Duelin' Spitfires 1: Aswang

My second Aswang started as a conversion using the very similar arms from a Boarding Shotgun Gwailo. At the time there was no Shasvastii Spitfire model so he began life as a simple Boarding Shotgun wielder - my first Aswang is a Combi Rifle conversion so I lacked that loadout. When I saw the Spitfire in my Corax blister I knew what had to be done, and hacked this guy apart five minutes after I got home from the store! Though he shares the same body pose as my other Aswang, I think that the radically different arm and weapon positions give this figure a unique appeal.

There seems to be some consensus that the Spitfire Aswang isn't worth the point upgrade over the regular dude, perhaps compared to the Noctifer and perhaps because he loses some synergy with his abilities and the standard-loadout ADHL. However I've found that another 1 SWC heavy weapon, especially one with Combat Camo, is extremely useful to hold down or delay a flank, and anyway my attempts to use Protheion have been costly and lackluster.

Malignos Sniper

Invisible

The dark pool edged closer to his nose, seeping languidly into the sand like a summer tide.

Odd that I’d finally get poetic, so close to the end. Sgt. Wayne suppressed a wry chuckle at the thought, then fought hard against the wracking pain that followed that first effort.

It wasn’t that he was so much fascinated by his life-blood darkening the dirt around him. He literally couldn’t look away; the last time he glanced around, watching his rescuers cut down by the unseen sniper, he took a second round to the leg. For good measure, it seems.

He’d been thoroughly briefed, of course. That’s what got him into this mess. A veteran soldier, he’d never ask of any man what he wouldn’t do himself, and especially not the Ariadna-fresh recruits that had been assigned to him. This patrol through ‘sanitized’ territory was meant to be more training than practical, but of course there was no safe ground against a literally invisible enemy.

So he took point, and so he was the first to be cut down. A canny human sniper would have let the point man go past, to get at the meat of the patrol. A canny Shasvaasti sniper thought differently, perhaps believing that humans shared their alien psychology and going for the first available target, surgically wounding him. Expecting that racial preservation instincts would override good sense and that rescuers would inevitably present themselves as targets.

The alien was wrong about the motivation, but not about the results. They’d tried to get to him twice, and lost four in the attempts. At the edge of his field of vision Wayne could just barely see the still-steaming pile of meat that was once an eager 18-year old kid. He wished he could look away. Wayne hadn’t survived the ambush by chance; the sniper was keeping him alive. As bait. Thank god his men had gotten the hint after the second futile attempt, and left him for dead. If he played possum maybe they’d lose all hope and just go away.

And so they waited; he and the sniper, separated by race, distance and purpose, united by circumstances in this deadly game. All he had to do was wait a little while longer. The sun hung low and red in the sky, dripping languorously ever lower, beating on his face, baking the sand and dust onto his parched lips. Soon it would be dark, and then maybe he could risk putting a hand to the wounds on his leg. It itched so badly.

His gaze was fixed on the dark, expanding pool beneath him. Wayne suddenly realized that the sound of crashing waves was his own pulse - blood rushing past his ears in the near total silence - and he laughed at the absurdity of it all. The chuckle turned to a cough, blowing dust softly into a tiny column, at once affirming and betraying his existence.

Egg Drop

“Hey Sarge! What are we doing out here anyway?”

“Keep it down,” Sgt. Rasmussen admonished, without a backwards glance at the greenhorn behind him. He scanned the rubble around him, his gaze lingering on a wall which still, improbably, stood. Satisfied that they were alone, he licked his chapped lips before answering. “Sentries reported a ‘meteor shower’ in this sector last night. The Leftenant thinks that’s how the bugs are being resupplied - ‘orbital weapons cache insertion’, he called it. That’s what we’re doing out here, Ade. And keep it down!” That last in a hushed rasp. The veteran sergeant hoped that his tone didn’t betray his own insecurity. It wasn’t safe to leave the laager at any time, let alone during the light of day. But the El Tee had claimed that they couldn’t wait for the presumed safety of nightfall.

