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| "I am especially fascinated with the automaton..." |
This 28mm metal model of the “Guild Ball” Engineer Attacking
Midfielder Hoist is made by “Steamforged Games Ltd” and is one of the
manufacturer’s “Season Two” releases.
Reasonably straightforward to assemble, this multi-part miniature figure was initially undercoated with “Vallejo” Heavy Sienna and washed with “The Army Painter” Strong Tone Quickshade. The predominantly wooden construct was then dry-brushed with more “Vallejo” Heavy Sienna before having his metallic joints and numerous bolts ‘picked out’ with a combination of “Citadel” Ironbreaker and Nuln Oil. As a final step I applied some “Vallejo” Gold to both the edge of the figure’s head, and around his breastbone. These areas were subsequently washed with “The Army Painter” Strong Tone Quickshade in order to suggest that they were fashioned from lightly polished brass.
As with the automaton's team-mate Velocity, the player’s insert illustration makes it clear that a number of other metallic areas, such as the midfielder’s waist gears, shoulder pads and knee pads, should also partially be painted in brass. But as I found it somewhat difficult to apply just a thin layer of "Vallejo" Gold onto Hoist's head and chest areas I thought I would leave well enough alone...
Reasonably straightforward to assemble, this multi-part miniature figure was initially undercoated with “Vallejo” Heavy Sienna and washed with “The Army Painter” Strong Tone Quickshade. The predominantly wooden construct was then dry-brushed with more “Vallejo” Heavy Sienna before having his metallic joints and numerous bolts ‘picked out’ with a combination of “Citadel” Ironbreaker and Nuln Oil. As a final step I applied some “Vallejo” Gold to both the edge of the figure’s head, and around his breastbone. These areas were subsequently washed with “The Army Painter” Strong Tone Quickshade in order to suggest that they were fashioned from lightly polished brass.
As with the automaton's team-mate Velocity, the player’s insert illustration makes it clear that a number of other metallic areas, such as the midfielder’s waist gears, shoulder pads and knee pads, should also partially be painted in brass. But as I found it somewhat difficult to apply just a thin layer of "Vallejo" Gold onto Hoist's head and chest areas I thought I would leave well enough alone...
I’ve
yet to field the Engineer's team for a game of “Guild Ball”, but according to his rules, the player would appear to be "a resilient ball-carrier" who can "learn from the plays of other opponents." Indeed Hoist's "True Replication" ability allows the "wood and metal" construct to "choose a character play on target enemy [Human] [non-Captain] model's card and replace this Character Play with it for the rest of the game."
In addition the Mechanica enjoys the character traits "Tough Hide", which reduces any damage taken by -1; "Reanimate", which allows him once per turn to recover 3 Hit Points (and remove all conditions) when ordinarily the Indar would suffer the taken-out condition (0 Hit Points); "Sturdy", which allows the automaton to "ignore the first knocked-down condition place upon it", and "Drained [True Replication]", which means Hoist's influence is increased by [+0/+1] whenever he is actually imitating one of his opponent's Character Plays.
"Guild Ball" distractions aside I have been making some steady progress on my "Star Trek" project using some vessels from "Irregular Miniatures" impressive 6mm Spaceship range. Currently I'm working on two five-model strong batches of the manufacturer's Dysonian Blitzspear Class Corvettes. These tiny, somewhat fragile to handle, piratical fighters will hopefully form the vanguard of Romulan fleet determined to invade Federation space. But for now, they'll simply have to settle for being a thorn in Captain Clark Terrell's side.
Lastly I have been continuing to paint my two Beasts of Nurgle for "Age of Sigmar". These "Finecast" miniatures are cast by "Games Workshop" and are proving reasonably simple to paint on account of them predominantly needing just a few washes and dry-brushes. Certainly the greener of my two "mottled pallid slug(s)" is close to completion. Whilst it's tan-coloured colleague has a bit more work to do before I can even begin to pick out his claws, tusks and formidable tongue.
In addition the Mechanica enjoys the character traits "Tough Hide", which reduces any damage taken by -1; "Reanimate", which allows him once per turn to recover 3 Hit Points (and remove all conditions) when ordinarily the Indar would suffer the taken-out condition (0 Hit Points); "Sturdy", which allows the automaton to "ignore the first knocked-down condition place upon it", and "Drained [True Replication]", which means Hoist's influence is increased by [+0/+1] whenever he is actually imitating one of his opponent's Character Plays.
Lastly I have been continuing to paint my two Beasts of Nurgle for "Age of Sigmar". These "Finecast" miniatures are cast by "Games Workshop" and are proving reasonably simple to paint on account of them predominantly needing just a few washes and dry-brushes. Certainly the greener of my two "mottled pallid slug(s)" is close to completion. Whilst it's tan-coloured colleague has a bit more work to do before I can even begin to pick out his claws, tusks and formidable tongue.
