A part of the Imperial Guard kit, Schaeffer’s Last Chancers that came out way back in 1999 that has since had both Colonel Schaeffer and the unit themselves become part of 40k legend, Warrior Woman here is a model that had gotten started, then stopped twice in the past two decades. With the Impetus of Fembruary this year, I decided to knuckle down and finally get her painted and completed to a standard I’d be happy with. While the Last Chancers themselves are a Penal Legion, based very much on The Dirty Dozen for inspiration (I laughed when I saw them called “…the Suicide Squad of the 41st millennium”!)
Now, me being me, I never really liked “Named Characters” or “Named Units” in 40k, based on the whole “How do legendary leaders of epic armies like Marneus Calgar and Eldrad Ulthwe manage to fight each other so regularly, and only with 20 men and a transport in tow?” thing. So when I bought the Last Chancers box, I bought it as a way to get more variety of models to incorporate into my pretty-much anonymous Imperial Guard squads. Warrior Woman here didn’t exactly fit in with a uniform that actually worked in a standard metal IG squad. It wasn’t until much later that I picked up some extras (not that I’ve painted them) but now I’m pretty sure I can paint the whole lot of them as their “actual” roles.
The biggest problem with Warrior Woman was working out how to paint her. She was clearly very much based on Xena, Warrior Princess with a Cadian helmet of the day plopped on her head, but neither of my previous attempts to paint her as an Escher didn’t work, nor whatever I was thinking in the bright green that this model was basecoated in at one point.
Now, while I’m thinking I’ll probably paint up the full set of Last Chancers, Warrior Woman’s scheme there isn’t exactly inspiring, either. In the end, I want with a dark outfit, inspired by Xena alongside a skin tone, hair and half sleeve inspired by both Sasha Banks and Mercedes Martinez‘ new look.
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She looks excellent mate, especially the Tat work, and can definitely see the WWE influences in there.
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Thanks Dave! I’ll (hopefully) have some more in future!
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Excellent, like Dave I love the tat work!
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Thank you! 🙂
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Very nice! 🙂
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Cheers, John!
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Lovely work, especially on the Tattoo’s. I’m not sure about the inconsistences with her costume over the more general Imperial Army types though, surely trousers would be a good idea for combat?
Cheers Roger.
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Thanks Roger – I’m okay with it in this case given that she’s a Xena clone, and they’ve (in context) got fewer combat females to rip off in pop culture. The other one from this set (Rocket Girl) is wearing close to regular Guard gear.
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Great job! Love the tattoo work.
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Thanks! 😀
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Impressive painting, though I feel that the sculpt has not aged very well in terms of representation – I think that she was literally the only female Imperial Guard mini of that era yet has gone to battle having only had time to get partially dressed 😉
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To be fair, she’s explicitly based on Xena, so the outfit has to reflect that or it simply doesn’t look like her at all.
There are/were a fee other females, and I found a fee of them rooting around in my figures yesterday. Doubtful any will be finished thus Fembruary, but now I know where they are, they’ll be getting painted….
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Wow she’s great. Never realised the Xena thing but you’re bang on. Can’t wait to see what you do with the rest of the team. I think I’m missing about 3-4 from the set but they’re fun to paint
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Thanks IRO! I’ll be working my way through them slowly but steadily. I’ve got some other cool models that will also work to go alongside them as well…
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Excellent work, mate, she looks fantastic. I love the Xena vibes 🙂
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Cheers mate – thanks! 🙂
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Hilarious model, very nicely painted though mate, nice tattoos!
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Thanks Alex. I’m now wondering if the look of the helmet is a touch of Tank Girl?
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Terrific paint work once again, especially on the tattoos.
Heh, I remember my teenage self oggling at the Last Chancers set, this lady especially. Probably not going to buy them anytime soon though..
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Thank you – I’d certainly be keen to see what you’d come up with for a few of these if it were to happenm one day! 😀
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Great paint job.
FWIW- I’m no fan of herohammer either.
Cheers,
Pete.
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Agreed on that for sure! Some nice models, but I don’t want the lord of creation on my tabletop with 25 of his closest friends when he should probably be leading 2500 of them!
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Great work on a classic figure. The scheme works well I think and the tattoos look good too 🙂
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Thanks Warburton! I need to clean up the others and get started on them now. Maybe I should take them to work and clean ’em up during lunch and the after-lunch meeting we have tomorrow…
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Aye, I always have mixed feelings about special characters for exactly the same reasons you give. On the other hand they’re pretty cool, some people have a real aversion to them but I think they’re fun and if people are enjoying them then why not? I do suspect Marneus, Eldrad, Abaddon and their ilk probably meet up on the battlefield and say something like “Oh for goodness sake, not you again?! Didn’t I kill you last week?”. Anyway, lovely job on Warrior Woman there, a proper blast from the past seeing her again.
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Yeah, for me they’re more fun as painting projects though in-game I tend to prefer to rename them or even use them as more generic/lower-tier heroes, but then I’ve always liked the “Epic Armies Clash” thing much more than the “Epic Heroes Clash” aspect of these games.
I have cleaned up and primed the rest of the gang now, so I’ll be basing them (hopefully) tonight and then (again, hopefully) I can start pumping them out as completed models!
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The Xena character connection is a good catch, mate. I wouldn’t have even thought of it but now I can’t unsee it! I like the paint scheme you chose as I think it fits 40k really well. I remember mention of the Last Chancers in White Dwarf but I don’t remember any of the sculpts so I’ll be curious to see more of them if you decide to paint some more in the near future.
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Thanks mate! The first go was a brighter green – very similar to my Mentor Legion, then the second was black which I was able to roll into the deep sea green here. I think I’ll slowly be working my way through the rest of the set in the coming weeks (and probably, months!)
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impressive job on her, especially the freehand tats.
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Thanks Mark! Something I’m always still working at getting better with. 🙂
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