pondělí 12. června 2017

WZR: Cable Marionette

I've been quite busy with 40K lately, so only little time was left for Warzone Resurrection. One model I just had to paint though, is the Cable Marionette. This cyberpunkish "cable golem" is just such a great sci-fi concept I couldn't stay away from it. That said, please excuse the rather rubish pictures - still working on my studio. I'll try to make better ones when I'll have all three fully painted.


 Warzone Resurrection models have been mostly hit or miss for me so far, with this one being a clear hit for its high level of detail, realism and atmosphere. I also like how easily can these models be used for other systems - while they fit the world of Mutant Chronicles well, you can imagine them in almost any horror sci-fi setting.


It's really easy to paint these models, as the details really do all the work for yourself. I can imagine just using a single metallic color and a shade would still give a neat result. Regarding the base, I wanted to try something thematic - with cables being an obvious choice. First I wanted to paint them in metallic color, however later I have decided for a mix of colors. I'm still undecided on the base and might go back to painting it in a single color to make the base less distracting. As always, any tips are appreciated!

pátek 14. dubna 2017

The Pyre Hellbrute

It took forever and a year, but I have finally finished my Dark Vengeance Hellbrute - another addition to my starting The Pyre warband. Behold!


I absolutely love the design of this thing. From the horns to the sprouting tentacles, the Hellbrute is the epitome of Chaos as a malevolent, ever-changing force. While it's perhaps not suitable to some of the more conservative Chaos legions, it works pretty well for most warbands, and for a snap-fit model included in a starter set box, the level of detail is pretty much incredible.

Regarding the paintjob, I've based the thing white and used Troll Slayer Orange for the armour plates and Warplock Bronze for the armour edges. I decided to go with red color on the daemonic flesh and used Mephiston Red with Bloodletter highlights - I'm very happy on how the glaze made the organic parts stand out, especially in the chest area. The wet look of the tentacles has been done using Gloss varnish.


It's no big secret that the back side of this miniature is not as well-detailed as the front, especially when it comes to the huge blobs of flesh around the spine - which is, in my opinion, a very cool part of the model and at least works well as a distraction from the less detailed parts.


I haven't modified the miniature much, though one thing I really wanted to do was to add a Heavy flamer to its arm - after all, what screams The Pyre more than a Dreadnought armed with two fire-based weapons? I went with a rather simple conversion - after cutting away the chains under the left arm, I've glued on an imperial guard vehicle heavy flamer and covered it with tubes made of green stuff to give it a fused look. The result looks pretty good and works great for barbecue.


Basing has been done in the same style as the rest of my The Pyre warband - as scorched earth, though at first it seemed a little boring, so I've added a dead marine under the creature's feet (and to taunt a friend, I've chosen a Dark Angel for the victim). I really like these weird mutated feet by the way - they help to enforce the overall "living metal" feel of the miniature. I know I'm in the minority here, but I really wish these would have been kept in the Hellbrute box as an option... oh well.


One final thought - I really wish this miniature had Monstrous Creature rules instead of Walker. Afterall, it's apparently much more organic than a Dreadnought suit, and a change to MC could make an insteresting spin on the classic Dreadnought rules. However, for some odd reasons, in 40K Aliens-style walker suits and Eldar giant mecha get MC rules, while this does not. That's just classic Games Workshop game design.

Anyway, thanks for reading!

sobota 11. března 2017

Alaitoc War Walker 2

It's been some time since I finished my first War Walker, and given how good these are in the game, it was inevitable to get second one sooner or later. So, here it is!

 

War walkers are fun (if a bit challenging) to assemble and paint. For me, this one was a good practice at painting the Alaitoc scheme, and I've learnt an important lesson as well (more on that soon). Again, I've built this one with Scatter Laser and Eldar Missile Launcher weapons as this proved to be a pretty effective combination, even though it lost the Laser Lock combo. Flyers and light vehicles beware!

 

 I had some trouble getting back the right marble pattern after such a long pause from Eldar models but luckily enough, my artistic girlfriend helped me - thanks for that! In the end I'm most satisfied with the paintjob. The canopy, however, ended up looking really bad. During the modelling process I accidently got some plastic glue onto the inner side of the canopy... Which had an immediate effect on the material transparency. The canopy is therefore much darker than on my first War Walker, which sucks... The lesson: keep plastic glue the hell away from transparent bits!
 

