Analogue Painting Challenge: Sedition Wars Project - Sgt. Ramirez, Strain, and Drones

 

Up first for this entry are the latest additions to my ongoing Sedition Wars Project: Sgt. Ramirez, a tough Vanguard Samaritan heavy weapons trooper, and the Strain-infected version of the character. They were originally Kickstarter exclusives for the now long out of print Sedition Wars: Battle for Alabaster board game, from Cool Mini or Not and Studio McVey. This character, like several other in-game Vanguard and Firebrand models, is based on a media property: in this case, the smart-gunner Vasquez from the movie Aliens. 

From Studio McVey:

"Sergeant Ramirez is as tough as they come, and an ace with the Reaver support weapon! Laying down accurate and thunderous suppressing fire is a specialty.  Just don't talk back to the sarge!"

"It looks like Ramirez didn't quite detonate that grenade in time.  Get a free Strain version of Ramirez with every Ramirez!"

Sedition Wars is a very fun, but currently relatively unknown, board game. Very much like playing in the universes of Resident Evil or Altered Carbon, as the hi-tech, computer-networked, cloned Vanguard are pitted against the nano-virus-fueled zombies ("Revenants" in Sedition Wars parlance), and other tougher (d)-evolved creatures of the Strain. Always lots of cinematic events.

Cleaning up these resin/plastic models had its problems, which I encountered when first starting this project back in 2013.  You can't file "restic", and you can't scrape it easily; you have to cut off mould lines with a fresh, sharp X-acto knife. It took a couple of hours with a zirconium nitride blade to clean up these two figures, and I am still not fully happy with my cleanup job.  I pinned both figs to scenic bases provided in the game. 

After priming with trusty GW Chaos Black, I airbrushed several thin layers of Golden titanium white acrylic paint for the zenithal highlights. I airbrushed downwards around the model, with an emphasis of about a 60 degree angle from above and in front of the head of the model, giving a spotlight effect on the front of the figure. 

For her Vanguard version, I pre-painted the flesh tones in Vallejo Face Painting set acrylics, using the colours for tanned flesh, then laid in various Winsor & Newton and Schminke tube oil paints to emphasize highlights and shadows and to smooth out transitions. Multiple thin glazes of Games Workshop Biel-Tan Green and Seraphim Sepia washes were laid on, respectively, the armour and gun. This really brings out the highlights of areas like the tops of the shoulders and calves, and shadows like the small of the back and underneath the limbs. Further highlights were done with dots of oils.

For the Strain version of Ramirez, the decayed skin flaps, exposed muscles, tubular bits, claws, and protuberances  were painted with various greens, brown, purples, reds, and pinks from the Army Painter Zombicide Warpaints sets (Scaly Flesh, Zombie Flesh, Toxic Boils, Crusted Sore, all glazed with Zombie Shade). I punched up highlights with various artists' oils.

Below, after acrylics were laid in, before the oils.

The bases were glazed with Vallejo Rust and Secret Weapon Stone washes, then finished off with weathering powders and some oils.

Afterward, both figures got a coat of Tamiya Semi-gloss (TS-79), and Matt (TS-80) spray can paint. For the Strain Ramirez form, I went back with some Citadel Blood for the Blood God and Green Stuff World Coagulated Blood, to add various blood effects. This was used judiciously around the fleshy tubes, skin tears, and seeping from the claws.

Below, Sgt. Ramirez is seen in action on a Sedition Wars map board, fighting alongside fellow Vanguard. She is gunning down Revenants, whose corpses leave clouds of green nano-virus that still may infect the humans!

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In the game, the Hurley A.I. is a sentient drone tank that can field 3 types of mini-drones (Attack, Defense, and Sentry drones). I had previously painted up 3 mini-drones. Hurley can control up to 6 (2 of each type), so  I also added 3 more of these neat, injection-moulded plastic models. Another KS reward, they look much better than cardboard counters. After zenithal highlights, I painted them much as I did Ramirez' armour, plus adding some light weathering with oils and powders. 

For scale, below is a photo of the mini-drones, Hurley, and Corpsman Morgan Vade, a hero combat medic from the game.

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I recently received some more pre-production Vanguard Samaritan models, resin masters that have very crisp detail, are easy to work with, and will paint up nicely! I also now have all of the KS exclusive characters.  I look forward to adding more to this project. With those, plus some extra starter boxes' contents, I am spoiled for choice!

Battle Foam makes a foam tray that fits inside the game box. So far I have painted up all the models required to play the 9 scenarios included in the base game, plus several extra models. The 59 models  include extra level-1 Strain; you can never have enough, since dead Vanguard can be resurrected as Strain Revenants!

