Inspiration gather

My website is slowly being updated and I'm about to order in a lump of Desert Insurgent stock to place on sale. Low volume initially so give me a heads up if anyone wants a pre release set and I'll fast track it. I expect the price to be around £14 for the 9 miniatures. P&P still to be concluded, payment via paypal (or credit card without a pay pal a/c).

I've also managed to clear my schedule next week to get stuck into sculpting and designing again after a month of painting! Naturally I have a lot of Sci-Fi sculpts in progress that I'll be rounding off and completing.

Design work is about to start on a new project and I've taken a quick pic of the inspiration pile I'm going to be immersing myself in for the next few weeks. I stopped spending money on lots of miniatures years ago.... I never stopped buying books though. This lot will be front and centre on the bookcase for a while.

Desert Insurgents - shots of the parts

Tox Trooper – colour scheme test

Here's a quick and crude paint scheme for the Tox Troopers. Lots of drybrushing, washes, glazing and highlights.

I can't wait to get the tripod mech/walker finished and cast for these guys.

Desert Insurgent Prototypes

I've had these prototypes in my possession for a few weeks but it's been a tough slog to find time to organise things. This isn't probably news worthy but I'll get a real update in the coming weeks.

Overall I'm really happy with them! Here are my first passes at colour schemes and paint jobs... aherm, my enjoyment of painting far outweighs my ability. The desert guys speak for themselves really, white armour and gun casing to evoke SF Space Opera and the Peacekeepers are the Empires locally recruited militia, hence the red black and gold (colours of the Empire).

I know it's early days on this range but I'm planning on going more Byzantian on the Imperial forces and more Arabian on the desert insurgents (good guys).

It will be a few weeks before I order up a few lots and offer them for sale, I want to get some shots of the metals and a brief and brutal review article completed first. They will be very limited, drop me an email if you are interested in getting a few quickly: sales at miniaturesofthenorth.com

I wont lie, these were quite a trick to put together! No more so than usual metal miniatures but I did find myself going in with some putty to hide a couple of joins. I wouldn't want to assemble a huge amount of these so I will dissuade people from buying lots of them unless they insist. They are definitely for the experienced and patient modeller.

Unfortunately one of the Peacekeepers right arms was damaged in the molding process so it's not sale worthy, it took me less than a minute to fix it with putty and I've photographed the work here. More than likely I'll lower the price for the box but throw in the miniature anyway, we will see.

Here's what I'll be offering as a set – full contents of the mold:

Tox Troopers - initial colour scheme WIP

It's slow going on the hobby front for me.

Here are some shots of the Tox Troopers. Base colour blocking is in and I've given them a wash of green ink, I'm going for a dirty putrid appearance mixed in with muddy battlefield detritus.

As soon as I get the heavy weapon master back from Anvil Industries I'll be getting it cast up in metal.