Hyrekia, Dragonthrall Mage and Angron WiP

 An RPG Personality from the Reaper Bones Kickstarter I Hyrekia, Dragonthrall Mage is the first up.

A pretty figure with shallow detail this is one of the minis where the Bones material has real differences other than the way it takes paint.  The staff is very flexible which I initially was worried about but it might actually prove to be more durable in play.  Only time will tell. 

Details are very shallowly incised in this sculpt which meant a little more work than is typical for a GW model but the edges were sharper than Raging Heroes.   After base coating the mini in vallejo flat flesh the majority of the mini was painted using a mix of vallejo ranges and GW washes with the exception of the hair which was mostly Reaper MSP fire triad and Secret Weapon washes.  I rather like the way the hair sorted out.  Colors were kept simple and I decided against adding patterns or lettering.  Its an RPG figure and I'll add some story based design bits as she advances.

The base was finished off with various slate and some flower clumps from Army Painter.

 Angron, Primarch of the World Eaters is an ambitious diorama with an inset gaming base.  Its a very ambitious kit featuring Angron fighting/slaughtering three loyalist Space Marines. I'm going with a couple of loyalist World Eaters and a Loyalist Death Guard.  I've seen this combo before but it suits the storyline of the piece so I'll risk the inevitable comparisons.

Angrons base armor is worked up from the Reaper MSP Autumn Gold triad and the loyalists use the Blue, Olive, and Bone triads.  I've been happy with these matched triad sets for the ease of creating a uniform scheme over large figure counts without having to rely on a my formula notes...  which I tend to lose or rediscover when I move every couple of years! 

Back to the bench!

Scibor Retinue Stunties and Mr Bones poses for Objective Markers

 Scibor has these great atmospheric Stunties (aka as Squats... shhhh) to help carry your cool war gear or your Xenophobic Message of the Day. 

I went a little crazy when I saw them and got the whole assortment... or at least all of it that I am aware of and put them to the brush.

Initially I had thought to use them as Watchers in the Dark and painted all the bases in Dark Angel colors for use in the ruins on The Rock but figures themselves don't really have that spooky vibe so.....

I did a set of them as Inquisition retinue.  Maybe a little odd using abhumans for that but some of them are obviously servitors, or at least well on their way, and it a perfectly acceptable hypocrisy to press them into Ecclesiarchy service.

The castings are relatively clean although there is some ambiguity in the harder to reach places, primarily the undersides of things but the resin has a good feel to it and I'm generally pleased with the product.  The sculpting is very cartoon like, which suits my painting style well.

Now to find a suitably thematic Inquisitor for them to escort!

The Heresy Suppression Force slowly fills out as a largely non-GW accessory.  The Sisters of Battle will be GW since I have a pile of them lying around but I'm thinking of spinning them up as a solo army and making the HSF a separate project entirely.  The HSF will be Raging Heroes.  I'd like to do wheeled, medium weight vehicles for them instead of a tracked heavy build to fit with the urban based, anti insurgent theme.  

" Hear Ye!, Hear Ye!  Today we HATE the Alien!"

To be fair they hated the Alien yesterday as well.  They probably hate you too!  Lots of hate in the Imperium!

 Here are a couple of armorer serfs for a Black Templar that I know... just a tad heretical!

"Hey Dracamir!  You gonna need your Boarding Party Gear today?"

 No retinue is complete without someone to carry your gun and a keg of your favorite beverage!


The keg can do double duty with my Dark Angels...

These guys could also make good objective markers themselves now that I think about it.  They serve no game purpose, other than possibly to represent wargear, and would look cool in that role.

Mr Bones!

He's cute and spooky in a Scooby Doo kinda way.  I thought I'd make use of him as a generic, color coded, objective marker set. The shovel just screams ... "Ok dig here!"

I failed when doing cleanup on these guys and the retain a lot of mold lines.  I might have to go back and do something about the most egregious of them.... the fingers!  I'll probably just paint them as rings and call it a day.  These are Tabletop quality after all!

Forge World Great Unclean One Step by Step

The last of the Contagion Salvage Project group that I picked up second hand a few months back.  I've been coveting this model for years and just never worked it into my purchase plan.  I thought I'd do a walk through of how this guy painted up.

For the initial color blocks I painted all the flesh areas with Vallejo medium Flesh and dry brushed with Vallejo Flat Flesh.  The sores, tongue, and open wound areas were base coated with Vallejo Rosa and highlighted with Vallejo Salmon Rose.  I used GW leviathan Purple inside the mouth to vary it a bit and add depth to the gullet. The gums got a glaze of Vallejo Salmon Rose highlights to tease them out a bit.

