James Porter Miniature Space

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Complete: 20 Howling Banshees for Craftworld Iybraesil

I have been working away at these for a while now. In theory you could run 30 total banshees, but this should be plenty already. 

Craftworld Iybraesil is a matriarchal society, which is kinda strange and fascinating considering that Gender is not nessisarily rigid in their society. I wrote a think piece trying to explore that a while back, and I landed on the idea that their mostly female population is based off of societal expectations rather than how they are born.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Sigmarxism/comments/10vtaur/iybraesil_the_matriarchal_craftworld_ramblings/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3 

The most popular Aspect Warrior Shrine is the Howling Banshee, which is important to the mythology of their patron god, Morai Heg. For that, I wanted a large group of Banshees, as in game, the custom Craftworld trait “Children of Morai Heg” benefits larger squads, as one someone dies, the rest get better stats. 

Here are my Exarchs, lost on the path of the Warrior. Morai Heg’s symbol is a severed hand, so along with the bone armor, I gave them either one or two teal arms, to signify their dedication. They also get a little greying hair, to signify their age and experience.

I also have already a huge number of Storm Guadians painted. I am so glad the new Guardian kits come with 4 women bodies instead of just 2 like the originals, as that made this a lot easier. I also did some tricks on my rangers to get more women in the squad too, 

I love my Tau with how complete they are, and my Emperors Children are also gorgeous, but I think my Iybraesil army is the one I am the most proud of painting wise. 

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Complete: Farsight Enclaves/ Mu’gulath Bay Boarding Patrol

Hello everyone, I have been hard at work on a new project to give myself a chance to paint something other than purple. The new Boarding Actions missions and the Arks of Omen storyline is honestly been really inspiring for what I would want to do narratively with some of my smaller forces. I know so far I have posted two space marines, but I am in my heart, a Xenos player. Tau was actually my first army, and I think even though I am proud of a lot of these, you can tell looking at these I have improved. 

Still, for fun a little background on my Tau. See the majority of them are decendants of those who fought the imperium for the sept world of Mu’Gulath Bay, or Agrellan as it was known. Mu’Gulath Bay however, was destroyed in frustration by the Imperium as they retreated back across the Damocles Gulf. So a rivalry and hatred of the Imperium was stoked within them, but that did not sway them from the Greater Good. That happened, once Commander Shas’O Dal’Yth Por’Karra or “Commander Clearwater” was placed in charge.

Clearwater is a veteran of two major wars, the Damocles Gulf Crusade, and the horror of the 4th Sphere of Expansion. Within these two events, he was taught many lessons, and one of the greatest, is that humanity cannot be trusted. 

It was this, and seeing the fire in the hearts of his new Cadre, that led him to rebellion, fleeting to join the Farsight Enclaves. The forces of Dal’Yth remain in hot pursuit, ready to bring him to justice for crimes against the Empire.

However, with the reveal of the accursed Arks of Omen appearing all over the universe. Clearwater and his breakaway forces were faced with a number of strange signals, one of which was identified as a T’au beacon. This signal was eerily familiar to Clearwater, who insisted that all forces be diverted to answer this call, as it matched the signature of the ship he led into the 4th Sphere of Expansion.

Which, is the sneak peek into the next project I want to do. See the new Boarding action game looks a lot of fun, but the terrain is like, SUPER expensive. so I am making, in the spirit of Xenos lovers, a non-imperium Space Hulk board. 

See, the walls and floor are based off the game “Fire Warrior” which had an interior spaceship level. 

Its not going to be a perfect match, and I am learning I cannot cut straight edges to save my life, however I think the cramped, broken, demonically fused corridors of a Space Hulk, give the perfect example for why things don’t line up perfectly like on a Tau spaceship. 

The Board took up most of my hobby time since the last post, and I have had that collection of Tau mostly done for a while now, they just needed some highlights on the Crisis Suits, along with the insane amount of Freehanding I decided to do, since I wanted each squad to get its own markings. 

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Complete: Emperor’s Children Tactical Squad

These have been a longtime coming. I have been working on a small Zone Mortalis force for Horus Heresy since the new edition came out. However it took a bit of a backstage for a while. However I have all the models and have decided on a basing scheme, so I was able to finish them up!

I love the Emperor’s Children, one of my favorite factions, and Slaanesh is my favorite Chaos god. While I wouldn’t call Fulgrim my favorite novel, I think its a great look into them as a force and the issues that lead to their fall. Specifically I think Toxic Masculinity is the biggest reason, and also feelings of inadequacy vs privilege. That combined with the maybe messy queer themes of Slaanesh I think make them a very potent storytelling force.

  When I was painting them I wanted the purple to be just right. I wasn’t a fan of how flat a lot of schemes are for them, and wanted to tap into this work of art as my inspiration. 

The trick here, is that the purple is sandwiched between a very cold, blue toned purple for the shadows, and a warm, pink tone for the highlights. To get a sense of how these should be laid, I took some pictures of unpainted models, and then basically painted where the light fell. After a while I got the hang of knowing where the shadows would be. Its not perfect, and would take criticism on better ways to have an eye for that, but I can’t look at these Marines and not think it was an absolute success 

For the Sergent, he ended up with a Power fist since all my Power Sword bits went to Veterans. It should be okay, since they arn’t meant to get that much into combat, so its a bit of threat in the small unit. Plus in Horus Heresy, Emperor’s Children have higher initiative usually, so it should even out. His chest comes from a cleaned up Chaos Space marine, and his plume is from the Blackstone Fortress Chaos Cultists. 

The Vexilla was easy once I had settled on green being the army’s spot color. In my head, the Commander’s personal colors are green, so anyone under him wears green to show loyalty. Green is also my favorite color, and it goes really well with the purple. 

New fluff for the new Edition has Black Shoulders, but I wanted the Classic white ones. I decided to put some transfers on the backpacks, since I decided the Gold details would not be absolutely everywhere metallic, instead having silver for the chest details and vents on the backpack. That gradient on the backpacks is my favorite part. Going from purple to pure makes it seem reflective, and is a very subtle touch that makes them seem way more fancy. 

The bases, I decided were going to be rubble and ruins, however to add more of that green in, I had the idea o f like, a jade temple or seat of government, which had been bombed out. The idea of a lavish and opulent seat of power, destroyed by war, felt very thematic. Its made through cork board, plasticard, and texture pastes. 

This was the biggest squad, and the rest of the units are all 5 mans, so finishing them up shouldn’t take as long as it did here. Stay tuned for more!

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Complete: Rainbow Warrior

Hey, its been a while since I was on Tumblr, but I wanted a new space to put finished projects of mine, and I will be honest I never really got into Instagram. 

So here is what the plan is, when I finish a project, I will make a post here, and give a little commentary about it! I got into Miniature Painting over the Pandemic during a real low point, and its become a bit of an outlet. 

Like everyone however, I have a lot of things mostly finished, but not completely finished. So hopefully having a place to put everything is going to help motivate me! 

For the first post, I will go ahead and do an easy one, this Rainbow Warrior 

I really am a fan of the new Mark 6 Beakie marines. I am new to the hobby, but one of the things that really attracted me into delving deeper into 40k was coming to understand the series as satire and counterculture. It isn’t nowadays, but you can get a taste of it with painting a big gay boi. 

The Rainbow Warriors are not a chapter of Space Marines you hear about much anymore, being a distinct 1st edition force because of that. Really in the end a lot of people like them because of the queer connotations with the Rainbows, including me, but thats not really the origins of their name and scheme. 

I think at some point I would want to paint up a full Horus Heresy force, run them as Ultramarines, and really play into that Oldhammer feel.