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Here's a really fun one i found on Etsy i wanted to paint. Touching my youth doing this one.

A return to the psychedelic fungal jungles of Retro-venus and the harsh plains of the Imperial homeworld, with a Space Princess for each. I really can't overstress what a lovely sculpt Azeemah, from Hydra's Imperials faction, is. Definitely looks as stern as she is beautiful, though not as cruel as her unstable sister. With her Void Metal saber and standard raygun, she is all business. More angles: Both the Princesses: And a cadre of the Imperial Court: And in the Venerian jungle, the no-nonsense Princess Alluria, ready for anything the planet throws at her, animal or vegetable. Guest appearance from the Death Lilies, and some Halloween Venus Flytrap decor. More below: And with a couple of her retinue (TWO males, she is *very* high-status).

"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:

So obviously I am kidding, I PAINT my miniatures (well collecting/stocking up), and then display (or sell?) them, same with my plastic models and other toys:) I also collect video games and other things. Now I used to collect baseball cards and comics, and I can understand grading of these items and in some instances having them (essentially) hermetically sealed BUT, VIDEO GAMES?????? REALLY???? I buy my games to PLAY! NOT seal them up for all time and stick them on a shelf! Does anyone else think this is weird???

At last, that should complete the color series! 50150, Betty, Space Heroine, done up as a Galacteer in Pixie Pink. What a great sculpt this one is, and what an expressive face! Ain't nothing in known space going to burst her bubble. Relentlessly cheerful.

More planetary explorers! Hydra's Jane Hunter x2 and Galacteer Trooper Advancing with Atomic Bazooka. I picked up a Reaper Futuristic Weapons pack (50025) and didn't know what to do with it for the longest time. But then the Muse slapped me in the head, saying FLAMETHROWER SPACE LADY. How wise the Muse is. Presenting "Torch" Marigold of the Galacteers. You need a seam welded or a bug-eyed monstrosity turned to ash, she is on the job! Also presenting Corporal Hernandez, heavy weapons specialist. Space is big. Sometimes it contains big problems. Sometimes those big problems require big solutions. That's the good Corporal's time to shine. With the brightness of a thousand suns. I love this sculpt so much. And here is Lieutenant Yang, xenthropologist and exodiplomat extraordinaire.This is the unmodified 'Jane Hunter' model. This spaceship is an even larger plastic egg with fins made from wooden dolphin cutouts and engines made from multiple types of fruit-paste-pouch caps. Why do I have so many of those caps? Children/nieces/nephews are the gift that keeps giving. Until next time, cadets!

Here are a couple more vivid vavoom Venerians from RETRO-VENUS. They both have Master's degrees--in BEASTS. They are beastmasters, is what I'm saying, which is a valuable skill in the beast-intensive rainforest-marshes. DON'T call them beastmistresses; that's what you'd call Maurice's daughter Belle. Beast Mastery is a different thing entirely, quite independent of gender. This sculpt is Hydra's Valkeeri Controller A. The Beast in question here was a Paizo Hound of Tindalos, which didn't look creepy enough for Cthulhu use, but which would fit right in with the fungal jungles. I assume it fills a coyote-like niche, if coyotes could climb trees and swing from vines. This Controller is quite self-assured; you just need to take a firm tone with these creatures and establish dominance. And here's Controller B, dealing with a recalcitrant and obstreperous reptile. The Beast here started as a D&D grab-bag Basilisk, but those extra legs looked perfect for a Space Marine Iguana*, so I painted some eye-watering aposematic spots on it. This thing is poisonous and venomous and psychoactive and also pointy. RETROVENUS demands such adaptations of it to deter its natural predators. Now, imagine how badass the Venerians must be to have no spines, fangs, claws, or poison sacs. Controller B is making that point abundantly clear even to the dull-witted lizard brain of this Beast. *Do I mean a xenoequivalent to our Galapagos marine iguanas, or an iguana as tough as a Space Marine? Yes.

Venus, as we all know, is a boiling toxic hell of molten metal and sulfurous rains. But in our grandparents' day and the day of *their* parents, it was a mysterious swamp/rainforest of impossible lushness and growth, a primordial and fecund Ur-Jungle of perpetual rot and growth. So it is in my Spacefuture games. Nolzur's makes a Displacer Beast, which iconic D&D monster was inspired by van Vogt's Coeurl (from the "Voyage of the Space-Beagle"). It seemed fitting to paint it up as a SPACE PANTHER! taking patterning cues evenly from tigers and blue-ringed octopodes. Here is a Hydra Valkeeri trooper with a disruptor rifle. They are a broad-shouldered, statuesque people, and I've painted them as photosynthetic. Which is the more dangerous game? Who the hunted, and who the hunter? Or do they hunt together, pursuing that floundering interloper upon their planet--MAN? (Yes, it's that one; that's what they are hunting.)

