Lelu & Lilitu

Well, I caved and picked up a Lelu and a Lilitu.  Damned impulse buys. 

Rules-wise, this pair looks fantastic for any Neverborn master.  Lilitu has plethora of abilities and spells which target an enemy's Willpower (always a good thing in a Pandora crew), and she can cast Lure with the best undead hookers around with a trigger to allow her to cast it again on the same target!  Lelu has a couple of Wp abilities/spells but he really is just a melee beatstick, and for his cost he's excellent in that regard.  Their biggest weakness is that each relies on the other... if one dies, the other won't survive long. 

Model-wise, Lilitu is a beautiful sculpt.  Just beautiful.  My only concern is with the chain, which is very easily bent and eventually will likely break.  I think even with careful tabletop use this won't last long, and there's no way I could put it in a typical foam carry case and have it come out in the same shape on the other end.  I may end up replacing it with a more simple whip using brass rod, but I'll see how long the stock whip lasts first. Lelu on the other hand is just not that great a model, and next to Lilitu the difference is huge.  He's pretty chunky, and I think he would've been fantastic were he scuplted as a lean, graceful, stalking predator type.  Alas, his pose and sculpt leave much to be desired, and not much you can do with him to make it any better. 

Trying out Inks

I`ve had some good feedback regarding the models so far.  One fellow gamer suggested that the transition from white to greens was too harsh, and recommended using inks to create a smoother transition. At first I tried just using watered down paints to cheat it, but not with great results.  So I'm taking the challenge to learn a new technique using inks.  Tonight was my first attempt.  I took a series of pictures hoping to post them up, but most were either a little blurry and/or reflecting too much light to show the subtle differences.  Unfortunately the lighting is not ideal (single lamp, needs to be direct to get enough light), and I'm also taking pictures with my phone (seems to do a better job than my wife's Coolpix 3000, go figure).  But figuring all that out is a project for later.

Here's one photo taken after applying a few watered down coats of green ink around the transition area.  After this I tried to bring out the white highlights a bit with a 3:1 water:white highlight but this turned out to be still too pigmented and wiped out most of the blending on the ridges.  I saved what I could with a wet brush, added a bunch more water to the mix (probably 5:1 or 6:1 at this point) and re-applied it with better results.


Outcome:

I didn't expect it to be perfect the first time.  As I was using a mini which I had previously tried to paint on the green-to-white transition the result isn't what I was hoping for (it was doomed to fail in this case).  Next time around I'm gonna take the time to re-paint the whites first (shading and all) and start fresh.

What's in the box?!

I made a little more progress tonight, only got about an hour and a half in.  I finished highlighting up the skin tones on Pandora, Candy, Kade, and the Doppleganger.  I also got the base layer and first highlight (Codex Grey and Fortress Grey) on all the areas that will be white.  The Dreamer was also recently based and primed so I figured I'd work on his night shirt while I was at it. 

I think an all-white teddy might be too much with Kade's white diaper, so I think I'll make his teddy's arms purple to break it up a little.  Doppleganger has the opposite issue I think, I wouldn't mind getting some white in that blanket, maybe a stripe along one edge or something.  I'm not sure yet what colour to use for Pandora's boots, black would be nice, or tan/leather.  I'm even tossing around the idea of white boots, too much maybe?  I like the way Candy is coming along. 

O, Woe is me!

I've made some progress on my Pandora crew.  As you can see, the crew has a purple and bright-green colour scheme.  At first I wasn't sure I liked how the purple (GW liche highlighted to warlock purple) went with the bright scorpion green, but it's starting to grow on me. 

Above are Pandora's Sorrows and her two totems, the Poltergeist and Primordial Magic.  To the Left are three GW Horrors which are being used to proxy the Insidious Madness from the Malifaux: Rising Powers supplement.

Most recently I've got started on the flesh highlighting for Pandora, Candy, Kade, and the Doppleganger.  These minis will have the bright scorpion green used sparingly, hopefully to balance out the huge amount of it used on the above crew members.

Episode I - A New Blog

A long time ago in a galaxy... much like this one.  Very much like this one.  Indistinguishable from this one in fact.  Ok, it's the same galaxy.  Never mind.

I've created this blog as a place to post stuff.  Gaming stuff.  Miniature gaming mostly.  I'll have work-in-progress pics, possibly discussions of tactics, maybe some reviews, and what have you.  We'll see how it goes.  I make no promises as to where it's going.  We'll find out when we get there.

I hope you enjoy, and happy gaming.

-Mark