Totenkranz – Navis Nobilite Heir Apparent / Novator

 

Navigator Totenkranz

This vision of loveliness is Reaper Miniatures Dr. Totenkranz.  I picked the figure up a few years ago intending to use it as a zombie boss type – some sort of sci-fi necromancer/evil scientist and possibly the root of the zombie outbreak.  I ended up being distracted by something else and never got much further than assembly until last week.

House Totenkranz

Painting Navigator Heinlein made me decide to paint Totenkranz for use as a Navis Nobilite Heir Apparent (usually called a Novator in later literature).  All that really means in practical terms is that I tried to tie the two figures colour schemes together a bit.  Mr. T will be perfectly able to serve other duties as an evil zombie master or to show up in Judge Dredd games or whatever too.  Amusingly versatile considering how oddball the figure is.

A Big-Boned Navigator  (http://www.obsidianportal.com/)

According to White Dwarf #140, printed way back in August 1991:

“The most powerful Navigators in each of the Great Families are called Heirs Apparent.  This signifies that they may one day contend for the position of Paternova, the ruler of all of the Navis Nobilite.”

“The Paternova is the leader of all Navigators and the most powerful of his kind.  The Paternova may live for up to a thousand years.  When he dies all the existing Heirs Apparent begin to change – they begin to grow even larger and stronger.  Their gill structure becomes fully functional allowing them to survive in hard vacuum as well as underwater or in normally poisonous environments.”

Floating fat man from space.

This description gives lots of leeway as to how Heirs Apparent might appear.  From bloated and heavily deformed, to very elderly and artificially sustained,  to hardwired to the peculiar instruments that navigators use to ply their trade etc.  The Totenkranz model covers many of those bases rather well.  That the figure is also suggestive of Baron Harkonnen from Dune - itself a series that 40k draws heavily from – is a bonus

Rear shot L to R: Totenkranz, Heinlein. Im not really sure why Heinlein seems to be wearing a gronk pelt, but he is.

I painted Totenkranz chair to look like it was in working order.  Arcane and peculiar was the goal, rather than decrepit and patchwork.  I quickly painted three vials on the rear of the chair with various brightly coloured liquids, all of which appear to be entering or leaving Totenkranz cadaverous physique.  It was a quick job, but it adds some visual interest.

Late in the painting process I decided to paint the panels on the chair with the blue used on Heinleins jerkin in an effort to suggest that it night be a Navis Nobilite house colour.  The red elements tie the figure together a little more.  Totenkranz really quite sore looking flesh was painted in the same way as Heinleins, with a murky pinkish cast to it, plus some extra orange added to the scabby, irritated areas.

Eurovision Song Contest Runners Up – 0.328.988.M41

 

Sin Eaters Chaos Lord Eddie

Chaos Lord Eddie

Eddie remains the leader of my Sin Eaters Chaos Marine force, although they havent taken to the field very often since 2003 or so.  Of all of my Sin Eater figures, Eddie may have seen more tabletop action than any others.

Eddie is based on a Fabius Bile miniature that I got in a discounted lot in 1998.  His head is a plastic Marine Sergeants which had its nose cut off and has been reworked a little to look like his face is pinned on to his skull, but thats not visible in these shots.

Eddies shoulder pads are late nineties metal chaos pads.

Jump Pack, Lightning Claws and Shrunken Head

Eddies Lightning Claws were made from plastic power fists with Dark Eldar blades stuck to the fingers.  The right fist comes from the original RTB01 plastic Space Marine box set.  The cables running from his claws to his jump pack come are made from bent styrene rods.

Eddie broke a nail at some point in his travels (the left hand ring finger) and I never replaced it.  It is quite appropriate for avatar of decay such as he I think.

The jump pack is the old metal one that was released in the mid eighties.

Eddie has the honour of being the only miniature that I ever painted that featured in his own portrait in White Dwarf magazine.  As the miniature was painted a long time ago now, there are things that I would change if I painted Eddie again.  He looks just fine the way he is all the same.

Eddie took part in a very large number of games during an era when I was playing a lot and getting a lot of enjoyment out of it.  For that I salute him.

