Joan of Arc core set terrain and some accidental Night Goblins

 One of the things that really got me hooked on the Joan of Arc (JoA) Kickstarter from Mythic Games was the amazing visuals they created with the terrain elements of the game.  My 15mm terrain collection is a bit dated and I thought, if the game was awful, I'd still be able to use a lot of the components in other 15mm games.  Fortunately the game is actually pretty good... maybe even very good... maybe even awesome! 

 The core set comes with a church, a large farmhouse, two small farmhouses, a ruined church, a well, 5 low walls and 7 defensive stake lines, 5 bushes, 4 rocks, 10 trees, and a small shrine.

I've managed to knock out: Church, houses, walls, trees, bushes, stakes, and rocks. 

 All of this was painted directly onto the plastic models without trimming, cleaning, or primer. I wanted to paint these fast and leverage the pre-colored plastic where possible.

Paint adhesion was excellent and I think they'll hold up well to use.  They were sealead with Krylon Satin Clear Coat but I'll probably zap them with a final light coat of Dead Flat.

 To get the variegated roof tiles I used three basic colors and rolled some dice to decide where they went!  A fun little exercise that turned in a good result.

The trees were pre-colored green and brown So they got some highlights and some Secret Weapon Washes.  I wanted to mix some green highlights and blew my color theory check and made a large batch of a totally wrong green....

... which resulted in a frantic look round for something to use it on... I located a box of "Battle for Skull Pass" which I think is something like 5th edition Warhammer Fantasy Battles and set to painting up the horde of Night Goblins it contained.  The sculpts are actually very entertaining and really marked the beginning of GW's shift in hard plastics from were awful to very good.  Now, of course hard plastics are amazing and the sculpting takes full advantage of the material's properties to give us things very dynamic posing and flying/levitating models.






Not being able to let the pile sit I finished up the spear, bow, and character models from the set all the while thinking about Night Goblins as the poster children for keeping serious religion and greenskins separated.  The Night Goblins have created a society that does not need orcs! They are successful in their own right and field armies that are a potent, and all too successful, adversary to the powerful Dwarf Kingdoms. 

Back to the brushes!

Star Saga Rangers, Hi-Tech Bio-Convergence, and an Afterglow traveling salesman.

 I made a push to clear the desk of a few WiPs so I'd have room to start on the Raging Heroes Centaurs (SF) group.

Star Saga is making great progress with the finish up of these Corporation Rangers.  This unit is a lower tier elite group and will go by the moniker "Hostile Takeover".

The six figures, but only two sculpts, painted up fast and I like the crimson and grey combo.  The detail is mixed but I really liked the plate in the back of the heads.  I used it as an ID plate but used letters in place of names as a nod to the high turn over rate in corp forces.

 Next up is a traveling salesman from Afterglow. 

My primary use for him will be as an RPG NPC with a secondary use as an objective marker for the Jailbirds... who have a chronic supply problem and few people willing to trade with them.

The resin for this is a bit on the brittle side.  That seems to be a trend in the miniatures that come out of Poland.  Its very dry and takes paint very well.

 It also comes with an automatic shotgun on a sling but it looked so awkward on the mini that I decided against using it. Its a nice sculpt though and it'll make a good addition to the bits box.

Size comparison time.  Canoness Veridyan (GW) and a Void Elf Hunter (Raging Heroes) for scale.

 Hi-Tech Miniatures Bio-Convergence.  Even though they are tracked their size and weapon load out made me think of them as servitor proxies fro ADMech or even for RPG use.

The weapons are magnetized so I can vary up the loads later if I end up using them often.  The weapon loads are not precisely correct for ADMech but might be ok for Inquisitor retinue or a Dark Millennium/Rogue Trader game.

 I haven't really started work on ADMech and haven't gelled on a marking scheme and Iconography so I'll save that for later.  The paint scheme could go a couple of different ways so options remain.

Size comp with the ever present Veridyan.  I like the size of these for servitors... not too massive.

