Old School Sci-Fi Minis

 Recently I bought a few old metal miniatures secondhand. I wanted to add more non-human types for potential use in sci-fi skirmish games or RPGs. I think these were originally made by some company in Nottingham, UK, but this post and the photos in it are not sponsored or endorsed or vetted by them.

I painted the space elves in a similar color scheme to a lot of my fantasy wood elves.

 For the ogre, I was mostly thinking about the movie, Predator. Here are a few angles of the same mini.

And for this last figure my main inspiration was parakeets, so I'm going to say they are known as budgies in my universe (or maybe called "Kreet" in their own language?). If I ever do another one I might paint it yellow.

More Diehard Law Enforcement and Others

 I think all of these had separate heads, and some had separate hands. I pinned the hands to make the bond more secure. For the heads, the set of minis came with various heads that could go on different minis, so you could mix them around to suit. I also found/scavenged a few heads from other places, some loose heads from some other minis that came with separate heads (I think some came from Hasslefree Minis, from a set with heads to spare), and some heads I clipped off of other minis.

There are a few more law enforcement figures of various types.

(two angles of this space cowboy since it was hard to get a good shot of him without shadows)

And a group I painted mostly in reds, as a possible crew or team of some sort.

Law and Disorder

 Some more fun miniatures from Diehard Miniatures.

First we have a space ogre (basically a walking tank, in heavy armor, so that's how I painted him) and a space orc.

Various law enforcement figures for all of your space western needs, your cyberpunk/space noir, space heists, sci-fi mystery scenarios, etc.

And the marshal with his 2 canine companions/helpers. Relentless hunters/trackers? Or sweet good doggies? I guess it might depend on who you ask.

More Gray, same shades

 These are the rest of the Diehard Miniatures troopers of this type.

"Hi Mom! I opened my faceplate. Can you see my face?"

Striking some heroic poses.

And now, a group photo of the full troop.

On to some other Diehard Miniatures next.

Painting with Gray

 Assorted troopers from Diehard miniatures by Tim Prow. I'm not totally convinced about the gray color scheme, but it was fairly easy to do, and looks different from other sci-fi armored troops I have. I'm also unsure about leaving the faceplates black or making them some other color.

"I thought we were getting white armor?"
"HQ tried it out and said it was too fiddly and hard to get it clean"
(here is a test figure; I think it did look kind of cool, but, yeah, it was hard to paint in some areas and I didn't want to do bunch of minis this way. I had started on a few more and ended up stripping the paint off of them part way through.)

So I tried the grays.
"These dark gray uniforms look kind of sinister don't they?"
"Does this mean we're the baddies?"
(I guess it might depend on the game/scenario? Or how I use the minis? Or if I put some color on the faceplates; like if I made them red, that might look more sinister? What about a green or a blue or something?)

More Sci-Fi Minis

 More sci-fi minis from Crooked Dice. Vaguely frog-like aliens, of various types.

Doctor or medic

Scribe or scholar

Field scientist or prospector

Merchants

Noble or priest or mystic? It might not be clear in the photo but this figure seems to be floating on their toes.

Retainers, guard and servant?

Sci-fi Minis

 Just a few assorted minis. Mostly from Crooked Dice Minis.

A couple of alien officials. Could be patrons, or NPCs in a scenario.

A couple of potential crew members.

Some traders. The one on the left could be a botanist, the one on the right could be some sort of technician.

This mini is not from Crooked Dice, but has been in my pile of minis for a while. I forget where it came from. I think it fits in with some other figures that could be ground crew or working in a warehouse or some sort of corporate environment.

Some Shenanigans

 I am slowly working on some miniatures. In the meantime, here is a silly drawing I did, pen and ink on paper, of what can happen when goats get up to shenanigans, whether it be fainting goats, screaming goats, or regular goats.

Space Minotaurs (aka Red Bulls?)

 Space Minotaurs from Warblade Miniatures

In my universe, these may be known as red bulls to some people, or greebles in their own language. Though they may look fierce, maybe they are, maybe they aren't. They could be big tough guys, employed by those who want some muscle, good or bad. Or they could be easy-going, soft-hearted sidekick types. Depends on the situation and scenario, and which tropes one wants to lean into.

They were fun to paint. A nice change of pace from the usual sci-fi minis.

Here is a size comparison with an orc, a dwarf, and a human.

Hench Goons and Updated Uniforms

 These are Warblade Minatures Space Enforcers Corps metal minis. I painted them using a similar color scheme to the one they used in the image for the Kickstarter as I didn't have a better one in mind. I think they look good as a squad of hench goons and leader for some evil bad guy or evil organization of some kind. Heavily armored, so they can probably shrug off hits, but probably slow moving and probably not a good range of vision with those silly helmets. ha ha

Space Mage Reaper plastic mini. I tried to paint the sword as a laser sword or power sword of some kind (definitely not a light saber).

I decided to darken up this operative mini for dark ops, with a green wash; previously posted without the dark wash here: https://talesofmirth.blogspot.com/2026/01/a-few-more-sci-fi-minis.html

I've been rebasing some of my sci-fi minis onto smaller bases to be more consistent. At least ones where that's possible. I've left space orcs on larger bases as they tend to fit better on the larger bases. Anyway, while doing that with these troopers I also decided to repaint parts of them. I had originally painted them mostly light gray. I decided to make them a little more colorful and went with a color scheme based on 19th century Colonial British infantry, with red shirts/tunics and blue trousers, with white helmets. I like that color scheme better. You can see how they looked previously in the post here: https://talesofmirth.blogspot.com/2019/07/spaceship-troopers.html

A Few More Sci-Fi Minis

 More from Effigy Minis Crisis Protocol Kickstarter.

I realized these first three had similar suits to the previous troops I had painted in green so I decided to paint them in similar colors. The first one, with the pink hair, could be some sort of operative. The second one is in the act of taking off her helmet, and the third one seems to be communicating with someone.

Next, we have a couple of more flashy, dynamic characters. I'm not sure what they are up to or who they are. Potential villains? Heroes? One of each? Something else? Who knows.

And finally, a couple of civilians. Possibly executives, patrons, bosses, etc. I figured they'd mostly be encountered indoors or in urban areas with some sort of pavement or other hard surface.