 The wounds were then treated with a Dried Blood Wash from Secret Weapon then layer highlighted with Vallejo Rosa and Salmon Rose.

 The Skin was more complex.  It was washed with a different color by skin texture,  Warty Patches had Secret Weapon Sewer Water and normal to shredded skin with Secret Weapon Flesh.  Once these were dry upper areas of normal skin were highlighted with Forge World ash powder, crevices with Forge World Medium Earth Powder and green shadows with Forge World Light Green Powder.  These areas were then damp set and the extended shadow areas had GW Ogryn Flesh Wash applied to for blending.

 The Horns and nails were a work up of the Reaper Master Series Khaki triad with a final highlight of P3 Menoth Highlight.

 The sword was also done at this point getting the standard "Blighted Weapon" treatment that the rest of the Contagion has.  Basically Vallejo Brown stippled with the Reaper master Series fire triad.  Some Vallejo Flames of war German Camo brown and German Light Camo Brown with a wash of GW Gryphon Sepia saw off the leather bits.

A little Green Stuff to texture the base to match the rest of the Project painted in reds from the Reaper Master Series Blood and Fire triads and some Secret Weapon Red/Black and Drying Blood layered washes gives the guy some contrast. 

I went with a chariot base for the time being in part because it'll work out for fantasy battle (although really a 100mm square is more appropriate) and mostly because it'll pack easier for the big move back to the states.  I'll likely magnetize the thing and have a fantasy and 40 style base to swap out as needed. 

 I sprayed the whole thing with Army Painter Anti Shine Varnish at this point (the green stuff based figure above) and the spot varnished the eyes, sores, mouth, and red areas with Vallejo Gloss Varnish.

The figure was a lot of fun to paint and should make a suitably disgusting centerpiece for the Contagion or for a Daemon Host.

Mordheim Nicodemus, Johan and Wilhelm

 The last three Mordheim figures that I have ready to hand.  I still have the Carnival of Chaos, the Stage Coach, and a Chaos Warband in a box at the bottom of the closet but those will have to wait for another day! 

The Witch Hunter Johan has a plethora of equipment and fiddly bits.  I thought I'd shy away from a standard macho black treatment but kind of ended up there anyway!  Oops!  I did go with a good bit of Inquisitorial Red which is also cliched.  For the black areas I experimented with the Blue/Black wash from secret weapon over black and dark gray highlights.  Jury is still out on that... black is hard!

The ever growing Nicodemus is a pretty standard Fantasy Wizard although his 25mm base makes him hard to incorporate into WHFB units its needed to accommodate this slightly over-sized figure.  I was glad to see that his background actually accounts for the larger proportion.... go fluffy!

I got some weathering powder practice on this guy but feel like I should revisit it and do some flat art on the enormous plain areas of the cape and robe.  This is especially true given the HUGE ego this guy sports in his back story.... hmmm I might tinker with that while waiting for layers of paint to dry on the Great Unclean One.

Johann also got some of the weathering powder.  This is the guy that I thought needed it most.  As a foot slogging eccentric, and impoverished guy in a dress, it just seemed like cleaning the hem of his robe would not be particularly high on the "to do" list!  I could do some flat art on the cape but think that he'd really rather it remain plain and unassuming... all of that false humility etc...

Reaper Bones Mythos Monsters

 This is the Mythos Monsters subgroup from the Bones Kickstarter.  For this group I scrubbed the minis and then applied a wash of Vallejo Flat or Medium Flesh instead of primer.  The two painted the medium flesh had better adhesion... basically no issues at all but the flat flesh had some issues.  Of the group the Eldritch Demon was the Flat Flesh test and the Shoggoth and the Faceless Horror used Medium Flesh.

 I really like the Faceless Horror and will include it in my Chaos Spawn assortment for those times when you just gotta have a model!

I used Secret Weapon Flesh wash and then layered Vallejo Flat Flesh for the main body color.  Teeth and eye whites came from P3 (Bone Jack, Menoth White, Menoth White Highlight).  Vallejo Rose Flesh, washed with GW's Ogryn flesh and highlighted with Vallejo Rose and Salmon Rose.  Inside of the multitude of gullets (except for the main gullet) was hit with GW's Leviathan Purple to give some definition and depth to these shallow cut outs.

I liked the skeleton inside the main gullet although I eventually went with a bleached bone look rather than a digestion in progress look so that it could be more easily seen.  Overall this is done with very warm colors so contrast is low.  In retrospect I might want to use some powders on the skeleton to grime it up some and give it that rotten texture.

