Chronoscope 50101 - Duke Jones, Astronaut
I figured this would be perfect as the Earthling astronaut who gets sucked into the Slipstream (a pocket universe where the Slipstream RPG takes place), from some retro-futuristic alternate timeline where it's perfectly fine for an astronaut to light up a cigar while he's suited up. I painted him up to be evocative of NASA, and it took me several tries with my thinnest two-hair brushes to make the red-and-white stripes of the flags ... which end up looking like pinkish blurs for all the good that did. Ah well!
The figure is based on a War Cast Studios resin base (Industrial Round 25mm Bases). The original Reaper minis came with the wider 30mm bases, but I've been putting most of my figures intended for Slipstream on the 25mm bases because: a) They look cool; b) 25mm bases fit better in the rocketship-and-space-station terrain I've put together.
Chronoscope 50068 - John Bishop, Space Marshal
For most of the pre-generated heroes, I'm just using the name from the miniature on the character sheet, but this guy is going down as "John Bravestarr, Space Marshal." The paint scheme is inspired by a now-somewhat-obscure cheesy cartoon brought to you by the same folks who did He-Man, etc. No, I never actually watched it until recently, when Wendy forced me to watch it on Netflix while I was painting. (She seems to delight in finding WEIRD stuff to watch on Netflix.)
This is one of two figures I left on the 30mm base, as he was top-heavy enough (big shoulderpads!) that I thought it would be better than the resin 25mm base. The "rock" he's standing on is a room-temperature plastic-casting from a Hirst Arts Castlemolds "cavern floor" mold, and the cactus is just some Apoxie Sculpt rolled into "beads" and squashed into place.
Chronoscope 50061 - Professor L.T. Froschmeister
I wasn't really sure what to do with the weird "vein-like" detail on the side of his head. I painted it up as if there were some wires running along the side of his temple, for some weird-science-y reason.
Anyway, given the history of this miniature, I positively HAD to get it, paint it up, and use it for a game. I know what the L and T stand for now. ;D
Chronoscope 50150 - Betty, Space Heroine (and Critter)
The "critter" that comes with this model is actually a separate mini-figure, much like the "Wabbit" that comes with "Alice & White Rabbit" or the cat-thing that comes with "Krissy the Modern Witch." I put him atop a mis-cast room-temperature-plastic crate (get the proportions even slightly off, and the results are uuuuuugly!), which I decorated with some bits of Apoxie Sculpt to try to make it look like a crate melting away in some sort of toxic ooze, while "Critter" gleefully uses it for a firing position while it still lasts. I gave Betty her own symbol, a little heart with a "Saturn ring" around it, on her holster and gun.
Chronoscope 50027 - Dee Dee, Astro Girl
I love the look of this miniature -- that is, the original model, not my slap-dash paint job on it. I thought it really needed a little more effort to be put into it, so I built up the 30mm base with some Hirst Arts plastic-castings, and bent the figure's left leg slightly, pinning one foot to the tip of a "crystal" in order to get a "flying" pose. The exhaust from the rocket pack is a translucent orange piece from a Horrorclix "Firebreather" (Freakshow #22). The bubble helmet is a piece of clear blister plastic curled into a cylinder, glued along the seam in the back, and topped with a dome of Apoxie Sculpt painted bronze with some Inca-gold highlights; the helmet is removable.
Chronoscope 50138 - ALF-24, Robot Assistant
Really, if I wanted to go with the Buck-Rogers/Flash-Gordon look, I should have just re-used my Savage Worlds "Automatons," for the proper clunky-robot appearance. This guy looks more at home in some sort of "Star Wars with the serial numbers filed off" setting, especially once I gave him the white-with-red-stripes paint job, which ends up looking very "Old Republic / Clone Wars"-ish. Still, I just like the look of the mini, so I had to pick it up.
I painted some of the different panels in odd colors in order to give the impression that the robot has been around long enough to pick up spare parts, but hasn't prioritized getting a fresh paint job to make it all match. I spent an inordinate amount of time painting those tiny "24" numerals on each shoulder-pad, and they STILL look blurry in the picture. Ack.
