Hasslefree Adventurers

A quick post this week, lots of projects on but nothing finished yet I can share.  Instead I've got some great Hasslefree figures I painted last year as part of my Inquisitor army that I didn't get around to taking shots of.

The other reason I thought of these this week is that local game designer Taran will be using them at his Infected Dead launch event in a few weeks time - check out the link and come face the zombies if you can make it!  My own legions of zombies from a little while ago are going to join in the carnage, as well as the lady troopers from way back.

https://www.facebook.com/BlackRoninRolePlayingGames

Taran is also responsible for the splendid new banner at the top of the blog, many thanks!

Taken from their wide range of adventurers and other ranges, these figures are destined to be members of my henchmen squads.  Where the troopers I have from Heresy and Hasslfree are somewhat regimented, this figures are a more rag tag bunch, deliberately so as they are going to be on more dangerous missions, whether embarked in a flyer or acting as melee troops.

This first lady is, I believe a reference to Seline in Underworld, played by Kate Beckinsale.  Regardless, she's a tough looking one in a trenchcoat, bodyglove and packing 2 pistols.

Arguably this character is the same reference, but I am wondering if its more Kate in Von Helsing.  On this figure there's a great sense of movement in the swinging sword arm.

The huge bloke (no size reference I know, but trust me he's marine scale) is I think a Ghost in the Shell reference to Batou.  Wearing a bomber jacket and a t-shirt he's clearly not scared of anything - tiny gun too!

This gun toting teen is I think Buffy - I chose to give her a pulse rifle as I like the pose but there's no doubt she can handle herself at close range I like to think!

Lastly here's Hasslefree's own character Libby (who is I think is inspired by Sally White) in the Leia/Jedi cross over style.  A great figure and frankly with a light sabre a terror on the tabletop.

Where these characters had shiny leather elements on them, I've used some clear gloss finish acrylic to make them look the part, I think it works well and I've made sure I have a pot handy now for anything I do - although I have to paint it after varnishing as I use anti-shine spray!

This is only the first 5 I've completed, I have a bunch more ready to go at some point and Hasslefree have released a whole load more characters since my last order who are great as well!

Sci-Fi Troopers from Mantic and some 40k action

Some weeks a lot of projects come together all at once - its one of those this post.  I've been playing some bits of the new edition of 40k and with so many space marine armies around in our local group I was keen to bring something not in powered armour to the table.  As I've posted previously I'm collecting a Grey Knights army based around Inquisition troops and various other sci-fi miniatures I am interested in.

Very recently I got a copy of Mantic's Project Pandora as I was keen to try the game as I had heard good things from Frontline Gamer and the designer himself.  My ulterior motive was to get some of Mantic's Corporation figures to see if they would be another good source of troopers for my slowly growing force.

The Status Quo guitar swing in full motion

So what do I make of these guys?  They are roughly the right size to go with my Heresy and Hasslefree troops, although somewhat more spindly (possibly more realistic but less fun!).  The figures come with very limited options - a few alternate heads and a few special weapons (which I elected not to use).  Not the end of the world in my experience, but even the repeated 3 fixed pose bodies are very similar meaning the overall look of the squad is very repetitive.

My favourite kind of trooper, one with no face

The figures arrived already removed from sprues so I'm not quite sure whether what comes in the game box is the same as what's in the squad box if you buy them separately.  I also discovered the plastic is somewhat different to the previous plastic Mantic used, superglue being a better choice with this stuff than liquid poly.

The guns I found really hard to paint for some reason, especially given the industrial polymer (or 'grey') look I am using on my guys.  They also look slightly bent to me - see the blue dude above.

One of these things is not like the others...

Like the rest of the troopers so far, I'm continuing the red and blue squad split.  I was originally planning to make each squad a different colour, but this limits the intermixing I can do - especially as I don't know what figures I will eventually put in the army overall.  Inquisition henchmen squads have a lot of options.

The powerfist equivalent thingy is pretty nice actually

Overall I didn't much enjoy painting this squad, the model's details are quite shallow which means most of the detail is sort of hinted at rather than nicely raised and accessible to paint - especially for rank and file troops (potentially as cheap as 3 points each) I'm not willing to spend a lot of time teasing out subtle details!  The guys do fit into the rest of my troopers reasonably well, especially when mixed in.  I don't think I'll be getting any more of these to increase my army size and I fear these chaps will long be the first casualties from a squad (which in the new rules means putting them in front...)

So moving on, and to prove I'm not unfairly judging these guys, its time to show off some other figures from my growing force.  I'm still experimenting with the best way to get photos of my figs (I will give up and get a lightbox at some point) so excuse the spam here!

First up and key to the selections I am making is Inquisitor Coteaz.  By taking this dude as my HQ I get to take henchmen as troops rather than elites, allowing me up to 6 squads!

This is the first Finecast figure I got from GW and despite a few issues (I had to sculpt a new finger, fix a toecap and a few bubbles) the detail is exceptional on this thing.  I've since varnished it, but for the first few games he was unprotected and no paint rubbed away so the material seems to be pretty good if you can get a good casting.  My Mannfred Von Carstein on foot is story for another day...

