What’s better than a monkey?

 A monkey in space:

Jokaero are great. Digital weapons in the old Inquisitor rulebook: awesome. The fluff that they’re inveterate tinkers that will if left unattended upgrade your bathtub but it might also be a weapon: awesome. Whilst looking like a space orangutan: awesome!

I caved and bought a finecast version a few years back, as I figured that my chances of scoring a metal one for a reasonable price were firmly somewhere between slim and none. Alas, even with plenty of liquid green stuff, as I was painting I kept finding more and more little bubbles, but c’est la vie. There are a couple on the mysterious apparatus on his back, but I figure maybe they’re special technological holes too advanced for our stupid human brains:

I think I started painting him at some point last year (or possibly the year before!), but after being let down on my Blackstone Fortress Escalation order my enthusiasm cooled somewhat and he got relegated to the boxes in the basement of half painted miniatures sadly awaiting their turn in the sun. Luckily for him though, I couldn’t resist his little face! Looking at the pictures as I’m posting, I wonder if I should have gone a shade lighter on his fur, but I think I’ll leave him as is (as I’m rapidly running out of year!)

Tally:

35 vs 23 = +12

Wailing Death...

Another miniature finished in the race to the end of the year!

A Howling Banshee, the first Eldar model I have ever painted. A couple of years back, I started musing over building an Ordo Xenos warband for Inq28, as it wasn’t something I’d ever really thought about before (all my previous plans having involved those mainstays in the Ordos Hereticus and occasionally Malleus), and started imagining a group with a Kroot tracker, an Eldar Ranger, maybe even a Rogue Trader as I’d never thought about converting one of those... then Blackstone Fortress came out, which had basically everything I’d been thinking of. Not to be dissuaded though, I mulled on it some more, and decided I fancied painting a Howling Banshee...

This was over a year ago now that she dropped through my letterbox, according to my Timehop app last week, but now I’ve finished her! I’d originally planned on going with the traditional bone coloured armour scheme, but whilst procrastinating experimenting with techniques I went over the grey under coated miniature with Tamiya Accent Colour Panel Liner (as you may have seen if you follow me on Instagram), and was so struck by the effect that I decided to go with a grey scheme instead!

She even got a tiny freehand (well, freehand Micron pen) version of the Howling Banshees rune on her forehead. Ooh, these pictures are the first on the blog using my wife’s new photo booth, and looked amazing when I was taking them, but not looking so hot on my iPad as I write this post...

As opposed to this shot, taken at the same time with the same settings, which looks a lot more vibrant and closer to the actual miniature. Eh, there’s still things for me to learn I guess!

In the latter stages of the paint job, I began to wonder whether she’d really be an appropriate crew member for an Ordo Xenos Inquisitor, being that she is basically the enemy from their point of view, and wondered if she might be more suitable in the employ of an Ordo Malleus type, maybe having been sent by a Craftworld to act as a bodyguard for an Inquisitor that the seers have predicted will foil some machination of Slaanesh... Wherever she ends up going, I like the image of this totally alien... well, alien, standing silently, unmoving behind the Inquisitor during more diplomatic encounters, but being unleashed as a shock weapon during combat and absolutely terrifying enemies with her acrobatics and combat prowess...

Finishing her brings the Tally to:

36 vs 27 = +9

So, if I can finish and post 16 miniatures in the next 23 days, I hit my one a week challenge target. Don’t hold your breath, but stranger things have happened..