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The army looks fantastic. But where did that castle come from?

So what's the plans with the orcs now?

 Boss Salvage wrote:
Digging the derpy lil' slashers

Seconded! Very derpy neat slashers, just something an orc should abuse. Err... tame, like in "how to tame Your slasher", right?

Congratulations!

Thanks, everyone.

@Archer: the castle is Castle Winterhawk by Fat Dragon. It's a print-and-assemble papercraft thing, not unlike Dave Graffam's stuff. I built it for my son years ago because every boy needs a castle, right?

Only a few models to share this week. First, a couple of banner bearers:


I made this one from an orc from the ax sprue, holding a banner from Shieldwolf's mountain orc kit. I picked up the SW models to add some variety to the Mantic orcs, but ended up seriously disappointed in them. The banner is nice, though. I painted the banner itself in AP leather brown, with three different washes to make it look like it was sewn together from the hides of three different animals. Naturally, you can't tell in the photo.



This one is based on a greatax model. There was some flavor text in the KoWv1 book about orc flaggers bashing the enemy with their flags, and I decided to model this guy to represent that. It works well enough, but the model kept falling over. I added a metal orcling from the skulks set to help keep the model upright.

Finally, a named character:


This is Wip, the half-caste. The flavor text implies that he's half-orc, half-elf. He's wiry and weirdly posed, kind of like a Steve Ditko character, making him quite interesting to paint after 200+ mostly identical models. Here are a couple of other views of the same model:



I can't quite call the army 100% finished. I plan to find a couple of taiko-drums to make war drums, and then maybe add some crew to the chariots. Right now, though, I need a break from greenskins. I plan to spend the next couple of weeks working on the Ghosts of Gaia that have been sitting in their box for a few months. Watch this space.

As I wind down the orc army project, I find myself suffering from Green Fatigue. Thus a little palate cleanser:


These are four models from Bad Squiddo's Ghosts of Gaia set. I backed the kickstarter, but they have been sitting in the box for months.



This one is Jade. The official paint scheme is all greys, but I wanted something a little more colorful. I ended up basing their uniforms on Team-U, from the Ultraman Saga movie. I went with a darker orange, as the original uniform is too bright for the supposedly post-apoc setting.



Angel has a minigun, some medieval plate armor, and ridiculous hair.



Eve is the sniper. It took me a while to decide what to do with her cloak. I went with a sort of greenish-brown, as that was the most consistent result in my GIS search. I did her helmet dome using multiple washes for Gryphonne Sepia over Mithril silver.



Abra is the psyker. The mummy wrap gives her a Negative Woman vibe. The flavor text tells us that using her mind powers is causing her skin to slough off. I went with a traditional layer technique rather than my lazy washing/glazing for the bandages. Can you tell?

There are six more in the set. I selected these first four because the intergral bases fit in the hole in round Mantic bases-- I don't use them for my DZ or WP models, so I'm glad to find a use for them. The remaining six will need to be cut off their bases, but I need to dig out my jeweler's saw for that.

Next up, a terrain piece I've been working on in the background. Comments and feedback always welcome.

Not seen those models before, but I like them! The electro staff on Abra and the cloak on Eve are my favourite bits

Really great work. Love the green stuff obviously but all looking great. These last figures are really great, nice vibe to them.

Thanks, guys. I really enjoyed painting these models. Annie from Bad Squiddo is talking about running a KS for a second set, and that may be enough for me to break my resolution.

Interesting models. That top knot would make even the toughest Chaos Lord blush.

EDC

The orc standards look great. I'm still not sold on that WIP model, but the paintwork on it is well done, particularly the fireball. Great work on the Ghosts of Gaia set as well. I think my favourite one is Jade.

@edc: yeah, that topknot is eldar-level bling. It make sme wonder in what sort of apocalypse that would be adaptive...

@Azazelx: Wip is a funky model, to be sure. After painting 100+ essentially identical orcs, though, he made a nice change.

In my mind, the Ghosts of Gaia are members of team/gang, meaning they all have the same basic uniforms and equipment. With only minor variations (weapons and outrageous hairstyles, mostly), they paint up quick:


Ratty has a heavy smartgun. What makes a gun smart? Darned if I know. Maybe it has a fitness app?



Mina carries dual submachine guns. I painted her mohawk green, because if you're going to have a mohawk there is little need for subtlety.



