Today’s post features another half-dozen figures completed in April, too late for the Gender-Ambiguous model challenge or the Squad: March challenge – and certainly not something I can count for Armoured April. No matter – done is done, after all – and that’s ne’er a bad thing…
I’m not sure what the “official” paint scheme for these is supposed to be, but let’s face it – I gave (and give) zero fucks about the lore of this particular box of miniatures with a game shoehorned onto it. When I first saw them on the Kickstarter page, I had the very thought that stayed with them to conclusion. Proxy Flesh Hounds of Khorne.
Once in hand, I decided I wanted to give their clearly-inspired-by-the-Xenomorph(s)-from-Alien(s) noggins a good dose of recognition towards their progenitors. This is one of the things that took awhile, and delayed their completion into the following month. Eventually, I went with several fairly transparent layers of black over the red, sort-of blending into the main red of their bodies. To complete the effect, the foreheads were finished in gloss, mixing into gloss-satin, and eventually the satin-matt of their bodies.
There’s a bit more definition in the red in hand, but I’m apparently not great at photographing reds, and I didn’t want to go too far into either orange nor pink for the highlights. Besides, these models are fairly nice, but not exactly amazing either, so they’re not the kinds of models I’m going to agonise over too much. I think they look pretty fit for purpose, and so I was good with calling them done at the point you can see them here.
Unlike so much of the rest of Adrian Smith’s “The Others: 7 Sins” work, there’s not a lot of overly sexual imagery in play with these models. You might be able to argue a subtle bit of vagina dentata with their mouths (especially the open ones with unlocked & spread lower jaws), but at least it’s a bit more subtle here. Of course, if you know of the origin of the cranium shape of Giger’s Alien, there’s something to be said there as well, and I don’t for a moment expect someone like A.S. to be unaware of that. So I guess it’s not so different, after all. At least if you know what you’re looking at… (and wait till we get to the next batch of the models from this particular game!)
I’ve still got the controller to finish for this little faction to be complete. Unfortunately, he looks like Discount Hellboy to me, and so isn’t exactly inspiring, sitting there on the desk with some basecoats applied…
Azazel's Bitz Box. 
Wonderful paintjob, and I like the “infernal hound has close encounter with Alien” sculpt! 😉
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Thank you, Carlo – there’s another thing I can proxy them for, if necessary! 🙂
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Always need more little Aliens 🙂
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Nicely done dude – really cool blending & gloss work on their heads! I can see these gribblies being useful in all kinds of situations – ‘nids, squigs, deathworld hunters & khorne-pups all spring to mind
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I agree, the blending and such on the heads and feet was nice; an effective counter-point to the bright red. You are right, Azazel, they’ll certainly work well as proxy fleshhounds.
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Thanks Ann. For me going fully red would have been a bit boring and left the figures too samey.
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I agree, adding the black to it did add some interest.
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Cheers Alex. The semi-gloss and gloss varnish layers are what pulled that whole effect together in the end. During the painting, their heads did look a little dodgy in stages.
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Nice work on these, they’re very alien (both with and without a capital A). Love the way you’ve given the cranium a smooth and shiny look. They’d make fine arena/hunting beasts for the Dark Eldar as well.
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That’s another good point, Wudugast, I may have had that thought when I was backing the KS, since it feels familiar. I’d certainly forgotten all about it until reading your comment right now – so thanks for that! They certainly look better than those odd, flayed things, too!
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Very nice! They might be a nice fit as dark eldar khymerae as well. I do appreciate their enthusiastic, bull terrier-ish energy and your clever work with the varnishes.
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Indeed, they’d work for the Dark Eldar as well; I hadn’t thought of that.
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Ah yeah -for sure! Those new models for the khymerae look so much better than the originals I was thinking of when replying to Wudugast. Now I recall – when they were revamping the Dark Eldar is was the exact time that they were transitioning from metal to the initial lot of finecast, resulting in me not picking up a whole lot of figures that I would otherwise have purchased for sure – the Khymerae amongst them!
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Great work on the hounds, really like the black heads adds a very alien element to them.
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Thanks Dave. With the heads in their initial red state, the models looked okay, but a bit plain – lacking that extra bit of interest.
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They look great- love the colour blend you got going from the darker shades.
Cheers,
Pete.
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Cheers Pete – very happy that people seem to like it! 🙂
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Back in 7th Ed, I was thinking about doing some Counts-As Flesh Hounds for an otherwise Nurgle Chaos Daemon force, and I was looking up some stuff related to the Hounds of Tindalos for possibilities, and these seem like they’d really fit in that aesthetic pretty nicely, too.
They look great done up in Khornate colours as well. I love the way you picked out the heads. Don’t see people blending finishes like that very often, and it’s a really cool effect.
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I could see that – the only mini I’ve seen of a Hound of TIndalos is the Cthulhu Wars one, though I’m sure RAFM might have done one or some in the past, or Reaper’s Not- lines of figures.
I’m not sure if I’ve done a blended finish in the same way before myself, it was just the way that it “felt” like the way to do it, and luckily for me, it seems to have worked out pretty okay!
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I think I turned up all three of those, but with the limited number of sculpts and the price to buy a bunch of them, it just wasn’t feasible.
Once you’ve got enough experience, your gut feeling is generally a pretty reliable sign to go for it with something!
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Yeah the Cthulhu Wars one is really big, single sculpt and not cheap either. Not sure if Reaper really has anything suitable or not. Maybe in the next bones campaign, preferably in the bones black material?
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Really clever work with the transparent layers over red approach! These look really nice for a right bunch of knobheads.
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Hahaha thank you mate!
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Oooh, I do like these! Pretty scarey looking critters I think! Very nice paint job!
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Cheers John, glad you like them! 👍
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Nasty red puppies! Like the approach you took to these, came off well.
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Thanks Mark. These were relatively easy wins – from boxed to finished in a relatively short time with relatively few headaches along the way! 🙂
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