Base Painting: Scibor Ruins

Getting a bit more hobby mojo, I have recently turned to painting up some Scibor ruins bases that have been lurking in my collection for a while. These will ultimately be used with some 30k Forge World models that I have similarly been ignoring for a while - but more on those another time.

The image above shows the final bases fully painted. For this work, I undercoated them in black. The base coat was Fenrisian Grey, applied liberally all over, combined with forest green on the leafy parts.  I then inked the pieces in a subtle black to ensure that the recesses of the letterings and decorations on the bases looked correct, and to give a worn look to the overall base. Some dry brushing then followed in lighter grey tones, with some hints of a fleshy cream colour mixed in to give a hint of weathering. The leaves also received some green ink, and then a bright green highlighting. The final touches were to add the gold accents on the shield pieces and other embossed areas of the bases as a contrast colour.

Overall, the effect is one of a weathered, old ruin which is now ready for some miniatured to be pinned on to them. Hope you like this latest bit of painting.

Omegon's Man

Deep within a splinter of a Harrowing, Omegon's Man stands ready to lead the Loyalists (or Traitors? We're not entirely sure) of the Alpha Legion to victory.

Featuring a blend of Forge World parts (body of Master of Signals); Chaos Space Marines (head), Space Marines (Arms, Shoulders, weapons) and a shield from Scibor, this guy is effectively going to function as a Praetor (or similar) for Omegon within my Alpha Legion faction. Or perhaps just a squad sergeant for some breachers, or similar. 

The base features a base topper from Anvil Industry, and will eventually get some more attention around the edges with some extra pebbles (etc) to fill in the gap right to the edge of the 32mm base. 

Scibor 60mm Base

I recently bought a 60mm resin base from Scibor Miniatures -- a European company that makes many, and fine resin miniatures (as well as bases) that are suitable for many types of war game settings.

I've bought from them before in the form of some bodies to be used as Grey Knight characters and was very pleased with them (they're available through their website, but also in a number of specialist stores that I've visited in the past - both in Australia and the UK). So I thought that I would purchase some more parts, but this time with a view to making a base - or rather saving me some time in base making - for a new dreadnought that I have in mind.

This particular base is the 60mm version of their ruins range. It features a number of interesting details that include the patterned gothic church interior style, a cracked tombstone (bottom right), a circular cracked base that might otherwise be used for a 25mm base (upper left), as well as other details such as a skeleton with a complete head of hair (left), leaves (lower left) and dirt (right) covering the rest of the ground.

I'm very pleased with this base since there's zero cleanup work to do and its pretty much good to go right out of the box!

Mordrak

The haunted knight of Mortain.  The survivor.  The avenger.  He whose psychic might creates ghost knights around him.

Since there is not a model for Mordrak on the market yet, I decided to go with Scibor and make a Mordrak conversion.  I already bought some bases from them a while ago, but wanted a miniature that would stand out from the crowd, so decided to use one from Scibor's Roman Legionary range. 

The body of the miniature is resin and stands up well to close inspection.  There is one minor air bubble in the hair of the miniature, but it isn't noticible really.  And I think that an undercoat (perhaps slightly thick in just the one area) will actually disguise it without having to resort to greenstuff.  The arms, shoulder pads and weapons are, of course, from the grey knights terminators boxed set that I used to create some of my other ghost knights from earlier.  The overall vibe of the miniature is good -- the scibor model has just the right hint of haunted-ness about him, coupled with the agressive avenger look and ornate armour that may befit a grand master.  Alternatively, this miniature could alwyas be used as an Ordo Malleus inquisitor in terminator armour if I decide to make a Mordrak out of regular grey knight bits and pieces.

Although I could probably convert up a regular grey knight if a tournament organizer objected to this miniature, I hope that they wouldn't.  I think this guy looks pretty cool and contains approximately 50% games workshop parts by volume (and 5/6's by bits! -- hahaha!).  The only other thing that I'm considering doing is to add an iron halo just behind Mordrak's head.  I don't know whether to use bits for that or attempt a greenstuff sculpt by hand.

Scribor: Review of Ruins Bases

Scribor monstrous miniatures sells a range of resin cast miniatures for both fantasy and sci-fi (most being of 28mm scale, but some larger ones too).  Many of the pieces have obvious resonances with warhammer and warhammer 40,000 and can complement bits from either range.  I intend to make a few conversions from their pieces in the coming weeks, but that's a tale for later.

Recently, I purchased a number of bits from them, including a few scenic bases in the style of "ruins".  These are a pair of 40mm circular bases suitable for use with 40k.  The level of detail in the pieces is clear from the image below.

In terms of quality, the resin casts are superior to games workshop's finecast; no two ways about that.  However, they're not quite at the same level as Quantum Gothic ... but they are very very close!  Let me emphasize that the quality of Scibor is great -- its just that I feel Quantum Gothic is fantastic.  

The two bases above have some very fine detail, ranging from the small writing on the (broken) paving slabs, to the creeping vines that come out of the ground.  Such detail is certainly worth paying the price for, and I think, is superior to Back-2-Basix (another company that I thoroughly recommend).

So overall, I'm very impressed with the quality and level of detail.  I would certainly go back to them. And for those of you who are thinking that purchasing from Poland might be an issue -- I got my bits to Australia in a very short amount of time and the customer service from Scribor was excellent.