deep gray sea
our little family: miniature soldiers
August 25, 2004 Miles and his friends are serious painters of miniature soldiers. They spend a lot of time obsessing over tiny details, and take great care in their work. We spent a couple of hours on a bright summer afternoon trying to take good pictures of them outdoors. Miles kindly provided details on the figures' armaments and characteristics.
This is one of the larger figures Miles has done. He is a Tau XV8 Crisis Battlesuit. His equipment includes a shield generator (on his right shoulder), a drone controller (left shoulder), a plasma gun (right arm) and a rail gun on his left arm. He is painted to be a commander, and Miles hopes to build more of them. About 2 3/4" tall. The color scheme is Miles' own. See another at the Games Workshop site.
This archer is one of my favorites of Miles' miniatures. The tiny silver buttons painted on his tunic are a big hit. The figure is a bit over an inch high. He is a Bretonnian archer from the Warhammer Fantasy miniatures range. He is armed with a bow and arrows, wrist guard and wrist cuffs. Although lightly armed, the archers are one of the mainstays of the Bretonnian army. Miles created this color scheme. If you want to you can buy one at Games Workshop.
This is a High-Elf archer from the Lord of the Rings universe. He is heavily armed with a skillfully-crafted elf bow. He is much superior to any orcs he should come across. Unlike other races in Middle-Earth, the Elves are gifted with immortality unless they fall ill or die in battle. Miles tells me this is a traditional color scheme for a High Elf. Looks like this came from a larger set.
This is a Tau infantry soldier, from the same army (and color scheme) as the Crisis Battlesuit above. He's armed with a plasma machine gun and a grenade. The plasma machine gun has a custom bipod created out of a paperclip and a custom ammo drum created from a Tau powerpack. Miles considers him medium well-armored, but with superior technology to even the mighty Space Marines. From a larger set.
All photos done with my antique Canon AE-1, with a 70-210/f4 Canon zoom, under very bright natural light on Fuji-something ASA 200 film. My lens is not really the best tool for the job; these guys are small enough that you want to shoot them with a macro lens. If I end up with one someday I'll try to reshoot so you can see the details better. There are gazillions of excellent photos of miniatures on the Games Workshop site if you'd like to see more.