Marauders & Wanderers

 

Most of my time in September and October was spent painting an Early Saxon army for Saga.  I did sneak in a batch of post-apocalypse minis to take a short break from the Saxons.

The Marauders are from Battle Valor Games at http://www.battlevalorgames.com/index.aspx

They make 15mm Fantasy and 28mm Sci-fi, Pulp & Fantasy.  Most or all of the 28mm were originally made by Sgt Major Miniatures which went out of business in the mid 2010s.  I had seen their ranges at US conventions but hadn't bought any, though my friend Mike had some.  In June 2020 I found out from Mike that Battle Valor were bringing these ranges back and I ordered a few packs during their introductory sale.  I received them shortly thereafter.

The Battle Valor minis are well-sculpted with minimal flash.  On the chunky side of 28mm, with lots of gear; just how I picture they would look wandering through the wasteland.  I enjoyed painting them.  I have another pack of Waste Marauders with more significant mutations, along with some apes that I will get to someday.  They have some interesting packs including cultists and various armed religious groups.

As I was writing this post I received an email from Battle Valor about their Christmas Sale: 30% off through 16 December.

When I was prepping the marauders, I also got out 4 miniatures from the 2019 Aftermath kickstarter.  They are now on sale at https://puttymonkey.com/shop/ols/all  I never played the Aftermath RPG back in the 1980s, my group preferred Gamma World.  They have clean lines, no flash and good details.  They also make another human survivor (that I didn't get) and giant mutated rats (waiting in the lead pile).

When painting this batch, I tested out my GW contrast paints on non-zombies for the first time.  I also used my normal paints.  I wanted to try a different method for flesh using a contrast wash followed by my usual skintone.  It was faster and I have been using it since.  Overall I am happy with how they turned out and look forward to using them in a game.

Waste Boss in the middle flanked by Waste Marauders (Battle Valor).  The Waste Boss looks like he stepped  out of a Mad Max film.

 

Three more Waste Marauders (Battle Valor)

The Preacher on the left (Putty Monkey) and Bounty Hunter on the right (Battle Valor).  I really like The Preacher, he has an Old West vibe and his facial features remind me of Yul Brynner in the Magnificent Seven.

Female Survivor, Gauntlet Girl & Male Survivor (Putty Monkey).  The Male Survivor came with a separate visor to fit on the helmet but I left it off.  Gauntlet Girl looks innocent until you see the knife behind her back.  Always be prepared in the wasteland!

All together

Current & Future Projects

Post-Historicon I have been pondering what projects I will be working on for the rest of 2019 and into 2020.  After spending most of the last couple years on 7TV spy-fi and post-apocalypse, I have decided to return to mainly historical projects.  I have been thinking about this for some time as my interests have been moving back in that direction.  For instance, I bought 2 painted ECW armies at Historicon and have been researching rules options.  I plan on expanding the armies with the large amount of unpainted lead that came as part of the purchase.

A large part of my time will be allocated to painting armies for SAGA.  I am already painting my own Romano-British army, currently on the 3rd of 4 foot units and the mounted are primed.

My friend Steve in Ohio was selling his SAGA stuff recently and last week I picked up another set of Romano-British and a set of Saxons from him.  Each is a 4-point box with some additional unit packs.  I am going to paint both of these with the intention of selling them when completed.  I am going to do the Britons first as I am already in Briton-mode.

Also arriving last Wednesday were miniatures for 2 longer-term projects.  I backed a Kickstarter in May for a set of post-apocalypse miniatures based on the 1980s RPG Aftermath.  I don't remember ever playing it, but my group did play Gamma World in that long-ago time.  I got 7 giant mutated rats with guns, a couple of rat swarms and 4 humans.  As I wrote earlier, I am taking a break from painting post-apoc so they will go into storage for now.  The bag on the left of the picture is a set of 12 Earth Force Infantry from Rebel Minis.  They were having a sale and I have been looking for some humans that I could use as the garrison of an off-world base for a future Doctor Who scenario.  Apparently they are modified versions of the mobile infantry from the old Starship Troopers miniatures game from Mongoose.  I never played that game but they will do nicely for my purposes.  Quick service from Rebel, I ordered them late Sunday night and had them on Wednesday.