The Strain: Phase 2

I'm still working on our Sedition Wars forces.  Time for some Strain to even up the head count.  Phase 2 Strain are slightly strong than the Phase 1 grunts that I painted first.  There are two different types, the heavy weapon ranged Quasimodo (coming soon) and the sneaky melee Stalkers.

Out of the box, the Stalkers only have one pose, but the plastic responds very well to heating and bending.  A quick dip in hot water and one is pointing and one has his hook hand raised, ready to attack.  Just a little variation, but enough to stop them looking absolutely identical.  No fancy effects, except for a little OSL on the orange Stalkers ankle.  I like the muscle shading on the torn open bellies, but other than that, they look a little rough in these close ups.

So here one of each Strain figure I've painted so far.  There's a little variation in colour as the nano infection progresses, left to right.  The Stalkers were painted with very different paints ... I expected something a little more different.  I'll exaggerate it next time.

Completed Vanguard Squad

Some more good guys from Sedition Wars.

I've added another three Vanguard troopers to my blue-grey squad and I would say it's complete.  The game is not played in squads, but I have one of each heavy weapons and total of 10 minis.  Time to move on to something different, like the heroes or a Hurley.

Here are a few group shots.  The three new figures are on the bases with the black and yellow caution stripes, front and center in this shot:

And here's the squad with the heavy weapons in the center:

I'm pleased with the way they came out.  There is some variation within the group, probably because there was some lag between painting the minis as well as some deliberate experimentation.  Some I can correct - the metallic guns will be painted over, when I have time.  I think I can even up the OSL from energy source in the guns.  Still, good enough to play with.

On to bigger and better projects:  Strain and the heroes.

The Strain

Well, I’ve got a little Strain army for Sedition Wars.

I know, it looks like Thriller!

This was the first batch I painted.  Very detailed, but covered in mold lines that were very hard to remove.  I did a very quick clean up job and it shows.  These Phase 1 Necroforms have a low point value in the game, so you need loads of them.  I was really focused on pumping them through rather than doing a bang up job.  I was also testing colours for use later.  The result is somewhere between a test run and table top quality.

For the colours, I wanted a progression through all the strain from dead human -> zombie -> cyborg.  This is the first level of five, so there is no much variation.  Pinky is the freshest; his metal parts are still dark and pitted.

Split Pants and Big Arm have a slightly darker, more leathery skin tone and lighter metal.

Yup, we've all had this problem with our pants.



 

 I was pleased with muscle fibers here.

This is darkest flesh tone and brightest metal.

Overall, I’m pleased with this bunch.  I’ll get the point count up a bit, then go back and touch up a few of the errors.  The bases came out well, I think, I used a new transparent red paint, darkened up with a blue ink.  There's no OSL, but I can do that later.