Archive Miniatures Star Rovers game and miniature range had a lot of very fun figures, many of which I have painted and discussed in past entries in this blog. A couple of the line that caught my eye were “Long Gone Jones” (Archive #2211), a space dwarf, and “Agribot S1L1” (Archive #2204). Both were sculpted and put into production around 1977. I’m not exactly sure of the name derivations, but methinks there was some degree of Archive humor there based on the late 70’s – and I leave it to you readers to make your own guess!
I had previously acquired one Long Gone Jones (let’s call him LGJ) miniature on eBay, but had not found any others. However, Michael Thomas at classicminiatures.net (who produced the Robot Peacekeepers I previously described here) also had the molds for these figures. So I placed the order from him, and got ten LGJ’s to add to my original one in addition to three Agribots. I thought I would now have enough to build a squad for sci-fi games using Combat Patrol™ .
Each LGJ is in power armor, has a jet pack, and is armed with an automatic weapon coming out of his right arm. The Agribots look like they have a hovering mechanism, and are armed with what looks like a machine gun.
For the unit’s organization, I decided to have a LGJ squad leader with a dedicated Agribot as the squad headquarters. He would lead the squad’s two Space Dwarf Assault teams (A and B). Each team would have its own LGJ team leader, 4 LGJ troopers, and an Agribot. I’ll probably treat the LGJ weapons as analogues to sub-machine guns, and the Agribots as mobile medium machine guns. This made a total of 14 figures for the squad. I was thinking about the organization of Soviet Machine Pistol squads in WWII as inspiration. My numbers aren’t exactly the same, but we are talking about Space Dwarves here! To round out the end of June, I finished off the Space Dwarf Assault Squad.
First, I cleaned and washed the group. Then I filed off the mold lines and flash on the figures. After this, I mounted them on ¾” steel washers with Gorilla glue, and affixed the washers to poster tack on top of specimen bottles. I primed the squad white with Vallejo “White Surface Primer” with my Iwata Eclipse airbrush, and let that harden.
I wanted to give these figures a totally retro sci-fi look – so I again used the Createx paints to airbrush even more colors (added Pearl Blue, Pearl Lime Green, and Pearl Green) onto the squad than I had done with the Robot Peacekeepers. I figured the dwarves would want more individuality! For ease of play on the tabletop, I did plan to similarly color coordinate the lenses on the LGJ’s and the Agribots with Vallejo Mecha Color fluorescent paints. On the optics/lenses, the squad leader and his Agribot would get Vallejo Game Air “Fluorescent Red”, Team A got Vallejo Mecha Color “Green Fluorescent”, and Team B got Vallejo Mecha Color “Green Fluorescent”. These would take multiple light thin coats to get the desired effects. And of course with so much metallics, I needed to use a lot of Citadel “Nuln Oil Gloss”. I list the paints and materials I used at the end of the blog for those interested.
My plan for varnishing the group and the bases was to initially apply an airbrush coat of Vallejo “Gloss Varnish” before working on the bases. The bases would then get a treatment of Citadel “Astrogranite Debris”. I like it better than “Astrogranite” – it sets up better for dry brushing later. Once that was dry, I washed it with “Nuln Oil”, let that dry, and then dry brushed the bases with Vallejo Game Air “Wolf Grey”. To give the bases a nice lunar look, I added Citadel “Gulliman Blue” glaze and let that dry. Lastly, I gave the entire squad a second coat of Vallejo Mecha Varnish “Matt Varnish” for protection and to dull the shines down to an acceptable level.
I think you’ll see below on the finished figures the difference that the matte varnish adds, while preserving the metallic look of the power armor that I was attempting to capture.
I am pleased with the final product – and I can see them being on one side or the other of many future tabletop conflicts. Whoever is paying them the most of course! That’s the nice part of not needing a Codex! I do think that they are colorful enough, but power armor covers them nicely.
I hope that you enjoyed looking at this – and this was my most productive month ever in terms of painting – 57 figures in total (3 units) for “Junit”, a community painting challenge run so very well by our Aussie friend Azazel. If you’re reading this and are not familiar with his blog, it’s well worth the look.
I always read your comments and feedback – and as the goal of this blog to entertain and bemuse you – let me know if I did (or did not). So let me know your thoughts – and as always, thanks for looking!
