The Foxes Who Yip at the Moon (WhiteWulfe's HaqqIslam/Infinity)

[WhiteWulfe]

I was thinking of some kind of playful title for the force, like "The Foxes That Yip At Night" or something more mysterious like "Crescent Moon Foxes" but in all honesty, I haven't really figured out a name for this force.  

 

This is a continuation of a previous thread where I set a goal to finish 20 minis in twenty weeks, but only wound up doing one.  Eh, world doesn't end, goal with that was to paint, and I did.  This thread is a breakoff out of that one, because I want to have my HaqqIslam force to have it's own thread, and can also give them a tad more room on my painting desk thanks to recent changes I've done (I have another three whole feet of desk I can work with that's focused on being a "build-up" area, which I've already found has had me tidying things up a tad more AND given me the ability to have room to sit down and do ANY kind of hobbying for even just 15-20 minutes, be it assembly, cleanup, (hopefully) sculpting, and/or painting.

 

To those wondering, in a standard 300/6 game, there's no way to field all of the units pictured here.  A small part of why I've picked up what I have is due to sales, a desire for a few minis before they fall out of circulation (since some when purchased had been discontinued five years prior), and a desire to be able to readily try out either mixed tactics with a vanilla HaqqIslam army, or to be able to try out one of the three main sectorials (Hassassin Bahram, Qapu Khalqi, or Ramah Taskforce).  At some point the Hassassin starter pack will be added in, as well as probably another boxed set or two (I'm looking at you, Zhayedans, Khawarijs', and Muttawi'ah's...  Oh, and blisters like the Hunzakut, Ayyar, Ragiks, and the Odalisque with Spitfire rescuplt to name a few) but a lot of that is mainly due to a desire for "completion" or just to have a nice looking force to choose from.  Or something - I am an indecisive fox after all 

 

^So here's where things stand at the moment.  First pic has most of the Red Veil and Beyond Red Veil boxed sets in it, while the second is a combination of Azra'il (the two big guys on 40mm bases) and the Qapu Khalqi starter force.  The reason why the ones that haven't been painted yet have milky looking bases is these pics were taken shortly after sealing those bases with watered town Tacky Glue.  Apologies for the out of focus photos, I wanted group shots, and was tired when I took them, and phone kept fighting me about what to focus on.

 

^Still to assemble we have these pieces.  I'm really looking forward to building up that Maghariba Guard (aka murder scorpion!  ...Or Maggie, as many local players call it), but those Bashi Bazouks (in the blisters at the bottom) I'm also rather curious about.

[Jellyranger69]

Wicked, never seen this brand but immediately intrigued. 

[WhiteWulfe]

4 hours ago, Jellyranger69 said:

Wicked, never seen this brand but immediately intrigued. 

Corvus Belli has some rather lovely models.  As a heads up though, some of them can be moderately to insanely fiddly, or have a LOT of parts.

 

Speaking of which....

^Not quite sure how many hours, but it was probably 2.5-3 of cleanup, pinning, and assembling for my Maghariba Guard.  It's assembled now, and it's a gorgeous paperweight murder scorpion.  Front legs are pinned in place, as are the three main torso parts together, and then the turret to the "tail".  Tried to pin the body and tail, but such didn't want to really cooperate, so hopefully the decent amount of glue throughout it's contact area will work in the long run

 

Sir Forscale included, well, for scale, same as the bottle of superglue 

[WhiteWulfe]

Had to do some touch-ups on the primer for my Hell's Horses mechs, so figured oh why not, let's get a bunch of figures primed as well...

 

^First up we have my Maghariba Guard.  Most of the upper stuff is now primed.  Ran out of mixed paint so didn't get the legs but such is life.  I'm already starting to regret some aspects of the fully assembled bit, but such is life.  I wanted it that way, it's that way, I'm not sawing things apart just to get easier access!  Main plans for the murder scorpion (of doom) is to go with a somewhat different colouration than the others - this will more than likely be the "fox" that howls yips at the moon.  I'm thinking more of a clear sky midnight look, so a combination of semi-subdued blues, with earthy brown-oranges lower down (and maybe mixed in a tad higher for some attempt at camo).

