Miniature Monday

[Malphe]

Oh gosh yeah transuranics have a ridiculous statline, especially when you factor in all the sniper bonuses. Gorgeous models though, i do like darker colour schemes and i love skitarii in all things >.>

[Tethys 13]

For this seasonal Miniature Monday, we have the one and only Phanta Claws! (And yes, he used to be canon).



Twas the fight before Fistmas, for the great Van Saar house. No ganger was stirring, not even “The Mouse.”

The juves were unconscious, the gangers were dead, and the beastly old Phanta Claws, stuck blades in their head.

The gangers had walked, Into his sly trap, and now they lay down, for an aeon long nap.

The fighters had fled, but they were too slow. They had not spotted, that which lay below.

More rapid than eagles, he slew those that came, and as he tore them apart, he called them by name.

“Die Modan! Die Crendell! Die Sardon and Tricksen! Die Big-Bones! Die Mudelm! Die Hectus and Kit-sen!

To the dark of the tunnels, to the base of the wall, run away! Run away! Run away all!”

His claws dripped with blood, and on his head sat, an oddly disturbing, red and white hat.

His smile was murderous, yet filled with mad glee, And all those who saw him, turned tail to flee.

Once all foes were beaten, he tore them apart, and admired his work, as though it were art.

And I heard him exclaim, as he stalked out of sight, “Happy Fistmas to all! And to all a good night!”

Phanta Claws was a character from Games Workshop's more comedic days, a monster of Necromundan folklore. In one version, he is a former Imperial Fist placed on the planet by Dorn himself after it was first brought into the Imperium, tasked with giving away presents to those who have been good and punishing the bad once a year, an event known as Fistmas. He does far more of the latter than the former, because Necromunda is the most crime-ridden place in the galaxy (Commorragh is technically not inside the galaxy, but in the Webway). Whether he is a Space Marine, an archaeotech automaton or some warp-spawned thing is unknown, so I went with a bit of a mix. I used both loyalist and heretic Space Marine parts to make chainfist-claws, for extra savagery, and to give a feeling of duality. The 'tree' on the back is meant to look shoddy, like metal crudely hacked to shape and sloppily painted or stained. The torso and backpack are from pre-heresy marks of Power Armour, to give a hint of his supposed origins, and what gruesome parody of Father Christmas would be complete without a sack of high explosives?

Merry Fistmas!

Spoiler

Initial
Undercoat Imperial Primer

Red:
1. Base Mephiston Red
2. Recess Shade Agrax Earthshade
3. Highlight Mephiston Red:Evil Sunz Scarlet 50:50
4. Edge Highlight Evil Sunz Scarlet
5. Edge Highlight Troll Slayer Orange

White armour and hair:
1. Base Celestra Grey
2. Wash Agrax Earthshade
3. Highlight Ulthuan Grey
4. Edge Highlight White Scar

White Fur:
1. Base Celestra Grey
2. Texture Mourn Mountain Snow
3. Edge Highlight White Scar

Tree:
1. Base Waaagh! Flesh
2. Wash Agrax Earthshade
3. Highlight Waaagh! Flesh:Skarsnik Green 80:20
4. Edge Highlight Skarsnik Green

Metal:
1. Base Leadbelcher
2. Wash Agrax Earthshade
3. Highlight Ironbreaker
4. Edge Highlight Stormhost Silver

Skin:
1. Base Mephiston Red
2. Layer Ogryn Camo
3. Wash Reikland Fleshshade
4. Highlight Ogryn Camo

Bionic Eye:
1. Base Macragge Blue
2. Highlight Hoeth Blue
3. Dot White Scar

Writing: Abaddon Black

[Dragonian Alliance]

*should it be"for an aeon Long nap"?

Does he know the names of those he hunts in Necromunda?

I really like his design. Also why is he noncanon? I know of about a dozen crazier things than a crazy person in power armor pretending to be a twisted Santa clause. I really like the tree on his back. It is perfect and adds just the right amount of character to his murderous claws. I also like that he doesn't have a helmet, though that usually irks me about space marine design.

