He's a Pirate and a Scallywag..

Ahoy mateys! I've got some pirates for ye all! Granted, they use the name Corsairs and are a bit more pointy eared than wooden legged but Pirates!

Once more, cutting the guns out is a bit of a chore so we have the retro white background.

These are the first half of the corsair guardians for the growing Void Dragon commission. Those expecting to see Dire Avengers... well, they've been put in a box until I have more of the infantry done and I can fathom what the hell is wrong with the colour scheme. Something is seriously out of whack and I've wasted too much time puzzling over it. Instead we have these chaps! Their painting is fairly unremarkable as I've talked a lot about how to get the tones and effects I have going on them (click the corsair tag at the bottom to see more). Instead I thought I'd talk about these models a bit and the stirrings of a notion about why I am struggling to make this colour scheme work.

The models themselves are quite nice, I wasn't convinced when I saw them on the website, but the huge sashimono style wings make sense when you can see the jetpacks. They're designed to control the descent of the corsair rather than to allow them to fly per se. I imagine only the Eldar with their psychic control mechanisms moving at the speed of thought could use something like this (I see Imperial Guardsmen spinning like sycamore seeds). They make for elegant and sensible flight options for the eldar and I quite like 'em. The guns are likewise pleasantly designed but - and I sigh heavily here - again we see Forgeworld simply not taking the time or trouble to quality control their expensive product properly. There was some quite bad mold slippage here, so bad that I had to conceal with painting rather than modelling as it would have necessitated a lot of green stuff work. C'mon Forgeworld, the internet at large gives you a free pass that GW would kill for. No rage about prices, no complaints about having componants that don't fit without surgery or hot water baths, no righteous indignation about your lousy instructions. Well, yeah, I do all that but the community at large seems content. I'm very keen for the Forgeworld machine to raise it's game to match it's premium pricing and generated image. That's all for now, I promise.

Now, colour scheme and why, I think, I am having trouble. You don't see many painted models in the books from forgeworld, lots of nice illustrations though and it is an illustration I am working from now. The trouble is, what can look gorgeous on a 3 inch long illustration with total control of how the light plays on the surface etc etc is often VERY difficult to achieve on models. Some schemes just don't "pop" when reduced to 28mm. Sadly, greys are one of them. With the requirement for the urban bases too (all the client's scenery is urban) it means that they simply do not photograph well and indeed struggle to have that spark that makes them instantly look good. They do actually look quite handsome and I think on the tabletop they will be a very military looking force with appropriate camo and the like. They just will never look quite as nice as their alternatively coloured cousins in pictures. Just the way these things go I guess! This revelation has made me feel better about the project (I was starting to rend my hair in a kind of "Why isn't this working?" fervour worthy of some of the more scenery chewing actors out there) and we'll be full steam ahead from here!

Finally, if you're a warmachiner, I'm selling off my Cygnar force. So if you know one or are one then I am open to offers!


TTFN