Monday Miniatures - Salamander Company Heroes

It's been a whirlwind few weeks in the house - Dani, my youngest, went off to childcare, the house went completely silent during the day - the only sound being me working from home, doing chores and painting over the lunchtime break.

Almost immediately she brought home the flu, and the whole house was engulfed in a nasty flu epidemic that figuratively put me six feet under, and so the slow and steady progress on the green machine ground to a halt.

However, eventually I felt well enough to get behind the desk again. And the rest, as they say, is history:

The company heroes are a magnificent kit. All of the models are stunning, and it gave me great pleasure to complete them all. Games Workshop crushed this kit, and I am so excited to have them in my collection and ready to take to the field.

As these models are each heroes in their own right, I took some close-ups of each one (and naturally corrected all the flaws in the photos, so if you see anything, rest assured it got fixed) and we'll go through them now:

Company Ancient

The ancient has custom decals from ImpatientTabletop (whose products I reviewed here, in case you forgot). I was nervous about if they would fit and how they would fit.

They were a custom job and whilst they were not expensive, the idea of them not fitting would've been devastating for morale. Lucky me, they fit like a glove.

In fact, since getting some custom decals with generic Space Marine and Salamander things to put on scrolls, I've found myself taking greater opportunity to use them - so score one for using decals and transfers to add just a little bit extra to your miniatures.

Otherwise, I did paint this model in subassemblies and it was a pain in the butt. It definitely did have its advantages, but there were plenty of drawbacks too. These sorts of models with huge, sweeping cloaks are always tricky, so it's very much a case of "pick your poison."

Company Champion

This model was going fine... until I hit some snags in the subassembly phase and ended up gouging out a massive part of the torso and arm. At one stage there it looked like the champ wasn't going to make it, and I was going to have to paint up another model in his place.

A familiar sense of dread filled me as I knew I was going to struggle internally with a course of action. Being away from the tabletop and almost exclusively at the painting desk has resulted in an ugly seam of perfectionism running through my work, something I hope spending a bit more time at the gaming table will help me address.

In the end, after having a back-and-forth internal dialogue where I seesawed from throwing the model out, to finishing it, I decided the amount of damage on the model was barely visible, and that in time, my concern about the amount of (barely) observable damage on the model would diminish until the only reason I knew it existed was because I kept looking at it to stare.

Naturally as I took photos, I took care to only get his good side, but you can see a tiny hairline fracture in the collar of the miniature - something I doubt you could see unless I told you to look for it.

Company Veteran

Compared to the previous two models this one was a slam dunk. I did a hand swap, because I didn't like the robo-arm, and found an arm from... somewhere... that enabled him to point at things.

The open pose of this model also made it the only one that didn't end up getting completed in a subassembly (except for the backpack, but that's just to make painting quicker) and was probably the easiest to do too.

He also has a spiffy decal. No, that isn't his name.

Company Gunner

Oh man I love this model.

There's something about a way an 8 foot tall killing machine hefts a massive autocannon around, cables snaking around to his power pack adding to his bulk, and he doesn't give a damn.

This guy and the two Multi-Melta Eradicators I own are some of my favourite models. I always loved Devastators when I was growing up, and this bloke is like that, just, not.

Not to mention the hydralic pipes running to the backpack are one of my favourite places to add a splash of colour.

So with this unit completed, I am now ready to take to the field with my Librarius Conclave list. There are still a few outstanding items to paint, but they are assembled, and so there will be no more delays getting onto the field.

I have signed up to a one-day RTT event, so long suffering readers should look forward to reading that coverage.

Catch you next time,
Vulkan

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