Wednesday 27 May 2015

Guild Ball: Fishermen (WIP #1)

So, we had to start somewhere and Fishermen were requested as a favourite of two players. Anyone unfamiliar with the game, the Fishermen look like this ...


Left to right: Angel, Salt (otter), Kraken, Shark, Greyscales, Jac and Siren. They don't come pre-painted or fully assembled, so you have a bit of work to do before they're looking as handsome as that. So here's a shot of where mine are ...


They're now primed and the above shows Kraken (from Salute), Salt (comatose and out of focus), Angel, Siren, Shark and original Kraken. I don't own Jac, so he's missing. Greyscales' leg is only freshly pinned and glued so he's not in the picture, and Salt's tail ... well, currently he's going to be built without it as punishment for being a total dick, frankly. There is a level of finesse to handling some of these components which isn't compatible with my lack of dexterity.

These sculpts are so fine, and have so much detail it's a little intimidating. I bought corks to temporarily pin and base all the figures while painting, but some models are that slim on the ankles that it would be a terrible trial to attempt this, and only original Kraken required it in the end. I won't do final assembly until as near to the end as possible to give me a fighting chance of getting a paintbrush in to some of the details.

Next step, working out the colours to use took a little while so to keep things moving, I painted up the bases and will get the figures mounted on them sooner than originally planned.

Bases
The base inserts came from the Kickstarter campaign, and while I don't plan to use them for all the teams, they offer a quick way to base up the first team on the (slow, erratic) production line. Where paints are referenced, they're almost always Vallejo and either Game Color or Game Air unless explicitly stated otherwise. Base colours were Earth, drybrushed with 50/50 Earth and Khaki, drybrush of Khaki, drybrush of white, repeat on the stone with Sombre Grey and Stonewall Grey, then everything washed with Army Builder Soft Ink to dampen down the chalky highlights.

The goal is painted in the primary colour I'd like to use for the clothes of the Fishermen - a 4:1 ratio of Scurf Green to Imperial Blue.

Some static grass applied with Gorilla glue, then that's us done for the moment. I'll probably add white lines added to remind you it's for a football pitch, mulling whether I could slip in a water effect on the base to tie them to the Fishermen theme just a little more.

Salt now has his tail attached, as I calmed down sufficiently to jerry-rig a harness to have it told the tail in position long enough to set. I took the plunge and drilled pinning holes on all figures, and unfortunately damaged Siren's right foot (boo!) when doing this, but once in position it won't be noticable. Everything else survived unscathed which feels like a minor victory! Then, a very quick undercoat on the parts that will be touching the base as I need to secure them to the bases to manipulate them better.

There's a test square base with two ways to paint white lines. One with paint thinned as normal (top left), and the other with paint straight out the pot (bottom right). Can't decide which I prefer - but possibly edging toward the unthinned paint as it's a little uneven, and that feels more in keeping.