Traders Galaxy 2024 Painting Challenge – Botwar, Beat Em Up and Rise of the Democracy miniatures
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About the Project
The challenge is to paint as much as possible through February. At a bare minimum I need to complete 10 Traders Galaxy miniatures, fully based and painted. While some will go for large numbers, like army painting, I prefer each miniature to tell a story, so although my painting skills aren't great I'll be using my imagination to try and base up the miniatures as unique as possible. I am going to try and do at least one miniature from each of Traders Galaxy's games, namely Botwar, Rise of the Democracy, Beat Em Up and Broken Skies. And if I get time I may even try out my first diarama. February is going to be a busy month!
Related Game: Bot War
Related Company: Traders Galaxy
Related Genre: Pulp
This Project is Active
Traders Galaxy Painting Challenge 2024 - Day 24
The weekend, when you think you’ll have time to buckle down and get some painting done… and then you realise you’ve got kids!
Anyway I managed to grab a bit of time before Football this morning and once the kids went to bed. But the danger of going down to the shed in the dark.. I lost one of my thugs but then luckily found him again after rantic searching with the torch. The neighbours will have been wondering what was going on.
First up, the 10mm heroes and troops are done, ready to add to the diorama.
And you may notice Leviathon will be getting a big old trident.The whirlwind effect is being prepped for Swordana, but I’m going to have to break it to get her in, she must have put on weight! For Swordana, think She-ra transformation!
I mounted the hammerheads on perspex rods then stuck them into the diorama, under leviathon. Then what is this? Easter egg! There’s a wolf hiding in the diorama!
I got a little more paint onto “terry” as I am calling him and his thug and skeleton.
I finally returned to my ninjas because I wanted to finish them off by giving them the green tentacle insignia on their back, so I made up some water transfers and printed them then finally tonight got them on. So we now have a full squad of 10 ninjas plus the ninja with sickle and The Green Ninja all finished.
It was a similar story for the thugs, to finish them I wanted to add COILS logos to their clothing so I did this and based two of them. The third who got lost in the garden is back safe and will get based tomorrow.
Traders Galaxy Painting Challenge 2024 - Day 23
I think I am pretty much done with the 3 classic Beastlords. I went round them with black line as I wanted them to look cartoony. Do I push it and try to get a 4th one done? Well it is a challenge, so it’s not supposed to be easy… I’ll give it a go! The leader is also on the printer, fingers crossed I get a successful print. I’m going to base them up on my classic grid base like I did for classic Starfighter. Bases are being printed as we speak.
I added a little yellow edging to the renamed boss “Terry” as he is going to look Cobra Kai then I want some yellow on his suit, but since he’s only got trousers then I’ll put some on his belt as well. Also I started getting some colour on the victim Thug and his skeleton. I even painted in the gorey hole in his back which strangely made me feel a bit ill!
The sharks undersides got done. I think I will keep them metallic as I hope it might make them look more waterlike.
The 10mm heroes are almost done, my versionof Snakeyes, Lifeline and Breaker just need skin wash. Red is pretty much there too.
I started de-whiting Swordana with a little colour.
The tanks got another coat on their tiger stripes.
And last of all I printed a couple of ruins off that I’m going to use to make the diorama a little more interesting. I got them primed and then a base coat of grey, ready for some drybrush tomorrow.
Traders Galaxy Painting Challenge 2024 - Day 22
A week to go. This is he time when you buckle down and complete the stuff that you’ve started… or you could start some more! I’ve had this idea that I’ve wanted to do for ages and I couldn’t hold off any more, so Tokan is getting painted up. I took one of the 3D printed thugs from the MyMinifactory tribes, the one sticking out the knife and went to town breaking his legs and digging a big hole out of his back. Then I got some plastic skeleton parts and tried to make a skeleton in the same pose. This will become Tokan kicking the skeleton out of one of his own thugs! Hopefully I pull it off. Tokan will become my Terry Silver… I’m still looking for my John Kreese!
Now let’s talk what I should be working on, the diorama. The smoke is in place on the crashed Buzzard and I’ve started to put the painted troops into place behind the wall. I’ve also started painting some sharks, they will feature in it.
The little heroes are progressing to, we have my custom Red, a medic, radio operator and ninja all getting there, along with some more troops.
My 3 Beat Em Up thugs are pretty much done, I want to try and get a COILS logo on their backs, we’ll see how that goes and then they’ll go on bog standard street bases.
Finally the classic Beastlords are still plodding. I added a little more dark red shading and I’ve started to add a little black edging.
Traders Galaxy Painting Challenge 2024 - Day 21
More slow progress. Things are happening with the diarama, but I’ll detail that when I get a little more time, probably at the weekend.
The Mongoose got a little highlighting.
Then I decided I would start painting Swordana Ascendant, I didn’t get very far she has a white coat which is covering all the putty I used when I repositioned the arms.
The tentacles got a wash and a little drybrush.
I took some more Democracy infantry and last night I clipped their guns off as I want them in a pose like they are holding ropes. You’ll see why later. I also converted a ‘Red’ figure by taking one of the 3D printed miniatures and cutting off the arms, then making arms holding a pistol, so the 10mm version looks a lot more like the 30mm version. I also gave her a flowing ponytail for more dramatic effect!
The tanks got some green tiger stripes, which need building up.
And finally the classic Beastlords got some shading around various edges on their yellows and greys. I’ll do the reds tomorrow.
