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!

Charging ahead... starting Monday!

On Monday, Parallax Games begins their kickstarter campaign.

This will involve some very fun miniatures, such as this character.  The concept art and the master print look pretty nice side by side!

I am painting this particular figure right now!

The previous image was the render, so here's the actual cast...

A few more characters.

An interesting mage, with an interesting staff.

Obviously the concept art is very nice!

Which leads to sculpts such as this...

And this beast!  I can't wait to give this one a try.

A sample page from the rules.

Here's a nice march from render-

To painted miniature!  This one won a gold at Reapercon earlier this year.

Let the fun begin!!!

Once the campaign officially begins, I will put a link here for you.

Triple play!

 

All three of our intrepid heroes are now together, showing off those subtle greens in the skin tones and the leathers.

 

As I mentioned in the individual posts, the way the musculature was sculpted called for such color choices, as the recessed areas were rather deep.

 

The greens provided some color interest, but they also provided that color unity which I mention so often.  You will notice that the hints of green are actually quite similar to the leather coverings around their waists.

 

All of this fancy color depth stuff was tricky, since these colors had to match dozens of previously painted minis, some of which were not even painted by me!

 

It is in these back views where you really see this demonstrated.

 

There are some group shots coming that will show about 13 of these type of Red Box Games figs all together.

 

Conclusion... the view from above.  There are lots of fun things coming this week to the blog.  Vast numbers of painted bases, and even a giant diorama base for that Scale 75 miniature.

 

Stay tuned!

Seeing eye Spica

As I paint the new Mimreg Salto, I have been thinking over the possibilities of combining the Spica Hired Hands with the portals that she brings to the table.

When combined with certain characters, these Spica could utilize those portals to deal some nasty close combat strikes.  If I can find a way to come to grips with the more squishy opponents right away, perhaps that might help me equalize the numbers more rapidly.

It will also depend on the scenario.  Objective base scenarios mean that severe outnumbering will make life very tough.  Since the opponent can also use those portals once they are on the table, it means careful consideration of their location!!

Green to get brown...

Yeah, that sounds weird, but the old "red and green make brown" statement really is true.  Sometimes, however, the green is not always mixed completely with that red.

As you know, I have been using a lot of green on these Red Box Games figures, both on the skin tones and the leathers.

Back in my early days of painting, my leather colors were more of an "out of the jar" mix which was nice, but lacked this kind of depth.

It's also a lot more fun to paint this way... a far more accurate representation of how I used to paint with pastels and oils!

This is my treasure...

I have lots of Reaper "favorite" figures, but this has always been fun to paint over the years.  each time I try a little something different on it.

I suppose that I have been painting a lot of pirate themed figures of late! :-)

She's also here:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/321826269793?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1558.l2649

Hammer the Spicas

Normally I don't paint my units in "official" color schemes.  However, it has been interesting to follow the concept art with at least some of the Wild West miniatures that I have painted.

I decided to stay with the 'traditional' color schemes as they offered some technical challenges.

The scheme for these hired hands was an interesting combination of reddish browns and black.  I have not painted anything in this combination very often, so I thought I would give that  try!