Odds, Ends, Sods, and Other Madness in the Bin...

So all the yikkyyakkin' about the return of the excellent Metal Magic Space Lords figures on TMP The Miniatures Page led me to post up some shots of what Space Lords figures I had readily to hand, and in doing so I stumbled upon a whole bunch of other fun things 28mm and sci-fi in the same storage bin (It's amazing what you find when you go digging!). So not being the quiet, retiring sort, I thought I should share them with all of you, my loyal cultists without further delay, so here for your consideration in no particular order are an assortment of accumulated squads, characters, vehicles, and scary space monsters from my mucking about in the hobby for the past several decades, starting with some old Galacta 25mm figures from Heritage Miniatures from the late 1970s:

The Galacta figures came out in the wake of the first Star Wars films. Here's a shot of the Arachnid Bug Warriors they're trying to face down with not-lightsabers:

I used various metallic shades on these bugs to give them a more exotic vibe. I have a bunch of the plastic Warrior bugs and Hopper Bugs in storage. When I eventually dig them out and paint up the whole swarm, they'll be done to match this style, as I find the visual effect to be quite impressive and pleasing to my beady little eyes...

Now, moving ever swiftly on, and speaking of '70s vintage figures, here's an old Greenwood & Ball/Minifigs Traveller adventurer I picked up aeons ago when I launched Federation Armory and acquired all of Ray Phillips' old stock, including a nice supply of original Traveller figures including this "not-Han Solo:"

The big fella he's standing next to is from the 1990s, an Alternative Armies Shia Khan Battlemaster if memory serves correct:

Another of the Shia Khan Battlemaster poses. I envisioned using them as alternative Ogryns for Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader:

Speaking of alternative figures for Warhammer fans, the figure next to the Shia Khan Warmaster/Inquisitional Ogryn is from Pig Iron, an indy U.K. outfit that makes some very handy, very gritty style metal figures. This batch I acquired off of EBay a few years back, and they are perfect as alternative Imperial Guard Stormtroopers:

Here's a Pig Iron figure next to a Reaper Chronoscope figure I acquired during a Paint n' Take event at  a convention in Texas I attended several years back:

Nice figures, those Reaper Chronoscope troopers:

Now, returning to the Oldies But Goodies... from waaay back in the '70s we have a group of Asgard Miniatures Trimote warriors:

These were inspired by sci-fi literature as so many '70s vintage sci-fi figures were, in this case Jerry Pournelle's classic The Mote in God's Eye. 

From the following decade came Grenadier Miniatures Traveller Imperial Marines, here reinforced by Ground Zero Games U.N. Space Command Marines to give them that extra little somethin' somethin' of heavy support weapons, all painted up for service on Mars complete with some very handy craft sand art sand of a conveniently rust red hue:

And some of the Future Wars troopers from Grenadier Miniatures form the 1990s, available now through EM4 Miniatures (who acquired the moulds for the Future Wars line when Grenadier went belly up, thus rescuing these fine Mark Copplestone sculpts for us to continue to enjoy):

I've got quite a few more of these squirreled away somewhere, and I am planning to consolidate the lot of 'em together with another two dozen or so that are in the WIP queue...

So what else did I muck up from that same storage bin? Well, there's these fun mechanical fellows from the Void Urban War series:

Like the Future Wars troopers, I have a few more of these handy robot soldiers in my WIP queue, and as they're so easily finished in a quick and clean polished steel look, I expect that when I dredge them up, they'll be joining their mechanical comrades in fairly short order...

Oh, and here's some Warhammer 40,000 Ogryns including the original Rogue Trader era Ogryn:

My poor Rogue Trader Ogryn! The Texas sun warped his base when I made the dire mistake of leaving a bin in the truck one day in the Lone Star State! Gah! I was lucky that the damage was as limited as it was... the stones on the bases are bits of clay cat litter, and yes, that's a classic "Have a Nice Day!" yellow smiley face button on his web harness, and I painted that waaay back in the 1980s when my eyes were younger and keener.

From the 1990s, I found some Ground Zero Games 25mm Stargrunt II hover vehicles, an APC and a hover jeep I painted up for my Pan African Union force. I recently rediscovered two more of the hover jeep in fact, so the timing was fortuitous as I want to paint them to match this original group of vehicles, which also happens to include a hover chassis mounted anti-aircraft "Calliope" eight barreled cannon system...

So that is what I found among other buried treasures when I went looking for some of my Space Lords figures. It is rather amazing what one can find when ya dig.

Next up, various and sundry from the painting tray, including some modern subjects, things Quar, and WW2 U.S. Army in 15mm:

Stay tuned to your TBD receiver for future transmissions from the Backnet!