Sin Eaters Raptors: Squad Boyle

Sergeant Boyle and Melta Gunner

Squad Boyle was a pretty late addition to my Sin Eaters army.  They nonetheless got used in a tournament or two as well as in a number of casual games.

Jump Packs

My income levels at the time were pretty low (a perennial condition at sho3box towers Im afraid) and so I used a few components that up until that point I had been avoiding, in the interests of keeping things cheap.

Sergeant Boyles Head

Most notably in that regard was the use of the quite goofy zombie head with the beard and the tongue hanging out from the GW zombie sprue.  For the earlier squads I had avoided that head as I regarded it as a bit too wacky for my purposes.  Finances were low and I had a number of those heads sitting around so I decided to use one along with the new-at-the-time Space Wolf heads (and a Khorne head).

Bolt Pistol & Chain Axe, Plasma Pistol & Bolt Pistol

At that late stage of painting an army (roughly about 80 models or so into the project I would say) painting techniques tend to have evolved, usually in the interests of expediency.  In addition to that slighly more oddball units and concepts start to crop up, usually in my case in an effort to keep interest up.  Hence the heavily armed unit of jet pack-ing zombie space soldiers.

Plasma Pistol & Chainsword, Bolt Pistol & Chainsword

There has been some crazy talk about playing some small games of 3rd ed 40K amongst SOS and MT recently.  If my resolve breaks and I engage in some of those shenanigans it will likely involve games that include the more elite and oddball units like Squad Boyle.

Resident Evil Licker

L4D Chargers were supposed to be up this week, but I changed my mind. They are coming soon, probably next week (edit: and then I forgot to reschedule the Chargesr post anyway so the whole lot went up.  Ho hum).  I have a Resident Evil Licker to showcase today instead.

Licker

Lickers debuted in the RE franchise towards the end of the last century, way back in RE2.  Their first appearance was a pretty creepy scuttle across the outside of a Racoon City PD window after which they made a lasting impression in the next room, usually by decapitating Leon S. Kennedy with their enormous tongue.

Since those not so humble beginnings, they have become a staple of the franchise, featuring as the big bad in the first RE movie and hunting some S.T.A.R.S. members in the church in the second movie (before being blown to pieces by a motorcycle mounted, twin uzi wielding Alice).  They also regularly show up in most of the RE games.

A Licker as it appears in the Resident Evil games.

A couple of shots of the video game Licker.

Another video game Licker

While not “fast” zombies per se (their first appearance predates the development of that particular zombie sub-group by a few years trivia fans) Lickers are more akin in behaviour to a Jurrasic Park velociraptor that can stick to walls than a shambling zombie.

Bcause of this I chose to use a Horrorclix Tickler figure to convert into my Licker.  I always liked the half scuttling, half galloping dynamic pose of the model.  The tail and head had to go.  I used green stuff to cover up where the tail had been and I used a Heroclix Venom figures head as the basis for the Licker head.  I left the spines on the back of the figure as even though they are not strictly accurate for a Lickers appearance, I thought  that they looked good and were worth keeping as a point of visual interest on the figure.  Mutant variation like that is very in keeping with the whole RE thing anyway.

V-ACT Mutation

Lickers dont have visible eyes or ears and instead have a weirdly distorted brain that bulges out of the whole cranial area.  Making a convincing miniature brain for a Licker figure had been a stumbling block for me up until his model.

I tend to be better at assembling bits and pieces in various ways than I am sculpting things.  The apprentice period required to get to a passable sculpting level put me off trying miniature sculpting in more or less any way until this figure.  I used Green Stuff to make the brain and to add the sinewy looking muscle parts around the Lickers mouth.  I think that the brain worked out better than the sinew but I think that both are passable.

The confidence boost that I got out of the sculpted areas on the Licker has meant that I have started doing a bit more green stuff work on some other figures since (the upcoming L4D Chargers being the most noteworthy).

To top it all off I am also pleased with how the paint job worked out.  I wanted the scheme to suggest that the Licker was in some way flayed (because thats what they look like.  They have no skin) but I didnt want to get bogged down in very fiddly painting of muscle striations or anything very time consuming and Golden Demon-y like that.  I came up with a compromise that I am very happy with.

