Saturday, July 21, 2012

Dejah Thoris Rasheth: Mixing Skorne & Barsoom

One of the things that appealed to me about collecting Skorne for Hordes was the idea of doing them in a 'Barsoomian Desert' theme.  Skorne are clearly not human, and the baroque armor, flowing robes and cool & funky reiver guns all made me think that a lot of them would make for good material for a VSF Martian army.  Why not double-dip minis across genres when able to?

So with this in mind I was thinking Makeda would make a great 'Barsoomian' style Warlock/Warlord.  I'd probably just trim one of her two swords so that she has both the 'Martian Longsword' and the 'Martian Shortsword'. That is for the future... I had hoped to use in the final 35pt list of the tournament a couple weeks ago, the Warlock, Rasheth, who specializes in breeding warbeasts, doesn't fight himself, just reclines on a palanquin, directing his forces and lobbing spells.  The problems were:

1. I had very little time to get a mini & paint it.
2. It is a very expensive kit
3. I don't much care for it.

So what to do? Check the minis I had on-hand that'd I'd previously bought, and found something very fun.
A good candidate for a Barsoomian Princess or Queen, though less human-looking, and so would work just fine in a VSF setting someday. Simpler & quicker to paint, much cheaper ($9.50 compared to $38 no complaints there), and I like the mini better, and also fits the dual theme better too. Perfect!

Ever inspired and influenced by Frazetta, in my mind was his Dejah Thoris:

Not Rasheth:
Who reminds me more of Baron Harkonen:
No thanks. I'll stick with a Dejah Thoris feel...

So here's the mini I selected:
Reaper's Empress Messalina of the Andromedans.
This was a speed-paint, and I'll want to go back to give attention to her eyes and some highlights for the hair, maybe some brighter highlights on the metal, but for a fast job I'm pretty happy with this.  

She is a lot like the Rasheth mini in the ways that matter: no apparent combat ability, a floating throne is similar to the palanquin: no knock-down for game-terms, and works on the right size base.  
She can be 'Domina Rasheth' instead of Dominar. Rasheth is a collector and trainer of other species, so perhaps he's married a woman of an unknown species, and so she has the same authority and abilities.
And for a VSF Martian setting I think she'll work nicely. 

9 comments:

Lead Legion said...

Very cool idea and great miniature selection there Ferret.

Simon Quinton said...

Nicely done mate

Paul O'G said...

I whole heartedly approve - there is not enough homage to that beauty of Mars, the incomparable Dejah Thoris of Helium :-)

Nice fig mate!

Unknown said...

She is quite the lovely thing. Beauty can clearly exist across species.

Michael Awdry said...

A thing of beauty! What a girl and great work.

Sam Wise said...

very nice figure and very good painting work !
good choice!

Laughing Ferret said...

Thanks all!
Hopefully I'll get to use her in a game sometime soon.

Paul: I couldn't agree more!

abdul666 said...

A good choice, while Tin Man have more directly 'NOT Barsoomian' minis.
While most people thought 'Dark Elves / Eldars' when discovering Blood Vestals (larger image), they do have a neat Barsoomian potential (give some a plastic D. Eldar pistol?): would make a great bodyguard for Tin Man's NOT Barsoomian princess (who exists also 'riding', btw).

Laughing Ferret said...

Thanks Abdul! I'm a big fan of Tin Man's minis. I painted a Green Martian and loved the sculpt- very fun to paint. It's here on the blog:

http://laughingferret.blogspot.com/2011/07/john-carter-of-mars-teaser-trailer-1.html

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