returns to show us how he painted 
I bought these figures at least a year ago for my Alien Squad Leader project, and over the recent holiday, I finally took some action and painted them up.
These are the basic Automaton infantry from the 15mm Hordes of the Future line at Alternative Armies. The pack of ten figures gives me enough for two bases of infantry under the Alien Squad Leader rules, but I've based the figures individually so I can use them with other rules later.
The figures measure 18mm from foot to eye-level. According to the manufacturer, the Automatons are equipped with "laser battle rifles." There are three poses, and each carries a different version of the rifle.
The figures required little clean-up. I tried to file off some minor seams on the legs, but since they're robots, does it really matter? 
I also filed the skulls, where there were some minor nubs or seams.
These figures are a bit delicate, and I needed to (gently) "stand them up" where the legs had bent a bit. The necks are another delicate spot, so be careful when working on the skulls or you might knock one off. (Mine survived intact.)
My original thought was to experiment with chrome spraypaint, and then give the figures a blue-ink wash... but to my surprise, I didn't have any chrome paint on hand. (And I had no intention of going near the stores on a major holiday weekend!)
So my second plan was to prime black, drybrush gunmetal grey, paint a few details in blue, and wash with a mix of black and purple ink. However, this didn't work out - the gunmetal grey didn't stand out enough against the black, and I put the ink wash on too heavy. Everything just looked black (again).
So I went with Plan Three! I painted the eye sockets blue, then drybrushed the figures with silver. That worked, and gave the figures a "very ancient technology" sort of look.
I then painted the guns straight gunmetal grey (to make them stand out a little bit), and covered the bases with sand (my sci-fi forces battle on a desert world).
