Painting the Gears of War: part 2

 

 

“I beheld the wretch - the miserable monster whom I had created” ~Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

The Tickers more or less done, I turned my attention to the Wretches; a very annoying enemy in the Gears series. Why? Because they bounce around like they’re on pogo-sticks.

 

Priming them went a bit easier than the Tickers. Thankfully, more of their bodies were available to my brush, and there wasn’t any thought of cutting them off their bases. Again, the black gesso worked its overnight wonder, and in the morning I had some nicely primed miniatures.

The Locust in Gears are a very stark white/gray color – not a whole lot of color to them. In and of itself, I guess that’s good? No really scary color mixing, or not having the right colors at all. 10 drops of white and a single drop of black got me a reasonable gray, I thought. But, the armor/harness on them? I went with a drop of black along with about 5 drops of metal. Around their lower torso was a little skirt sort of thing, which I painted a flat brown, and used a touch of gold on the metal bits I found down there as well.

My only real concern would be that the harness doesn’t stand out enough, but I figure the reflective, metallic nature of it will help during play. Plus, they’re still very distinct from everything else. The sinewy muscles of the Wretch actually provided a nice bit of detailing; rather than trying to fill in every bit I could with a thin layer of paint? I didn’t force the issue. So, its sort of a natural detailing in that regard, but also helps account for the natural coloration the Locust have (which I’m not about to try and duplicate!).

I was surprised to have more of the gold than I needed, so I added some of the brown paint (a brush or so) to it. Feeling the Tickers looked a little too “clean,” I dry-brushed it onto their metal bits, hoping for something that looked a little more aged, maybe a little corroded. Not quite, but it seemed to turn out nicely.

So far, so good! A friend of mine has offered to let me use his Army Painter Quick Shade, which should make everything look nice, plus give the paint a good, protective layer. Works for me! I’m really looking forward to getting all the miniatures done, and playing Gears of War that way. The folks who sculpted them should really be proud, and I’m really enjoying this little project!