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Miniatures Adventure => Call of Cthulhu => Strange Aeons => Topic started by: horridperson on September 22, 2015, 08:52:03 PM
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C.O.R.D. was a clandestine government department formed in 1921 by the 10th Prime Minister, William Lyon Mckenzie King. The organization had it's roots in a similar Victorian agency that operated on Canadian soil at the direction of the Crown. The Promethean Institute had conducted investigations into the supernatural occurring in the Canadas from a satellite bureau in Ottawa. In 1913 Institute agents embarked on an expedition into the arctic for an unknown purpose. The onset of the Great War in Europe diverted attention from the endeavor so when these operatives failed to report their status there was no one wondering what had become of them.
This is the basic premise for the organization that will be the focus of my Strange Aeons campaign. It is quite a ways off as I only just picked up the rule set any associated models are still in the mail. It could be a while before there are any AARs.
Just the same I enjoy monkeying around with alternate/weird history and providing an imagined history for the project could be an amusement unto itself. King's diaries are a matter of public record so inventing a story within them is possible. He was a prolific diarist so finding gaps in his journals can be challenging; Luckily he had a few days in 1920 and 1921 he was mum about so I can stuff some BS in there :) .
As I flesh things out (history, characters, AARs) I will make additions to the thread. Hopefully I can make the story part more entertaining by introducing "historical documents" to give the setting some false veracity. To get things started here a blank licence that would be issued to a C.O.R.D. agent and carried by them in the field. Thirteen of these blanks were discovered in a footlocker in the Canadian War Museum in the early 1980's.
At the time of their issue these documents had little value. They neither granted the authority of the government or even that of a peace officer. C.O.R.D. was unknown to the public, civil authorities and denied at the highest levels of government that created it. To mitigate this isolation a series of way stations across the country offered traveling agents some respite. The IDs were most often used as credentials to allow access to these secret road houses.
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Canadian content is always heartily approved! :D
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Hear, Hear! That's one skookum organisation, right there.
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Sounding good to me. Maybe we can convice Uncle Mike to get a couple of Mountie C.O.R.D agents sculpted up.
Lem :)
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I think thet'll have to meet my Royal Canadian Rocket Police!
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I have a Dirk Goodspeed (Reaper) on order to get things started but if I need more RCs Bob Murch's Pulps look solid. If I ever turned the clock ahead (Delta Green in Canada) I would have to pick up the Harwood Hobbies constable; He looks great. Do you have pics of your rocket police Gary? Sounds pretty awesome.
I didn't even start rolling out agent concepts or profiles and you guys already fingered the mountie :(. Such an iconic necessity I should have figured I wasn't surprising anybody ;). The other two starters should be a little harder to pick out but both will provide a slice of Canadian history because it makes me feel like I'm playing with my toys very seriously :) .
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You had me going for a second. Until I realized WLMK was the 12th PM. lol
Edit:
I will concede WLMK was the 10th man to serve as PM but Sir John A and Mr. Borden served two terms each so I count him as #12. Maybe 11th as Sir John As terms were not consecutive... Aaaand I just bored myself. Apologies.
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"......formed in 1921 by Prime Minister William Lyon McKenzie King"
Semantics. I look at it as 10th man. When I produce the final edit before I blog it I'll edit it as the quote above to avoid any ambiguity.
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A couple of pics down!
http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=71642.msg871981#msg871981
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I'm just joking around. It's a fantastic idea either way. I look forward to seeing this progress.
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@gary42: awesome models!
@Johnno: NP, Some of the ideas are tongue in cheek any way. The C.O.R.D. crest is an image of the Gordian Knot. In spite of it's complexity Alexander simply chopped the thing in half. It seemed like a simple Mythos solution to my poor investigators :) .
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Thanks!
Didn't C.O.R.D. have something to do with burning down the White House in it'most early incarnation?
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If I recall correctly, the act was misinterpreted, but the world is forever safer for it.
Such is the butcher's bill when fighting a pan-dimensional foe... These things have no respect for sovereignty.
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Canadian content is always heartily approved! :D
No doubt aboot it, eh!
