Ghosts (Chibi Fantasy)

While recently working on my 28mm Fantasy Project, I have also been doing a bit of painting in parallel on my Chibi Fantasy Project, because, as I am sure many would agree, a hobbyist can never have too many concurrent and incomplete projects!

This group of Ghosts was painted really quickly, over a couple of hours, with the painting kept super-simple to help boost my overall outputs, and they have turned out pretty much as I wanted. I think they will work well with the other Chibi Fantasy stuff I am pulling together. The minis are from a booster pack for the Arcadia Quest board game.

I am hoping that getting these done will spur me to finish some more of the Tooth & Sword range, but as ever the hobby muse will take me where it takes me!

Van Halfling (Heresy Miniatures)

This mini was painted alongside the Zealot Wizard but finished a few days later. I have had this mini for years, sitting in the pile of unpainted stuff. I don't think I had any particular project in mind when I picked him up, I just thought he looked ace.

When I embarked on my 28mm Fantasy Project I dug Van Halfling out of the pile and set to work on him (meanwhile ordering lots of bits and bobs from across the interwebz - it will be an eclectic project in terms of manufacturers!).

Van Halfling is by Heresy Miniatures and comes with three right arm options including a flaming torch and a scroll. I love the the idea of a Halfling inquisitor/witch-hunter, and that will fit the emerging world populated by the various adventurers of the 28mm Fantasy Project. I imagine that he has been cast out by the organisation he worked for and is now allied with other adventurers as he seeks to redeem himself by hunting the things which lurk in the dark. And witches, no inquisitor can overlook some witch-hunting.

Wizard (Zealot Miniatures)

I have had a painting slowdown this month, so I am glad to post something up after what feels like too long a break.

I grabbed this Wizard from Zealot Miniatures as I have started to assemble a small range of generic fantasy miniatures for a rules set I am working on. Unfortunately for him, Brummie (click for link to his blog) has also been ensnared into the emerging project...apologies mate!

The mini is pretty simple so was a nice starting point for me for this project. There are some super sculpts lurking in the Zealot range which I like more than this one, so I am looking forward to getting around to tackling those in due course. We'll be mixing in a few ranges as the project progresses.

Character wise, I am thinking he is Werner Greyspell, a journeyman mage who has thrown his lot in with a disparate party of adventurers seeking their fortune. While riches attract his allies, Werner seeks arcane knowledge to elevate his powers. Each adventure takes him closer to that goal.

Kamakura (G.I. Joe)

Kamakura is yet another G.I. Joe and Arashikage ninja - there sure are a lot of them! He was added to the canon in the early 2000's through the Devil's Due Productions comics, and later appeared in some G.I. Joe cartoons.

Kamakura is the son of a Crimson Guardsman who forms a bond with Snake Eyes, and in the DDP branch of the comics continuity and the action figure canon becomes Snake Eyes' apprentice. My main reason for adding him to my G.I. Joe Project was that I felt RAFM's Ronin mini was a good fit for the character.  Me and Brummie are constantly searching for options to fit G.I. Joe and Cobra characters, and successes in finding a mini which we can then match to a character drives additions to the project more than anything else.

In preparing the mini I trimmed the sword back a bit (it was incredibly long!), and swapped his head for a spare Pulp City Ninja head that I had. Unfortunately my green stuffing around the neck was a bit rough, but it will do. I decided to use a different green than that used on most of my Joes - Vallejo Model Color Flat Green. The primary painting was pretty straightforward allowing me to make quick progress with base colour, washes, dry-brush and highlights. The colours are an approximation of one of the many versions of the Kamakura action figure, but not a like for like copy on the model's details.

I am hoping to get some more Cobra done over the next few weeks, although with Zomtober coming that will be dependent on available time. I have quite a few minis part -painted for the project right now that I really need to start finishing off.

G.I. Joe Project - Minis Painted (18)
G.I. Joe: 13*
Cobra: 5**
Arashikage: 4*
Iron Grenadiers: 1**
Oktober Guard: 0
Red Shadows: 0

Helix (G.I. Joe)

Helix is the latest addition to my G.I. Joe forces, and one of the newer characters added to the canon. I first encountered her in the pages of the IDW comics and was immediately impressed with how she was pitched to readers. Apparently the character was developed for a video game which tied into the Rise of Cobra film, but I haven't played that.

