Heresy Girls Lady of Decay and Lady of Destiny, plus a Gothic Baptismal Font from the 3D printer

 A couple of female Space Marine proxies from the Heresy Girls Kickstarter.  I know... the fluff has no female Space Marines but what could be more heretical, and more thematic, than the Traitor Legions adding some women to the ranks?

First up is the Lady of Decay.  I went with the helmet head but there is a very cool helmet-free head included with the kit. This is the resin version and although I have the .stl files for these models I've proven that my printer isn't really up to it so I'll be skipping those for the time being.

The casting was clean and the resin accepted glue and paint easily.  The pose, as it tends to be for all the models in this project, is utilitarian and a tiny bit like it stepped out of a recruiting poster.

This will make a great proxy in my Death Guard.








Painting was the usual khaki undercoat with sand and then white dry-bushed over it followed by a coat of Secret Weapon Sewer Water mixed with a drop of Vallejo Glaze Medium. Weathering made use of the Secret Weapon Weathering paints with Brown Rust being the primary and a spot of Citadel Ryza Rust and Typhus Corrosion technicals. The base is green-stuff brushed a couple of shades of white and washed with Secret Weapon Ruby.

 The Order of Vampire Hunters Guardians are basically low budget Hell Hounds.  The detail is quite low but hey, they are part of a horde of zombie dogs... 

Based Khaki, brushed up with whited, washed with Drying Blood (SW) drybrushed with Buckskin Pale (Reaper) spot washed with Seraphim Sepia (GW) washed with Strong Tone (Army Painter Ink) bases are Agrellan Badlands (GW texture) washed with 50-50 Sewer Water (SW) and Glaze Medium (V) dry-brushed with Buckskin Pale (R)







 Here you see the guardians with Lady of Decay for scale.














The Lady of Destiny is essentially a Thousand Suns Icon Bearer. At least She'll perform that function in my Thousand Sons based Warband. 

Paint is Khaki with sand then white dry-brush followed by a wash of Sapphire (SW) and some spot paints of Voidshield Blue (AP)/Sapphire (SW) mix to get that almost Ultramarine Blue look in places.  Yellows are the Reaper Yellow Triad.

The base is greenstuff painted to resemble a magic activation circle.













Lastly there is the Gothic Baptismal Font which I printed from files from the Rampage Gothic Kickstarter.  Its printed in Black PLA and was painted with my Current yellow metal treatment of Brass Casings (SW), Flesh Wash (SW), rebrush with Brass Casings and then highlight with Shining Gold (GW).  White is the reaper Bone Triad plush a thin wash of Stormcloud (SW) re-layered with Splintered Bone (R) and Glaze Medium (V).  Reds are Phoenix Red (V), Ruby (SW) and a thin Gory Red (R) for texture.











I haven't seen many actual Baptismal Fonts and the size/layout of this one seems a little odd... almost like its missing some steps or an access platform.  Its pretty large as you can see here with the Lady of Destiny.  Its a great size for a terrain piece as its big enough to block LoS or provide a good bit of cover but I might scale it down and do a smaller version as well... one of the cool things about 3D printing is I can re-scale for another go if I feel like it.

Back to the desk!

Aleksandr Kurganov, Krell, and the most disturbing gnome...

 Aleksandr Kurganov, Chief Commander of the KST.  This is a massive, and heavy, model.  I chose the metal version for this one and it plunks down on the tabletop with authoriTAY!

Shown with a Nurgle Terminator and Assault Marine for comparison.  I like that he is shorter than the Space Marines but still imposing.

 I split the difference on positioning on the base.  The left foot overhangs the base a bit but shifting him too much farther over and the cloak would have become a weapon in it's own right!

He's on a 40mm beveled base like the Terminator and is pretty stable on that.  I went with a Grey and Red scheme to fit in with some incoming Inquisition troops that I'll be working into the campaign fluff.

 This cape has a lot of room for silliness.  I did some stark shading but decided against freehand for the moment... I'm kind of torn between inventing a House Kurgan Sigil and waiting to see what Raging Heroes comes up with in that regard.

