Reviving Retro Sci-Fi Miniatures: The Felynxii Project

I decided to take a break from painting up Wars of Ozz figures and terrain for a bit. Yes, golf still happily monopolizes a lot of my free time – ok MOST of my free time (winter eventually does come and no golf here then).

But even though we here in Massachusetts are in a minor drought, it does rain from time to time – and the sun even disappears for the night. No surprise there…so I could get some summertime hobby work in…

But what should I jump into?

Inspirations and Motivations

For me, inspiration came by way of the Combat Patrol WWII^TM Retro Sci-Fi games that I ran at 4 conventions earlier this year. You can see those games at the following blog links: Cold Wars 2026, TotalCon 2026, and Huzzah 2026. (I also ran games at HAVOC 2026, but did not get to a blog post on that one). They were fun and a nice return to a genre that I really enjoyed.

As to which faction to get into – well, its a bit sad to say how I was motivated to do something feline. Why? Well, my daughter Ellen and my granddaughter Tabitha (Tabby) lost their pet cat Izzy a short while back. Also, our good blog buddy Roger from “Rantings from under the Wargame table” has lost another cat (Amy) not too long ago. This was in addition to a young cat named Flash a while back and a dog as I remember. Losing pets is tough. Therefore, in these kitties memory I went with the Felynxii from long-defunct Archive Miniatures. More about these retro sci-fi cats in a bit, but first some background stuff.

Background Information on the Figures

I have written many blog posts over the years about these old school miniature projects and companies – to include some information on their origins. I have two pages that catalogs my efforts that might be of interest to you:

• For a list of my Old School miniature posts click here.
• For a list of my Retro Sci-Fi and Sci-Fi miniature posts click here:

As you probably would notice on these pages, the majority of figures that I use for these projects and games are long out-of-production – to state it mildly. Most have come from two sources – Archive Miniatures (specifically the Star Rovers Line) and Crunchy Frog Enterprises (specifically the Critter Commandos line). The last time I painted an Archive figure was back in October of 2019. As for Critter Commandos, my last group was painted in March of 2018 – so its been a while.

Archive stopped producing figures in the early 1980’s and sold off its molds. According to Lost Minis Wiki:

Archive was probably run by Barbara and Nevile Stocken [1], this American company produced a wide variety of figures, many of which have been kept in production through other companies down the years. In the early 1980s they closed up and were superseded by R*kiiv.

Sculptors: Nevile Stocken, Steve Lortz

All sourcing of original Archive Star Rovers figures for me has been from eBay. Years ago I did recast some for personal use.

As for Crunchy Frog Enterprises, the Lost Minis Wiki says:

Team Frog Studios was founded in 1987 by Paul Arden Lidberg. They are a game publisher using the imprints Crunchy Frog Enterprises and Nightshift Games. They produce games with supporting lines of miniatures. They acquired the Living Legends & $tar Corp$ lines from Lance & Laser in 2009, and they ran some unfulfilled Kickstarter projects in 2012 & 2013.

The Crunchy Frog Enterprises website is still around. However I had some issues ordering Critter Commandos figures from them in the past. Perhaps it could be better now. As a result, I have only sourced their metal miniatures from eBay and Noble Night Games when I can find them reasonably priced. I still have a good number of them awaiting a paint job. The Critter Commandos line dates from the late 1980’s. According to Lost Minis Wiki:

Lance & Laser originally produced this Critter Commandos & Crittertek range of figures. [1] It is now owned by Team Frog Studios. The game Critter Commandos was created by Paul Arden Lidberg and first published in 1989 by Crunchy Frog Enterprises (now a “Team Frog Studios” imprint). The CFE codes on this page are those used by the imprint Crunchy Frog Enterprises; the figures have been renamed and recoded several times. Sculpted by Steve Lortz

Note that the late Steve Lortz was involved in sculpting both of these lines that I love. Until I began this post, I was unaware that according to Wikipedia, Paul Arden Lidberg passed away in 2022. RIP for both.

The two lines of figures mesh well for my purposes – as one would expect from the same scupltor like Steve Lortz – who also worked in a similar genres. It appears that Jim Johnson also sculpted for Team Frog.

Who Are the Felynxii?

