Tuesday 29 December 2015

Elite Venator Leader - The simping hunter


WOOOOOHOOOOO ! I really thought I'd end this year on a bunch of dogs but I just managed to take the time to finish this lovely model !
You might not be familiar with it and none could hold this against you as it's one of those rare confrontation models you couldn't find in any catalogue and which were only available for a limited period in certain places.

A real shame, because it's a very fine model with delicate sculpting and loads of character as you can see !



The painting on this model has been erratic at best, the weird head piece with the padded shirt and Hussar Vest along with military trousers and a Rottweiler make for a peculiar character you'll agree. Definitely not the average Joe.

I first tried a mix between serious and eye-catching wich was half-convincing to be honest :

Given the last models I posted about, you might understand what is coming next ... ^^'
I didn't really like the fact it was between 2 waters. This kind of sculpt doesn't allow that I think. To make it work, I would have had to go a bit further like my friend Jon did :

All about Jon's version here
After painting the vest, it reminded me a lot of the padded vests I had done on the venators...
...
WAIT ! Of course ! The Venators !
I've had 4 of them without a leader for some time now and only now do I realise I have a perfect leader for them !



Let me be clear, I VERY rarely paint over anything if at all. I just don't like to have multiple layers over each other and I really hesitated stripping the whole model to start afresh. Being of a lazy kind, I tried painting over first (with reluctance), then after a couple of highlights, I had to accept that it would have to be OK enough ...

You might remember from my post on the complete set that I had created a sort of ranking for the different kind of Venators :


I decided to keep the black head piece but to paint a red face on it, the idea is that a member willing to go from Primus to Centurio has to prove himself worthy and abandons the anonymity granted by his mask to wear an eye-catching head piece that will attract attention. This enables for the higher ups to determine the resolve of a given recruit. Once the battle test is passed, the recruit is then allowed to become a centurio and to wear the red mask (Yes, I'll need to male a red masked model now).

But why a silly face on the head piece ? Well, I can't hide I was a little influenced by a late read (kindly suggested and even offered by the excellent Sho3box) :


2000AD are always a treasure box if you're looking for ideas really and given that the hood looked silly from the start, I couldn't do anything else but make it look plain silly. I hop I succeeded in making the model intimidating despite the hood like the simping detective above is menacing and bad-ass despite his clown costume.


So here we are, this time I'm pretty sure it's the last model for the year ! Next post will be a little traditional recap of this past year and who knows what 2016 will be made of !

28 comments:

  1. I love this model! The black and cream really makes him pop, and it's nice to see the dog in grey too. Although he's stylistically different from the Venators, there are enough similarities with the padded jerkin and shared colour scheme.

    I like the hood too - it adds a nice flash of colour and interest, as well as having a narrative reasoning behind it too.

    Great finale to the year :)

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    1. Cheers, it finally was a relief to see the model worked in more restrained colour scheme, it looked different from yours and linked it with my venators so double win for me.

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  2. It's a great little gang, the new addition fits really well. I wouldn't even mention the over painting, nobody would know. I hope to meet them on a table top one day.

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  3. Wow, that really is cool. Great paintjob, and I think he fits in really nicely.

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    1. Cool, glad to hear it fits for you guys too !

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  4. Whoa! Didn't expect to see that this morning. I don't think I'd have had the foresight to see him leading a gang of Venators but you've pulled it off well, JB. Nice to see a contrast to Jon's one as well. Nice way to round the year off!

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    1. A late idea but a nice one in the end. ^^
      Giving the venators a leader is greatly satisfying and that way this model has a group otherwise it was condemned to being lonely.

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  5. Great model indeed, never saw it before. The dog and over the top clothing makes it stand out really well among your other venators, yet your use of colors bonds him to them at first look for an awesome group. Excellent work on this mate :)

    Really love your cream (!) white by the way. All clean and smooth...

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    1. Cheers buddy, I've always been intrigued by teh model especially since Jon painted it so I knew I had to try my hand on it. The cream is looking good because I found a good base for this kind of colours (it's always about shortcuts).

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  6. Lovely little group mate, and a nice way to find a home for such an unusual mini! I kinda want a hood like that now :-)

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    1. Looks cool doesn't it ? I'm sure it's gonna be all the rage in 2016. ^^
      Cheers mate ;)

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    2. yeah i'm sure it's average price on ebay is going up in 2016 because of you two. Nice job really. I'm already on ebay like all the fashion victims wasting their time here. >.<

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  7. That's great work on a lesser known classic model. I would never have thought to include it with the Venators, very nice. Nice to end 2015 on a high too.

    Bonus Internet points for including the Simping Detective :)

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    1. I have to thank you for the simping detective, that's another good influence to have around.

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  8. That is good! Lovely work with a limited palette. A very distinctive leader for the gang too.

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    1. Cool, I'm glad people approve of the choice ! I find a little bit of sillyness in a leader to stand from his flock is always welcome !
      Cheers !

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  9. Slow claps mec, he has found his place in the universe thanks to your out-of-the-box thinking and swift brushes of justice - justice to a wonderful sculpt :) it's been an honour WiPing with you this year, and looking forward to many years more!

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    1. I've loved every second of WIPing with you mec and I 'll raise my glasses to many more years of that (and how sweaty love).

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  10. Fabulous paintjob! Fits in with the venators really well. What a great looking model as well very jealous!

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    1. Cheers, I was really glad to score this one and it really motivated to paint him quick ! The venators feel a little lonely now.

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  11. Wow, what can I say. Just a big BRAVO! Outstanding, JB!

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  12. And there I was thinking I had been familiar with all of the sculpts made for Confrontation... Fantastic mini and I love the way you've managed to make it fit in with the rest of the gang.

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    1. It's a really obscure range full of models that haven't been catalogued or even sold for long. I still find there are some gems in both the fluff, models and artwork made for it, published or not.

      thanks a lot !

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  13. Awesome; that is really very nice.

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    1. Cheers mate, I was glad to get this one done before the end of the year !

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