Returning to the Fragged and other universes (Spring Clean Challenge: 2025)

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I have had this model painted apart from stowage for over 15 years. I was always happy with the detailing and the decayed bodywork, created by dry brushing reddy brown to orange paints over black undercoat, followed by a metal dry brush. I then stipled and painted the colours on, leaving areas of the under paint exposed. I then dirtied down with washes.

Van as painted 15 years ago, not much left to be done. Why did I leave it so long.......

The stowage, the main focus to complete model.

The finished model all stowage highlighted through layering, rope ties painted in buff and given an Agrax Earthshade wash.

I am going to add some graffitti to the corrugated panel when I find my decals.

Top view of the stowage, maintained dull colours whilst highlighting up to avoid change of focus.

Hidden in the stowage is a weird stuffed toy, which came with the original Frothers release of the Tank Girl miniature seen earlier.

I have a werewolf and 4 zombie types to complete this weekend, then I will have completed everything in the original “Spring Clean” box.

Only problem is that resurrecting this project has inspired me to buy more models ( Doh!!!) so I still have plenty more to do.

Can I continue to still post here.

Jun 24 2025

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Can I continue to post here or should I start a separate thread for my DC project.

I painted three more figures yesterday, 3d prints from Etsy

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/1457126929/void-hunter-monster-insectoid-premium?ref=share_v4_lx

They are perfect for Dark Conspiracy project.

Easy to paint, undercoated black, mouths painted white, with shading to pale turquoise on outer edges. Tidied up edges then dry brushed using Warpaints The Darkness ( a very dark blue) adding a small amount of white on progressive drybrushes until I was happy. About half an hour for all three miniatures.

The game I am creating as I said before is similar in concept to Silver Bayonet with two forces battling it out with encounters generated by scenario event cards. All creatures will be AI operated allowing for solo or co-operative play.

These creatures are going to some sort of shadow stalker, which will deploy individually as four blip markers (going to buy three more of the crouched demon for the blip markers the other two represent the two attack modes) which can only be targeted by area effect weapons, and remain so for any movement, they only become visible (revealing which blip is the real creature) when attacking either with a ranged scream attack or melee. Need to playtest, if too deadly may only make creatures invisible if blip starts and finishes it’s movement next to a terrain element.

Next I am going to finish off the camper van and hopefully next week I will finish off the creatures pictured in an earlier post.

What Deviltry is this?

Jun 17 2025

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Another project I have made a start on (which I will publish when I return to it in the next couple of months is for ” Deviltry Afoot” I love folk horror and I have been looking for an excuse to buy the wonderful Crooked Dice Folk Horror models, I also realised I had models that could be finished off or rebased for this.

Soloman Kane is a conversion of a Rackham Witch hunter which I did over 20 years ago, he was put away undercoated but unpainted in a foam carrying box and at some point over the years his hand and staff were broken off and lost. I have thought about throwing him out on many occasions, but something stopped me. So inspired by Deviltry Afoot and the Spring Clean Challenge I decided to resurrect him, I found a suitable hand, a cats head from a Rafm Egyptian model, some wire and some greenstuff and he was done. The Elizabethan gentleman is from Foundry and was based on a penny so I rebased him.

Along with two of the newer figures (fantastic models from Bloody Miniatures) I painted at the same time as Solomon due to the common colours.

A selection of monsters completed and re based for game. Vampire and Werewolves from Northstar Dracula's America, crows from Reaper Miniatures and the troll is from Warp miniatures ( had this model for so many years but until now never had a use for him).

A closer picture of this troll, painted over 8 years ago and sat with my Runequest stuff even though he did not match any of the races. He was painted in SlapChop before it became a thing.

Some new models that i painted at the sametime. Ghost from Lucid Eye and the signpost and Bargjest from Crooked Dice.

The Conspiracy Spreads

Jun 17 2025

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The Corporate Mercenaries/Operatives, mostly Hasslefree figures unless otherwise stated. The HMMV is a model by Imprint models which are now produced by Empress miniatures, a cracking little model. For my aerials I use bristles from a brush pan brush, best thing ever they never break and bounce back into shape.

The 2nd and 3rd figures from the left are from the Sedition Wars range.

The cyberhound is from Heresy miniatures.....I think!

I was really pleased with the Doberman colour scheme and the Nokia screen.

These are the only remaining figures to paint which i will try to do before the end of the week. Hasslefree zombies, Lucid Eye digital demon and a resin werewolf i bought many years ago from SALUTE.

I need to paint the stowage on this VW.

Even though I will finish this box of old miniatures, I have become inspired and either appropriated or purchased some more models.

In the box from left to right and from back to front.

Fenris demonic stone, I have had this for about 20 years.

A Mi-go from the Cthulhu Wars board game.

Some Cultists and the two forms of the Yellow King. Whilst painting the previous models I was listening to a playthrough of Delta Green’s Impossible Landscapes, which has subtly influenced me. So I am planning to either do a Hastur/King in Yellow campaign with specific scenarios that can be dropped in amongst other scenarios to create a campaign, or as a story path for the playable cultist faction. The cultist are from Spectre Miniatures and the two Yellow King Avatars are boardgame pieces from Cthulhu Wars and Death May Die.

Next Row.

4 Hellraiser demons originally from Studio Miniatures now produced by Hayland Terrain.

Men in Black, Copplestone Castings and the chap in the fedora and longcoat from Spectre Miniatures. This will be a playable faction.

