28mm Moderns

Today's post features some miniatures that I started painting at the end of July 2024 and finished in fall 2024.  I recently got them out for photos on a sunny winter day.  I will use them primarily for my 7TV games.

Three American Agents from Brigade Games Cold War era Spies and Patriots range.  These will be part of my Miami VIce collection, hence the bright colors.  I didn't have any female undercover detectives, so these are a nice addition.  I think the one on the right is a good match for Gina Calabrese, one of the original cast.  I am still on the lookout for a miniature to use as Trudy.

Three Female Armed Civilians from Brigade's WW2 range.  These are useful miniatures that can serve in plenty of modern to post-apocalyptic scenarios.

 Two miniatures from Crooked Dice.  On the left is a police officer or well-dressed criminal, on the right is a post-apocalypse raider.

 A giant post-apocalypse mutant also from Crooked Dice.  It is hard to find size XXXXXXL shirts in the apocalypse.  He will smash you with his mighty fists!

The entire group.  You can see how large the mutant is compared to the others.

Historicon 2024 & New Work in Process

I made my usual road trip to Historicon again this year.  I had a great time seeing many old friends, playing in a lot of fun games, and selling some things in the flea market.  It is a great location and my kids and I are already looking forward to 2025.

Starting at the top left and moving clockwise:

(1) a pack of 8 Gripping Beast Illyrian infantry fro Saga.  These weren't on my shopping list, but my son won a gift card from Waterloo Games playing in a Napoleonic naval game and I picked these up from their booth. 

(2) Two jars of Howard Hues paint to replace colors that I am low on.

(3) Three packs of North Star wire spears bought from Brigade Games.

(4) Two of the free convention miniature, a famous spaghetti western cowboy (provided by Brigade).

(5) Two packs from Brigade, Female Armed Civilians from their WW2 range and American Agents from their Cold War era Spies and Patriots range.

(6) A 3D  car and van from Diabolical Terrain.  My friend Mike has painted a lot of their products and I can always use a few more vehicles.

Post-Historicon, I needed a change of pace after painting 7 ancient and dark age armies for Saga in the last 11 months.  I've started work on a group of 15 28mm miniatures for my 7TV and Doctor Who games.  I have had some of these for a long time and it will be good to get them painted.

I like working on a mix of themes at once, it helps to maintain my interest if I hit a roadblock on one of them.  Starting at the front left, there is a police officer in the front rank with a post-apocalypse raider behind (Crooked Dice).  Next are the 6 agents and civilians I bought at Historicon.  They are usable for a lot of things, and 2 of them are earmarked to join my Miami Vice project since I don't have any female officers.  On the right are the 1st Doctor, 7th Doctor and Ace from Black Tree and the War Doctor from Heresy Miniatures.  The back rank are all from Crooked Dice, a giant post-apocalypse mutant and 2 crab-like creatures.

28mm Miami Vice

If you are going to run a Miami Vice-based scenario, you have to include the good guys.  The Miami Vice Squad consists of 11 miniatures.  Nine are from Brigade Games Drug War Z range, while two are by Studio Miniatures (now available from Hayland Terrain).  I have all the Brigade police models except for one which I overlooked during my original purchase.  If they need backup, I have several police from Crooked Dice in and out of uniform.

As I noted in my previous post on the Colombian Cartel, I painted these models in order to use them in a game I am running at Historicon 2023.  I will be using the 7TV rules, which are perfect for this sort of scenario.  I painted them in spring 2023.  Research consisted of watching the entire first and second seasons of Miami Vice on dvd, courtesy of my local library.  I haven't watched the show since it was first on in the 80s, and I thought it held up fairly well.  It also adjusted my usual color palette towards the brighter end of the spectrum.  I primarily used bright colors from an old Citadel paint set, Vallejo, and GW Contrast paints.  