Chronoscope 50095 - Kyoko Silvers, Cat Girl
I originally picked up this miniature just because it looked SO GOOFY. It's a Tim Prow sculpt, very evocative of his old work for Heartbreaker Hobbies, circa "Chronopia" and "Warzone" (1st edition), and I'm guessing he must have done it as a joke after someone said, "Make me a cat-girl!" Still, I wanted to make it a viable PC model.
First, I carefully cut off the "big whacky stick" and the attached hands (one of them was distractingly a finger-width wider than the other, so they really needed replacement anyway) with a dull hobby knife. I then spent a while shaving with the hobby knife and grinding with a Dremel (using a conical grinder) to reduce the bust size (just TOO BIG for that body), the waist (not exactly very lithe/feline), and also to grind down those puffy jowls on the muzzle a little. To my mind, the legs were too far apart, so I ... put them too far together. Oops. It's hard to be precise when I'm using the pinning drill. One bit's width can make all the difference. I still thought it was an improvement, though.
I used two gizmos from Reaper #59026 - "Deadlands Weapons & Accessories" (Savage Worlds line) to give her ONE smaller hand and a gun ... and then one much LARGER hand (but it's okay, because it's a power gauntlet ;) ). I found a cylinder-like piece from my "bitz stash" and put it on her back as a destination for the cables from the two weird-science gizmos, to serve as a "power pack." I considered adding a tail, but decided to skip that for now. (I might go back later and add one, and put a bell on it or a ribbon or something silly like that, but right now I just wanted to get the thing done, since the game is only two days away.)
Dark Heaven Legends 02785 - Sabertooth Tiger Man
I love Jason Wiebe's monsters, especially his "beast-men" of various sorts. When this first came out, I was running an "Ironclaw" campaign (a weird fantasy setting where all the characters are talking-animal types), and "animal-people" minis were in fairly short supply, so I just had to snatch this up. However, the campaign wrapped up without me finding a chance to use the mini, and I moved on to various settings where animal-people just weren't common occurrences, so it waited in my unpainted-minis cache for a while.
Enter Slipstream! It has Lionmen, Hawkmen, Lizardmen, Sharkmen, and ____-men galore, with plenty of room for further expansion. I just needed him to look a little more space-ready, and a little less "barbarian." I used another gizmo from the 59026 Deadlands Weapons & Accessories pack, transforming it into a ray gun (once I shaved down the attached hand to blend in with the "gizmo stuff"). The sword wasn't really out of place in a Buck-Rogers/Flash-Gordon sort of universe, but I tried to paint it to look "electro-blue" just to be sure, and also painted several of the armor rivets as "glowy things" to try to emphasize "This is in SPAAAAAAACE!" even if our space-catman is running around in a space-loincloth rather than a space-suit.
The resin base is a http://www.warcastst...ry_id=14]Square Cavalry Lava Base[/url] from War Cast Studios. It just seemed the right size to hold the cat-man's feet in place, and was thick and heavy enough to keep him stable. (I didn't want to go for a BIG round or square base -- at least, not any bigger than absolutely necessary -- as that would make it even harder to position on the terrain.)
The Rocketship
And here is the rocket-ship model I'm using for the heroes. I have a couple of other smaller ships that might come into play, plus a "cratered moon" piece and some modular "space station' pieces, but this is the "star" terrain piece. The interior section actually slides into the outer shell for storage and transport, and the nose cone, ray cannon, and rear engine assembly can pop off for separate storage. The large cylinders are made from some plastic drainage tubing. The clear nose-cone is made from an Easter candy container top, with frames made from mat board. The main interior floor is a support from a broken Hot Wheels "city" play set that I got at a thrift store, supplemented with additional flooring from Tehnolog/Pegasus Hobbies "Robogear"/"Platformer"/"Hexagon" terrain panels. (I also used those for the slide-open door sections.) The rear engine room is made primarily of some old Tonka "Legion of Power" construction set pieces, plus some Hirst Arts Castlemolds sci-fi castings in room-temperature plastic, and some cross-stitch plastic grid from a craft store. The fins on the outer rocket shell are pieces I picked up from a thrift store toy bin, and I suspect once belonged to some sort of Batman toy, based on the styling.