Copplestone Cowgirls two will go to boost the Media Team and the other three will be the start of a hillbiliie/backwaters faction.

Next Row.

Clowns from Studio/Hayland Terrain.

Insectoid Aliens from Archons Starfinder range.

Copplestone Media Team may also become a faction ( victory or experience points for catching a good combat/monster scene on camera???)

Next Row.

A couple of Cthulhu Wars pieces (I really like the three legged pig demon)

Two more Hasslefree adventures to add to Minion Hunters

This last box will be worked on after the challenge (or may become next years Spring Clean Challenge!!!!!😂)

A Change of Plan

Jun 17 2025

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Sadly the Fragged Empire project has stalled, I am awaiting on some custom decals and it does mot look like they will be here in time.

So I have diverted my attention to my old Dark Conspiracy inspired skirmish game.

Dark Conspiracy is a near-future, dystopian RPG where a “Greater Depression” has crippled the global economy, leading to widespread social decay and the rise of powerful corporations . Ancient, malevolent entities known as the Dark Ones have begun to manifest through “Demongrounds,” areas where the fabric of reality weakens and monstrous creatures emerge. Aliens are also taking advantage of the disruption on earth manipulating things from begind the scenes as well as more direct involvement. Players take on the roles of “Minion Hunters,” individuals who fight against these dark forces and the encroaching darkness.

I have had some of these models for over 10 years and they have all been partially painted for over 5 years.

I have ideas for rules to fight skirmishes between two forces with other events/factions interfering, solo/cooperative ( all factions will have their own specific AI, as only looking at 5-10 models a side, I may do AI specific to each model?)

I just need to write these ideas down and create a ruleset. If I get this box of figures painted at least then there will be no excuse not to create these rules as I will have enough painted models to playtest.

I started off with the Aliens as they were only two colour and should make an easy start, I then realised I need to document this so I took this photo of the painted Aliens and two monsters along with the box of other models.

Everything I have now painted. For the two vehicles all I had to paint where the glass and a few details.

First group of models I painted/repurposed. Chosen as I thought they would be fairly quick and easy.

Lucid Eyes Grey Aliens, love these models and all they required to finish was highlights and glazes, originally these were going to be a possible encounter, but I am now thinking of making them a playable faction. My original thought was to have stat cards for all of the faction models, I then thought I could use the back of these card to list AI actions/reactions allowing solo play and additional encounters.

Two possible encounter models, the tentacle beast is a Gen Con preview model from Cmon "Others" game, he has been sitting painted on my shelf for over 10 years so I cut off old base and rebased, I love this model and can now use him in a game. The other model is a Mantic Deadzone Plague beast who with a suitable paint job becomes a giant scary flesh beast!

Next up where the "Minion Hunters" as these had already been basecoated and washed, so just required highlighting and detailing. Minion Hunters are all Hasslefree models.

The paint jobs on these two were inspired by the cover art of Dark Conspiracy.

The cover art.

The guy with the beret is probably going to be a leader. I will be using photos of the individual models on their stat cards.

The pilot and the lady in the long dress are currently npc/objective models. I have an idea for a scenario where the two factions are racing to find first the pilot and tjen a helicopter to escape some demonground.

I found a suitable decal and with a lot of encouragement from Microsol and Microset this has contoured so well with the jacket.

A Repair and Some Long Wanted Additions.

Apr 3 2025

Tutoring 2

Skill 5

Idea 5

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I have not achieved lots on the figures, I have finished off painting hair as well as alot of the Zhou.

I have not achieved so much because I spent two days distracted painting core box of Another Glorius Day in the Corp.

In this post I talk about glazing using Contrast Paint ( by far my most used method with Contrast paints) to do this i use a between 70:30-50:50 mix of Contrast and water experimenting to achieve my desired finish.

Whilst painting the Zhou, I broke his spear, I had been thinking of replacing as was a little bent and looked very flimsy. I cut away what remained of the spear, keeping the spearhead. I then drilled out the hand and the haft of the spearhead. I cut down a wire spear to the correct length.

In drilling the hand I slightly damaged it so I had to re-sculpt a thumb.

The original spear was at a different angle, much closer to the arm, so I had to re-sculpt the foliage on his elbow.

L-R Theo his hair and the yellow waistcoat, Hraks, painted her hair, the green neon diodes and detail on her boots and gun, Max, painted his hair, Rachel, highlighted up her dreads, but I having just got a new magnifying light I want to add a further highlight to make them really pop.

I highlighted Hrak coat, but highlights were to harsh so I glazed the goat in the original green, this looked too drab so I applied another glaze of Contrast Creed Camo, this worked much better. I am unsure whether to add a further highlight and I will probably wait until rest of figure is painted to achieve correct balance.

L-R: Zhou, skin highlighted upto a bone white, and then all skin apart from face glazed with Contrast Snakebite Leather, and foliage highlighted upto a bright lime green. Palantor nothing done, Remnant, highlighted armour and fur, completed face, Kaltorean highlighted hair, Twi-far nothing.

Close up of the skin tones on the Zhou and Remnant.

For many years I have been looking at getting these Buzz Lightyear toys, but they have only been available in US, last week I went on ebay, and they were available in UK and only 12 pound each for the truck and the two cars combined.

As can be seen here they are perfect scale for 28mm miniatures.

Cargo Buggy, the green stuff on the seats is from where I had to remove some tabs which originally allowed you to clip the toy figures in.

ATV Jeep

The state of the universe

Mar 31 2025