One Shot Blondie and the Lulus

 Batch one of the lulus is done.  There are 4 batches total so three more remain on the table.  They are a fun group and have a lot of character.

 One Shot Blondie is the leader/guardian of the Lulus (also to be known as the brat packs in in the current version of my personal army fluff). This is an iconic pose and one of the few metal minis that I picked up from the KS.  I tended to get resins this go around but don't now recall why I got a handful of metals.

I see her as a little damaged so added the 'thousand mile stare' and some hair dye to the already included detail of lollipops and Mickey Mouse ears.

 Though metal the mini was relatively clean with well placed mold lines and went together without event. 

 There are six lulus including the 'Butterfly Lulu'  which was the hardest to get assembled.  In general I had more trouble with the mold lines that I originally had thought.

I decided to use some ideas like... colorful plastic galoshes and rain coats to theme the group and emphasize their identity as refugee children... as if all the teddy bears, pets, lollipops, false ears, and bling left any room for doubt on that score.

 Overall the group reminds me a lot of Peter Pan's lost boys.

I returned to a style of painting that I haven't used in a while painting in washes over while.  It'll take a few iterations to get better definition but, in general, I think its easier for this sort of subject. 

This lulu turned out to be my favorite and went together very easily.

And finally... a size comparison with a Lulu, Hilda, and the crazy Colossal Bone Giant.

Jailbirds WiP and Reaper BONES Kickstarter Undead Giant Colossal Skeleton WiP

Its a WiP kinda day.  Its been a hectic week mostly doing clean up and priming the Lulus from the TGG Kickstarter Wave 1.  All of the casts cleaned up quickly except the Butterfly Lulu.  It requires a lot of careful excavation of a large area that connects the bottom of her teddy bear toy to her cape fight in front.  There is also a tricky hand that is buried in a casting vent and has to be very carefully revealed. Its a great model anyway and is worth the effort!  I've gone with a White undercoat for this faction unlike for the Iron Empire.  I'm finding the black undercoat  made it difficult to see the detail.  The Jailbirds will be inevitably brighter than the Iron Empire and I'm still undecided about the way forward with the Kurganovas.

 Just in case you thought the Lulus were alone  There is a tree of metal One Shot Blondie and Mad Nurse Bernadette to keep them company.

The Jailbirds also get a different base treatment from the Iron Empire.  I think these came from Base X War but the site is closed making it hard to confirm.  These are some nice battle damaged streets and I'll have to get more as the project develops.

Finally comes the Undead Giant Colossal Skeleton from the Reaper Bones I Kickstarter.  This was pretty quickly done using Secret Weapon Sewer Water Wash over White Primer followed by two layers of drybrushing from the Reaper Bone Triad.  Vallejo Light Sand for ropes and bandages washed with Gryphonne Sepia from GW and then glazed with Ruby Red wash from Secret Weapon.  The stone Hammer is a concrete wash from Secret Weapon dry brushed with Reaper Grey Triad.  I experimented a bit more with GW technical paints for a glowing eye-socket effect but it initially looked a lot more like some weird jade colored sun shades!  I may still have to rework that a bit.

The biggest challenge with this model has been the very flexible nature of the Bones material.  the thing wobbles and shakes whenever its touched or picked up.  Gluing the hammer to the base helped a lot but the awkwardly extended left arm is highly mobile.  Might be a blessing in disguise since its bound to take impacts on the arm which just flexes out of the way.  Time will tell if droop is going to be an issue. It also did not take the primer gracefully and remained tacky for several days.  I'm currently working out a base for it and plan to try out that GW technical paint that cracks as it dries.

Hilda Von Stroheim and Volks Ayanami Rei 1/4 Bust

 The Ladies Hilda Von Stroheim from the Raging Heroes TGG Kickstarter shown here in primary and alternate builds.  A very imperious pose suitable for a Force Commander.

 This would make a good Death Korps of Krieg Artillery Commander 'counts as'  Gas mask and field telescope.

For my purposes the half cape is an element command insignia and might get color coded probably by changing the border color to match a unit type.  As usual these are mounted on Secret Weapon 'Trenchworks' series bases.  For this project I've added 1" washers to give the figures some weight and stability on the tabletop.

