Today we have another WarZone 1st Edition model that I’ve literally just finished up and photographed – an Imperial Blood Berets HMG Specialist. Again, this one is still available from Prince August for anyone interested in picking one up themselves. I started this model back in the 1990’s but never finished it. I actually collected enough figures for an Imperial force in WarZone – both the standard English/British models as well as the Highlanders, but never finished painting any of them or managed to play with them. At least I’ve now finished one of them! I quite enjoyed freehanding the Imperial icon on his shoulder, and adding in a beret badge with paint, using shades to attempt to make it look like an actual sculpted one.
The reason I picked this one to paint back in the day was simply because I liked the model, but on a related note to that, it got put aside and forgotten as I didn’t have any pressing reason to actually complete it. Not that there was too much to do, but finding him so close to completion last week in the WarZone case led him to getting pulled out, given a new 32mm base and having those last parts of the model completed.
The armour and scheme is pretty simple, but I’m okay with that. It’s a 20-something year old model that’s been completed after 20 years. The paint is clean but decent – and more importantly, finished – That’s it really, and good enough for me once again. – not too much story behind this one, but it’s another neglected model completed for this month’s challenge. Now that he’s been finished and photographed, he can go back to sitting in limbo. At least until he gets some mates to form a unit for games for some purpose beyond being used in board games like Frag!
Azazel's Bitz Box. 
Great work on a very cool model… I think I have this one somewhere, bought as a heavy stubber for a necromunda project that never eventuated…
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Thanks mate – I certainly know *that* feeling!
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20 years, now that’s what I call neglected!
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Yeap! Now you see why I run these things!
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Cool mini mate, that’s a classic ‘let’s rock’ pose 🙂
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I believe that’s a big part of why I chose this model to paint and not one of his assault-rifle-armed brethren! 🙂
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Great work on the shoulder insignia. I said it before, but I am always amazed how good your early work is.
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Thank you. I’ll have to find “Hot Rod!” – I thought I’d posted him up at some stage in the past, but couldn’t find him, so I’ll get him up on here.
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I’ll say it again, your bases are great. There, I’ve said it. Despite IRO accusing me of being wordy, that was pretty short and sweet, right?
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Oh wait, I have more to say. It’s a nice looking model and the colors are good. But again, on that base, I wouldn’t feel bad about using him in any modern game. The figure might stand out a bit in that older blocky GW way, but would almost fit in, just from that base.
Which now brings me to a question which I’m not sure about. Why the black trim on the base? I know it’s considered old school to paint the base trim in green or brown, etc. But most people have been painting the trim in black for awhile now. Yea, I’ve been out of the hobby for a long time and things change, but just wondering if there is some artistic reason? I’m guessing that if all the minis have a black trim, you have more unity than if some were brown or green, etc. It’s something I’ve been debating on as I think about starting the next Blood Bowl team (someday). As I used to paint the trim green (or sometimes brown), as it blends in with the grass pitch better.
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Thanks for the kind words on the bases. I have to say that the introduction of 32mm bases has had a LOT to do with me being able to do that bit more with my bases, so I’m able to stick these little bits of slate onto them for a bit more …depth? interest?
As for black rims? One reason is because I started painting minis with slottabases back in the Rogue Trader/WHFB3 days, when the typical model shown in WD and rulebooks had a black rim. So there’s almost 3 decades of inertia there. I know a lot of people who started a few years later have a preference for Goblin Green rims for similar reasons.
The thing is I stuck with black rims for a few reasons – the most important ones being aesthetics and (less so, these days) unity. It feels to me that the black rims give a bit of separation to the models that in turn lets them look a bit better across many table surfaces. Like – desert bases with brown rims on a desert mat does look good, but then when you place those models on a snow base they look a bit more awkward (to my eye, anyway).
Like here:
Somehow, I feel like, despite the bases being entirely different the models still manage to somehow not look terrible on the snow mat.
(scroll down through that link for a lot of other examples)
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Thanks for the advice, I appreciate it. The photo sold me. 🙂
It makes sense. The black gives kind of a shadow outline, like you might see on a figure in a isometric video game. Though they usually use colored circles, so that the figure doesn’t blend into the background.
With GW having released all kinds of different pitches now, it really made me question about painting the base rims a different color. White rim for a snow pitch is going to look really bizarre on a lava field, and vice versa. When GW only had the green pitch, made more sense. So black, it is!
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Yeah, the multiple pitch type thing was something I thought of right after posting. Green works fine if you’re only using the one that came in the box, but with all of the additionals getting physical form for the first time ever (outside of custom ones) there’s now all that variation.
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I did exactly the name as you and bought this back in the day as I thought it looked cool. It’s a reassuringly chunky piece! You’re making me want to crack on with my Wolfbanes. Love that you’re doing all these on 32mm bases.
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Yeah, the 32mm bases really work well on these – as they do even on Rogue Trader Marines 😉
I’ve got a ton of unpainted WarZone stuff, but unless it’s already part-painted, it’s now competing with everything released since then for my painting time…
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