With five 28mm models, this ongoing multi-year project is also Under Construction. Total = (5 x 5) + 20 = 45 points for the Challenge.

Sedition Wars Cthonian - Boss Fight!

This is the latest addition to my Sedition Wars Project: the Cthonian, a large, tough Strain monster used in the final scenario in the Outbreak Campaign rules included in the Battle for Alabaster boxed set. In the above photo, the Cthonian is shown next to a 28mm Hasslefree figure, that I painted in the same colours of the Samaritan infantry that oppose the Strain.

From Studio McVey:

"Phase 5 Exo-form – Cthonian: A massive conglomeration of evolved bio-mass combined with a powered armour carapace. The outer shell is a fully functional exoskeleton wrapped around a squid-like body composed of extremely resilient tissue. Capable of regenerating damage with dark matter conversion, this creature is nearly impossible to kill without the use of high output energy weapons. In addition to its defensive capabilities, the creature is armed with a gravitic beam weapon and a lethal nano-weapon capable of mutating a living target almost instantly."

Again, cleaning up this resin/plastic model  had its problems, which I outlined when first starting this project some years ago. You can't file it, you can't scrape it easily; you have to cut off mould lines with a fresh, sharp X-acto knife. It took hours with a zirconium nitride blade, and I am still not fully happy with my cleanup job.  I posed the figure lifting one foot, and cocked the head off a little to its left, to add some visual interest. There's a thick piece of wire pinning the right foot to the 50mm diameter plastic base.

I used many very thin layers for the zenithal highlights. Only 6 drops of colour (5 drops Vallejo white and one drop Golden sepia airbrush paints) in the small metal cup in the airbrush, 5 drops of thinner, and the rest water. This was airbrushed downwards at a 45-degree angle all around the model. Then, switching the pigment portion of the mix to 6 drops of only Vallejo white, I airbrushed downwards at about a 60 degree angle from above and in front of the head of the model, giving a spotlight effect on the front of the figure. As I have described before, with such thin coats you don't see the spray pattern of dots of pigment, just smooth transition from light to dark.

The various exposed tubular bits and the flower-like protuberance of the left "arm" (the nano-weapon) were highlighted and shaded with various purples, reds, and pinks from the Army Painter Zombicide Warpaints Sets (Crusted Sore, Toxic Boils, glazed with Zombie Shade).

The chitinous armour plates got several glazes of Citadel Seraphim Sepia shade. The upper portions of the carapace and the armoured face got some punched up highlights with various Vallejo acrylics and artists' oils. I also did some dot filters using oil paints to break up the surface of the plates a bit.









The rear of the figure falls into shadow, but details of its major structures can still be seen.



The gravitic beam weapon on the right arm was worked up from Winsor Blue to Titanium White.



The base was airbrushed with Secret Weapon Stone wash, then finished off with weathering powder and some oils.

After the whole figure got a coat of Tamiya Semi-gloss spray (TS-79), I went back with some Citadel Blood for the Blood God, to add some fresh blood effects. This was used judiciously around the fleshy tubes, the flowery nano-weapon, and seeping from between some of the chitin plates and between the tentacles.

After painting up the figure, I actually like how it looks. It seems to radiate menace, and is a good implementation of the original Studio McVey concept art:

With the 55 figures I have painted up, I can now run all the games in the Outbreak Campaign provided in the basic box, with some extra Strain models to boot.

I recently received some pre-production Strain models, cast in a very crisp resin; easy to work with, and will paint up nicely! I look forward to adding more to this project. With those plus all the extra boxes' contents and some Kickstarter exclusives, I am spoiled for choice

Sedition Wars - Commodore Grist

(Click on photos to enlarge.)

I have mentioned before the cool heavy armour of the Sedition Wars universe, the Gnosis Battlesuits. In-game, such equipment is issued to the elite of the Vanguard. These suits are like little tanks; they're immune to nasty things like acid and fire, and when finally wrecked the pilot can climb out to continue the fight!

Back in 2013, Studio McVey released a high quality resin sculpt for Salute 2013, Commodore Grist. I managed to find one over the summer online, and just finished painting it up.

I used many very thin layers for the zenithal highlights. Only 5 drops of colour (4 white and one green) in the small metal cup in the airbrush, 5 drops of thinner, and the rest water. You don't see the "dots" of the spray as much, just a smooth transition from dark to light. See the shoulder pads and gun in the photo below.





I did most of the head/face in Vallejo acrylics, with some oil paints to smooth out transitions.