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I'm not sure on the history of the Promethean Institute/Society/Branch or even it's name for that matter. The War of 1812 is certainly earlier than I was planning for the satellite Crown organization. I thought the office might have come to the new world in the Victorian era post Confederation since the colonies were becoming more "civilized" and getting their own government affairs in order. As long as they are around to do a polar expedition in the early 20th century that should do the trick. I had thought about the promethean branch being wiped out at the commencement of the Great War but if the expedition left in 1920 with modest escort of Mounties the lone survivor might be an appropriate first C.O.R.D. agent. With no Prometheans remaining King might have made an executive decision and appropriated the Lighthouse in the name of the Canadian government.
The Lighthouse was a Victorian house in the Ottawa region that served as a base of operations for the Promethean Branch in the Canadas. Living Quarters, Motor Pool, Armoury, Library, Sanctum.
On government here's a transcript from King's diaries
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I posted the "first meeting" story on my blog http://horridvoidspace.blogspot.ca/2015/09/strange-aeons-canadian-heritage-minute.html#more (http://horridvoidspace.blogspot.ca/2015/09/strange-aeons-canadian-heritage-minute.html#more)
Hopefully it will work a little better than the outline I did on this post. I still needs to be fleshed out to "work" and will probably end up retconned as things proceed but I putting it out there to get feedback and opinions anyway. If you don't want to check it out here is the second King diary entry.
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They say Sir John A. started his gin obsession after seeing a fishman-thing whilst arriving in Charlottetown. He just couldn't deal without dousing his whiskers in pine-scented liquor after that.
Well done!
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Fantastic fluff, really enjoy when people muck about and come up with backgrounds, preferably even before they've read the rulebook through!!! There's nothing like having a little bit of imagination running wild so will watch this thread lol.
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Very cool. Looking forward to seeing your progress.
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@obsidian3d:
I hit a snag on my mail order. Grrr RAFM. I'm waiting on my 20s style models and have to play around with a couple of modern models I got through my regular mail order store. I am going to get the test model done up and advance the imagined history into the modern age. It seems like such a waste if my investigators really blow it and the world ends before the Great Depression :) . Imagined realities permitting there is a CORD in the early 21st century.
Over the years it has waxed and waned at the "mercies" of government budgeting and other fell circumstances. The first model will be an operator attached to COR Team 1 based at CFB Trenton, Ontario.
@Legionnaire:
I'm terrible about reading rule books. I read the Threshold timeline Uncle Mike provided, saw other players had invented their own agencies and closed the PDF :). I would have read more if it was a real book so I'll blame my lack of attention to details on technology.
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My wave of RAFM agents arrived :)! I still haven't got them started but I have a bones formless thing by reaper completed. Because I hope to do a campaign in multiple time periods and need to reuse my lurkers across them I tried to keep the basing non specific. Dirt is dirt over the course of 200 years or so. I avoided priming as instructed and didn't find it took paint too badly. The initial layer was finicky and applying washes seemed to make the paint rub off by times. This caused a bit of hassle but for the price these models are a steal and unless I want superb detailing for a character model I think I'd opt for them frequently.
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The Lighthouse..........................well almost :D
http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=83472.0
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This is awesome.
Great project.
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@Sterling Moose
That is a good match but dollhouse makers make wargame make look like charitable organizations :). Luckily they post quite a few photos so I they present a reasonable, "how to" guide. I'd like to build the Light House at some point and having that as a reference would be very helpful. Thanks for sharing it.
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It seems eldritch powers are working against C.O.R.D. . Due to time dilation with the mail service a modern agent arrived prior to the roaring 20s ones and got painted first. I see modern agents as more overtly martial than their predecessors. The hysteria surrounding terrorism within the geopolitical landscape has resulted in a more paramilitary field presence. There are still researchers and specialists but for the most part they are archivists, academics and bureaucrats with desk jobs supporting ground operations. ORTs (Occult Response Teams) are often drawn from persons with Canadian Military and Law Enforcement backgrounds.
Can hardware conquer horror? Cults and agents of the elder gods often hide their machinations beneath the cover of terrorism and insurgency. In 2006 a "terror attack" struck the Light House. Government press releases indicated that C.O.R.D. had been targeted by extremists as part of a broader campaign against all of Canada and it's institutions. No mention was made of the plundering of the sites occult library. There have been unsubstantiated reports of cultist action in the middle east who plunder ancient sites of ancient knowledge while allegedly destroying them.