In contrast to my issues with the Mantic guys, this figure was sculpted to be painted.  Despite the density of the detail in places I had no trouble going to town on him and am very pleased with the final result.  I also changed the skin tone as a nice reference to Samuel L. Jackson in Star Wars - you'll notice the hammer has a purple (s)haft.

Next up is another Hasslefree figure, the Smudgester.  Despite being tiny (that's a 25mm base he's on) he's full of character and perfect for use as a Jokaero in my henchmen.  I quite like the orang-outangs of 40k but this guy is even cooler if you ask me.  He also reminds me a man-hound character from the Ravenor series of novels called Fyflank - we'll come back to his owner in future.  The Jokaero are also quite small and have some unique abilities in game, the key one illustrated by this figure is being able to fire one of a variety of very heavy weapons each turn so I am very happy with this proxy.  I've named him Frank in reference to Men In Black's little alien talking Pug dog.

Next up are a couple more ABC warriors (from Foundry) - I'm getting close to having them all done now.  This is Deadlock who despite being generally a nice model has a pretty awful sword blade - I might replace it at some point.  So aside from being armed with a spatula like weapon this is another figure I like a lot with a lot of cape to go to town painting.  In game so far I've used him as a lone Paladin - yes I've actually got a Grey Knight (proxy) in my Grey Knight army, don't worry there wont be many!  Turns out having a unit of one is quite a lot of fun and the rules aren't a bad match for Deadlock's character.

Here's Ro-Jaws.  He's a toilet cleaning bot in the stories, so I use him as a servitor, it sort of fits.  I've upgraded the heating unit in his head to a multi-melta so he can do more than just fling poop at my opponent.

Finally (usually for me) some sneak previews of future bits for this force.

First up is a Knight Paladin figure.  Based on a design a friend of mine came up with using pieces from all sorts of GW kits, this huge figure (that's a Dreadnought base) is a reference to the Epic games of yesteryear. I've decided to use this as a Dreadknight - if I ever get my Mongrol built I'll have 2 then!

To finish here's my first Chimera proxy.  Its a land train/ bull dozer thing from Ramshackle games. This was a bit of a pain to build but it looks great (and check out the prices) so I may just get several more when they reopen their store.  They are roughly the right size and again fit in with another character theme I am working towards in this force.

Sci-fi Troopers from Heresy and Hasslefree

Been a few weeks last my last update, I've been very busy with holidays and other things - more on some of this next week.  For now, here's an update on my Rainbow (Grey) Knights as I've painted up a number of henchmen recently and another ABC warrior, enough to field a small force now and try them out with the 6th ed rules hopefully.

I really liked the idea of an inquisitor commandeering troops from all over the place as and when he needed them, especially if they were good at their job.  This was totally inspired by Dan Abnett's Eisenhorn and Ravenor series and offered my a really good opportunity to use figures from outside of GW's range.  Initially I was just going to supplement GW guardsmen and other henchmen with a few extras, but as time as gone on I have found so many excellent sci-fi figs out there, there's very little GW in my army yet and this may continue as there's been some amazing things  released I still don't have and think would be fun to paint and use.

There's a female trooper in this squad, can you spot her?

First port of call was Heresy.  Andy has made some really great sci-fi troopers that I've bulked out 2 squads of henchmen using.  The helmets really made me think of Halo so I've gone for Red vs Blue squads.

Follow me boys!

Painting these figures was pretty easy, they've been sculpted with this in mind I think!  To start with I painted the guns, boots and jump suits dark grey.  This was then washed with black ink (the new GW Nuln Oil is excellent with a couple of coats) to darken this down and the effect is good enough that no highlighting was required.  The boots get an extra couple of coats to really darken their colour.  After that its pouches, a mid brown with a brown wash over is good enough.  The armour plates are easy to pick out and each is a three stage (base, thick highlights, edging) process.  The visors are GW shining gold with GW Devlan mud to create the contrast.  The guns are based coated over the dark washed grey with GW codex grey to a mod grey and then edged with GW astronomicon grey.  Spot of GW blood red for laser sights and we're done.

Adding unique style to my squads

I am also a fan of Hasslefree miniatures and while I only have a few troopers from Kev (there are more you'll find) I do have plenty of his pulp, sci-fi and fantasy adventurers to use as other things in my army I'll hopefully show off in future.  These 4 ladies were actually from the Mantic special box set, I think one of them is exclusive to that set.  They were painted much the same as above, only these have skin! 

The lighter tones are GW tallarn flesh highlighted to GW elf flesh.  The darker tone was Coat d'arms Chestnut highlighted a blend of GW tallarn.

The final showcase this post is Joe Pineapples.  Another ABC warrior I've based very closely on the colours and art of Kev Walker.  Joe has looked different in many of the comics, the figure has all the details Kev added, but is posed based on Simon Bisley's work (see both pictures below).

Vindicare Assassin anyone?

My Joe is slightly converted to make his sniper rifle closer to the first art work pose and suggest the sniper role more obviously, using a spare Space Marine sniper rifle barrel I had.  Painting was a mixture of the techniques above for the leather jacket and a lot of blues and blending for the armour plates and goggles.  The base isn't quite finished and I may yet highlight the gun a bit more.