Six Citizens From A Sick City

About three years ago, I signed up for the Kickstarter of TT Combat's skirmish game, Carnevale. A while later, I was sent a large amount of miniatures and, well, I suppose you can probably guess what happened next. That's right: I didn't paint them. 

Well, I decided to paint a group of Venetian Citizens. They're low-ranking minions of The Guild, the organised crime syndicate / "normal people" faction of the game. The citizens aren't much good on their own, but they're cheap in terms of points and they have a rule that improves them a bit if they're acting in a mob.

TT Combat's models for Carnevale are consistently excellent sculpts. They're resin, and a tad brittle, but the detailing is great. Also, because of the setting, one model can easily be used to proxy another.

I decided to use a limited set of colours on them, to tie the group together. Looking back, I think some of the colours, especially the dark blue, are a tad drab, but it does unite them as a unified furious mob instead of a, er, messy one.

These two seem to be a sailor and a fairly prosperous-looking gent.

Here we have two ladies, who look like what happens when you cross Jane Austen. I really like the sculpting of the folds in their dresses.

The man in this picture was a freebie in the Kickstarter and is very angry about it. The girl is actually a metal model from the game Bushido, and was an animal tamer. I cut her whip off: I think the remaining handle would work as a cosh. My detailed research (ie playing Assassin's Creed 2) tells me that her outfit isn't that different from some European peasant gear. She's slightly smaller than the others, so I expect that she's a teenager who picks pockets and runs errands. Because the model is so spindly, I added a rock to give her a bit more support. (I've also noticed that I've forgotten to paint a flask on her belt. Damn.

I've still got the leopard that the Bushido lady came with, and sometime I'll get around to painting it. But for now, they are a small horde, who will hopefully one day come in useful on the canalside.

More Oddities from the Box of Unpainted Models

I've been rooting about in my huge box of unpainted miniatures - specifically, the huge box of stuff I bought discounted because it looked cool. Today, we've got a Privateer Press miniature - a character model for the Trollblood faction in Hordes, named Captain Gunnbjorn. 

Normally, he'd be blue, but I decided to paint him the same greenish-pink colour as my ork commandos, as he looks as if he might be from a similar species, and he's got the same caricatured military style of clothing. I assembled him as usual, although I stuck the missile launcher at a slightly different angle, so that the model was a bit more "open", and left off an axe, because I'd lost it.

Here, out of interest, is a rear view. It's hard to see here but he's full of good details.

I also painted an old Necromunda wyrd model. He's a renegade psyker, but as he's a telekinetic (I think) he's very muscular. He'll fit with the Goliath cultists I've painted, probably as a champion. To be honest, I don't especially like the model, but he'll do fine. He was missing weapons when I got him, so I added a bolter and an axe from a fantasy Khorne model.

Bad Times In The City

The heroes disappeared into the city streets, pursued by the authorities. They needed to know why they had been ambushed by the security forces, and quick. The best thing for it was to speak to their contacts in the underworld. But with the governor's corrupt minions in hot pursuit, they needed to work fast.

This was a mission of my own devising. The five heroes needed to speak to (ie move into base contact) with four informants. Each informant was in the middle of a quarter of the board. They were up against their own points value of gangers with lasguns. 

The governor's troops move in

I was expecting this to be a tough fight. As it happened, it was brutal. On the left flank, the combination of Doombot X-7 and Maria Poppinata disposed of three troopers, with Doombot stunning the enemy with a frag grenade and Maria rushing in with her sword to polish off anyone still standing. The governor's thugs went down quicker than a spoonful of sugar.

Maria Poppinata gets the lowdown from Disco Sue

On the right, Dave and Captain Fancy supported Dr Apocalypse in a more cautious advance. Dave made good use of his hipshooting skill to pick off one of the enemy, and the mad doctor knocked down three men with a frag and finished off the last of the team with his blade. Unsurprisingly, the remaining few troopers took a good look around and fled the field!

Doctor Apocalypse raises hell next to the Robot Repair booth

The heroes had driven the enemy off the field. At last, they were able to question their informants and find out what was going on. I wish I knew!

Willy the Fish protests his innocence

Confrontation Tech Gangers

 Well, it's been a while. For various reasons, I've not done much recently. The combination of the ongoing pandemic and awful heat in the UK hasn't made for ideal painting conditions. Hopefully, the weather will improve soon, by which I mean it will rain for a month non-stop.

Anyway, ages ago I stripped two very old models from GW's pre-Necromunda game, Confrontation. They're tech gangers, and are absolutely excellent sculpts. They've got a very cyberpunky feel, and have all sorts of great details. In fact, they're so nice that I didn't want to hide the details by giving them two-handed weapons that they'd carry across their bodies.

One of the gangers got a pair of arms from the ever-useful Genestealer Acolytes kit. The other's arms came from the Skittari Rangers set. I converted a sword and a sensor-type device into a torch for him to hold. The modern arms work well with the old models, and give them a bit of character: one guy is brandishing his weapons dramatically, while the other is creeping forwards. The bases were made out of textured plasticard and a Warlord Games base cut in half. Here's a WIP:

For painting, I wanted to use fairly bright colours to show off the details and stop them looking drab. The guy with the torch got a red jacket, which makes him look oddly like he stole it from either a British Empire soldier or a low-ranking minion from Star Trek. Oh well. 