An unusual... something... caught the man’s eye, just beyond the corner of the lone standing wall. An egg, thought the veteran. Must be. “Come over here,” Rasmussen waved to his ward. “Looks like we’ve found something.”

The something was a round cocoon, wedged against the bottom of the wall’s lee side. It glistened even as it collected breeze-borne wind and grime. Well-camouflaged otherwise, the mucous gave it away in the angle of the morning sun.

Rasmussen crouched nearby, barely an arms’ length away. “You see the little beastie growing inside?” He asked, tracing the embryo’s outline in the air with a finger. “By nightfall that little thing will have grown into a seed-soldier, and will be shooting at us in our bunks. But we found it first, didn’t we?” The Sergeant’s grin faded fast as a flicker of movement caught his attention. He reached out and put his palm over the barrel of the younger man’s gun. “Careful, son. No noise, remember?”

Rifle butts and boots made quick, if messy, work of the alien pod. “Remember, we’re looking for a weapons cache. Some kind of drop pod, maybe”. Adewayan nodded absent-mindedly, and wandered off, looking for a way to find something to wipe the goo and grime from his rifle.

“Hey Sarge, look! I found a bigger one!”

A sixth sense, some survival instinct borne of countless patrols and engagements, made the Sargeant whirl, a warning half-caught in his throat. The young recruit had raised the butt of his rifle to smash his new discovery, an alien cocoon wedged in the trunk of a burned-out car. As he brought it down, the front of the egg detonated in an explosive spray of shrapnel, vaporizing the boy from neck to waist.

Rasumussen had time to flinch, as the razor fragments blew into his body armor. More calcified pellets sliced into his unprotected throat and face, felling him instantly as he staggered backwards, gurgling his last breath.

Behind the translucent flesh wall of the cocoon, misted red with the alien blood of its enemies, the Cadmus stirred. It was nearly time to wake.

Rebirth

She awoke on something hard and cold.

Reaching back behind her with one claw, she felt the nubbed surface, otherwise smooth metal. Industrial, the thought came to her unbidden. maybe a hangar, or an assembly yard. She craned her neck to see beyond the lip of the recess that sheltered her small form, nictating membranes flicking dust wetly from her eyes. The wan, dust-choked air still admitted enough light for her to be able to see the tangled wreckage of machines around her. Yes. Definitely industrial. 

Random pictures, words, sentences flooded her mind. Images of a past life, dreamlike in quality. She was a soldier, and she'd died. The men had overrun their position, armored shapes moving swiftly and violently through the half-built, half-destroyed vehicles littering the factory floor. They'd fought to the end, been overwhelmed, and been massacred for their trouble.

The men had not been thorough, though, and the seeds of her people were left to grow, gaining sustenance from the corpses of their mothers. The night after the battle, she was awake again. And angry.

The fight had moved on beyond the industrial park, but flashes in the twilight sky and the constant dim rumble of thunder told her there was a battle raging within walking distance. She gathered herself up and stood, young muscles and ligaments singing with the exultant pain of new effort. She knew, with the certainty of instinct, that others were being born around her, that a cache of weapons was nearby. There was always a cache nearby.

She reached behind her once more, into the moist fragments of the cocoon that birthed her, retrieving a long, wicked bone blade. Blade of my own flesh, she thought. It would taste man before the dawn rose.

Combined Army: Speculo Killer

I spent my spare time this weekend daubing paint on my version of the terrifying Speculo Killer! (She's in ur base killin ur mans). The figure is just screaming for some object-source lighting from the monofilament sword, but I'm afraid to screw it up so I'll just put this here instead.

Oddly enough I found the base to be a real chore. I didn't have any sense of what I wanted it to look like, so I just googled pictures of refuse and recycling mounds until I had some ideas. Now I wonder why the girl is standing proudly in the midst of a garbage dump...