 Finished with Army Painter Anti Shine Varnish and then Vallejo Gloss Varnish spot painted on the eyes and gums.  I've had a lot of trouble with frosting from this can of Army Painter Anti Shine related to the combination of High local humidity and no air conditioner.  These came out fine though.. Hello Fall!

 Here you see the Eldritch Demon in its Flat Flesh base coat wash.  Adhesion was weak in places, notably under the left forearm and, oddly along the middle of the upper wing surface.

The head, tentacles, suckers, and wing holes were addressed with Vallejo Rose and Salmon Rose and then most of the figure was washed with Secret Weapon Sewer Water.  The Head and Belly have a transition zone that is both the Flesh treatment and the Sewer Water Wash and seems to work.  The Sewer Water washed areas were given a very light dry brush highlights of flat flesh to illuminate things.

 A low glare view of the Shoggoth.  I really need to set up a photo booth for glossy finishes,  The center ball is gloss finished and light makes the Kanji characters difficult to make out but they show well to the naked eye.

Tentacles the Rose/Ogryn Flesh/Rose/Salmon Rose process.  The central orb has uneven Iron Oxide with orange and yellow lettering then a blood red central dot with orange lettering.  Its all pretty legible and I like the semi submerged look of the characters on the yellow part of the orb.  Eyes for all these Demons are blue because Demons with blue eyes are creepy!

Finally a size comparison.  The central figure is a GW Teminator from the Contagion Project. 

Mordheim Sigmarite Sisters

 Back to Mordheim for a moment!  Here is a set of Sigmarite Sisters.  Its a box set plus a couple of odd blisters that I picked up cheap in France.

I wanted a feel like the old eastern European religious icons that were painted, more or less, directly on wood for this set and they are pretty coarsely grained as a result.  I also started basing with some crushed gravel and decided I liked the look of it unpainted on these.  Its interesting how the ground looks a little cleaner than the sisters!  If I decide that I really like the unpainted look I'll add some bits of grass etc... but want to do that as the very last step.

 I elected to paint up the optional shields but leave them off and available.   In the case I decide to actually use them as equipment I'll just pop them on... although I may regret lacking the foresight to go ahead and make them magnetic from the outset.  This decision was really driven by the Matriarchs which come with Kite Shields and... somewhat inexplicably Great Weapons... Huge honkin' two handed hammers and flails.  I though the shields would looked silly and redundant... but there might be a use for them elsewhere in the warband.

 I think the large group to the left are all novices... I did label them on the bottom but just now recall having done that!  I particularly like how the hair came out over the course of this warband.  All of that was done with the Reaper Master series triads.

 A look at all 11 sisters.  Now that my wife has a few figures to choose from maybe I'll get her on the table for a game... of course she reminds me that she really likes the special characters so I'll have to sort out a few of those for her.

Finally the Sister Superior.  This model really shows the coarse highlights and textures that I wanted to experiment with.  I tend to think about Mordheim in terms of woodblock prints of iconic poses and cautionary tales so I was interested capturing that flavor.

Reaper IMEF Marines Bones test group 2

 This is really part 2 of the previous post.  The second group of unwashed and unprimed Reaper Bones.  They suffered from the same paint adhesion and fading issues as the previous set.  This resulted in very uneven coverage and difficulty refining detail.

The next batch of Bones will be washed and scrubbed but unprimered as well.  Learning from this experiment the next batch will only be a couple of minis instead of whole squads!

 I'm building my vibe for the Serene Dawn SFRPG setting that I'm developing with Ubiquitous Rat and this group represents a few more example organizations.  The lavender and white Corporate color scheme of En-V are sampled on this Bio enhanced sniper  She has a Bio-Substitute eye and the pallid, bruised, skin that is the basis for their nickname "Zombie".  These side effects of the En-V rejuvenation process are common but typically reduce in prominence over time.  Most En-V clients cover the side effects with cosmetics but the Zombie Snipers frequently emphasize the effect for the fear factor.

 The heavy team in blue is a ViSPro Mediation Team.  These teams are more combat oriented than Proving Teams in general and are sort of a Corporate Police Force and guardian service.  A private army in all respects.

 Serene Dawn is not a war-game but conflict is common.  All the same I'll want to paint up a bunch of agent types and Si-Fi explorer types as well as a wide variety of civilians.

Flamers and miniguns.. oh my!

 Since Team Logos and product ads are so common I'll have to get better at lettering!

A team sporting this much firepower is likely an anti-piracy detail or a conflict resolution detail.