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'Scorch' Sotniko was hot. This whole damn world was hot, but this stinking jungle somehow seemed to be hotter still. The other mercenaries he was moving through the jungle with looked like they were feeling about the same as he was. Strange Midnight, their scout, didn't seem to be bothered as much as everyone else, but that was because he came from the rad deserts of Zargove-3. This was just a nice stroll in the woods for him. Scorch knew that they'd be at the rendezvous point in another half hour or so, and then he'd get a break. He'd be able to refill his canteens, as well as to remove the heavy Intergalactic Marine Expeditionary Force armor that he'd gotten a few months back off the black market. Between the heavy armor, the protective anti-flash gear, the flamethrower he was carrying, and all the rest of his gear, he had a fairly heavy load. It'd be good to able to shed the weight, even if only for a little while. Some of the other guys gave him grief about his chosen equipment, but they hadn't seen what the bugs they were hunting could do to a man; Scorch had. From what he'd heard, the IMEF armor was supposed to offer a substantial amount of protection from the claws and fangs that most of their current enemy was armed with. Likewise, the flamethrower was good for keeping them at a distance and killing whole swaths of the things at once. Yeah, it might be hot, but the way Scorch figured it, that was better than all the screamin', bleedin' and dyin' he remembered from his first encounter with the bugs. Nothing fancy, just a fairly quick tabletop paint job to shake the rust off.

Did anyone notice that newer IMEF troopers (50322, 50323, 50324, 50325) are about substantially bigger then older IMEF figures like 50263, 50254, 50175. Why this inconsistency? The newer trooper look gigantic compared to the old ones - full head taller, bulkier body. Also the newer troopers have molded in base that need substantial cutting in order to fit on a regular reaper 30mm round base (included w mini). Why change from tab/slot configuration? Is this a new norm? A new IMEF series? "Hello little boy" ig

So after painting a bunch of fantasy adventurers, I decided I needed a bit of a change of pace. Enter my finds of some IMEF infantrymen and a mech from something I'm not familiar with (all Reaper minis).. and combine that with my extensive experience with military model kits. What you get is this project to paint the IMEF guys in colors inspired by the Japanese Special Naval Landing Forces; one is finished and the others are in progress. The mech is being painted up in camo inspired by Japanese army tank camo colors to make it kind of a matching set. In the last pic you can also see my Victorian adventuress from the Raj, if you want to call it that.

Some of you have probably seen my Tycho AFV for my Nova Corp figures, and the Rottweiler Grav Tank I'm working on for my IMEF figures. They've been quite fun to create. And now I've been going through my collection of other Reaper Chronoscope figures, and I've realized I've got a few other groups of figures that I could make similar sized units from. If I do that, it would be only fair if I gave them each a vehicle. Since it will be a little bit before I actually get around to any of these, I thought I would ask you all what sort of look you would envision for vehicles for these various factions: Cyber-Reavers - Given the Terminator vibe of these minis, I'm thinking something along the lines of the Hunter Killer flying craft from the movies. Kulathi - ??? Bathalians - ??? Blackstar Corsairs - ???. I'm thinking maybe some sort of drop pod or drop ship for them? Or maybe just a bigger walker? The Gray Aliens already have a flying saucer, so they're good. That's what I have in my collection already (mostly thanks to 3 Bones Kickstarters). But I went ahead and browsed through the Chronoscope line in the store, and while I don't really see any other groups of minis that are big enough to make complete units, there are a few that were inspiring, should additional minis for them come along: Illyrians (2 minis) - ??? Blood Nebula Mercenary (1 mini) - ??? Alien Overlords (3 minis) - ??? Sligg (3 minis) - ??? There are also enough sci-fi hero types, such as Kirby McDowell Space Privateer and Bonnie Futuristic Heroine, to assemble mercenary like unit. They'll need a vehicle too. So let's see your thoughts and ideas.

Got my painting room into shape enough to start painting. Since I haven't really done much since...May? I figured I'd just done some quick table top figs to get back into it. Most of my figs are still stuffed in the closet or basement, but I found a bag of IMEF marines I'd been using as proxies for SecFor IV in MERCS: Recon until I got some MERCS painted. Picked out one of each (don't seem to have the kneeling guy, have to track him down once I get my Bones out of the closet) and threw some brown liner on them. So far I've determined I need to steal the comfy padded chair back from my wife. The hard wooden chair will not do for long sessions.....

