Hasslefree: Colonel Hogan

Fresh from Admiral Almos, his firm right hand (oooh, matron) was painted as my March #90MMC figure, and another attempt to do the green/blue uniform but stronger highlights.

He gets a pet too, another of the Colony 87 models, and again I've tried to pair the animal with the person, so it's sitting to attention and literally at his right hand. Clumsy metaphors with miniatures is becoming a specialty it seems.

Hasslefree: Admiral Almos

I'm still playing catch-up, but this was my 90-minute miniature challenge (#90MMC) for February - the wonderfully detailed, and super small, Admiral Almos from Hasslefree's Grymm command squad. He's finally based, so here are the photos!

The base and creature were already painted, but have been sat waiting patiently for him to be finished for a while now. I wanted to capture the "where the hell's my pet tiger?" look in the eyes and positioning. Hopefully that comes across in the pictures.

On review I spent too long on the face, trying to get the expression right. This really is a tiny figure and I was determined to bring out the character. It didn't leave me long to finish the rest, but the military uniform was blue and then green highlights with red shading to try and emulate a shiny, pearlescent uniform texture - I had Babylon 5 in mind at the time and wish I'd made the cuffs and trim a red instead of a leather brown. Successful? Not quite, but one for the future to play with when not working inside 90 minutes.

Funny how the ambitious ideas pop up when you're already up against the clock!

Warhammer 40k: Inquisitor with combi-weapon

That was a long five weeks of work, colds, terrible family news, colds, house painting and more colds. Normal service is resumed! Now where was I?

Oh yes, painting that Inquisitor. Having changed jobs at the start of the year, I now find myself within 10 minutes' walking of a GW so have made a habit of trying to get down at least one lunchbreak per week and have a little paint. This is the result of February and early March. The lighting in the shop isn't great - it's designed for product promotion in a dark shop - not painting, and I've only been able to chip away in 30 minute sessions, but I'm happy.

This fellow has a few notable points. It's a sculpt I owned when it originally came out, probably early 90s I guess? He came with a kick-ass Ordo Malleus character. too, so when when both of them were available again through the made-to-order scheme on Games Workshop's site, it was like the mothership calling me home and I was powerless to resist.

The red was fun and the highlights are just yellow glazes to the point of re-visiting the GW Red Period, which I can afford to do as none of my armies would ever use red like this. The base is one of the Sector Imperialis bases, and I'm playing with colours and options - so it's a little unfinished, because they'll be used for all my Space Wolves, and I want to find a scheme that suits all my Imperial forces.

He was rushed in for the local GW painting competition but was beaten into third place by a really well painted Ultramarine, and a reasonably painted Belisarius Cawl - but how superb is that sculpt?

It is, I think, the first figure painted entirely somewhere not my home. Literally stepping outside my comfort zone on this one. Interesting experience. While I'm unlikely to do a full figure end-to-end as the poor lighting bugs me on fine detail and colour choices, I will continue to chip away at larger projects in this way during lunchbreaks.

So that's it! Back into the swing now hopefully. More to follow in the coming weeks now I'm back on track.