An Ancient Dynasty Dating Back Before Human Record..."

"...The Nautican Empire has reigned supreme over the underwater kingdoms."

This 28mm scale white metal model is produced by “Crooked Dice Game Design Studio” and can be bought either separately as Nautican Warrior B, or as part of their DEAL 415 Nautican Warriors four-figure set. Sculpted by Iain Colwell and Ian Mountain, these miniatures would appear to have been somewhat inspired by Gerry Anderson's Aquaphibians for his 1964 television series "Stingray".

However, as I wanted to give the water-breather a bit more of an Atlantis vibe, I decided to give the "warlike under-sea" villain an undercoat of "Citadel" Abaddon Black, rather than treat him to a prime of "Vallejo" Heavy Grey - as I've previously done with the resin 3D print of one of tyrant Titan's minions by "Big Mr Tong" some years ago. As a result I was then able to apply a combination of "Vallejo" Gunmetal and "Citadel" Nuln Oil to his vest, turning it into chainmail as opposed to just a string vest.

"Crooked Dice Game Design Studio" WIPs - Three more Nautican Warriors

I then applied plenty of "Vallejo" Deep Sky Blue to the model's bare arms, legs and head, and subsequently gave these areas a shade using some heavily watered-down "Citadel" Drakehnof Nightshade. Certain parts of the figure, such as the fingers, forehands, eye-ridges, nose and head-tips were later given an extra lick of "Vallejo" Deep Sky Blue to help contrast them with the rest of the sculpt from 'three foot away.'

I also considered doing something more than simply dot the fish-man's eyes with a spot of "Citadel" Abaddon Black - perhaps giving them 'normal' black and white eyeballs or pure "Vallejo" Heavy Red ones. But ultimately I figured the pure black ones somehow made the figure look suitably menacing, especially with the aforementioned "Vallejo" Deep Sky Blue highlights surrounding them.

"Crooked Dice Game Design Studio" WIPs - Three of four Alien Legionnaries currently being progressed

Perhaps unsurprisingly considering how enjoyable pigmenting this 'test piece' was, I have set to work on the three remaining Nautican Warriors by "Crooked Dice Game Design Studio". Now I'm happy with their colour scheme I've already made some good headway on the trio's chainmail, trident tops and parts of their blaster rifles, so should soon be ploughing through all the base layers of their flesh.

Likewise, I've managed to get all the black leatherwork roughly done on four more Alien Legionnaries by Karl Perrotton's company too. This phase of their paint-scheme is by far the most tiresome and tedious. Yet now it's done on the entire quartet I can simply take each "Flash Gordon" influenced figure in turn and clean them up with plenty of "Vallejo" Heavy Red and "Citadel" Carroburg Crimson...