Search the Community

The Housekeeper from Crooked Dice's Island Priests set. I think it's based on a British TV show but not one I'm familiar with. A nice lady with a pot of tea. The sculpt came with a hand holding a mug, but--being a chump--I lost it. The Bits Box delivered a backup hand, though. A cozy home with all the modern conveniences. (Stove, fridge, and washer/dryer set are from Bombshell's galley and rec room set; table and chairs from Eureka.) Left the burner on? No, just got it good and hot for the soup. Guests are coming over for tea and gossip! Who has been up to what? and who's been seen with whom? you simply won't BELIEVE what Myrtle said to me the other day...etc. Tabletop advice: In your investigative RPGs, never discount the information-gathering power of curious homemakers! Featuring 50235, Edna, as the oldest and most cantankerous of the neighborhood gossips, a Pulp Figure detective with binoculars, and a young journalist from Cold War Minis.

A nice clean sculpt from Crooked Dice's Fishfolk Stars. Grenouille here looks surly and pop-eyed, straight out of the Gilman Inn, but could pass for a full human with poor job satisfaction. And that is exactly what he is doing, here at the Hotel Metropole! I love his slouched posture. He will work for you but will not be servile, or even solicitous. Other personnel at the Hotel Metropole, most of whom we have seen elsewhere. The maids and footman are from Artizan, as is the barkeep. The chef, of course, is Reaper (77462). The head of housekeeping is also Crooked Dice, and will get her own post.

The Old Ways linger in rural parts. The harvest is, after all, too important to leave up to chance. The land will bring forth in plenty, but the fields must have blood. This is the ancient compact. The ground must be propitiated. Satiated. It is well known. The community is bound tighter together by the ritual, even if they don't care to talk about it. More angles of the vessel for HE WHO WALKS BEHIND THE ROWS: ] *** A great sculpt from Crooked Dice. Brigit the May Queen with the sickle and Mister Mangel the scarecrow are also from there. Reaper's Headless Footman (04031) is acting as the Master of Ceremonies. While we think of this type of agricultural folk horror as being from the Old World, as in Christopher Lee's "The Wicker Man" and Ramsey Campbell's "Ancient Images," it fits in pretty well with the American Cornlands, too. This intersection of trackless fields, nourishment, and old-time religion is one of Stephen King's obsessions (see Children of the Corn, In The Tall Grass, Secret Window, et al.). I could easily transplant this big guy to the borders of the Weird West and have it fit in just fine.

Also featuring another sci-fi mechanic from CP, this one painted up in the grey jumpsuit and yellow boots of my Moon Communists. He's the one with the sledgehammer. I love this old retro tech! Easy-to-assemble MDF from Crooked Dice, and a bargain at that. (We've already seen Janey of Crooked Dice's Paranormal Exterminators and Bombshell's Helen Salinger before)

One thing about SPACE: it's a bad place to have a breakdown. Spaceships are expensive and complicated; they are your entire world and means of survival out in the black. Lucky for you, the Zap Bros are here! Danny, Joe, and Grexlar founded an interplanetary franchise of mobile repair stations. Danny is an Earth-human businessman, formerly ran a shipyard parts supply store. First-rate at logistics. Joe is an uplifted gorilla, a mechanical genius. If it can be taken apart and put back together, Joe is the ape for the job. If it can't, that just takes him a bit longer. Grexlar is a Martian engineer and physicist, a master diagnostician. Mass-drive, fusion, fission, gravitronics, hyperdrive manifold, warp modulator--no matter what should make the ship go, he can figure out why it won't. After going into business in the Asteroid Belt and making a pile (credits, friends, and favors) the three started expanding the business into a chain. You could populate a small moon with the beings who owe their life to a Zap Bros Rescue & Tow. In fact, the O'Neill cylinder "Long Day's Journey Into Night" did just that. More angles of the three: The Zap Bros have very high standards for whom they hire, but pay excellent wages and have no species restrictions. Robots welcome! *** Specifics: Danny is a mechanic from CP's Sci-fi Civilians line. Joe is Crooked Dice's Starport Fueler modified with Green Stuff. Grexlar is Reaper's Alien Tracker--I can't find the SKU for the metal guy but he's part of the Bones 49001, Alien Overlords set. The desk is also Crooked Dice, and the big-screen monitor is from Bombshell's galley and rec area set. The simpler robot is also Bombshell, MaCbot. The repair specialist bot is a Warmachines Convergence fella bought secondhand. The asteroid ship is a bunch of kitbashed junk, mostly Christmas ornaments and several GW greebles. Stay safe out there, cadets!