I augmented the usual glazes of Coelia Greenshade (the green parts of the armour) and Fuegan Orange (shoulder pads) with actual painted colour layers in acrylics. The armour and shoulders used the Vallejo Yu Jing paint set. However, Seraphim Sepia continued to work well on the gun and the "plumbing" of the suit. I used artists' oils for blending, point highlights, and special effects such as chips, scrapes and impact damage. Vallejo powder went on the lower part of the boots. I airbrushed the base separately with Secret Weapon Stone, and weathered it with oils.





Below, the nominal light source for painting highlights and shadows was above and in front of the figure's forehead.





The rear parts of the figure fall into slight shadow.




I also debated painting Vanguard insignia on the shoulders using freehand techniques. Decided against it. The Vanguard don't seem to use insignia on their Gnosis armour. Maybe their connection to the Tac-Net precludes the need for visual identification? I can always go back and add some markings.



I debated using OSL to make the muzzle of the plasma gun glow, but decided against it.




Below, details of the power fist and its damage.




Comparing this to previous Vanguard figures, the armour colouring  is deeper and richer, I think because I am not just relying on glazes over white for the highlights.

Just one more figure, the big boss Cthonian, to complete phase one (the Battle for Alabaster boxed set) of the Sedition Wars project.


Kara Black's sword in NMM

Back in September, I attended a great painting seminar put on by Polish master modeler Michal Pisarski, winner of both the Crystal Paintbrush and GW Slayer Sword. The seminar was all about skin tones and non-metallic metallics. The figure we used was a large scale bust of a vampire. At the end of the seminar weekend, he shared some tips on painting wargame scaled figures.

He completely repainted the blade of my Kara Black figure from Sedition Wars. From Michal's POV, at this scale less is more. He painted the blade flat black. The hottest highlight is at the tip of the blade, in pure white. IIRC, he added blue to the mix as he worked down the blade toward the hilt. Note also the very fine scratches and irregularities along the blade's length. Michal's brush control is superb; this was all done in about 10 minutes with watered down acrylics.

Sedition Wars Project Revisited

(Click on pictures to embiggen.)

Sedition Wars is very fun, but is currently a relatively unknown board game. Very much like playing Resident Evil, as the hi-tech Vanguard are pitted against the nano-virus-fueled zombies ("Revenants" in Sedition Wars parlance), and other (d)-evolved creatures of the Strain. Always lots of cinematic events.

A little while ago Conscript Byron and his lovely wife Kim shared side-by-side cabins with Jen and I near Clear Lake. With no WiFi, we hiked and stuff in the daytime, and played board games at night. I had originally wanted to bring out a table of terrain and some minis to do skirmish gaming. With the car already full of luggage and provisions for a week away, I decided to bring Sedition Wars as my figure gaming fix. We had fun playing a couple of scenarios with Byron's friend, Thomas.

(Below) I really like the Vanguard miniatures; the Grenadier is a crisp, resin version from Studio McVey, the other two are restic models from the Sedition Wars boxed set.

Below are three types of undead Revenants (the most horrific is the one with the deflated human head in the middle), and a couple of "evolved" Strain, a Stalker and an acid-firing Quasimodo.

We usually play the game on fully terrained tables, but the cardboard map elements from the game are colourful, and much more portable!

Don't roll low when fighting evil from the depths of space!

Our recent games prompted me to turn back to my (fairly large) collection of Sedition Wars models. I have the contents of at least three basic game boxes, plus some KickStarter exclusives I picked up online, and some very nice resin pieces from Studio McVey before they stopped trading. I decided to tackle the second-toughest Strain model in the entire game, an awesome Grendlr.

ETA: Here's Studio McVey's post about the design and sculpting of the figure: 
https://studiomcvey.blogspot.com/2012/06/sculpting-grendlr.html

To start off with, there were some severe gaps on the restic model, which I filled with epoxy putty . Restic has its own problems, which I outlined when first staring this project some years ago. You can't file it, you can't scrape it easily; you have to cut off mould lines with a fresh, sharp X-acto knife.

The creature has the in-game ability to swallow a human-sized figure whole, and convert it into something else. Bleah!

I pinned the tongue to the mouth, and the feet to the base, with brass wire. I drilled extra-deep locating holes for the tentacles.

Studio McVey also provided their own tutorial on the assembly of this model: https://studiomcvey.blogspot.com/2013/01/grendlr-assembly.html

Below on the right is the assembled figure; alongside for scale is a resin alternate sculpt of Kara Black (in the game, she's a clone of the Vanguard commander, actually).

