Games Workshop was kind enough to provide us with these models for review.
Lady Haera is the newest member of the uphivers to dip their toes in the underhive – murdering the poor for fun, as the ruling class is want to do. This is a multi-part mini from Forge World consisting of eighteen parts. That’s right.
Details
It’s a lot of resin, and some of the finest pieces that I’ve had the pleasure (?) to work with. Having this in hand, the fur on the mini is actually nicer and better detailed than in the promo images. One thing I noticed as I started painting is that they’re a fair few details that are tiny. Like, really tiny. Like whoever sculpted this was zoomed in and maybe didn’t take into account how small they’d end up. That said, the bits are in scale with the mini and fit in well, they’re just smaller than I’ve become accustomed to on GW heroic scale minis.
Casting quality is great, with only a couple areas to open up on her weapons and nearly no mold lines to be found on any of the parts. Chop the sprue blocks off, clean those and you’re ready to assemble.
Assembly
Speaking of, this is probably the trickiest part of the process. I mentioned that there were eighteen (18) parts, right? Well, when I washed all the parts, the eighteenth part was still int he blister and I hadn’t noticed it missing until I compared the parts list to what was on my counter. That was a hose, that on further investigation was supposed to connect to one of her servo skulls. I chucked that in the memory bank for later use and get stuck in. While this kit was designed digitally, the medium of resin makes it harder to assemble. The tolerances are larger and everything feels a little off.
Dry fit this one. Repeatedly. (Fowler here. Most people will have the benefit of the 360 preview when they go to assemble this model. Without it, I ended up just leaving all of the extra servo skull cables off.) Same as Fowler, I left those cables off too. I tried to dry-fit them and couldn’t make out how they were supposed to attach.
Make sure you know exactly how the parts go together because there’s not a ton of indicators on the pieces. I tried my best and thought it was going well until I went to fit on her second arm, which is when I found that everything was slightly skewed to one side. At that point my bed was made and I continued on, breaking out the greenstuff once she was fully assembled to build the part of her dress that was missing. This is not for the novice modeler and taking your time will give you a decent result. All-in-all, she took me an evening to get together and greenstuff. Despite the effort though, the join lines are actually fairly well hidden on the rest of the mini. The areas the dress connects mostly disappear. So props to the designer for thinking that through.
Painting
While the studio paint job is very nice, the blue just wasn’t doing it for me. The vibe that I’ve created in my slice of underhive; called the Archeowaste. I’ve tried to keep my color palette more Blanchian, leaning towards reds, orange, and yellows undercut with dark browns and black. Apologies here for no paint-in-progress shots, but I’ll go over my paint work at a higher level.
I left Haera off her base for the entire painting process, only gluing her down at the end before I did final touch ups.
I started with my usual basecoat of AP Leather Brown spray with a zenith prime of AP Skeleton Bone. I follow that up with a dry brush of white and then it’s time for color.
I started with the fur under her dress, which received a single coat of Black Templar Contrast followed with a drybrush of Ushabti Bone to finish it. Next was her dress, and I did the same method I use for my Cawdor robes. I basecoat with Mephiston Red and add white to highlight it ending with a nearly white highlight. It goes through a phase where you’re putting down paint that looks like Pepto Bismol, but you just have to trust the process. To finish the red, a glaze of Snakebite Leather Contrast and Contrast Medium at 1:1 is mixed up and applied liberally over all. On Haera, I took great care to come back and control the pooling in the deeper areas of her dress.
After that, I painted in all the metals, using AP Plate Metal and GW Retributor Gold. I painted all the leather with Cygor Brown Contrast. Hoses received a coat of Black Legion Contrast.
The servo skulls were based with Steel Legion Drab and highlighted by adding Ushabti Bone to the mix. The ropes on her hat and chest got a later of Iyanden yellow Contrast.
For her skin I based it with a mix of Knight Questor Flesh and White and finished it with a glaze of Gulliman Flesh Contrast. I glazed her lips with a thinned layer of Volupus Pink then painted her eyes.
Because her base was separate, I sprayed it with AP Daemonic Yellow spray and glazed it with a mix of Contrast Medium, Mournfang Brown and old Vermin Brown.
Final Thoughts, Parting Shots, and What Have You
While building Lady Haera wasn’t the most fun thing, the mini is pretty awesome and has a palpable presence. The uphivers just have a different vibe and it’s super cool to see the Forge World studio render them for the tabletop. Is she going to see the tabletop often? Probably not. Am I glad to have her and maybe use her in the future? Sure am!
Thanks for reading, scummers! If you have any questions for us, want to suggest a future article, or just want to show us pictures of your kickass gangs, drop us a line over at Necromunday@Goonhammer.com.