A return to the cult of the PIPER IN THE WOODS! The cult has developed organically from a simple witch-cult as I add minis to it, and now we have a whole theme of masks, horns, purple, and miasmas. As such, the Deathclaw from Nolzur's seemed to fit in, in the same way the froghemoth fits in with the cultists of THE HUNGER IN THE GULF. First, though, let's meet the cult leader! Definitely similar to the other female cultist from Crooked Dice, but this one has a fancy staff! Procession through the dark woods: And awful supplications before this lesser servant of the Horned Lord, the Masked Master! He of the scything claws and empurpled hands! He, the famished, rampant beneath the moon! He of the green ichor! And yet this terror is but a lesser servitor of the Power he adumbrates. Note: I modified the Deathclaw with a demon skull from GW's box of skulls, because the original sculpt, while horned and bone-masked, wasn't quite horned and bone-masked ENOUGH for my tastes.

These have been pending for a while, but waiting on an impenetrable and incomprehensible bureaucracy is very much in character. A formidable trio of problem solvers and troubleshooters, here to defend Lunar-Kompleks Alfa! Comrade Janiss has Blue-level clearance for equipment needed to contain 'unscheduled reality incursions.' Comrade Jonesy prefers to rely on tried-and-true methods of containing ideologically impossible entities (i.e., more radiation is a good thing): whilst Comrade Janey, knowing that incorporeal entities are degenerate religious propaganda of Earth pig-dogs, has never met a ghost she couldn't punch. POW! RIGHT in the dialectically-material kisser! Lunar-Kompleks Alfa is not proud of eccentric elements such as these, but they have saved the station on several occasions. Space Ghosts are, of course, a delusion...but a particularly persistent one. And on the barren, cratered moon, who ARE you going to call?

Painted up a number of sailors and fishpeople, as many of you know--but I'm always looking to expand the diversity of my human crew and the grotesquerie of my Innsmouth cadre. So here are Tyrell and Yarmouth, out on a crab-fishing trip. Both are from Crooked Dice. More angles on our anglers here. The folk from Innsmouth town know where the fishing is good! There's some as say they can call the biggest catches to their boats! Subduing the catch though--that's a different matter. Fortunately, Yarmouth is a burly customer. Break out the butter sauce, lads! Tyrell definitely looks weirded out, and correctly so, but there's going to be time enough to worry about horrible cult secrets after the crab-steaming. And if weird eldritch stuff starts going down, anything that can crack that shell is a good weapon to have at hand.

It would be nice to think about cyberpunk utopias, but somehow those just don't grip the popular imagination. Instead it's always overcast or raining, the sky is brocced, corporations own everything and everyone and surveillance is ubiquitous. There's money to be had, but barely enough to buy noodles unless you're connected...or willing to ignore corporate law. Devo Ranks eats the *fancy* noodles every day. They have Skillz. Click for more angles. Hacking into a Public Service Panopticon? CHILD'S PLAY. If you need muscle? Devo Knows A Guy. Or lady, really. Don't worry, Dez! Those cameras are showing nothing but innocuous looped footage now. No one pays the cleaners enough in the cyberpunk dystopian future. I won't pretend to understand what kind of cyber-heist these three are conducting. But you can be sure they have made Powerful Enemies, as well as enough credits to afford the FANCY noodles for the rest of the year! Devo is a fun one. Gender-ambiguous and tech-savvy. Because cyberpunk is inextricable from the late 80s and early 90s, I gave Devo the most day-glo Nickelodeon counterculture wardrobe I could think of. Dez from Bombshell we have seen before, in the post-apocalyptic Radlands, as well as the little sniper from Crooked Dice. The Public Service Panopticonnouncer was made from SD card placeholders and chunks of expired credit card, along with I think a vape component. The text, like much of the signage on the building, comes from a beer can label artfully chopped into pieces and rearranged into vaguely menacing advertisements. Also some sprue and all the camera-looking Bitz and Gunz in my Bitz Box. I don't have any cyberpunk setting or games planned, but I can feel the itch growing. C&C welcome.

