Finished SF Figs

I painted these two figures months ago - back in May/June 2011 - but only recently based them.

Reaper Marine

I got this model to use with my SF figures. However, the figure is huge - nearly 37 mm tall, and towers head and shoulders above everyone else (particularly Hasslefree figures). Given that he wasn't going to be suitable for gaming, I decided to paint him up as a standalone figure.

He went together fairly easily, but had a habit of chipping paint at the slightest excuse; I'd find chips even when he'd just been sitting in a drawer overnight (honest).

Anyway, I finally finished him, so looked about for a base. I toyed with the idea of building a piece of spaceship decking and wall, with a few pipes thrown in for good measure. When I was test fitting the pieces, however, the wall wasn't supported by very much, and I decided it wouldn't be stable.

Next idea was to use a Voodooworks alien temple base. I tried painting one up, but I couldn't find a colour scheme that I liked.

I had looked at the Fenris bases before, but I'm not a member of e-bay, and didn't want to join just to buy some bases. It turns out, however, that you can buy as a guest (although e-bay limit this to twice), so I finally settled on the Sulaco bases (and declined e-bay's further attempts to get me to join).

It painted up nice and easily (random chipping aside), and I'm reasonably happy with the outcome.

Studio McVey Lt. Kara Black

This was the fourth of their limited edition figures, and one I've always liked. I painted it up at the same time as the Reaper Marine, and it too languished in the drawer for months before being based.

I was never particularly fond of the base that came with the figure, so I always planned to do my own. To this end, I cut off the pegs that were on the feet - a mistake that I came to regret later on...

The end of the gun barrel had an air bubble in it. Unfortunately, it was positioned such that patching it would have been very difficult, and very noticeable. I decided to cut the end off and replace the whole thing with some drilled out plastic rod.

There was a further problem with the gun that I encountered whilst painting it. It looked slightly bent, so I tried to straighten it. Knowing that resin doesn't take kindly to such handling, I used my fingernail to very lightly press on the barrel, just to see if it would move. Unfortunately, even that was too much for it and it broke off, just where the barrel meets the gun shield.

I had three options:

• glue the piece straight back onto the gun shield. Given that the piece is about 1mm in diameter, there isn't much area for the glue to hold. I also didn't fancy my chances of lining up the two pieces exactly as they had been, so couldn't guarantee that the glue would be able to get a decent grip
• replace the barrel with a plastic/brass one. This would have given the best result, but would have required drilling out both the muzzle brake and gun shield. This was to be my fallback option if option three failed
• drill into the gun shield by about 1mm and glue the barrel back in. This would shorten the gun slightly, but not enough to be noticeable

I went with option three, and, happily, it worked. I did manage to break it again while basing the figure (actually while removing the finished base from its painting base), but I re-glued it and repainted the bits that needed it.

The base itself is one of the aforementioned Voodooworks bases. The scene I had in mind was that she was exploring an abandoned alien jungle temple that turned out not to be as abandoned as she'd thought...

The groundwork is a mix of Army Painter Poison Ivy and some other foliage. It covers up the design on the base, but I quite like the look. She's attached to the base by one pin in her left boot and a small bit of superglue on her right boot. This was the point at which I most regretted removing the pegs that were on the original figure.

I'm actually quite happy with the way the camouflage turned out, as I usually mess it up. One lesson that I think I've learned from this is that what you can see through an Optivisor or 100 mm macro lens isn't necessarily visible to the naked eye. In the display cabinet, it's nearly impossible to tell that the trousers are camouflaged, due at least in part to the fact that there isn't enough contrast between the different colours. Still, at least it looks good on camera :-)