As promised I put in a bit of time over the weekend working on some Van Saar and so the gang continues to grow apace. First to be completed is Agent Nyska, who I’m hoping will make the gang slightly less ineffectual in close combat with her shock baton. I decided to mix things up a little by giving her a green, rather than blue, glow to her plasma pistol, partly to bring some variety to the gang and partly as an excuse to experiment with using contrast paints for this purpose. So far I’ve found blue and green to work well for this but red definitely does not so I’ll be falling back on traditional techniques whenever I need an evil red glow on a plasma weapon.
Alongside her we have the gunslinging Agent Lucien. There’s something about his eyes that aren’t quite right but it took all my concentration, sniper-style breathing and steady hands to paint them into the little sculpted marks on the mask so I’m frightened of going back and trying to improve them. Maybe I’ll get used to them, or maybe I’ll find my courage – we shall see.
And of course what progress report would be complete without a group shot?
With these two done I’ve almost finished with the rank and file gangers already but I still have two champions (including one with the awesome looking rad cannon) and the gang leader to go so I’ll be tackling them next.
Convert or Die 
September 17th, 2019 at 8:58 am
Very cool – that’s a shitload of plasma mate!
September 18th, 2019 at 10:23 am
Cheers! What can I say – I just really like painting plasma coils! 😀 Maybe because when I started painting it seemed like it was so damn hard to get them looking right and now I could do them with a hole in my head (washes and contrast paints do make them ludicrously easy), but every one still feels like a victory!
September 17th, 2019 at 4:14 pm
They are great additions, plasma pistol are very useful in games….
Cheers,
Pete.
September 18th, 2019 at 1:15 pm
Thanks – that’s useful to know. My grasp of the rules is still a bit sketchy in places, it’s good to know they won’t be complete walkovers. 🙂
September 17th, 2019 at 7:59 pm
Great stuff but I cannot see much wrong with the eye from the photo’s so I would leave well alone but if it really bugs you …!
September 18th, 2019 at 1:19 pm
Thank you, I think I’ll follow your wise words and leave well alone. The eyes (I’ve decided after much peering!) are just sculpted a little smaller on that mask than they are on the others. So if I wanted to paint them larger I’d have to paint “outside the lines” of the sculpted eyes, and hope that it worked. I think I might just decide that discretion is the better part of valour – not everyone’s eyes are the same size after all. 🙂
September 18th, 2019 at 12:58 am
I’m always a fan of more plasma! The Van Saar Shock Batons look really cool, too.
I have to disagree with you about the Rad Cannon looking awesome, tho. It clearly looks rad, and no other adjective will do 😉
September 18th, 2019 at 1:31 pm
Ha! Indeed 😀 Of course, now I have to paint it well enough that it lives up to that title!
As for the plasma I’m no tactical genius but plasma has to be good, so more must be better right? 😉
September 30th, 2019 at 7:23 pm
Another great looking pair (sweet looking couple?) for the Van Saar. Do you guys plan out the gangs’ starting gear and then build the models based on that, or do you just build cool looking models and then incorporate them into your gameplay later on?
October 2nd, 2019 at 9:11 pm
Thank you! You know, I hadn’t considered them as a couple but who knows what goes on in the Underhive 🙂
As for working out the gangs it’s very much the latter, I base everything around which models I want to paint. If it’s a game I think I’m likely to play then I’ll include things that sound like they’d be fun to use, not necessarily powerful or anything (I wouldn’t know one end of a tournament list from another) but just things that sound like they’d be entertaining. Variety is also important, both for painting and in games. Then I’ll work out lists/points/etc based on what I’ve built and if needed build a model or two to fill any gaps. Even though all my miniatures are primarily painting and modelling projects I like to, at least in theory, end up with something that could be used as a gaming force if the occasion arose, even if it’s a game I don’t really play. I’ve not played 40k in several editions now for example but I still like to end up with something that’s still roughly “legal”.