The planet Minshara’s first communication with the GCPS was an immediate surrender with no terms. They had heard of the Council of Seven’s reputation and decided that they could not even hope to resist a takeover, so positioned themselves to step peacefully into subjugation reasoning that there would be no need for heavy-handed restrictions or harsh justice to reinforce the new government’s authority.
The Council of Seven had seen this trick before though, so the first diplomatic contact with Minshara was a large platoon of enforcers to exercise the will of the council. Over time, they realised that the surrender was genuine and Minshara became a productive, respected member of the GCPS and a shining example for other newly discovered worlds.
The tale of Minshara’s surrender hadn’t sat well with a group of malcontents two sectors away, who themselves had been cautiously trading with the GCPS. They invited alien merchants to discuss the GCPS and pretty soon ended up talking with the Rebellion. Before long, their early and encouraging peaceful ties were broken with the GCPS and full scale war was declared. The war was over three months later when help from the Rebels never materialised, but a few barges full of Enforcers did.
After the war, these malcontents attempted to explain that they were defending a whole swathe of inhabited worlds in the area – including Minshara. The planetary governor of Minshara responded by sponsoring a DreadBall team and stating publicly ‘This is all the defence Minshara needs.’ The Minshara Militia have gone on to be a popular team in the local area, gaining support even with the worlds forcibly incorporated into the GCPS.
Having tested a camouflage pattern on a human fan model, I thought it would be a good idea to use it on the Rebel team as a whole. I was pleased to see on closer inspection that all the models are actually wearing a lot of clothing (large jumpsuits) even on the centaur-like Raellian.
I painted it in the same way as the fan’s camo – Knarloc Green base, Bleached Bone splotches and tiny bits of Dryad Bark, all washed with Agrax Earthshade to give it a tone. The armoured patches were painted with Gorthor Brown, highlighted with Gorthor Brown mixed with Zandri Dust.
The armour I was least happy with was the Sorak Jack. The other three are essentially wearing jumpsuits or blankets, large fabric areas to put camo on, but the Sorak only has a tiny bit visible under the knees (elbows?). The rest is the more solid armour that I’ve painted in brown. I went and made it camouflage pattern anyway to fit in with the team better. On each of the suits I painted the bulky circles (some sort of connector port?) in Dawnstone, highlighted with a Dawnstone/Pallid Wych Flesh mix.
As for skin tones… well, as for skin tones… I decided to follow the book fairly closely. The Ralarat had Scorpion Green (in many, many layers since it is so dilute) with Evil Sunz Scarlet claws, the Rin had Zandri Dust with an old Flesh Wash, cleaned up again with Zandri Dust. The Sorak had Naggaroth Night base highlighted with Liche Purple and the Gaellian was a mix of Rhinox Hide with Wazdakka Red, highlighted with two layers adding in more Wazdakka Red each time.
Since I was so pleased with them so far, I went on to finer details – the bandages/bindings on the Rin had an edge highlight of Dawnstone so that they weren’t totally blank. I added a bit of Chainmail to it’s goggle lenses too. The Ralarat eyes were done with Bestigor Flesh, followed by Sunburst Yellow, a tiny bit of Pallid Wych Flesh in a vertical line and finally a thin, vertical black pupil.
I ended up taking these guys to HATECon in London, and failing miserably at the game but picking up a prize for Best Painted!
