Sunday 6 May 2012

Week's painting: GZG Mercs, GZG Wheeled Drones and more Blockheads

I haven't posted much lately but this is because I've been getting a lot of hobby time in rather than blogging about it. I've been prepping, assembling, converting and priming away and now have a good chunk of my 15mm sci-fi forces ready for paint! They'll be surfacing over the next few days and weeks on the blog as I get them finished up. Here's a few minis I painted over the last week...

First up, some GZG Mercs. I plan to use these as Scatari mercenaries in the sci-fi universe me and Phyllion have started to flesh out. 
After the Hellboy episode I decided to try a more earthy skintone and went for an orangey brown using GW dark flesh with a Vallejo flesh wash (with a hint of chocolate brown added) as a base. I then worked it up through dark flesh, dark flesh/tan, tan and tan/vermillion. These pictures don't really convey the depth of the colour (bottom photo best gets across the tonality best) as I managed to wash it out (as usual...)
The gear was done to look seriously beat up and rusting. I used the same dark flesh base with wash but drybrushed it with boltgun metal and then hit it with some selective washes of very thinned down hot orange for rust. Seems to work.
 I'm very happy with the tattoos on these figs, the light blue really stands out on the earthy orange. Another use for the mighty fine brush!
This Scatari is exactly the same pose as the figure above but I made some alterations (the GZG mersc unfortunately only come is about 5-6 poses). The left shoulder pad is green stuff with a pin spike and the mohawk was also added with green stuff.

 More back tattoos, these are just too much fun to paint!
 I chewed these shoulder pad up with the knife. These mercs have been through the wringer.
 Love the little leather cap and goggles on this dude. Not quite as much fun to paint as the others thought due to there being less skin.
 More tribal tats.



When I bought some stuff from GZG at Salute I ended up with some of the wrong minis so Jon, being a great guy, exchanged them for the right ones and compensated me for postage with some of his free wheeled drones
I though the blocky and design would fit in with my Scatari mercs, who could do with some anti-armour capability, so I painted them to look abused, crude and beat up. 
These were painted in the same way as the Scatari's guns with a a healthy drybrush of dirt on the wheels and lower surfaces.
The lenses were dones using my usual technique. I picked up some greens from Dark Sphere the other day so made sure to get some use out of them!
 I added some kill markings on the rocket launchers and some tribal markings on the large panels, as well as numbering the drones from 1-3 on the sides. 
The Scatari

The Scatari are a comparatively primitive yet space-faring race who have had contact with the Confederation for the past 75 years. Their society is based upon a tribal system of clans where ties of kinship and honour run deep. Scatari mercenary warbands are usually composed of the tribes' youngbloods, led by an experienced warrior. Warbands travel offworld in pursuit of profit and technology, seeking any advantage which will give their clan an edge in the constant power struggle which is the Scatari Khanate. 

As youngbloods gain experience and claim kills they augment their clan tattoos with kill-markings and trophies. The body of each Scatari warrior tells the story of their professional life, their kills, their wounds, their victories and their defeats. Senior warriors and chieftains will typically be covered in intricate tattoos which reflect their rank and achievements. 

The Scatari are not a technologically advanced race and it is unclear how they attained FTL travel capability. Confederation xenocanthropoligsts speculate that they may have acquired FTL technology from a more advanced race, either through trade, guile or violence. However, no Scatari has yet been willing to divulge more detailed information on the history of their people. The Scatari make use of basic and reliable chemical projectile weaponry which fires solid slugs, explosive shells or rockets. They have also been known to make limited use of wheeled heavy weapons drones, as well as light vehicles and mechs, where the situation warrants. 

Typically a Skatari mercenary warband will consist of anything between 30 and 100 warriors, split into smaller ad hoc groupings led by the most seasoned warriors present. Skatari battle doctrine focuses on aggression, strength and speed. Often Skatari chieftens seek to close with the enemy as quickly as possible, enveloping their positions and overwhelming them at close range with grenades, gunfire, knives and even teeth. 




More CMG Blockhead Battlesuits. I love these sculpts and managed to get a few more done. They take a long-time to paint as I like to get the layering on the large panels as nice as I can.
I wasn't sure what sort of weapon this should be so I just went for a high-tech look with lots of coloured lights and flashing do-dars.
I drilled a few holes in the leg-plate here to simulate battle damage. I'm still playing around with this at this scale,iIts very easy for small scratches and grime which look great at 28mm to not look so great in 15mm.


Scatari and Blockheads face-off. 


5 comments:

  1. Really really like these, good tribal tats and fitting background.

    Skin is a big improvement on Hellboy too!

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  2. The tattoos really stand out, good work.

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  3. Hey Samulus, This whole post is great-the GZG mercs look 'right' with the skin colour now (remember our previous comments), and the blockheads also are knockout (ouch, sorry). I also enjoyed the description of the Skatari background, so all in all, good post!

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  4. I love that paintjob on the mercs! I've all be decided that these minis will be the backbone of the second alien race I introduce into the setting I'm using, these pics are getting me really excited to pick some up! :D Great job!

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  5. Great work, really like the Mercs. I think at a guess that you are using 5pence pieces! :)

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