Even More Random Space People

 In the wider world, sadly, John Blanche died this week. There isn't much for me to say about this that hasn't been said elsewhere: Blanche's influence on Games Workshop and miniature painting on the whole was immense. His grimy, low-fantasy style has inspired and been imitated by thousands of painters, 

Personally, a lot of "Blanchitsu" isn't for me - and Blanche himself made some nuanced comments on it. But he was undoubtedly an artist with a distinct style and, importantly, he was one of the first people to turn painting model soldiers into an art. His influence lives on, but he will be missed by the community.

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I've ended up with quite a lot of plastic historical miniatures, mainly because I've wanted to use them for conversions. I wanted some US soldiers to put on the bases of my Tau, as well as some Men In Black type operatives, and so on. The upshot is that I've had quite a few sets of leftover arms and bodies.

I've assembled more weird space people from these, using the historical bodies as the starting point for odd conversions. I've found that historical models are often slighter than SFF miniatures, and they work well with female heads and arms. Of course, this moves them away from their historical roots, and painting them in bright, usual colours further hides the fact that they were originally supposed to be peasants, GIs or whatever. 

I make these models as a sort of palate-clearer, between more serious projects. I've got about 50 of them now - I have no idea what I'd do with them, but then I don't know what I'd do with a lot of my models. Here are some recent ones.

These models were made with the bodies of medieval pikemen. The left-hand model has Stargrave arms and head, and a WW2 backpack. The steampunky guy has arms and a head from Wargames Atlantic Grognard models, and a cloak that I made out of milliput.

The lady on the left has Stargrave arms, a cultist head and a GW Kroot bag to balance her outline out. The guy on the right has a Stargrave head and Wargames Atlantic Agent arms. 

These guys were made with various historical bodies. From left to right: US marine, Boxer rebellion, WW2 Russian. Heads and arms are Stargrave, apart from the middle guy, who has a Pig Iron head and Frostgrave Cultist arms.

Next time, it's either scavvies from Necromunda or old Privateer Press miniatures. Watch this space...