For this particular project I chose to work on the Felynxii. Who are they?

The Felynxii are a race of bipedal anthropomorphic spacefaring Imperial felines from the Star Rovers universe. Archive made two distinct poses of these cats. The first figure was Archive #2070, “Felynxii, Imperial Scouts, Advancing”. The second was Archive #2071, “Felynxii, Imperial Scouts, Crouching”. I had 19 of these old metal figures, 7 of the “advancing” and 13 of the “crouching”. I’m pretty sure these ae Steve Lortz sculpts, though they may be Nevile Stocken creations.

I decided one of these would be the platoon sergeant (a “crouching” figure), and two “advancing” figures would be squad leaders. Each squad would have an A and a B team. Each team would have a team leader (“advancing”) and three troopers (“crouching”). Some of the figures were in packages and some were loose. One or two had signs of early lead rot so I cleaned it up thoroughly before working on it.

That left me with a need for a platoon leader. I had a Critter Commandos figure called “MAJ Kitty”. I thought she was also a Lortz figure but is attributed to Jim Johnson on the blister card. Her Team Frog Studios SKU is 7648. I think I primed and dry-brushed her years ago. I decided that while her rank overqualified her to lead a platoon, she would do fine for my needs. As she is the sole representative figure made in the Critter Commandos line for “The Feline Confederation of Catslovakia”, she needed a job. Apparently unlike other Critter Commands factions, her kitty people were never properly fleshed out with other troops. Now she has a unit to lead on the tabletop. Meow.

The Figures

All of the figures I worked with here are definitely old school metal and 28mm. The Felynxii are armed with assault rifles, and MAJ Kitty looks like she has some sort of an anti-tank weapon. I’m calling it a “Katzooka”.

The Felynxii were sculpted back in 1977, and probably cast way back then as well. MAJ Kitty is probably from 1989-90 or so. All of the Felynxii figures are stamped on the base with their number and “1977”. It only took 49 years to get them painted! Almost all Archive figures were sculpted with a narrow rectangular base, whick doesn’t meet my needs for gaming. Therefore, I used Apoxie Sculpt and steel fender washers of different sizes to sculpt bases that would blend better on the tabletop. I did the same for MAJ Kitty’s base as well.

Let’s see the projects progress.

Project WIP

I had bought these figures years ago, so this diminishes my unpainted lead horde…

Below is a close up of one of the blister packs. 75 cents is a good deal!

Close ups photos of a crouching figure before painting:

Below are close ups of an advancing figures before painting:

The next step was to sculpt around the metal bases with a two-piece epoxy (in this case Apoxie Sculpt).

Once the epoxy had cured, I mounted the figures with poster tack to specimen jars and primed any that needed priming in black. After the primer cured, I dry brushed all to match MAJ Kitty’s state.

After dry brushing, it was time to start painting. Here are some shots before I got to adding any distinctive flocking.

For the bases, I wanted to have a deep brown clay-like look with Citadel’s now-OOP “Blackfire Earth” texture paint that would give a bit of granularity as well as contrast with the planned use of alien tufts.

Once the texture paint had dried on the sculpted bases, I added shading before varnishing the lot.

After varnishing, I added lots of differently-colored flocking. This will aid in tabletop recognition for players, as well as to add a lot of alien colors to the mix.

Let’s see some eye-candy. These shots are not as good as the ones you will see in the Instagram post at the end, but they will do. My lighting was challenging.

I also show the data cards that I made for my convention games – they are 3.5″ by 5.5″, with the reverse side (not shown) being the common Combat Patrol WWII^TM quick reference card. Note that the data cards are color coordinated with the units to an extent. There’s also those kitty names…

The Felynxii Imperial Scout Platoon

MAJ Kitty, Platoon Leader

Platoon Sergeant – SFC Izzy

1st Squad

1st Squad Leader -SSG FLASH

A Team, 1st Squad

B Team, 1st Squad

1st Squad Group Shot

2nd Squad

2nd Squad leader – SSG AMY

A Team, 2nd Squad

B Team, 2nd Squad

Felynxii Imperial Scout Platoon Group Shot

For a quick live (and perhaps better lighted) overview please check out my Instagram link:

View this post on Instagram

In the future, I have some plans to potentially add some feline-themed armor to their ranks. Stay tuned.