More agricultural laborers, these ones more suited to the early modern and modern era. Here is a Midlam Halfling Farmer in a cider orchard, accompanied by a faithful pig (from 77567, Pig and Cart). "Aye, that do be true what they say, one bad apple WILL spoil the whole barrel, right enough. You soon get an eye for the bad ones, and a nose too. But that's what the pig's for." "Spoil the whole barrel. aye, but a bad apple do nowt to a pig save make 'em better eating. Apple's a good food for pork, and the apple wood's good for the bacon in the smokehouse." "Apples within and apple without, as you might say, and then a glass of cider to wash the pork down. That's a good meal of a cold night." Another Midlam farmer, this one human. (This fellow is 28mm scale or so, not heroic scale). Those farming togs could fit in anywhere across three centuries or so. "Been working this land, man and boy, like my father and his father and his father before 'im, as long back as folks these parts can remember. And there's one thing I can tell you..." "...One thing, aye, that'll keep the crops bearing and the well full, and that's keeping on good terms with the Gentry. Nay, not Lord Bastard as lives up in the manor, I mean the Gentry. Them as live under the hill." "Oh, a sharp sickle and manure on the fields, and driving the furrows right, can't do without those, but that's just work as needs doing. No, there's no amount of work will make good if the Old Ways aren't held up. That's why I've called on Brigit here. She'll walk the rows, sing to the soil and the water and the seeds. That's how the Gentry like it." "And then, o' course, stand up Mister Mangel to oversee the work and keep away the crow. New clothes now and then, and new stuffing or a pole now and then, but old Mangel has been here as long as we have. I fancy the Gentry have come to see him as part o'the family, like. They wouldn't be pleased if he weren't out in the field. Not pleased at all." "Aye, Mangel will see to it no harm come to the rows nor the field nor the fences. Always looking out, he." More angles: Bridgit here is one of the May Queens from Crooked Dice. I tried to give her a sheer shift but could probably push it a little more. Tips and advice welcome. Mister Mangel is also from Crooked Dice, and there's a wonderfully sinister aspect to him. Now, I'm a fan of scarecrows, but this here, without bone claws or a face, just has such latent menace. You know that while that sickle is rusted, the edge is still shiny-sharp. And I tell a lie there; you can make out a face pushing out of those rags and tatters, or in the gauze of that veil. And you can imagine the squeak of old twine-bound timber and the soft thudding hopping sounds tap-tapping behind you on a windy night, tap, tap, tap, the sound of rags flapping, the breeze whistling off that sickle's edge, closer and closer, now almost upon you, TAP-TAP-TAP as wheeling crows in impossible numbers fill the air with dark wings and blot out the moonlight, cawing and flapping so no one will hear your screaming if you dare harm the wheat in the fields before harvest time. Which you wouldn't do, of course. But not because you believe such things.

I have been painting these as long as the others, but have lots of photo cropping. Currently painting the sacrificial victim from the Islanders set of Children of the Field... it was separate from the rest of my minis from that kickstarter. And also a (n unofficial) time lord companion for a variety of "normal" female minis. Pics later

I've had most of these in some state of finished for a while now, but it took me some time to lay hands on a Dragon Plant. But here we have the entire verdant army--not so much tree creatures or fungi, but bosky flowering herbs and forbs. First up, some Vardu plant-people from Hydra Miniatures (while they specialize in retro spacefuture sci-fi, they have some other treasures). A Warrior and eight Sproutlings. More angles: The sproutlings come in two sculpts, but the whippy vine-arms are easily posed and bent. The Warrior comes with an extra head option (petals closed), which I have used below. Next, some Creepers from Crooked Dice! These are magnificent shambling Pod People. I tried to give the fleshy-petaled 'head' a louche, unwholesome look, like something pollinated by carrion beetles. A couple of more sessile forms, maybe an earlier stage in the lifecycle. Couldn't resist the red-and-white color scheme. The Death Star Lilies (77504) are brilliant sculpts--the open and closed form of an organic bear-trap. And the Dragon Plant is clearly related, with the serrated petals and sticky anther lure. Group shots of the less anthropoid plants: And the whole Triffidoid faction:

