Wednesday, 6 January 2016

From SeanS - The Merchant of Venus XII and his bots HU-E, DU-E and LU-E (11 or 8 points)

Hi All,

So my first entry since the free for all sees me doing a weird mix of size and manufacturer.


The Merchant of Venus XII is a wonderful sculpt from John Boyce and his Colony 87 line. I have more waiting in the wings, but just wanted to get something done. I rested on my laurels after week one and then got too busy once I got back home.


As you can see he has all sorts of odd gear. I tried to make his space suit look like a shuttle astronaut flight suit. I had all sorts of ideas for his poncho thing, in the end what stuck was the idea of a re-purposed tarp, you know the blue kind.


The bots are minion bots from Bombshell Miniatures Counterblast line. The robot menace. The aerial on the merchant's helmet and the bits heads made me think they needed to go together. I also channeled a little bit of Silent Running in coloring and naming the bots HU-E, DU-E and LU-E.

Those of you who read my blog may remember that the Merchant's staff arrived broken and had been unsuccessfully repaired at least twice. Well my vacation fix was not only ugly but was still weak. So I cut and bored a plastic tube to make a more solid join, it's the gold band above his had. I thought if it was a problem I should make it a feature.

As for points the Merchant is a straight up 28mm figure, although I didn't measure him. So he should be 5 points. The bots are perhaps a tad problematic. They are 28mm scale, but only about a half inch tall foot to head. I'm not counting the aerial. They are mounted on 20mm bases because I have a bunch and I thought they would look lost on a standard 25mm base. So if we assume their height is 12.5mm do we score them as 10mm or 15mm? Thus my total is either 8 or 11 points. Sorry for a tricky first entry Dave.

Oh and this is my first shot across the bow for the Sci-Fi duel. It's not looking good.

A grand start to your sci-fi duel. I have gone with 6 points for the bots - that Silent Running homage is just too cool. Personally I am always amazed at the range of sci-fi stuff that is out there - its not been an area of painting interest for me - so I always enjoy seeing what appears here. The Merchant certainly looks a character alright, and well done on the repair works its looks just fine - so frustrating when you get figures arrived damaged
Posted by Sean at 3:05 am
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46 comments:

  1. Evan Hughes6 January 2016 at 03:12

    Now this is nice work! Getting a distinctive "Forbidden Planet"/"Amazon Women on the Moon" vibe from these guys, very retro!

    Excellent work, Sean!

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    1. Sean6 January 2016 at 09:08

      Thanks Evan. I got the bots to bulk up my Sci-Fi collection for the duel and they turned out to be a perfect match for this figure.

      Delete
  2. TamsinP6 January 2016 at 03:14

    Nice work Sean :)

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  3. Peter Douglas6 January 2016 at 06:53

    Lovely but goofy. Cheers PD

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    1. Sean6 January 2016 at 09:09

      Thanks Peter, you ain't seen nothin' yet. ;)

      Delete
  4. JamieM6 January 2016 at 07:12

    Now this entry made me chuckle. nice scheme and especially well done on getting thin straight lines on the robots!

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    1. Sean6 January 2016 at 09:11

      Thanks Jamie, I feel like the lines could be a lot straighter. I noticed a strange twist to the dome of the head as I was trying to paint them, it affected me the most on the blue one. Sometimes I'm a perfectionist and sometimes I just go with what's done is done.

      Delete
  5. Clint6 January 2016 at 07:28

    I love the Robots. For some strange reason I wish to hug them.

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    1. Sean6 January 2016 at 09:13

      Thanks Clint, unfortunately the lads have not been programmed to love. Hmm, do I need to source a pleasure bot?

      Delete
  6. Sean6 January 2016 at 09:16

    So 11 points all day, thanks Dave. I usually don't think about these things too much and it only occurred to me at the last minute that they weren't really 5 points each.

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  7. Blaxkleric6 January 2016 at 09:57

    Astonishingly good stuff Sean. Absolutely love'em :-)

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  8. Endtransmission6 January 2016 at 10:09

    Oh those are great!Really nice paintwork and I love the minion-bots

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    1. Sean6 January 2016 at 14:43

      Thanks Paul, they are very neat little dudes.

