Thursday 11 January 2018

From MarkW : 28mm Sedition Wars (80 points)

Hi Everyone,

Thanks to everyone for the great welcome and comments on my previous (and first post) to the challenge. It was a real boost and finally, I have managed to catch up with where I wanted to be last week and get the first batch of painted miniatures fully based up.



This submission is for  16 28mm miniatures from the Sedition Wars range by Studio Mcvey that were manufactured I think in 2013. The background on them is not so clear to me, but you are basically looking at the stereotypical futuristic special forces. 



The one element of the background that does stick in my memory about them is that the operators are all "sleeved" and "backed up" before they make planetfall.




 If you have ever read any of Richard Morgan's Takeshi Kovacs series this will be familiar (but if you haven't don't worry the first book Altered Carbon is coming to Netflix soon anyways).




In Richard Morgan's series, special forces types called Envoys would have their personality and memories digitised and stored (the backed up bit) then squirted through wormholes from one end of the galaxy to the other because its cheaper and quicker than physically travelling. At the far end they would be downloaded into host bodies called Sleeves. Interestingly these could be custom built bodies or even criminals who give up their bodies for "community service".

If you like cyberpunk or hard scifi in general I strongly recommend them - but only after you finish the challenge of course. 



(oops, the front shot of these 4 was too blurry to use - shot of the back only )

Anyway, back to the models themselves - I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with them to be fair. The concept and the design is first rate but they were disappointingly cast in restic that does not capture the detail and was an absolute nightmare to clean up. 




Add to that huge mouldlines with ill fitting components and it was probably my worst hobby experience just getting these guys and girls ready to paint. And then, to top it all off, the green base spray gave them a grainy finish -  like the gods of miniatures was conspiring against me. 




They languished, unpainted, untouched and unloved in my hobby tool box for over three years until the challenge. Now I see them together in the group shot its been worth the effort. Not the best paint job I have ever done but its 80 points in the bag. I am sure you will all have similar horror stories about miniatures that feel like they just are never meant to be painted. 

But they have been, and here they are together. (The sharp eyed of you will see the count is 17, but I could not resist putting in the lone trooper from last week in the group shot)




The plan now is to finish the last 9 of them and support weapons before moving onto the creature feature of their adversary on the planet Alabaster...............The Strain. (no relation to the TV show)

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16x 28mm infantry from Studio Mcvey

Welcome back Mark and great to see that you managed to get the rest of the Samaritans finished!  As with last week, I'm a fan of the warm armour tones with the cooler visor colours.  I also like the mix of male and female sculpts, which adds variety.

I'm a fan of the Takeshi Kovacs books, so it's fun to see the same tech used here!  Are there any hero figures to accompany this lot against the Strain?  I am looking forward to the gribblies making their appearance shortly as I seem to recall there are some absolute monsters in the range..... 80 points as you state for these chaps and long may they push the rule of the benevolent corporations!

12 comments:

  1. Lovely finish on these sci fi types nice and clean, they don't look like they were the total pain they clearly were to prep!
    Best Iain

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  2. Very nice. I second be recommendation for Richards Morgan - the first in the series Altered Carbon was particularly excellent. Netflix are working on an adaption too

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  3. Very nice work on these scifi troopers..

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  4. Great work Mark. As you say, I think we all have figures/models that we found to be somewhat rage-inducing while preparing for painting (mold lines, crummy fits etc), but what a great feeling when you finally overcome the obstacles! They look excellent - enjoy!

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  5. Cool figures Mark! Again, I really like the contrast between the armour plating and the 'undersuit'.

    These novels sound very interesting so I'm going to give the first one a go. (As someone who is constantly late for appointments, I am sold with any concept of 'squirting' my personality across the cosmos to a host body - I'd be happy with just across town.)

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  6. Cool colour scheme, works well

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  7. The dreaded grainy spray, damn humidity!

    They look good, and so much better than half finished!

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  8. Nice work, the ‘sleeving’ concept is interesting!

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  9. I really like the colors you've used on these sci-fi troopers. After all the trouble they've given you, they are a very nice unit!
    I am going to check altered carbon out, the last good sci-fi book I read was Dan Abnett's Embedded it was really good and gave me lots of gaming ideas.

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