Random Act of Kindness

Today I was the recipient of a very friendly gesture.  A gamer at my FLGS, Mighty Titans in Denville, NJ, offered to photograph my latest project.  I have been lacking in high-res pics of my collection of Vraksian Renegades, so I jumped at the chance.  I hope you enjoy these, and there are many more to come in the future:

Here we have an example of my basic Vraksian Militia models.  I struggled with choosing a paint scheme for these figures.  The gas masks, while very cool, gave me a heck of a time trying to decide on an approach.  I tested many different schemes. I first tried high gloss black, to emulate a "fetish" look, but the gloss black made the model difficult to look at, as your eye had nowhere to settle.  I tried a few different shades of the P3 color Underbelly Blue, but I found the blue to clash with the ruddy tones I had already fallen in love with for the armor.  I decided to go with a Rotting Flesh tone, which would imply that the gas mask was actually not worn, but instead part of the figure's head.  I blended the Rotting Flesh down with Asurman blue and Regal Blue, in an effort to not only give the flesh tone depth, but to repeat the shades of the Hawk Turquoise I use to show corrosion on brass-treated components.

Here we have my Company Commander and Officer of the fleet.  I have replaced the Commander model's chainsword-arm with a hobby drill bit, and I really like the effect.  To be honest, this one model is what sold me on the Forge World line of renegade miniatures.  The Officer of the Fleet model just to the right of the Commander, is the vox-caster from the Forge World Renegade Militia set with an alternate left arm.  I like the idea of an officer organizing and directing interference on the enemy, and the map he is holding adds to the fluff.  In this pic you can JUST barely see the converted pilots of the vendetta.  I had to replace the cockpit glass, as the first time I tried to set it in place, the plastic fogged up.  Testor's makes a glue for glass elements that works wonders; it is however a bit tricky to use.  More on that in a future post.  You will also note the chaos gargoyle heads that I have pinned onto the Vendetta twin-linked lascannon upgrade.  It is a strange feeling, to take the Forge World item you have just received in the mail, and take a saw to it...


Honestly, I spent more time deciding on color schemes for this collection, than actually painting it.  Maybe 2 months to build, 2 months to select and test colors, then about four weeks to actually paint all of the infantry and vehicles.

Overall, I am happy with the final result.  The army is unified, and not necessarily representative of one specific branch of chaos.  I wanted a renegade force that would look good in an apocalypse game with any portion of my Chaos Daemons army, and I think I succeeded in that effort.

More to come in time.