After a pause since the last instalment I felt it was time for me to hit the miniatures search for the figures I feel best reflect the faction I want to make. I gave an idea in the previous piece (Part I).
I also need to consider what the L’Orani Empire faction are typically equipped with to help look at what is on offer from different ranges. There is no point me picking up some metal troopers armed solely with energy swords if I need rifles and support weapons. I also need to look at what unit options the faction has for me to pick from… So lets start there.
I like to troop out my forces and boost them with a sprinkling of specials for support. The Prince is a must, so I need a stand out figure for that. Warriors look like the staple so will need something that is armed with a rifle of some sort, or a shotgun and that can be made to look like a lesser version with simple switches for Squire’s and better to make a Royal Bodyguard to sort of future proof the idea.
I’d also want a mech and an Oracle, because who doesn’t want a bladed Psychic character running around slashing through things and unleashing magical forces upon your foes and a stompy AI unleashing hellfire from cannons? Certainly not me.
Warriors form the backbone of any faction and it’s really important that these look the part as they are the bedrock that help your special models stand out from. In game terms they offer numbers which can be vital for taking objectives. In model terms they need to look the business.
As I wanted a humanoid alien I quickly realised what I wanted was a simple kitbash. Alien heads on bodies that could be easily attributed to a solid tech level race. Something armoured but not overly armoured. Something that said “we’ve done this before, we come equipped”. It just so happened that these miniatures had cropped up in conversation recently so I didn’t give them a 2nd thought.
These models fit the part and are bang on the kind of concept I was looking at before. I then sought some suitable heads. A friend suggested I look for STLs as he has a resin 3D printer and there tends to be a look of choice out there. So I hit thingyverse to see if there was anything available for free that could scratch that itch… I was not disappointed.
For the warriors the helmeted heads would be used, the unhelmeted heads for the characters. The plan was slowly coming together. I just needed a mech, and this really took some searching, advice and convincing from the Slow Death Games crew on their discord server.
In the end, I settled with something I already happened to possess and hadn’t figured out a use for – I think I actually have a couple of these at least, and as L’Orani can have more than one mech it made sense that I used them.
The Prince and the Oracle were a bit different. I wanted the prince to look ornate and very close to the end of the planning I decided that the Oracle would take on the look of a monk with a laser sword to boot. You can never have too many pop culture influences all in one model can you?
Daemonforge offered up a body from his bits box (as well as printing the heads off for me – thanks dude!) to be used as the Prince and it was perfect. A body of an old, out of production Dark Eldar character – sorry, no images at the moment, all in good time.
The Oracle I had found parts for from my bits box, namely a frostgrave cultists body and some GW empire flagellant arms along with part of a small fishing float to make the laser sword from.
All of these things would combine and come together to form my force. And that, as they say, is something to show you another day!
Catch you next time!
Mcfonz (aka Matt)
Poison Spurs 