After the past couple of posts, I figure it’s probably time to post another set of overexposed photos of a mini I’ve been painting. As I’m hoping to get these Amazons finished up and ready to play as a crew, I figured I would try to work on getting them finished while keeping my critiques in mind: this is difficult, because I’m trying to avoid resculpting or extensively converting everyone in the faction. Presenting them as they are feels like the most honest way to have the demo crew prepped, and I hope that anyone who tries to play the game understands the possible issues folks can have with Amazons.

Atl-Atl

First off, let’s talk about the design of this miniature because the actual painting process doesn’t have too many interesting things about it – rather than being heavily Nahua-inspired, her design is a bit of a blend of other indigenous groups, looking a little bit more like the ‘Indian princess’ design that you see sometimes. Even with that, she’s at least given a dynamic stance and is well-armed enough to look like a proper combatant, rather than someone who just grabbed a weapon and started charging.

Okay, on to the painting! Let’s start with the most obvious part of her paint job – the skin. I am trying incredibly hard to paint some varied skin tones on all of my Amazons, sticking to warmer/indigenous-inspired tones and designs. After all, Amazons are going to be deeply tanned at the very least if they joined up, and I feel like making some pale blonde Amazons would just rocket the problems to the forefront. As such, I started with a basecoat of dark red mixed with a beige tan to establish the undercoat. After that, I started highlighting up using very saturated, brown-toned skin, going up to Sunny Skin Tone as the final glazed highlights to add warmth and brightness without losing the main skintones.

As for the red cloth, that’s all done using my saturated red recipe – start with a dark red, then highlight up to bold pyrole red and glaze in the transitions. A lot of the work on this is making sure the fabric is well-defined and feels appropriately warm. I think the consistent color temperature on this model helps to sell the feel of a tropical setting, though I might want to consider adding some cooler colors in areas to help give a bit more differentiation.

The NMM bits are a bit weak here – perhaps because she’s so bright and saturated elsewhere – but it’s still pretty decent. Gold NMM was done using my warmer old-gold recipe (Brown -> Desaturated Orange-Brown -> Warm Yellow -> Cold Pale Yellow -> Ivory -> White), and the metal of her spear tips were done with a cooler metal recipe, with my higher highlights going more towards cooler blues rather than warm grays. I think this helps them stand out – S75’s Arctic Blue has turned out to be a godsend for this kind of highlighting and cold steel appearance.

Her face currently exists. I think I might want to redo the eyes and mouth, as the eyes are quite stark and have that “wide-eyed crazy” appearance from when the pupils are too small and centered. Faces are definitely something where any issues or mistakes really stand out because of how the human brain is set up.

Close-Fire Support from the Atl-atl

The Atl-atl is a Deckhand for the Amazons – they’re in the middle of the pack as far as Deckhand costs go, but unlike the Chicomeh, they actually have a ranged attack! Interestingly, while their name broadly hints towards their use of throwing spears, they aren’t actually holding or using an atlatl, which is a mechanical aid for throwing spears and one of the many Nahuatl words that have passed into ‘general’ usage (for a given value of ‘general’ when talking about pre-modern weaponry). Still, it’s a solid enough ranged attack, albeit a bit short-ranged, and it has a respectable RAV of 5 at close range.

Atl-atl also come with the Ranger trait, which I’ve discussed before, which helps them deal with terrain and points to their main purpose – skirmishers and support who are there more to harass and outrun opponents. If you’re not fighting in or through terrain, you’re using them wrong, and the Amazon’s ability to place an extra piece of forest terrain will always come into play and help make them more useful.

Finally, the Atl-atl also have an Honor Guard version when hired by a specific Leader. For 5 doubloons, they gain the Double Charge trait, which is huge – suddenly, your Atl-atl turn from harassers into true skirmishes, letting you initiate combat from ambushes by combining a ranged attack with a charge. Sure, you need to be in short range to do so, but you’ll want that anyway if you’d like to charge, so that fits perfectly with how their profiles are designed.

Hobby Progress

I’ve been working a lot on Amazons lately – I’m thinking that I’ll take a bit of a break from the really focused painting projects once I’ve finished this crew, instead starting to make some terrain. I think docks and some islands would be the best way to start out, as my LGS has plenty of good jungle terrain already, and I think immediately diving into buildings will be a bit much.