The first agent is a Black Scorpion USMC model. I gave him blue fatigues and black kit. The rifle was a nice fit for a Canadian because it's a C7 down to the forward assist. I chose his uniform colour because I wanted him to be versatile in games. I figure he could be a PMC, RCMP ERT, or a Vault Security Officer in a This is Not a Test game.
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thx for the accompanying fluff
I also like that u spent the time to base the formless thing...
:)
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I avoided priming as instructed and didn't find it took paint too badly. The initial layer was finicky and applying washes seemed to make the paint rub off by times. This caused a bit of hassle but for the price these models are a steal and unless I want superb detailing for a character model I think I'd opt for them frequently.
I didn't prime mine either, but used almost undiluted paint which also is recommended, as I found on a previous model the normal diluted paint I use wouldn't stick, too much 'flow'. But again, I only do one layer anyways before Armypainter Quickshade. My Faceless Horror arrived in two pieces actually, so it took me a second or two to realise that it hadn't been broken in transport, it actually was supposed to be like that lol and then I found it sooo much easier to paint the inside.
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@Legionnaire
cutp was able to paint his as two parts as well. Mine was packaged as a single piece. I fiddled with it a little to see if it would come apart because the sections were obvious but it was stuck together pretty good. The interior detail suffered a little but for the most part it wasn't a bad one to paint as a complete model.
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I just finished my cult leader that arrived over the weekend from Uncle Mike. He is the first model I completed from the starter. He was fun to paint and had plenty of flat space so I could play around with a bit of free hand. I thought about painting him with a particular cult in mind but it looks like I'll have to reverse engineer and built the cult around the color scheme.
Without a background I defaulted to red because it is a primal colour. I bastardized some thelema symbology to decorate his cuffs and had some fun with the leopard cloak. It seemed to spiral away from reality and ended up more in a John Blanche style than the realistic flat paint I had started it with. I wanted an ashen faced, tired looking leader who had ruined himself with excess and foul habits. I made him pale and tried to accentuate the sagging jowl with a highlights. I stole the headress from a leader pictured on the SA facebook site which was an awesome paint job but veered away on the face because their looked youthful and vibrant.
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Okay, this one is my favorite of your pics you have so far. Very nice.
Scott
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Wish I could still paint like that. Very nice.
Lem
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Very nice work, these Canadian Cultist sure know how to dress :)
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Thanks for the kind comments. I hope to have some period cars up soon and maybe a bit of background on the nefarious (probably odious too :) ) Valentine Black.
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I posted a villain profile for Valentine Black on http://horridvoidspace.blogspot.ca/2015/10/strange-aeons-cult-leader-valentine.html . It's more of a design document than a fictional report. His history is detailed broadly and some of my reasons for putting him together as he is are there too. Hopefully by Part 2 I can come up with something more cohesive :) .
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A very interesting/intriguing backstory for VB. Well done.
Lem :)
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That is a great background you have there for your villian. Very realistic and plausible for sure! Keep up the great work you are doing.
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Great story.
Looking forward for more.
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I completed my first C.O.R.D. agent. It isn't who I was hoping it would be but that and the agen'ts history can be found on the blog; http://horridvoidspace.blogspot.ca/2015/10/strange-aeons-captain-reid.html (http://horridvoidspace.blogspot.ca/2015/10/strange-aeons-captain-reid.html)
Here are some quick pics of Captain Avery Reid.
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Another good back story. A seasoned vet. for the forces of C.O.R.D. Nice paint job too.
Lem :)
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Great stuff! Love that figure. 8)
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post the golden triangle boys here and more :)
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Here they are. I'll admit to rushing them a bit. I'm at my best when I paint a single model at a time; Why larger scale war gaming never agreed with me :) . The cultists are characterful models with their robes and ugly mugs I imagine one pipiing up to the others,
"Awright boys, Mistah Black sez if we waste dem nosey Investergators he'll fix up up wif a $10 bonus fer hooch and broadz, see!"
Maybe not. As yet they don't really have an identity as a cult. I have been throwing around potential loyalties for them. Are they;
1) Dupes. Mugs and rubes Black has gathered in his travels who don't have occult affiliations but trade their muscle for money.
2) Anarchists or commuinists. Black misleads them and sells them stories of how his machinations will bring down the bourgeois and forment revoloution.