Hera is carrying a plasma pistol and what looks like a chainsword. She has the same space helmet as Eve (the sniper) from the previous update. I probably should have given the visor another couple of layers of sepia wash.



Dusty has a comically-oversized flamethrower and a bionic arm. The lenses of her goggles are supposed to be green (like night vision goggles), but you can't tell in these photos.



Pris has a regular sized smartgun. I kept her ridiculous mohawk in more natural browns, because sometimes giant vertical hair plumes are enough of a statement by themselves.



Last up is Bianca. According to the color text on the KS page, she took off her respirator because she had either given up on life, or else had just begun to live. She has a big, unwieldy knife.

Here's the whole team altogether:


I think I can use them in Deadzone, Scrappers, or This Is Not A Test, assuming I ever actually play any of them.

Next up: I plan to revisit the Asterians, starting with some marionettes. Watch this space.

Wow, not a single comment on that last update? That's cold, guys....

As promised, here are some Asterian marionettes:


I went with blue to tie them in with all the other Asterians I have done to date. They aren't as dark as the cyphers because I assume the stealth fields aren't as strong (Asterians use stealth fields, right? I seem to remember that). These models painted up pretty quickly, but the lack of assembly instructions made putting them together rather a chore.

The marionette sprue contains almost enough parts for three drones. I'm torn between magnetizing or kitbashing to make up for the lack of parts. I should have it figured out soon. Watch this space.

Really liking the Ghosts of Gaia gang. If I didn't have 6.02*10^23 unpainted minis already...

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:
Really liking the Ghosts of Gaia gang. If I didn't have 6.02*10^23 unpainted minis already...

I'm in the same boat. Luckily(?), my son is getting interested in Daddy's toys again. Hopefully he will stay interested long enough that I can pass the torch to him. He's already finished one of my unpainted Dreadball teams...

Nice work on the Ghosts of Gaia gang. Some really characterful minis and top class painting.

EDC

Your Ghosts of Gaialook great. The Asterias are also rather striking give the simple scheme. Lovely tone of bluegrey.

I love how the one thing that always seems to survive the apocalyptic end of society is Aquanet!

Great stuff as always Josh. I remain in utter awe of your production.

BTW, smartguns are smart cuz you can play Angry Birds or a roast Road on them when you are not shooting up xenomorphs.

Valete,

JohnS

evildrcheese wrote:Nice work on the Ghosts of Gaia gang. Some really characterful minis and top class painting.

EDC

Thanks. I really like those models, which made them quite easy to paint.

RobertsMinis wrote:Your Ghosts of Gaialook great. The Asterias are also rather striking give the simple scheme. Lovely tone of bluegrey.

The Asterians are quite nice models, although I wish they had come with an assembly guide.

cygnnus wrote:I love how the one thing that always seems to survive the apocalyptic end of society is Aquanet!

Great stuff as always Josh. I remain in utter awe of your production.

BTW, smartguns are smart cuz you can play Angry Birds or a roast Road on them when you are not shooting up xenomorphs.

Valete,

JohnS

I'm a lot less productive so far this year compared to last year. I'll have to try to make up the difference over summer vacation.

Nice work on the Ghosts, Josh. Especially the first two models which you may have just sold me on - are they available individually? They could fit in with my Necromunda stuff. The Asterians don't look half bad either - from your talk of sprues, I assume they're the HIPS plastics?

 Azazelx wrote:
Nice work on the Ghosts, Josh. Especially the first two models which you may have just sold me on - are they available individually? They could fit in with my Necromunda stuff. The Asterians don't look half bad either - from your talk of sprues, I assume they're the HIPS plastics?

All of the Ghost of Gaia are up for sale individually. I'd like to see what you do with them.

The Asterians are the HIPS kit from the Kickstarter. The tooling, and models themselves, are superlative, in my opinion. Mantic has come a long, long way since the Basilean MaA.

Having essentially finished the Orcs, I found myself at a loss for what to do next. For the time being, I am working on terrain:



This is a straight-up copy of insaniak's minehead, done up in the same greys I have been using for all my Deadzone stuff. It was an easy little build. The ME terrain sprue turns out to be pretty useful, so expect to see some more things like this.



This Brain In A Jar comes from RAFM's scenics line. I picked this up when I backed their Airship Pirates KS. I filled it with Tamiya clear epoxy, but got more bubbles and more distortion that I expected. It will work pretty well, I think, if/when I get around to building my Battlesystems terrain.



