25 - Tariq, Dune Ranger

Reaper rampage! I realize the From the Warp bloggers group is primarily dedicated to Games Workshop miniatures and wargaming, but you'll have to excuse my forays into other manufacturers' miniature lines. On occasion, painting armies gets tiresome. While I enjoy the characterfulness and fluff of GW's miniatures, the monotony of, for instance, applying Hunter Green, Fawn, Skintone over and over on my Imperial Guard troopers sometimes sinks my desire to sit down and paint. Of course, it's the very characterfulness and fluff of GW's worlds that also consistently pull me back to Warhammer miniatures. Hey, like the commercial once said: "Sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don't."

This Reaper miniature is called Tariq, Dune Ranger. He's a wonderful sculpt by Julie Guthrie, very detailed and incredibly fun to paint. His outfit is well-designed, tailor-made for ink-washes and strong, contrasting colors. When I first approached the planning stage for painting Tariq, I worried that I'd go overboard with his color scheme and turn the poor guy into a walking rainbow. But the way he's sculpted kind of channels you into making smart color choices. While the model may seem overloaded with little embellishments and layer upon layer of different textures and surfaces, he, in fact, can be broken down to a mere 4 distinct parts - his armor, his undertunic, his billowing cape, and his tassled sash. Thus, rather than be seduced by the many overlapping parts on this model to start applying colors willy-nilly, I settled on 4 primary colors for those 4 distinct parts - Bridge Grey for the armor, Ivory for the undertunic, Green Isle for the cape, and Coastline Blue for the tassled sash. I then used Antique Gold for the fine details.

Tariq's base is constructed from a large piece of torn up cork from a cork board, real sand, and bits of moss purchased at Michael's. The actual base is two pieces of 25mm round wood glued together.

I think Tariq turned out pretty well. I've been browsing through some of the pictures I took of my earliest efforts at painting miniatures, and I'm very happy with how I've progressed. I still remember how disenchanted I felt with my first few miniatures - the messy lines, the clumpy surfaces, the poor color choices.

Well, I promise my next few miniatures will be Games Workshop related. I've finally received my Cadian Heavy Flamer bit in the mail which means I can finish off my Imperial Guard Veterans Squad (minus the Heavy Weapons Team). But maybe not. I honestly don't feel motivated to paint up more Imperial Guard. Maybe I'll try a High Elf or Eldar model.

Click here for more pics of Tariq.