Plague Stage 3A - Deadzone Marauders, Mantic Games

This figure is part of the Plague faction. He's a Stage 3A commander, you can tell this because he's wearing shoes (it's genuinely the only difference I could see).

Another nice figure with plenty of detail that rewards carefully painting. The pipes was included to add interest to the base

It's a simple paintjob with most of the effects being acheived by applying a simple wash of the first base colour.

Plague Stage 3D “Hellhounds" - Deadzone Marauders, Mantic Games

These mutts are almost as ugly as their owners the Plague faction.

To quote from the Mantic site:
"The Plague affects more than just the human population; infected Hellhounds lope ahead of the main force, tearing their prey apart with unnaturally powerful jaws, while swarms of smaller creatures creep through even the staunchest defences."

"Get down Shep!"

I have a few more Plague Stage 3A figures but as I videoed the painting process which will eventually (hopefully) be posted on YouTube the next Plague faction will be Stage 1 & 2 figures but first I have to paint them!

Plague Stage 3A with HMG - Deadzone Marauders, Mantic Games

To quote from the Mantic website:
Bloodthirsty monsters created by an alien virus, the Plague exist for one thing only – to spread their contagion as far as possible. The virus affects its hosts in a variety of ways...the third stage infected show considerably less extreme physical changes, but they retain the ability to use technology, laying down covering fire with looted weapons while their larger brethren advance.

This figure is part of the Plague faction. He's a Stage 3A with Heavy Machine Gun which is ideal for laying down suppressing fire. This enables you to pin down opponents whilst his equally ugly chums charge down the enemy and knock the stuffing out of them.

'Mauler' Class Ripper Suit - Deadzone Marauders, Mantic Games

This is the chum of the 'Rainmaker' Class Ripper Suit that can be seen (here). As with the previous figure this model was relatively simple to paint. 

'Mauler' Class Ripper Suit

The base detail is made up of plastic card and sprue. I wanted to give the impression that the orc had ripped off the sign with his chain sword after putting a few lasers holes through it.

'Mauler' Class Ripper Suit
Rear View

I think I got a bit carried away applying the rust powders though, once I started I kept on painting on more and more.

'Mauler' Class Ripper Suit

'Rainmaker' Class Ripper Suit - Deadzone Marauders, Mantic Games

And now for something completely different this week...I have somehow managed to accrue a backlog of posts that I have painted other the previous months but have not posted online. These include a number of Deadzone pieces. Regular readers may remember that I initially started making Deadzone figures around a year ago. As part of my commitment to purchase as few figures as possible for the foreseeable future (I'm trying to be lead/plastic neutral) I'm attempting to paint up as many of my previous purchases as I can.

'Rainmaker' Class Ripper Suit

This figure is not part of the original Deadzone box set (they were all 'police' and 'plague mutants' types) but these come from a supplemental set called the Marauders. All the figures had all been glued together and even primed but had been sitting there more or less forgotten until I was clearing up some space to work in.

This big ugly brute is officially equipped with a Marauder “Rainmaker” Class Ripper Suit. The figure is from the Deadzone boxset and represents Mantic's take on sci-fi orcs.

'Rainmaker' Class Ripper Suit
Rear View

I've mentioned previously that the material used to make these figures (Resnic) caused me a few problems, (i.e. it's an absolute bugger to clean up) but the design of the figure is still quite attractive (in an industrial orc way). I was tempted to chop and change the model but decided against this because of the material. From reading blogs and forums I know a few people had magnetised their models so they could change the weapons with the similar 'Mauler' version but the stats card provided with the figures are specific to particular models.

Anyways the paint job on this model was quite simple. The entire figure was painted using Citadel's Bolt Gun metal (now replaced by their Leadbelcher). Once dry a black wash was applied to the grooves and recesses, then highlights using Chainmail (now Ironbreaker) and Mithril Silver (now called Runefang) were used to bring out the details. The spent casings around the feet of the figure are simply short pieces of plastic rod, cut to a uniform length, glued to the base and painted to look metallic.

It's always worth studying a model to see what little details the sculptor added. With this model there are all sorts of details such as grenades, wiring, missiles etc. which all add to the overall 'armed to the teeth' look of piece and are easy to paint.

How to Pin a Miniature to a Base

Following on the the previous video, which dealt with an issue when correcting Mantic's resin/plastic material, this video is more of a beginners guide to pinning figures to a base. 

If there are any techniques or methods that you would like to see demonstrated on Ade's channel please feel free to ask.

Correcting Resin-Plastic 'Resnic' Miniatures

And now for something completely different:



I made this video a while ago to support Ade in his ongoing venture to turn his hobby into a full time career (which I imagine is everyone's dream), this video deals with some of the issues I found with Mantic's resnic figures, in this particular case for the Deadzone board game. Now all I have to do is paint the ugly brutes.

Dwarfs, Mantic Games

These little fellas are taken from the (dungeon crawling) board game 'Dwarf King's Hold: Dead Rising' from Mantic Games. They will eventually face the Undead Skeleton Troop when I get a chance to play the game. The miniatures are a mixture of Ironclad Warriors and Shieldbreakers apparently (I must admit I haven't clue as to which are which).

Some of the figures required a small amount of (very simple) assembly but they go together without any of the problems that I experienced with some the skeletons. 

This green and yellow chap comes as one piece

This Arm & Hammer dwarf figure simply
needs the hammerhead gluing into position.

This black and white figure is another that only
needs the hammerhead gluing into position.

Dwarf taking a power nap.

The miniatures were painted with a mixture of both Citadel and Foundry paint. The figures themselves don't appear as shiny as they do in real life, thankfully. There is one final dwarf left to paint (or repaint) and numerous bits and pieces such as the Dwarf dog. The various sprues come with lots of nice extras, something that Games Workshop often do, which I'll detail on the next relevant posting.   

Undead Skeleton Troop, Mantic Games

“And now for something completely different.”

These are the first four (of twenty two I think) skeleton figures that I've painted taken from the Mantic Games board game, Dwarf King’s Hold: Dead Rising. I pretty sure (my memory is shockingly bad) these are the first fantasy figures that I've ever painted and it makes a refreshing change to paint something other than (hopefully) historically accurate models.

I had meant to copy the colour scheme for the figures directly from the company’s website i.e. blue ‘uniform’ and blue/red shield. I later realised that I had reversed the colours on the shield so that they now match the livery of Edward IV, although I think this is because I've recently been playing another board game, Richard III from Columbia Games.

The figures themselves are nicely detailed. There is no flash and minimum mould lines. I was a little surprised that the figures are supplied with neither bases nor shield transfers, unlike the normal plastic sets apparently. I have deliberately left the integral (male - to use an engineering term.) bases of the figure plain so that if I ever by the appropriate female style bases I can simply plug them in and texture the base. They are available from the Mantic website 10 for £1.

Regarding the shields I utilised a set of transfers from Citadel which have been lying around patiently in my spares box for about twenty five years (literally). Seeing as they are manky skeletons I also applied several various shades of brown washes to dirty their appearance.