Shiveryah SF version, Canoness Veridyan, and a SF Werewolf

 Shiveryah glided across the tiny village square her feet floating conveniently above the grime and mud of the slaughter.
Looking intently for a trace of her prize the Sorceress of the Blood Rain almost missed the faint stench of piety... almost too late she was upon the wounded warrior sister.  The shredded armored habit bore the sigils and colors of the Sisters of Eternal Mercy... probably the Order of the Poisoned Cup... the Poisoned Cup specialized in the collection and study of corruption rather than the indiscriminate cleansing of it.  Their presence here piqued Shiveryah's interest... 
the cloak Siveryah wore, the gruesomely aspected Cloak of Innocent Blood, was not only a prized relic of her house but a potent artifact in it own right.  It quickly enveloped her in a light bending shroud... she was invisible to all but the most arcane of sensors... most magic obfuscation are weak to strong Faith wielders but this one was specifically constructed with only the most incorruptible materials making it impervious to Faith based sight.  Its materials were uncomfortable for Shiveryah to wear but her tolerance for discomfort was... notable, even among the Void Elves of her Kabal who were famed for their excess.

Withdrawing a short distance she located both the embattled Sister's adversary and the target of her own mission.  Things were about to get interesting.

 Hopping back on the Raging Heroes train I managed to spend some time with they awesome Shiveryah SF version.  She becomes the First Sorceress of the Blood Rain Kabal.

I had a moment of panic when undercoating her I mistaken used a gloss finish paint/primer combo.  Surprisingly this covered really well and took paint with no trouble... whew!

Her "Cloak of Innocent Blood" came about because I painted the first coat.. to two?... with "Glistening Blood" from Army Painter which I had picked up with a batch of basic colors to get me through until the main hobby supplies arrive... It turns out to be sort of a technical, or effect, paint and had some interesting color and texture things going on.  It looks like it will be awesome for pools and rivulets of blood but isn't a good choice for smooth coverage of large ares because of its, completely intentional, texture.

 Next up is "The Beast" from Anvil Industries.  Its a nice Sci-Fi werewolf.  I like all the tech gizmos embedded in it and am going to call it Subject #7.

It is a lot smaller than the Raging Heroes werewolves, as are most other werewolf models out there, so I'm thinking of using it as a prototype experimental "Super Soldier"... escaped and looking for a place to be.

It was a fun model to paint, relatively clean casting and the resin is a nice mix that has sharp detail, is not overly brittle, and takes paint easily.

 Canoness Veridyan is a classic GW pose based on the art of Blanche... She's in finecast here and it behaved the way it usually does.

I really got to play around with a new water effect here, and on The Beast.  Vallejo Super Heavy Gel.  The stuff is pretty awesome so far.  almost sculpt-able it gave good running water effects on both these bases.  On Veridyan's base i have included a lot of random debris, grass clippings etc... all painted like necroplis debris and buried in the gel.  it has a choppy surface and has dried realtively hard and without the sticky surface that is an issue with some other water effects... like the GW Water Effect.  It'll take a few more experiments to see how reliable it is but I'm optimistic.

A size comparison between the Raging Heroes and Games Workshop models.

Veridyan comes with a 32mm base while Shiveryah is set on a 25mm base but I think the larger base is intended to indicate that Veridyan is equipped with Power Armour while Shiveryah is a lightly armored Space Elf.  Shiveryah is also floating above the base so seems a bit taller than Veridyan.

WiPs in my temp paint space!

 The new temp paint space... the computer nook in the kitchen!
yeah... not long term but, with the actual studio supplies not arriving until mid October... this gets me started!

 Speaking of getting started... I've been working on background narratives for my Raging Heroes Jailbirds for quite a while.  One of the things I wanted to accomplish was defining their rebel faction as a nomadic, survival of the tribe, society.  Because of this focus I've been wanting to include some non-military vehicles to give them the feel of a caravan on the tabletop.

I've finally got a start on this with the arrival of the Fast Panda sci-fi food truck from Atenociti's Workshop!  This is a "Made for Infinity" model so has a very cool "Mass Effect" styling about it.

For my purposes I'll want to produce one that is a little worse for the wear as it feeds the Jailbirds, who are constantly on the move to avoid capture by their House Kurganova tormentors.

 I'm starting with a black primer.  The resin from Atenocitis takes paint very well and the model was pretty clean... requiring little clean up!  Score for Jed and Nadine!

With my paints still in transit from Transylvania I took the opportunity to try the new line of weathering paint from Secret Weapon Miniatures and indulged in a couple of Vallejo skin tone sets (Fairy Flesh Set and Malefic Flesh Set).

 I started the work up of white using the Secret Weapon Handle Wood and Weathered Wood and will finish it off with top highlights using CraftSmart white.

The purple trim comes from the Malefic Skin tone set and got highlighted by mixing in some Purple Heat from the Secret Weapon line.  The various "Heat" mixes appear to be slightly viscous, high pigment density, stains.  I've always been a fan of stains so they should be fun!

