Friday 17 July 2020

Amazons

As with everyone who found themselves suddenly goggling at the lack of right-angled bases in 2015, I've been something of a connosieur of different miniature companies. My first love is Warhammer Fantasy, not necessarily Games Workshop. Titan Forge is one of the companies I would consider 'GW equivalent' in the sense that the scale and sculpt quality are comparable. When I heard last year that they were doing an Amazon Kickstarter, I fell over myself to get there. Amazons are cool: who doesn't like no-nonsense arse-kicking woman women? I wasn't familiar with Wonder Woman until the recent film, but in my teenage years I was a loyal viewer of Xena: Warrior Princess and I don't care who knows. The amazons in Xena have always stuck with me when I bring the idea to mind. From the descriptions we got, the mysterious Lustrian Amazons in the Warhammer Fantasy World were similar to what I imagined, having picked up the trappings of Lizardman civilisation.



Now, Titan Forge clearly had the same idea. Not only did their Amazon sculpts have a decidedly Aztec theme, the different units had some suspicious analogues to Lizardmen units, almost as if there was an expectation that they would be used as an alternative.

After a few months, my models arrived. The sculpting is beautiful, though it's worth noting here that they do need to be washed and cleaned up. As a sidenote, this is one of GW's greatest strengths: they have very user-friendly plastic kits these days, ideal for getting into the hobby. Titan Forge is cleary ot for beginners.


Slightly ridiculously, I purchased an entire army, but I decided to start with some warriors and a couple of characters I decided to give them really bright, vivid colours. Two reasons for this: firstly, because I think it suits them. Second, as you might have noticed on this blog, I have a tendency to default to grim, grimy Blanchitsu-ism if I don't watch myself. But as hobbyists, we need to try new things sometimes to keep our skills fresh and I thought I'd go vibrant. It's more work but relatively happy so far!


For the bases, I decided to go for a verdant forest floor effect. First I did the usual sand, based Rhino Hide, drybrushed XV88 and then Ushabti Bone. Then it was a mix of static grass and different forest floor basing effects.


I'm looking forward to painting the other units up!

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