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Scifi Marines
I got my Defiance Games scifi marines that I ordered from The War Store on Thursday, so here are my first two squads made. TWS had a good deal that provided an extra sprue (2 marines) with pre-orders. The best part is that upped the count from 24 marines to 26, which is exactly 2 squads of 13. Just what I' wanted. My next two squads are going to be "normal" marines, but no one clicks into here looking for normal so ...
These look normal enough. They are the full battle dress guys, with shield down on the helmet. You might notice the organization: 3 fire team members, 1 fire team leader (with different weapon) x 3 fire teams, and 1 squad leader with a third weapon. I am not sweating the different weapon load outs, but am more concerned with easy visual on different leadership positions, which this set lets me do very easily.
In fact, the whole thing was pretty easy. The guys come off the sprues with only flash at the connection points (which is good, because I usually gauge things when removing flash). And the flash was in easy locations to trim (something that makes me much more likely to buy more of a thing). Assembly was also simple - your basic 5 part deal: torsos to legs, weapon arm, other arm, head. Without modding any of the weapon arms, I was able to get the variety of poses you see here.
Ohmygod! What are we doing with these things? Silver base coat?
Really?
Really.
These guys are going to be an extreme environment deployment squad - lava fields toxic atmosphere, radiation flats, lands full of icky biological mush. The silver base should work well. The only question I had was "Can I get by with the arms?". They are designed for rolled up short sleeves, which will be a good look for my two squads of regular guys. But can it look like sleeves and gloves on these guys without major mods? Let's find out ...
Proceeding from the silver base, I added gold to the facemask, boots, and gloves
(which are just hands). Then I used ink to mark the transition from silver to gold,
which helped them stand out as different. The weapons are supposed to be ceramic
(in harsh environments, metal is bad), so I used a glossy wicker white paint. Then
I gave them a wash in dark silver (watered down silver and black paint) to give
some depth to the crevaces and cracks and a final overcoat with a heavy drybrush
of light, light grey. The final touch was some activator lights (like on the helmet
and the guns) with bright colors.
I think the final effect is pulled off pretty well. Using some basic figures, no modding, and a psychadelic paint scheme, these guys are ready to drop in on the harshest environments you can find. With the gold and the ink demarcation, the hands even work as gloves ... if you don't stare at them too long. :)
But wait! We're not done ...
We have another conversion, this time with a little more pizzaz! I took
the basic marine and added a couple fantasy touches for effect. The skulls
and swords are from a fantasy set done by the same sculptor. All the weapons
are the same, so I used drawn swords for the fire team leaders. Then I had
the squad leader with a drawn sword, and weapon in the air. Raising the gun
out like that took a little shaving and fitting. Other than that, these guys
went together easy-peasy.
I went with a black, white, and a lot of different greys for these guys which gives them a drab, forlorn effect. Plus, I am planning a set of film noir minis that will be in black and white, so I got in a little practice here.
Again, I think this set enabled a good variety of poses with only one actual figure modification. There is decent individual character here. Hopefully enough so you don't ask why they don't have skeleton hands. :)