Beginning Mercs: Recon

Here are the first few figures from my copy of Mercs: Recon, a  game in which players take private mercenary teams on raids into the offices of rival corporations.
The figures aren't shelf quality, but they are great for being simple board game components. There aren't too many (yet,) but I'm trying some speed-painting with these.

My security forces here were (over a black primer layer) first painted with dark olive -- drybrushed so as to leave some black-lining and pick up details. The I drybrushed a lighter olive drab going from top-down -- a basic simulation of top-down lighting.
Next, I painted guns and boots with black, to clean things up a little. Then I added a base layer of skin -- not a lot of skin showing on these figures, so this was nice and easy. And, I didn't have to, but I went ahead with a flesh highlight. The figure of the Secfor woman standing with the shotgun had some hair showing, so I did one-color layers of brown or blonde on those figures.
Finally, I painted the inner portion of the base with flat black; I like the little bit of contrast between the shinier outer lip of the base against the matte inner portion.

The Waza figure was painted using the same technique but different colors. He was a touch more involved: I drybrushed three colors: Red, Orange and a little bit of yellow-orange. I painted black in the areas between and under his armor to help the orange brighten up a little. I used olive green on the packs and cases attached to his waist and leg. Black for the gun, blue for the visor and gray for the rocket. Same base treatment as the Secfor. Done!

Each Merc team is only 6 figures (if you include the snipers,) so, using this basic technique, these should paint up pretty fast. The Secfor group pictured only took about a half hour. And I split an all-in pledge with a friend of mine (who also paints,) so we should have everything painted up with ease.
And, of course, we look forward to playing soon -- I've been reading good reviews.

Smart AND able

Just a quick random from the table. This is a brain in a jar from my copy of Space Cadets: Away Missions (a very fun game, by the way!) I've mounted this brain, however, on a set of robotic legs from my mechanite team (from Dreadball Xtreme.)

Hmm, just a thought, I have other robotic legs (and wheels) from the team and extra brains; I could mount all the brains and make a fun little brain-racing mini game.

All in good time, I've started painting my Mercs Recon figures. I'm trying out some speed-painting techniques. For example, for my Security Force (Secfor) figures, I've drybrushed a dark olive base, then drybrushed from top down with a light olive for a simple highlight. One layer and a highlight for the faces and hands. Black gloves, boots and guns and done! It took me about a half hour to do my 10 secfor figures. Should be faster for the next 10 or 20 when they arrive.

I did a similar technique with one of my Mercs (from the Waza group,) and it seemed to work well. Shouldn't take too long to get everything painted to at least boardgame quality -- and I'll certainly post pics of my Mercs stuff when I get a bunch done.

Dragon Tides: Done

Well, that was fast; all of the figures from my core box of Dragon Tides are done -- and just when I was starting to have fun. Oh well, I guess I still have Zombicide and some 40mm samurai yet to paint.

Again, it was difficult to paint certain aspects of these figures -- faces and small details -- because the plastic bloated the original sculpts a little bit, but these are still some fun figures with plenty of character, and I hope to get in some games of Dragon Tides soon!

Dragon Tides: Round 1

To my surprise, my copy of Dragon Tides arrived last week. Dragon Tides is a simple, fun, arcade- and campy-kung fu-movie-inspired board game of martial arts action. It's also the very first officially licensed game that includes Bruce and Brandon Lee.

Here, I've painted the first three of the eight figures that come with the core box (I will also be getting figures from add-ons (henchmen to beat up on!) and Kick Starter exclusives. I forget the names of these figures right off -- the two on the left and right are generic heroes created for the game. But the center figure is Brandon Lee dressed as a cop.

Coming up, there are not-Dolph Lundgren, Jet Li, Donnie Yen and Bolo Yeung! So yes, a nice collection of great personalities (who are all oddly treated as villains -- Lundgren and Yeung, I guess are OK to be bad, but I want to play Donnie Yen as a good guy). That's just who's in the core box. Yet to come are (not versions of) Steven Segal, Chuck Norris, Brandon Lee as the Crow, Jackie Chan, and Jean Claude Gosh Darn.

