Monday 23 December 2013

Non Combatants

 Christmas Eve, ahhh and relax. Well not quite, I will continue to paint and potter about, I have sent Curt my next entry to the challenge. In the meantime before he publishes them here is what I entered into the "Non-Combatant" bonus round.
The other entries can be found here (LINK) and I am the first to admit there are some exceptional entries. So good that I am staggered by the quality. Treat yourself and have a look you will not be disappointed!



Still I am sure they will be covered on their blogs and as you are good enough to be reading mine here is my entry. As you can see they are 3 Astronauts by Crooked Dice Miniatures. These three are unarmed and now having completed them I would be happy to paint some armed Astronauts. I think I have 6 or 9 hidden away in a box somewhere.







The base boards and buggies have appeared on my blog previously so I won't need to discuss them at this stage. If you want to know how to make the boards Click for link. Let's assume you don't want to know how to make a huge messy white elephant of a terrain board. But at least if you do want to know it is now in a handy place.









Anyway I decided to paint these three in white suits. I am not saying it was a mistake to do so but it did lead to a lot of photography issues. The white kept bleeding out into the background if a flash was used and was out of focus if no flash due to long exposure times. Still here are the best of the bunch. In the end I used a brown cardboard box as a background not glamorous but it did do the job.

I have put American flags on the sleeves (no not all the stripes and stars as my brushes and eyesight is not that good). If I do the armed ones I will introduce a few other nations as well. I will go for the most easy ones to paint just for simplicity but am open to suggestions.

I do find it interesting that one astronaut has removed her helmet while on the moon. I don't want you all to point out any "Capricorn One" conspiracy theories, I just went with how the figures were. So nothing underhand is implied.




I have used 4 colours of off white/grey and a highlight of pure white in order to get the correct feel to the fabric. Less layers just did not look right, I know others would have used more tones and some less this is just the level I was happy with. Black boots and Packs are very different from NASA who's are white, but white boots packs and belts did not look dramatic enough for the wargames table. Again the belts were not noticed if painted white so a nice dark red was used to make them pop out. The helmets might also have been white but I wanted yellow to contrast the blue of the visors.







Overall I am happy with how they have come out despite the issues mentioned with photography and will be willing to do the armed versions in the same way.  If you want me to paint the armed ones up as part of the challenge let me know and I will try to make it happen/fit them in. I make no garantees of course, but it is an option as I already have the figures. So making it happen is not too daunting a task , it will just mean a later start of another game idea.





 That is it for today, thanks for looking. I strongly hope that Santa brings you something that you want and that you and your family stay safe and warm. Take care all the best Clint



14 comments:

  1. Nice job mate. I think if the weather had been any good outdoors and no flash would of probably been the best way forward for pics of white. Tricky colour to photo I had the same problem taking pics with my Bull Terrier.

    Enjoy your Christmas Eve and have a Merry Christmas mate.

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    1. Yes I think natural light would have helped. Still they don't look so bad in the end, and the figures always look better in real life.

      Merry Christmas Simon.

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  2. Cheers Loki. Nice to have a setting for them as well I thought.. You have a good one too.

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  3. Nice work mate, I think these have come out just fine.

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  4. Hey, Clint, there's nothing wrong with your photography skills or your painting skills. I like these figures and may well order them myself at some time.

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    1. You do know they do a space helmet with a skull in side it..... should you want to do space zombies..... not saying you want to do space zombies, but just letting you know you could!!

      As for my photography they were the best of about 20.... so not to hot at that.

      All the best Bryan Hope you have a great Xmass.

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  5. They look just fine Clint and I think it was a good idea to use colour on the packs and helmet. It took me a lot of time to work out a system for photographing my figures and I only shoot singles. Normally I take about 30 shots to get one good one. You are not alone my friend!

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    1. Thank you Anne it is kind of you to say so.

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  6. They are looking very good to me Clint and I love the terrain too. It reminds me of Space 1999

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    1. Space 1999, yes indeed, that was the plan. Totally 7TV-tastic! Thank you PK. Have a great day today.

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  7. White suits are quite a challenge but you've done an excellent job on these, for my money though the visors on the helmets are what puts them in the top drawer.
    The painting challenge has been a great incentive to production, but have a day off and enjoy Xmas day Clint !
    Merry Xmas

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    1. Thank you Jo. No peace for the wicked though. Done some painting and will do a bit more before I rest today.

      Hope things are going well for you. All the best Clint

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  8. These were great Clint and I hope you are having a great Christmas.

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    1. Christmas has been OK for me. Nothing going wrong so no complaints.

      Thank you Michael.

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