I also hope he has little twisted elves following him around.

[Tethys 13]

*should it be"for an aeon Long nap"?

Does he know the names of those he hunts in Necromunda?

I really like his design. Also why is he noncanon? I know of about a dozen crazier things than a crazy person in power armor pretending to be a twisted Santa clause. I really like the tree on his back. It is perfect and adds just the right amount of character to his murderous claws. I also like that he doesn't have a helmet, though that usually irks me about space marine design.

I also hope he has little twisted elves following him around.

I just copied it from a wikipedia-like page about him
As for his canonicity, Necromunda was revived a few years ago and as far as I know he has received no mention, and when I spoke to Aaron Dembski-Bowden he declared "He shouldn't be (canon)!"
Apparently he has Squats instead of elves.

[Tethys 13]

Here we are, the final Miniature Monday of 2020. I put careful consideration into what miniature would best sum up this year, but in the end, the answer was fairly obvious. Meet Influenzant, the Epidemic of One, Daemon Prince of Nurgle.



Believe it or not, I created this miniature before I was aware of what Covid was going to become - though not long before, which led to a rather awkward moment as I realised how tactless it might appear to people. In fact, it was not inspired by Covid at all, but by Cells at Work.
The 'body' of the miniature was a 'Purple Sun of Xereus' spell from Warhammer Fantasy. It looked so much like a germ that I had to use it, adding modelling putty to the ends to add to the effect. I formed a symbol of Nurgle (three circles divided by lines) using three zombie torsos, various heads (two from a Skeleton kit, one from a Night Goblin kit as I recall), and right arms (zombie, old metal skeleton, and ghoul holding a cauldron I believe also from Night Goblins).
It was actually very simple to paint, as I used it to experiment with the new Contrast paints. The paint scheme was little more than a green contrast over a grey undercoat, followed by lots of drybrushing with progressively lighter mixes of green and grey, then a few details. I wanted to give the idea that my Daemons were still emerging into reality, the grey of the mortal realm clinging to them and leeching their vibrancy. I tried to carry that over into the base, pockets of corruption starting to appear across its surface.
Happy new year!

[Dragonian Alliance]

I love how much this looks like a virus. Its so amazing. I love the small details, especially about the still emerging into reality. The symbol of Nurgle. Love it. The color looks in line with the theme and its such a fun model to look at. Great job Tethys.

[Tethys 13]

For this week's Miniature Monday, I am rather selfishly ignoring the possibilities presented by the new year to instead focus on an event that was important to me - the release of chapter 1,000 of One Piece. How better to respond to the occasion than with the commander of my own pirate force from a faction inspired by Japan, and modern Japanese fiction in particular? Meet Shas'O Zingzi of the Rah'ray Pirates.