Infinity: Simple Conversions

Converting Infinity Miniatures 

Arm swaps are useful for those who wish to play WYSIWYG (What You See is What You Get). Simple arm swaps are easier than other conversions, anyway most figures have separate heads;  torso and leg conversions may affect the balance of small, dynamically-posed figures. 

You will need the following Tools and Supplies: 

-Craft knife 

-Half round file 

-Hobby saw 

-Pin vise with 2 bits* 

-Superglue 

-Brass Wire 

-Wood Filler 

*The first bit should be as small as possible, to facilitate creating a guide hole for the larger bit. The second bit should be the same size or a little larger than the diameter of the brass wire. 

I'm assuming that anyone attempting these conversions is already familiar with basic assembly: cleaning the figure, basing etc. 

1. Select the figures for conversion 

I will be using the Malignos from the Combined Army starter set and the Shrouded with Combi-Rifle. I'd like more and cheaper infantry but I don't want duplicate figures in my army, so this is one way to add diversity. I’d like to get my hands on a second Malignos, so I can have both ‘canon’ versions and an arm-swap version, but they aren’t available in a separate blister and I can’t really think of an occasion where I will have three Malignos’ in one list anyway. Since I need the knife on the Malignos I do have, he'll have to go under the knife! 

Picture: Cleaned Shrouded and Malignos in pieces 

2. Plan the conversion 

It's a good idea to try to visualize the project from start to finish before you begin altering the figures. (These guys are kind of expensive to experiment on!) My first thought was to swap the weapon arms but after looking carefully at the components, I realized that wasn't going to be possible. The Shrouded and Malignos right arms totally different (the Malignos arm is clothed, and the shoulder armor is different, Furthermore, the Shrouded rifle stock is tucked up under the arm, so it would be very difficult to get the gun clean from the arm. 

Instead, I decided to swap the free left arms of both miniatures. Fortunately the Shrouded's left arm is complete (many figures in two-handed weapon poses have the left hand attached to the gun's forestock) so this will be a very simple surgery. Because the right arm of the Shrouded is designed to meet the left arm in front of the torso, I will also cut the right arm just below the shoulder pad so that I can reposition the arm down and away from the body, leaving a little room for the knife that he will be holding. This will affect the figure’s balance point but as it is otherwise vertical it shouldn’t be too much of a problem. Also while this shift in arm position will have some anatomical implications, I’m hoping that armor plating and alien physiology will mask any odd-looking musculature. Since this will be my only Combi-Rifle Malignos, I’ll probably just go with the left hand swap and leave it at that. 

3. Separate the pieces 

I like to work in stages; I'll do all the cutting, then all the pinning, then all the gluing. That way I'm not wasting any time searching for the right tool, or forgetting a step. Doing conversions this way requires a clean work space and a little bit of organization - you don't want to lose a tiny 1/56 scale hand in the carpet! 

Note that even with a very thin-bladed hobby saw, you will lose some material on the wrist. The width of this cut is called the kerf, and it's one reason why you will want to pin the pieces on assembly. By leaving a space between the two parts, you can make up for this lost material by filling the gap with putty of some sort (I am lazy and so I use wood filler). 

Since the objects to be separated are round, you can carefully cut around 360 degrees with the saw, ensuring a clean separation, as well as a true cut that doesn't obscure any detail. Check after each couple of strokes to see how close the pieces are to separating, to avoid a surprise - these are tiny pieces and easy to lose. I cut over a white paper towel both to catch loose debris and the pieces themselves. Finally, be careful to use short, straight strokes, to avoid warping and potentially breaking your saw blade. 

4. Pinning and Assembly

Assemble the pieces according to your plan. Don't worry if things aren't working out exactly as originally intended; this is an art not a science! When I first assembled my Shrouded I discovered that the arms were still too close together, and I had to reposition his right arm farther away from his body to make room for the knife.  

Picture: Pinning Left Hand 

Even the smallest pieces can be pinned if necessary. Here I am using a pin vise with a .028 bit to start a hole in the Shrouded arm. 