 Reaper Bones I Kickstarter.   I really just signed up for everything with the idea that I'd be using it to fill out a long neglected FRPG collection as my interest in Tabletop Roleplaying was perking up. 

In one random bag that I pulled out of the massive Kickstarter box was this... Gnome... pleasure cultist?  ... Inquisitor?

In spite of being perhaps the most disturbing Gnome miniature I've ever seen it was a lot of fun to paint and gave me a few ideas for story lines... I was a bit inspired by the Penny Dreadful character with the outrageous and, I assure you , completely natural..... hair! 

 Yeah... chaps!  pimpled, warty, gnome buttocks... oh my!

It did get a Slaanesh-esque sigil on the hood but otherwise but otherwise a plain utilitarian purple color.  I thought about designs and stripes but thought they might obfuscate how outrageous the miniature really was.










The Gnome spending some quality time with Warlord Krell...

Krell is still missing his back banner and is on a round lipped base instead of his original square one.  I think both of these minis are being added to the pile of stuff for Carnevale. 

Have fun and beware of gnomes in chaps!

Angron on the Rampage!

 

I finally got round to finishing up Forge World's Angron.  The  model is very detailed and the narrative pose makes for a fun painting project.

In this scene of Angron's Betrayal at Istvan IV I stuck with the casualties being portrayed as Loyalist World Eaters and Death Guard. 

The model has a scenic base that incorporates a playing base but the positioning of the two Loyalist casualties makes accessing the play base difficult.  Since the whole scenic is just a bit to fragile for actual play it'll always be a display piece anyway!

 Here you see the horizontal position required of one of the casualties in order to get the bases to mate up.  It makes for some awkward cabinet dynamics as well.  Come on... share already!

 After doing most of the mini with Reaper Master Series triads I experimented a little with the new GW technical paints.  I have avoided the new GW paint line since I've never liked their pots and the color progression was clumsy but the technicals sounded interesting. On this I used the Blood for the Blood God which is satisfyingly gloppy and dries with a fresh, wet, look.    I'll likely use it more in future.  The dry rust was less satisfying and ... not entirely dry... more like a thick paste that was in the process of setting up.   I think I'll give it a pass in favor of actual dry pigments for regular use.

I'm looking forward to experimenting with the self-cracking earth and the thick, translucent Nurgle's Rot.

Now to stumble off in search of a suitable target!

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!

Nurgle Blight Drones join the Contagion!

 Four Blight Drones join the Siwa Contagion salvage project.  I've retained Ryan P's original as the group leader with very few adjustments.  He really did a smashing job on that model!

Although taking my cues from Ryan's original I did deviate a bit.  The main deviation was to color the optic lenses blue so that I could easily tell them apart from the original model's green lenses.  I plan to use the original model as the 'command' drone.  I also did a bit more shading on the metallic carapace with the final finish not being quite as brassy in the top layers.  The green patina is also a bit darker than the original.

 As for modifications to the original Blight Drone... I added some point source lighting to the primary weapon cluster, did some highlights to a couple of tubes and pistons, and adjusted the tints on the base to match the rest of the army.

 The bases were a lot of fun.  I used some bits from the Citadel basing kit and some brass pipe from an assortment, all tied together with green stuff ooze and some Citadel water effects to create large pools of ichor.  I've seen some improvement with these pools over the earlier efforts... mostly in the cloudy sediments flowing from the pipes.  In future I'll try layering more paint during the water effect build up to get a more 3D effect for the cloud... and I'll probably try that particular effect on a lipped or bordered base so I can get the water effect to be a lot deeper.

 A lot of blank space remains that is just asking for flat art and heraldry which I am likely to add in between battles.  I'd like to commemorate the actions and accomplishments of the group.

 Since these are meant to be playing pieces I opted to leave off the multitudinous additional hoses that come with the kit.  These models spend a lot of time lying on their sides, or in foam cases, and the tubes just make them too fragile.  The main gun cluster already has one barrel that is particularly prone to breaking upon any impact... however small.

