Hello to all,
Here is my freshly painted team of House Ulanti Spyrers.
(I hope to add a Patriarch and a Matriarch to these guys in the coming weeks/months).
Conte Alighieree Ge'Sylvanus of the House Ulanti (Jakara rig)
Firstborn of one of the finest family of the Ulanti House, nephew of the famed renegade D 'onne Aastride, Alighieree joined the exclusive Ulanti Hunting Society at only 15. As it is usual among the high nobility youth, he chose to use a Jakara rig, both to use his skills and teachings at fencing and to prove his gallantry by fighting enemies at close range with a light armour. Some Delaque informants have hinted he could have been secretly assigned by his great uncle to find his errand daughter through the dark mazes of the underhive, which could explain the young Count's specific focus on female underhivers...
Hey, you ! You've got nowhere to run, Escher harlot...
Marchese Dan'te Fettepo of the House Ulanti (Malcadon rig)
Third son of the House cartographers clan, the proeminent Fettepo family, Dan'te has been rumored to be a bastard child of Patriarch Sylvanus Ulanti himself, whith whom he shares a troubling similarity. With several hunting raids to his credit, he has specialized in tracking down Ratskins, a notably difficult task, and likes to ornate his technobeetle armour with natives trophies. Doing so, he soon fed Brakar the Avenger's wrath, who swore to kill this « Spyre Deamon » some day...
An unlucky underhiver shouldn't have gotten in the way of the « Deamon » Marchese, as ratskins call him.
Barone Rabani « The Beast » Yertoloni of the House Ulanti (Orrus rig)
Last child of ageing parents, the young Yertoloni baron showed an early aggressive behaviour and turned into a first class bully and a pet killer, and was quickly sent to the Underhive as soon as he reached the legal hunting age (where his old parents probably whished him not to do so well). The underworld sadly matched his true nature, and Rabani became a ferocious and seasoned hunter with a very limited sense of flair or mercy, not the kind to pass on an easy score on a neuron plague victim or an isolated scavvie. If you ask him about his rumored 500 kills, The Beast will probably produced one of his ugly smiles and tell you that it is gross exaggeration, and that he « only » killed 483 underworlders during his 51 hunting raids...
« The Beast baron», also known as « The Scourge of the Scavvies »
Patrizio Teeberio Gorgone of the House Ulanti (Yeld rig)
Young Teeberio is a beginner Hunter, and a famous SCC (Spyre Colleges Circle) athlete. As a gymnastics champion, the young heir to the patrician title of the feared Gorgone clan chose to sport a Yeld rig, which he already uses as an expert flyer, his main acomplishment so far being the killing of King Pussheap the Scrofulous, a scavvy tribe leader whom he beheaded while flying with one of his razorblade wings (as well as four other members of the king's cursed court).
The young patrician is mentally focusing on his next target while taking off.
Building and painting
House Ulanti theme
I decided that black and yellow were House Ulanti colors, and every Spyrer of my team included these colors to give them some unity but without wearing uniforms. I also decided that they should all sport blue hair, an Ulanti tradition among Hunters. I tried to use a lot of colors but to avoid in the same time the « Marvel superhero » pattern usually associated with many Spyrers paintings schemes seen on the Internet.
Jakara rig
This is a model I own for almost thirty years (from the Grenadier range?). It still is one of my favorite miniature ever (despite being an elf...LoL). I like its balance, its subtle sculpting (the hair, the tilt of the head, the legs spreading), the pose that leaves you with a lot of questions : Why is he hiding behind a mask ? What is he pointing at ? Is he issuing a challenge ?
To convert it into a Jakara hunter was easy. I scrapped its old painting, cut the original Renaissance foil and pinned a modified (and now toothless) plastic chainsaw, with a copper wire, to make an monomolecular sword. I donned him a simple steel polished button (from my wife's sewing kit) as a mirror shield, and added pads on his shorts to supplement the breast plate and give him a more futuristic look.
The main difficulty was the oval cast base, very thick and hard to cut. Since his feet are quite thin, I decided to take no risk and cut the base around the feet, leaving it with some kind of « platform soles » which required heavy cuts in the modern base and to do some putty jointing to get a flush result.
Overall, I wanted an old school aristocratic Spyrer à la Confrontation, and chose the painting scheme accordingly. I used some iridescent medium to make a nice mother-of-pearl effect on his dagger handle and also on his chest armour, to get along with his high nobility status.
Malcadon rig
The body comes from an unused box of Space Wolves Long Fangs from 1992, which was given to me by my Necromunda partner in the mid 90's. The ridge of the helmet was cut and the stone under the miniature's left foot was replaced by a plastic head from an early 2000's WFB sprue, more fitted to the Hunters theme. I wanted his helmet to look more insect-like, to go with a a beetle color scheme, so I sculpted a longe « nose » (a proboscis). His clawed arms are resin parts from a SM upgrade kit, while the web spinnaret on his left gauntlet comes from the FW « Baertrum Arturos III » model.
