Tag Archives: colony 87

The Rise of Colony 87

I realised I haven’t shared all my Colony 87 designs with people who look at my website so now I shall remedy that!

Here we have a pair of socialites. My client Jon Boyce (former owner of Colony 87) after looking at my initial sketchbook pages (which can be seen on my Facebook page) decided he didn’t want the retro 1930’s Blade Runner look and wanted more of a looser, layered look with one of the characters wearing the kind of hat you could see in a Moebius (Jean Giraud) drawing.

When Crooked Dice took over from Jon we resurrected an idea of Jon’s for a Alien Pet merchant. My first sketches were heavily influenced by the sleazy snake-seller in Blade Runner. Returning to this idea I thought he could be wearinge a frame (similar to that on by the Colony 87 water carrier) in which the merchant could carry his creatures. Here’s the final concept:

Crooked Dice Games’ range of Colony 87 miniatures can be found here:

Colony 87 characters and creatures from Crooked Dice Games

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The Revenge of Colony 87

Some more of my miniatures concepts have been release by the talented people at Crooked Dice Games. These were turned into 3D creations by sculpting-ace Mike Anderson.

The chap on the left is a rather aged, slightly poor-looking Tech Merchant, displaying a variety of Star Wars themed data devices and assorted technological odds and ends. He has a crude bionic lower leg which he probably built himself!

On the right we have a data courier, a bit like Johnny Mnemonic but he physically carries the data. He’s got more of a cycle-courier build, a Moebius-style Sci-fi snood with built in communicator and a data slate attached to a memory-wipe device (if stolen by anyone it wipes everything in his shoulder bag).  Links to Crooked Dice Games where you can purchase these characters for yourself or just admire the miniature painting:

Colony 87 Tech Merchant on Crooked Dice Games

Colony 87 Courier on Crooked Dice Games

On my Facebook page you can see some of my sketchbook pages where I’m figuring out what these characters should look like (with the assistance of Jon Boyce, who commissioned me!).

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Colony 87 Awakens!

A new wave of Jon Boyce’s science fiction Colony 87 miniatures are on their way, concept drawings by me and sculpts by the excellent miniature sculptors Mike Anderson and John Pickford.

The brief from Jon was to draw a “female, deep space pilot wearing flight suit covered with pockets, cabling, tubing etc. Hard-seal connection at neck, calves and forearms. Helmet is removed and under arm in classic pilot pose. Mature, but attractive – think Helen Mirren. One side of head is shaved.”

My process is to created a reference sheet from all sorts of images I’ve collected from the internet and my own books; ranging from space suit designs by Fred Freeman of ex-Nazi rocket scientist Wernher Von Braun’s First Men to the Moon (1960) book to actual space suits and movie space suits from science fiction films. Then produce a sketch of my initial ideas to send to the client (in this case Jon Boyce).

You can purchase this miniature here:

Colony 87 range – Pilot A

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Colony 87 Returns!

Colony 87 returns! The kickstarter here:
(Return to Colony 87 – 28mm sci-fi civilians)
This was funded within hours and the miniatures have been sculpted by the excellent miniature sculptor Mike Anderson.
These are concept drawings for the second wave of Science Fiction civilians for Colony 87 miniatures:


These are some of my initial sketchbook pages for this commission.
The first was a SF Recordist, a scientific type to accompany a noble or other advisor recording everything (smells, sights, Electromagnetics, as well as sound). Jon Boyce (my client) suggested I look at a tank crew head gear and Gaff’s (Edward James Olmos) hat in Bladerunner. I also wanted him to have a different body shape, so I based his size on the movie Dune’s Piter De Vries (Brad Dourif) combined with the Hannibal Chew (James Hong) from Bladerunner’s hat. A stenographer’s typewriter provided a retro look for his personal computer.

For the mechanic I had the idea basing her on Firefly/Serenity’s Kaylee(Jewel Staite) as a starting point and the welder/junker started out based on a photo of a Japanese industrial worker.

The Advisor was meant to be a power-behind-the throne character so I examined various fantasy and SF advisors – the tall hat was a reference to Turkish historical viziers and also to the sinister fellows that follow Emperor Palpatine in The Return of The Jedi.

Jon Boyce had a very specific idea for the Priestess so essentially I recreated his small drawing and the Planetary Botanist was an idea that had been requested by several people in the first wave. The broad-brimmed hat was a nod to Moebius’s drawing of Planetologist Kyne for Alexandro Jodorowsky’s Dune project. I thought he might have had some injuries examining alien plants so a bionic hand seemed appropriate.

My previous post: Colony 87

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Colony 87

A commission I had last year to draw concepts for a Science Fiction 28mm miniatures range Kickstarter has been funded within a few hours!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/62661939/colony-87-28mm-sci-fi-civilians/description

Here are some of the sketches (an amphibian-alien trader, human trader, a pair of nobles with a freakish pet and a porter with a some sort of servo-yoke). The designs were influenced by, amongst many other things, Ridley Scott’s Bladerunner (1982) costumes by Michael Kaplan and Charles Knode and the nobles costumes in the David Lynch Dune movie (1984) by Bob Ringwood. I tried a gothic-arch hat from Russian history for the female noble though we settled on a simple cowl.


These have been sculpted by the talented miniature designer Mike Anderson.

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