"Goa'uld Serpent Guards", 28mm Stargate SG-1 Miniatures

This is a build of 28mm Goa'uld Serpent Guards, which I purchased and painted back in 2009 for my Stargate SG-1 Miniatures Game. Made by Phoenix Miniatures in the UK, they are no longer made, and scarcely available on the secondary markets, which makes them highly sought after and extremely valuable, both acquisition and money-wise. The few that I've seen have run about $50 for one miniature figure each! I paid probably around $10 each blister pack, and I believe I got them from Cold War Miniatures.

 

Made of pewter, they are all marvelous sculpts that depict the characters in the television series with accurately.

 

First to come after washing, as with any miniatures is an undercoat; same as my Jaffa Warriors, this also serves as a basecoat, as there are few color layers placed on these figures. I generally use gray acrylics, but in miniatures I'll tend to use black, which allows dark folds in uniforms. Nothing fancy here...just black Folk Art Acrylic Paint straight out of the bottle. You can thin the paint to not cover too thick, but most craft paints are pretty thin in viscosity. Note I don't paint the slotted base bits, since these are going to be glued and anchored in the bases.

 

 

This was the second set of Stargate series miniatures I'd done, about the same time as working on my Jaffa and by this point, I had more of a hang on things, including prepping the figures in foam base holders...simple packing foam I had laying around the basement.

 

 

 

 

So next was color! Again, Folk Art Acrylics are used for all the painting on my Stargate series miniature figures you'll see (these, Serpent Guards, Jaffa Warriors, and SG-1). I drybrushed gold and silver onto applicable weapons and uniform elements, including chainmail, Serpent Guards helmets, Staff weapons, and other uniform accessories. A flat artist brush works best for drybrushing, where you: Load the brush with paint; remove some on a dry paper towel so there's not much paint left; and then stroke the paint in a sideways stroke in one direction only very lightly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's a pretty simple and straightforward process, where some figures will need a little more work than others. The important thing is not to apply the paint too thick, as you don't want to loose sculpt detail or the black undercoat, which in the case of these figures is also serving as a basecoat; that being a basecoat as well, because with the drybrushing of color, black being the first layer of color serves to darken the hue of lighter colors.

The next step is basing. These Phoenix ICONS miniatures come with the slots already cut into the top of the circular bases.

 

This is done in two steps:

The first being to glue and then anchor the figure's slot tab into the circular base stand. To do this, I first used CA glue (cyanoacrylate), also called "Crazy", "Gorilla", or "Super Glue) spread onto the tab, and then inserted int the base stand... let cure for a few hours, but I always let them cure overnight (I'm anal, what can I say!). But I don't trust (OK, I'm paranoid, too!) that bond to hold in repeated handling so, I use an artist mixing spatula to "butter spread" in Spackle (a compound used to fill cracks in plaster and produce a smooth surface) underneath the base!

 

I use the kind that is colored when wet, but dry's white when hard.

 

 

This not only adds extra bonding anchor to the slotted tab held in place with CA glue, but by totally filing in the hollow underside of the base stand, creates a flat base thaty sits on the table. Once dried, a coat of acrylic, or better yet, gluing on felt makes the perfect protection on diorama table surfaces. I'll be doing the latter, but haven't got around to it yet.

 

 

Then the next step is on top, where I spread spackle on top of the base stand, making "ground" stood upon. In this case, I wanted a simple desert terrain effect, since the diorama I plan to game on is a desert scene. To do this, I make a small mound of "sand"; and then add texture, in the application of actual granulated sand (from the craft store, as it's cleaner), sprinkled on and pressed into the spackle with my surgical gloved hands' index finger (we don't want body oils on the surface when we paint it!).

 

The bases walls can be cleaned up easily with scraping excess off with a plastic knife or paint spatula and a little water.

 

The next step is to paint the base. Again, I want a desert scape terrain effect so, I use desert sand color craft paint (same as use in the mixture for the figures' skin).

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally, color! The next step is to paint the base. Again, I want a desert scape terrain effect so, I use desert sand color craft paint (same as use in the mixture for the figures' skin).

Here is what an unpainted base looks like next to a finished base... pretty dramatic!

 

And all the bases painted...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once again, I could have added more sub-colors and highlights, but I like the look of just the sand color. I may apply dirt washes (Citadel Washes) later if I don't like the look over time, but for now it's just fine. There's kind of a natural shadow thing going on, anyway, so that's cool with me!