The body cast was bad, probably a run end or an old mould, and didn't favour a precise painting, but I took advantage of the pelt and the teeth collar of the original Space Wolf to make a ratskin hunter out of this character. I like the pose of the miniature, like he is pondering what to do next with a iron boot still on the head of his most recent prey.
Orrus rig
To match the brutality of the Orrus hunter, I chose to convert a short and massive WFB Nurgle champion from the early 2000's. His forehead Nurgle symbol was filled, and those on his shoulder pads were cut, and I glued/sculpted him a mohawk haircut to reinforce the Necromundan look. The miniature was fitted with two SM power fists, with one of them connected to his armour through an unused power tube (from the Artel W « Jacoob Cloister » kit), the other one supporting a bolt launcher (made from a FW grenade). I also filled the chainmail parts and some holes to lessen his initial « fantasy » outlook. A plasma gun was cut and modified before being glued to his back as a force field generator, conected to his rig via two power cables made out of thin copper wire.
The conversion/kitbashing was straightforward and the painting pattern followed my choice for the House Ulanti colors. His nasty grin and worn out dark heavy armour make him a primitive and brutal Orrus spyrer, an aspect I reinforced with a skull decal on his fist, and he stands IMO as an interesting alternative to the usual « colourful robots » seen with the official miniature.
Yeld rig
This miniature is from an unknown range and was bought on an auction site as an obvious Yeld proxy for a few pounds. He didn't require much specific add-ons or conversion, and I just pinned it on a long paperclip section as if he was taking off, and sculpted two additional spikes of hair to give him a « Spyrer » look. The original wings were quite thick at their bases, so I sharpened some sections to make the rig razorblades.
The main issue was the painting off the specific « chameleonic » coating required by the fluff on the armour and the wings of this rig. I didn't want to use a military camo pattern, so I used two coats of some filler+kaki acrylic paint mix to texture the surfaces for a very granular aspect (so as to mimic the Underhive heavily rusted environment). It was whashed in black and highlighted in metallic green before a final dark green homemade contrast paint wash. I am quite satisfied with the result, very close to the « techno glittering grainy camo » concept I wanted to achieve.
A few elements on the body suit and wings were painted in black and yellow to respect the House Ulanti colors I chose, and the laspistols were painted in purple to go along with the Jakara scarf, the Orrus fist and the Malcadon pads.
Here is my freshly painted team of House Ulanti Spyrers.
(I hope to add a Patriarch and a Matriarch to these guys in the coming weeks/months).
Conte Alighieree Ge'Sylvanus of the House Ulanti (Jakara rig)
Firstborn of one of the finest family of the Ulanti House, nephew of the famed renegade D 'onne Aastride, Alighieree joined the exclusive Ulanti Hunting Society at only 15. As it is usual among the high nobility youth, he chose to use a Jakara rig, both to use his skills and teachings at fencing and to prove his gallantry by fighting enemies at close range with a light armour. Some Delaque informants have hinted he could have been secretly assigned by his great uncle to find his errand daughter through the dark mazes of the underhive, which could explain the young Count's specific focus on female underhivers...
Hey, you ! You've got nowhere to run, Escher harlot...
Marchese Dan'te Fettepo of the House Ulanti (Malcadon rig)
Third son of the House cartographers clan, the proeminent Fettepo family, Dan'te has been rumored to be a bastard child of Patriarch Sylvanus Ulanti himself, whith whom he shares a troubling similarity. With several hunting raids to his credit, he has specialized in tracking down Ratskins, a notably difficult task, and likes to ornate his technobeetle armour with natives trophies. Doing so, he soon fed Brakar the Avenger's wrath, who swore to kill this « Spyre Deamon » some day...
An unlucky underhiver shouldn't have gotten in the way of the « Deamon » Marchese, as ratskins call him.
Barone Rabani « The Beast » Yertoloni of the House Ulanti (Orrus rig)
Last child of ageing parents, the young Yertoloni baron showed an early aggressive behaviour and turned into a first class bully and a pet killer, and was quickly sent to the Underhive as soon as he reached the legal hunting age (where his old parents probably whished him not to do so well). The underworld sadly matched his true nature, and Rabani became a ferocious and seasoned hunter with a very limited sense of flair or mercy, not the kind to pass on an easy score on a neuron plague victim or an isolated scavvie. If you ask him about his rumored 500 kills, The Beast will probably produced one of his ugly smiles and tell you that it is gross exaggeration, and that he « only » killed 483 underworlders during his 51 hunting raids...
