Just chillin'

Fight fire with fire

The title of this entry is no coincidence. It refers both to a cool song by Metallica and to the way in which Sonnia fights the Arcanist threat on behalf of the Guild. Accessing the forbidden knowledge in order to face the enemy is a good excuse for taking advantage of the power one can gain along the way. And in M2E Sonnia Criid is all about the fire...

I wasn't a big fan of the metal minis in 1st edition. I didn't really care for Sonnia and Samael as they seemed somehow flat. Witchling stalkers have always been among my favorites and a while ago I painted the three of them up just for fun.
With the release of The Torch and the Blade, I knew I was going to buy the box as I thought all the minis from the set looked great. The first one I focused on was Sonnia's totem - the Purifying Flame. It's a quick paint job on the skeleton and then some fun with the flames. I didn't play around with OSL but I'll get o that later on in this entry.

Next up is the new Sonnia, now sporting an elegant metal mask. It's going to be interesting to finally find out how Perdita came into possession of this item and how it actually helped them in the fight against Cherufe. This miniature was fun to paint with lots of details. It seems to me that Wyrd has improved the quality of their plastic minis a lot during the last two years. Even though her pose is static, her jacket has pieces moving in the wing and there's a lot of other small bits (mask, lantern, blade) that more than make up for the static pose. Compared to minis like Jakob Lynch (who's just standing there and lacks detail) or Mr Tannen (I felt the mini itself was nothing spectacular so I added some variety to the base), she's definitely a step up.

 Last but definitely not least - the avatar version of Sonnia. This is one of the most impressive models I've ever painted and it's also one that I cursed along the way. First off, the dragon part is cast in three different types of material. That alone is not a problem as super glue fixes resin to metal solidly. The problem is that these parts don't fit too well and there was a lot of GS applied to fill in the recesses as you can see here. The second challenge was that I had to paint Sonnia and Dragon separately. Not that much of a hassle but still an inconvenience. And finally - painting the flames on the dragon. That proved much more challenging than I had originally expected.

I started with a solid white basecoat and worked the colors up by adding yellow to white for initial highlights, moving on to pure yellow and then working my way up with gradually darker colors (orange, red and finally black). In the end it looked way too messy so I started working  with yellow and orange glazes. That caused the white to disappear so I had to work on the recesses again by highlighting them using orange, yellow and white, mixing them with each other for successive highlights. The serpent-like shape of the dragon didn't make the task any easier and accessing some areas was really hard. I actually had to hold the model upside to get to some places. Having repainted these areas I noticed that the dark edges lost the solid look I had initially so I had to carefully pick them up again. Long story short - I was going back and forth with highlights/washes/shades until I decided I was reasonably satisfied with the final effect.

Now before I finish, a word on the OSL effect. I avoided it for two simple reasons - one practical (it's really challenging and getting it right is never easy for me) and one connected with the fluff. It just seems to me that Sonnia's fire is somehow magical so if she actually reacted to heat she'd burn up entirely within seconds. So I like to think that the flames are somehow magical anc can affect only her enemies. Besides, if I wanted to paint OSL on the model itself, it would have to be... pretty much all over the mini.

Next up is my favorite from M2E wave 1 miniatures - Mr Samael Hopkins.

Black House

I'd originally started reading this book a few years ago but gave up after a while. It was hard to get into it with many references that seemed too vague for me then. A couple of weeks ago I read "The Talisman" and felt ready to have another go with "Black House". I'm familiar with the Dark Tower series (having read the whole thing twice), so I was no longer worried about potential vagueness in this novel.

It's another book co-written with Peter Straub and it seemed to me that their work was even more efficient this time. I've mentioned in my previous note on "The Talisman" that the narration feels different than in a typical King's work. Here it's even pushed further with the narrator literally inviting the reader on a journey and entering a very peculiar kind of dialogue. At first it put me off but after a while I got used to this style and in the end I see it as one of the book's major strengths. Another thing that makes this book unique is the frequent occurrence of seemingly incomprehensible words. Words such as Abbalah, Gorg, Coppiceman, or Opoponax. They enter the discourse early on and at first seem to be random ramblings of mad people but later on they grow in significance. They resonate throughout the whole story and nicely play on the idea of the mysterious unknown.

The story itself is not overly complicated. There's a mysterious murderer stalking his prey in the city of French Landing. His main targets are children. What makes it even worse, the bodies of Fisherman's victims show traces of cannibalism. The murderer has been surprisingly successful in evading the local police.They become desperate and ask one of the new residents for help. The man is enjoying his early retirement after an impressive career in Santa Monica PD, where he became almost a legend. The man's name is Jack Sawyer and he's the same person who traveled across the US and the Territories when he was a child. The story of Travelin' Jack is well known to the reader but the man has repressed his childhood memories and has no recollection of this period of his life (I can't help but notice how this story is reused in "Doctor Sleep"). His gradual immersion back into the Territories and acknowledgement of the past for a significant and, unfortunately quite predictable, part of the story.

The mood of "Dark House" is dark and rotten, sometimes even filthy. French Landing doesn't seem like a friendly place at any moment in the novel. The atmosphere is tense and people who have been victimized by the terror of the Fishermen are constantly on edge. There are quite a few less than likable characters here. And the infamous Black House becomes an almost organic symbol of what's bad. This is counterbalanced by a handful of positive characters, Jack's best friend Henry (who is blind but sees more than he admits) being the most memorable for me.

Overall, the book is a good read for those who have read "The Talisman" and are at least familiar with the "Dark Tower" series. The narration is exceptional but the story and pacing make the "Black House" a decent, but not spectacular novel.

Another crew finished

There hasn't been much going on here recently but truth is I've been pretty busy hobby-wise finishing off old crews and starting new ones. Not to mention my ongoing work on the Warzone minis. I'll be publishing more here in the next few days. I just need to find time to take decent pics of newly painted stuff.

 I've had the Relic Hunters for a few months now and painted a mini from this crew every now and then. I left the leader as the last one as the prospect of working on both the mounted and unmounted miniature (not to mention the mount) put me off.
Not surprisingly, there was a lot of work involved in painting the beast. There are many flat surfaces on the skin and on the saddle and the reins don't make painting any easier. I guess I could have glued them after painting the horse but I prefer to work on assembled minis as filling up all the recesses that appear is a pain if the parts are painted.

Lukas McCabe is a very confident arrogant person. I think of him as a kind of criminal Indiana Jones. That's why I tried to use colors that would evoke the feelings of an adventures and a cocky dandy. I used khaki on pants, slightly weathered white on his shirt and livened that up with blue vest and a bright purple tie.

I still need to get TT Arsenal Deck as I have two painted crews that are ready for playing (Relic Hunters and Lynch). McCabe is an interesting master but I think I'll be using him mainly for my Guild as I don't have any other minis than the ones from boxes from Ten Thunders.

Last but not least, here's a quick photo of my third fully painted crew for Malifaux (soon to be joined by the fourth).

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.

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.

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.