Sunday, May 12, 2019

Scythe Base Game Miniature

I've been working on these a little at a time since my last post inspired me to take a look at some of my own board games for more miniatures to paint. If painted minis make wargames more fun, board games? So Scythe is one of my favorite games. My wife and I just played though the third expansion while I was painting these (don't worry, no spoilers), and if we're including that then I'd say that perhaps it is my favorite board game.

Scythe Base Game Minatures
Some were definitely more difficult than others to make look good, as would be expected, and others I was just either more or less on my game. Just like last time I'm just using my phone to take pictures on top of my kitchen island because it oddly seems to have the best lighting in my place. I hope the speckles aren't too distracting. More background (stories, art, etc.) are at Stonemaier Games.

Anna and Wojtek


Anna and Wojtek (the bear) were the first of the group that I painted because Polania is my favorite faction to play. I was pleasantly surprised at the amount of detail on this model, and yes I know I should have remove that awful mold line but it's not as obvious in person as in pictures so I didn't think about it until it was too late. It's the same for the rest of the minis too. I decided for simple faces for these folk since not even the original artwork has eyes, and I think it works fine. I had to freehand Wojtek's name on his pack as well as all of the red and white. 

Bjorn and Mox
 
The Nordic Kingdoms are a close second favorite faction for me to play, as their style is kind of hilarious. The way I play them is that I just start spreading my workers toward my two flanks from the beginning because they can swim and then use my mechs and character for guerilla fighting from lakes. Anyway, I'm happy with Bjorn, I gave him a darker skin tone and fiery orange beard making a decent contrast with the blue of his overcoat and Mox. With Mox, I tried a lot of different things before I settled with what became the final product, a dirty and snowy (hopefully) coat of fur and a greyish face. As the only character who rides his animal companion into battle, Bjorn is clearly the most badass of the bunch.

Zehra and Kar



This one turned out to be my least favorite of the group to paint. Not only was the model completely different from the artwork, the details were shallow or lacking all together. Kar, for example, didn't even have a defined beak and so I had to freehand it (and it does not look very convincing unfortunately). I suppose I could have tried to sculpt it myself (why else do I have green stuff?) but after all this is only for a board game and everyone I've shown it too hasn't mentioned it so that's probably good enough.

Olga and Changa

I'm actually really proud of these two gals. Olga looks competently done enough but is clearer dull in comparison to her Siberian Tiger companion. Many people think that Rusviet is the most powerful faction in the game (I tend to disagree) so I anticipated my friends would frequently pick her in our pickup games so I really wanted the tiger to turn out well. I painted Changa from a reference image of a real Siberian Tiger, starting with a sulfur yellow which you can still kind of see in the face and then mixing the right shade of brown/orange for the top coat and a whitish yellow for the face, paws, and tail. With the strips I tried to match the face to the picture and for the body I just did what looked natural. Like I said, very happy with this one especially after the last one.

Gunter and Nacht

Ohhh Gunter. You are the most aggressive faction in the game, and by far the least subtle. I don't play you if I can help it but you definitely have a playstyle that I'm sure some people like. He was tricky because of all of the black. In the artwork, Nacht is just a silhouette with yellow eyes, but I brightened it up to make it more interesting. I have to say, I've enjoyed immensely the combination of human and animal companion in the same model for a lot of textural variety. I don't think either model would be that interesting solo, but together each make a decent pair. There wasn't anything special about painting Gunter and Nacht, I have a lot of experience painting black between my old Cryx and the 40k miniatures from years ago so I wasn't too worried.

I enjoyed painting these guys a lot, and my game is a lot more vibrant because I did. I likely won't paint the mechs, but in the future I do intend to paint the new miniatures in the first and third expansion (I'll put spoiler warnings for campaign relation figures).

Until then, I hope you enjoyed. I think my next project will be to finish up some more of my Khador and go show them off at the game store.

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