After initially priming the figure with Chaos Black, I started zenithal highlighting with flat white using an airbrush. Partway through the session, the paint started to spatter. I finished the high highlights with a quick dusting of Citadel Wraith Bone (which is an off-white spray can paint used as a base for GW's new line of Contrast Paints). Project saved!

I started from the inside out, as it were. The various exposed muscle striations, inner mouth, tongue, and tubular bits were highlighted and shaded with various purples, reds, and pinks from the Army Painter Zombicide Warpaints Sets (with apt names like "Crusted Sore" and "Toxic Boils"). I used Citadel's new Technical Contrast Medium to add to the paints and washes, which helped with wetness and flow.

The skin areas around the lower mouths and torso were glazed with Citadel's old Ogryn Flesh wash, then painted with tones from the Vallejo Face Painting Set. The chitinous armour plates got several glazes of Citadel Seraphim Sepia shade. The claws and teeth were highlighted with various P3 and Vallejo cream and off-white colours, then glazed with Army Painter Zombie Shade. The upper face (with the guns) got some NMM work.

The base was glazed with Secret Weapon Stone wash, then finished off with weathering powders and oils.

After the whole figure got a coat of Tamiya Semi-gloss spray, I went back with some trusty Citadel Blood for the Blood God, which provides a suitably viscous, fresh blood effect. This was used judiciously where skin was tearing, and dripping from a couple of claws.

The gaping maw is truly disturbing, as Jen opined.

With this figure I can now run 8 of the 9 scenarios in the included Outbreak Campaign setting.

The only model left to do is the Cthonian, a large, tough model used in the final Boss Fight. I actually find the model to be a little underwhelming, not having the bulk of the Grendlr. I have at least three of these, so I could paint up one as stock for play, and convert another with some GW Juggernaut parts I already have.

Keeping Track of the Strain

I had previously labelled the various identical Vanguard models with etched brass numbers, to keep track of the similarly-armoured and -equipped models during play. From our recent games, it occurred to me to do the same for the Strain. So, I used etched brass letters from Hasslefree Miniatures to label the Revenants, Stalkers, and Quasimodos from, literally, A-Z. The remaining, larger Strain have no dupes, so there's no need at this time to label them (likewise there's no labels on the individual, named heroes on the Vanguard side). I affixed the brass letters with Micro Krystal Kleer, and washed them with a bit of GW Nuln Oil to help pick them out.

Project Progress

So far, it's 53 models (plus a bunch of terrain) for this ongoing project. For immediate carry and play, I got a foam insert from Battle Foam which fits in the original game box. It holds the figures I have completed, plus dice, counters, rules, and the cardboard map boards. It doesn't hold the models' printed stat cards, which I have sleeved to use dry-erase markers on, to track wounds.

With another 30+ Vanguard, including some awesome heavy powered-armour resin figs, and a horde of Strain, I could be painting SW stuff for years to come!

Below, a full squad of Vanguard wearing Gnosis heavy powered armour; resin figs by Studio McVey, painted by Angel Giraldez:

Space Hulk!!

Last night I pulled out Space Hulk to play with the lads. (You'll note that these are the old school first- and second-edition sets, not the latest "Genestealers think they're Spider-Man" version). A couple years back I found and painted a complete set of the original metal Terminators and love to wheel them out to play with as well.

I love the old Space Hulk game - it's simple but not necessarily simplistic, and everyone digs the visuals of Terminators exploring the corridors of a rusty space hulk with Genestealers lurking around every corner.

OK men single file, no pushing...

The first mission we played, Conscript Mike A. and I had two Terminator squads and had to get five Terminators off the board in the designated exit spot. Conscripts Mike F. and Brian ran the 'stealers. Mike A's group of Terminators ran interference for my guys mostly, and got chewed up, but MAN did his assault cannon rock, accounting for 15 or more 'stealers!
   

Come get some!!!

I wonder what's behind this door?

Oh crap!!!

Shufflin' towards that exit

The 'stealers were too much for the Terminators, killing six to prevent the Marines' victory conditions.

Game 2 setup

So we set aup again for a different mission; this time the Terminators had to deactivate a control panel on the far side of the board. We switched sides too so Mike A. and I ran the 'stealers.

Here we go again...

No problem Sarge, I got this one... erk

One lone Terminator survived the gauntlet and reached the control room, but by that time it was chock-a-block with Xenos and he had no chance.

As an aside, we find when we play that the Terminators rarely (if ever) win! Any commenters willing to weigh in with some tactical hints or suggestions?