Figure quality:
Good and bad. The material is a solid, soft plastic -- something between Reaper Bones and Zombicide. It feels tough and solid enough to it will bend a little but not snap; in the end, I like the material -- it works well. I use Army Painter primer and paint as usual; no issues at all.

The quality of the sculpts are OK. My only complaint are that some of the faces and the details are a little shallow, poorly defined. But it's nothing some good, patient painting can't handle. Major areas such as folds in clothes are much better and provide some nice areas to layer that paint into high-contrast highlights.
A side note: the bases are integral and solid. Each base also has some artistic features unique to each character, all simply for art's sake. I have no issues with the bases, but if you like to rebase your figures, you'll need some patience and a steady hand to cut away the original base.

Despite a couple of those shortcomings (mostly in the smaller details), these figures have attitude! It's nice to have some great martial arts minis finally. I am glad to have them in the collection, and I think they will end up being one of those collections that I will take joy in painting.

One last note on the figures: They are tall. Taller than even heroic scale Reaper figures. The Brandon Lee figure measures 40mm from his feet to the top of his head -- yeah, that tall. So they won't really fit that Zombicide game. But, with the addition of a box or two of henchman (I got two), these masters will have plenty of asses to kick up and down the streets. It would be nice to have slightly smaller figures I could use in other games, but at least the taller sculpts make for some easier painting.

Game: I have yet to play the game, but the general since I get from reviews is that it's a simple, action game with little depth, lots of randomness and plenty of fun.

Mice and Mystics: Captain Vurst

There was a question in an earlier comment asking if I had posted my Captain Vurst conversion before (from Mice and Mystics.) I wasn't sure if I had or not, so here he is again -- or not :)

The cape, manica (sleeve armor), and eye patch were made from green stuff. I forget where the pistol came from (just out of my bits box.)

Now, begins the torment of whether to purchase a second box of Tail Feathers; ALL of my Mice and Mystics and Tail Feathers figures are now painted. I'm hoping Plaidhat Games decides to release extra sets of minis again.

I would love to get a second set of ground units from Tail Feathers. The vermin rats would work great as elite rats for M&M, and there are rules now where you can introduce Oakguard figures as allies in the M&M scenarios. I could easily just raid my TF collection for said figures, but I'd like to get a set exclusively for my M&M box -- that, and I want to paint some more of these mice!

Edit: Come to think of it, I don't think I posted my ground units from Tail Feathers, either! So here they are (and that stick there -- if you don't own the game -- is a range finder. To end of the wrapping is short range; to the end of the stick is long range. This game is amazing on theme):

Tail Feathers finished

I finished painting the riders from Tail Feathers. Here they are in all their glory! Next up on my table are some Zombicide: Black Plague figures. The survivors may take a little while (with my up-and-down schedule,) but the zombies will take all of an hour :)

Tail Feathers update

It's been a busy holiday season, and I've actually been getting quite a bit of painting done. I still have three riders yet to finish before completing my Tail Feathers collection. I'm still debating whether to purchase a second copy -- it probably won't get a lot of plays with my circle of friends, but I really do enjoy painting those birds (and I'm sure I could house rule some of those Oak Guard into Mice and Mystics.)

In the meantime, I'm conjuring up some ways to store my M&M figures in foam (that will fit one of the base boxes.) I'll let you all know how that goes when I solve the problem. (It's actually mostly solved -- I found some pluck foam with 10mm squares, which makes things much easier to organize.)

I cut away the integral base and put these dancers on 40mm
bases by Proxie Models. Even the figures below are amazingly
stable once mounted on the new bases.

I also got some of the most fun figures I've seen in a while: Break dancers. These are 54mm, Little Green Army Men size (and the same soft plastic.) Thanks to Army Painter primer (Testors dries tacky on most soft plastics), I can paint these!

I had such a good chuckle when I first got my hands on these that my new Zombicide: Black Plague figures got pushed to the back of the table (no worries, Z-cide will move up fast.)

These are just a few of the figures I have; there are around 20 in the collection (two of each pose.) They also came with three separate boom boxes (I painted them already: one is black, one silver and one in construction yellow.)