« The Beast baron», also known as « The Scourge of the Scavvies »
Patrizio Teeberio Gorgone of the House Ulanti (Yeld rig)
Young Teeberio is a beginner Hunter, and a famous SCC (Spyre Colleges Circle) athlete. As a gymnastics champion, the young heir to the patrician title of the feared Gorgone clan chose to sport a Yeld rig, which he already uses as an expert flyer, his main acomplishment so far being the killing of King Pussheap the Scrofulous, a scavvy tribe leader whom he beheaded while flying with one of his razorblade wings (as well as four other members of the king's cursed court).
The young patrician is mentally focusing on his next target while taking off.
Building and painting
House Ulanti theme
I decided that black and yellow were House Ulanti colors, and every Spyrer of my team included these colors to give them some unity but without wearing uniforms. I also decided that they should all sport blue hair, an Ulanti tradition among Hunters. I tried to use a lot of colors but to avoid in the same time the « Marvel superhero » pattern usually associated with many Spyrers paintings schemes seen on the Internet.
Jakara rig
This is a model I own for almost thirty years (from the Grenadier range?). It still is one of my favorite miniature ever (despite being an elf...LoL). I like its balance, its subtle sculpting (the hair, the tilt of the head, the legs spreading), the pose that leaves you with a lot of questions : Why is he hiding behind a mask ? What is he pointing at ? Is he issuing a challenge ?
To convert it into a Jakara hunter was easy. I scrapped its old painting, cut the original Renaissance foil and pinned a modified (and now toothless) plastic chainsaw, with a copper wire, to make an monomolecular sword. I donned him a simple steel polished button (from my wife's sewing kit) as a mirror shield, and added pads on his shorts to supplement the breast plate and give him a more futuristic look.
The main difficulty was the oval cast base, very thick and hard to cut. Since his feet are quite thin, I decided to take no risk and cut the base around the feet, leaving it with some kind of « platform soles » which required heavy cuts in the modern base and to do some putty jointing to get a flush result.
Overall, I wanted an old school aristocratic Spyrer à la Confrontation, and chose the painting scheme accordingly. I used some iridescent medium to make a nice mother-of-pearl effect on his dagger handle and also on his chest armour, to get along with his high nobility status.
Malcadon rig
The body comes from an unused box of Space Wolves Long Fangs from 1992, which was given to me by my Necromunda partner in the mid 90's. The ridge of the helmet was cut and the stone under the miniature's left foot was replaced by a plastic head from an early 2000's WFB sprue, more fitted to the Hunters theme. I wanted his helmet to look more insect-like, to go with a a beetle color scheme, so I sculpted a longe « nose » (a proboscis). His clawed arms are resin parts from a SM upgrade kit, while the web spinnaret on his left gauntlet comes from the FW « Baertrum Arturos III » model.
The body cast was bad, probably a run end or an old mould, and didn't favour a precise painting, but I took advantage of the pelt and the teeth collar of the original Space Wolf to make a ratskin hunter out of this character. I like the pose of the miniature, like he is pondering what to do next with a iron boot still on the head of his most recent prey.
Orrus rig
To match the brutality of the Orrus hunter, I chose to convert a short and massive WFB Nurgle champion from the early 2000's. His forehead Nurgle symbol was filled, and those on his shoulder pads were cut, and I glued/sculpted him a mohawk haircut to reinforce the Necromundan look. The miniature was fitted with two SM power fists, with one of them connected to his armour through an unused power tube (from the Artel W « Jacoob Cloister » kit), the other one supporting a bolt launcher (made from a FW grenade). I also filled the chainmail parts and some holes to lessen his initial « fantasy » outlook. A plasma gun was cut and modified before being glued to his back as a force field generator, conected to his rig via two power cables made out of thin copper wire.
The conversion/kitbashing was straightforward and the painting pattern followed my choice for the House Ulanti colors. His nasty grin and worn out dark heavy armour make him a primitive and brutal Orrus spyrer, an aspect I reinforced with a skull decal on his fist, and he stands IMO as an interesting alternative to the usual « colourful robots » seen with the official miniature.
Yeld rig
This miniature is from an unknown range and was bought on an auction site as an obvious Yeld proxy for a few pounds. He didn't require much specific add-ons or conversion, and I just pinned it on a long paperclip section as if he was taking off, and sculpted two additional spikes of hair to give him a « Spyrer » look. The original wings were quite thick at their bases, so I sharpened some sections to make the rig razorblades.
The main issue was the painting off the specific « chameleonic » coating required by the fluff on the armour and the wings of this rig. I didn't want to use a military camo pattern, so I used two coats of some filler+kaki acrylic paint mix to texture the surfaces for a very granular aspect (so as to mimic the Underhive heavily rusted environment). It was whashed in black and highlighted in metallic green before a final dark green homemade contrast paint wash. I am quite satisfied with the result, very close to the « techno glittering grainy camo » concept I wanted to achieve.
A few elements on the body suit and wings were painted in black and yellow to respect the House Ulanti colors I chose, and the laspistols were painted in purple to go along with the Jakara scarf, the Orrus fist and the Malcadon pads.
