Counterblast: Edofleini Faction Core Set

I'm finally ready to reveal my completed Ninth Target for my 6MMRPC Hit List:  the entire Edofleini Faction Core Set from the COUNTERBLAST Kickstarter.

Guardling, Prime Leader, Spawnguard

Underlings

Spawnlings

First Look:  The Edofleini (or "Edo" for short) are primarily organic models, with the exception of their weapons and [minimal] armor or garments.  Additionally, they have an appearance similar to floating octopuses or squids, and I wanted to portray a "cold, alien intelligence" to them.  Referring to the COUNTERBLAST rulebook for their color range (which is actually pretty broad), I decided I wanted to go for a blue/purple range, and maybe hint at tones going into the ultraviolet spectrum.

Painting:  With my general color scheme decided, I picked out a medium blue (VGC Ultramarine Blue) for the base skin tone and a dark purple (VGC Royal Purple) for the "brain" part of the head.  To provide some variation, I used a dark gray (VGC Sombre Grey) for shading and subsequent drybrushing following a blue wash (AP Blue Tone Ink) over the skin.  This helped give it a dried, "ashen blue" look (as mentioned in the faction background) and also helped bring out details on the skin.  The "brain" was also given a blue wash, and then highlighted up to a lighter purple (VGC Warlord Purple).  The eyes were painted a solid black (VGC Coal Black) and given a gloss varnish to help give the figures the "cold, alien intelligence" I was looking for (even though it made the eyes rather hard to see).

The equipment was painted silver (VGC Chainmail, AP Dark Tone Ink), as I felt it went best with the cool tones I was going for.  The arc halberds also have a light gray-to-light blue (VGC Wolf Grey, Electric Blue) along the edge to represent the electrical build-up of the arc weaponry.  The Prime Leader's cape was painted a dark red, shifting to lighter tones (VGC Scarlett Red, Gory Red, AP Red Tone Ink).  The bases were painted dark brown (VGC Charred Brown) and given a "desert sand" coating.

Conclusion:  The figures came out quite nicely, and I think the overall colors work well together.  The first models went through a couple of color changes as I settled on details, and I think the decisions made were the right ones.  A couple of things I'm less happy with are the color transitions on the brains and the difficulty of seeing the eyes.  The color transition on the brains needs to be smoother, as I jumped up to the lighter purple too quickly.  The eyes were an unfortunately combination of a relatively dark skintone coupled with the black eyes, but at that point I had decided I wanted the black eyes (after trying out yellow eyes).  In retrospect, I think I might have lightened the area around the eyes with a light-to-medium gray, to help the black eyes stand out more.

Still, all in all I think they turned out nicely and definitely hit the "cold and alien" aspect I was going for.  I also like how the bases turned out, as the lighter color contrasts nicely with the blue figures.  This wraps up my Ninth Target in its entirety, which means it's on to the robots!

- M:M