Beasts and Bobbies

Way way way back before Christmas I busted open two of the starter boxes I bought for Empire of the Dead. Seb, Brandon and I had already played through the free downloadable scenario that pits Holmes and Watson against the nefarious Jack the Ripper a few times. I really liked the mechanics of the game as it allows for some nice in-game story telling. Oh, and I think it's cool that it used d10s instead of d6s. Don't really know why, just something a little different I guess.

I cleaned up all the lovely models from the Lycaon and Vampire starter boxes, glued them to their bases, primed them and wrote up starting faction lists for both. Then they simply sat around on or near my painting table for weeks at a time, looking up at me accusingly from time to time as if to say "paint us you lazy sod!" Admittedly I completely reorganized my painting area with new paint racks, paint, brushes and a new painting table in that time, but really I had no good excuse for not having finished painting any of them.

Last week I remedied that, at least partially. In fact I had a very good painting run over the past seven days...completing a total of seventeen figures from primed to fully painted and based. I'm quite proud of myself and my burst of productivity.  Naturally I'll share most of my work with you here, right now.

"Finally!" all three of my impatient readers must be thinking...

First off let me show you a batch of figures I hadn't planned on painting at all during this batch. These are some of the West Wind Productions Gothic Horror range of figures, four London bobbies!

And just because you've been so (im)patiently scrolling through all my text, here are my Lycaon starter box figures; starting with their feral four-legged companions.

Next up are their rank and file henchmen, complete with not one but two Victorian-era Wolverine lookalikes.

And lastly the leader and his lieutenant. Looks like these pooches could use some obedience training. I have a feeling their bite is worse than their bark. Sorry, lame. Just look at the pictures ok?

As I mentioned, I hadn't intended to paint the bobbies during this batch but found myself needing something to work on while other things dried, especially the washes on the two character models. The bobbies had been sitting on my priming board since last fall and a small batch of four nearly-identical figures like this just seemed too easy not to blast through while I waited.

All twelve of these figures were painted over black primer with simple solid colour base coats. The bobbies only received a black wash after that and no further highlighting. The other models all received one or more different washes and some light highlighting or drybrushing afterward.

If I can recall correctly the colours used on the bobbies were: AP (Army Painter) Ultramarine Blue, P3 Coal Black, GW Boltgun Metal, GW Tallarn Flesh and an assortment of colours for the different hair/moustaches. As mentioned they were all finished with a wash of GW Badab Black.

The Lycaons were painted with: GW Skull White, GW Fortress Grey, GW Shadow Grey, AP Barbarian Flesh, AP Beast Hide, GW Boltgun Metal and GW Gorthor Brown. The lieutenant beast's fur and skin got a coat of GW Flesh Wash which started out way too dark, but after some further highlighting I am happy with the result. The leader received a wash of GW Devlan Mud, and the other figures had a few different custom mixed washes applied before their final drybrush/highlight coats.

I'm very pleased with the final results of all of these figures. The West Wind Productions models are all very characterfully sculpted, one-piece models. Have I mentioned that I love one piece figures!?

The other five of my seventeen figures will have to wait for a different article...so I'll leave you all with a few parting images of the whole Lycaon group.