Assembling this model was a huge hassle. I wanted a feeling of movement, of action and speed - the Coldstar Battlesuit is ludicrously fast, able to move from one side of the board to the other in an instant, and in the lore sometimes dogfights starfighters during void battles. Getting it to hold such an awkward position was not easy, however. I had to re-pin the foot so many times that the underside of that 'toe' is almost entirely hollowed out. In the end, I used the thickest metal rod I could to pin it all the way up to the ankle joint. I equipped it with quad fusion blasters, but those would be awkwardly angled if equipped normally, so very early on I decided on the frankly ridiculous-looking arm it has now. Back then, I was thinking of posing it to be destroying something in mid-air - in fact, that was the original reason I purchased the Purple Sun of Xereus that became the foundation of last week's model, to be the blast. I decided that would be far too unwieldy, and do not regret the result. To round it out as a single-target monster, I added an Onager Gauntlet, a melee weapon that hits very hard but can only be used with one attack. To fit the mecha theme, what better than a rocket punch? I cut the middle from a Hunter-Killer Missile and filed it down to fit on the back of the arm, then added little flames from some kit or other to be the jets. Speaking of, the engine jets are the part of the model I spent the most time on and are least happy with. I shaved away at clear plastic flying model stands until the tips were suitably rounded, then slowly blended colour down their lengths. In the past I have made good use of foam to make exhaust fumes, but the Tau are far too clean for that, so this was my comparative solution.
For the painting scheme, I reversed the colours of the Crisis Battlesuits in the force, which I posted in a past Miniature Monday (back when it was on Discord, as I recall, so they should be within the spoiler of the first post in this thread). This was inspired by the video game Dawn of War, in which the Tau commander similarly has a reversed primary colour to the rest of their army. All of my Tau have skulls on their pauldrons - supposedly trophies taken by their glorious leader, Aun'Rakam (also shown previously), though the Earth Caste contingent's 3D printer has been working overtime lately... Regardless, in order to work with the reversed scheme, I needed a skull that would look appealing and make sense in black - thus, I took a beast skull from the old Skeleton kit and altered the direction of the horns to create a Daemon skull.

Happy New Year!

[Tethys 13]

Last week did not seem to go over well... Hopefully this will be better received. For this week's Miniature Monday, we have the last miniature I painted in 2020 and the first of my latest army - a Namarti Thrall for my 'Shadows Under Innsreef' (name not final) Idoneth Deepkin.



The lore for them is rather lacking, as I thought them up originally just as an interesting visual design during a conversation with the author C.L. Werner, and know little about Age of Sigmar. They are a group of Idoneth Deepkin who, when their gods abandoned them, reached out to any others who might hear them. One of the celestial Slann realised how dangerous this could be, and managed to get to them before they could fully devote themselves to Chaos. Instead they began worshipping that Slann. However, due to the nature of worship in the Warhammer world, the Slann began to be altered by their worship, and began to alter them in turn. Really though, they are just a design inspired by the Lovecraft novel Shadows Over Innsmouth.
I spent months pondering on-and-off how to pull that look off as a conversion. I had the idea in November 2019, and did not think of using Skink heads until around the same time in 2020. I had plenty of leftover Skink models, and shaved off their head crests to fit them on. I also tried to fill in their mouths a bit to give more of a piscine appearance, but I failed miserably in that. I saved some of the head crests, which show up on some of the other miniatures.
I tried to paint them in an eerie aquatic way - lots of blue and green, fish-like glittery skin/scales, etcetera. Initially I thought of painting their armour as rusted, but thought that a waste of the intricate designs, so instead I went with verdigris bronze, which keeps the blue/green theme. I achieved the scales by mixing metallic paint into each stage, as seen below. I am painting each miniature of this small force separately, and trying something different with each.

Spoiler

Initial:
1. Undercoat Leadbelcher Spray
2. Contrast Plaguebearer Flesh

Skin:
1. Base The Fang:Rakarth Flesh:Stormhost Silver 40:40:20
2. Layer The Fang:Rakarth Flesh:Fenrisian Grey:Stormhost Silver 30:30:30:10
3. Wash Drakenhof Nightshade
4. Layer Fenrisian Grey:Pallid Wych Flesh:Stormhost Silver 70:20:10
5. Highlight Pallid Wych Flesh

Metal:
1. Wash Temple Guard Blue:Ulthuan Grey 50:50
2. Edge Highlight Retributor Armour:Nurgle's Rot 50:50
3. Drybrush Sigmarite

Cloak:
1. Base Stegadon Scale Green
2. Wash Drakenhof Nightshade
3. Layer Stegadon Scale Green:Temple Guard Blue 80:20
4. Highlight Stegadon Scale Green:Temple Guard blue 60:40

Star pattern:
1. Line Ulthuan Grey
2. Blue stars Baharroth Blue
3. Green stars Moot Green
4. Yellow stars Yriel Yellow
5. White stars White Scar