I do like that figure of Hoist. However, your gloss varnish makes him look more metallic than wooden. I know parts of him should be metallic but the wooden parts don't look that wooden to me. Despite my criticism, I think he'd work well as a fully metallic assassin droid.
ReplyDeleteThere is certainly a lot more metal to Hoist than my previous Velocity paint-job Bryan, but in the flesh (so to speak) the wood is still very visible. Clearly the gloss varnish isn't doing him any favours in the photo. I'd actually like a range of minis based on this sculpt for "Blood Bowl", and would be tempted to convert a few if not for the figure's 'steep' price-tag.
DeleteThe beast of Nurgle looks fearsome indeed.
ReplyDeleteI also like the guildball player, a little dark for me and my naff eyesight to pick out any detail but nice figure none the less.
Thanks Clint. The Beast of Nurgle is a cracking unit, both to paint and on the tabletop itself. "Vallejo" Heavy Sienna is a little dark once washed with "The Army Painter" Strongtone. But I had hoped my dry-brushing it had lightened it somewhat.
DeleteI like the guild ball player, and I think any more amount of gold would have been too much imho.
ReplyDeleteI also like the further along in the painting process starship, too. Nice shading and colour green.
Cheers Roy. I think any more gold would have driven me mad too. The detail on the sculpt is very fine imho. Those first five Romulan pirates are now finished, and I'm on to the next five as a result. Glad you like them. A simple but hopefully effective paint-job.
DeleteNice work on these again
ReplyDeleteThanks Martin. Slowly starting to cull my way through the minis I've put aside for finishing this month :-)
DeleteI do like that Guildball sculpt, though as Bryan said he looks more assassin that footballer to my eyes.
ReplyDeleteThose Dysonian ship are a good colour, I have a couple of them myself somewhere , but I haven't painted them up, I think they are quite a bit poorer than a lot of the other ships in the newer Irregular range (sculpt wise, not your painting). They do a "not" Fireball XL5 too that is very nice (must pick some of them up some day, not sure of the code though).
Lastly nice work on the Nurgle stuff, you're really bringing out the detail on them. I'm not really bothered about seeing any of these in a Batrep soon though ;-)
Cheers Roger.
Cheers Roger. Hoist is a bruiser of a "Guild Ball" player apparently, so I get the impression the sculpt matches his prowess on the pitch.
DeleteI spent yesterday evening assembling a number of "Irregular Miniatures" sculpts and must admit to finding some of them a bit hit'n'miss. But these Blitzspear class corvettes are nice enough - if not extremely fragile to handle Ref their wings.
There's little chance of an "Age Of Sigmar" BatRep anytime soon, as I'll need to paint up my Khorne Bloodletters first, and they're a bit of a way down the painting list. Besides it'll give you a chance to post one first :-P
So nothing till 2025 then?
DeleteCheers Roger.
Well it will be if we're going by the frequency of your BatRep schedule ;-) On a serious point, I plan to paint a new "Age of Sigmar" unit every month for the foreseeable, so its more a question of when then never because I've flitted to something else - at least that's my intention anyway :-)
DeleteMore wonderfully repulsive and putrescent Beasts of Nurgle!
ReplyDeleteThanks Gordon. Lots of Nurgle stuff still to come, with the Lord of Plagues, Rotbringer's Sorcerer and Beasts of Nurgle all nearing completion.
DeleteAnother excellent addition. Great work on Hoist mate. :)
ReplyDeleteCheers Leon. I've painted both Velocity and Hoist simply because I liked the models as opposed to any real desire to play Engineers Guild. But having said that they are starting to grow on me :-)
DeletePuppy #1 is painting up a treat. Your washes in all these Nurgle figs have been very effective.
ReplyDeleteLike that your Star Trek adversaries will be Romulan! Good sneaky badguys to face off against!
Many thanks Dai. I think you'll like my Beast of Nurgle once he's posted up. As for the Romulans, they'll be the bad guys for my "Irregular Miniatures" "7TV" BatReps for some time to come, as I bought the Dysonian range just so I could see what they're like.
DeleteI'm deliberately steering clear of Guidball as I know I'd get sucked in! Hoist looks nice, due to the amount of wood he may have benefitted from a lighter wood tone but you've done a great job none the less. The starships are cracking as always and as for those beasties - top work so far!
ReplyDeleteCheers Andy. Having played "Guild Ball" I wasn't that taken with it. But I do like these wooden automatons of the Engineer's Guild. The "Vallejo" Heavy Sienna is the same colour as my Velocity, so I think the photo is just a little dark tbh. He certainly looks far more wooden to the naked eye.
DeleteGlad you like the "Star Trek" and Nurgle stuff. Obviously I have a lot more of these to come over the coming few weeks.
Several interesting projects there. I like the spacecraft best; I'll be interested to see how you progress in that area...
ReplyDeleteThanks Hugh. The majority of the first batch of my "Star Trek" spaceships are now finished, and simply need to be posted. hopefully you'll like them. but it's the Lord of Plagues next. praise be to Nurgle.
Delete