Painting the Gears of War: part 4

Last night I got around to priming the individual COGs; Cole, Baird, Dom and Fenix. Rather than using the gesso like I did the Locust, I used Army Painter’s spray primer. The reason why is I didn’t want the primer to shrink away like the gesso does, and the thinner layer of the stuff meant I should have a little more detail with the figures.

Why the concern? Because they’re the player’s pieces, I wanted them to be better looking and more detailed than the Locust. They are the heroes, after all. Moreover, unlike the Locust, they’re well defined characters as a group, the protagonists of the series, and really the guys you spend the most time with in game. As such, they really deserve more attention.

Augustus Cole

I was worried I wouldn’t be able to get a decent skin tone for him, and am still wondering how he’ll turn out after being dipped. I’m went a little lighter than I could’ve, but figured that the Quick Shade will likely darken the paint job. As a result, I’m thinking he’ll come out well, although not exact to his in-game counterpart.

Cole’s wide-open stance made him much easier to paint than the other heroes, which was quite welcome. Also, he’s visually the most distinct since the rest of them have very similar poses.

Damon Baird

Baird wasn’t difficult for the most part. However, at the end I did have to do a little extra detailing for him. He’s the only character who is blond, and there’s his trademark goggles to consider. One thing with the COG uniforms is I couldn’t really figure out what they should be like. However, after painting so much gray with the Locust, I wanted some color! So all of them except for Fenix are in dark green uniforms. I originally considered making Fenix and Dom wear more urban colors, but, again, I was grayed out!

Dominic Santiago

Man, Dom. I tried to do well by him (probably my favorite of the guys), but his facial hair was a little tricky for me. Its not like they were using the fully bearded version of him from Gears 3! That aside, not too bad, although I had to do some cleanup towards the end – the paint I used for his face got onto his hair, and that wouldn’t do.

I did feel a little embarrassed, though, as his arms were mostly exposed. I didn’t realize that until about the middle of things. Not a big problem, easy to deal with, but I did feel silly after the fact. He’s not like Cole where the bare skin is obvious.

Marcus Fenix

Marcus was a bit hard due to all the armor plates on his figure that the others didn’t have. I found this to be a bit more limiting, and as a result left what would’ve been painted the matt black of the primer. But, since he had so much armor, there’s a lot of metal on him, which is okay. I did make his bandana green, but that’s more a small detail than anything else.

Everyone else’s Lancers were the plain metal paint. In his case, because he already had so much of that on him? I added a little green to the mix to darken it, give it a different tint, and help differentiate both it as well as him. Turned out relatively well, I think!

So what’s next? Quickshade for everyone. But, that’ll be a few days from now. In the mean time they’ll sit in my drawer, ready and waiting. I’m really looking forward to getting them dipped, dried, and ready for use! After that I might do something with the bases, but I’m not sure what just yet (granted, that’s what search engines are for – inspiration!). The Gears game was fun, and I’m looking forward to playing it again soon. I’ve been looking for more cooperative games to play with my friends, and it certainly fits the bill.