Shadows of Brimstone: Targa Plateau Dark Stone Pylons

Shadows of Brimstone Targa Plateau Dark Stone Pylons

Over the course of last month, I became more and more acutely aware that I hadn’t actually finished painting many models at all over April. Last weekend, while going to sleep, and inspired by the tentacles that I’d just finished the actual painting on, I had an idea. Find some low-detail, mediocre-quality models that I could smash out with very little effort. Like the Gangsters and Nazis I did in January, or the Tentacles. The only question was: What to choose? Saturday night, after watching the replay of Longest Royal Rumble, I had a look. I’ve got a plethora of boardgame models that would fit the bill perfectly, but getting them quick and cleaning up all the flash on boardgame PVC aren’t compatible ideas. Then it hit me: Shadows of Brimstone. Low-detail, simple models that I don’t and won’t ever especially care a lot about that are also in HIPs, which is one of my (and most gamers’) preferred materials to work with. So a trip to the War Room at 11pm at night and I found a few appropriate kits. Stayed up for an hour ot two assembling some of them, and spent a decent chunk of time on Sunday and after work Monday getting enough done to hit my minimum 1-per-day each month. Here’s the first pair of them.

As you can see, they’re simple models. Three-part assembly not including the bases. After spray black and drybrush a-go-go, I black washed them, based them and let dry. After that, I lined several areas with thin white, let dry, then made a paint wash with a lime-ish green to give them a bit of a glow effect. The idea is to make them (kinda) visually Necron-compatible, as well as to reference Warpstone. No idea what the rules are or how they’re used in SoB. Apparently they’re from the “Custodians of Targa” pack, but since almost items from the Kickstarter arrived as a giant pile of unlabelled shrink-wrapped baggies (like a Mantic Kickstarter) I’ll worry about their finer details later.

DUST Tactics: Axis Gorilla Kampfaffen & Marcus (Squad: March ’18)

DUST Tactics: Axis Gorilla Kampfaffen, Marcus

Yesterday, in my Ape-X post, I mentioned that I had been painting some Gorillas for DUST. These were actually started quite some time ago. Following on from the successful speedpainting of 30 Axis Zombies from DUST in January 2014, I rolled straight into the boxes of Axis Gorillas that I had sitting around. After all – the zombies were easy to do, so how could gorillas (almost entirely furred) be anything different? Fur’s easy to paint, after all!

DUST Tactics: Axis Gorilla Kampfaffen

Alas, It didn’t work out. I got a mental block on two of the aspects of these models – gorilla skin and the “silverbacks”. So they sat there, then got pushed to the side, and eventually ended up in a tub of half-painted models, forgotten forever.

DUST Tactics: Axis Gorilla Kampfaffen

Until this month’s challenge, obviously. They’ve not been a priority to get out and paint at any stage in the interim, since DUST isn’t a game that has gotten much gameplay here, despite it looking like fun. While I’ve been aware that they’re sitting there, even to the point of naming them in the “things I should try to get done this year” post from January, I’d even forgotten about that. So yeah, while rooting around in the tubs, I saw them, and basically had one of those “fuck it, I’m getting these done so I can get them out of here” moments.

DUST Tactics: Axis Gorilla Kampfaffen, Marcus

At some point, I’d also cracked open the Operation “SeeLöwe” box and added the Kampfaffen hero, Marcus to the horde, as well as Reaper’s Ape-X, which I’d gotten in one of their Bones Kickstarters. Because why not? Marcus isn’t technically part of the squad, but I think he fits in just fine with the overall post as he’s supposed to be used with the grunts. Ape-X just makes for a thematic extra, though he obviously doesn’t have any rules in DUST (there’s probably some homebrew ones out there, though!)

DUST Tactics: Axis Gorilla Kampfaffen, Marcus

Anyhow, I did my usual thing of checking some photo references for animal skin and hides and then just made myself do what was needed to finish them off. It wasn’t a lot of fun, but it wasn’t that hard. Now they’re done, and if I ever need a cohort of cyber-gorillas for anything, they’re right there and waiting. Marcus had a little bit of extra detailing, so I tried to make him a little more visually interesting by picking them out with some colour in what is otherwise a very drab set of figures.

DUST Tactics: Axis Gorilla Kampfaffen, Marcus, Reaper Bones 80001 Ape-X

To finish up, I thought I’d throw in a shot of all the DUST Kampfaffen  Gorillas with their buddy, Ape-X thrown in for good measure. 🙂