Helix possesses an unusual capability called Total Organic Battlefield Awareness, essentially the capacity to perform complex calculations very rapidly, applying those calculations to anticipate what allies and enemies will do in battle. In the comics, the business-like Helix quickly forms a comradeship with the uber-cool Snake Eyes. There is a very cool sequence in the comics when the two of them take on a remote Cobra garrison and unleash hell on their enemy.

In sourcing the model I encountered a happy accident. Brummie and I have been looking up lots of options for G.I. Joe Project characters, yet while searching for another model which I thought I had unpainted in my collection, I stumbled across this Dionne from Hasslefree Miniatures. The hair and pose were an obvious perfect fit for what I wanted for Helix. I considered adding a webbing belt but opted against it as my green-stuff skills are simply not up to that kind of thing, so instead I concentrated on trying to convey an approximation of her colour scheme.

Naturally Helix will make her way into Squad Wars games where she will be a bad-ass on a par with the best of the best like Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow.

G.I. Joe Project - Minis Painted (17)
G.I. Joe: 12*
Cobra: 5**
Arashikage: 3*
Iron Grenadiers: 1**
Oktober Guard: 0
Red Shadows: 0

Grunt (G.I. Joe)

Grunt is my tenth 'enlisted' G.I. Joe (I have eleven characters so far including Timber), and the sixteenth character in all for my G.I. Joe Project. He is one of the original characters that formed the first wave of characters for the A Real American Hero line.

As one of the classic characters, Grunt was developed through story arcs outlined in the Marvel comics as well as file cards of updated versions. In many ways he is the quintessential G.I. Joe infantryman, as befits his name.

To help him stand out from any potential 'Greenshirts' I may paint, I opted to base his main colour on the tan re-paint of the action figure which was released a year or so after the first version.

I had a bit of a struggle shading the Medium Grey base colour, but a bit of a brainwave allowed me to correct that after being unsatisfied with the first shade colour. The painting isn't brilliant, but I am happy to have finished him after a bit of a slow month in August (although when I get my Vipers finished, that will add a bunch of minis in one hit).

G.I. Joe Project - Minis Painted (16)
G.I. Joe: 11*
Cobra: 5**
Arashikage: 3*
Iron Grenadiers: 1**
Oktober Guard: 0
Red Shadows: 0

Ninja Viper (Cobra)

One of the things the G.I. Joe mythos certainly has is a lot of different ninjas! It only makes sense for my G.I. Joe Project to include a few as well. I have more planned and have been scouring the web for ninja models to use.

Ninja Vipers are the elite of the Cobra Viper ranks. Consequently I am treating them as lesser to the Red Ninja Viper in game terms for my gaming using Squad Wars, so formidable in close combat but the least of the ninja types as it were. And the Ninja Viper is certainly outclassed by the likes of Snake Eyes, Storm Shadow and Jinx.

I started the mini a while ago, but as usual got side-tracked. While painting up a squad of other minis (I never enjoy batch painting these days), I decided I need something finished fast and picked up the Ninja Viper again and was able to finish the painting quite quickly. August has been a lean month overall on the painting front, but I hope the work I have done helps me into September's outputs.

G.I. Joe Project - Minis Painted (15)
G.I. Joe: 10*
Cobra: 5**
Arashikage: 3*
Iron Grenadiers: 1**
Oktober Guard: 0
Red Shadows: 0

Hotwire (Cobra)

What a difference doing 'something'/'anything' makes! After posting my WiP post, I managed to paint Hotwire in the same afternoon (my equivalent to speed-painting....), and from that I hope to carry some momentum forward to get a few more minis finished this month.

Hotwire was added to the canon in the 2000's as a Cobra as a convention-only special character. The deranged Hotwire comes from a lineage of Bavarian scientists operating within criminal spheres and he specialises in B.A.T. Maintenance & repair, and is also a bio-mechanical engineer.