 

I'm also rather wishing I had a turntable to spin this thing around on, it's somewhat awkward to try and hold...  I think that's going to be something that gets purchased next payday!

 

^Five out of six of the units from my Qapa Khalqi started set are now primed (the last one, a Hafza, I'm still debating about whether or not to pose him with his rifle, or just keep that YOU CAN'T TOUCH US! defiant stance with no rifle nearby), as well as a Lasiq sniper, and both of my Azra'ils.

 

Next time, the monochrome (aka almost black primer) starts to go away!

[WhiteWulfe]

So, at some point I decided I wanted my Azra'ils to look a tad different from the more "core" or "vanilla" members of my force.  A force I'm calling "The Foxes That Yip at the Moon".  Okay, so Ghulam Infantry are in a lot of the sectorials, and the Azra'il are more a Qapa Khalqi thing, but still.  They look cool, they look like they totally mean business, so naturally I'm going to use the FIERCEST animal I know of as the inspiration for their paint scheme.

 

 

 

....

(Pic taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fennec_fox , and was taken by Yvonne N.)

 

...That's right.  The fennec fox.  Okay, so an Azra'il isn't going to be able to move as fast, nor beg for treats, but fennecs are still sly foxes no matter what, and domesticated ones DEFINITELY command/demand attention, arguably more than any cat ever would.  Just look at Scout on YouTube, may he rest in peace.  Scout was a rather talkative one, to say the least.

 

^ Paint is a mixture of 73416 Photonic Orange, 9438 Tempest Grey, and 9432 Desert Sand, which afterwards looks surprisingly like 29827 Griffon Tan, so afterwards I'll be using that due to various reasons, but one of them simply is that I don't want to try and recreate something when I've something strikingly similar already in a bottle.  Out of production paint for an out of production mini?  Sure, why not!

 

But yes, the Azra'il aren't the type for stealth or subtlety.  When they're there, it's for an obvious reason, and they WANT to be seen.  They want to be heard.  They want to be feared.  This is partially why they use older generation armour that's bulkier.  Annoyingly enough for the enemy, that's also no regular Heavy Machinegun he's packing - it's an AP variant, which means armour bonuses are halved when you're being shot at by it, which can be rather handy...

 

Now, the biggest question I have regarding that chunk of armour? on his left arm...  What to go with for the infill..  Do I go with something fiery, like a red, reddish orange, or orange, or do I try for something more subtle, like a grey of some sort.  Decisions, decisions...

[WhiteWulfe]

More work on the AP HMG Azra'il!

 

Today's paints are 9401 Dragon Red, 9432 Desert Sand, 29804 Rusty Red, and 29827 Griffon Tan

 

 

Accidentally only took a photo of just the front.  Oops.  I'll try to get pics of the other angles later on, since I totally didn't photograph an area I worked on (the arm shield thingy).  Shield, crotch plate, neck guard, and right shoulder pauldron got Griffon Tan, mixed 2:1 with Vallejo Thinner medium, Desert Sand with a 3:2 mix (give or take) with Vallejo Thinner went into inlays on the shoulders, as well as the inlays on the hand shield thingy.

 

Top of helmet, with what sort of looks like a visor but is probably just plates to protect one's noggin got a combination of 2:1 Dragon Red and Rusty Red, with a single drop of thinner medium.  Originally this was just for that part of the helmet, the logos on the shield and right pauldron, and the flower, but since I'd mixed up so much I wound up putting it all over the chest plates.  I'll figure out some sort of way to blend the two later on I suspect ^_^;;;;

 

EDIT: And since Griffon Tan is more of a shade that I'm looking for, next time I'll also wind up going over the legs with it, to have everything the same tone, even if in some ways, the two are similar enough, doubly so at tabletop distances.

Edited February 24, 2020 by WhiteWulfe

[WhiteWulfe]

Quick celeryphone shots of the side details I didn't take photos of last night.  Mobile used instead of G85 because, ah unno. lol

 

 

Definitely thinking I'll be sticking with my G85 for photos though, since the files are a lot easier to work with, and it doesn't complain if I tell it the colour temperature of the lights is 2700K 

[WhiteWulfe]

Last night's session saw more of 29827 Griffon Tan applied to various areas - the main focus was cleaning up excess paint from the previous session, and getting more of the armour actually blocked in

 

[Glitterwolf]

Great progress!

