I have started to paint up another 15mm sci-fi force and this time it is aliens, these are Ground Zero Games Crusty Aliens.
These are some really nice figures and have a lot of nice detail, they are a good impressive size compared to my human figures, but that for me is not a problem it’s more of a bonus.
They remind me of strange insects with their spindly legs and strange bug like heads, they have a nice selection of reasonably alien looking weapons.
The first job was to fix all the figures onto their bases and then I added some fine sand using PVA glue and then finally added small random areas of rougher sand / gravel.
After priming them all ( about 70 figures! ) I sat and thought about a colour scheme, and realised I didn’t know what colour to use…
I already had a human force painted white and another painted a yellow / sandy colour so I wanted to use a different colour, but had no idea which.
I finally decided on green, so I coated them all in Ork Flesh Contrast paint, which looked ok with its normal shading effect.
This did seem odd at first because my sci-fi scenery is all based on a sandy / desert world, but hey they could just be invading and that makes it workable.
Anyway I also may do some jungle type terrain at some point so their green colour would fit in well with that ( I have lots of small plastic plants and trees )
Once I was happy with the idea of the green colour scheme I then painted all the ammo belts and bags White ready for a Light Tan coat, once this was all dry I washed over all the Light Tan with a Light Tone wash.
I found that once all this was done I realised that I didn’t like the dark green finish on the figures ( the contrast didn’t work as well as I had hoped, it seemed very dark ) so I dry brushed all the green areas with a mix of Goblin Green and White picking out all the raised edges on the figures.
The last thing I did was paint all the bases with Desert Yellow then I used a Dark Tone wash on all the bases, this I have found gives the sand some good dark shades.
Once all this was dry I picked out all the sand and small stones on the bases with a dry brush of Buff.
After varnishing all the figures I stuck a few “Dry” tuft’s on some of the bases and that was that, one finished unit.
The unit consists of one leader, two infantry heavy weapons and seven normal rifle troops.
I now have another three ten-man alien units to paint plus fifteen aliens in heavy armour, not forgetting four heavy weapons squads.
But now I have sorted which colours to use the remaining figures should be easy enough to paint up.
I also have two strange alien creatures / walkers these are GZG Ixx warriors with support guns, I will be painting them up to use with the Crusty aliens as well, for some fast infantry support.
While I was sorting the alien figures out ready to paint I found 12 strange figures, these I believe are old Critical Mass Games Kaamados Daminion Vivipara infantry, these are very odd looking infantry, but I think they would make great robots!
Their strange head and eyes and odd weapons and weird clunky leg armour seem too weird for a human to fit inside, so I am going to class these into Robots.
I will have to do some work with the points system in USE ME to get them to fit, but something like Elan 3, Armoured, Move 4”, direct support weapon ( it’s a robot it doesn’t need two crew! )
I will have to try them a few times to see how they work, but I think they should be fine.
Not sure what colour scheme to use on them yet, maybe more metal areas to show they are mechanical rather than living, I will try a few ideas and see what looks best.
I will post more pictures once more of these figures are finished.