3) Wanna be klansman or some other bigots motivated to serve Black by his honeyed promises
4) Legitimate cultists invested in Black's schemes believing they will gain great power serving the elder gods or seeking a nihilistic end like their master.
Once I group painted the cultists I revisited Black himself. The head dress was a neat idea but was poorly executed as well as conflicting with other colours on the model. I reverted to black to match him better with his minions and preferred how it contrasted with his pallid face and made it jump out.
I may touch up all of these models at a later date. Painting the pouches and stuff black leather was lazy and I should have done a better job. Black is a terrible thing to paint when you are feeling lazy because painting it properly requires some thought and clever treatment. The blue grey highlight was pure half-assed lazy drybrushing.
As I said the models were neat with a great pulpy vibe. They had some vicious "flash" and mold lines that ran across textures that made them hard to remove cleanly. I did a better job with the leader but I wasn't painting or modelling five of him. The eyes were very difficult to get at and though the cultists with pistols and shotgun had very nice "character actor" faces the man with the knife wasn't in their league. The eyes under the hoods were very difficult to get at and I was disappointed with what i achieved.
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They look brilliant, sir.
Very nice brushwork.
:-* :-*
I really cannot see where there are any issues, they look just fine to me.
8)
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It's been a while but I approached this with some trepidation. I think the female investigator with the shotgun is probably my favorite Strange Aeons model. I loved the pose but wanted something a little different for an outfit; Maybe I was channeling my inner fashionista ;D. I don't know what that means my nieces used it all the time a couple months back.
I ended up carving away some of the existing details on the model and adding on some others with green stuff. I did this after goggling, "20's women's clothing" and deciding what I liked best. Some of the GS work I did could probably use some clean up but overall I'm happy with the adjustments. I think a coat of paint will flatter the fig and bring the elements back together but I am tempted to roll up a bit more and do some touchups/cleanups. If I'd used more GS the first time around the weak pleats I added to the dress would have looked better and more pronounced.
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Nice conversion and putty pushing, she looks really 'in-period'.
Miss Fisher would be proud.
8) 8)
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Thanks Mason. I was planning to paint a print I saw on one of the googlrd dresses and only realized I'd made the job harder after adding the pleats; Maybe that's why it was sculpted as it was :) . I just finished priming a group of agents and a couple lurkers so there will be more to follow in a few days.
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Very nice, looking forward to seeing more.
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The remodeling looks really good. I'm sure it will look great once painted up as well.
Lembit
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Hurray! I did get some models painted :) . Quite a while back I said I had some diecast cars on the way. At lasr here is proof of one. It's a Solido Mercedes. Because she is such a jetsetter (A propsetter in this era I suppose) Adelaide Radford got to pose in front of it. Addy is British agent Radford's daughter and a proper badass like her dear old dad was. The model is an Evelyn the Explorer from Bombshell Miniatures. I thought this model was really cool and had less than a week turnaround from it arrivng to a full paint (this process can go anywhere from months to decades depending :) ). The mummy is an Otherworld model. I really enjoy their sculpts and thought I could use it for Frostgrave, Strange Aeons or some other Pulp game if I decide to start playing one of those (I want to try Pulp Alley). To actually do something with my blog I'll save sharing a full bio so there is actually a purpose to putting something up over there. I like the print I used as a backdrop. It speaks of daredevils and adventure like one of the Indiana Jones maps and should make viewers think the models are better painted than they are :) .
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Nice work, especially the face which is very smoothly done.
:-* :-*
Nice weathering on the Merc too.
8)
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Looks great! Love the mud on the tires. Both perfect for Pulp Alley!
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Fantastic! Definitely good for Pulp Alley. ;)
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Hurray! I did get some models painted :) . Quite a while back I said I had some diecast cars on the way. At lasr here is proof of one. It's a Solido Mercedes.
Wouldn't a Solido 1929 Cord be more appropriate for this team? :)
(I found two at a local model show. Lucky.)
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That's actually a real neat looking vehicle featuring some really cool innovations. Not being an automobile enthusiast I don't have much knowledge of their history or specifics. I'd certainly like to grab one if I could find one for a fair price.