[WhiteWulfe]

It's been a busy week (two weeks actually), especially at work.  I'm not quite sure which paint I used since I had a few metallics out, but I suspect it was 9452 Blade Steel.

 

[Glitterwolf]

Great progress!

[WhiteWulfe]

8 hours ago, Glitterwolf said:

Great progress!

Many thanks!  I haven't seen much progress the past two weeks due to various things, but work is finally starting to show signs of calming down, so I'm definitely happy about that, and looking forward to more painting in the near future...  Especially this guy, because I'm clearly liking the Azra'il minis...

[WhiteWulfe]

No progress pics at the moment, but I'm hoping to get some painting done either tonight or tomorrow.  Well, potentially tomorrow, odds are that will be taken up with building a bunch of stuff that's in my Warsenal package (of doom), but still.

 

More miniatures ordered, and will show up when they show up...

1x Murabid Tuareg (Hacker)

1x Bashi Bazouks (Boarding Shotgun)

1x Ragik Bundle (Hacker/Spitfire)

1x Hassassin Bahram Sectorial Starter Pack

1x Odalisques (Spitfire)

 

I also have a Hunzakut that came in with my Micro Art Studios Terminus Segments - Communal battlemat (and two paper terrain kits), so that's another twelve minis added into the "to do" list...  Some of which look rather epic in my opinion, like the Ayyar with shock Marksman Rifle, others can be rather handy for messing with the opposition (Daylami, with Limited Camouflage, ESPECIALLY when paired with the panzerfausts)

[WhiteWulfe]

As penance for not having painted today due to waiting for UPS (who did show up, even if later than expected and without the system updating it was on a vehicle, yay!) have a battlefield I set up while waiting.  Sure, it's only 3x3' instead of the tournament size of 4x4', but it's definitely given me the impression that I'm going to need a LOT more scatter terrain...

 

 

No idea how it would play, but it was a fun way to burn time, and make things look a lot more cohesive than the previous one...

 

Spoiler

 

Thankfully, my Warsenal order has arrived, and not only includes a few buildings (Cosmica Research Station, 3x support packs, Cosmica Cargo Pack (2x crates, 3x cubes), and a pack of Commanche barricades)...

Spoiler

 

 

 

I swear, some sort of painting is going to be happening, and soon.  No, that isn't the sound of shrink wrap being torn, whyever do you ask?

[WhiteWulfe]

^So, naturally I've been pre-occupied with MDF the past little while, but now that I've got everything back together again, I figured it's time to do a bit of assembling, doubly so given that I've a backlog of 16 minis to assemble right now, AND there's another 25 minis on the way from three different companies...  And we're only talking about the ones for me, not the large pile for hubby's force (which is another 20 or so o_O)...

 

^First up we have the Hassassin Bahram starter pack.  First pic is Farzan (Forward Observer)(Rifle+Light Shotgun) / Ayyar (Surprise Shot L2) (Shock Marksman Rifle) / Muyib (Rifle + Light Grenade Launcher), second pic are three Daylami (one's Rifle+Light Shotgun, middle is Light Shotgun, and right is with Panzerfaust)

^And then we have two blisters assembled...  Odalisque with Spitfire, Hunzakut (Rifle + Light Grenade Launcher), and then the Doctor Plus from the HaqqIslam Support Pack.

 

Apologies for the rather yellow pictures, my phone wasn't cooperating, and it's late at night.

 

Out of what I have here at the house still in packages, I now just have to assemble two Bashi Bazouks w/Submachine guns, 2 Ragiks (one hacker, one w/Spitfire), a Najjarun Engineer, and two Nasmat drones.  I think that's it for assembly... At least what's in the apartment at the moment, anyways...  Still a decent amount more on the way >.>;;;;;

 

Goal is over the next few days there will be basing, priming, and of course a reasonable dose of painting as well  (assuming I don't wind up having to spend too too much time getting the living room sorted out and prepped for the upcoming gaming table delivery)