OK, so there's a merc model for Rezolution called the Shadow Assassin. It's an alien Dravani (the space vampires in the Rezolution setting) that works against the Dravani. There isn't a model out yet so I've been looking at a number of models that I thought would look suitable. The concept art shows a female humanoid in a skin tight suit with a pistol and a katana.
So my first choice as a proxie was Hasslefree's
Kat. Great model and fits the description, but she seems too 'human' and conventional. Also the sword was not exactly a katana. My next choice was the excellent Dark Age model called
X'Cess. This model was also sculpted by Kev White. She has a bit more unusual look about her, and the haircut sort of reminded me of Aeon Flux, so she certainly fits in well with the cyberpunk setting of Rezolution. She's armed with a katana and some throwing daggers. The Beam Pistol could easily be represented by a holster at her belt. Having already built this model for my Dark Age Forsaken army, I considered getting another just for this conversion project.
Then I came along a bundle of Dark Age models which included a pair of the new
Hephzibah models. I've been quite excited for this model to come out. She's another sculpt by Kev White (see a pattern forming?). This model quite well fits the role just like X'Cess did. Furthermore the bald head seemed to fit the concept art of the Shadow Assassin and I just loved the dynamic pose. Also as she's a named character in Dark Age, I really don't need 2 right?
So I started with the basic model and fished through my bitz bin for a pistol holster. The suitable one I found was an Imperial Guard holster. However it seemed quite huge in comparison with her. Being lazy and not really wanting to get into sculpting a smaller holster (I've not much luck sculpting with epoxy putty) I found a matching Laspistol and trimmed it down a bit. Still seemed big, but I started to rationalize the Beam Pistol as being bulky and light-weight.
I started by trimming the scabbard out of her left hand and then re-attaching and mounting it to her belt. Then I removed the throwing daggers from her left waist and mounted the holster. Then added the pistol to the left hand. I was a bit perplexed as the holster was on her left side and the pistol would be oriented so her right hand would pull it out. The katana was positioned on the opposite side where her left hand would have to draw it. So I rationalized it as she has a preferance for the Beam Pistol (assuming she's a right-hander) but in the pose she's currently in she's leaping into close combat and must have traded weapons before leaping onto the steal beam.
I painted my Hephzibah and Shadow Assassin conversion at the same time and tried to make them appear more different. So I then decided to add a pony tail, to further make her look like the concept art. Drilling a small hole in the back of her head, I then inserted a piece of bent staple. After bending it to the way I liked and trimmed it to the length I needed, I decided to try the putty again (I figured if it didn't work I can always fill the hole back in and go bald with no pony tail). Adding some putty and shaping worked out well and so I added some texture to it. Turned out not too bad, so I declared it a keeper.
Getting back to painting her, I decided to try a different color scheme from the black, dark brown, dark blue and red color schemes of my Forsaken army. Being Dravani I decided to stay with the prefered purple colors. So I did the black leather as black but highlighted with Reaper Nightshade Purple. The rather than the tanned skin of my Forsaken army I went with very pale colors, to make her seem alien (besides Dravani are vampires and not too keen on sunlight). To further add to the punkish look I added the star shaped makeup around the left eye and the metallic highlights to the hair.
More pics of
Hephzibah and the
Shadow Assassincan be found in the MAOW Galleries.
Back in my day we didn't have that non-toxic pewter stuff. We played with lead...LEAD I TELL YA! and we liked it.
