Happy Tuesday folks, a very quick one today. I got another couple of Pirates completed over the last two evenings – I’d usually wait until I had a few more done before posting, but these guys are significant for me, as this is the first time I have tried painting non-caucasian skin. I wanted to achieve a deep African skin tone, and strangely, I was quite nervous about trying this from a technical perspective… it’s not like GeeDub have a helpfully named range of paint for darker skin or anything useful like that, so I just kind of experimented with different tones until I arrived at something that looked right, (at least to my eye):

For those interested, I went with Dryad Bark, Agrax Earthshade wash, and then Cathan Brown up to Bugman’s Glow. I think I’m happy with it, but  what do you guys think? I’d certainly be interested in any recipes for different skin tones that you folks may have!

Another point of interest is the guy on the right – his leg had me scratching my head… I just couldn’t make out if it was supposed to be biological or mechanical! A quick check on some old flyers with the full range painted up confirmed the latter, which makes more sense and goes nicely with his bionic arm… whether his bionics are xenos in origin is open to speculation! He is going to be at least a champion/sergeant level character, with bonuses for his bionics in RT, (or a power glove in 40k).

That’s all for now dudes, have a good week :-)

Happy Friday folks, quick update for the weekend – I got this fine chap finished last night – his name is Bulk (the incredible):

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Happy Monday folks, a very quick update today – I finished my first batch of RT Pirates over the weekend! From left to right we have 421, 403, 416, 425 and 423. I actually had them mostly basecoated, (just by doing a bit here & there), so the weekend was just shading/highlighting & detail. I’m particularly pleased with 425’s tattoos – if you zoom in you may even be able to read his knuckles! :-)

These guys were a total joy to paint – a very different experience to tackling the ultra-crisp detail of modern kits. Big hands, big heads, big feet were the norm, and funny hunched over poses were perfectly acceptable. But hey! This was 1988 baby, and Rogue Trader had only just been released the year before – much more roleplay-esque, but this was the birth of 40k as we know it! Thatch was still in power, (as was Reagan), the Liberal Democrats formed as a political party in the UK, and Mikhail Gorbachev initiated perestroika in the Soviet Union. It was the first Red Nose day, and Comic Relief was started up by Rowan Atkinson. Iain Banks (RIP) published the excellent ‘The Player of Games’, and Stephen Hawkings published ‘A Brief History of Time’. Rupert Grint (aka Ron Weasley) was born, and movie releases included Rain Man, Big, Beetlejuice, A Fish Called Wanda, Coming to America, Bloodsport and Akira! House music was making a splash in Europe, (as was Enya), and NWA and Run DMC had classic albums ‘Straight outta Compton’ and ‘Tougher than Leather’ released. Will Smith was still the Fresh Prince, (along with DJ Jazzy Jeff), new cars were ‘F Reg’, I was 13, and moustaches were acceptable… Basically, it was a bloody long time ago chaps!

Was the hobby any better back then? I don’t know about that, but the models certainly had a character and charm that seems to be lacking these days… RT was new and exciting, there was no such thing as an army list or codex, and we were all free to explore the grim darkness of the far future in a way that just doesn’t seem possible in the modern game. Happy days.