And so my project to get a tabletop worthy version of one of my favourite villains from one of my favourite franchises turned out to be particularly satisfying.  Go me

Resident Evil: Albert Wesker – S.T.A.R.S. / Undercover Operative

Albert Wesker

Wesker is the main recurring villain in the Resident Evil games.  When first encountered in the original game he appears to be part of the S.T.A.R.S. team.  As the story progresses it becomes apparent that he has his own agenda.  By the end of the game he has been exposed the T-virus.

Conveniently, the effect that the T-virus has on Wesker involves a whole lot less brutally ugly physical mutation than it tends to have on everything else that it comes into contact with.

The overall effect on Wesker after Resident Evil is the usual suite of enhanced senses, stamina and agility plus his eyes take on a glowing and reptillian look.  Also conveniently for Wesker, he always wears sunglasses, so even that mutation wasnt a big problem for him I suspect.

None of that matters in the context of this figure anyway as it depicts Wesker as a S.T.A.R.S. member during RE but before the viral exposure.

"The ultimate lifeform. Tyrant".

Wesker is a miniature from Recreational Conflict/Lead Bones, like all of the RE figures that I have posted recently, barring Ada Wong. Like all of the Resident Evil figures, Weskers paint job is basic and functional.  The figure is very recognisable as the character from the games, which is the most important thing.

Sin Eaters Brother Chaplain Bakul

 

Not very Xmas-y, but what can you do?

Brother Chaplain Bakul of the Sin Eaters (note the eeevil Rosarius)

According to the 40K fluff, all of the original Chaos Marine Legions bumped off their Chaplains during the Horus Heresy.  The Word Bearers held onto their guys (they became Dark Apostles if memory serves.  Big into their false idols those Word Bearer scamps). While I understand that GW wanted to give the Chaos Marines their own identity and feel, I do think that the idea of a eeevil Chaplains of the Dark Powers leading Space Marines into battle is potentially fun.  With that in mind I put this guy together on a whim in 2001 or so.

Lots of Skulls on the Shoulder Pad and the Backpack Nozzles

Brother Chaplain Bakul is entirely plastic and is covered in enough skulls to make a rocker blush.  It reinforces the Chaplain skull motif I suppose, although spiky skulls are perhaps my least favourite element of GW Chaos stuff.

Yet More Skulls on the Shoulder Pad and on his eeevil Crozius Arcanum

I don’t like the way that GW have canonised the colour schemes for Chaplains (black), Librarians (blue), Techmarines (red), Apothecaries (white) etc.  I think that the additional colours can ruin a palette and are often unnecessary. 

 Additionally, GW policy seems to be to cover the relevant miniature in that colour when perhaps just a little of it would suffice (for a good example check out the jarringly blue Librarian that features with the Blood Angel Terminators in 3rd Ed Space Hulk.  It ruins the effect in my opinion.  And don’t get me started on the Blood Angel yellow helmet=Assault, blue helmet=Devastator thing.  Ugh). 

The Chaplain is the least offensive of the marine specialists in that regard as adding some black to a scheme isn’t as disruptive as adding an actual colour to it.  Still, when I added a Chaplain to the Sin Eaters I wanted to use the minimum amount of black to make him stand out a bit without ruining the army uniformity.  I think that it worked fine.  Not brilliant, but not awful in my opinion.

“Bakul” apparently means “sweet smelling”.  Ho, ho, ho etc.

Zombie of the Week #6: Graham

 

 

Graham

Graham doesnt know how he got to be this way.  Occasionally he gets flashes in his head that remind him of times when he wasnt always hungry, when he wasnt always cold, when he had hands.  Sometimes those flashes in his head make Graham angry and he squishes things into tiny pieces. 

Sometimes Graham gets a different flash in his head.  These flashes are red and white and shaped in a circle.  He hears voices when he sees these flashes.  The voices dont call him “Graham”.  The voices say things like “Nemesis” and “P-Virus” instead.  When he sees the red and white flashes and hears the voices, Graham feels strong and he knows what to do.  He needs to go where the voices tell him to and squish all of the things there with his feet and his arms and his teeth and his big guns.

