"A Legendary Hero..."

"...To lead your Blood Angels into battle."

This small stand of two 15mm miniatures by "Alternative Armies" is comprised of a figure taken from their "The Ion Age" limited edition pack IAFL01 Hackett and Tasker, and one from Code IAF008 Retained Knight Post Charlie. The sculpts are designed to be used with the company’s “Patrol Angis” rule-set. But I’ve based and painted mine as a (proxy) Blood Angels Legion/Chapter Special Character for a home-brew game I've somewhat loosely based within the early Warhammer 30k/40k universe.

Perhaps understandably, it was the model of "the highly ranked Knight Commander Hackett" which took most of my attention, and not just because the little chap "is restricted to 500 numbered packs after which the moulds with these miniatures will be destroyed." As a result he was primed using a couple of licks of "Vallejo" Heavy Sienna, base-layered with plenty of Gold, and finally heavily shaded in "Citadel" Agrax Earthshade.

"Crooked Dice Game Design Studio" WIPs - Two Mast Beasts and a Strawbear

I then dry-brushed the leader with (more) "Vallejo" Gold, before settling down to the rather time-consuming task of picking out all the micro-details on his space-armour. This largely meant carefully tracing out Hackett's shoulder-pads with "Citadel" Abaddon Black and "Two Thin Coats" White Star, as well as dotting the odd piece in "Vallejo" Heavy Red and "Citadel" Carroburg Crimson". I also carefully picked out the model's sword hilt using a combination of "Vallejo" Heavy Sienna and "Citadel" Agrax Earthshade.

Finally, I decided against making the figure's sword blade particularly colourful, as I didn't want it to clash with all its gold armour. So stuck to simply pigmenting the Octa Sword with "Vallejo" Gunmetal and a splash of "Citadel" Nuln Oil. I also chose not to give the sculpt's robotic arm any special attention, preferring instead to leave it gold so it would just mingle in with the rest of the colour scheme.

"Crooked Dice Game Design Studio" WIPs - Two Tunnel Spiders and a Goat Kin

The Retained Knight was much more straightforward to get tabletop ready, having been undercoated with "Vallejo" Heavy Red. The 'beaky' space marine was subsequently heavily washed with "Citadel" Carroburg Crimson, and dry-brushed with (more) "Vallejo" Heavy Red. Finally, the crouched guy's hand-weapon was layered with "Citadel" Abaddon Black, and later treated to a combination of “Vallejo" Gunmetal and “Citadel” Nuln Oil.

Despite getting these two miniatures finished in a reasonably quick time period, I have disappointingly not made much progress on a number of metal figures by "Crooked Dice Game Design Studio" I was hoping to submit as entries into Angry Piper's annual "Monster May(hem)" monthly challenge over on the "Dead Dick's Tavern and Temporary Lodging" blog. Quite bizarrely, I've probably been wargaming more than painting over the past few weeks. But do still intend to get a number of these weird creatures finished in reasonably quick succession, as I want them as super-natural encounters for "The Silver Bayonet" by "Osprey Games".