Thanks for taking a read about this project. My hope is that you found it interesting and informative about some figures that you never heard about before or maybe just forgot about. While I do not own a cat (I am currently allergic), my daughter Ellen and granddaughter Tabitha like them a lot, and did not replace Izzy, so I hope they like the project too.

As always, I would love to hear your thoughts on the Felynxii here – did you find any aspect more interesting than another? Did I make the right choice to jump into as a project? Do you have any favorite figure or team?

The comments section awaits your opinions! Join the conversation!

Finally, below are a list of some references and links that might also be of interest. I use them to refer to when I forget painting schemes that I want to replicate.

References:

For a consolidated list of links for any of my previous “Old School Miniatures” blog posts, please see this page here.

For a consolidated list of links for any of my previous sci-fi/retro sci-fi posts, please see this page: https://markamorin.com/sci-fi-retro-sci-fi-projects/

PAINTS, INKS, GLAZES, SHADES, WASHES, PIGMENTS, FLOCKING, GLUES AND MORE THAT I USED ON THESE FELYNXII FIGURES (INCLUDING MAJ KITTY):

1. Specimen Jars
2. Poster tack
3. Vallejo Primers “White”
4. 1″ Everbilt steel fender washers (for SKU 2070 and MAJ KITTY)
5. 1.5″ Everbilt steel fender washers (for SKU 2071)
6. Vallejo Primer “Surface Black”
7. Apoxie Sculpt
8. Vallejo Model Color “Off White”
9. Army Painter Speed Paint 1.0 “Zealot Yellow”
10. Army Painter Warpaints Metallics “Gun Metal”
11. Army Painter Speed Paint 1.0 “Dark Wood”
12. Army Painter Speed Paint 1.0 “Runic Grey”
13. Citadel Contrast Paint “Talassar Blue”
14. Vallejo Thinner
15. Citadel Contrast Paint “Baal Red”
16. Army Painter Speed Paint 2.0 “Pastel Yellow”
17. Army Painter Speed Paint 2.0 “Familiar Pink”
18. Army Painter Speed Paint 2.0 “Forest Sprite”
19. Army Painter Speed Paint 2.0 “Battleship Grey”
20. Army Painter Speed Paint 1.0 “Hardened Leather”
21. Vallejo Mecha Color “Metallic Blue”
22. Turbo Dork “People Eater”
23. Vallejo “Thinner Medium”
24. Army Painter Warpaints Metallics “Bright Gold”
25. Tamiya “Flat Aluminum” (XF-16)
26. Vallejo Model Air “Fluorescent Red”
27. Tamiya “Copper” (XF-6)
28. Vallejo “Metal Medium”
29. Vallejo Model Air “White Grey”
30. Vallejo Model Air “First Light”
31. Vallejo Model Color “Black Grey”
32. Citadel “Tesseract Glow” (Technical)
33. Reaper MSP Core Colors “Pure White”
34. Reaper MSP “Grey Liner”
35. Army Painter Speed Paint 2.0 “Blinding Light”
36. Reaper MSP Core Colors “Pure Black”
37. Citadel Contrast Paint “Luxion Purple”
38. Vallejo Model Air “Black Metallic”
39. Citadel “Nuln Oil GLOSS” (wash/shade)
40. Citadel “Nuln Oil” (wash/shade)
41. Citadel “Blackfire Earth” (Texture)
42. Vallejo Flow Improver
43. Vallejo Thinner
44. Vallejo “Gloss Acrylic Varnish”
45. Vallejo “Satin Varnish”
46. Gamers Grass 6mm “Beige Tufts” (flocking)
47. Gamers Grass 6mm “Beige Tufts” (flocking)
48. Gamers Grass 6mm “Alien Blood Moon” (flocking)
49. Gamers Grass 6mm “Alien Purple” (flocking)
50. Gamers Grass 6mm “Alien Blue” (flocking)
51. Gamers Grass 6mm “Alien Toxic” (flocking)
52. Gamers Grass 6mm “Alien Pink” (flocking)
53. Avery labels
54. Army Painter “Battlefield Rocks” (flocking)

Until next time…