Nertha the Faceless Mother and Foxy Dynamite

 Its getting to crunch time where I have to start packing up the minis and the tools for the upcoming move to .... an unknown destination!  Still no word on where we're going... only that we are going somewhere soon! 

At any rate that meant trying to wrap up a couple of WiPs so I don't have to worry about finding them immediately on the other side.

Nertha is a great mini and very spooky!  While my Iron Empire is turning up mostly in purples I thought this undead mother would stand out from the crowd in blue and green.

 I used a lot of washes for this and a bit of subsurface freehand which worked on the armor but may have turned out just a tad too subtle on the hood and robes.  I have a couple of shots at it so I'll experiment with it and see how I can improve the effect.

Its still dialed into the Spooky faux Egyptian theme.  Its frayed and worn looking but colorful as well.

 The Foxy Dynamite Duo turned out to be heavy, especially after it turned out to be a tad top heavy and I opted to add a washer for better stability when playing on uneven surfaces.

This one is a Prison Pride Veteran. 

 The weight of the metal had me rubbing off more paint than usual when handling prior to sealing and will probably require touch ups a little more often than usual.

 More shocking blue hair!  Hair is such a dilemma...  I like the Tank Girl hair shock but If I get too many colors in a unit they look a little too ad hoc... while too few colors looks too uniform.  I'm thinking about using hair color as unit identifiers... I do that with my Dark Eldar and it is pretty handy.

 This one in regular urban colors and sporting a carrot top.

The base is very signature but retains some converting potential.  Looking at it now I see it would be easy to replace the wood stakes with a light post or damaged telephone pole.

 I'm off to start the packing.  I might get more painting posts in prior the move but its likely to slow down for bit... looks like I'll get back to writing stuff!

Mortaria Noctis alternate head and Nertha the Faceless Mother WiPs

 Its been slow going between the time sinks of Pillars of Eternity and the forced stowing of my painting area to show the house to prospective renters but a little more has been done.  I've got two more days of showings this week and then we have company at the weekend so I'm making a note about where I've left off!

 This is the original head I think... the maskless one is technically the alternate.  I did the alternate first some time ago so.... this is the new alt!

I'm doing some additional things this go round, adding some details to the rifle... which I am also retrofitting to the earlier model, which was very plain, adding some color patterning on the scope, some more subtle patterning to the cape and some other bits of color detail... mostly to spice up the rifle.

 This model has a bit of a hulk thing going on with the right arm... which I added with greenstuff to replace a damaged rifle arm.  I could have pinched an arm from another model but I kinda liked the idea of an overdeveloped or augmented arm to aid in using the long rifle without its bipod. 

The Long knife was also damaged and it resisted my attempts to lengthen it... so I've shortened this one from a long serrated Eldaresque blade into a more traditional dagger or combat knife.

 Here is the first one I did... actually the first TGG model I painted I think.

Nertha the Faceless Mother has to be one of my favorite concept characters for the Iron Empire.  I've primed her black and brushed her up with Ivory.  Next I'm going to try some subsurface patterns on the hood and cloak before burying them in a couple of wash layers... that's the plan anyway!

WiP Foxy Dynamite and Weapon Comparison Charts for the Jailbirds

 Its been a rough week with a lot conspiring against the paint! 

There are some bright spots however and one of them is this great weapon chart for the Raging Heroes Jailbirds. I'm now sorting these into 40k equivalents with an eye towards making them special weapons instead of heavies as the heavy weapons should generally be crew served and these are carried by individual troopers.


Speaking about Raging Heroes the TGG2 Light and Darkness Kickstarter is in its last couple of days. If you like militant nuns, dark elves, or odd chaos elves... check it out!  If nothing else the pictures and renders are amazing.. and free to gawk at.

I'm behind schedule for painting largely due to the confluence of several house showings... which forces me to pack up my painting space... and the release of Pillars of Eternity... which evilly conspires to prevent me setting the space back up for some clandestine brush time between house showings!

I did get a little work done on two versions of Foxy Dynamite which was originally slated as a Sly Marbo replacement... until he vanished into the void... so now The Jailbirds are designing an 'Infiltration Specialist' from scratch.

Keeping the theme going I've got one done in veteran prison colors and the other in a more generic Freedom Fighter scheme.

This pair is in metal and are quite hefty.

In almost all cases I prefer hard plastic because of its great combination of ease in working, high material strength to weight ratio... which permits some amazing poses that are just not available to resin or metal, and durability over time.

 I tend to prefer metal for small minis that are not getting a ton of conversion, have fragile bits that protrude from the mini's main body, or are bulk troops that don't require a lot of conversion.  I've a long history with metal and the durability of it is ingrained.

I went metal with this pair because of some spiky bits on the base and the antenna of the hand held radio.  Its most likely not an issue in resin but that was my thought about it.

I'm relatively new to resin in these small minis and while light weight and very fine of detail I remain concerned about their durability as playing pieces over the course of years.  I'm generally very comfortable with larger resin constructs like vehicles and buildings which do seem durable in the long term.

The Raging Heroes spin cast resin has done a lot to improve my opinion of small resin miniatures.  It is rigid but retains a bit of give that has saved a few of the models from my sometimes ham handed encounters with them!