The Deadly Assassins (Part 5)

On the planet where the phase knives grow.

Welcome to the almost annual series of posts featuring the Imperial Assassins. Last year I showcased the Culexus Assassin, which deviated from the other two (Vindicare and Eversor Assassins) in that I didn't base it's paint scheme off of the examples used by GW with the launch of the Execution Force game. With this year's miniature, the Calidus Assassin, I decided to go back to that original inspiration, with a few minor deviations. She also completes the quartet that makes up the Execution Force.

As I touched on earlier, I used a White Dwarf (WD Weekly #65) for a rough guide on painting this model, but I also referred to a Warhammer TV video on how to paint Synskin. The steps I used was Dark Reaper, then a 50/50 mix of Dark Reaper and Russ Grey and a highlight of Russ Grey. That final stage is shown in the next pic.

About half-way done.

Interesting though this was, it was way brighter than the example in the video and compared to the other assassins I had previously painted. So I muted this down by applying a layer of Nuln Oil. Although still a bit brighter, I was very much pleased with this look.

It didn't take too long to paint up the rest. Belts, like the previous Assassins were painted using Khorne Red, Nuln OIl and Pink Horror. The green energy of the blade and gun was done using Caliban Green as a base, but unlike the Warhammer TV example, I used Game Color Livery Green with a highlight of Sunburst Yellow instead and I think it worked out good.

99% done.

I was going to give her black hair as a homage to my dear Mrs Neverness, and was going to do it by painting it white first and then using old Citadel black ink over it. But when I painted it white, I decided that I really liked how that looked! It contrasts very nicely to the Synskin suit and gives the model a unique character. I have two more Calidus Assassins, so if I have a burning desire for one with a different hair color I will probably just give myself some options.

I was really digging the open base, I thought it gave more visual power to the Callidus model from an artsy-fartsy point of view anyway, but when I put her with the other three assassins it gave her the illusion of incompleteness. So I gave in, but only minimally so, and added a single skull and two grass tufts.

The finished Callidus.

 And here she is partying up with the rest of  her Execution Force buddies. I wanted to take a pic of all of them outside in the natural light and on the moss patch but it's been raining up here for the days and I didn't want to contend with the mud. That, and direct sunlight has been a fleeting thing these past few days also.

"Dude, I can see my house!"

 Case in point, while attempting to take these outside pics, the shadows shifted. As far as details go, the first pic in this post is the best pic, even though I couldn't get the phase blade to contrast too well against the grass. But this next one, the assassin was shaded, but I think it's cool anyway. Like she's leaping from the shadows.

Shadow leaping in plain sight.

Well, that concludes the first Execution Force, but I have more assassins to kept this annual-ish thread going for a long time! See you then!