Sci-fi Kitbash (Inspired by Dune)

I'm so used to working on miniatures in groups of 5, 10, 20, that even when I do kitbashing, it's usually for a whole squad. For this project, I kept it minimal. I did one miniature, a bit of basing, and came up with some very loose narrative themes. Two things came together for this project. The first was going to see Dune in theatres and being blown away by the visual style and design of the film, and the other was wanting to create a non-combat miniature. All of my previous hobby experience was confined to war and wargames, and that is such a narrow slice of existence. I wanted to expand my hobby horizon and explore narrative instead of combat.

This character is some sort of miner/prospector/treasure-hunter from a gritty desert planet. He mixes advanced technology like his respirator and reactor-lantern with a low tech shovel and patched overcoat. He is searching the rubble of some facility or other, where loose wiring, tarps, and metallic grating are being overtaken by the sand thrown around by dust storms.

Here you can see some of the actual kitbashing at work (if you are unfamiliar with the term kitbashing, it just refers to creating a model out of pieces from multiple kits). The torso comes from Maelstrom's Edge, the head and lantern are Frostgrave bits (the lantern is just a regular lantern with a sci-fi looking bit glued on the bottom), the shovel is from some Reaper blister pack, and the ropes and belt accessories just came out of my junk pile, so I don't know where they are from! He is standing on a base which uses some plastic grating, a broken micro SD card, some wiring, and a piece of canvas. There are also several glitter beads for rivets, and some texture past to create sand textures and hold things together.

I did practically no greenstuff sculpting here, except just a little bit to fill a gap around the rope on his hip. I just textured this a bit so it would look like rope.

I'm so happy with the final product, and I think this is one of my best creations to date. It's not a particularly stellar paint job, but the whole process was just so enjoyable. I may try a few more small scale projects to see if I can find the same enjoyment.

As for paint, I did this in my typical style. I blocked out base colours, then I hit it with some oil washes and some rust wash for the metals, then drybrushed/highlighted a tiny bit.

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