Raging Vestals

I really enjoyed these resin Blood Vestals that were painted as part of the Adepticon 2013 Dark Eldar tournament army.

The original color scheme was more in the red family, but I did a few that would be unit NCO's etc.

A wide variety of bases were made using all kinds of left over 40k bits, including a few vehicle parts.

She's also here:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/222623096133?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1558.l2649

High and Mighty

The Kurgonava sisters are in charge again!  This was part of the original Raging Heroes campaign, and thus is now part of the metal range.

I have always had fun painting the Raging Heroes minis, especially the Wereshewolves!

The base was fun, of course, part of my usual blasted concrete Sci-fi series.  These can be seen in more detail on my Painting Pyramid video series, which has 12 different basing topics!  There are two specifically on Sci-fi basing.

As usual, they are available on USB drives (each one is 100 minutes long)

Does anyone have a light?

Mighty Kurgonova

The officers of my old Imperial Guard army were a tough bunch... the Kurgonova Sisters from Raging Heroes!

Since most Raging Heroes figures trend towards wider stances such as this, it meant that my basing techniques meshed fairy well.  I love making slight overhang bases like this instance, and giving it a bit of a twist by setting the broken door on a slight angle.  

This serves to reduce the width needed on those overhangs, because you are utilizing that angle to take off a millimeter or two from that distance if it had been set 'flat' on the base.

Doing so also increases the drama of the pose, and makes that wider stance have more meaning... as if the character were climbing up the sheet metal, or trying to maintain balance, etc.

Finally, it makes it appear that the character might be dueling with a nearby enemy, unseen in the image but implied nevertheless!

She's available here:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/222489522114?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1558.l2649

Asharah

The very nifty Raging Heroes figure was the commander of my Blood Star Dark Eldar army.

I had a lot of fun with the bases for this army, since it was supposed to be centered around this massive Hippodrome, where they would race their Reaver jetbikes and kill off slaves.

I have many posts on the army itself, as well as the giant display board!  That is all found in the Dark Eldar section of the blog.

She's also here:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/222495434009?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1558.l2649

Manticore

This monstrous creature is one of the original sculpts by Raging Heroes.  I had painted this up for a possible Chaos Warrior fantasy army.

As with all things that pertain to Chaos, I wanted to have a Tzeentch theme, and this is why the sword was given the blue tint, and glow applied elsewhere!

There was also a design aspect to that choice, which was an attempt to create a little more interest in areas that might have been repetitive or monotonous.  Since many of the colors would be warmer tans and umbers, the brighter blue would offer a contrast in saturation and color temperature. 

Some of the middle tone colors were greenish grays, made by mixing that lighter blue with the sienna and tan.  The green colors provided a little more interest in the middle tones, and even the shadow areas.

I know that the texture on the wings was pretty heavy, and it would be impossible to make them look more like membranes or something semi transparent.  This was another reason I wanted to toss in that extra definition from the Object Source Lighting.

The rider was also interesting to paint, with lots of fun shapes.  His head crest also reminded me of the Tzeetch look!

He's also here:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/222321715934?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1558.l2649

Deadly Dancer

Once more some views of the Raging Heroes Blood Vestals which I used in my Adepticon Dark Eldar tournament army. 

The kits have all of the regular and special weapons needed to create larger or smaller units. 

I continued with a very specific basing scheme for the entire army.   The idea was to represent the primary opponent of this force... in the form of destroyed vehicles. 

I just wish that I had the kind of lighting and photo equipment that I do now, which would yield some nice army shots on my terrain board.

Blood Vestals

Some of the earliest figures that I painted from Raging Heroes were the fantasy Blood Vestals, followed quickly by the Sci-fi version.  

Since then, wonderful new lines of sculpts have been added to both sets, creating two huge ranges of figures.  I have done articles showing those amazing sculpts, which include ridden monsters and other incredibly elaborate kits.

I'm really looking forward to both the fantasy and sci-fi sets, because they are designed as complete armies, covering all aspects of a build.  There are amazing characters and monstrous creatures that are coming, which should lead to all kinds of very fun painting opportunities.

I enjoyed how dynamic all of the Vestals were, as it meant that some dramatic basing would be the order of the day.  While this base has a very simple setup, when combined with pose of the figure.

By setting the angles of the figure and the terrain piece at opposites from each other, I was able to make the action seem even more intense, and have the figure truly seem as if it were running.

The terrain element also acts as a physical counterweight to the figure, allowing it to hang over the edge of the base somewhat without falling over.

I'm certainly going to continue with these ruined urban bases on the upcoming figures!  While all types of basing are interesting, there is something about urban basing which really catches my attention.

That must have a lot to do with the fact that I live in a large city myself, and it's easier for me to visualize ;-)

Oozing Goodness

This bit of Nurgly goodness comes from Raging Heroes.  It's actually one of their original miniature line, prior to the Toughest Girls in the Galaxy line.

There's a lot going on with this piece!  Bodies all over the place, and plenty of corruption!

I tried to do a number of different color combinations to portray that decay and corrosion.  Pinks and greens were mixed together, grayish blue next to burnt orange, and so on.

I especially had fun with the Secret Weapon base.  As you can see, it is very 'deep set', which allowed me to pile in lots of realistic water (also from Secret Weapon).  I mixed some of the fluorescent yellow with the realistic water to make it seem even more toxic.

After a few layers, it seems as if he is standing in a sewer like mix of gore and other nasty things.

Very appropriate for Nurgle!  I also did a little more with glowing elements than previous versions.  I painted this guy for the Bloody Mess painting video.  That one has plenty of gore!!

I'll have that and all the other videos at GenCon, so check it out at booth #2861, and also at the Badger Airbrush booth!!

He's also here:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/322204663227?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

The Wolf Pack

The Wereshewolf Pack, that is!  At last, the images of the entire group.

As I have mentioned before, my goal was to have some differences in color scheme on each one, without having them look out of place together.

While there are two 'basic' color schemes... a grayish and tan coloration, there is a difference in the overall lightness of each 'set'.  Also, I tried to vary the shadow colors.

The head/hair area was another spot where I could create some differential.  You can see a large difference on the heads of the two grayish Wereshewolves.

Where possible, I tried to get 'opposing' colors in the shadows.  The figure on the far left shows this very well, as you can see the greenish shading in the darker areas.

All four of the bases have some unfortunate victims!

The foliage was done a little differently on each base, since it seemed like a good laboratory to try out some new materials!

I believe that this set of four is now available on the Raging Heroes website.

One last look at the pack!!!