Back in December, when I finally had some time and motivation to get back to painting, I decided I'd really quickly do up some IMEF marines. Just table top, didn't even clean up mold lines or anything. Well, do primarily to being easily distracted by......what was I saying? Oh yes, easily distracted by other bright shiny objects, it took me over 4 months to get them all done. Here is a quick group shot. I still don't have any real futuristic urban terrain to use to shoot these guys. Reggie and Torch still need to be sealed, but looking at the forecast it could be June before it stops raining. The rest have already seen combat as some mercs for hire last week in Savage Rifts. WIP ( with many individual shots) is here: http://forum.reapermini.com/index.php?/topic/78476-jasper-gets-back-to-painting-with-some-imef-marines/

Continuing on from my sculpting thread here, I've begun assembly and painting of my Rottweiler tank. Started sanding and first coat of primer. Ran out of black primer, so stalled myself out. I'm thinking this might be a practice piece for a ReaperCon entry of the same tank.

As if I didn't already have so many projects in progress I can't count, I kept looking at the case of Bones IMEF figures, and thought "These guys need something that can take out a few NOVA Corp Tycho AFVs." This concept was born: I am shooting for it to be about the size of a GW Land Raider. Going to block it out in Fusion 360 soon.

Started these back in October, specifically the Sara Blitzer conversion. Was working on them at Reapercon, finished them during the Minivember challenge. Based and sprayed last night. I also completed one more of the Tisdale cousins, from the BoGW. They are ready for the game tonight. From left to right: 80024, 80049, 80014, 80019, 80021, 80010.

This is from last weekend's lazy paint day. I may add some water slide decals when I get my regular paint station back.

As mentioned in my other threads, running a modern campaign now as well as trying to hit a certain goal by the end of the year which means painting needs to pick up and time to get these modern minis done (how many years ago was Bones I released? let's not talk about that...) This mini was more fun than she looked unpainted. She has a quirky early 90s looking poof of hair poking up around her head piece reminiscent of Jean Grey from the X-Men cartoon series. Based on that I thought an odd color combo (red and purple) might be more fun. The camo on the gun was an after though as I was trying to think of ways to add more to it so it's so prominent. I was inspired by someone's cav post (not sure which) where they did quite a lot of camo and thought I'd give it a try. I think it turned out alright, but will probably experiment so more with it in the future (it's military green, camoflage green, basic dirt, and ginger cookie for those curious). Thanks for reading! Comments, criticism and suggestions are always appreciated!

Decided to intersperse some modern folks with my painting since my gaming group had discussed possibly playing a modern campaign in a few months. Picked this guy up to try out my skills on the troopers. Mostly happy with how he turned out. Some details that I didn't quite get the way I wanted, but okay enough for table top I think. Thank you for reading and following along!

How many parts are there to this model? Is the head/hatch separate? I ask because I'd like to see these next to my CAV models. Cheers.

For Secret Sophie this year I got Klarg1 and he was looking for something Sci-Fi. I'd had an IMEF Bulldog that I'd been eager to paint since it first came out (Big Stompy Robots!!) but never gotten to. So I ordered myself another one and started in on it. I decided early on to go with battle damaged, so I could use both the pilot and the hatch, and so I could try out painting some damage. Then after Christmas I needed something to paint at work (and had just received a bunch of new military triads from the 12 days of Reaper) so I grabbed a couple of IMEF troopers to work on there while I was finishing the Bulldog at home. I'm pretty happy with how everything came out and I'm pretty sure the rest of my IMEF are going to get painted in a very similar fashion.

Some of you may remember that I recently posted the IMEF Reggie Van Zandt figure I had completed as a test figure for painting the rest of the IMEF set from the Bones 1 Kickstarter: http://forum.reapermini.com/index.php?/topic/65909-imef-reggie-van-zandt-80017-bones/?hl=imef Over the Christmas break I had the time to finish the last of the figures from the set with quick tabletop paint-jobs, and here they are: As always, C & C welcome

I completed the IMEF Reggie Van Zandt Gatling-gunner figure over the weekend. This was my test figure for a paint scheme for the rest of the IMEF crew that came with the Bones I KS. I did a nice serviceable tabletop quality paint job on him, but was quite pleased with how is face turned out. All C & C welcome.