Coincidentally, I had this figure very nearly done two days ago when the sad news of Diana Rigg’s passing was made public. It always was a tribute to her incandescent portrayal of Emma Peel in the old British TV show “The Avengers”, but now it’s a memorial as well. Requiescas in pacem, Ms. Rigg. The figure is “Pandora King (Classic)” from Crooked Dice miniatures. Crooked Dice has a minis game based on cult TV and they’ve produced a lot of different figures suitable for that sort of storytelling.

Fishfolk Fisherman and Fishfolk Fishwife from Crooked Dice. The fisherman, in oilskins and sou'wester, is a perfect blend of the Gorton's mascot and his product. The bug-eyed fishwife with cleaver was a delight to paint, especially the Atlantic salmon. A shot of some of the Waite Fish Packing Concern's employees, featuring some old friends from RatTrap and BlackCat: The Real Housewives of Innsmouth (including a repurposed Bonnie, 50293, with improvements upon her previous appearance): and one of just the fellas: Golly gee willikers I love painting fishmen. Special credit also to the Dreadmere Fishing Boat, 44032, the perfect touch for the setting.

...and whilst gathering Firewood of an evening, I chanced to see a glow from a clearing a-nearby and hear sounds as of Chanting; taking it upon myfelf to enquire further, and creeping to the edge of yon Clearing I beheld Gooddame Wembley and Goodwife Jessup comporting themfelves oddly round a curious ring of stones; likewise with them was an uncanny Moppet malign of afpect, conftructed of string and rags, and also Effigies of wood and bracken made, which same did appear to move of their own Accord as though they had Volition, and did consort with thofe worthies... ...Prefently there appeared from out the Foreft a Hierophant, chasubled and mantled with vainglorious trappings akin to any robed Prieft of ROME, with a Ram's skull to mask therewith, and brandishing an Axe with Divelish cries and ensorcellments moft terrible to hear, which Cacophony was join'd by the other two and likewife a black Cat which wove in and out from between their legs... ...Anon came forth a monstrous Fiend, in shape like a Man from the Belly upwards and like unto a Goat below, crook-legged, hoov'd, and hairy, unclad, and similarly with a Countenance like that of a Ram's from shoulders upwards, the skull being without Skin or Flesh, yet do I atteft this was in no wise any mask, but its veritable Head undisguif'd; and the three of them did make obeisance to the Thing and venerated it abandon'dly with blafphemous Rites more Hellish and vile than thofe of the unregenerate Heathen, and the wooden Effigies did dance the while, and the Moppet also... ...whereupon with clean Conscience I could endure to see no more, and fled. Thif I do atteft before God and before the Affembly to be a full and complete Account of my Experience in the wood that night, and affix my Hand thereunto, the same being --MILES WIGGLESWORTH his mark X. Another from Crooked Dice! I've posted Dita (80006) and Estra (60198) last Fall in the Early Modern Monster Hunters series, but Crooked Dice's Wasteland Cultist and Goatman are new. (There's an almost identical mini to the Cultist in the 'Children of the Fields' line, but I like the more tattered version here.) The Goatman is just straight-up creepy in a way that many more overtly brutal or vicious sculpts are not. No demon genitals are visible on the model but I have placed the full frontal view in a spoiler just in case.

"The science of computronics progresses every year! Why, if my projections are accurate, by the far-flung year 2020, these computing machines could have ten times the processing power in a space a third of the size! With advances in magnetic tape and vacuum tubes, every home could have a computer no bigger than a large desk. The slide rule will be obsolete, and logarithm tables a thing of the past! Just imagine--with the power of a global network of thinking machines, the lucky people in the utopia of 2020 will live as gods, having solved all of society's ills." These are some righteously retro MDF set dressing pieces from Crooked Dice. They require some assembly. I got the Cooling Panel, Quad Databank, Corner Console, and Computer. Tried to paint them to look a bit gungy and used, like they're in a damp, condensation-prone basement and a technician has probably spilled coffee on them once or twice. Great for underground bases, nuclear launch sites, ground control, power plant operations, etc. Click for assembly info:

