Friday, December 13, 2019

Valhallan Commander, Imperial Fist Scout, Necromundan Greenback Spider, You Know, The Usual...

Just a few distractions from the Hellboy miniatures I'm trying to get done...

Some of these were actually finished over a week ago, but I just didn't bother getting around to posting pics... I decided to wait until this morning... when the Wind Chill was -31°C...



This is Colonel Ansa Heikkinen, the commander of my Valhallan Regiment - the 275/341st - currently station on Xoxigar Prime. The 275/341st Valhallan regiment is an amalgamated regiment – originally the 275th Valhallan Infantry Regiment and the 341st Valhallan Armoured Regiment. The two regiments have served together for nigh two decades over countless war zones. They have both been greatly reduced in strength over the years. The Infantry regiment, once ten thousand strong, has been reduced to a couple of understrength companies of less than 200 each. The Armoured component, once boasted over twenty squadrons of battle tanks plus reconnaissance and support vehicles, is now reduced to a single, under-strength company of a dozen or so tanks and a few support vehicles...



Her back - for better detail of that camouflage - I think I accidentally used a darker grey than I have with others... ugh... Oh, well... Maybe this is the original colour - it just isn't as faded because she spends more time in an Ops Centre than Joe/Jane-Average in the field...?

The miniature is "High-Commander Lady Creedence" figure from Victoria Miniatures. Originally I'd based it on a flattish plastic base from Warlord games. All of my other (metal) Valhallans are on washers (like most of my metal miniatures) but I've never been keen on putting plastic or resin miniatures on washers (the weight just felt... wrong) I thought I'd try the thin plastic ones from Warlord... but then, since I started the BIG RE-BASING PROJECT (for the Necromunda miniatures), I've been rethinking my basing choices and decided to do this commander - and the ten other female winter soldiers I also picked up from Victoria miniatures to use as her Command/Veteran Squad - on the taller, standard plastic bases.

I'd picked up some snow for bases a year and a half ago and had experimented on some of the other Valhallans - and was pretty underwhelmed with the outcome. I tried a new approach with this one and... I... I don't HATE it... It's kind of growing on me. I'm not totally sold on the grey for the side of the bases...



I've been experimenting on some of the others with others I'm still working on - looking for something that goes with the white - that ISN'T white and has a "cool" look to it (as in COLD, not fashionably attractive or impressive...). I'm currently leaning towards the grey on the commanders base or the blue-grey on the sergeant's base... or maybe the lighter grey...? Thoughts?



Scout Nex -Imperial Fist Scout Marine (I don't think scouts are referred to as "Brother" as they are not full marines while still serving in the 10th (Scout) Company). While I DO have my own chapter (the Tangermarines!), I've been having fun painting a few marines from other chapters and have a few more I may paint up as Imperial Fists - mostly scouts.

The Imperial Fists maintain a Fortress Monastery on Necromunda. Presumably some locals are inducted as Neophytes and trained there and join the local detachment of the 10th Company as Scouts. I thought it not unreasonable that they might make training missions down to the underhive to practice stealthy insertions/extractions, tracking and taking out select targets, etc.

Scouts normally have a number on their shoulder pads - denoting the Squad they are in. I was originally going to do a "V" for fifth squad, but then thought I'd do an "N" for the "Necromunda" detachment - as they are just a detachment, outside the normal organization of the rest of the fighting chapter, which normally serves aboard Phalanx - the chapter's mobile fortress monastery ( the largest starship known to have been constructed by human hands).



The two Imperial Fists I've painted so far...

The other fellow is Sergeant Major Flarn - current deputy commander of the Necromundan Detachment. He was one of the first Necromundans to be recruited to the Imperial Fists and is an old veteran of dozens of campaigns - he lead battle brothers to war against all manner of enemies across the Imperium. Now he is old and tired and returned to Necromunda to oversee training of new inductees at the Imperial Fists Fortress Monastery. (though his rank is Sergeant, I'd probably use "as Captain" stats for him - because he's still THAT bad ass... and Captains, not Sergeants, are allowed Power Axes in the rules...)



Necomundan Greenback Spider - they are apparently very deadly. Colonel Raeven Mortz, of the 8th Necromundan Imperial Guard Regiment, apparently kept one as a pet and mascot... The figure is from one of the Reaper Bones Kickstarters.



DAEMONS!!

I actually painted these a while ago... but then got it in my head that it might be fun to rebase them... for... REASONS!? With the release of the new Keeper of Secrets model - that dwarfs this older one - I was thinking, if, y'know, I ever had a daemon army... and took it to a tournament or anything... I could potentially field this older Keeper of Secrets as a Daemon Prince of Chaos (of the Slaanesh variety!)


Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

I do have a bunch of Hellboy stuff in the works... but I also have friends coming over to play Necromunda on Sunday... so.. could be a Hellboy painting update, or it could be a Necromunda battle report... Stay Tuned!

14 comments:

  1. You could go a blue-grey base and then do uneven thin coats of white over top. Finally, do a few dark navy stripes for cracks. This would make it look like ice.

    That should make the bases cool in both senses.

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    1. Hmmmm... That got me thinking... I could try something like the base the Fiend of Slaanesh is on - either the blue part or the dark green part - both made use of the new Contrast® Paints....?

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  2. The other reason for doing the ice-style would be that it runs counter to your other bases, which have a fancy top surface with plain black sides. These bases would be a mono-colour snow top with fancy sides.

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    1. True. I'm thinking for others I might add some larger rocks - big enough that some of the rock can be seen sticking out of the "ground level" snow - but then have some MROE snow piled up on top of the rock...? If that makes sense? Just for some variety to break up the monotone, flat whiteness of the snow! I can see it in my mind's eye, but sometimes getting brain-idea-vision into reality on a miniature or base is harder than it seems like it SHOULD be and doesn't quite look right!!

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    2. Snow covered grass clumps would also work. I think Luke's APS has video he did of winter terrain and bases

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    3. I was just trying this on a few of the ones I've already done!

      Results were... mixed... some look okay. Others... not-so-much. I'll have to experiment some more!

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  3. Nice work! I like the Valhallan commander and the camo on her coat!

    The snow bases look fine to me. For the sides, how many are you going to do? If it's very many a simpler style could save time spent on painting. And replicating fancier work if you ever add more minis to the group. I try to keep mine simple, since I'm slow enough as it is. Then again, I have tried so many techniques and variations over the years that my basing is hardly consistent from one batch of minis to the next. :P

    Anyway, I do like the lighter grays (with a bluish cast or not). The darker grays and purer blues stand out too much in my opinion.

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    1. Well.... FOR NOW... it would just be ten in the squad.... The rest are on thinner, metal washers - there isn't room for them to get all "fancy". I had been doing the sides of those brown - like ALL the other minis on washers... but I'm thinking if I do more snow, I'd do them in a plain light grey or bluish-grey...? We shall see..

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  4. Great looking minis,lovely patterns on the commander, great job!

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  5. Your camo pattern on the greatcoat really pops! Nice! Your Daemons are little works of art.

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    1. Ha! When I first read this comment I was kind of feeling like camouflage is supposed to do the opposite of "pop", but I get what you are saying! Thanks!

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  6. A very neat collection of newly painted models. Very cool.

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