Dragged into Turbolasers Episode 74: The grimdarkfilmclub and our hobby inspirations

Follow the grimdarkfilmclub on Instagram!

Recently, the three of us were asked by ban__hus to take part in his grimdarkfilmclub project, where people select a film, book, record, and artwork that has inspired them. Our selections are up on the grimdarkfilmclub Instagram account, but we wanted to use this episode to talk more about them and why they are important to us. Many of them speak to our interest in realism, which is reflected in our hobby projects where we modify the scale of miniatures to reduce heroic scale. We talk about the following films: Jin-Roh - the Wolf Brigade, Unforgiven, and Blue Ruin. We talk about the following books: Roadside Picnic, The Shadow of the Torturer (The Book of the New Sun), and the Crystal World. We talk about the following albums: Liar - The Jesus Lizard, Bivouac - Jawbreaker, and Songs about Fucking - Big Black. Finally, we talk about the artists: Yoji Shinkawa, Alberto Giacometti, and Joe Keinberger.

Building a RG Eva 01

“God's in his heaven. All's right with the world!”

Over the last few months, I have started to build various Bandai Gundam kits. Not needing to paint the models and their impressive level of articulation makes them a nice change of pace from Games Workshop models. Although I have always loved Gundam, particularly the Universal Century, due to its exploration of how war affects people, my favorite animated series growing up was Neon Genesis Evangelion. While the series has its share of mecha battles, its look at depression and mental illness is was what gave it its most lasting impact. Therefore, I was excited to see that Bandai started to make Real Grade versions of the different Evangelion Units, the first of which being Shinji Ikari’s Eva 01. Having assembled two RG models so far, a Zaku II and Char’s Sazabi, I decided it would be fun to see how the Eva Units compared, and got Eva 01.

Adeptus Astartes: Iron Snakes Space Marine

Never break the chain.

To commemorate the release of the new edition of Warhammer 40,000, I converted a Primaris Space Marine into a regular true-scale Space Marine. With the new edition coming to stores this weekend, I wanted to get the model painted in time. Being a fan of the Black Library author Dan Abnett, I decided to paint the model as an Iron Snake, one of the Chapters he created. This also gave me the opportunity to experiment with Vallejo Metal Color acrylic paints. I had heard a lot of very positive things about the paint range, particularly their smooth application straight from the bottle via brush and airbrush. I was surprised to learn that they have a staggering 17 different metallic paints in the range, most being different silvers.

Miniatures Without Borders

The battle for the Emperor’s Soul.

This year has been a challenging one for many people, from the ongoing protests to reduce police violence and tackle systemic racism, to SARS‑CoV‑2 causing a global pandemic that has no signs of ending any time soon. With this in mind, Alexander Winberg, from the Echoes of Imperium blog, got some of our hobby’s greatest talents to donate some of their creations to create a raffle to support global public health. Specifically, 27 hobbyists donated models to this raffle which will raise money for Doctors Without Borders. All of the money raised via ticket sales will go directly to Doctors Without Borders. The raffle is ending on July 31st, where each of the 27 donated models will be randomly awarded to people who have entered. We donated a trio of Inq28 models that we created for the first Iron Sleet Invitational. If possible, we would really encourage you to buy a few tickets to support a good cause, and possibly win some cool models!