Wednesday 19 February 2014

Warzone Ressurection Dark Legion - first impressions

I've had these for a while now but it wasn't until last week that I've finally put all of them together. I thought I'd take some pics and show my Kickstarter Dark Legion stuff here.
Before I begin, let me stress one thing. They may look messy with all that green stuff on them but that's the way I work. I always fill in all the recesses, even the tiniest ones, with GS and once it's dry I then follow by applying some LGS to make it look as smooth as possible. That's why it may seem like large areas are covered with GS.
Another important thing that I want to write about before moving on refers to working with resin in general. It's a soft material so while working on removing mold lines you need to be extra careful not to cut too deeply. The good thing is that it bends easily if you put it into hot water for a few seconds. After that you have a short while to get the limb/element of a miniature into the desired shape and then you can put it into cold water. Quick and easy but it offers great potential for conversions.
And last but not least - use Super Glue as it works best with resin.


I'll start with the Undead Legionnaires as they're my favorites from the whole bunch. I really like the feel of hopelessness about them. They look like human shells barely on their feet but still, by some impulse, stumbling towards the battlefield. Their clothes are torn, and their armor is battle-worn.
There are five different heads and sets of limbs so it's fairly easy to create 10 unique miniatures. The level of detail is very impressive. You can see in the picture above that each of them looks significantly different. 


Next up are the Necrobeast Riders. Don't remember them from the original Warzone but once I saw Necromutaants riding dinosaur-like creatures, I knew I had to get them. They're quite big but easy to put together since all the pieces fit nicely. The heads are different than the ones available for regular Necromutants, which is a nice thing. The only thing that bugs me a little is that the beasts look... friendly. But that should be gone once I start adding battle damage, gore and corrosion to their armor.


Golgotha is cast in a slightly different type of resin. It's softer but seems to be holding the detail even better than the bluish and grayish ones. I expected a challenge but putting the miniature together has proven very easy with just a few barely visible mold lines I filed down.
She is much taller than a regular Legionnaire (as seen in the picture above) but I guess that's to be expected from a unique character.



Praetorian Stalkers were deadly in the first edition. They worked very efficiently in pairs so I was a little surprised that now they came in a trio.
The details on their faces and armor are top-notch. Really well-defined armor plates with ferocious facial expressions. Unfortunately, their weapons are devoid of any detail. I just wonder, why go through all the trouble of designing and producing such intricate patterns on the armor and then ruin it by adding a weapon that looks way too plain. Another issue was they way their torsos were attached to the sprue. Cutting them away and later on, fitting them to legs, was quite tricky. I'll need to add more texture to the weapons (LGS and Typhus Corrosion). Not a big problem but I just think it could have been avoided.


The Razide (left in the pic) looks mean and totally bad ass. The way he holds his large weapon with confidence shows well what kind of strength is he capable of. His massive arms stand in a bit of contrast to his legs but overall I really like this miniature.

Alakhai's blade was a problem as it had snapped off while the parcel with minis was being sent to me. I had to pin it to the pommel. I also applied some LGS to get the texture on the blade. Alakhai's face is nicely designed with the mean smile and three horns. His torso and mask seem a bit too flat and I'm just not sure about the way his cloak is designed. My guess is that the creator intended it to look as if wind was blowing hard but I don't really care for the final effect. The minis is OK but I'd much rather prefer one based on Paul Bonner's original artwork.


Finally, the Necromutants. They were the first minis I put together. I speed pained them, using dry pigments and GW's Typus Corrosion and Ryza Rust for corrosion effects. 
They're much larger than the Legionnaires and their weapons are also bigger. That's OK, as far as I remember they are supposed to be oversized humans. Each head is different and the sets of arms make it possible to create five unique models. I had some trouble with attaching torsos to their legs but later on I just thought that they're supposed to look a bit bent.



Last but not least, Hatamoto. I guess he's the special Kickstarter-unique miniature. Very nice, dynamic pose and some nice elements (banners, great design or armor). He seems a bit smooth compared to crisp detail on Golgotha but it's a very nice miniature anyway. Judging by the artwork in rulebook, Mishima models will be a true treat for hobbyists.

To sum up, I'm very happy with the overall quality. There are some elements that I'd like to see improved and Paul Bonner's artworks still remain the ultimate awesomeness but Prodos Games has managed to bring out the original Warzone spirit in these miniatures.






Sunday 16 February 2014

This is Bayou!

This was the first Gremlin model I've ever painted. Even before I started painting it, I'd realized it was going to be a new experience with all those bright and vivid colors. Something completely different than my typical choice of dark colors.


 Another thing that I'd taken care of before I started painting was preparing the base. It's 50 mm, which means that after putting the miniature on it there was plenty of space left. At first I prepared the cobblestones and then started adding other bits.


The miniature itself is... Well, 'awesome' doesn't even begin to describe how cool it is. It's the whole crazy Bayou package with a mad-looking Gremlin, wearing a pink bunny costume and holding tight onto a giant rooster. It doesn't get better than this.

Sunday 9 February 2014

The Carver

I got this miniature in an anniversary sale on Wyrd store. It hadn't been released before then, being a 'special' model that was given as prize during conventions, As Wyrd was clearing the store, they decided to get rid of the models that they no longer had any use for. There were some left and I was lucky enough to place an order before they were all gone.
I haven't seen this miniature painted anywhere before so I had no reference while working on it (well, there's the artwork in Wyrd Chronicles but it's much simplified compared to the miniature).


 I really like the design. It looks like an oversized scarecrow that decided he's had enough just standing there and instead of keeping the birds away, he decided to start his own harvest. His coat is torn in a few places and there's some straw there. There are also some skin areas so I've chosen to paint them using pale, zombie-like tone. The miniature comes with an extra head but really, can there be anything more awesome than the one I've chosen?



I knew from the start that I was going for an early 90s horror feel here. That meant jeans, bright pumpkin head and of course - tombstones. I used Blood for the Blood God paint to get the basic blood effect on his blade and sprinkled some on his dungarees for good measure. I followed that buy adding a bit of brown and red ink and finished off by mixing the BftBG with super glue to make it look as if blood was dripping from the blade. A very good harvest indeed.
 

I wanted to see how he's look like with the alternative head to I pinned both of them without glue to make it possible to swap them. The other one gives the Carver a slightly more serious, haunted look but I still like the pumpkin one more.


Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...