As mentioned in the WiP post (you can see the source inspiration and chosen base mini below), I zeroed in on tackling this model mainly based on ease of conversion - the mini is from Studio Miniatures and was immediately obvious as a candidate for reworking for my G.I. Joe Project. However, as I plan to eventually paint up some B.A.T.s (Battle Android Troopers), it makes sense to have a character who can boost them, making it an even better decision to make Hotwire. Therefore, expect to see Hotwire eventually in mine and Brummie's games of Squad Wars at some point. Painting him takes me up to four Cobra characters, so I have a way to go to catch up with my number of Joes and the number of Cobra that Brummie has painted. I have a nearly-finished Cobra Ninja Viper, and a few Joes already part-painted, so with luck a few more minis may get done this week.

G.I. Joe Minis Painted (14)

G.I. Joe team: 10*

Cobra: 4**

Arashikage: 3*

Iron Grenadiers: 1**

Oktober Guard: 0

Red Shadows: 0

Steeler (G.I Joe)

Steeler is a bit of a touch-stone for me, so I am very happy to add him to the G.I. Joe ranks. Back in 1983, my 10-year self was fortunate enough to receive the Z Force Battle Tank and Steeler as a Christmas present, and I loved it. Motorised vehicle that could go forward, backwards in different directions? What was there not to love! That Action Force (Z Force was one of the four arms of Action Force in the canon) tank was a repaint of the original G.I. Joe set of the MOBAT and Steeler. The character was adapted to the Euro-centric Action Force and the colour scheme changed.

I decided to use the G.I. Joe version colour scheme as my primary influence, recalling a kind of bright olive green for his fatigues on my toy version so working that in instead of the standard green I have been using. Then there was the case of differentiating three different types of 'black' and ultimately it was a fairly straightforward paint-job.

In the Marvel US G.I. Joe comics Steeler is a character who has some key moments in earlier issues then is featured sparingly afterwards. But he has a tank to command, and that is the key thing!

I hope I can carry some of the momentum of the past couple of months into August and progress further into my G.I. Joe Project.

G.I. Joe Minis Painted (13)
G.I. Joe team: 10*
Cobra: 3**
Arashikage: 3*
Iron Grenadiers: 1**
Oktober Guard: 0
Red Shadows: 0

Red Ninja Viper (Cobra)

Red Ninja Viper (or Red Ninja depending on which version of the source action figure you refer to!) is my latest addition to my G.I. Joe Project, serving the enemy forces of Cobra. I prefer the longer Red Ninja Viper name as it just sounds cooler to my brain and ear.

The character is far from a leading light of the canon, and is among a plethora of ninja types that thread through the G.I. Joe mythos. It is a character 'after my time' so to speak, and only one I came across while researching options for the G.I. Joe Project. In Squad Wars games I am probably going to pitch him as an individualised character, but effectively an 'extra' type for bulking out the Cobra forces with some extra individuality - that may change though. The mini itself was a spare copy of Storm Shadow that I had from a friend's private commission, so be sure to expect a white-clad ninja before too long.

For painting I went with a bit of a hybrid of the various incarnations of Red Ninja/Red Ninja Viper. I started painting the mini at the same time as Jinx but fell behind with this one while stuff like Stalker, Timber, Shipwreck and Short Fuze got finished instead. Thankfully I have been able to retain some painting momentum and was able to get the mini finished while working a little on some other characters.

I reckon Red Ninja Viper may get a run out before too long as Brummie has recently gone into painting overdrive (check out his blog to see what I mean - link here), meaning that collectively we have a lot of characters to choose from to start gaming with.

Coming up I have a mix of Joes and Cobra in various stages including: Baroness, Duke, Gung Ho, Rock N Roll and Roadblock. Of course with my random approach to painting that could mean something else entirely like a Cobra Ninja gets painted instead....

G.I. Joe Minis Painted (12)
G.I. Joe team: 9*
Cobra: 3**
Arashikage: 3*
Iron Grenadiers: 1**
Oktober Guard: 0
Red Shadows: 0

Short Fuze (G.I. Joe)

Short Fuze marks my ninth Joe character finished, and eleventh mini for the project as a whole. I started this one a whole ago but slowed down as I found a few bits awkward to paint. I picked him up again this weekend and was able to make more headway, enough to want to finish him.

