Today we have another old sci-fi model. To recycle and slightly-update some older text: it’s one of Grenadier Miniatures’ Future Warriors models, sculpted by Mark Copplestone and sold in the 1990’s which I bought, well, rather a lot of. No, sorry, none are for sale, but if you poke around, you’ll find a hell of a lot of them still available today from Mirilton and EM-4 Miniatures, as well as very close relatives from both Wargames Foundry and of course the sculptor himself – Mark Copplestone. All at very reasonable prices.
In fact, here’s the specific pack this one comes from. These models are just part of the post-apoc looking models that are rather perfect for a variety of post-apocalyptic settings like Fallout, and have enough versatility to fit into Necromunda or 40k as general scum. THis model in fact was started in the 1990’s as part of my necromunda gang, though he didn’t get very far and all that was really done were the weapon swaps to 40k weapons from a Necormunda Weapons Pack, clothing basecoated black, skin base tone done and of course the flame-orange hair that I have eliminated all trace of.
While there was no pressing reason to finish this figure, it’s one of the ones that The Tray allowed me to force a finish onto. And of course, all that base skin gave me a reasonable canvas to practice some mroe of my small-tattoo freehanding techniques with. I’m not sure if I got enough fleshtone into the mix this time, as they are rather dark, but blending them in to give that “under the skin” look is always a tricky aspect. This model was also an attempt to create two “sleeves” that were still made of somewhat distinct tattoos, rather than just, you know, washing the arms in black ink or something…
In the end, it feels a bit more like the “Henry Rollins” type of tatto sleeve that I’ve accomplished here rather than the “Randy Orton” look, but there will be plenty more models to keep practising on in the future, assuming I manage to survive our current worldwide pandemic. It was also an exercise in different black tones, with different looks atttempted for the leather pants, straps, boots, pouches and hair. I feel like they were more distinct before hitting him with the varnish, but whaddayagonnado?
Don’t forget to Jam That Jam!
Finally, some tattoo close-ups. On the stomach we have “Thug” (in case you couldn’t guess that part) and on underside of the left arm, we have “Jam That Jam”, which is a pretty obscure wrestling in-joke about Terry Bolleas’s script tattoo.
Placeholder text for my sore knuckles!
And to conclude, my smallest (semi) legible lettering yet. Knuckle tattoos on a 28mm model. I admit the lighting glade on the varnished model doesn’t help a lot, but can anyone actually read that?
Azazel's Bitz Box. 
Wow, mate – excuse me whilst I go and find my jaw, it’s on the floor here somewhere… Those tats man – that is some incredible level of detail! Great work all round in fact 🙂
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Thanks Wudu – you’re too kind. I’ve decided that something I’d like to “push” this year is my ability to paint realistic and detailed tattoos on my models – so (hopefully) This is just a beginning. 🙂
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Well I’ll look forward to seeing what you come up with, you’ve already surpassed anything I can manage. Might be an area I should look at improving as well now you’ve got me thinking about it.
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I need to find that squad of Fantasy Ogre > Ogryn conversions I started building but never quite finished back in the day. I had plans for those. Very tattooed plans…
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Superb- you know how much I like this range of figures. The minor conversion work is really good too.
Cheers,
Pete.
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Thank you Pete – I’m hoping to start slipping a few more of them into the queue shortly. I really do enjoy painting them up as well!
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`HURT’ on the knuckles?????
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Got it! Well done, Phil! 🙂
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Whoa! He’s very much my cup of tea. Love the tattoo sleeves and I don’t think they’re too dark at all. I might have to go do a bit of shopping hehe.
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Yeah, he’s a great model. Still holds up extremely well even after all these years. And thanks on the sleeves as well. 🙂
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Whoa! Those tats are fantastic!
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Cheers Eric – and glad you like them 🙂
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My guess was the same as Phil’s, “HURT” The letters on the ends are hard to read but U and R are very clear. As others have said, the tattoos are great looking and really intricate. Kudos to you for even attempting it, let alone having it come out so well!
I also really like how 90’s this guy is. Those masks were popular as I recall (I’m embarrassed to admit, I don’t know which horror movie it comes from) and I want to say there is a Ninja Turtles character who wears one. Nothing more 90’s than TMNT!
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Awesome mate, absolutely love this one.
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Great model, and the way you have done the tattoos in particular is just awesome!
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That’s incredible, love the model. Perfect for Necromunda, as you say. I was getting the Henry Rollins vibe from the tattoos, that’s some mad paintwork!
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Cant read the knuckles all too well, but i love what you did with the model. Looks like Vega from Streetfighter decided to turn his claws in for some 40 action
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Great work on the tattoos I have always wondered how one would approach painting them especially to get that “under skin “effect you mentioned,now I know ,thanks !
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Really, really nice! Those tats look great, and this range of minis very much holds its own to this day, Copplestone really is one of the greats.
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Excellent work mate, great fine detail on all the tats and brilliant way of defining the different areas of black
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Wow – nice job dude!
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Bloody hell mate, I’ve got that figure but mine doesn’t look like that!!
Insane skills!
Cheers Roger.
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Just assume I’ve said all of the above! 🙂 Brilliant, really like him!
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Superb work on those tattoos!
I love Copplestone miniatures. We used to play a version of Confrontation (the precursor to Necromunda with partial rules released across a few White Dwarfs around issue 120-something) using almost entirely these sculpts and loved every minute. We probably spent more time rolling up gangs than actually playing because the damage tables were somewhat realistic in the sense that they almost always resulted in the death or maiming of our hapless gangers.
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Knuckle tattoos on 28mm?? 👏👏👏👏👏👏
As others have already said what I would say – let me just say again how superb the art here is.
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