Outpost 206

From Snake Eyes to Sho Kosugi to Sub-Zero, I’ve always been a bit obsessed with ninjas. But as of late, I’ve been on a really big ninja kick as I’ve been playing a lot of Cyber Shadow, Ghostrunner, Strider 2014, and I’ve got the recently released Ninja Gaiden Master Collection on my video games backlog. All of these games feature an ultra-stylized, futuristic take on the mythological ninja archetype and I was compelled to make one of my own in the form of this, what I consider to be my first “premium” action figure kitbash. I dare say it's my most ambitious project to date. Unlike the more experimental practice pieces like my Fireteam X series , I had more of a vision for what I wanted to achieve with this project and planned on really taking my time with this one rather than coming into it with a vague idea of what I wanted and just winging it for the rest. Granted, this project still leaves plenty of room for me to try out new stuff but I knew I would be using a better class of m

 Since my collection of Games Workshop Citadel-brand paints has grown considerably with my purchase of a recent starter kit, I figured it was about time to give them their own storage rack. I went with a wooden Broken Token brand paint rack, which looked to be the right size for GW’s distinctive paint pots (and luckily, I was right). The Broken Token modular paint rack I bought has a total of 28 holes (each 35mm in diameter) for paint pots as well as 17 additional holes for holding brushes (though I already have one of those leather roll-up things that I prefer to keep my main brushes in). After assembling it and securing the slots with the last of my E6000 glue, I took a look at the completed rack and thought it looked rather plain and boring. And I promise, it is wood even though the picture makes it almost look like cardboard. Luckily, I had some digital camouflage stencils I purchased last year, two cans of Rustoleum camouflage spray paint (an army green and a deep forest gre

I actually started this project, a follow-up to my first-ever action figure custom action figure Commando X and the second figure in my Fireteam X series/mock toyline, roughly three weeks ago. Like most of my projects (especially of this scope), I usually work on it a little bit at a time. I say this because I don’t want anyone to look at the final results and think, “it took him three weeks for that ?” Hobby time has been somewhat limited over the past month or so thanks in no small part to all the overtime hours I’ve been putting in at the (home) office to meet work deadlines and other typical adult stuff. That said, I’m pleased to say that Commando X finally has a fellow cyborg squadmate with whom he can undertake deadly missions…Ranger X! The name Ranger X comes from my two main inspirations for this build: the Ranger and Air Raider classes from the Earth Defense Force series of video games. I guess I picture him as being both a jetpack droptrooper but also the guy who drives the

 In this direct sequel to my previous miniature painting article ( Dark Elf Ranger ) I mentioned a technique I wanted to try out that would hopefully make painting faces quicker and easier. I aimed to do just that with the Dark Elf Ranger’s counterpart, a Reaper-brand Nienna, Female Elf Ranger . I usually try to take a picture of the unaltered miniature before I start painting but it slipped my mind here and I’d already begun painting the face and inside of the hooded area with Reaper Pure Black, as well as the areas on her armor that I knew I was going to be dry brushing with silver later on. I also started painting the log she’s perching on with Reaper Harvest Brown. I tend to start with what I consider the lesser details if I still don’t entirely know what colors I’m going to use for the costumes. And before we get any further, I’ll address the elephant in the room. Yes, her sword is bent and yes, I could have fixed it by following Reaper’s directions and dipping it in hot water a

I had a lot of fun kitbashing my own custom GI Joe-style action figure so I thought myself ready to try my hand at a more straightforward repaint of a bootleg Transformer that’s been a fixture in my junk drawer for at least two years now. After all, I have a few miniatures and a custom action figure under my belt and I have a lot more patience for this kind of project now that I did when I bought it for less then $3 from Aliexpress. What could possibly go wrong? Strap in, kids. This article is going to be a long one. But let’s walk it back a little bit. The basis of this this project is an oversized bootleg version of a Legends class Jazz from the Transformers Universe line from 2008. And not only is he about twice the size of any Legends class figure of that era, he came in a questionable Barbie-esque bright pink/pale green color scheme. That simply would not do. As you can probably tell, these pics were taken after I started sanding him and I just had to stop and take a pictur

For a while now, I’ve been using Oyumaru Blue Stuff (a reusable thermoplastic molding compound, if you didn’t know) to make copies of model pieces, action figure parts, and other greeblies that I think I might want to put in my bits box for later use. I’ve also kicked around the idea of using it to clone an entire miniature but I haven’t made the attempt just yet. Anyway, while my process of creating a mold using Blue Stuff remains the same (which I’ll detail below), I’ve used different modeling compounds and materials for said molds. So far, I’ve experimented with the following (all of which are self-hardening, of course) and I had the following pros/cons: Two-Part Apoxie Sculpt – Great at capturing details, but too hard and heavy to really use with plastic models and figures. Better for home repairs than model making. And yes, it’s called Apoxie and not Epoxy. Moldable craft beads – Are quick to melt in hot water and, like Blue Stuff, can be melted down and reused but dry way too qui