Mantis Warriors

 I'm back from an extended stumble around the Balkan States.  Its a fascinating part of the world that I had low familiarity with.  It was an amazing time, I got a lot of great new ideas to work with, and my Romanian is getting closer to being "passable"! 

Playing catch up... again!

Here are the finished Mantis Warriors from Raging Heroes!

 They are meant, as all things Raging Heroes have been to date, as proxies for various games.

This set is based for use with my Dark Eldar or to use as Daemonettes in a Chaos Army for either WHFB or WH40K... I guess that would really mean AoS these days as well!

 The minis are resin, multi-pose able with arms, head, and the torso/leg section ball jointed.  the legs are a single piece so are not individually pose able without major surgery.

I chose woodland colors so they would have a wider variety of potential uses and green can still look quite evil and menacing too!

The water effects were an experiment. My Dark Eldar army uses these Swamp Bases from Secret Weapon.  I was using Citadel Water Effects to fill the bases after painting but have had a lot of issues with the water effect never really setting up.

  Its ok for display pieces but my stuff is almost always for game use so I wanted a more durable finish... not to mention the long term dust and handling problems... like leaving finger prints on the lager water surfaces!

Anyway I tried Vallejo Water effects but failed to notice that they are opaquely pigmented.  I'd asked about how they performed at a hobby shop in Germany and was shown a clear sample... which I mistook to be representative of all their water effects .  I used Atlantic Blue... which completely obliterated the painted insides of the bases... and left a deep blue finish that was very ... un-swamp-like!

I washed over the water effects with Secret Weapon Sewer Water and hit it with some gloss spot varnish.  The results were good and its a lot easier to replicate, not to mention a lot less work, than my original method.  I'd still like to come up with a viable clear solution but it'll do for now!

 I liked the Musician a lot.. having a violin as the martial instrument does seem pretty edgy and ideal for chaotic or evil armies! 

This is the unit champion.  Its most noticeable differences are the head, which sports and elaborate set of horns, and the right arm which has a larger, fancier, shoulder.

Next up... some legacy GW servitors and the rubber vegetation from Atenocities Workshop's Forward Base!