Most of the original G.I. Joe team had very similar uniforms, so expect a few more that don't look too dissimilar before too long in among the more varied later characters. Regardless of the uniforms though, I will probably mainly stuck to the same base green colours for fatigues and helmets to add a little coherence. The original figure had black webbing straps and a green backpack; I decided to go for a dark olive colour as a bit less stark than black. In my overall painted minis tally for the month, quarter and year, I am counting Short Fuze and his mortar as two separate minis - that seems fair as they are on separate bases!

Short Fuze was the team's first mortar specialist (but not the only one!). In the canon he is a solider from a military family, with a logical and thoughtful side although with a noticeable temper. Reading the comics, he is certainly not a top tier character, and is generally just 'there' in the wider ensemble.

In developing Squad Wars, Short Fuze gives me a chance to try out the rules for mortars which naturally have a few wrinkles to them.

G.I. Joe Minis Painted (11)
G.I. Joe team: 9*
Cobra: 2**
Arashikage: 3*
Iron Grenadiers: 1**
Oktober Guard: 0

Shipwreck (G.I. Joe)

'In the navy, come on people and make a stand' - ah, Shipwreck is my latest G.I. Joe Project addition, and with his naval attire he will stand out a mile among the mainly greens and browns for many of the G.I. Joe team uniforms!

Shipwreck is a tough petty officer who calmly faces any situation, not easily rattled. Surprisingly, or maybe not so surprisingly, there were a fair few naval personnel in the G.I. Joe ranks.

The mini is from a private commission which I was thankful to get hold of. I decided to swap the pistol weapon he had for something heavier looking to give a little more 'grounded' look - the irony of that choice is not lost on me given he walks into battle with a parrot on his shoulder! The painting was nice and straightforward, and once I had blocked in the main two blue colours and flesh, I started working from the waist down before tackling the remaining bits.

One of the most fun things for me in this project so far has been creating the rules cards for the minis; basically distilling how the characters are described in their file cards and the Marvel comics into a set of rules that feels right. Suffice it to say a lot of cards are done and a lot of conversions bubbling into mind.

G.I. Joe Minis Painted (10)

G.I. Joe team: 8*

Cobra: 2**

Arashikage: 3*

Iron Grenadiers: 1**

Oktober Guard: 0

Timber (G.I. Joe)

Timber is Snake Eyes' wolf companion, and not a mini I envisaged doing at the outset of my G.I. Joe Project. Painting got underway on the project in the last few weeks and it was then that Brummie mentioned he was doing one, so with that in mind I cobbled some rules ideas together, and that is how plans quickly change!

It may seem a bit bizarre, but a number of Joes and Cobra operatives had animal companions; therefore, excluding them wouldn't have been right. Brummie and I have been talking about ideas of how we can include a few more of the characters who had animal companions.

The mini was given to me by Brummie, but I have no idea where it is from. The painting was pretty easy, although I had to touch up the fur on one side to even out the patterning better. I tried to give a nice look representative of the various toys to the fur colouring, and even researched timber wolves' eyes colours for reference!

G.I. Joe Minis Painted (9)

G.I. Joe team: 7*

Cobra: 2**

Arashikage: 3*

Iron Grenadiers: 1**

Oktober Guard: 0

As I mentioned, I have prepped rules for personal use, to be able to use Timber in games of Squad Wars alongside Snake Eyes of course (either in a G.I. Joe team or an Arashikage Force).

Stalker (G.I. Joe)

Stalker is my sixth member of the G.I. Joe team finished, and my eighth G.I. Joe Project mini in all. He is a character I like a lot in the comics, probably because he was in the first G.I. Joe story I read (which was a reprint of the American stuff).

Although the pictures have washed out most of my highlighting on Stalker, I am reasonably happy with how he turned out. I decided against painting a camo stripe pattern as the base green colour is quite dark, and I opted for a fairly light contrast with his webbing and backpack. I started Stalker before Jinx, but finished the latter first which is pretty typical for me.