PAINTS, INKS, GLAZES, WASHES, AND FLOCKING USED:
- Vallejo “Surface Primer – White”
- Createx “Pearl Red”
- Createx “Pearl Copper”
- Createx “Pearl Tangerine”
- Createx “Pearl Plum”
- Createx “Pearl Lime Green”
- Createx “Pearl Green”
- Vallejo “Flow Improver”
- Vallejo “”Airbrush Thinner”
- Createx “4012 High Performance Reducer”
- Citadel “Nuln Oil Gloss” (wash)
- Citadel “Ceramite White”
- Vallejo “Black Grey”
- Vallejo Model Air “Chrome”
- Vallejo Model Air “Copper”
- Vallejo Game Air “Wolf Grey”
- Vallejo Model Air “Black (metallic)”
- Vallejo Model Air “Steel”
- Vallejo Game Air “Fluorescent Red”
- Vallejo Mecha Color “Green Fluorescent”
- Vallejo Mecha Color “Magenta Fluorescent”
- Vallejo Model Air “Gun Metal”
- Vallejo “Gloss Varnish”
- Citadel “Astrogranite Debris” (texture)
- Citadel “Gulliman Blue” (glaze)
- Vallejo Mecha Varnish “Matt Varnish”
Thanks again!
Mark A. Morin 
Great work, Ma’k. I love the colors. The figures turned out really good. I may have to order some of them myself.
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Thanks Buck. They are extremely fairly priced. I’m very pleased with the Createx stuff
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Great detail, Mark, both in the text and the photos.
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Thank you!
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You have been busy! Love the range of colours you’ve used. The end result is great!
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Yeah TIM, Junit was busy. I actually had a 4th unit that didn’t get done too 😮
It’s always fun to be a bit retro don’t you think? 😎
Thanks TIM glad you liked my guys!
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Wow, amazing little killer bots! Brilliant.
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Thanks for the feedback Thomas! I thought originally when I bought them that they were all bots, but my Archive catalog said that LGJ was a dwarf in power armor! And I never argue with catalogues old enough to drink 😁
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Man, that’s a lot of painted lead! Cool looking dwarfs mate, and I love those pearlised paints!
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Great to hear Alex! I’m loving them too!
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As usual, these look great! Those pearlised colours really do look good, even after matt varnish! And quite a turnout for June!
P.S. I find the green eyes really quite frightening! Have had to run and hide behind the sofa to post this! Excellent figures!
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JNV they have jet packs, so they might still get ya! 😁 Thanks for the kind feedback, always appreciated!
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Smashing work yet again Mark, I’m loving the vibrant colours your using at the moment!
It’s like a seventies sci/fi disco out there!
Cheers Roger.
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🕺🕺🕺🕺🕺
Thanks Roger!
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Space dwarfs and Agribots? I knew I was going to love these, and I wasn’t disappointed! They look great on their moon bases and backdrops, in those funky colours and scary lenses.
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Subedai thanks my friend! The backdrops were a separate project that involved finding lunar images and reversing them to make a wider backdrop. They are actually photos from the Apollo landings. I thought they would be a nice way to accentuate the colors. Funky colors on funky ‘70’s Minis!
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Great stuff here, Mark. The colourful metallic paint really works for that retro look and the flouro eyes really pop, even from a good distance – especially the green! Obviously, an amazingly productive month for you as well with so many models completed!
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Man oh man, do those eyes pop! I tried using the Vallejo Model Air Fluorescent Red before, by brushing it on, but the pigment didn’t mix at all. I could actually see it floating it in the medium. I guess I needed to shake it vigorously for longer, or I got a bad batch. I have a green that is pretty bright, and didn’t have any troubles with that one.
Those Space Dwarves are nice looking minis and I like how you painted them. Great work and nice back story! 🙂
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Sounds like you got a bad batch or it needed thinning. I used the Vallejo Mecha Colors (green and magenta) and the Vallejo Game Air (red) for the eyes. They are very thin, and are designed for airbrush, but brush on so easily by hand. I first painted the eyes with Citadel Ceramite White (also thinned). Then multiple coats of thinned fluorescent color until I had the look I wanted. You definitely do not want any lumps of paint here. Truly, this way the paint really fluoresces.
As always Faust, thanks for sharing your feedback!
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Thanks for the tip Mark, next time I’ll try shaking it up more and see if the pigment dissolves. Failing that, I know it might be a bad batch.
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Sorry I’m late to the party here mate but these are so damn cool. Love the vivid colours and retro vibe. Those little jet packs are very cool. I think your miniatures are the most obscure but fascinating sculpts I’ve ever seen.
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Thanks IRO. What’s more, these are still available unlike a lot of the other Archive stuff. They are typical of the late 1970’s/early 1980’s in terms of sculpts. Lucky for me, I still have a lot more stuff like these in the painting queue.
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Loving the photos and backdrops still too. Maybe try some space backgrounds too, as in black skies and stars but keep the lunar ground.
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Glad you like them as they are a project in and of themselves. These are actual Apollo photos I googled. Basically I found two photos I liked. I thought that using the lunar images would work well with the brightly colored minis. I then reversed a background and a ground photos, and inserted both copies (original and reversed) into a PowerPoint. Printed off the slides, and used a glue stick to mount to a filing folder. Used an iPhone 7 with a couple of hand held LED shop lights and a desk lamp, so this is so high tech!!
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Wow more high tech than what I do brother
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