The detectives are all in plain clothes, and like the Cartel models, are very well sculpted.  They had minimal flash, painted up well, and were fun to paint .  Most are armed with pistols so they will be outgunned by their criminal opponents.  Just to get you into the mood: Miami Vice theme

The stars of the show (l-r): Detectives Sonny Crockett and Ricardo Tubbs (with his favorite sawn-off shotgun).  I admit that I didn't try and paint Crockett's trademark stubble because I couldn't find a technique I liked and thought would look right.  These are the versions from Studio Miniatures/Hayland Terrain.  

Lieutenant Castillo, played by a young Edward James Olmos.  A good representation of the actor.  He joined the show partway through the first season after the original lieutenant was killed.

An array of undercover detectives.

Two DEA agents.  Various DEA agents appear in episodes throughout the series.

The Brigade Games versions of Crockett and Tubbs.

The entire department ready to arrest evildoers.

The Citadel paint set that provided many of the colors used in this project. They worked well.

28mm Colombian Cartel

During Historicon 2022 I was brainstorming ideas for a game to run at Historicon 2023.  One idea was to run a Mimi Vice-themed game using the 7TV rules, which would be perfect for this sort of game.  I estimated that I already had most of what I would need, albeit unpainted  Back in 2020 I had backed a Kickstarter by Brigade Games for their Drug War Z range and had bought all of the Cartel and DEA packs.  They were still in my unpainted pile and this project would give me a reason to paint them.

I started with the 18 Cartel miniatures.  Colombians were frequent villains on Miami Vice.  While I wouldn't need all 18 for this scenario, I wanted to paint them in one batch.  I knew I would need some new pastel and/or bright paints.  By chance, while still at Historicon 2022, I was talking to another flea market seller at the end of a session and I walked over to his table while I was packing up.  He happened to have an old boxed set of Citadel edge paints, 9 pastel colors, for $10.  They were unopened and still liquid, so I decided to give them a try.  

The Citadel paints worked well over white and light colors.  I also used Vallejo and a few GW contrast paints.   I painted these miniatures in winter and spring 2023.  They are nice miniatures, cleanly sculpted with a variety of weapons and good period details such as wristwatches and rings.  There is a mix of facial features, hairstyles, and body types.  They are now available at Brigade Games.

My research for this project consisted of watching the first and second seasons of Miami Vice on dvd, courtesy of my local library.  It certainly adjusted my color palette to feature lots of bright colors and white pants!

Hitman on the left, the Cartel Boss on the right.  Did I mention the white pants?

The guy with the white-and-purple striped shirt is one of my favorites.

If I remember correctly, the Al Pacino Scarface mini on the left was free to early backers.

The one with the hat is another of my favorites.

The whole cartel.

28mm Mutants

Today's subject is a batch of 10 28mm post-apocalypse mutants that I snuck in between batches of Iberians for Saga.  They are a mix of 5 from Brigade Games that I bought way back at Historicon 2016 and 5 bought from Battle Valor Games in June 2020.  They all have obvious mutations, such as claw arms, two heads or tentacles.  The Battle Valor ones are chunkier with more equipment but I think they mix well.

I used a variety of different skintones and a mix of Vallejo/P3/Iron Wind/Army Painter/GW contrast paints.

I have painted many of the Brigade post-apocalypse range before but I've been holding these back until I was in the mood to paint them.  There are more mutants in their range that I don't have and they are all very different.  I envisage using the two-headed one as the leader.  I think my favorite is the second from left with all the tentacles; there is even one coming out of one the mask's eyeholes.  I wasn't sure how to paint the fly's head but I think it turned out ok.

These four are the Pulp50 Waste Marauder pack from Battle Valor.  Lots of deformed arms and weird eyes.  As with the previous Battle Valor minis I painted, I really like the variety of equipment they are carrying.

Also from Battle Valor is the Sci-Fi 40 Yeti with Marauder Rider pack.  I left the rider off.  He is armed with an axe.

With one of the Brigade mutants to show scale.

The mutant mob has assembled.