I have a few other members of the G.I. Joe team underway, and I hope to finish at least two or three more before the end of the month; Brummie and I have provisionally set early August for our first Squad Wars play-test. I have being prepping lots of materials for the opening games and I am looking forward to seeing if things work as I want them to.

G.I. Joe Minis Painted (8)
G.I. Joe team: 6
Cobra: 2*
Iron Grenadiers: 1*
Oktober Guard: 0

Jinx (G.I. Joe)

First up a big apology to regular readers for accidentally removing content from 100 comments from the blog; a slip of the mouse button while trying to sort out a load of spam comments caught me out and Blogger has no recycle bin unfortunately. Lesson learned!

Jinx is the latest mini completed for my G.I. Joe Project, and one of the characters less familiar to me until recently. I came to G.I. Joe through Action Force and the IDW comics published form around 2008 and onward. And so it is now I am making inroads into the old Marvel G.I. Joe comics, and shamefully have still not watched the movies (I have them on DVD, just too little time as always!). The upshot is that I have yet to see how much of a bad-ass Jinx seems to be but I hope to rectify that before too long!

Jinx is one of the good guys on the G.I Joe team, a protege of sorts to Snake Eyes, trained by the Arashikage clan. If there is one thing G.I. Joe canon is not short of, its ninjas....

The mini is one among a private commission I was fortunate to be able to get minis from. I started painting her a few days ago when I realised how I could paint up a spare ninja that I had for the G.I. Joe Project. Since both minis would be predominately red I made start on the pair before concentrating on Jinx's highlights and final work. By my standards it was a pretty quick turnaround which is always very welcome.

In the next few days I hope to finish Red Viper Ninja (Cobra) and Stalker (G.I. Joe), and after those I have a few more in the project painting queue.

G.I. Joe Minis Painted (7)
G.I. Joe team: 5
Cobra: 2*
Iron Grenadiers: 1*
Oktober Guard: 0

Working on the project has given me minis which I will be able to use to test out Squad Wars against Brummie. As a consequence I have been translating lots of characters from the G.I. Joe milieu into game stats for Squad Wars. And when I say, 'lots', I am not joking....

As an example of a character as defined in Squad Wars terms, here is the card I have prepped for Jinx. This is for personal use and won't be featured in any of the commercial side of Squad Wars when it is eventually launched (that will have IP that is my own for obvious reasons). The  game is designed to use a fairly low model count and mix solo characters as well as squads. Players won't need to use cards, a simple roster sheet will be fine, I just like having gaming cards and so while designing a simple template for free use, thought I would do some G.I. Joe characters with the template.

Cover Girl (G.I. Joe)

Cover Girl is the fifth of my G.I. Joe Project outputs this month (sixth overall), and like the others comes from a private commission. I started the mini at the same time as Hawk, but after initial progress suggested Cover Girl would be finished first, it ended up that Hawk was the first to be completed a couple of days before her.

I didn't really encounter, or at least notice, the character in the 1980's when reading Marvel UK G.I. Joe reprints or the original Marvel UK Action Force material. However, but when IDW (a smaller comics publisher, and lately a publisher of games etc.) started producing their new G.I. Joe comics she was introduced in the second year, which was my first proper exposure to the character.

In the main canon Cover Girl is a specialist armoured fighting vehicle driver, but also works as an undercover specialist in later stories. Although I have seen her shown as blonde and a red-head, I settled on blonde as I have Scarlett and Lady Jaye still to paint up, red-head and auburn respectively.

I hope to keep my painting momentum into the next couple of months on my G.I. Joe Project to enable some Squad Wars play-test games pretty soon with Brummie (click for link to his blog).

G.I. Joe Minis Painted (6)
G.I. Joe team: 4
Cobra: 2*
Iron Grenadiers: 1*
Oktober Guard: 0

Hawk (G.I. Joe)

Hawk is my fifth G.I. Joe Project mini, my fourth this month - I seem to have hit an accidental stride!

My first exposure to the character was really through Marvel UK reprints of the Larry Hama stories, when he and Stalker walk into a bank robbery and take down the robbers - at least I remember it as Hawk!

