Werewolves, orc, and Digger.

Just in time to 'spring forward', a few werewolves have stopped in to create havok.

Monster Hunter Spoilers ahead...

Deputy Heather Kerkonen is a competent law enforcement officer in Copper Lake during the third book in the series, ALPHA.  Unfortunately, for her, that's ground zero for the Werewolf apocalypse.
She gets bit, but, instead of turning into a slavering beast, she transforms into a werewolf that still has control.

Kerkonen, described as a red werewolf, ends up getting conscripted into the super secret Project Unicorn.  She's forced to complete two years of servitude in a monsterized tactical squad.

I used a Reaper miniature for her, and plan to also do a humanized version of the Deputy.

I also used a Reaper miniature for the 2nd werewolf I worked on this week.  This one is designed as a 'zombie' werewolf, but I'm going to use it as just a werewolf that has been through a vicious fight.  Werewolves can be killed by dishing out massive damage, as long as you can overcome the insane healing factor.

And this guy is right at the edge, being really ripped up.  In honor of that, I decided to name him Cecil Huffman, which was Owen Pitt's boss-turned-werewolf.  As mentioned previously, this werewolf didn't survive.

It is such a cool model, and it was a blast to paint up.

The corporate picnic went pear shaped...

Next up is Skippy.  Skippy makes his appearance as the balaclava wearing MHI Helicopter pilot in the first novel.  Skippy turns out to be an orc, hiding his identity as Orcs are on the Puff bounty table.  However, the orcs are really on the good side, and this particular tribe of orcs, lead by Skippy, is located a few miles from the MHI compound, well hidden in the forest.

Orcs in the MHI world are relatively small (about 5 to 5.5 ft tall or so) greenskinned, yellow eyed, and each one has one ability that they excel at.  Skippy's is being an incredible pilot, and pulls off seemingly impossible aerial maneuvers.

This Hasslefree miniature worked out pretty well, as I wanted to show off Skippy's face (which is usually hidden), have a modern weapon, and be smaller than the average man.

Hopefully, I can find another orc to represent his sword master brother Edward, and one of Skippy's wives, Gretchen.

 Lastly, I just wanted to show the glacial-like progress with the sculpt of the Digger.  The Digger is described as a combination between a robot and a scarecrow.  It has a small roundish head, no eyes, and a flap of loose skin hanging below it's gullet.  I'm not real happy with how it's going, but I'll still see if I can salvage something from it...

Owen Pitt, finally finished!

So, it's been a bit since I updated.  I blame most of that on Fallout 4, but also it's been so damn cold here I couldn't spray prime some of the minis I wanted to get working on.  We've had a bit of a heat wave (slightly above freezing) so I took the opportunity to get to the garage, with minis and spray paint in hand.  Usually, I'd do this outside, but still too cold for that, but the garage seemed serviceable.

I'm green!

Now with body armor, but I'm still green

If you remember, I had been working on my version of Owen Z. Pitt, using a liberal amount of putty and a Heroclix Drax as the basis.




Now, that I've slapped some paint on him, he looks much closer to what I had in mind...

I'm not super happy with his gun, and I'll probably readdress that soon.  I tried ot just putty over the existing gun, as I didn't really have anything to use as Abomination (his trusty shotgun/grenade launcher/bayonet).  I've found something now that may work, so I'll have to try and chop it off.  Also, I think I need to darken the facial scars a bit to define them more.  Anyhow, I'm happy with the overall look.   He really looks ready for action.

Point me towards the Monsters.

Also during my down time from painting, I had ordered some Hasslefree minis to fill out the ranks.

First up is Owen's best buddy, and Monster Hunter International's moral compass, Trip Jones.

John Jermaine Jones (Triple J, then shortened to Trip) was a teacher in a small Florida town, when a zombie outbreak decimated most of his students and fellow teachers.  He found himself initiated into the world of monsters, and ended up in the MHI training class with Owen Pitt.  A self proclaimed sci-fi and fantasy geek, he is surprisingly naive , but has a heart of gold and a serious sense of justice.

I used Hasslefree's Giant for this, and sculpted some dreadlocks onto him.  I still have a bit of touchup to do here, add the MHI patch, and maybe work on the base some more.

