Almost there!!

Number nine!

Just one more little Thrall, and it's time for group images.

I am very anxious for you all to see what these lads look like around the giant transport!!

The girl on fire

Here's the mostly finished Reaper Fire Giantess.

There's more that I will add to her, but the idea was to keep the working time to a minimum.  In fact, I believe it was less than three hours.

Another thing to keep in mind is that this was a BONES mini, so much of my typical glaze techniques are not going to work out as they normally would.

I will take some more images once I have added the additional touches.

Mech madness...

So, the final batch of three Thallax!

This group completes the nine total figures, which means overall group shots are coming!

It is a bit ironic that the smallest version of the robots were tackled last.  That actually worked out well.

I chose the middle of the road sized Castellax, since the surfaces were a little larger, more broad, and I could get a handle on them initially.

I went from those to the giant Thanatars.  The legs were massively complex to deal with on those.

It made these a whole lot easier by comparison!!!

Bringing down the shades

 

This Reaper Fire Giantess made an excellent candidate for one of my classes at Reapercon.

 

She was actually used for the shaded basecoat class, but let's check out some after basecoat glazing!

 

A few of the usual suspects come out...

 

As always, I try to mix a variety of deep color washes to use for the darks.

 

In this case, I was putting some darker tones on the hair, and shifting them a bit more to red.  This was something we did a LOT in the glazing class. Shifting and tinting...

 

 

The same sort of shifting and tinting goes on with the back of the armored cape, placing dark reds to match the proximity to the lava.

 

More structure is created with each dark glaze, getting down into all the hard to reach shadow areas.

 

The armor plates on the legs and the hair are developed more with each layer...

 

This development moves up through the torso, while I also begin to set up the framework for the lava reflections.  Standard use of Vallejo fluorescent paints as well!

 

Things are starting to take shape as I have created enough cooler dark shades to compliment the reflections.  I am also refining the skin tones.

 

A lot more work on the face, and highlights on the hair, making sure that those are more towards the cool side.  Let the lava be hot!

 

The hair is refined more with each layer.  Sometimes I had to go back and forth with adding more shadows, or adding more lights.

 

Ready to go!!!

A town rises in the West

As promised, the full views of the complete town!

In addition to the Burn In Designs structures, there are buildings from Wild West Exodus (on the right and the left ends of the table), as well as home made terrain that Rich created.

This view shows the mesas Rich constructed of insulation foam, and the fantastic water tower!

Going back to the 'test' layout on the smaller table, you will see that we have added a number of new pieces.  Some are taller, like the water tower, while others are odds and ends that add flavor and a bit of 'spot cover'.

This view from above the water tower lets you get a look at the fantastic gaming mat that Rich discovered.  The texture and colors are amazing!!!

The center of town.  This will be my deployment zone in the coming battle.

We look more closely at one of two Enlightened deployment zones.  

They are after all the 'fresh' bodies in the graveyard.  In this image, you can see some of the headstones that Rich made.  I think we had 15 total.

The view from the other deployment zone as you enter town.  It's very ironic that Rich painted the Wild West Exodus building on the far right the same color as I painted the Undertaker's.

Main street in town.  How bloody will the Smokehouse get in this battle?

We were very happy when we stopped putting stuff on the table, looked down and saw this vista.  To think of how far this has come since Adepticon is amazing!  Thanks to Lathan for his incredible designs, and for Wild West Exodus for creating a game system that will allow us to utilize every inch of this!

That's a very rare thing nowadays.  Terrain is usually something to ignore or avoid all together.  This is a wonderful change from that norm!!

Another perspective

Let's see the dedicated Mechanicum transport from the top.

This reveals a few more details, especially some of those on the rear of the vehicle.

The large cowling over all those mechanisms had to be painted prior to that extended final assembly that I spoke of in the first post.

As usual with large pieces such as this, I used weathering powders as paint.  Yes, it's not just for weathering any more!

This was very handy on the gold/brass surfaces.  I could incorporate lots of greens, grays, and even some purple in a rapid way, wiping away any excess.

This makes for lots of nice smooth color transitions in very hard to reach places, or over rounded areas.

These vehicles were mostly nooks and crannies, even with all the individual pieces being painted separately. The powder method let me get down into those with some interesting colors, and I never had to worry about glazes pooling, or not reaching down into them.

I hope you have enjoyed these posts on this vehicle, and have gotten some ideas from them!!

Building Wappelville

This post will cover a few things.  First, it will show my collection of Burn In Designs buildings that are nearly or completely finished!

Second, I will talk about my mindset as I place the buildings and lay out the town.

There are also a few pieces of terrain which I have made, such as the RJ-1027 power station, and the charging stations.  There are a number of posts showing how those were made in the Wild West Exodus/terrain building section.

This is what I mean about table building.  I think you can see right away that it is oriented at an angle from what you typically see.  Normally, each 'side' has its own row of structures, leaving a vast no man's land in the middle.

Having everything rotated on the axis like this creates many more opportunities to move in cover, all the way across the board.

Please note that additional buildings are going to be added to the left and right sides.  I just wanted this one to show the Burn in Designs structures.

This view shows that there are still, long, clear avenues, but they are oriented in a completely different direction.  We also created some special rules for the rail pump car in the center.

It can be controlled and operated by two figures, who have to spend action points to move it 7 inches per activation.  Two other figures can 'ride' it.  The rail car proved to be a fantastic opportunity to use simultaneous activation.

When you see the final photos of the completed table, and the subsequent game that was played, it will show how a table set up in this way can also make the game a little less shooty.  

Also, a table set up in this manner allows for more unusual deployment zones.

The Undertaker's establishment is going to be a major objective, and you can see that it will not only come under attack right away, it will be under constant attack throughout the game.

This opening into town will be the primary access for the Enlightened to get into town.  Lathan created a very nice sign to let people know that they are entering the future capitol of the State of Wappellia!

On this end of the board we have the brand new tree stands and graves.  This is another deployment zone for the Enlightened.

Checking out this view, you notice that extended lines of sight are blocked, even from high positions.  That was one of my goals, as I didn't want the game to devolve into a shooting gallery.

We shall see how all this works out in practice as we play out the game!  I have been using an angled layout for the games the last few times around, but this is the most stuff we have had on the table yet.  Stay tuned...