Arthenya VI the Archpapess and Bruegleburg a day at the fair

 Arthenya VI the Archpapess is another great model from Raging Heroes.  I have a couple of iterations of her because I want to use her in some dioramas as well as a plying piece.  This is the playing piece version.

She is escorted by some cherubs to protect her and hold some of her ceremonial gear. 

The model is resin and the details are very sharp making her a bit easier to paint than you might imagine.  Fuscha craft ink, Reaper Bone triad, Gory Red triad, and solid white, Secret Weapon washes (Storm Cloud, Armor, and Flesh) Secret weapon Engine metal, Vallejo mediums, GW Necron Compund and Shining Gold.

 Bruegleburg: A day at the Fair was a kickstarter by Lead Adventurers that featured a lot of colorful townsfolk for festive settings.  There were some options to add a more military flair to it but I was really drawn to the Slice of Life feel of the whole thing.

Here are a pair of looters in the colors of my Stirland Fantasy army. 

 This batch of models has more military or local officials in it than I've done so far so there is the recurring theme of the local livery in green and yellow on most of these.

 Country Nobles sporting their colors for the fair.

Greens were worked up from Vallejo Emerald, Secret Weapon Washes and Verdigris weathering, and Reaper solid White.

These are metal models and are sculpted traditionally so they sit really well with the older style citadel models that I used to build most of my Sylvanian army.  The scale is well suited to that era as well.


Yellows are Reaper Yellow triad.










I've based this batch on 25mm rounds for use with some of the newer skirmish games but I've also done a lot of the previous models on 20mm squares to better fit with my existing terrain sets.  I'm a bit torn on this but even old reliable Tabletop World is moving to a larger Heroic scale and the 25mm really does support these big metal models better...
A wandering mercenary and his henchman.  Since he's not a local and is a veteran of the Chaos Wars he is in red.










These two are still WiPs but I'm out of time to finish them until I locate them again after the big move.  I'll do some patterning on his red coat which will reduce the Santa effect a but and the shield devices are just roughed in at present... more to come on these two.







That wraps it up until after the move.  See you again in Late August or Early September!

Raging Heroes Executrix Regulars Troop

 Raging heroes makes some amazing figures.  This Void Elf Executrix troop are gonna make great Incubi proxies for my Ynnari. 

They'll be operating as the Emerald Execution and I wanted to stay away from the usual colors of my more traditional Dark Eldar.  These Death Eldar seem a little more flexible with wardrobe colors as they are not so focused on being the Evil Eldar... leaving that for their Cabalite Cousins.

 As I was working on these the Emerald and white base coats left me with a unit that was very heavy in cool colors so I elected to warm up the accents with an orange-y red for their swords and for the wing guards.

The wing guards are really a great weapon option idea!  they seem to be a device that dangles close combat blades while walking or standing but deploys they forwards when the knee is raised and bent giving extra stabby power!  I'd count this as, at least, an off hand weapon... which... given that the main weapon is a Double-hander... is awesome! So, If you are reading this Benoit please integrate something similar in the TGG3 Game...wink, wink...

I'm sure that will give my 40k opponents a little heartburn but they all love integrating cool models so I'm sure they'll be happy with it!  For everyone else they'l operate as plain vanilla Incubi.

I've also experimented a bit with textures on the flowing cloth bits... kind of going for an exotic monster pelt... looks like I'll have to generate a suitably exotic monster with such a pelt for them to hunt!  (Maybe another suggestion for the folks at RH?)

The blades are meant to look like power weapons but that was mostly just an excuse to paint them in warmer colors and not a weapon option suggestion...

The whole unit together... keep in mind this is just the regular troopers set... there is also a command group set which is in various stages of being assembled at the moment.  I haven't decided If I'll replicated these colors so I have add-on options... or if I'll pattern them after another alien beastie...

Back to work then!

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!

Raging Heroes Build Day and Star Saga wave 2 arrives

 This unit or Raging Heroes Void Elf Executrix Troops took most of my day to assemble.  They look great but the arm system took a lot of fidgeting to get in place.  Once the first set got done and I understood the process better the rest came along a lot more willingly.  These should function as Ynnari Incubi.

I have a Command Unit of these still waiting assembly but I've run out of greenstuff for the bases so they'll have to wait a few days on the post.

Speaking of the Post!  Star Saga wave 2 showed up.  Everything looks great except that one of the models has the wrong arms on... but Mantic have included the correct par of arms and it looks to be an easy swap.  The minis come assembled so there should be painted Star Saga goodness in short order!