  Here I've used them to modify another paint so they are performing more like thin paint with better than average covering qualities.

There is also an excellent triad in the set: Tire Black, Rubber, and Rubber Highlight. These are giving really good effects on the rubber boots and seat cushions.  I see a using these quite a lot in future.

I visited one of the FLGSs in Anchorage and picked up a Reaper Mousling Tavern set.  Its all metal, which I was quite happy with in this case, and was missing a model.  A quick e-mail to the Reaper Help desk saw the errant model arriving just a couple of days later.  Those guys at the Helpdesk are great!

 Some before and after wash shots. I'm thinking about doing some tiny Tartan patterns on these to add some cheery color.

I've been getting more interested in filling out my RPG focused collections and these will be pretty cool for that.

Next up on deck a pair of the new style of cottage from Tabletop World.
I just got an enormous shipment from them and the packing job was amazing!  The boxes arrived in a pretty beat up condition but there appears to have been zero damage as a result... those guys really know how to pack!  I'll put up a post about that a bit later.

Finally... a BIG pile of Raging Heroes from the TGG2 Kickstarter is busy getting sorted and labelled... and one of the Girls is even on the desk for painting!  Zoom Zoom!  You'll see her soon!

Legacy Servitors, Sanctioned Psykers, and a Heroquest Ogre

 These were a pile of minis that I found in a box of WiP stuff that I got as part of a bulk buy of Imperial Guard way back in the day.. either 2nd or 2.5 edition 40k ... I think... anyway it was a very long time ago!

I rediscovered them while unpacking random boxes during a recent move of house (Not sure which one... the one that I am currently preparing for will be the fourth move of house in three years... )

Anyway as these were a salvage project I wanted to get them tabletop ready but also wanted to limit how much work would be put into them.

 I decided to keep some elements of the work the original owner did and just update them to fit in with some of my current armies.

The Ogre was a bit different,  I believe I got it as part of a promotional give away at Gencon.  I did a quick assembly and slapped some paint on it to demo speed painting to someone... it then got tossed in a box and went unseen for a couple of decades...

It was in a frightful state when I rediscovered it in a bag of bits...  so I treated it to a little repair, changed the color of his shirt from blue to green, added some chevrons etc...

 
The servitors are some of the most disturbing minis that GW ever produced for a variety of reasons... from the leering face of the human male, to the dead man stare of the Squat, and capped by the clinically efficient arrangement of the clothing ... particularly the female model... this is the stuff cyborg nightmares are made of.

 The original paint scheme had each model in a different, loud, color... they were quite blinding to look at.  I could feel the cataracts forming in real time!  So I decided to make two color coded teams (red and green) with one team getting the extra servitor.

 The Sanctioned Psykers were a fun batch that got a complete repaint except for the great purple cloaks... I love the color and it stayed with just some touch ups and a few highlights.

The lead Psyker, Frank Primul, is leaking energy which is clearly visible on his face, The effect was created using Algae Wash from Secret Weapon.

I'll hopefully get one more batch of figures done before pack-out day and then I'll switch from models to books and try to get familiar with 8th ed.  Return to working on the Serene Dawn Project, and write some fluff while waiting for the models to catch up with us...

Of course Bones III is drifting around the the mail system... it may, or may not land before the pack-out!

Toughest Girls of the Galaxy 2 Preview; Executrix Champion Sephea and Dark Elf Mascot Violet

I got a preview set of the the freebies from the Toughest Girls of the Galaxy 2 "Darkness and Light" (TGG 2) and I'll be painting them up just as fast as I can manage but, even though the freebie set contains Sisters and Lust Elves I really fixed on Executrix Sephea and the Mascot Violet as my first targets.

 Its kind of funny that I first got interested in the Kickstarter because of the Sisters of the Chalice/Orphanage and then became completely enthralled by the Lust Elves and now have really started looking hard at the Void and Dark Elves.

 I usually play Dark Eldar in 40K and have proxied some RH stuff in my armies before... Asharah SF version as the Archon of the Blood Rain, and the Blood Vestals SF version for Wyches as well as the fantasy versions for Witch Elves.  Because I have a full blown Dark Eldar army already built and painted up I thought I'd have less interest in proxy Dark Eldar... boy was I wrong about that!  At this point I'll be building a parallel pure Void Elf army, complete with its own backgrounds, as kind of a "Darker Eldar" army that is related to my main Force  "The Blood Rain".



The figures are very finely detailed and crisply cast.  There are few mold lines and they are generally well placed.  After a thorough cleaning I primed up Sephea and Violet and set to work.







