The Wings of Angels

It looks like I still had a few of these good old Archangel figures that were first published by I-Kore (now by Urban Mammoth).  Most of these were used in my Sisters of Battle contingent from my Adepticon tournament army.

I had a lot of fun with this color scheme as well, positioning the brassy colors with the higher saturation greens.  Most of the bases were made using pieces of the Secret Weapon broken columns.

Chaos Rides Again!

Mierce Miniatures has some very dramatic riders and mounts among the various factions, and this is one of my favorite.  As some of you familiar with the large "snow base project" have seen, figures from a number of different companies are being used to create one large setting.

The snow landscape really does work well with this figure, and even the matched colors from previous miniatures from Privateer Press and Red Box work well on this guy.

The figure was also very hefty and substantial, which made it seem more like the heavy chaos knight.

A variety of slate gray, light greens, light flesh tones, etc. were used to create the armor colors.  Even a bit of muted purple was used.  In fact, purple mixed with green can make very interesting grays!

This view shows the upper surfaces on the horse's armor plates.  The idea was to have these tones be warmer, with the plates facing the snow be even more muted, and cooler in tone.  I wanted to show a bit of the snow reflecting on them, or at least influencing the color in some way.

Finally, the reddish brown of the horse's fur was the one place I could make a deep, warm, dark shade that would serve as a contrast to all the the blueish gray colors.  It would also tie in to the gold/brass armor plates, making them a part of the whole and not stand out all by themselves.

Prepare to Fire!!

Time for a little ground fire support for the Isorians from Warlord Games in the form of a Senatex team with an X-Launcher.

Just as it was with the color test figure, this color scheme has been a very nice switch from all the muted and earth tones of the Steampunk, Western and now World War 2 miniatures.

I get to use bright greens and reds side by side, accented by oranges and yellows.  These are also the first sci-fi bases I've done in quite a while too.

I didn't think I would like painting all the drones (every squad and weapon team has one), but they have actually been kind of fun.

In general, there are more 'organic' shapes on these figures than I have painted in a very long time.  The clothes, weapons and other items have been more manufactured... or even 'real' on many recent figures.

Having assembled and painted a number of the Bolt Action weapon teams, it is very neat to have these guys side by side with those 20th century counterparts!

I have other weapons systems under way, along with standard squads and command figures.

Stay tuned, because much more is on the way!

Red Dawn

While most of the Red Box Games figures are typically male, there are a few interesting female miniatures that sneak in now and then.

As it's been a little while since I last posted any figures from this project, so a reminder that all the figures with this kind of winter basing are all from the same long term massive project.

This phase of the project is actually drawing to a close, with a few isolated units and characters yet to come.

So, stay tune for more from Red Box Games!!

Samurai Blitz!

It's time to start working through a few other key roster spots for the Samurai Orcs, beginning with the all important Blitzers!  These guys were the most important players on my own Orc team, since there was a significant offensive role for them.

My favorite tactic on defense (especially around kickoffs) was to toss a goblin with block at the opponent's thrower.  If I could also get him +1 strength, all the better :-)  Anyway, the Blitzers were positioned on the flanks of my formation, and their job was to pincer move towards this toss.

Even if the goblin ended up in an area to put the ball in a tackle zone, I was happy, as the opponent would be going backwards, starting with their own blitz move.  Heck, even if the goblin scattered or bounced onto the ball... or the thrower, runner, etc., it would create more chaos, which is the main idea.

They were also turned into catchers if I could ever get them a +1 agility.  If the opponent focused too much on the offensive gobbo toss, I could always have my thrower toss the ball to a waiting Blitzer (probably with catch and dodge as well) that was capable of blitzing his own path into the end zone.

Beauty and the Blades

Here's a Dark Eldar figure that had never actually been completed for the original army years ago.  She just needed a base and a few other finishing touches.

I decided to continue the same set of colors as I had done with the rest of the army.  There was a temptation to try a new color set, but I'm glad that I can see how this would have looked with the rest of the minis!

And of course, the Green Stuff World mosaic texture turned out to be just the right treatment.  I'm looking forward to the new rollers that are on their way right now!  They might be here in the next 7 days or so, so stay tuned!

More Mud!

Here's an experiment which I have wanted to try with the AMMO heavy mud products... putting them on 'regular' miniatures and their bases.

While the typical use for powders, pigments and other similar materials are considered ideal for vehicles, I wanted to see what would happen with these same products on one of my Bolt Action weapon teams.

Just as I did with the half track vehicle in the last AMMO article, I started out with the moist ground heavy mud.  Since these are supposed to be more of a forest base in late spring and early summer, a bit of wet mud around the gun emplacement would make sense.

It wasn't just the color I was after, but the texture as well.  Once this material dries, it actually feels like mud when you touch it.  This can be applied very thickly, which saves a lot of time... no need to build up layers.

I also wanted to see how this would work and look on miniatures.  The bottom edges of the coats and the boots were definitely a well suited location to test this out.  Since it is an oil based material, I could go back in later and manipulate it with another brush... softening an edge here and there.

I even sprinkled and brushed on some powdered pigments while the heavy mud was still fresh to see what would happen!

Once I mixed that in with the heavy mud, I got some very nice clumps of semi-dried dirt.

I was very happy with how a quick application of the AMMO muds changed the entire look of the base! It is important to note that the base had already been painted and darkened down to set up these lighter colors.

This is all part of the pre-planning and chess match that is needed with multi-step materials and techniques such as weathering.

Here are a few shots in the photo booth prior to the addition of foliage.

Voila!  Shrubs and such added, which now play off the warm but neutral mud colors nicely!