Chief Raven Spirit

The energy of the Great Spirit is focused in this most powerful of summoned apparitions.

Chief Raven Spirit is a new Warrior Nation boss for Wild West Exodus, and he can channel some serious energy!

With a whopping 5 influence, Raven Spirit is more than a match for Cartpathian, and even the Legendary characters.

The threat range is enormous on this pair.  A fire causing, armor piercing blast can deal with the long range enemies, while the Spiritual Flame template can clear out entire buildings.  Yes, and set fire to enemies along the way!

Not to be outdone, the apparition itself has an enormous 3.5 inch combat halo, comprised of his two massive spiritual claws.  Once again, they cause fire damage.  Fire season is about to begin!!!

But wait, that's not all!  In a case of "Now you see me, and now you don't",  they can teleport themselves up to 18 inches in any direction.  Wow.  No front line can hold against that!

He can also call 'regular' apparitions as well, up to two of them at a time.

I am visualising an all fire causing list, with Raven Spirit, War Priests, Iron Hawk, White Buffalo, a Fire Bringer, and an Eagle.

This will be a very interesting contrast to my Monster Mash list that I have already created for my Warrior Nation.  It will be a real blast! :-)

On a more massive scale

Scale 75 that is!

This fantastic 75mm sculpt is about to get a new home, which is under construction now.  Scale 75 is the manufacturer, where you can find a host of these amazing beauties!!

Along with my first large scale bust, this will also be the first 70+ mm sculpt that I have ever painted.

The experimentation will continue as I also test some new paints... at least for me.  This is part of the ScaleColor line.

I may secure one or two other colors as well, in the yellow range, but I will see just how far these can be taken.  Using the lime green as a yellow should be quite interesting!!

To the miniature, where we see the pieces prior to assembly.

I have seen a great many of these lager scale figures perched on plinths, but I wanted to try something different.

Years ago, I worked almost exclusively in diorama form.  I still have a number of the wooden plaques remaining, and one was chosen as the base for this vignette.

This image shows most of the supplies, such as the various tree bark textures, branches, glue, gravel, and so on.

A quick look inside the bark box shows four distinct textures.  I try to find as many as possible.  At various scales, the texture can take on an entirely different look.

I had a general notion of what I wanted to do, but the available pieces and the figure itself will be the final arbiter of the design.  I usually allow these things to work themselves out as I place various pieces and see what forms they take.

I did want to have some water in this diorama, either in waterfall form or as a stream.  The time of year will most likely be fall, but early winter is not out of the question.

I have a few of these extendable utility knives on hand to shave down the part of the bark that I want to attach to the larger base.  Since this is a large metal figure, it is vital to have as strong a bond as possible.

Placing the branches will be covered in the next post, as will the application of the Sand paste and gravel.  A number of posts on the construction of this diorama will follow, so stay tuned!!

More color experiments

Trying out new color combinations seems to be the norm rather than the exception for me these days.  I suppose when you are doing this as many hours each day as I am, the sheer entertainment value of it has a definite function!

Everything is new when you are seeing what kind of new mixes you can create, especially in the realm of subtle color transitions.

I was trying to see how many different hues I could establish on the skin colors.  It's a color test for a Blood Bowl Deamonette team, primarily purple in hue, but I don't want that to get too boring.

A few different types of green and teal were introduced into the skin colors, as well as bright pink and burnt sienna.

She's also here:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/-/221851126862?

A steady hand at the wheel

More pirates!  This time, a little fun add on, in the form of the rudder wheel.

I had wanted to do a vignette like this for many years, and getting the wheel to just the right height for this figure took a bit of planning.  All worth it in the end!

She's also here:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/-/221850858691?

The Blade Dancer

Time for some sheer fabric fun!  I always enjoy this painting challenge... even more so now with all the various colors that I put into my skin tones these days.

There are a few Reaper and Dark Sword minis that are perfect for this sort of effect.

It's not always the easiest thing to pull off, but the challenge is worth it!  I am also fortunate to have some very nice foliage options like this type that I purchased from Hangar 18!

She's also here:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/221850346638?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1558.l2649

Notching an arrow...

This very nice figure from Dark Sword miniatures is a color test for a much larger 75mm figure.

I wanted to experiment with some new green paint colors to see what they were like.  It should be very interesting once I get to that large figure!!

She's also here:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/221849734579?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1558.l2649

The best of the best

Time for a group shot of the Spicas!  These will certainly be the most challenging of all the hired hands in the Wild West Exodus universe to play.

The Outlaw hired hands have very few synergies with their characters, as it was designed.

Union and Lawmen have all kinds of synergies, but those are usually targeted towards one "type" of hired hand.

Union characters can offer all kinds of bonuses to long range hired hands, as do Lawmen bosses.

With the Holy Order of Man Spica, there is no such distinction.

Can I take advantage of all their multipurpose capabilities?

There will probably be some growing pains, but then the thought of getting to activate first on almost every turn gives me a little more confidence.  That and a bunch of Tumblers cruising around!!!

Stay tuned!