I haven't posted anything in Show Off for awhile, so to start here's the IMEF squad that I just finished off. I've been painting nothing but fantasy this year, so it was a nice change of pace.

For no reason in particular, I decided to paint up some bones that weren't fantasy. First, I did a general search for military uniforms but I wasn't inspired by the modern stuff. Then I did a search for historical uniforms, which had more potential but still wasn't exactly what I was looking for either. In the end, I decided to make up my squad colors based off of the following line of reasoning: In the near future the battlefield has shifted from areas where chlorophyll and dirt predominate to urban areas and spaceship corridors. Tech has advanced to the point where avoiding detection by wavelengths out of the visual spectrum (IR, x-ray, etc) is more important than being seen normally. And maybe soldiers all have their own personal shields that negate the first few shots against them. In short, it can be like the old made new, where squads wear the colors of their employer/nation rather than drab greens or browns. I played around with a few ideas on the computer first, but in the end decided to use one member of the squad as a test and then do the remainder as a group paint. First up, a nice warm color. I didn't really take any in progress shots so here's the basically completed armor. I skipped the chest plate because I was thinking that it might be something that stands out. If not, it can easily be made to match the rest. Next up, cloth.

I've finally got around to painting a figure for my character in my friend Joff's Traveller game — Cyrus Button, bodyguard, enforcer, and party accountant. It's Bones 80016: IMEF: Nick Stone. Just in time for the campaign to fold. Oh well, timing is everything, they say. We never really used miniatures in that game anyway.

So, I've got a few bugs for the IMEF to hunt, but in order to do it right, there need to be some grungy, steam-filled corridors for them to hunt the bugs IN. Thanks to a trip to Skycraft (a local surplus store in the Orlando, Florida area), and to the generosity of my friend Chris Stadler (who has practically every Hirst Arts Castlemold ever made), I've got a good start on some modular sci-fi corridor sections. At Skycraft Surplus, I picked up a bunch of "Fluoroware" 2" square tiles (some slightly pressure-warped wafer trays), plus I've got a bunch of plastic cross-stitch grid and assorted interesting plastic textures (from plastic deli trays, etc.) that I've been saving because "I could use this for some sci-fi scenery some day." I put these down on some foam-core illustration board that I marked off in 1" grids (maximum size of 6"x6" for the basic modular tiles), and used some of the Hirst Arts Industrial Edge pieces (cast by Chris Stadler) to create short wall indicators. I LOVE the Industrial Edge castings. They have some conduits/pipes that nicely visually link the pieces together, and techno-bits that allow for numerous ways to fit them for variety. The "tech" is a little dated, in that, for instance, there's a CRT screen in one of the corners, but it would work perfectly for classic Space Hulk. I am thinking of trying to supplement it with some "high-tech cues," though for right now this nicely communicates some grungy, maintenance-access corridor type areas. So far, all I've done is to glue down the floor sections and the edges, then to thoroughly base it black, then to messily spritz it with grey so I end up with a grungy base look. I need to go back and do some detail work for things such as indicator lights, the conduits, gratuitous caution strips, etc. What I'd really like to do would be to make some "holo-terminals" with some translucent "neon" (green, yellow, orange, etc.) plastic strips and etch in some "display" details. I've seen the sort of plastic that would work for this, but I'm not sure where to get it without chopping up something that's perfectly useful. For now, I guess I'll just have to keep an eye out at the thrift stores and hope I get lucky. I don't figure there's anywhere I can get a sheet of "neon green" plastic cheaply. For doors, I'm likely to fall back on some Space Hulk doors. I was thinking of using some old Sci-Fi Supply vacu-form pieces I've had for a while, but they have fairly shallow details compared to the sharp details of the Hirst Arts pieces, and hence I'm not sure they'd look like they belong. (But then ... cardboard Space Hulk doors are even flatter.) For the segments, I've got an assortment of T-sections, 4-way intersections, straight-aways, rooms, and dead-ends. I also have a few corridor sections that do not have the wall edging, so they can either be used for straightaways, or else I can combine them together to make a larger chamber.

I'm not sure at what point it hit me, but when going through my Bones I realized that several of the IMEF Marines would make excellent G.I. Joes. Blowtorch was my "proof of concept", since I figured he had about the wildest color scheme of any of the characters that would match up. Can you figure out who is who? EDIT: Fixed broken links.