 Four is such an unfortunate number for these.  A squadron is 1-3 and the Apocalypse formation requires a minimum of 9 (three squadrons of three).  I could run them as two squadrons of two each I suppose but that seems a bit silly.

  I should probably add two, or five, more Blight Drones just to make the lists work so I'll keep my eyes open for a deal someplace.

In the last two shots you can clearly see the command drone with its bolder brass and green lenses.

Next up:  Forge World Great Unclean One and more work on the Bones IMEF Marines.

Raging Heroes mounted Brunhilde

 Its hot!  With no AC handy its been hard to paint but some progress has been made.  The two Brunhildes are finished and ready to join the Mordheim game or make some appearances in Fantasy Battles.

I had a frosting issue with the sealer and had to do some repainting darn this humidity!

 The pair don't sit comfortably next to each other so would be twitchy in a formed unit.  for skirmish games this isn't an issue of course but I think I'll have to make a musician to sit between them or something similar.  Actually the sword position will make them twitchy for forming in general and a specific movement tray/front line figure order will be required.

 The gold was worked up using Reaper Master Series (RMS) ocher gold triad and the blues were a RMS blue triad with the final highlights from Vallejo the reds were the RMS Blood triad except the plume on the standard bearer which was the RMS fire triad.

Below there are some IMEF Marines from the Reaper Bones Kickstarter which I'm experimenting with a friend's Tau color scheme, which is a bit smurf like but also passable for Law enforcement, Starship Crew, or Corp Forces.  The idea is to use them as Human Auxiliaries for the Tau and as police heavies or Corp proving Teams in SF RPGs.  About half of them are toting shotguns which seems appropriate for general purpose crew or explorer types.

You can also see the initial coat for the necrotic fleshy bits on the Nurgle Plague Drone Engines.

Forge World Plague Drone Engines and Raging Heroes Brunhilde Mounted WiPs

 Continuing the Contagion salvage project with a set of four Plague Drone Engines from Forge World.  Three of them were acquired as bare resin but one was a nearly completed model by one of our local painting fiends Ryan P.

This model actually was the one that fired me up to purchase the salvage project pile in the first place.  I've always liked the feel of it and Ryan did a bang up job on it.  I was fortunate enough to get him to drop by and go over some of the techniques and approaches he used on this and I was able to chat with him about some of my ideas for finishing it up and integrating it into the rest of the Contagion.

 I really love the necrotic flesh and the purulent weeping sores.  Armed with Ryan's recipe I'll try to replicate that flesh this week.  I'll also largely replicate the bronze with its great green corrosion but will modify the carapace scheme to have some of the blight marks found on the other models in this collection.  My plan is to paint up the other four into a final state and then do some adjustments to this model to tie it in with them while preserving as much of Ryan's work as possible.

 Most of the unfinished business on this model is weapon and cable highlights and some point source lighting for the plasma chambers of the weapons.  I'll also likely add some Siwa Contagion Heraldry bits.

 Moving back to Mordheim I cracked open a couple of mounted Brunhilde minis from Raging Heroes.  These are challenging to paint mostly because they beg for extra attention!  I've been tinkering with these for a couple of weeks between other projects but will buckle down and make a determined assault on them this week.

 One of the few downsides to this kit is that there is only one, very dynamic, pose for the horse itself.  This prevents me from building a whole elite front line unit from this kit so I'll make do with two rearing command figures.  You can see the rider's legs are molded as part of the horse... its a beautiful piece of design.

Just as I did with the Konigsmarck sisters I've done a rough cobble base while deciding where to go with the Mordheim theme.  

Figures as striking as these really impact the speed at which I can work.  Painting in musculature and managing sharp lettering really slow this old bulk painter down.  I'm loving every minute of it though!

There is still a lot to be done on these before finishing the bases.  Gold/yellow shading and highlighting, heraldry details, scrollwork, lettering, and the leather girding straps are all unfinished.

As is often the case with the Raging Heroes offerings the models come with a couple of different heads.  In this case I'll use the princess head in the "sword and board" configuration as a commander and the plate helmed head as a standard bearer. 

Its going to be a busy week!