Nothing that exciting today I’m afraid. But who knows what tomorrow may bring… well I do! see you then
Traders Galaxy Painting Challenge 2024 - Day 20
Things never go to plan. Work and an unexpected event has left me with only minimal time today to progress. But this is a challenge so we battle on.
The Beastlords are still plodding along like a Diplodocus. I gave them a little yellow wash on the yellow. I went over some of the grey again to get a more uniform finish, so hopefully tomorrow I can start a little shading. As I said before I want these to look very much like they are in the cartoon so most shading will be simple blocks, the way I like it!
Here’s a curve ball, I won’t get time to finish it in the challenge but just to show you that size does matter. The COILS ABT has been blown up 375% on the old FDM (plastic) printer. I primed it with grey at lunch.
The Mongoose got another paint on the wheel arches and a little more detail added.
Not very exciting but I’ve finished my smoke plume for the wrecked Buzzard on the Diarama, so that will get stuck on at some point tomorrow.
Then here’s something to get wrapped up in , a bunch of tentacles! They are actually off the classic Gorg model from the MyMinifactory Trides monthly subscription, but I’m going to use them as a creature from the deep in the diarama.
I started painting up some of the Classic Democracy Infantry that I had printed off. You probably can’t see but I put a first coat on what will represent my version of Snakeyes, Breaker and Lifeline. Again, the heroes are all coming to the diarama!
Lastly, the Light tanks and the Defiance got a little gun metal detailing and a little more shading on the windshield.
Traders Galaxy Painting Challenge 2024 - Day 19
Ah! Monday… a frustrating day. After the weekend when you seem to make progress, Monday always feels to be a bit of a quagmire.
Anyway, lamentation over, time for the progress. Luckily spinning a lots of plates means that something usually clicks.
The Retro beastlords are one of the little progresses as I gave them another coat of yellow and added some slightly lighter red to certain parts and edges. To allow people a better look, I took individual pictures.
I attacked the crashed Buzzard with a hot tool, this was not done out of frustration, but to make some bullet holes and tears in parts of the aircraft. And I have to say it is quite satisfying doing so. I almost went full A-Team with the bullet holes, but stopped myself.
The infantry got a little brown on the base, just so that I can start mounting them on the diarama.
And speaking of the diarama, I moved the Buzzard and Leviathon into place for a test shot. I think they will work roughly where they are placed.
I drybrushed the Defiance, light tanks and Mongoose again and also decided to do the Mongoose wings black now, more in line with the toy inspiration.
Finally a little highlighting managed to reach our 3 thugs.
Traders Galaxy Painting Challenge 2024 - Day 18
Time is fleeting. Have I left myself enough time? Well of the miniatures I originally chose, only Swordana Ascendant sits untouched thus far, and a few extras have joined the journey, so I’m pretty happy with what I’ve done so far. But time for full disclosure. I decided somtime ago that this challenge for me wasn’t going to be about just painting miniatures. I wanted to try and create something bigger, unique and with a story. Over the past few days, you may have picked up on certain Easter Eggs that I have dropped into photos.
So really I always planned to create a diarama! It’s part of the reason why certain miniatures haven’t had any focus on being based. I’m not going to give too much away today, but you’ll hopefully see parts coming together and I’ll explain the story behind it. Fingers crossed it works. But here is the base that I’ve been working on while painting all the miniatures. It’s big, around 30cm by 15cm. It’s a cliff with the castle walls that I occasionally showed the painting progress on.
It’s part of the reason why certain miniatures haven’t had any focus on being based. I’m not going to give too much away today, but you’ll hopefully see parts coming together and I’ll explain the story behind it. Fingers crossed it works. But here is the base that I’ve been working on while painting all the miniatures. It’s big, around 30cm by 15cm. It’s a cliff with the castle walls that I occasionally showed the painting progress on.Anyway back to the miniatures.
Leviathon I think is pretty much there now. I’ll give hime one last checkover.
The damaged Buzzard will be gaining its smoke plume soon.
The light tanks and Defiance are progressing slowly.
I based my last two ninjas so they are almost all complete, just want to add one more detail there.
The three Thugs are getting a little more detail and highlighting. Check out thos white and silver cowboy boots!
Again the Mongoose is getting a little more detailing. I’ll add a couple of muzzle flashes tomorrow I think.
The Retro Beastlords got some more colour on them and starting to look more cartoonish. And finally their friend who flies will be joining them soon as he has been printed and primed.
Traders Galaxy Painting Challenge 2024 - Day 17
I have to start with my latest distraction. the 3 Retro BeastLords. I had to get a first coat on them. I want to do them as close to the original cartoon as possible so I want the colours to be fairly flat. They are great looking miniatures, before I even got paint on them.
Next up, I think I finished my 2 Barracudas. Quate a simple paint scheme like a real Barracuda, and then some ocean blues and greens to enhance the look.
Leviathon got some more colour and some more shading. I think I’m getting there with him, maybe another couple of days.
My 16 infantry got a face and hands colouring.
And finally I started on the smoke plume that will be part of my downed Buzzard.
I managed to finish the bases for another couple of ninjas.
There were more coats on the windscreens of the Mongoose and Light Tanks, ready for my new favourite windscreen colour Frostheart Contrast. I also gave them all a light green drybrush.
My 3 thugs from the MyMiniFactory Trides subscription got some more colour and a little highlighting and shading on the skin.
Not a bad day, lot’s going on, lots more to come.
