Aramis' Mentors and bastard geneseed trials

[smart_arse]

What I did on my B&C break - I finished painting up two copies of Warhammer Conquest cheap marines.

 

Silver Templar, Minotaur, Carcharodron, Raptor, Mortifactor, Emperor's Spear.

 

Most of them kitbashed and converted out of the set poses. All chapter schemes I was interested in painting. Thankfully as one-offs I don't have to reproduce any of the colours.

 

the raptor looks great, i especially like his bolt rifle mods. how did you make the silencer?

[Aramis K]

Thanks @smart_arse - the silencer is the mid part of a Tempests Scion hotshot lashing. The foregrip is off a Skitarii gun.

[Aramis K]

So I have two minis on the go that are not quite working for me. I'd appreciate some suggestions.

 

 

On the left, an inquisiton operative. But what should he be holding in his right hand. It's a grip, but a gun doesn't look right. Any ideas?

 

On the right, a ynnari warrior. But the colours aren't working. I tried a sort of sunset palette. If I stick with the pink armour, what colours should I try for the scarf, hair, pistol, and claw blade?

[Bjorn Firewalker]

For the Inquisition operative, Idea #1 is a reverse-gripped knife, to show he's a dual-wielding melee-obsessed fighter; Idea #2 is the long hair attached to a severed head, which will require bloodstains on his base and his glaive, to show he takes trophies to commemorate notable opponents..

[the emperor is scottish]

Some sort of satchel charge or equipment bag? Could go down the rout a flamer or lasgun but being held by a strap or something. Go with the relaxed pose he's currently got.

 

The elf warrior looks great imo. The colours contrast one another beautifully. You could go with a sky blue/turquoise

[The_son_of_Dorn]

So much diversified win in this thread.

 

Very good work.

[jaxom]

On the left, an inquisiton operative. But what should he be holding in his right hand. It's a grip, but a gun doesn't look right. Any ideas?

 

On the right, a ynnari warrior. But the colours aren't working. I tried a sort of sunset palette. If I stick with the pink armour, what colours should I try for the scarf, hair, pistol, and claw blade?

 

A kite shield or a circular shield might help balance the larger melee weapon.

 

I think analogous colors  would work well for the scarf and hair: one a more orange pink and the other a more purple pink.

[KrautScientist]

I love the two latest models! As for any suggestions about them:

 

I definitely wouldn't give the Inquisitorial agent a gun in his right hand. A shield, as suggested by jaxom, might work really well -- or maybe something that hints at a somewhat more exotic, gladiatorial fighting style, such as a dangling chain, or a chain with a half moon blade on its end (there's a bit like that in the Dark Eldar Wych kit). Even an open hand could be really cool.

 

Regarding the Ynnari, I rather like the colours you have on there, but I would argue the facemask should either be in the dark blue tones you have used on his legs and arms, or in dark silver. And maybe white hair? Right now, it seems like you have too much purple on his head.

 

Keep up the fantastic work! :)

[Ryltar Thamior]

oh wow, those are incredibly legit! For the Inquisition operative, I'd potentially recommend building a vambrace-mounted ranged weapon onto the armour plate, Grey Knights style. Except smaller, sleeker, you get the idea. Could be something as simple as a two-shot arm-mounted short-ranged cross-bow. Could be a flamer or flechette blaster. 

Has the advantage of not changing the overall silhouette of that part of the miniature when viewed from the front; yet giving some functionality to it , and helping to make him a more 'elite' style and versatile combatant. While at the same time , hm, this is where it might get a bit complex - as ideally you'd want a palm not holding anything on the right, so that he'd be able to put both hands into utilizing that *excellent* Custodes-inspired er .. glaive? voluge? bardiche? The pointy-stabby-also-axy thing. 

Nice going with that and the shoulderpad from Custodes ablative plating. Might borrow those concepts for use various places. [i'm part way through a long and drawn out exercise entitled "work out how to do interesting and distinctive things with ~25 more Goliaths ... best one thus far has probably been an Afriel Strain] ; also good turning of what would otherwise be bare flesh into synskin or the like. 

Alternatively, chuck a small red button on the top of that pistol-grip, and you've got yourself a detonator .. or possibly a teleport homer, something for his comms, orbital-strike-designator, or electronic car-keys. 

Also, where's that head from? A Primaris kit?

Anyway, on the Ynnari ... 

Wow, I didn't realize the Dark Elf blood bowl miniatures were that tall; interesting [i've had an unopened box around for the past .. five-six months because i kept meaning to do either a "Gangs Of Commorragh" side-side-side project, or some Kurnous-influenced quasi-Exodites for an expansion to our Heresy-era efforts]. Hellion head is a nice touch. 

