After getting an hour here and there for the last few weeks I finally got my gladiator slaves finished! This is my Dark Eldar Beastmaster and one of two "flocks" -- they will count as Razorwing flocks. I think it fits the stat line well. Imagine them as slaves fought in the arenas of Commorragh where they no doubt won her some money, taken now by the beast mistress and pumped up on combat drugs (stats and beast mobility) and armed with especially deadly but brutal weapons (rending):
WS
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BS
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S
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T
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W
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I
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A
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LD
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SV
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4
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0
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3
|
3
|
5
|
5
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5
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5
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6+
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I intend to give her a second base full of warriors to steer into her enemies, but painting them might wait a while. What I thought would be an easy paint job turned tedious, as they usually do. I quickly decided on simplifying the task by using a lot of the same colors for things on all models, rather than a more realistic variety. They all wear Jade's colors, showing their heraldry for their owner.
I also decided that Jade's cool blue weapon is a "frost rifle", used for chilling the blood and preserving her trophies. Of course the profile is equal to the splinter pods on beastmaster skyboards, so it's a poisoned (4+), AP 5, assault 2 rifle (the super-chill can cut and freeze anything no matter its Toughness score).
With the gladiator slaves, as with most of my models, I try to find unique things about each to make them standout as individuals. The lead model is dark-skinned and wears a head from the Space Wolves kit; in the arena he's known as "The Jackal". (Kind of a Master-Blaster of Thunderdome masked style.) Another gladiator carries a shield that matches his strangely Chaotic-looking belly plate, but that's just a coincidence, I'm sure. Or maybe the slave have found religion in their imprisonment?
These models are taken from the Fantasy Warhammer Chaos Marauders box, and they fit the part wonderfully. Unfortunately there aren't that many combos you can do with them so we'll see what I can come up with for the next batch. I hate to repeat myself. I also plan to use them to replace the Ur-Ghuls in my Archon's Court (every Archon needs a handful of disposable gladiator slaves, after all).
For Blondie I mixed yellow and flesh color, then washed him a few times, then added just yellow to his hair and beard. I kind of wanted to paint his eyeballs but was afraid i'd just leave white blotches on his face, so I just let the brown wash pick out the details for me. The last guy is sporting lots of red skull iconography, again following his mistress in her color scheme. They actually all turned out better than I expected and look pretty good as a team. There was some doubt in there about halfway through, but once I got all the base colors in place and smoothed out, I knew some washes and highlights was all I'd need.
I may go ahead and build the next four, maybe using some more space wolf parts, like their hairy heads. I would like to carve out a beaky marine helmet and have one wearing it like a hat but I don't think I have anymore beaky's in my bits box. I count 5 Crimson Fists already painted with them and I don't really want to sacrifice any of them.
This last pic I just threw in cuz the blur looks like they're charging across the field.
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