Not much time to paint, as usual. And when I do, I am concentrating most of my energies on the Nomads. But I managed to complete the first half of the Khadorian proxies for my 40k guard project.
The sculpts don’t exactly invite precision painting. But I think that, once I put them on contrasting snow bases, they’ll make a decent show.
I’m too tired to comment on this, but I wanted to share the first of the Alguaciles, that is almost done – a few more touches needed on the face and the base.
They are tiny models, but very pleasing to paint.
After painting the Grenzer, I added a few purple shadows and light grey highlights.
I have finished the first model in the Nomads starter pack, a Grenzers sniper. Not a fit name for an anarchist guerrilla, if you ask me.
The mini was a pleasure to paint and I experimented a bit with pushing almost pure white highlights here and there.
I went with a darker palette with some red, turquoise, and violet mixed in for colour variation, possibly reflecting neon lights in the environment or representing some kind of prismatic camouflage…
I like this outfit better than the red suits of the Alguaciles, and it’s somewhat easier to paint. Even though I won’t repaint the Alguaciles, I will definitely paint the Zero in a similar scheme.
Just a quick one to show the next model I painted for the Nausicaan garrison troops. It is part of a gun crew of three that are cast in metal and the overall quality of the sculpt is better than the plastic riflemen, crisper and more pleasant to paint.
I’ll try to get at least halfway through the squad before the next post.
Long time ago I had started painting some Vostroyan Imperial Guard and imagining a setting that would have mixed some traits of the WH4000 universe with the aesthetics of Hayao Miyazaki’s Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind and some echoes of Kronstadt and the Russian Revolution.
Nausicaa – originally an independent system, moon to a huge dark extinct planet – has been conquered by the empire and transformed into a cradle world, destined exclusively to the breeding of new soldiers – something between a rural utopia and a human farm.
Soldiers are collected at regular intervals by imperial spacecrafts visiting Nausicaa. A small imperial garrison and occupation troops from the collaborating Tolmekian kingdom police the moon and prevent rebellions. The soldiers are taken very young and receive their training, under the tight surveillance of Tolmekian officials and imperial Commissars, during the voyage that will bring them to the battlefront. (For some reason, they are also required to grow impressive moustaches and beards.)
The project is meant to reproduce one “batch” of troops that manages to organise a rebellion while still in transit and, once deployed, openly takes arms against the empire. Their enemies, however, being no less than demons, the Nausicaans will find themselves in a crossfire: yielding neither to chaos nor to the emperor, they will decide stand against both and set a small example of freedom and anarchy for the rest of the galaxy, hoping it may not be forgotten.
Part of the force will be composed by GW Vostroyans (and the project may get a strong push if ever they will produce a plastic set for them, or any other decent and cyberpunkish Imperial Guard kit). Given the limitations of the Vostroyan range, however, I spent some time looking for alternative models and found some in the Warmachine Khador faction, as you may remember.
This is a test model for the Nausicaan Garrison troops – or light infantry, at any rate – that will stand alongside the better armoured and armed Vostroyan models. They are suitably similar, as I have discussed in previous posts and I painted this in a matching colour scheme.
Here’s one of the Vostroyan models I have painted for a comparison.
The quality of the Warmachine sculpts is not great, and they suffer from a lack of variety. So, trying out my limited conversion skills I messed around with a few arms and rearranged some of the poses with decent results. Overall, I don’t want to give these models a detailed paintjob, so this quick, impressionistic, style will have to do. I’ll post better pictures as soon as I’ll get some better natural light.
I’m definitely looking forward to painting the beautifully wild Khadorian officer, somewhat inspired by Cossacks, that I am going to use as a Commissar. And, since the release of the Skitarii and the Adeptus Mechanicus vehicles I’ve been toying with the idea of adding some of those models to the mix as well…
A wip picture of this Nomad sniper, mostly because the front armour plate will be partly covered up by the rifle when the model is assembled.
I wanted him to look a little bit darker and stealthy-looking than the Alguaciles, with their red uniform, but I still mixed a little bit of red on the armour to tie the miniature to the others. You can see it better on the back, perhaps.
They surely lack the variety and sheer inventiveness of Confrontation, but as for sheer class I consider Infinity miniatures like the cyberpunk Rackham.
On the other hand, I see little possibilities of cross-overs with 40k or anything grimdark. Perhaps only in the Van Saar direction, and this particular mini could be painted as a Vindicare assassin, I guess… How do they fare here in the community?
Finally! Three complete Dawn warriors from the Rackham range.
As you can see I desaturated the bases, going from yellow sand to dirt and went for a dark purple base rim treated with brown and yellow so that it doesn’t stand out too much.
These are still rather quick paint jobs, but it was really fun to paint the blue, purple, turquoise and white NMM armour and the beautiful flowing capes.
I even found a nice spot for taking the pictures – the background is blurred, but it’s a very fitting, giant wall-sized print of The Temptation of Saint Anthony by Hieronymus Bosch.
I surely hope I’ll find more time to paint soon – I have some Infinity miniatures that are almost done and itching to be completed…