Last aren't directly in any of the MHI books, but are just some Lovecraftian Interdimensional baddies I had already primed, so I painted 'em up a few weeks ago.  I kind of liked the idea of painting them like human flies.

puppy-monkey-babies

I may try to add some fly wings to complete the effect, but either way, they are going in the army of monsters I have lined up to fight the good guys (or maybe even the bad guys!)

So, I've got a few more in the pipeline, but no pictures just yet.  Soon, I'll have a version of Holly Newcastle, and a human version of Earl Harbinger.

Thanks for reading, and see you next time!

Small WiP update...Owen Pitt

From last post, I decided to use the Heroclix called Drax from Guardians of the Galaxy as the basis of Owen Z Pitt.  To make Drax look more like Pitt, I figured I needed to do some sculpting to convert.

I had done a really rough sketch of what I wanted Pitt to look like.  This was before I found the Drax figure, so I was happy he met all the basics, big dude, knife...

Still pretty rough

He's also too sexy for his shirt.

I needed to add an armored vest (with lots of ammo pouches), change that k-bar knife to a big Kukri, add either some hair or a helmet, and convert that sci-fi gun to the automatic shotgun.  A bit ambitious, given my very limited sculpting skills....Like I mentioned before, this mini was cheap as dirt, so I figured I have nothing to lose.  

So far, this is what I've come up with.  First off, let me apologize for the quality of the photo.  I've been working on this during my lunches at work, and all I had was my ancient Ipod for a camera.  However, I wanted to get a pic before he got too far along.

If you squint just right...

The kukri is huge, as all I did was use putty over the top of the existing one.  I may clip it off and do a new one, but I'll wait to decide.  I've added the basics of an armored vest, and that little box out front will eventually be some ammo pouches.  It's turning out better than I thought, but I still have time to muck it up...

More next time!  Hopefully I'll get time to do some painting this weekend.

Lastly, I wanted to mention that I started another blog!  Since I'm using this one to chronicle my Monster Hunter International setting, I thought I'd keep a separate one to keep track of my comic book inspired miniatures.

It's called supervike's super stuff so please visit and subscribe if it interests you!

Thanks for reading!

Sam Haven and more stuff!

One of the most challenging yet  rewarding part of my MHI project is trying to find miniatures to fit the well described characters in the novels.  It's kinda fun for me to trawl through various manufacturers websites, looking for that perfect mini to represent a character.

Sam Haven is described as a big, tall, bad ass cowboy.  He's an ex Navy SEAL who has a Texan drawl and penchant for western wear.    When we are first introduced to the big lug in Monster Hunter International, he's the tobacco chewing, profanity laced, shooting instructor.  He wears a walrus mustache and immediately makes me think of Jesse Ventura in Predator.  Unfortunately, there are not a lot of  paramilitary cowboys miniatures out there!


Since I had the Wargames Foundry Gunther already primed and ready to go, I'd figure I'd press him into service.

Business in the front

Party in the Rear

  I added a boonie hat with some greenstuff.  On second thought, I probably should have made it a cowboy hat, but I wanted something to make me think he was an Ex Seal.  I also added the big rodeo
style belt buckle, and painted the MHI Logo on his shoulder.  The Gunther figure has very long hair, but as Haven is described as having a 'mullet', I figured it would work.  To be honest, the sculpt isn't all that great, it's a bit dodgy in spots, but at least now he's painted and officially the first completed member I have of the MHI team.

Douglas Stark makes his first appearance in MHI: Alpha.  At that time, he's the Special Agent in Charge of the Chicago Bureau of the MCB.  He's a bald, stocky bull dog of a man, who is more of a cowardly bureaucrat than anything.

Fishmen are coming.

 I decided to use a Hasslefree miniature called 'Costner' to represent good old Doug.  He's a work in progress, so I've added some belly fat and bull dog jowls to complete the look.  We learn in ALPHA that Stark was once a young Navy SEAL that served on a dangerous mission with Sam Haven.

The SEALS were sent to protect and secure a cruise liner attacked by Deep Ones.  The team was quickly overcome by the slimy fishmen, and only two SEALS survived, Haven and Stark.

That's where the two reports diverge, as Starks version has him being the hero and containing the deadly Deep One encounter, and Havens version has Stark hiding in a laundry hamper.  Since Haven's version also included the truth about the MCB coming on board and 'eliminating' survivors, Starks version became the official report.  That led to Haven being drummed out of the service, and Stark became a rising star in the MCB organization.