Was looking at the bases on the ones in the Preview section and started wondering just how wide the integral bases are. I've got some of the Chronoscope ones in the 30mm recessed bases they come with and was thinking about getting some of the 3 with assault rifles to convert into additional soldiers, so I was wondering if the new bases match the recessed area of the 30mm lipped bases?

At my local Barnes & Noble, I spotted a few Halo "Micro Ops" toys in the clearance bin for 50%, and I had a gift card to use. Although it was pretty clear that the figures in "Micro Ops" are NOT compatible with, say, Chronoscope ("Master Chief" in the set stands at slightly over 1" from bottom of feet to top of head, or about 1:72 scale), I thought it looked like it'd still be big enough to make use of. The "High Ground" set main pieces -- the Gate and the Tower -- were listed at $35 each (so at 50% off, I managed to get them together for $35). I was guilty of over-estimating the size of the toys from the pictures of the boxes and the sheer size of the boxes -- once I got them home to open up, I found there was a whole LOT of empty space. (You don't get to see the actual set pieces through blister plastic as you might through typical toy packaging, or else it'd be obvious just how small they are.) The Gate is about 9.5" wide and 4.25" tall, including a 1:72 scale Warthog, a stationary gun, and a couple of Spartans. It features a slide-open door that is approximately 4" wide and 1.8" tall. The Tower strikes me as being overall larger, as it's 9" wide at its widest point, and about 7" tall; if you include the removable canopy, it's up to about 10.5" tall. "Features" include the removable canopy (the "camo netting" is a separate piece that can be removed from the frame), a "Ghost" vehicle, Master Chief, and an alien rider for the Ghost. (Sorry, I'm not up on my Halo lore to know what the type is.) A nice touch is that the pieces not only fit together, but they can fit together in a few different ways; the gate has two connection points (one on each side), while the corner piece has three points and serves as either a corner or a T-junction. In the unlikely event I should somehow get a cache of these things on the cheap (thrift store jackpot?), I could very well string together several to make a ruined fortress battleground. (There's a separate set that's billed as part of the "High Ground" set -- the "exploding bunker" -- but it's much smaller and in my opinion overpriced, and doesn't link up with either.) Of the two, I felt like the Tower was a better detail, scenery-wise, but I have to confess that having the gate is pretty handy. (I need more sci-fi doors.) For 32mm scale minis, such as my Chronoscope IMEF troopers (or the nonheroic dollies, for that matter), the doorway arch is almost a head-bumper. It looks OKAY for use with 32mm scale minis, but it's problematic for anyone with "weapon held high" poses, such as Nick Stone. It'd probably work better if you do like Froggy the Great and put your minis on pennies, so the base isn't quite so thick. The upper level is definitely head-bumper territory, with the arch pieces. I suppose that's going to cause some trouble if you want to use this for miniatures wargaming; pieces with open platforms or lots of head clearance would work better. But, boy, the pre-paint effects are kind of nice. Maybe there'd be some hope with a bit of conversion. The Tower piece, on the other hand, has more clearance; it's got 3 levels, and on all 3 I can put Nick Stone or Sarah Blitzer without their upraised guns hitting the ceiling. (Well, okay, the top level is pretty easy, lacking a true ceiling.) Of the two, I think it's pretty much ready to go for tabletop gaming. The Ghost vehicle, despite the scale problems, could work as a passable "futuristic sci-fi hoverbike." (Its "alien" nature works in this sense, as it's not recognizably clear just how large or small it should be compared to its rider.) As for the other Micro Ops sets, none of them strike me as particularly useful with Reaper minis (except perhaps for the Wolf Spider gun turret), though I suppose if you wanted to play a scaled down "Halo the Tabletop Miniatures Game," they'd work well among themselves. (Sadly, my stash of Halo ActionClix won't play well with these guys AT ALL.) Now for the "work in progress" part, there are a few screw holes that are visible, and I plan on filling those in with putty. I'm entertaining the thought of trying to find a way to elevate the upper arch on the gateway to create more head clearance. The idea of raising the clearance on the gateway is somewhat appealing, but would be a major undertaking (and would require me to lift up the Tower piece as well, so that they'd still be able to link up ... ANNNND it means if I ever get more of these, I'd have even more work to do -- so I'm a little reluctant).