Hephesto's Forge: 2015 - III

Time for another bi-weekly update, a bit of a shorter one this time. Work and job interviews have been really keeping me busy, which could result in some interesting life changes in the future......or nothing at all.......the joys of uncertainty.

But back to the minis and cool stuff. Managed to get a bit of detailing and weathering done on various Mantic models. Nothing too exciting though, so I'll wait till they're done. What's more interesting though, is the start of a little, new project. I've dug through some of my numerous bitsboxes and came across a series of rather cool models that for some reason I never got around to putting together or painting:

Yup, ye olde Ophidians from Rackham's Confrontation game. Sadly the game died years ago when the company went under, though the rights are still floating around out there somewhere (owned by Cyanide Studios these days with Fantasy Flight Games also have a small publication segment in there somewhere if I recall correctly). Regardless, Rackham produced some of the finest metal models I've ever had the pleasure to work with and I really miss their design style and superbly detailed books (which till this day put anything even GW puts out to shame).

Stunning as most of their models were, the also had a second, nearly universal trait to them: they intimidated me to no end. Many of the models in the various ranges were a step bigger than your usual 28-32mm-scaled models, they come with lots of , usually only seemingly, fragile pieces covered in swirly, layered detail. Simply give Confrontation Rackham a go on Google Images and be prepared to be stunned by the art, design and superb paintjobs out there. But unlike models from a line like Corvus Belli's Infinity, basic highlights and washes will only get you so far. All this stuff is massively layered and detailed. Heck, besides some of their Orcs I never dared touch the models.

That said, about a decade ago I did pick up one of the coolest models I'd ever seen as a personal challenge and reward some something university-related. The S'Ygma character from the Ophidian faction, who subsequently spent a full decade taunting me to dare take him out of the blister pack. And that did happen several times, only for him to get put right back in there after a day or two of worried looks.

But no longer, S'Ygma, my old nemesis, shall be bested. Granted, it's going to take several weeks and many hours of experimenting, but I'm finally going to get the model painted. Though I'm not going to use the huge and heavy parasol, which simply doesn't fit with the rest of the project and makes the model quite fragile. A LotR Haradrim banner will do nicely though and may even hint at some other models will be showing up in the future. Lets just say some leftovers from a certain Southron tribe may be joining the ranks. Whatsmore I'm also taking notes on all color mixes, steps etc so I can reproduce the effects on the rest of the lot in the future when the project grows. Made the mistake in the past of forgetting to write down all sorts of mixes, steps or combinations that made follow-up models a real hassle.

It's still a very tough model, but things are progressing a lot better than I was expecting. Slow, most definitely and only about 25% done after several evenings of tinkering. But quite steady progress and some color mixes that are turning out rather nicely. Guess about a decade of painting random stuff might have paid off and after today's 'work' the skin and scale work is definitely getting there!