Wave 2 also included the MDF tile set and conversion rules to make the Warpath/Deadzone material compatible.

I like the expansion package format with each being in a unique box with a storage tray and additional components.

I somehow ended up with three sets of the Star Saga Screen.  I think failed to notice that one was included with the KickStarter Freebies Bundle and maybe one with the all-in pledge... thaen I must have added an extra one making it three... oops!  No worries! A few extra game screens aren't really a bad thing!

I'm hoping to get some more 3D printed terrain, The Order of Vampire Hunters Wave 2, and couple of Heresy Girls knocked out this week so I'd better get back to the desk!

Raging Heroes Ash Tank Gunner and some Heresy Girl Assassins 3D printer experiments with the Snapmaker

 Raging Heroes' Ash Tank Gunner was initially thought of as a torso only sculpt for use in a vehicle hatch but had the lower body included pretty early on in the TGG1 Kickstarter process.  As a result she became useful in a Forward Observer or scout role.  I have a few iterations of her so its possible I'll do a tank crew version of her but I really like having her in stand alone form.

She's painted like the Veteran Jailbirds in a signature prison color scheme.  The orange is Reaper Lemon Yellow a wash of Secret Weapon Orange and Highlights of Reaper Marigold Yellow.

 Ash also sports the Blood Red Rags of Rebellion that were popularized by the Jailbird Freedom Fighter Raven the Chainbreaker.

 Next up are the remaining four proxy Assassins from the Heresy Girls Kickstarter 1.  The Deathshadow was examined here although I think I forgot to mention the name of it.  In a similar vein I've done one each of the factory resin model and a 3D print from my Snapmaker on hi resolution.  The elements of failure are painted blue for clarity and also because I'll use these as active camo/ecm versions.

 First is Black Phoenix which seems like a Vindicare proxy.  The Snapmaker had a hard time with this one and I was unable to get the waist region of the torso to fill in so there is a big hole at the join.  With glue its stable but the poor girl looks kind of undead.

The factory resin, as all of them are in this set, was cleanly cast with little flash and practically no cleanup required.  The bases here are also from the 3D printer and the Snapmaker does good quality on them.

 Ghost is next and was the most successful of the 3D prints.  I used the alternate factory resin head and the 3D print version was not good.  Even on this more successful print there is a lot of printer error and lost detail.

 Ghost look like a Callidus Proxy and its passable in that role.  Its also useful for any sci-fi assassin or operative.

Last up is Jade Devil.  A clear proxy for Culexis psi-hunters.

This one was the most trouble for the Snapmaker and I got zero percent clear print.  Nice stealth field effect but a complete failure as a model print.

Bottom line is that the Snapmaker can't produce acceptable resolution in 28mm humanoid models.  I'm generally happy with its performance for buildings, bases, vehicles,  terrain, and accessories like dice boxes etc... but I'll have to move into SLA printing to make .stl files of 28mm soldiers viable.

Not all 3D printers, or 3D printer formats, are good for all printing projects so don't expect nozzle extruded 3D prints to fill the ranks of your toy soldier armies at this time.  SLA has much higher resolution and I'll get round to it eventually but for now I'll be relying on the printer for the more coarse applications where its pretty reliable.  The right tool for the right job!

Back to the desk!

New Void Elf Blood Vestals Sci-Fi version

With this batch of the new sculpts of Raging Heroes' Blood Vestals (Sci-Fi version) I decided to make them a little less of a direct port from the, semi nude, Dark Elf Witch Elves and painted a grey leotard instead of the bare breasts.  This makes them blend better with the Games Workshop Dark Eldar that I primarily use them with.

  Even though the original Void Elf Blood Vestals are awesome models I was very pleased with these updated versions.  They applied a lot of lessons learned to these models which are a great addition to, and blend well with, the original set.

 Raging Heroes, at this stage of their development, are primarily used as proxies for other game systems.  I've become a fan of proxies over the years and think that their existence, and strong showing on the tabletop, help drive innovation in the industry and encourage the biggest companies to work harder.  Raging heroes units have a lot of built in variety and often come with an assortment of alternate parts. I use these mainly as Dark Eldar Wyches and and Ynnari cultists.

These models were constructed from one pack of Blood Vestal Troopers and one pack of Blood Vestal Command.

The bladed weapons ended up being an eerie green that I think of as exotic materials, energy, or poison.  Its a quick application of Hexwraith Flame (GW, technical) with some accents using Splintered Bone (Reaper)

 The hair starts with Krylon Khaki base coat dry-brushed with Sandstone craft paint and then again with Pure White (Reaper).  A 50/50 wash of Nightmare Black (Reaper) and Glaze Medium (Vallejo).  Highlights by adding Pure White (Reaper)

The desk is full of terrain and magnets at the moment... as well as some greenstuff rollers...