Personally, I'd have avoided the pink colouration. In combination with the weaponized shield, it gives off a bit of a Slaaneshi vibe, IMO - which is ironic, given his factional allegiance. It *might* be a potential way to show some form of tie back to his previous craftworld or kabal of origin, the colour you eventually go with ... could go for a more .. darker Altansar [i.e. Maugan Ra] style scheme of (darker) purple and bone on the raised armour sections; or change the pink to a crimson , maybe even as far as mauve - would still keep the 'sunset' theme, but transitioning it away from soft "red sky at night, shepherd's delight" to "there are blood-red and/or dying/drying blood atmospherics going on and it's freaking the hell out of me" sort of vibe. 

[perhaps, like, a kind of palette you might get at the *other* end of things - the "red sky in the morning .. shepherd's warning" approach of varying grey 'pregnant' storm-clouds with a red sun shining through; more directly/overtly hostile and baelful, so to speak. [...] There's something i've partially been meaning to look into myself for another project around ... it's difficult to translate from Sanskrit, but "ruddy" colouration that's kinda reddish-(brown-?)grey ; actually, it could be interesting to do greys on greys for the Ynnari, or purple on grey etc. - with your painting style, you could totally pull it off!] 

Of course, that may mean re-doing the lizard skin to another colour - perhaps a darker one, a black-blue with light greyblue scales? 

Now, for the next question ... do you have some hidden reservoir of Inq28/Inquisimunda etc. excellence going on? I did a quick scan through your instagram feed, but it's mostly [very cool] Primaris marines. You've got a real flair for conversion-work and colouration, so I'm personally thrilled at hte idea that there might be more non-Astartes lurking about somewhere. 

[Aramis K]

Thanks for those really encouraging comments and ideas, opened my eyes to some possibilities.

 

Idea #1 is a reverse-gripped knife

Idea #2 is the long hair attached to a severed head

A headsman look could work well. I'd need to fashion the hair somehow.

 

Some sort of satchel charge or equipment bag? Could go down the rout a flamer or lasgun but being held by a strap or something. Go with the relaxed pose he's currently got.

This is interesting. I've got the hotshot lasgun in a wrap cover to use, some meltabombs, and wanted to try a bullpup flamer for something.

 

A shield, as suggested by jaxom, might work really well -- or maybe something that hints at a somewhat more exotic, gladiatorial fighting style, such as a dangling chain.

A shield could be interesting, but I want to keep it looking like he uses his main weapon two handed. (Power halberd?!) I already removed a super cool underarm grenade launcher. I'm also looking at a few chain bits.

 

@Ryaltar Loads of great ideas there, thank you. The head started life as a Custodes head. I originally thought about doing a retired Custode, but he may not have the bulk.

 

I don't have a secret pile of Inq28 stuff, I'm just starting to try it. I've been messing with a range of xenos and chaos lately, and have a few more humans on the cutting block to start next.

[jaxom]

 

a bullpup flamer

 

Yes-yes-yes-yes-yes.

[the emperor is scottish]

I can't link it for some reason but there is a mini in the caravan command squad who's carrying a flamer or lasgun by a strap. You could try and get a hold of that or use it for inspiration.

 

I think the imagery of him with the glave over the shoulder and the flamer held in a relaxed pose would look great and speak volumes on the character and his intent.

[Aramis K]

Well I didn't finish the last two because I got distracted by a brown coat and a shotgun that I really wanted to paint.

 

Arthur:

 

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Arthur looks great! Where'd you get his helmet? It looks so Scopedog-y.

[Aramis K]

@Bjorn - it's from AdMec Infiltrators.

[Aramis K]

 

Bad Na-na chopped a Custard. Loads of ladz got stomped, but Na-na chopped and got da 'ed.

Da umies came for the shiny bits but Na-na got da 'ed.

Now he painted his armour and wears da 'ed and yoo gotta call im Bad.

 

Or in other words, I painted an Ork who was very impressed by a Custode he killed and has started to dress a bit like one from the scraps he gathered. I love the Ironjawz minis.

[Ryltar Thamior]

Interesting concept. Have you considered integrating a shoota into the axe for further 'imitation' ? :P 

[Aramis K]

@Ryltar I was lazy and didn't have the bitz. Lots of great options for handles blades and triggers in Ork burners and nobz kits. But sometimes I just want a massive axe, and grafting a gun to it looked crap . I much prefer the proportions of Ironjawz to 40k orks too.

[Aramis K]

And now for a real one:

 

 

Contrast medium was a big help with shading this chap with brown and pink. Helmet from a biker as I prefer it.

 

And my other play with contrast medium, one of the Gellarpox infected:

 

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Excellent work on the Custodes and the Gellarpox members.

[Aramis K]

Away from home for a night, grabbed an Ork and black and white paints on my way out as a challenge. A couple of hours at hotel room desk:

 

 

Was fun working out how to vary the shades of grey and texture. Did it almost all building up white from black undercoat, I didn't actually mix any grey which I thought I would.

Learnt a few things to apply to normal painting. This all leads to NMM I guess...