There are actually three different "___ in a jar" options: the brain, the naked lady, and the empty one. I kitbashed/sculpted this from Mantic zombie and Citadel skeleton parts, with some kneadatite for the fleshy parts. I imagine this guy as being a source of spare parts, kind of like in that one episode of Angel. You know the one, right?



Finally, the Forge Father team for Dreadball. I played a few games with my son over Golden Week, and he got all fired up to paint some different teams. We (mostly he) cranked out the Veer-myn as well as a seven-year old can, and then started these guys. He lost steam essentially after priming them, and I worked on them off and on while doing the above terrain pieces. I'm pretty happy with the way they turned out, and once again I regret not getting in on the DB1 kickstarter. It really is a fun game.

I still don't have an overall theme for my painting yet, but I'm currently working on another SF buidling, some old-school Jes Goodwin Elves, and some DZ Asterian cyphers.

Feel free to comment-- I need validation!

Now you have gone and spoiled my idea...was going to do something like the "jars" in my latest Dio, can't now, you have been and done it, brilliantly. Team look great too.

No, go ahead and do them. The world needs more tiny body parts in tiny jars.

 JoshInJapan wrote:
Wow, not a single comment on that last update? That's cold, guys....

As promised, here are some Asterian marionettes:


I went with blue to tie them in with all the other Asterians I have done to date. They aren't as dark as the cyphers because I assume the stealth fields aren't as strong (Asterians use stealth fields, right? I seem to remember that). These models painted up pretty quickly, but the lack of assembly instructions made putting them together rather a chore.

The marionette sprue contains almost enough parts for three drones. I'm torn between magnetizing or kitbashing to make up for the lack of parts. I should have it figured out soon. Watch this space.

I know the feeling about threads losing momentum LOL.

Thankfully this one hasn't. I appreciate the blue on this model very much -- subtle yet totally engaging to the eyes. Really like your presence here on Dakka, keep it coming.

Oooo I really like the brain in a box!

Nice work on the Forge Fathers too.

EDC

Thanks, edc. They were all fun to work on.

I've been at a loss for what project to work on. I thought I could crank out some more Asterians, but the paint scheme I chose for the Cyphers turns out to be a real drag-- lots and lots of edge highlighting, mostly-- and I just couldn't get started. Just to keep my numbers up, I pulled out a few Oldhammer elves:




These first three are from the command packs. The spear guy is based on the same pose as the other two heroes I posted months ago. The other two are Champions. There's one more in this series, but I haven't stripped him yet.





And here are three wardancers. I felt a little weird at first when I started painting the female's butt at crotch, but the spear guy is showing as much if not more, so I was able to power through it. All three are showing a lot of skin. I almost added woad, but I was too happy with how their skin turned out to risk ruining it.

Here's everyone together:


These were all easy and fun to paint, so I think that I'll stick with this project for a while. I have some cavalry models in the works, assuming I can locate their plastic spears.

Comments, critique and validation welcome, as always.

Wardancers! Great old-school elves, Josh. Really like them, and that Eternal Guard (?) model looks amazing. I'll have to try and track down some of those...

The scenery looks looks great, particularly the body parts in jars. The clear resin is very effective and they're generic enough to fit into many sci-fi games.

I love the models, and the paint job is great! You manage to make them look more appropriate for a modern game, while also staying old school.

Azazelx wrote:Wardancers! Great old-school elves, Josh. Really like them, and that Eternal Guard (?) model looks amazing. I'll have to try and track down some of those...

The scenery looks looks great, particularly the body parts in jars. The clear resin is very effective and they're generic enough to fit into many sci-fi games.

If, by "Eternal Guard" you mean the guy with the giant helmet, he's just an Elf captain. He is a nifty model, though.

The specimen jars were a lot of fun to paint. They'll go nicely with my Battlesystems set, assuming I ever take it out of the box.

Polonius wrote:I love the models, and the paint job is great! You manage to make them look more appropriate for a modern game, while also staying old school.

You should have seen them before I stripped them. Lots of pinks, yellows and greens, and 80's hair metal makeup on the wardancers. I was very much a product of my time...

Good stuff! I'm certain I have that one elf too-- somewhere, in the first photo. The Spear Elf. Not complicated to paint minis either, which is nice for a change of pace.