So I'm guessing terrains and possibly some Heresy Girls, Jailbirds, and/or Twisted minis will finish up next.

Back to the desk!

Heresy Girls resin vs 3D print

 The Heresy Girls Kickstarter was a small, low cost, project that provided .stl files and/or actual resin cast minis.  I thought it would be a great opportunity to see how well my Snapmaker could print detailed miniatures in 28mm.

I have a fair bit of experience now with coarser topics like buildings, vehicles, bases, and terrain and thought the Snapmaker might have some difficulty with the finer elements on the humanoid figure.  This turned out to be the case although I think its a limitation of the printing format more than a Snapmaker specific issue. 

 The test models are proxy female Eversor Assassins. The bases were 3D printed on the Snapmaker.

The Snapmaker at its finest resolution was unable to print invisible layers on the humanoid body and, due to the low melting point of the PLA material, options for sanding are limited.

I think I'm going to have to move to an SLA style printer to get reliable detailed models to print.

At any rate the first set of pictures is from the Snapmaker.  Where printing lines were noticeable I dusted them with a blue and white dry brush to make them stand out.





 I ended up liking the effect well enough and envision it as a visual distortion field.  This might work well enough for some types of Sci-Fi troops like Assassins and Infiltrators but would be out of place in troops of the line.

 Its also possible that the models could be rotated to reduce the print lines but the main problem seemed to be adhesion in some areas that led to distortion.  The head of this model is actually the extra resin head that was included in the manufacturer provided model and was not printed by the Snapmaker.

This is the model as supplied by the manufacturer. As you can see there is a lot of detail that was missed or mangled by the Snapmaker. 

 I like the quality of the model overall.  It required very little cleanup, details are sharp, the resin is flexible enough to survive use, and takes paint readily.

I got several files and reference models so I may do a few more test runs.

 This set shows the models side by side and really highlights the differences between the resin model and the 3D print.

 The 3D model could also pass for some kind of eerie undead... might be an interesting way to zombify some fantasy troops!

We're back from Tokyo and I'm starting to get back into the paint room.  I think some Reaper War Pugs and a pile of Raging Heroes Blood Vestals might be next.

Back to the desk!

3D Printed Sci-Fi wheeled APC and wheeled ARV

 The Jailbirds got a couple of new vehicles this week but they, themselves, were out of reach for photos!  We'll make do with some of their potential adversaries like trusty Canoness Veridyan (GW).

The vehicles were 3D printed on a Snapmaker at high quality.  The files came from a Duncan "Shadow" Louca vehicle Kickstarter.

These continue the badlands nomad theme that is basically a Flesh Wash (Secret Weapon) over the standard Khaki workup.

 The wheels were painted Rubber (Secret Weapon) and the weathering was done with Secret Weapon technical paints.  Old Mud, Caked Dirt, Engine Metal, and Rust Shadow.

Rust Shadow makes an excellent liner and gives a "Borderlands" style shadow.  I think it will look really great with some other vehicles colors which I'll get into when I'm doing some of the civilian vehicles pressed into service by the caravan.

 Repo-Man! is a very vital vehicle for the Jailbirds.  Their gear is mostly second tier except for their bikes which are cutting edge.  The Jailbirds basically drag anything they can get off the field although they tend to focus on wheeled vehicles since they are easier to operate and maintain in their caravan lifestyle.

 The Jailbirds are much more organized and uniform that the typical "Mad Max-esque" Badlanders as they also form semi-regular military formations.  Basically they wear uniforms of a sort and their vehicles are identifiable as part of a regular, if somewhat eclectic, military unit.

 "Tailgater" with Mantic Star Saga marines and Forgeworld ripper swarms for scale.  I used magnets for the turret and for the hatches with the idea to optionally use Raging Heroes Ash, Tank Gunner as a vehicle commander.

 Repo-Man shown with Travelling merchant (Anvil Industries) or Trader Joe as he is known to the Jailbirds.

I saw some construction cranes the other day that had all the moving surfaces finished in a rubbery black color and thought that would be better than a shiny metal, attention attracting, surface.

A last look at Repo-Man with Raging Heroes Void Elves for scale.





















Last, I did basing and prep for a couple of Reaper minis for an RPG character.  A halfling Ranger, a couple of big dogs, and a triad of pups.  One of the dogs to be a Saint Bernard the other probably a Rottweiler or something similar to make the dogs easy to identify.