And here's a rear view. As you can see, both of them have implanted head-sockets, and breathing apparatus. The guy with the autogun also has an electric drill and a spanner for last-minute repairs!

And here's a final pic.

I'd love to get hold of some more of these guys, incidentally. If anyone's got any spare, do let me know!

Chaos Predator Tank

Here's another model repainted and repaired from a long time ago. In ages past, I was given a Predator tank by a friend. It was in an odd state, having been Nurgleised with candle wax, and the side guns were a mess. This was a long time ago, so there won't be any WIP pictures.

I put new sponsons on, taken from an old Leman Russ model. I never liked the weedy-looking dangling sponsons on the Predator (and the Land Raider, for that matter), which look as if they'd snap off like wing mirrors. I used green stuff to make weld lines to disguise the meeting of sponson and tank. Also, I replaced the turret with a Leman Russ turret, largely because I'd lost the one that it came with.

The turret guns (nominally, twin lascannons) came from ancient conversion beamers, of which I seem to have quite a few. I gave them dragon's head barrels. I don't really go for very ornate chaos tanks, but I needed to make the guns look impressive. They now look rather like something from an Ian Miller painting, so that's fine with me.

The last part was the square of plasticard covering the front panel of the tank. That was added late on. I used green stuff to add a welded chaos star, probably added by a zealous crewman. It looks a bit excessive to me, but compared to other tanks I've seen (and built!) it's pretty mild.

Then it needed painting. This was largely dark grey followed by a lot of weathering, including some powder on the tracks and rust and scratches on the upper body. It looks rather battered, but after 10,000 years in the warp, that happens.

Now I just need to work out what to do with what's left of the Leman Russ...

Probably My Favourite Miniature

This time, I've repainted one of my favourite models ever. I first bought this miniature when I was about 15. I would have picked it out of a red Citadel catalogue when I was at school, and my friend Mark - or, more likely, his parents - would have added the serial number to a list of things to order by fax.

Anyhow, my point is that this model is brilliant. The sculpting is excellent, the concept is absolutely cool - its a demon wearing armour made of the bones of a goat, for goodness' sake - and aptly, it's completely metal. Actually, that's not quite right, as the shield is from a modern plastic chaos knight. Even the spindly legs make him look like something out of a medieval manuscript (well. the last level of Doom 2, at least). I imagine that he'd make a good Master of Executions for the Chaos Marine army - or maybe Lord of Duels, given his armament. That kind of thing.

The next two lowlifes are old metal Goliath gangers, whom I intend to use as Chaos Cultists, should the need ever arise. The chap with the small flamer is a "normal" ganger, and the man with the chainsword is a gang leader. As with the other Goliaths, I don't really like the style all that much (although the sculpting is fine, especially on Flamer Boy), and I painted them fairly quickly. I used a red undercoat on the skin, for a slightly raw feel, and the trousers were painted in contrast paint, as per their comrades. That's the whole gang painted, ready to soak up some bullets for their chaos overlords on the battlefield!

I've always felt that Chaos cults wouldn't just include robed worshippers of Khorne, Tzeentch and the other chaps. My feeling is that both Chaos and Imperial crusades would draw all sorts of loonies: soldiers of fortune, criminal gangs, crackpot militias, lasgun nuts and similar deranged types, tagging along in the hope of impressing the Chaos Marines enough to join their ranks - or just for the chance to nick a load of stuff.

So, I painted up a few renegade crazies as well. In truth, I've had these models knocking around for ages and I wanted shot of them. The woman (the slightly smaller model with the gasmask) is from a Kickstarter that Bad Squiddo did ages ago, although I cut her hair down a bit. I'm not sure where the two men are from.

So that's it for now. Another tiny dent in the huge pile of lead.

The Sea Dragon

Here's another thing that I've had lying on my desk for a very long time.

Ages ago, I bought a skaven abomination. With the help of a lot of DAS clay and a Tyranid head, I made the lower half into a dragon. I was never totally happy with it, and I decided to give it a sprucing-up and repaint to match my pirate ogres. It would make a good sea monster, that they had induced to help them.

I added fins to its body, neck and tail. The body fin came from a high elf dragon, and the other two were left over from some river trolls (which also joined the ogre army). The head received some "ears" from (I think) an ancient plastic dragon kit, and the crest was elongated with plasticard and green stuff. The barnacles on its back were just blobs of sculpted green stuff.

I made the base out of coffee stirrers and a small stick of dowell. There's something weird about painting wood to look like wood, but it works far better that way. I don't have a work in progress picture, but for comparison, here's the GW skaven abomination:

And here's another picture of the sea monster. I gave it quite a dark paint scheme, to suggest something that lives deep underwater. I'm not sure why it's got all those stitches all over it (perhaps a helpful ogre repaired it after a big battle) but it looks mean enough to join the ranks of the pirates. Arrrgh!