Tuesday 20 June 2017

The Listener of Whispers and Helsreach Grows

Without wanting to sound like I'm repeating myself, it's been a little while since I last added to my Astropathic Choir. So I pulled a suitable figure out and daubed some paint to swell the number of choristers.

Astropath Varees holds the title of Listener of Whispers. It is he who seeks out the quiet and the hidden - the secret messages that are transmitted faintly and furtively. Not for him are the mundane and strong signal of corporate entities, inter-planetary political announcements or universal broadcasts. Varees listens to subtler transmissions. Coded tense negotiating positions. Highly sensitive notifications of high ranking births, marriages and deaths. Perhaps subterfuge and espionage. He hears much and speaks little. For this, he is well rewarded by grateful, yet anonymous clients.

 
Varees is an unconverted model - the High Programmer from the short-lived Citadel Paranoia range. He's a wonderfully characterful figure - certainly able to pass as an astropath, but equally he would make a fine cult leader or Adeptus Administratum official. You may recall I made a cast of his head to use on my Helsreach Water Seller from last year.

I kept the painting very simple - a basic green robe with some embroidered trim just to add detail. Varees himself also got an eye tattoo on the rear of his skull, and some ritual facepaint on his lip and chin.


 
He's a fun addition to the choir I think - he has a rather different look to the other stressed, pale and gaunt astropaths. I suspect his paymasters reward him with rejuvamat treatments as well as money for his services!
 

Casbah Completed


In addition to good old Varees, I've finished the Casbah I showed the WIP of last week. I replicated the approach I took with the wonderful Fogou buildings, by painting the Casbah a weathered white with some splashes of coloured paint - this time a dull grey-blue lower section.

Buildings from Fogou, Black Hat and Micro Art Studio all working together to create Helsreach.

The added elements were generally painted to look heavily rusted or weathered. Hopefully it captures the sense of a fringe world successfully.










 
 
I really love the interesting shape and all the unusual angles on the building. Seeing it painted up with some models brings the whole thing to life.
 
 
With the addition of a golden dome, it will do very nicely as a fringe-world astropathic relay station!


22 comments:

  1. Both the astropath and casbah look boss. This setting of yours is just an invitation for stories and games.

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    1. Thanks! We do need to make a good fist of playing some games in the setting, don't we?!

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  2. Awesomeness! I thought that model looked familiar, an excellent use for the old Paranoia model. The Computer, er, The Emperor is Your Friend! :D

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    1. The High Programmer is a really great figure, glad you like what I did with him!

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  3. I really like the mini Jon. The dome head and the simple pose work. The addition of the tattoos really make a big difference too.

    If I could offer a critique of the building, the rust looks a little too much for a dusty planet. Maybe a slight drybrushing of metal would do? Otherwise it looks fantastic, the weathering of the building itself is really cool. I'm gunna try to emulate that myself with my buildings I think.

    Cool Jon :)

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    1. Glad you like the astropath!

      I understand where you're coming from with the metal, but honestly, I've tried drybrushing previous pieces with metal and I didn't like the outcome. I'm claiming it's a highly corrosive atmosphere ;)

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  4. The Programmer looks bang on as an Astropath.

    The casbah was a great model before you added the extra pieces, but you really chose particularly well for the add ons. I suspect that I would have ruined an equivalent by adding too many extra bits, but you nailed it.

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    1. Thanks cheetor. I wanted enough pieces so it wasn't just a historic building, but not so much that it lost the elements I like - the odd angles and fun shapes.

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  5. Less is more, you nailed the mini. But the Casbah... oh, I love it!! It really catches the eye, its atmospherical and gets the essence of a backwater world. So cool.

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    1. Thanks Suber! I heartily recommend the casbah. Yes, it was a pain to assemble, but it's a really nice looking building.

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  6. So good - love everything you've done on this blog. How big will Hellsreach grow?

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    1. I'm really not sure how far I'll go with it. I'd like to have a really nice flexible selection to allow a number of different setups. I enjoy making it too!

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  7. Casbah building is amazing... wait, I mean terrible, and you should dispose of it post haste. I think you have my address... ;)

    The little extras really move it into the "rundown frontier world" look, particularly the somewhat haphazard wiring.

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    1. I'll get it packed up now!

      Glad you like it. I enjoyed rooting through to find suitable bits to give the right look.

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  8. I do love that High Programmer, I keep meaning to pick one up. The simple paintjob works really well too.

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    1. He's a lovely figure. I can heartily recommend you seek one out.

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  9. Your work on the Astropath looks fantastic and the terrain piece came out great too! :)

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  10. Really cool work, I'm very impressed.

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  11. Very cool mate - love the casbah!

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