Necrotic Bio-Mechanoid

Graham is a weird figure but fun all the same.  A couple of years ago the Dreamblade CMG was released.  I think that it was about fighting in “dreamscapes” or something else slightly odd.  There were a load of figures for it but most of them were a bit too trippy for my games: things like guys in suits with claw hammer heads and the like.

I picked Graham up whwn I bought a few of the more suitable Dreamblade figures on ebay with the intention to use him as a Umbrella/Parasol augmented Tyrant like zombie.  According to the Dreamblade character card, Graham shoots bullets of clotted blood from those huge gun-hands.  Presumably he gets up to something similar with them in the Resident Evil universe.

Graham threatens Rocko

As you can see in the shot above, Graham is huge and quite suitable to be used as a Tank or Tyrant.  The figure was supplied as grey plastic with silver painted on the guns and black on the trousers, shoes and bandana (?!).  I drybrushed the grey areas a bit to give a little more depth to the flesh and I painted in his huge beard (?! again) just to give him a little definition.  I also painted the veins travelling down to his guns, again to give a little more colour and definition. 

I could have spent a lot more time painting Graham but I figured that he was good enough at that point.  Graham is a pretty wacky figure.

Bauhaus Doomtroopers, Dark Legion Razides and Ezoghoul

Bauhaus Doomtroopers

The last Doomtrooper team, Max and Valerie.

Max Von Steiner and Valerie Duval

Razides

The two Razide figures are hands down the worst figures in a box of questionable miniatures.  Apparently they are demons of flesh and stone from another dimension.  They look like they are from out of town alright.

Ezoghoul

The Ezoghoul is the big bad in SotC.  It appears to be some kind of cyborg-zombie-centaur-demon with a huge sword and a railgun.  Despite the obvious promise of such a combination the model doesnt really do it for me.  I also made a balls of painting and dipping it, which doesnt help.  I dont see myself coming back to it any time however: there are too many good miniatures that I could be painting instead.  The Ezoghoul is fine as is for games of SotC.

"Hi, Ho, Ezoghoul, AWAAAAY!"

Imperial Doomtroopers and Dark Legion Nepharite

Imperial Doomtroopers

Gallagher and Murdoch

The second last Doomtrooper team from Siege of the Citadel: the Imperials.

Nepharite

The Nepharite is the second biggest bad guy in Siege of the Citadel, a kind of high priest or greater demon.  The figure is quite goofy and the chainsaw-on-a-stick is actually sculpted and cast with that daft bend in it.  It is next to impossible to remedy too due to the way that the rear of the pole extends into contact with the shoulder pad due to technical casting issues. 

Exposed brain.

As a somewhat priestly figure I thought that the Inquisition transfer of text would look good on his shoulder.  There is something about this figure that makes me think of St Patrick for some reason.  Sort of funny.

Brotherhood Doomtroopers and Dark Legion Praetorians

Brotherhood Doomtroopers

All of the figures in this post are old metal figures from the Mutant Chronicles Warzone game.  Rules to field these guys in the Siege of the Citadel boardgame were published in a hard to get pamphlet type publication back in the mid nineties.  After grabbing a scan of the pamphlet I picked up the figures necessary for the only “expansion” for the game.

Nicodemus and Crenshaw

The paint job on the above two figures was even more rushed than most of the figures that I painted for the game and it shows.  One day I may go back and tidy up some of the splodgy mess from the dipping but who knows?  I have so many miniature projects to do that it seems unlikely that I will get back to these two.

Praetorians

On the other hand I quite like the paint job on these guys. Apart from the flesh (which had a very quick wash and a patchy highlight) the rest of the figure was simply base coated.  The dip picked up the detail on the armour plates nicely overall.

Not-Nepharite

When I ordered the above figures from Prince August they were kind enough to send me this figure as a freebie.   I decided to paint him up along with the rest of the figures for the game, even though he is surplus to requirements for it.   Like a lot of the Mutant Chronicles figures he is pretty over the top but he is fun in a Masters of the Universe sort of way I think.  Im not sure why I decided to give him pink-ish skin but whatever: he is a fun figure.