The Mind and The Macron, Archive Miniatures from 1978/1979 for the Board Game Cosmic Encounter

Back in 1978 and 1979, Archive Miniatures produced a line of figures for the board game Cosmic Encounters.  According to the Lost Minis Wiki, at some point Archive Miniatures produced a line of figures for the board game.    These included four catalog items: “Wrack” (#2101), “Oracle” (#2102), “The Mind and the Macron” (two figures for #2103) and “The Healer, Zombie, and Sorcerer” (three figures for #2104).  I am not sure if that was a limited release as the research I could find on the 1977 version of Cosmic Encounter seemed to suggest that there were many alien races available for the game – many more than this page from the Lost Minis Wiki suggests were made.  Cosmic Encounter continues to be sold and is available in its current configuration here.

In any case, I stumbled on the Macron three years ago, and managed at some point since to acquire a complete set including The Mind since then.  My goal back then in acquiring the Macron figures was to have basically a squad of giant cosmonaut zombies for retro sci-fi games of Buck Surdu’s Combat Patrol™.  Having The Mind as the unit leader controlling the giant zombie cosmonauts seemed to be a nice concept for a unit.  I wanted a unit of ten, and I previously posted here how I made a mold and recast many more.  I had since shared these with Buck and IRO as shown here and here respectively.   I also wanted to complete these in September as part of Azazel’s “Scenic and Squaddie September ’19 Community Painting Challenge” that I try to share in when I can. Amazingly, it has been three+ years since I recast these figures, and I thought I’d better do something other than tanks for a bit!  As an aside, this last month has been a bit crazy, as I had my 35th West Point reunion, job interviews, BARRAGE in Maryland, etc.  I am hoping to catch up on reading others’ blogs and posting on the events of September soon!  It’s been a while since I managed to complete a blog entry too.

Ironically, the Macron figures were sculpted by Nevile Stocken in 1979 – and the current president of France, Emmanuel Macron was born in 1977!  So of any of you thought I was making that up, I have provided the links.

Back to the project – I found my recasts to be satisfactory, but I needed to do a good amount of filing and green stuff repairs to bring the recasts up to a good standard.  The figures are large – about 2¼” (about 57mm for you metric types).  The Mind is about half as high, but bulky.  However, as these will be used as aliens, I can get away with them as giant cosmonaut zombies!  I also have been looking at many posts from folks trying the new Contrast paints from Games Workshop.  I thought this project would afford a nice opportunity to try them and learn about how best to employ them in the future.

I made this color palette for my Contrast Paints – and it was helpful.

So after varnishing – The Mind and The Macron – and their base colors – for your enjoyment:

And a couple of group shots:

My take on the contrast paints is quite similar to that of Azazel on his blog – he has a lot of experiments (he’s up to 12 at last look) and I did lean somewhat on his experiences a bit.  I will use them as base coats when the figures need some pop – but I really think they are not a be all and end all line of products.  Like every other paint/wash/glaze/ink etc., the user can find a niche – or a broad use – depending on the desire you have for the final product.  I like what the contrast paints did here – but I don’t want to use them on a Tiger II!  So, another tool in the kit bag – but I really think I’d want to continue to wash, shade, highlight, etc. on future projects.

Thanks for looking and hopefully you enjoyed reading about and seeing these.  Let me know your thoughts, faves, (or least faves if you want!).   I appreciate the feedback as always, and will be catching up on my blogging this week (I hope)!

 

PAINTS, INKS, GLAZES, SHADES, WASHES, PIGMENTS, FLOCKING, GLUES AND MORE USED ON THESE FIGURES:

1. Gorilla Glue gel
2. Green stuff (kneadatite)
3. 1¼” Everbilt steel fender washers
4. Poster tack
5. Vallejo “Flow Improver”
6. Vallejo “Airbrush Thinner”
7. Vallejo “Surface Primer – White”
8. Citadel “Contrast Paint – “Apothecary White”
9. Citadel “Contrast Paint – “Plaguebearer Flesh”
10. Vallejo Model Air “Steel”
11. Polly Scale “WWII Luftwaffe Uniform Gray”
12. Battlefront “Black”
13. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Basilicanum Grey”
14. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Black Templar”
15. Battlefront “Dark Gunmetal”
16. Vallejo Mecha Weathering “Dark Rust Wash”
17. Vallejo Game Air “Dead White”
18. Citadel “Bloodletter” (glaze)
19. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Warp Lightning”
20. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Flesh Tearers Red”
21. P3 “Red” (ink)
22. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Blood Angels Red”
23. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Gryph-Hound Orange”
24. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Shyish Purple”
25. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Ultramarines Blue”
26. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Talassar Blue”
27. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Terradon Turquoise”
28. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Aethermatic Blue”
29. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Magos Purple”
30. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Iyanden Yellow”
31. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Volupus Pink”
32. Citadel “Nuln Oil” (shade)
33. Army Painter “Quickshade Red Tone” (wash)
34. Army Painter “Quickshade Dark Tone” (wash)
35. Army Painter “Quickshade Purple Tone” (wash)
36. Army Painter “Quickshade Blue Tone” (wash)
37. Citadel “Coelia Greenshade” (shade)
38. Citadel “Druchi Violet” (wash)
39. Vallejo Mecha Color “Green Fluorescent”
40. Vallejo “Vermilion”
41. Vallejo “Clear Orange”
42. Vallejo Mecha Color “Purple”
43. Vallejo “Dark Blue”
44. Citadel “Contrast Medium”
45. Vallejo Mecha Color “Turquoise”
46. Vallejo Mecha Color “Magenta Fluorescent”
47. Citadel “Astrogranite Debris”
48. Citadel “Mechanicus Standard Grey”
49. Citadel “Daemonette Hide”
50. Citadel “Warpfiend Grey”
51. Citadel “Slaneesh Grey”
52. Vallejo Mecha Varnish “Matt Varnish