The Blood Rain has a very identifiable color scheme and the new Void Elf Shard is going to as well.  First things first, Asharah's Void Elves will be the "Vertigo Shard" and will have a lot of asymetric designs worked into the heroes and vehicles... I'm thinking that the Blood Rain will retain the old school Dark Eldar vehicles while the Vertigo Shard will get the new style... we'll see how that plays out for troops but these minis are so inspiring I might go there!

My first thought is to take the iconic Incubi... all black and skulls and scary... and re-imagine them in rose and indigo.  You see that here with Sephea and Violet... who will serve as the Shard's Communion Familiar... sort of a modified creature that talks to lesser beings so the Void Elves don't have to... The actual Executrix troops will have the same, or a reverse, of Sephea's scheme... all depends on how the rose sits against the flesh... tricksey!

 I imagine Executrix Sephea's first meeting with Val'orn Archon of the Hidden Kindred to have gone something like this:


 "Dire Lord!  The Void Kin vessel approaches as anticipated." whispered the diminutive Communion Familiar.
Archon Val'orn of the Hidden Kindred, vassals of the Blood Rain Kabal, winced.  He did not agree with this course of action but the Kabal  had chosen this path and he was compelled to obey.

 "Dispatch Ar'Rrath" he directed.








 "Void Sisters we welcome your arrival and look forward to this exchange. Klaivex Ar'Rrath is on his way to you. When can we expect your Executrix?" the tones of the communion familiar were carefully cultivated... radiating an indifference just short of actual insult... it was unclear, to the uninitiated, whether or not a reply was actually expected.


 "You may expect me now." replied a lilting and remotely amused voice from the foot of the command dais.  A tall blonde female Void Elf, for no outsider had ever seen a male Void Elf... if indeed any of them existed, clad in brilliant blue and pale rose armor stood gracefully in the single moment before the command deck erupted in furious activity.

 Two Incubi clad in the heavy armor, and bearing the signature great blades of their profession, moved rapidly to flank the new arrival.


 "How quaint, you actually wear....black... oh, and skulls.... yes there are skulls!  I imagine that is fearsome!" mused the newcomer.

"Stay your blades Incubi!" laughed Val'orn "I suspect this is Executrix Sephea... your new Klaivex."

The Incubi came to a sudden, and complete, halt as Val'orn turned his attention to Sephea... "I expect to learn something of that trick as part of this exchange but recommend that you use it with caution while you are among the Blood Rain."

For all his glib demeanor Val'orn was off his guard.  The Void Elves had a reputation that was equal parts mystery and terror, even by the standards of the Kabal, but this sparkling gem did not align with his own vision of fear.

"As you command Dire Lord, although... if I might mention such a trifle... while caution might be useful if simple fear is your desire" a slight pause, a blatantly incredulous eye cast toward the Incubi she was to command, she continued "it's usefulness is substantially diminished when invoking true terror."

"We shall see Executrix... we shall see..."  Val'orn retreated within the protective void bubble of his command throne and wondered again about the wisdom of this course.



The story is still unfolding but such an auspicious beginning!




Sephea and Violet, in its role as Communion Familiar. The Mascot "Violet" should probably be renamed to "Indigo" in my service since I painted her that way... but, reduce confusion, Violet she remains!

Sephea seen paired with a rare female Archon from GW.

Oh... before I forget completely!

Painting notes:

Skin: Basic Flesh (Vallejo), Flesh Wash (P3), retouched with Basic Flesh.

Indigo areas: Nightmare Black (Reaper), Deep Sky Blue (Vallejo) highlights, wash Sapphire (Secret Weapon), spot highlights Deep Sky Blue.

Rose areas: Rose Brown (Vallejo), highlights Brains Pink (Reaper), wash Drying Blood (Secret Weapon), retouch Rose brown, spot highlight brains pink.

Designs in the rose area were painted between just before the first wash using Deep  Red (Reaper)



I based her on the same Blasted Swamp (Secret Weapon) bases that majority The Blood Rain is based on.  I thought about a separate basing scheme for the Vertigo Shard but they may still be used with the Blood Rain quite a lot and it will be more unifying to have the bases regularized.

Oh! before I forget.... Sephea and Violet are both part of the big pile of freebies you get for pledging at the LT. level or higher.  It's still possible to join the Kickstarter if you do it before the Pledge Manager opens.  Raging Heroes expects this to happen in less than two weeks.

Next up... Nuns with Guns!