      Delete
  9. david bromley6 January 2016 at 12:14

    They look really great together, Sean! Kudos on the silent running tribute too, a very fine touch to these well painted fellows!

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    1. Sean6 January 2016 at 14:45

      Thanks DavidB, I couldn't remember where they were from initially, just a vague recollection in the back of my mind. Thank goodness for google.

      Delete
  10. Phyllion6 January 2016 at 12:18

    These are great - such character to the sculpts and a finely executed paint job.

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  11. Unknown6 January 2016 at 12:30

    Very well done Sean! You mini bots are fantastic!

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    1. Sean6 January 2016 at 14:46

      Thanks Anne. I had a lot of trouble with paint consistency. Hopefully I covered that up.

      Delete
  12. Sander6 January 2016 at 13:09

    These are very nice indeed, somehow they remind me of Tatooine and Jawa's...

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    1. Sean6 January 2016 at 14:46

      Thanks Sander, yeah I get that vibe too.

      Delete
  13. Curt6 January 2016 at 14:18

    What a wonderful and quirky entry - I love it! You did a great job on the staff and I really like the orange visor. Very, very cool.

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    1. Sean6 January 2016 at 14:49

      Thanks Curt. The White and Orange combo are just very iconic space man to me, maybe it's all the shuttle missions when I was younger. I don't remember where the idea for a gold visor came from, I just wanted to stay away from silver for it.

      Delete
  14. Juan Mancheño6 January 2016 at 14:40

    Great figures, very interesting, and very nice painting work. The blue and gold mix really well!

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    1. Sean6 January 2016 at 14:50

      Thanks Juan, I really didn't think about it so it was mostly a happy accident. I wanted to stay away from my natural desire to do the poncho in tans or ochres.

      Delete
  15. Jonathan6 January 2016 at 16:16

    These are really nice. Are they to be used in any specific games or just for display?

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    1. Sean6 January 2016 at 21:41

      Thanks Jonathan, the idea is to use them for Rogue Trader (40K), but since the majority of my gaming is theoretical we shall have to see. Perhaps a scenario involving everything I paint up for the Sci-Fi side duel.

      Delete
    2. Jonathan6 January 2016 at 22:30

      Sounds like a fun scenario. My painting has been theoretical for too long, but I am working on something - honest.

      Delete
  16. Christopher(aka Axebreaker)6 January 2016 at 17:38

    They look great Sean!

    Christopher

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  17. AHunt6 January 2016 at 20:04

    Wow. I love those miniatures. Your paint scheme is brilliant. Very pulpy. I really like what you've done here.

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    1. Sean6 January 2016 at 21:43

      Thanks AHunt. I think the sculpts from both manufacturers do the heavy lifting. I'm just happy that my seed of an idea grew into a coherent group.

      Delete
  18. Millsy6 January 2016 at 21:57

    Well that came out a treat! You'd never know there was any repair work at all if you'd not mentioned it.

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    1. Sean7 January 2016 at 06:34

      Thanks Millsy. Yeah it was a royal pain to fix the staff. My "brilliant" ideas kept breaking.

      Delete
  19. Samuli7 January 2016 at 00:11

    Very nice work there! And some very characterful sculpts as well! Great choice of subject indeed

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  20. David Larkins7 January 2016 at 01:19

    Love it! Those bots are too cute.

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  21. Barks7 January 2016 at 04:05

    How cool are the bots! And a clever fix- "it's not a bug, it's a feature!"

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    1. Sean7 January 2016 at 06:38

      Thanks Barks. Yeah, I got that saying from my neighbor. He works in high end audio and video system design.

      Delete
  22. Ian7 January 2016 at 13:43

    Love these

    Ian

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  23. The Kiwi7 January 2016 at 23:55

    Really cool. Very nice painting. Very unique figure selection. They look like they would fit in perfectly on a Star Wars world having just seen the Force Wakes Up. Cheers

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    Replies
    1. Sean8 January 2016 at 07:55

      Thanks The Kiwi, I hadn't thought of it but you're right.

      Delete

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