Sci-Fi Simians

Lt. Frikk and Engineer Frakk of the UZC (United Zhuh-Corps)

So I've threatened to run a 5150 game for some time. It would feature all host of aliens, both friend and foe, as well as an interesting mix of linked campaign games hovering in the gray area somewhere between tabletop and RPG, but I've already said too much.

You can find any number of the (apparently not so) defunct AT43 line on super clearance pretty much wherever miniatures games are sold. I picked these two guys up not even in a trade, just as "gimmes". There's a large, apelike simian race in the Illegal Aliens sourcebook. These Karmans are just the trick to fill the figure gap when it comes to representing 5150's Zhuh Zhuhs.


You can pretty much agree universally that the figs from AT43 were solidly "not bad". For these two chaps I did do some refurbishing, just to get them up to spec and look halfway decent on the tabletop. The first thing I did was base them. All I used was some green flock, adhering it to their bases with plain, ole white glue. A little basing goes a long way.

Next up I removed their goofy "arm guns". Each figure had two plasma pistol looking guns anchored down on the armored wrist guards on their right arms. I popped these out, you can see the slots they used to go in, and trimmed one down to make it like a pistol to be held...in the normal way, and the other got glued to the engineer's leg to look like it's been holstered (in this case it uses a cool, magnetic clamp).

Finally I worked on their faces, the most prominent feature of most figures, and also the weakest area to do justice to. I painted their eyes white first, then went in and 'dotted' them with black. They were no longer blind! For the mechanic I went in with a bright green and painte dhis targeting reticule, then gave it a slight highlight. For the other figure I went and painted the lenses on his goggles red and repaitned his cigar so that it would look like, well, a cigar. Finally I hit both faces and hair with a little Badab Black wash from GW. Speaking of washes, I also used Devlan Mud on their leather pull-over caps for a tad more depth.

All in all, they'r e no great shakes, but they will definitely get the job done when it comes to introducing a cool, new alien element in any given game. Enjoy!