The Nations go to War!

Now that I have gotten some of the Bosses and heavy support completed for the Dark Nation, I wanted to contrast them with their former bretheren... the Warrior Nation

I have The Wendigo heavy support from the Dark Nation on the right, while the Great Elk, brims with the natural energies of the Great Spirit.

Great heroes of the Warrior Nation such as Geronimo and Sitting Bull face off against Big Horn and Avacano.  Right away, you can see that the Dark Nation have chosen to adopt the weapons of The Enemy, powered by the hated RJ-1027 power source.

Use of such a power source corrupts completely.  Each of the characters from the Dark Nation shows this corruption in one form or another.

Sitting Bull and Big Horn square off in these images.  

Geronimo will never use the RJ powered weaponry, choosing his own claws and his courage instead.  This is seen as foolhardy by the Dark Nation.  To turn the weapon of The Enemy against him can only mean ultimate victory!

It's not just great warriors, heroes and beasts that have turned against on another.  Yes, even the braves and scalpers have become divided.

This conflict will likely grow far worse, and far more deadly!  Stay tuned to find out what happens...

The Dark Nation

The Dark Nation of Wild West Exodus continues to grow, starting with this collection of massive critters!!

In the images, you see the great Wendigo Heavy Support, Avanco, and Big Horn.

Just like their Warrior Nation cousins, the Dark Nation have characters and heavy support that are creature based... but they are warped and twisted by the dreaded RJ-1027 energy source.

The Warrior Nation has shunned RJ-1027 as the weapon of the Enemy, but those in the Dark Nation believe that it frees them to be their true spirit animals... such as Walks Looking.

Soon I will have some contrasting images with the Warrior Nation, which will show the contrast even more starkly.

After painting all the blue Spirit Energy glow on their rivals, painting the Dark Nation in their sickly brown tones with the red glow of RJ-1027 has been fascinating.

It is these muted reddish and grayish browns that have allowed me to show a little more contrast than otherwise possible with a 'warm' orange on 'warm' browns.

The contrast with the Warrior Nation should be interesting, especially since all of the creatures were done in black fur and feathers, along with the blue glow!  Stay tuned!

Massive Firepower!

Lookie what we have here!!  It's the gigantic new heavy support for the Dark Nation.

This great beast is the Wendigo, and he is not shy about carrying along a set of rocket launching tubes powered by the dreaded RJ-1027 energy.

The base is a size of a DVD, which gives you a sense of the scale!  Ironically, for something so huge, the concept art and the nature of the critter itself called for a relatively restricted palette.

With one notable exception, that is.  The glow from that huge gun had to be as firey as possible, which meant that all those muted grayish browns would be the prefect foil for such object source lighting.

All the elements of contrast were available.  Light vs dark, saturated vs muted, and warm vs cool tones.  As you have heard me call it before, it is the triple play or hat trick of contrast, depending on your sport! :-)

It was nice that I could do a lot of the glow on the face, because all the deep sculpting elements could be brought out even more, and even make the face look more sinister.  Bright lights right under the face have a tendency to do that, even when it's not something as colossal as the Wendigo.

These views from above show how the base not only puts him in a 'setting' but it also stabilizes him in one place, as the thickest bark is right under the feet, where the pins are. 

Lookin' right at you!!

Now for the ultimate size comparison, with a standard hired hand on a 32mm base!

Bear Hug

Here's the latest character from Wild West Exodus.  His name is Avanaco, and he's smarter than your average bear.  Well, maybe not, but he sure packs more firepower than the average bear!!

Just like the rest of the Dark Nation, he uses the dreaded RJ-1027 energy which the enemies of the Warrior Nation have chosen to avoid.  This energy source is powerful, but it also corrupts.

While he can dish out major pain with this gun, he is no slouch when it comes to close combat either.

As usual, the Vallejo fluorescent paints were used to create the glowing effects.  When you have this many elements that are glowing, it can be pretty crazy to figure out where all the OSL should be placed.  There are times where you have to fudge a little, and skip an area here and there.

This was also unusual in that most of the figure was done in muted browns and less in cooler tones.  Normally I try to accentuate my glow colors by having the 'opposite' color temperature, but that is not always possible.

 In this case, I went with the muted vs highly saturated contrast.  Also, I made the fur and skin somewhat darker than if I was not trying to establish that glowing effect.

Little Big Horn

It's time to check out another new character for the Dark Nation... and his name is Big Horn.  This is part of the latest Wild West Exodus kickstarter campaign.

He is on a 50mm base, so that gives you an idea of how big he is :-)

He can deal out a lot of pain with either his axe or that shootin' iron, so look out!

The Dark Nation chose to split from their Warrior Nation brothers, utilizing the RJ-1027 energy source as the white invaders have done.  The Warrior Nation see this as a betrayal of all their beliefs, so I think there will be a number of interesting fights between these former kinfolk.

A Nation in Darkness

One of the four new factions from the latest Wild West Exodus kickstarter campaign was the Dark Nation, a twisted, warped version of the Warrior Nation.

While the Warrior Nation shuns the RJ-1027 powered weaponry of the other factions, some of their former brothers embraced it, and have been corrupted by it.

This is one of the Close Combat Savages of the Dark Nation Hired Hands set.  As with all of these sets, there are five Close Combat and five Long Range hired hands.  Each is in a completely unique pose, so all ten figures look dramatically different.

It was really interesting painting RJ glow on Nation figures... especially after painting several of the Scalpers with the natural blue energy!

Much more to come, so stay tuned!  Some of you are probably going to be getting your own kickstarter Dark Nation figures quite soon...

The Dark Nation begins

Time for another sprue set from the Unfinished Business kickstarter!

This ten man sprue contains the line troops (hired hands) from the Dark Nation, one of four new factions which will be introduced to the Wild West Exodus list quite soon.

As with all of the ten man hired hands boxes, each pose is completely unique, and the various pieces are carefully marked so that you can identify them.

And, as usual, you have five close combat hired hands, ready to mix it up with their larger combat halos.  The combat halo mechanic makes each game very dramatic, and makes each player have to deal with tough tactical choices.

The long range fill out the rest of the hired hands.

Here are some individual shots...

I have not determined how I wanted to base these yet, but I will probably go with a more basic landscape.  Perhaps there will be some burned out building remnants as well!

The Dark Nation have broken with the rest of the Free People, and chosen to use the dreaded RJ-1027 weapons.  This influence of the Dark Council has lead to their ultimate corruption.

Unlike the Warrior Nation, these RJ-1027 powered weapons will glow red, with the unnatural energy of the mysterious power source.

They are led by the now corrupted Walks Looking, and they also pack some serious light support weaponry.  The Heavy supports are truly colossal in size!!!

Stay tuned for the next batch of hired hands...