Still, the two models don't look so bad together. It's still hard to justify the difference in my head though. Hopefully I'll eventually find a spare canopy... Or paint a power field effect of sorts over these. Given how rare these bits are, I think I'll take a long break first.

One new thing I did for this model was painting the patterns around upper engine exhausts (or perhaps coolers?) with yellow color. It's a really nice bit of eye-candy contrasting with the dark-blue marble around it, so I've used the opportunity and repainted the part on the first model as well.


Well, that's about it. Thanks for reading, and, in case you have a comment or suggestion for the canopy problem - I'm one big ear!

neděle 29. ledna 2017

Leviathan Zoanthrope

zoanthropy zo·an·thro·py (zō-ān'thrə-pē)
"A delusion that one is an animal.
"

Lately I've fallen in love with the Great Devourer - and one unit I particularly enjoy is the Zoanthrope. The model I own is the old finecast one; when the new ones came out, I didn't really like the changes made to them (I'm talking about both the size creep and overall spikey-ness), so I bought the finecast model when it was still available. Now I regret I haven't bought three of them, as the amount of detail on these models is incredible.

Tyranid Zoanthrope

I had some trouble with the modelling part at first, though. The tail part was bent which caused the whole model to lean on one side. Luckily enough, just two hot baths were enough to make the model straight again.

Tyranid Zoanthrope
 Tyranid Zoanthrope

I absolutely love the design of this beast. A giant brain floating above the animalistic hordes of gaunts works as a great representation of the Hivemind and it's psychic power. The whole thing looks like an embryo, or perhaps a sperm, which gives it a creepy, Giger-inspired look - and that's what works best for the Alien-inspired Tyranids.

Tyranid Zoanthrope

The details on the head part of the miniature are truly mind-blowing, and I've tried to accent them as much as possible. In my colorscheme, I use red mostly for biomorphs and orange for less specific wet-looking details, so the brain was obviously going to be orange. The tubes connecting the mouth with the brain are usually painted white, so I've tried to do something different and gave them a red paintjob. It's such a shame the new plastic Zoanthropes are missing lovely details like this! I've given the brain and the tubes a gloss varnish layer (as I do with all biomorphs), which has increased the creepiness factor of the miniature to over 110%.

Anyway, thanks for reading! I'm terribly sorry it took me so long to make a new post. Life was wild lately - I got a new job, new home and I lost my camera, so these pictures were made with a cell phone - hopefully they look good enough. See you soon!

sobota 27. srpna 2016

Bauhaus Hussars

After my short flirt with Warzone Ressurection's Cybertronic faction, I've finally decided to work on a proper army force - so I've got the Bauhaus starter set with some extras. How much sense does it make? Not much, but so doesn't life, right? Actually, the aristocratic, retro-futuristic Bauhaus Corporation has been my favorite faction of the Mutant Chronicles universe for a long time; the Kickstarter line of models did put me off though. Luckily enough, the updated version of Bauhaus looks great!


The HQ of Bauhaus is on planet Venus, which has been terraformed into a jungle world. Paradoxically enough, some of the most iconic artwork displays Venus in a snow setting, which has confused a great many of fans in the past, me included. Luckily enough, fluffwise the polar caps of Venus are a neverending battlefield against the Dark legion, so everything makes sense after all.

In fact, winter setting suits Bauhaus very well, as the corporation has been usually painted in blue or white colors. While I knew I was going to do winter basing, I've decided to go with a black-and-white scheme instead of the more traditional cyan blue. I believe the black color helps to contrast the models against the snow-covered bases. However, since blue and gold colors are connected to Bauhaus, I've used them on various small details, such as on the shoulderpads.


The bases were my first try at modelling snow, and it took a few tries to do it right. I went with the cheap option of using sodium bicarbonate (or baking soda) mixed with PVA glue and water. While my first try lead into the creation of an alien, bubblegum-like substance, after adding a good amount of water I got much better results. Still, doing this can be a horrible mess, so I'm considering getting proper modelling snow.

As you can see on the picture below, I've also tried to put the snow on the legs of the miniatures, especially on the clothing. I think the result has a nice, wet look which really helps to bring more action to the miniatures.


I really like the miniatures themselves. While the leg-body poses are defined by the kit, hands with weapons are a separate part, so there is some space for posing. The miniatures are full of small details - sometimes too small, perhaps, so one has to be very careful to thin down paints as to not overpaint any of the tiny folds on the shoulders or helmets.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed this post! Ow, and sorry for the difference in picture quality, had to use a different camera this time.