If I were a purist I'd have to veto it and any of the vehicles I have been able to acquire so far. The story is supposed to start in 1922 and the oldest period car I have is a 1925 Panhard :-[.
Luckily I see them as old cars and don't notice that sort of thing. I further identify the Mercedes as a fast old car. Nice finds at the show! I have a small group of cars collected that are passable for the setting but I need to find some trucks.
I weathered the tires after reading about the state of Canadian roadways in the 1920's. No wonder people liked travel by train.
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I completed a pair of Mi-Go to add to my Lurker population. I go into in more detail on my blog; http://horridvoidspace.blogspot.ca/ (http://horridvoidspace.blogspot.ca/) but here they are.
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I like them.
Nice colour choices.
:-*
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The Dominion of Canada is assailed from all sides by the insidious legions of the occult! Intrepid investigators are needed to combat this threat in service to the King; Long may he reign. Those gentlemen and ladies with past experience in the field of paranormal events or a sense of derring-do are sought. Join C.O.R.D. today! Together we are stronger!
If only the secret nature of Strange Aeons weren't so and the Department could have purchased an advert in the news. Since they can't our poor heroes are certainly on the brink of becoming overwhelmed as the lurkers are joined by a shoggoth! The model is a Reaper Bones shoggoth. I thought the model was a cool sculpt and the price was so cheap I wasn't sure I was buying miniatures :) .
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That looks great! So do those Mi-Go! I have a couple but am never sure how to paint them...
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I had the same problem; I've had the shoggoth for almost a year and never decided how I'd paint it. I'd started with a very purple scheme for the pseudopods like I had with a formless horror I'd done earlier then when I came back to it I changed in fleshy highlight instead. From the horror I stuck with the black eyes; I find them more disturbing than the realistic, more human eyes. I have a flying polyp on the go but I'm going to have to change over soon. My investigators are besieged.
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Nice! I have orange tones on my Mi-go as well!
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C.O.R.D. update and poor Reid couldn't have waited another moment. I completed a Kung Fu Expert, Special Branch Technician and Thug to add to the organization. A photo here and the full report back on the blog.
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Great additions and the brushwork is superb.
My personal favourite is the Thug.
Gotta love that waistcoat.
:-* :-*
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The weskit! Oh my! :-* :-* :-*
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@Peabody
If you can't be a gentleman you always try to dress like one :) . The weskit was on the model but I went with a tartan pattern to suggest he was from Cape Breton. It's an allusion to Archie McNeil from Maclennan's, Each Man's Son.
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That Thug is fantastic! What an amazing paint job!!! Where is the model from?
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He's a Malifaux, "Mr. Graves". I cut the board out of his hand and green stuffed him a slouch cap.
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Really fantastic work on those figs. :-*
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Great stuff!
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I had a lot of fun putting together models and background for this project; Even if it never came to fruition then. I have been working at a backlog of painting projects and ended up getting some more models completed for the C.O.R.D. continuity. The models are all RAFM figures. The investigators are all from the 7th ed group while the polyp is a classic model; I think they were Grenadier figures from the 80s though RAFM owns them these days.
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That polyp is brilliant. Such a classic mini!
Really glad to see where C.O.R.D. is heading. :)
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Great to see that C.O.R.D. is back in business.
Lovely work on those classic RAFM figures.
:-* :-*
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I didn't realize the polyp had so much detail on it...
They are a horrific race of critters, and a worthy opponent.
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I really like the classic monsters. I prefer the more modern investigators but, the oddness of the old sculpts seems appropriate for creatures of the mythos. The detail is good even if they are a little cartoonish compared to more recent interpretations but that makes them seem outside of reality to me. One of the guys on another thread was using paper minis for some of his larger creatures and the "offness" of it really worked for me.
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Some more lurkers to add to the pool. There is one of two Blue moon gravediggers as well as a monolith that came with the servitor. I didn't feel there was much I could do with those old school skulls. Pretty rough.
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Lovely figures.
I especially like the way that all the disparate Lurker types work so well together with your use of a muted palette.
:-* :-*
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Thanks Mason. I wasn't sure how that would translate. I wanted unity but was concerned I was working against the singular horror of individual lurkers. The crew is too much for for early investigations so it shouldn't be a problem on the front end. It felt a bit like tunnel vision as I painted them together.
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what a thead! Brilliant.