Hawk is effectively G.I. Joe's head honcho, their really big kahuna when he is promoted to general.

As I am writing up a skin of the Squad Wars rules for personal use with the G.I. Joe Project stuff, that has helped get me focused to paint a few minis this month. With the way I envisage the game, a small game with named characters may be as few as 3 or 4 models per side, potentially facing around 7 to 9 nameless Grunts and an accompanying named character.

With the rules ideas that I am playing around with, I see different benefits from taking Hawk instead of Duke etc. I hope what I have put onto the page feels right on the tabletop. As a consequence, I want to get a fair few different characters done to try a variety of things, which is why Hawk has been finished now and why I will focus on getting a selection G.I. Joe characters finished first. I now have a few more Joes in the painting queue which I hope to finish soon.

G.I. Joe Minis Painted (5)
G.I. Joe team: 3
Cobra: 2*
Iron Grenadiers: 1*
Oktober Guard: 0

Snake Eyes (G.I. Joe)

Snake Eyes is my fourth painted G.I. Joe Project mini, and probably one of the coolest characters in the Joe-verse.

For those unfamiliar with the character, Snake Eyes is basically a silent ninja-uber-commando working as part of the  G.I. Joe team, with strong connections to other key characters such as Scarlett, Stalker and Storm Shadow. This version is based on his second iteration as an action figure.

I started painting the mini late last year and ended up getting side-tracked by other projects. He was started sometime after Major Bludd, but I only picked up work on him again when I started tackling some recent G.I. Joe Project minis that kick-started with the painting of Destro. I'd like to get a couple more done before the end of the month if I can, and have started work on Hawk, Cover Girl, and Stalker, and I need to finally finish off Gung Ho. Three out of those four with Snake Eyes should give me a playable starting force for Squad Wars.

G.I. Joe Minis Painted (4)
G.I. Joe team: 2
Cobra: 2*
Iron Grenadiers: 1*
Oktober Guard: 0

Major Bludd (Cobra)

Another G.I. Joe Project mini done! Unfortunately Major Bludd had been languishing in the queue of part-painted minis for far too long.

Major Bludd is an ex Australian SAS member turned mercenary who joined the Cobra Command payroll. He frequently serves a s a field leader and is not averse to working against other members of Cobra at the behest of Cobra Commander. Unlike many Cobra operatives, Bludd isn't a true believer, instead his prime motivation is simply money.

I admit I struggled with the limited palette of the character, especially highlighting the uniform. I changed the gun the mini came with for another that felt more appropriate. I tried to bend his gun arm forwards, but not enough; in hindsight I should have re-positioned the head to be looking along the gun. Despite the painting, the main thing is that the mini is finished and adds to my slowly growing forces.

I have already started work on a few others, and have Gung Ho to finish who has been part-painted for as long as Major Bludd. In addition, work continues on Squad Wars to eventually get some games in with the minis.

G.I. Joe Minis Painted
G.I. Joe team: 1
Cobra: 2*
Iron Grenadiers: 1*
Oktober Guard: 0

Destro (Cobra/Iron Grenadiers)

A year on from my first G.I. Joe project mini, the second finally arrives - my usual snail's pace then!

Destro was nice and quick mini to paint up. I decided to emulate some of the more recent iterations of his colour scheme layout although the mini is modelled after his classic appearance. I have so many projects on the go that this one fell down the priority order, which is the cause for the slow pace. The mini is from a private collection and not commercially available, but I was lucky to get a copy; I decided the replace the pistol with something chunkier and more menacing (I envisage it as a large calibre pistol).

For those who are are not G.I. Joe (or Action Force) fans, Destro is one the bad guys, a weapons supplier to Cobra predominately, but also the leader of his own faction - the Iron Grenadiers.

I mentioned last year that I had been developing a set of rules called Squad Wars, and work on this has resumed - I am now on the third draft and getting much closer to what I want the rules to do, and the feel I want them to create. I hope to get in some G.I. Joe influenced gaming against Brummie before too long!

G.I. Joe Minis Painted
G.I. Joe team: 1
Cobra: 1*
Iron Grenadiers: 1*
Oktober Guard: 0