Trim:
1. Base The Fang
2. Layer Fenrisian Grey
3. Wash Drakenhof Nightshade
4. Layer Fenrisian Grey
5. Edge Highlight Baharroth Blue

Lining and leggings:
1. Base Caliban Green
2. Wash Drakenhof Nightshade
3. Layer Caliban Green:Warboss Green 80:20
4. Highlight Caliban Green: Warboss Green 60:40

Eyes:
1. Base Stegadon Scale Green
2. Dots Baharroth Blue, Moot Green, Yriel Yellow and White Scar
3. 'Ardcoat Gloss Varnish

Base:
1. Texture Stirland Mud
2. Drybrush Gorthor Brown
3. Drybrush Moot Green
4. Apply Mordheim Turf
5. Patches 'Ardcoat Gloss Varnish

[Malphe]

Good stuff! I def wouldn't have expected skink heads to work with that but they look pretty fitting with the crest shaved off + the scheme definitely works very well. Strikes me as very amphibian-ish.
Also, i wish there was a way to 'like' posts on this, I do read through every miniature monday that comes out even if I don't really have anything to add as a reply ^^

[Tethys 13]

This week's Miniature Monday unsurprisingly follows on from the last, with the second Namarti Thrall I painted, which was the first miniature I painted this year.



Along with the Skink heads, I replaced the tassels dangling from the back-crests with various ornamentations from Lizardman kits, to further show their affiliation. As I mentioned, I painted them each individually, so tried a few different things on this one. The fin on the arm is one of the Skink head crests, which I used on a few others as well. I think the asymmetry suits the Lovecraftian inspiration. In terms of painting, instead of mixing metallic paints into each stage for the skin, I added a glaze of diluted metallic paint at the end. There were a few other experiments, such as the boggy parts of the base, but they do not show up very well in these images.
I received feedback from the manager of my local store, saying that there was not enough colour on these, and recommending I try a 'nebula-effect' on the blades. I tried it, and it ended up a complete mess, so I chose not to go with it.

Spoiler

Initial:
1. Undercoat Leadbelcher Spray
2. Contrast Plaguebearer Flesh

Skin:
1. Base The Fang:Rakarth Flesh 50:50
2. Layer The Fang:Rakarth Flesh:Fenrisian Grey 40:40:20
3. Wash Drakenhof Nightshade
4. Layer Fenrisian Grey:Pallid Wych Flesh 60:40
5. Highlight Pallid Wych Flesh
6. Glaze Stormhost Silver

Metal:
1. Wash Temple Guard Blue:Ulthuan Grey 50:50
2. Edge Highlight Retributor Armour:Nurgle's Rot 50:50
3. Drybrush Sigmarite:Hellion Green 50:50

Cloak:
1. Base Stegadon Scale Green
2. Wash Drakenhof Nightshade
3. Layer Stegadon Scale Green:Temple Guard Blue 80:20
4. Highlight Stegadon Scale Green:Temple Guard blue 60:40

Star pattern:
1. Line Ulthuan Grey
2. Blue stars Baharroth Blue
3. Green stars Moot Green
4. Yellow stars Yriel Yellow
5. White stars White Scar

Trim:
1. Base The Fang
2. Layer Fenrisian Grey
3. Wash Drakenhof Nightshade
4. Layer Fenrisian Grey
5. Edge Highlight Baharroth Blue

Lining and leggings:
1. Base Caliban Green
2. Wash Drakenhof Nightshade
3. Layer Caliban Green:Warboss Green 80:20
4. Highlight Caliban Green: Warboss Green 60:40

Eyes:
1. Base Stegadon Scale Green
2. Dots Baharroth Blue, Moot Green, Yriel Yellow and White Scar
3. 'Ardcoat Gloss Varnish

Base:
1. Texture Stirland Mud
2. Drybrush Gorthor Brown
3. Drybrush Moot Green
4. Apply Mordheim Turf
5. Patches Nuln Oil Gloss