03997 Jet Pack Sophie as IMEF Air Support

[Jordan Peacock]

 

This particular Sophie has the benefit of having mechanical wings, so really ... she COULD just be an ordinary person who happens to be suited up for space combat.  As such, I think I'll be adding her to my collection of IMEF troopers.  Alas, I'm not skilled enough to paint an IMEF logo, but I had a sheet of transfers from some Robotech miniatures, and put a skull-and-crossbones logo on her shoulder pauldron.  (Not quite the right symbol, but it's at least in the neighborhood at a glance.)

 

Incidentally, I LOVE the styling of the armor.  The blister pack indicates this was the 03997 Jet Pack Sophie from ReaperCon 2015, sculped by Kev White.  This is my first model painted up using Citadel contrast paint (Talassar Blue).  I started by priming the figure grey, then dry-brushing white, before adding the Talassar Blue over most of the model.  It gave a pretty decent starting point, but it's difficult to do "back-and-forth" touch-up with the paint.

 

This mini was apparently missing a piece on the head -- a hair section to represent the "bangs" -- as I found Sophie had an oddly receding hairline.  I ended up using some epoxy putty to sculpt her some big goggles to cover up the problem.  Really, if she's going to be zipping around, at the very least she needs some goggles -- possibly even an entire helmet, though the IMEF seems to shun such things.

 

The base is a laser-cut Warsenal acrylic 25mm round base.  I used some paperclip wire to support the model to "hover."

 

The background is made from Hirst Arts Castlemolds sci-fi theme building blocks.

[Glitterwolf]

Good job, love it!

[Rigel]

Clever! Love the bright blues and the basing. It's a unique flavor of delight, getting this mini or that to fit in with a particular preexisting faction. 

[KruleBear]

Nice. I hadn’t noticed this mini before. The wing type jetpacks are pretty cool. 

[Inarah]

Nice!  Good to see her painted up and on the table.  I ought to do the same.  

[Chaoswolf]

Very cool idea, and a good paint job, too!

[Jordan Peacock]

On 12/7/2021 at 3:09 AM, Rigel said:

Clever! Love the bright blues and the basing. It's a unique flavor of delight, getting this mini or that to fit in with a particular preexisting faction. 

Yeah, Chronoscope is a mini line that initially kind of threw me off because the branding made me think, "What, is there a Chronoscope setting?" and then I puzzled over what sort of dimension-hopping/time-traveling storyline might possibly tie together all the oddball minis that were originally in the Chronoscope line (and then it just kept getting weirder ;D ).  Even if it's just a fancy way to say "anything that's not fantasy" and not indicative of any particular genre, sometimes it's fun to look at different scattered models in the line and think how they might fit together one way or another.

As for the paint -- well, as noted, it was my first experiment with "contrast paint."  It's pricey, so I don't think it's going to be a regular part of my painting arsenal, but it still has some interesting dynamics to it.

It seems to have some aspects of a wash, but also regular paint.  It's semi-translucent, as with most of my brightly colored paints, so it's very important what you put UNDER the paint.  I was told that it works equally well over a black or grey primed figure, but even if someone can get decent results that way, it certainly doesn't behave the same way.

Basically, I'd brush the paint over a light area (primed grey, heavy-highlighted white), and it would immediately "stain" the area blue.  It visibly flows a bit, yet it still has a certain amount of surface tension, so it's easier to control than a wash.  It doesn't show my "brush strokes" quite the way a conventional paint would, but I definitely had to work the paint a bit, careful not to over-apply to certain areas.  Apply it thinly, and you'll get a vibrant, bright blue (assuming a white or light under-paint).  Allow it to pool, and it will form a gradient to a deeper blue (and you also get a deeper blue where it gathers up in recessed details).

I also got some olive-ish green, figuring it might be useful for painting up some power-armored troopers and the like.  Accordingly, it's not as "vibrant," and I'm not quite sure what to think about the gradient/pooling dynamic in that case.  I'll have to try some more experimentation (since I have the paints and all).

I could see this working very well for painting faces.  Right now, I usually just paint a mid-tone "flesh" color (I have various Reaper "flesh triads" to pick from), and then apply a P3 "flesh wash" ... then after it dries, go back in and clean up with the Reaper mid-tone, shadow, and highlight.  I don't really know what I'm doing, or have the skill to manage a face that holds up for closeups, but that's how I go at it for now.  I'm supposing that applying a "flesh" contrast paint might give me the effect of the original mid-tone flesh layer *and* the darkening-in-recesses of the wash, but perhaps with a little less clean-up afterwards.  I might try it out sometime, but probably not until I use up most of my Reaper paints.  (I don't go through all that much "flesh tone" compared to the other paints, and I don't do a lot of high-volume painting, so I wouldn't want to accumulate too many expensive paints that run the risk of drying out on me before I use them all.)

On 12/7/2021 at 6:53 AM, KruleBear said:

Nice. I hadn’t noticed this mini before. The wing type jetpacks are pretty cool. 

 

The main body and the wing/jetpack are separate pieces.  I could envision another possible use for this set: Have "Sophie" as a standalone figure -- a sci-fi armored pilot type, sans wings -- and then take the "backpack" and have it represent a starfighter (at a different scale, for vehicular combat).  Either that, or I could imagine it at some sort of anti-grav drone.

The way "Sophie" is sculpted, the figure wouldn't look off minus the wings; this isn't one of those models where there's some sort of bizarre connection point that breaks up the figure.

In any case, I just happened to luck out and discovered this figure in my local game store (Sci-Fi City) when I was shopping for other minis for a campaign and decided ... hey, this looks cool enough, I need to paint it up and find an *excuse* to use it some day.  😄

 

[Inarah]

8 hours ago, Jordan Peacock said:

As for the paint -- well, as noted, it was my first experiment with "contrast paint."  It's pricey, so I don't think it's going to be a regular part of my painting arsenal, but it still has some interesting dynamics to it.

It seems to have some aspects of a wash, but also regular paint.  It's semi-translucent, as with most of my brightly colored paints, so it's very important what you put UNDER the paint.  I was told that it works equally well over a black or grey primed figure, but even if someone can get decent results that way, it certainly doesn't behave the same way.

Basically, I'd brush the paint over a light area (primed grey, heavy-highlighted white), and it would immediately "stain" the area blue.  It visibly flows a bit, yet it still has a certain amount of surface tension, so it's easier to control than a wash.  It doesn't show my "brush strokes" quite the way a conventional paint would, but I definitely had to work the paint a bit, careful not to over-apply to certain areas.  Apply it thinly, and you'll get a vibrant, bright blue (assuming a white or light under-paint).  Allow it to pool, and it will form a gradient to a deeper blue (and you also get a deeper blue where it gathers up in recessed details).

I also got some olive-ish green, figuring it might be useful for painting up some power-armored troopers and the like.  Accordingly, it's not as "vibrant," and I'm not quite sure what to think about the gradient/pooling dynamic in that case.  I'll have to try some more experimentation (since I have the paints and all).

 

 

Definitely experiment to get a feel for what effects you get.  I bought a handful and they are different than regular paints.  I have noticed it comes in two types, dark and light, like the Force.   Some washes tend to be highly pigmented and you get better coverage, maybe more than you were expecting.  The others are less saturated and seem better for subtle effects or layering.  Some of the shading may surprise you, for example Iyanden Yellow has a definite orange cast if applied heavily.   There have been some great color charts posted online already, use those as a guide, but still play with the colors to see if you can get a better feel for how they work.