Hydra's Retro Raygun line is delightful. I've finally managed to get a couple of shots where the light is adequate to do them and their jetpacks and spacesuits justice. Meet Dr. Zahn, Chief Science Officer. He's not the fittest or youngest of the Galacteers, but a genius intellect and a life of broad-based learning can more than justify a broad-based spacesuit. And here is the Chief of Security, Sergeant Macklin. He looks like his springs are wound a bit too tight. SPACE MADNESS is always a risk on these excursions, especially with a dangerous job like his. The Redshirt Blues are a known issue. Next, here's Comet! An uplifted chimpanzee, Comet knows more spaceship engineering than most humans. After all, Comet was designed for the job, and wefumblefeet have to make do with studying. (I think my favorite detail is the foot-gloves. Genius and adorable.) Comet would never mutiny and side with other Space Apes in a waste-flinging rebellion, overthrowing his human pals for primate self-governance, so let's forget the subject even came up. Just put that thought out of your head, mister! Nope, not something to worry about at all. The landing craft is a wooden egg with some bird cutouts mutilated into fins, an applesauce-pack-cap jet, and some goggle-vent retrothrusters. Until next time, cadets!

Well, I lied. Looks like we're doing spacefuture minis first. I'm a big fan of the retrofuture aesthetic, and 50227, DeeDee, is a great example. So are Hydra Miniatures' Galacteers, which I've been painting in neat color-coded fashion. Here's the AstroGirl in that scheme, a laser-packing, problem-solving planetary explorer. Hydra also has a set of Valkeeri, which are more or less Space Amazons. DeeDee would work out well for these too! This time the uniform is painted less extensively, as is appropriate for the boiling jungle-swamps of Retro-Venus. Other things you may expect to see in the SPACEFUTURE!! tag include BUT ARE NOT LIMITED TO: -galacteers - green-skinned Space Independent and Confident Women - MOLE PEOPLE FROM SIRIUS!! - Moravecs (androids) - Mutants and wasteland survivors - Crawlers (Bathalians and similar) - COMMIES FROM THE MOON -Technophilosophers of Mars (Reaper's Alien Overlords and similar) - Space Apes - Other, different Space Apes -SPACE MYSTERIES?? Until next time, cadets!

This is now live and funded. About this project Wilderlands Talislanta is a fantasy roleplaying game and game-setting that was first published back in 1986. Unlike most RPGs from the 1980s, the Talislanta milieu was not based on traditional Western mythology. It didn’t have the usual Tolkien-esque trappings of games like D&D; in fact, ads for the game proudly proclaimed, “No Elves”. The original Talislanta RPG was inspired by the fantasy novels of Jack Vance, and by other sources such as H.P. Lovecraft’s The Dreamlands of Unknown Kadath, Michael Moorcock’s Elric novels, and The Travels of Marco Polo. The game was set in a strange world of twin suns and seven moons that seemed to be practically overflowing with exotic peoples, places, and creatures. The time was the New Age, a Renaissance-like period that started a thousand or more years after The Great Disaster, a cataclysm that marked the fall of the once-great Archaen Age. During this era, Talislanta was still a dangerous place, especially in the wilderness regions that lay beyond the walled cities. But for many who lived in the New Age, there was also a sense of hope, and the possibility of greater things to come. That Was Now. This Is Then...

Hi everyone. I was asked a few months ago to show exaples of my work. I'm choosing to post up my whole chronology, as I don't have THAT many complete figures. I'll also try to include the names/company/sculptor if possible, and any interesting (in my mind) stories about them. I think it's very nostalgic to see where I have been, and how I got where I am now. Hopefully it inspires people just starting out to realize that as you add techniques here and there, you really do get better. Probably much faster than I did. So, without further ado... These were my ?Third and Fourth? figures ever? Circa 1986 (though online catalogs suggest they were released later than that). They are Citadel/Games Workship Space Marines called "Terminator Honours and Bolter (1 and 2)." I called the top one Sarge and the bottom one Captain. They were supposed to be from the Salamander Chapter. The mark above their eyes were their rank insignia. The skull and lines on the Bolters were supposed to be kill tallies. As you can see, no basing, no figure cleanup, no putty, lots of dings (30 years old?). I think they were painted with Testors paint, for God's Sake! Techniques used: Basecoat, Drybrush, Freehand. And is it perhaps one of the earliest documented attempts at NMM? (See those yellow crosses and eagles?). My friend who got me into miniatures said "Why did you paint that yellow?" My reply was "It's supposed to look like cartooney gold." He said "You're supposed to use gold paint!" So, that was the last of my NMM attempts until current day. I was like 8 or 10 years old when I painted these. I was SOO happy with the shoulder pad free hand, that I entered them into a contest at a modeller's convention (airplanes and such). I didn't place, and was very dumbfounded... Surely the judges had to appreciate the level of skill it took to paint that free hand? A lot more han gluing together and airbrushing an F-14 Tomcat? Oh well, that was the end of my painting contests until this year!

Next year's Reapercon will have a retro sci fi theme. I thought I'd start a thread to gather helpful and useful tips and hints for costuming ideas. Here's something (mildly edited) I posted on the 2014 Reapercon Cosplay thread: I was in Jo-Ann fabrics earlier today and found something cool and sci fi looking. It's metallic-look flexible mesh tubing, about 8mm in diameter, intended for flower arranging (I gather you loop it around, or something, with the flowers). It's super flexible and super lightweight and comes in 20 yard packages for about five bucks. It comes in various metallic colors and iridescent white, although I gravitated towards straight silver. I imagine it snaking all over a retro astronaut outfit. It's more delicate, and more showy, than the flexible plastic tubing I found at the hardware store (which is meant to hold multiple computer cords together and also looks pretty cool and astronauty).