The Warthogs Complete

Well, Sunday night again and therefore time to water my paints. No further conversion of paint to dust to deal with, and my painting hand was a little more in shape compared to the last outing. So I cracked on from where I left off. 

Don't look at us! We're not ready!

I began by going over my work from last week, tidying any real abberations of paint. Then I realised that would mean starting again, so I just went over the bigger slip-ups. 

If you're going to talk about us like that, we're leaving.

I was using my only decent brush for this, a standard one that still had the plastic tube over the top and therefore all the bristles pointing the same way. It didn't take long to cover up the bits where I'd gone over the lines. I also decided to put some early camo stripes at this stage, only the darker tones so they'd benefit from drybrushing. 

Inks next. I used to just slop the ink on and let gravity take its course, which is a great idea if you want everyone to look like Mr Messy. But it has taught me a few handy combos, one of which is Dwarf Flesh + heavy Flesh Wash = All Purpose Ethnic Skintone. I used this for Red Crow and Thailand Robin. The others got a selection of black, chestnut and green washes. So far so good - I moved on to the drybrush stage.

I like drybrushing. You can tell, because my favourite drybrush looks like a mop. I often do several layers, because I'm not painting whole units, just occasional characters. To this end, I'll blend skull white into the base colour gradually, and often even end up with a very light coat of pure white to get sharp definition. Tonight was something of a compromise, as I just wasn't feeling like too much detail. - now to spoil everything by painting the eyes. 

You can only see the white of my eye! Shoot!

This is not generally a photogenic moment for any model. Thailand Robin there has a distinct Manga gleam, the kind that proceeds a twenty minute image of him/her frozen in a mid-air leap with a katana drawn. Not quite as terrifying as Herc's possession eyes or the lopsided worm things going on with Maelcum. 

The Worms! The Worms!

Luckily, they all turned out fairly well in the long term. At least, they do in these pictures, which only means I had to experiment with a professional lighting rig for three quarters of an hour. Several hundred discarded headshots later, I went on to the fine detail round. There wasn't that much for these guys, just a couple of things to pick out in extra colour, then a quick lick of Chaos Black for my omni-purpose base look, then a touch of matt varnish for durability. 

I think they look like a rough sort of unit, the colours worked well. I'm not completely convinced by the camo in places - I used Golden Yellow for final stripes on Robin and Maelcum, having done a little internet research on the look I wanted. I was aiming for something like this, and probably deserve the results: - 

For those sulphur bayou operations

All the same, the mismatched look suits the ragged mercenary scum I was aiming for. Here's their mugshots, just in case you want to collect on the bounty.

I'm scared, Poncho. 

Red Crow ended up in a sweaty singlet. I finished his belt buckle in brass after I took this shot and realised I'd forgotten it. That shotgun's seen more combat than maintenance, as has Red himself. 

There'll be arrests, there'll be deaths. Nothing can stop this. 

 Herc's brooding so hard his eyes are almost invisible. This is good, it hides the shoddy job I did.

Worst. Trousers. Ever. 

Maelcum's camo job is the most eye-catching, which is the opposite of what it should be. Equally, the incendiary grenade at his belt, the 'inflamed eye' patch and the clumsy plates round his boots aren't my favourites either. He's a lot better from a distance. Pity he's got a shotgun, then. 

"This has GOT to be a trap."
"Then go back."
"No. I just have to find out how MUCH of it is a trap."

By comparison, the mustard DP blobs look a lot better on Thailand Robin. The left foot needs a touch-up, clearly, and I'm no nearer deciding whether this is a man or a woman. Can't have it all. 

You a good cop, hotshot?

Vic Alfonso has opted for a little pink highlighting in his hair. He also lost his good belt in a crack den somewhere a couple of cities back. But he's still got the company pay roll, so everything's good.

Why, there's a world of slimeballs out there!

 And that's the Warthogs sorted. I've taken the absence of any meaningful dispute to my suggested rules for their weaponry as consent, so I'll be looking forward to deploying them at the Muffboot this time next month. Just in case any min-maxing lawyer types kick into action between now and then, though, I have a second option: -

Ork Sloop 'Plan B'