I'll discuss more of Stark's character (or lack of it) as I progress with the mini.



Last weeks WiP, the Condition, are now finished, and here's the proof.  The cult will grow, but the enforcers for it are ready for action.

We're forming a church softball league

A couple of cool minis I found to help me represent some of the books big hitters were found in the ranks of cheapo HeroClix.

Drax is going to be my basis for Owen Pitt, and the big ugly Tombstone will be the indomitable Agent Franks.  I'll just be adding sunglasses to Tombstone, and try my hand at turning Pitt into something similar to my sketch (from an earlier post) by sculpting body armor.  They'll also get some new paint...It's worth it to try messing with these, as they both cost me less than two bucks from an online store.  Even if I have to scrap them, I'm not going to be out much.  More on these soon.

Cheap cheap cheap!

Owen Pitt: Rough concept, mini ideas.

As I work on painting up some of my miniatures and shoehorning them into the MONSTER HUNTERS INTERNATIONAL world, I think I should also start planning out the main characters from the stories.

Owen Zastava Pitt, or 'Z' to his friends, is the protagonist of three of the five books, and the first character we meet in the series.

I suppose if you ever want to read these books, I should at least be as kind as putting up a spoiler alert.  

Spoiler Alert for the rest of my blog!  Discussing these characters and settings will certainly give plot points away.  If you are at all interested in a spoil free story, go read the books, and then come back and visit!


Owen is one big dude, described as a power lifter type guy, around 25 or so.  He's 6 foot 5, and well over 300 lbs.  He had a tough childhood, raised by a militant father who wanted Owen and his brother David to be able to survive anything.  Owen was a competition shooter at an early age, and worked as a bouncer and illegal pit fighter to put himself through college.

In a fight where he lost his cool, and almost killed another fighter, he decided to find the most boring career and get away from violence for good.  So, he became an accountant.

Long story short, he ends up with a werewolf for a boss, has a horrific fight with it, wins, and is introduced to the wonderful world of Monster Hunting.

As I'm working in roughly the 28mm size, I want a mini that stands head and shoulders above the average man.  Unfortunately, I'm not having any great luck in scouring the various manufacturers for a miniature that could serve as a basis.

I may have to try my hand at some massive conversion work, or even having a go at sculpting.

I've drawn a real rough little sketch on what I'm going for:

 I'd like my combat version of Z to be big and beefy, having a huge knife, wearing armor, and a shotgun strapped to him.

Normally, Monster hunters will wear a hockey type helmet, fitted with some Nightvision optics.  The armor has a removable neck guard (used especially when fighting Vampires) and has MOLLE straps to affix a wide range of pouches and gear.

The big knife Z uses is called a Kukri, a wicked curved machete popular with Gurkas.

In addition to a pair of STI .45s strapped to his hips, he is also very fond of his custom made Saiga fully automatic shotgun.  The shotgun also features an under mounted 40mm grenade launcher, and a side switch blade bayonet, inlayed with silver.

This is his boomstick

Lastly, for Z's normal load out, he straps a .357 to his ankle.  The man has a thing for guns.

Actually, the author of the series, Larry Corriea, is a self described Gun Nut, and he knows his stuff.

Owen is very loyal to his friends and family, even to the point here he would put himself in danger (which he often does) to protect them.  He also has a short temper, which gets him into trouble at times.

A couple of minis that could be promising for a basis for Z are from the Hasslefree Line:

Nomad

Hasslefree miniatures are freakin great!

Mordekai

Not included in the Orange box...

Unfortunately, I don't really know how big these guys are to the rest of the line.  Nomad seems the most promising, but still there would be a lot of conversion work.  Definitely a head swap, removing that big honking gun, and possibly making him taller.

Mordekai just has that side of beef look for sure.  But, he is a bit on the cartoony side, and those guns are just ridiculous.  He's an over the top, halfway down the other side type mini.

The search continues, and I have plenty of more of the inhabitants of the MHI world in the pipeline and ready for paint already, so I may just hold off for awhile to include Owen in the lineup.

Any mini suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

This weekend, I plan on painting up some Bigfoots (feet?) and some Werewolves...so watch this space!