Wednesday 13 January 2016

ByronM - Spectre 28mm Modern African Militia (100 points)

These figures have been sitting around here for a while since the Spectre Kickstarter ended sometime last year and the figures arrived.  I had been holding off painting them until this challenge rolled around, and until I could come up with some cool looking African / Middle eastern buildings to use them with.

Spectre Miniatures is a small company that focuses on modern 28mm figures and did a few Kickstarters in the last little while.  Since then they have also expanded their ranges significantly and have a whole pile of ultra modern miniatures for use.  The detail on the figures is extremely good and the figure quality is very high.  If I had one complaint about them, it would be in their attempt for detail and accuracy they have kept the guns the proper scale.  While fine in theory, in practice it makes them look really small as well as very fragile.  I did have a few show up broken though, and they were quickly replaced, so hurrah for customer service!

20 varied 28mm Spectre modern African militia

Anyway, I have done 20 of the African Militants / Militia up so far with more African and Middle East militia to follow shortly.

Since most modern games that these are involved with will have a huge number of militia vs a very small number of professional or elite soldiers, I chose to do these as a very fast and basic table top level.  I will spend more time on the 4-6 elites that face off against the 30-50 militia, but just couldn't justify a ton of time on all the cannon fodder.


All I did for painting them was prime black, base layer all the colours, wash with a dirty brown/black wash, and then highlight.  I then went in and did a few small details like the NWA (Niggaz Wit Attitudes) shirt which I thought appropriate, some shiny white / bright colour hightop runners, and bright coloured flip flops and Croc's since that is obviously the proper footwear to enter battle with.  To finish off the crew I painted the leader of the militia in a purple suit with matching purple hair, as it seemed a very militant thing to fly in the face of all fashion sense.


I love the different poses, clothing, expressions that Spectre put on all of these figs, it made them a blast to paint.

For all of these and my upcoming professional soldiers I also designed and laser cut a pile of Middle East inspired buildings.  I kept them fairly generic so that they could be used for the Middle East, Spain, or even Mexico, so that they could see multiple uses.  For anyone interested I have them up on my site at: www.sg2creations.com in the Middle East Buildings section.


 20 militia should net me 100 points for my total and towards the Modern challenge that I am in.

Very nice Byron, you can almost hear the chants as they work themselves into a frenzy. Great mix of colours to give variety. Now will they be backed some "technicals"? I have not seen this range before they are tempting... must resist,,





19 comments:

  1. Very nice, love the colours. Buildings are really cool and off to look at your site now

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  2. These look great Byron! I love the very civilian colours you've given them and your buildings look great as backdrop.

    I have a bunch of Spectre stuff in the staging area and I have to agree with you about the design of these models. Anatomically and in pose they are excellent, the quality is superb, but their weapons are waay too small/slim for the scale. I know it's been mentioned in several blogs how the Spectre weapons are realistically scaled, but they simply look too small. This is where sculptors like the Perry twins, Eureka's Heristanidis and Hicks come to the fore with their more nuanced approach to sculpting. If you look closely at their work, the weapons are often over-scaled (as are some of the figures physical features), but it all somehow works as a whole.

    Nonetheless, these are still excellent models and I think you've done an excellent job on them. Looking forward to seeing your 'Operators'!

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  3. Amazing figs and cool minis. When are you coming back to Regina?

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  4. [Corrections] I meant "cool buildings".

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  5. Wonderful bold colours Byron!

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  6. Very nice- The old school tie and blazer is particularly memorable!

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  7. Great stuff. I watched the kickstarters with interest, so it is good to see someone painting them up here

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  8. So that's you holding back on skills? I am not worthy

    Ian

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  9. I shall have to watch "Blackhawk down" again. While I have no modern 28mm figures seeing these it is tempting to get some. I am impressed with them

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  10. Fantastic stuff - great selection of colours and adds to the eclectic range of figures available for our viewing pleasure as part of the challenge.

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  11. Great work here.. love the colors, and the setting, and the pieces, and the design, and and and... just all of it really! Nice! I think I will be having to send you a civi due to you being so far ahead in that contest there! :D And likely to continue to be if you continue at this rate!

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  12. Always good to see you slumming it with us "basic table top level" folks Byron :)

    Great job on these guys. That one t-shirt is particularly well done. And I agree re: weapon sizes...stuff done "to scale" breaks all the time...

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  13. Great work, Byron!

    Saw these in person. Very evocative of the genre. Did you get the resin SUV or either of the technicals Spectre offered?

    I also like the look of the buildings. I will have to add one or two to the pile of SG2 modern/near-future terrain I have painted up.

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  14. Well done Byron! Really like the chap in the purple outfit.

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  15. They look the business Byron. My eye is drawn to the muscular, shirtless guy with the RPG. Your talk of buildings reminds me that I should have ordered some stuff from you last year. I was still on the fence about my 28mm gaming.Now that I'm fully invested in Rogue Trader I'll go back and take a look.

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  16. I don't do moderns, but wow!
    Really great models and a nice brush applied to them! I can honestly say they do bring back memories, except for the purple suit, but I did see other bright colored garish suits! ;)

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