The Cursêd Earth cries out in bitter torment. Little grows in the poisoned soil. The rain is a caustic joke. Roving gangs of marauders and mercenaries squabble and kill for the pettiest of gains. ...But that doesn't mean that people in this bleak hellscape can't accessorize! These are the Lady and Gentleman from Crooked Dice's apocalypse line. I painted them up in schemes evoking Peter Perfect and Penelope Pitstop, from "Wacky Races." I love the rag-wrapped viola on Peter's back--a fragile souvenir from the Before-Times. The dumpster is Reaper's, 49036. It is a magnificent piece of municipal infrastructure. The lids open and the hatches slide. The shipping containers are 80036. I love doing rust effects! Should probably try my hand at graffiti sometime. Not like the apocalypse would have changed the fundamental nature of unruly teens.

Fe fi fo fum, here come the Giants! Ignore the bases, they are temporary until the Sons of Behemat codex releases and I know what I can proxy them as. First up we have Devin Townsend...er, the Kings of War Giant. Then the former Otherworld Giant, now produced by Crooked Dice Games. And a very iconic piece of loot:

Another Kickstarter from Crooked Dice. This expands their well established "TV7" line with new rules, new figures and the chance to buy old ones at a discount. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/c87-3/argonauts-7tv-programme-guide-and-miniatures?ref=discovery_category_newest I've backed several of their projects and always had good, friendly service with excellent figures, so I shall be having at least a few of these. Something to keep me happy for the next few, isolated weeks!

Nearly missed this: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/c87-3/colony-87-the-third-wave-28mm-sci-fi-civilians?ref=section-games-view-more-recommendations-p1 Colony 87 by Crooked Dice. 12 days to go and they have comfortably passed their funding goal. Nice looking SF figures, nearly all non-military types. I'm all in!

On the good advice of @paintybeard and @lexomatic I took the plunge and got the Villains 3 set from Crooked Dice. It contains a Cold-War era cycloptic Squid Man Agent as well as a mad biologist (see elsewhere). And you never know when a violent young lady will come in handy, so I also got one of their Savage Schoolgirls with hockey sticks. I've done better faces and skin, but I'm pretty pleased with the tattered stockings and skirt. Whatever this squidfella is asking, Miss Blunt-Instrument is having none of it. Here's a turnaround just for the squid-man and here's one for the savage Sixth Former. I should put some blood spatter on that stick and shirt!

The no-nonsense body language on this late Cold-War henchlady from Crooked Dice is priceless. She is Very Serious about her job. And apparently her job is to guard a Very Serious Door (80052. I've bought a couple of these in Bones and the floor always warps, but the arch and hatch are solid). What's behind the door? Whom does she work for? These are questions for Man to ask and God to know. Me, I like to imagine she's from an alternate-history paramilitary branch of the Girl Scouts, and that door conceals psychoactive-laced cookies, the judicious distribution of which can topple governments. ORRRRR maybe just some Soviet minion guarding a weapons vault, but where's the fun in that.

From the Villains 3 pack from Crooked Dice: a mad scientist's mad scientist. Shock of hair, beady spectacles, manic grin, pet baby shoggoth. I'd long lamented the fact that none of my mad scientists were specifically mad zoologists, but NO LONGER. Again, kudos to @lexomatic and @paintybeard for the tips. Stolen and reverse-engineered Mi-Go technology has allowed remarkable breakthroughs in the field of Brainservants.

Last of my Crooked Dice shipment! I had no original intention of getting these when I looked through the site, but they were too good to pass up. Punky little sniper lady? Sure thing! Rastafarian with a chain gun? YES PLEASE. Gas-masked wanderer in a post-apocalyptic three-piece tweed suit and bandolier? DON'T MIND IF I DO!! A turnaround for Seong-ja the sniper: For the Babylon-battling Brother Jonothan: and for Neville Kingston-Brown: And a group shot of all the Wastelanders to date:

Crooked Dice are running a VERY short kickstarter for only 4 days starting tomorrow evening: I love the look of the thug on the second right, probably going in for the whole set. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1039850061/pulp-heroes-and-villains-28mm-miniatures