5. The finished product

Here are the final results. On the right is the original Shrouded model, modified slightly (with pliers) to have his foot on a box. 

Note that even a minor conversion can have a startling effect on the final appearance of the figure! The provenance of the Shrouded model is obvious when placed next to the original, but I don't think anyone will mistake one for the other on the tabletop. 

Shasvastii Tuesday Twofer

Another couple of Seed-Spawn in the can: A Shasvastii Seed-Soldier with a light grenade launcher, and a few more shots of my Shrouded, now that the base is finished. In my haste to finish, I've clearly cut corners, but I like the way they've turned out and the team is starting to come together quite nicely! I should put up a family photo a little later.

A is for Aswang

That's good enough for me...

It turns out that the Aswang is a nasty little monster, only instead of eating cookies he eats people! And he's got a glue gun to stick people down first, kind of like the Velvet Worm...

This fella is a minor conversion, with a quick arm swap from a Cadmus so I can use him as my Lt, and some green stuff to create the bloody mess trailing behind his current meal.

I ended up getting bored so rushed through some of the stages, and the shortcuts are of course excruciatingly visible in digital close-up. Serves me right though!

Here's the color palette I'm using for my Shasvastii (all colors from Vallejo)


Dorsal Armor - Reflective Green + Prussian Blue/Field blue/Dark Blue Grey/Pale Grey-Blue
Carapace - Khaki Grey/Yellow Ochre/Sand Yellow
Ventral Flesh - Orange Brown/Salmon Rose/+Light Flesh
Weapon - German Fieldgrey/Green-Grey/Pastel Green
Freckles - Chocol. Brown/Orange Brown/Salmon Rose

Shasvastii Chop Shop

 

I wasn't able to get a ton of painting done in the past week, but I did manage to do a little converting that I wanted to show off. It turns out that Cadmus and Aswang Shasvastii are similarly equipped and proportioned, so an arm-swap was a simple matter; now my Aswang can be used as a Lt and my Cadmus is even more dangerous close-in! I also wasn't a fan of the straight-on-scream look of the Combi Rifle Cadmus so I filed his neck a little and filled the gap with some Green Stuff. It looks passable I think. 

Also included in this update is a nearly-done Shrouded, altered just slightly to be stepping up on a vent while leveling his Combi Rifle at an unseen target. That black gun tube is the last thing many humans will see! I kinda like his guy's no-pants look, and his textured flesh was a lot of fun to paint, contrasting nicely with the smooth curves of his carapace armor. 

Invasion of the Seed People

Obsession is a dark and dangerous thing!

Here's my first crack at Corvus Belli's lovely Combined Army figures from their Infinity science-fiction skirmish game. This guy is a Shasvasti Seed-Soldier, an expert in infiltrating target planets ahead of the EI's shock forces and sowing confusion and mayhem. They start the game in a cute little seed pod, oh what is that cute little thing over there! It looks like a pumpkin, aw, is that a puppy hatching? NO IT'S AN ALIEN AND IT'S GOT A KNIFE!

The color scheme is far from the boxed set photos but I wanted to emphasize the alien and crustacean look of the creature, and went for a tasty crab-meat effect on its underbelly. I was tempted to do the armored exoskeleton in German field-greys, but decided to stick to blue-greys as well, as I felt it suited the composition better. What do you think?

Photographing this little devil with my little Canon P&S was quite a challenge, given it's Z-axis depth. As a result I had to resort to post-processing sharpening way more than usual.

The New Thing

Right next to the Malifaux stuff at the local gaming Mecca are five trays of a sci-fi game called Infinity. My resolve already softened by Malifaux, I was utterly charmed by the strong aesthetics of this Spanish game.

I lasted two weeks.

Pictured is a 200-point Combined Army force of Shasvastii infiltrators, alien troops intent on conquering mankind and incorporating them as an arm of the Evolved Intelligence. I have no idea what any of that stuff means, but it sure sounds cool!