no kids
      2) no yard work (winter)
      3) saintly wife
      4) ruthless time management

      ...and I had all this painted last year! Kidding!! :)

      Delete
    2. Lord Hill
      I can vouch for points 1-3. I can't comment on #4. He does seem much better organized than I am, but that's a pretty low bar to get over.
      PD

      Delete
    3. I dunno Peter. You've got hundreds of students to herd through your classes and then there's the fact that you've been the only (beleaguered) Y chromosome in your household for, well, ever - I think that rates for some impressive time management skillz.

      Delete
  15. Some more nice post apocaylpse guys. I actually started reading Metro 2033 on the web, but it's not complete and going to buy a hard copy. Enjoying it so far, just got to avoid thinking of making a small force, because then you need an underground tunnels table...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Maximillian! If you can get the audiobook go for it - the narrator is very good. The thing about the tunnels is that you can easily abstract them in your mind's eye (or with simple lines of debris to denote their perimeter). Also, if you've seen any pictures of the Moscow metro, many of the tunnels are absolutely huge, with a single tunnel easily absorbing the narrow dimension of a 6x4 table in 28mm scale.

      Delete
  16. Great figs with lovely painting. I really like the stark contrast of the colours (and blood!) with the more monotone scenary and basing

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Paul! The red is supposed to be diffused brick dust but I think I need to add a layer of dust to the bases. They do look a little grisly!

      Delete
  17. You're right about the cartoony nature but they are packed with character as well. Lovely work, especially the touches like the highlights on the goggles.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, they have some wonderful facial expressions which are fun to work with.

      Delete

Thanks for your comment! As long as you're not a spam droid I'll have it up on the blog soon. :)