No school like the old school - Confrontation Gang Leader (precursor to Necromunda)

The heat wave continues so my hobby output has been pretty minimal this week - On the upside I got a box of joy from Forge World yesterday which included the Horus Heresy Book V, and the Xiphon Interceptor for the Imperial Fists, but as the model is just sitting in a soak tank not a lot of new pictures of progress. So, time to trawl the photo archives and see what I hadn't posted up while my computer was in the shop!

A few months back while spelunking in the Closet of Doom I struck a rich seam of old out of print minis from the late 80's, and I chiseled a few out of the strata as 'palatte cleanser' models to fiddle around with when I needed a breather from the main projects. I'd documented the painting process fairly well, and thought I'd step through the process as an adjunct to the hobby articles from last month.

  

The model for today is from the way out of print "Confrontation" game whose rules were released in While Dwarf and was a precursor to what would eventually become Necromunda. I always thought the model would make a great Rogue Trader, as well. Starting off with faces and skin, as per the 'inside out' method - everything got a basecoat of Leather Brown, then the eyes got a layer of Ghost Grey, and Bronzed Flesh was used to pick out the forehead, cheekbones, nose and lips, leaving the Leather Brown in the recesses for shadowing.

As a bit of a hobby cheat, I do not actually paint irises on models, instead I turn to a trusty Micron pen in 005. So much more control for someone with fists of ham like me!

 

A quick stripe down the center of the whites using the pen followed by the tiniest little dot of Ghost Grey in the middle of the stripe as a reflective dot. A quick touch-up in Bronzed Flesh for any overspill, and then the extreme edges of the nose, cheeks, forehead and knuckles get one further highlight in thinned Bonewhite.

  

The pants got a basecoat of Jade Green, followed by highlights of Foul Green and Scorpion Green, and then a wash of Biel-Tan Green to help blend it together.

 

The reds and purples were kept pretty dark in hue - As there was a lot of gold detail on those areas I wanted to ensure the details had a dark background to set off against.

 

Laid in all the gold and leather and suddenly the model starts to snap into focus! Overall the model was looking quite dark so the power axe blade and the critter on his shoulder both got a bright blue to (over)compensate.

A few final details, some static grass and the model is ready to go adventuring on the fringes of Imperial space!