The capes are still plain pending unit construction.  Lots of room for Faction Icons and unit symbols but the structure of this set is still kind of in flux so I'll have to revisit those once I settle things a bit.

 The Helmetless head is awesome and very regal.  She'd also make a decent inquisitor come to think of it.  I'd always thought of the Heresey Suppression Force to be a Sisters of Battle based formation  but I'm starting to like the pageantry of the Iron Empire for Inquisition Shock Troops.

 Intolerance personified!

 The two heads allow for good positioning that rotates the front focus of the miniature making them look more unique.

Finally the Volks Ayamani Rei 1/4 bust.  We picked this up for a great price at the Mandarake in Akiba on the last trip out there.  I had some trouble cleaning mold release residue and will have to try out the Volks resin cleaner on the next big kit.  I has a lot of fun with the eyes and can start adding Anime style eyes to other projects now that I'm familiar with the structure.

She's all one massive piece but needed significant filling due to a really deep mold line seam.  Still she was fun to work on and will make a great centerpiece on our Evangelion display shelf.

Building Themed Armies

As a painter I'm often more concerned with the look of an army than with its performance. Don't get me wrong... I like to win as much as the next guy but the visual element and impact of my force on the table is just as important. I've build quite a few 40k and FB armies and they are all based in the background fluff. For example My Dark Eldar are a light raiding force that retains similarities with Craftworld Eldar armies by sporting a Kabal color scheme for the warriors and vehicles and supplementing that with elite specific colors similar to the way Aspect warriors are represented in the Craftworld armies. In the photo you can see the vehicle scheme, the ochre yellow and black of the basic Kabal uniform (upper left) the red garbed Wytches and the tattered Grotesques of the the close combat sections as well as the black and white hard carapace of the Scourges (a scheme shared by the Incubi and bike riders). This yields a colorful army that hangs together and looks like it belongs on the same battleground. A lot of the cohesion is derived from similarities of palette. The reds get the same workup throughout the army instead of unique applications. Same for the yellows and whites. Basing is also a huge deal. The base if a figure often is the largest item in terms of surface area and many details of how the army is intended to be employed can be incorporated into the base. This army is an "all in" army with very few stand off elements. Its not really designed to fight against professional militaries but rather to harass and capture slaves in relatively undefended areas and to be away before a real defense can be mounted. All the elements are fast moving with few if any dismounted troops. I'm working on building a slave barge as a center piece and scenario objective.

In my Ork army the same approach is taken. The army is themed around a specific clan. In my case Evil Sunz because I love the Iconography. I sometimes run them as a Kult of Speed but often just as a vehicle heavy tribe. Other clans are represented but in small ways that support the primary Thundering Horde aspect. I run this as a horde army and very few of the Boyz have anything beyond their basic kit. The vehicles all have the red paint job on some level just for coherency. The army is based with a desert scrub because for the "Rat Patrol" or "Mad Max" effect. I dabbled with Gorka Morka for a time and liked the desert flats feel of the game.

In fantasy Battle I Run a Goblin heavy army built around the idea of a mad tinker and it includes as many different wind up toys as I can manage. Not for efficiency but for the motley carnival look. Wind up toys can be overwhelming if pushed to the max. For example maximum Pump Wagons, Or maximum Spider Riders. I tend to go for the largest variety of odd troops so the whole "Ohhhh look at that!" effect of a traveling roadshow is maintained. Its not efficient at all but it looks great and is hilarious to play. This army is based with paper mache painted in greens for a grasslands effect appropriate to the employment of the Wind up toys.

For my Sisters of Battle I'm aiming for a force that is specifically intended for urban warfare and, even more specifically, pacification and consolidation ops. This means a crowd control element for less-lethal indoctrination of already conquered areas and for rebellious imperial worlds more often than alien conflict. In this regard I use Repressors more often than the more martial Rhino and make maximum use of the symbols of Imperial authority and divinity like the Exorcist. Its all about the pageantry of the Empire when winning hearts and minds. These troops are based with rubble and urban detritus to reinforce the feeling of riot police/SWAT. Heretical symbols and imperial symbols also figure strongly as the sisters are mostly concerned with correcting wayward thought.

One of the great things about running themed armies is that they can evolve naturally over their career. I like to stick to established lists and find the unique thread in the list that suits me instead of cherry picking the best bits from several lists as is so often seen when homegrown organizations are used.