Monday 31 March 2014

Whatcha Gonna Do When They Come For You?

Hi folks, been quiet hasn't it? Sadly that's what happens when a fortnight includes three days out of the office, another 3 spent assembling and converting 50+ Inq28 figures and then four days of wasted effort that you need to strip and redo because Scibor's sculpting doesn't support washes as a painting tool. Hmmm. So, with the Scibor figures stripping in Fairy Power Spray I needed a quick win to get my groove back.


This win was ably provided by Heresy Miniatures' Troopers, part of the Inq28 series that I am doing for my client. These aren't the normal troopers, these have Elysian heads converted to fit (mostly slicing the necks at the right angle and using a blob or two of ProCreate to form collars for the more open neck joins. There's nothing wrong with the Heresy mini's heads, they look great. But I really think that the Elysian heads on these bodies creates a great look.


During the initial "musing" phase of painting (an important one that, make use of it) it occurred that these chaps looked a lot like SWAT officers. With that in mind I was able to construct a paint plan, urban camo fatigues; black, police style, body armour and dark leather. The posing really lends itself to that "coppers jogging along hugging a wall and covering each other" vibe.


Painting started with getting the greys laid down, Val German Grey for the fatigues, Mechanicum Standard Grey for the armour. The steel gets painted AP Gunmetal, the leather Val German Camo Black Brown. Then the whole thing gets a liberal but smooth wash of my badab black replacement: Black Ink, thinned and mixed with Lahmian Medium. Then the camo can be built up. Splodgey (totally a word) patterns of The Fang (a blue grey) and Administratum Grey over the dark washed German Grey. Creates a nice convincing urban camo. The leather gets highlighted with a reapplication of Val German Camo Black Brown further highlighted by adding some bone. The leather and the fatigues both get a wash of Agrax Earthshade to make the fatigues a little grubby.


Finally, the faces get painted and the visors got my usual "glass" mix of Thunderhawk Blue mixed with Black and highlighted with pure Thunderhawk Blue. A quick white catchlight and a layer of gloss varnish finish it off.

All in all, a nice, quick paintjob with a satisfying finish! Just what I needed. The sculpts by Andy of Heresy are cracking, great poses. Clean casting and thoughtful design. Quite a change from the Scibor, but I'll save that mild rant for when they are finished. There's a whole bevvy of lovely Andrew Rae Statuesque sculpts on the workbench now though so they'll be coming next! Until then

TTFN

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