"Young" Jones Atomic Apostles Juve
"Young" Jones grew up in the care of the Atomic Apostles after being "rescued" from a raid that killed his parents. He was long traumatised by the loss and tended to keep himself to himself, having learned that the easiest way to lead a quiet life is to do what is told of him and fly beneath the radar. When he was of age he joined the Apostles' scavenging parties, as was expected of him, and earned a name for himself in his strict adherence to orders. This proved a mixed blessing as his tendency to show absolutely no initiative of his own has proven to be a liability in skirmishes, consequently he has failed to distinguish himself and has never started moving up the ranks. As such he has become the longest serving of the initiates.
Painting
Whilst the model will do, on inspection there was a lot of physical detail missing from this mini, particularly on the head, so the aim of the game was to add as much texture as possible. I've seen a couple of videos on how to paint texture onto flat surfaces, so this was going to be my chance. Also, I had to determine a palette for the gang as a whole. All there is in the source book is "black and green" so they were must-haves. As part of Nuka World project in general I also wanted to include a lot of orange/brown dust and weathering. And on this particular model I wanted to do dirty denim jeans. Well, that was pretty much all the colours picked for me.
The mohawk is actual a solid rectangle without any hair texture. It was one of the last things I did and I I was aiming for a sandy brown with what I hoped would be hints of a previous green dye-job in the roots. Whilst a fail on that, I really like the texture that I managed to paint on. The blue jeans were a fantastic success, and to dirty them up with mud and stains rather undid some of the awesome texture I managed to get on there. That said, I think the weathering of the pants turned out great, it's easy to believe this guy has been hiking through the outback in all seasons.
I put a green glaze through parts of his skin, to try and imply some of their rather unhealthy radiation fixation, and the tank on the bottom of his backpack I tried to paint as a glowing canister of radioactive waste. It doesn't make a lot of sense in real terms, but when I was designing the mini that's what I pictured. Maybe they dip their ammunition in it.
The black cloak turned out pretty poorly for two reasons. The first, and I have no idea why, the Chaos Black I'm using is super, super, glossy, particularly compared to every other paint, and it's very difficult to see where to highlight. Also while I wanted it to be black with a hint of green in the highlights, I think the whole thing turned out too green.
The base was interesting. I've learned that it's a good idea to finish bases before the mini itself where possible. I didn't have any basing material handy, didn't want a plain brown, black or goblin green base, so I improvised on the texture theme. I wet-blended in browns and oranges, and then did a lot of random bleached bone strokes over the top, that I rather hope invoke that dried Australian native grasses look. I'm pleased enough with the result that I'm happy to do the rest of the gang in it.
I tried painting tattoos on his bald head and arms, but that was such a horrible disaster that I went back and got rid of them. I think the model would benefit from them, but I currently lack the skill.
Lastly the head suffered from a horrible lack of physical detail. The facemask, eyes and ears didn't physically distinguish themselves well, so painting was a challenge, though I am happy with the result of my efforts. Not a display piece, but perfectly fine for a skirmish game, and overkill for a wargame.
Paint List for Gang
Base: Vermin Fur edge. Fiery Orange, Bestial Brown, Snakebite Leather, Dark Angel Green, Bubonic Brown wet blend. Bleached Bone grass.
Robes: Chaos Black, Dark Angel Green, Scorpion Green, Green Glaze.
Metal: Boltgun Metal, black ink, sepia ink, yellow ink
Skin: Bronzed Flesh, Chestnut Wash, Bleached Bone, Green Glaze, sepia ink.
Denim: Regal Blue, Blue Wash, Nauseating Blue, Space Wolves Grey, blue glaze.
Mud: Vermin Fur, Bubonic Brown, Bleached Bone
Radioactive: Dark Angel Green, Scorpion Green, Yellow Ink.