1889. The mechanical and magical empire
of Queen Victoria rules the world.
The World of Smog: On
Her Majesty’s Service
And welcome back to The Art of Caesura!
I hope everyone has had a fulfilling week and that you’re
warm inside and not being buffeted by the hurricanes that continue to hit us on
Ireland’s West Coast!
As I have mentioned previously, I am endeavouring to paint
one miniature per week and I’m thrilled to unveil the model that I have been
working on this week. He belongs to a great Kickstarted Victorian steampunk board
game called The World of Smog: On HerMajesty’s Service. It is a fun, atmospheric game with beautiful tokens and minis.
Last week, I started by painting the coin tokens:
These were quick: a bit of Hashut Copper, a bit of Runefang
Steel and a torrential dose of Nuln Oil over an undercoat of black spray. They were super-easy, and I think look pretty effective.
I then went on to paint the various essence tokens (Blood,
Titanium, Mana, and Ectoplasm):
Over the undercoat of black spray, I painted them all Hashut
Copper, washed them with Gryphonne Sepia and then created the Verdigris with a
mix of Altdorf Guard Blue, Warboss Green, lightened up with Skull White and a
healthy helping of Lahmian Medium ;-) Very Bioshock.
Now, onto the meat (or mettle) of the post, the mini I
painted this week:
“The Clockwork Guard guarding Buckingham Palace was designed
for only one thing: blindly obeying orders. And to be sure that these orders
didn’t come from a flawed human being, the automata were made to obey only
their chief: The one the engineer named ‘Colonel Steel’, his ultimate soldier.
Colonel Steel had a number of priority directions engraved on a cylinder in perpetual
motion in his abdomen...”
The
World of Smog: On Her Majesty’s Service
Colonel Steel is one of the “Gentlemen” in The World of Smog
– one of the protagonists and a potential player-character. I absolutely love
the sculpt: a mechanical Beefeater with a clockwork handle sticking out of his
back, what’s not to love!?
I should mention right away that these World of Smog minis
are in a much larger scale than anything I have ever painted before. This made
layering and blending a bit more exciting (read: involved) than usual. I’m
happy with how he turned out.
A brief recipe-guide:
Red coat: Doombull Brown blended up to Evil Sunz Scarlet
(and a bit beyond with a bit of Yriel Yellow and Ushabti Bone added.
Eyes and hat pin: Doombull Brown wet-blended with Yriel
Yellow and skull white
Belts: the darker belt works up from Doombull with a Nuln Oil
wash, while the lighter one started life as Steel Legion Drab.
On planning out this World of Smog project I’ve decided to
paint the “mechanical gear” base of the Gentlemen copper, while the bases of
the Agents of the Shadow Master will be silver (to make them look a little
colder in contrast). I was concerned that the large areas of copper and silver
on this model would clash, but after being dulled down with washes and
re-highlighted I think they work okay. I like the warm autumnal tones of the
copper, red coat and yellow spot colour. Eventually I might paint the handle of
the gear on the base to look like mahogany, but I am, as of yet, undecided on
this. Comments, as always, are much appreciated.
Thanks one and all for sticking around. I have enjoyed
bringing you the first “content” post of The Art of Caesura.
Reading: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time – Mark Haddon
Listening: Hell hounds – Ferocious Dog
Watching: Game of Thrones, Season 5
Next week:
One of the Shadow Master’s most maniacal Agents…
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