Those Who Were Undercoated

 Winter has come, and I am once again unprepared.

Undercoated Family photo

It's too cold to undercoat any of the projects that I want to concentrate on, so I've dug up a handful of already-undercoated models from projects I stalled on - most from years ago - and done a little brushwork on them. Not included here are three models finished from my Age of Sigmar Flesh Eater Courts, because I'm going to do a big project post for those when the whole army is finished. I also have the original Escher gang that I didn't finish for the last Old World Army Challenge I was in, but I haven't been able to do much on those yet.

I'm also working on some terrain, and I'm prepping a bunch of miniatures for when the weather warms up so that I undercoat tons at once. I really ought to plan these things better. Maybe next year...

guerilla leader

Daughter Ryla from North Star Military Figures's Stargrave range. Not exactly a civilian, she's in line with the mercenaries and other ne'er-do-wells I'm including in that project. A lovely, simple little sculpt, the hardest part was deciding what kind of camo to give her trousers and what colour her beret was. Turns out that beret colour is basically meaningless, so I could do whatever I wanted.

Her sword is quite grounded. Swords themselves are one of my favourite sci-fi concepts, but in her case she's a mercenary or freedom fighter and the sword should be quite pedestrian and worn.

definitely baseline human, no xenos dna whatsoever

A (definitely baseline) human monk of the Mechanicus (also North Star). I was trying to go for a very faded orange or saffron look here, involving lots of washes and thinned paints, and then hitting them with all kinds of washes. I think it turned out really well!

His definitely-not-including-any-genestealer skin tone was stolen from a tutorial I found online, but now forget -- maybe this Goonhamer collection? - because I realised his skin was quite knobbly and he only had three fingers on each hand. Because my civilians are grounded in 40k (albeit Rogue Trader-era space opera) rather than a Star Wars 'anything goes' style setting, I wanted a way to place him there. Think it works, and it's a fun contrast to his orange robes.

Biljo 'Buckets', ratling lay worker (and thief)

From Skull'n'Crown's Space Scrappers line (and therefore lying unpainted for a very long time), this guy was pretty easy to paint once I decided he was wearing a grey-blue jumpsuit like some other workers.

He is pretty well-armed though. I don't think this guy is doing his day job any more.

Spangdryll, Space Elf Pirate

Sprangdryll, Space Elf Pirate, also from Skull'n'Crown's Space Scrappers, a lovely classic style flat sculpt. Here he joins my Dark Elf Space Trooper as bodyguards to the Eldar Trader. 

He's in Alai Mercenary Corps sea green and pink with wraithbone weapons, something I prefer to do for Craftworld-inflected Eldar, although that power sabre might have seen better days and is notched and worn.

Eldar trader and bodyguards

Here is this tiny faction. If I used rules Necromunda18, these could work as one of those factions that lets you get extra guys. I'm not really sure how those work.

Arbites investigators

Couple of Arbites investigators (from North Star again). I was definitely inspired by axiom's old investigators here, especially with the touch of blue I added into their shoulder pads. I knew I wanted them relatively monochromatic and more grounded than leaning into their wonderfully cyperpunk style would otherwise go, and his similar work kept me focused.

Senior detective

I knew I wanted the lady to be Black, as in the North Star painting - her pink inner layer comes from there as well). In the end, I wound up using several shades of grey and white, with only the three pops of colour (and the tiny greebles on her cyberwear). Pretty pleased.

Enjoyed giving her a plastic gun. It's Weird and unlike anything else in setting, but for a senior Arbites investigator, makes sense. Let's you run it as anything you like, too.

Junior detective

The more junior detective is a little more grounded still. Ordinary hair colour, less cyberwear - a physical separate torch is a really fun touch. He has blue pants because uh that's what I decided.

Really enjoyed these two - very narrative sculpts.

definitely honest referees

And now for something different. These two have sat undercoated since before you could buy the damn things separately! I bought them from eBay because they looked fun to paint and then I immediately had painter's block. Even just now, they sat and stared at me for two weeks.

In the end, I just decided to do a bad job on them and push through it and they turned out okay.

elf referee

I mean, of course it's a red card. 

Unusually for me - probably because I decided these were being done badly anyway - I actually did add the fake writing to the scroll and, honestly? really pleased with how it came out. Good work, me.

dwarf referee

I think I originally planned not go make him a greybeard, but a) nobody would take a non-Longbeard seriously as a referee, first of all and b) it was way easier.

Again, of course the Big Book of Rules had to be red leather. I did enjoy making the other books various colours, though.

And that's it for the Undercoat Month of June. I have some miniatures to prep and some terrain I've painted and some new projects to plan but I doubt we'll get much more painted before I get warm weather... oh, yeah, those Escher. sigh. why am i finding these so hard.