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Oberon, Consort of Summer is the first model available from the upcoming Weaver Courts faction for Conquest. He’s a “limited preview edition” which seems to mean he will only be purchasable for a short while. This is a shame because he’s a cool mini, but according to the webstore he’s intended to be used as an alternate sculpt for the Weaver Spellbinder, so at least you aren’t missing out on some special rules by not getting your own copy.
First Impressions
The Weaver Courts are the other side of the coin to one of Conquest’s existing factions, the Spires. Both share the same extraterrestrial origin story but have written wildly different sequels to it. The Spires dominate life on Ea through biomancy, creating armies of vat-grown clones, genetic monstrosities and remotely-piloted avatars. Meanwhile, the Weavers have entered a partnership with the natural world, melding with flora and fauna to each become unique gestalt beings. (How consensual this joining is, however, has not yet been explained.)
The Weaver Courts are a fun and unusual (funusual?) take on the classic fantasy tropes of wood elves, fairies and forest folk. A lot of the expected touchstones are on display –tree-hugging, attunement with the seasons, and medieval court politics taken to a mystical extreme (Oberon and his… wife(?) the Summer Queen are characters plucked from renaissance fantasy classics, in which they exist at the apex of a fairy hierarchy that mirrors and mocks those of the real world at the time) – but everything is wrapped in a thick blanket of elf-animal-plant hybridization weirdness. It’s fresh and, as a premise, I’m here for it. I’ve been following Conquest from afar for years, holding out for the Weavers to arrive. I’m super excited they’re finally here.
Looking at Oberon I see a lot of weirdness but not much hybridization: tip to toe, this guy is a beetle. Apart from his bipedal stance, any trace of the extraterrestrial elf he might once have been is not apparent. There are some parts that vaguely suggest plant life, but they’re a subtle nod rather than a flower growing out of his head. He holds aloft some sort of icon in which is embedded what appears to be a living eyeball. Perhaps this is a Pan’s Labyrinth situation? Also, for some reason, he is on fire.
Hopefully all this is explained in the lore.
Oberon oozes regal arrogance, swaggering onto the battlefield. He sells the Weaver Courts as a culture in which pompousness is the language of power, where dominance is achieved by dazzlement just as much as it is by strength. He’s a great introduction to the faction.
Building
Oberon is a multi-part resin kit. I normally feel like resin was created by the dark gods of miniature wargaming to punish hobbyists, but if all of Para Bellum’s resin is like this I shall not dread it. Certainly there was the usual amount of cleanup required, with lots of flash on the more concave parts of the model that had to be scraped out with a pointy knife and a hard toothbrush. (Despite my best efforts I still missed some – I recommend spending a good 15 minutes just focusing on cleaning these up.)
Any miscast-looking bits were restricted to the skulls on the base, where it really doesn’t matter. There is a mould line running down his front leg of the sort that requires sanding, which I couldn’t be bothered to do. At least it’s not too noticeable with paint applied. I didn’t notice any release agent stuck to the model, but I gave the parts a wash and scrub in some soapy water anyway.
Oberon is a simple enough kit that it would be ok to not package him with assembly instructions, but it’s nice that they’re there. They were clear and didn’t have any errors in.
I don’t normally go for subassemblies, but for this model it seemed like a good idea. I ended up with 5: the body, the left arm, the hands which hold the icon overhead, the wings and the cape. You could have fewer, but I really wanted to explore the model while painting it.
Later, while putting the subassemblies together, I found the overhead-arms quite difficult to get into their slots, and the same for his left arm.
Painting
The box art for this guy is stunning but not the kind of thing I’d be tempted to replicate. Instead I set about scheming for something reasonably quick, simple and easy to read. I pondered plants, bugs, and other things in nature. I thought about fairies, in particular the old stories to which this Oberon owes his name, browsing through paintings of scenes from A Midsummer Night’s Dream and other fairytales. I looked at costume designs for the Shakespeare play. In some he wears black rags, in contrast to Queen Titania; in others he is among the most fantastically garbed of the cast. I was particularly taken by C. Wilhelm’s design for him: vibrant green with blue shadows and purple accents.
What followed was some on-paper probing:
With the inkling of a plan, I got to work, starting with a prime of Gray Vallejo Airbrush Primer. This was a stupid idea. It’s basically the same colour as the resin. I should have just used the German Panzer Gray I normally use. Anyway, after that I sprayed the flamey bits white and then I was done with the airbrush.
With the brushbrush I started on the flame, mixing Vallejo Model Color (VMC) Sunset Red with white. Painting fire is always fun. It could have been fiddly for the brush to get where it was needed, but my decision to use subassemblies paid dividends here.
For the wing membranes I wasn’t sure what direction to go in, so I slapped down some of the same pink and, realising it would look ok, committed to it. In a similar vein I tried VMC Violet Red (a deeper, darker purple than Sunset Red) on his cape and wet-blended it with white. I would later come in with a green drybrush to help marry it to his carapace.
For the carapace I started with Citadel Warboss Green, the most medium green I have in my collection. It’s a little thin, so it took a few layers to build up a good coat over the light grey. Mixing it with Citadel Flash Gitz Yellow, I drybrushed, layered and edged highlights onto it.
For the icon, a simple coat of Vallejo Metal Colour Gold did the job. This paint is a workhorse in my arsenal – it’s quite cold, but consequently easy to tint. I would later shade the icon with Citadel Druchii Violet and paint the eye with VMC Violet Red, white and black for the pupil. I opted to have it looking down, rather than up like on the box art, as that way it adds to his imperiousness.
At this stage I glued everything together. As mentioned in the building section, this was a little tricky, but it worked out in the end with enough superglue and hope.
With the model assembled, I upped the contrast on the carapace by running Violet Red into the recesses. I should have used a better paint medium for this, as using water resulted in tide marks, most of which I couldn’t be bothered to clean up.
For the base, I stole the box art’s idea of having the plant-tongue-thing he’s stepping on be bioluminescent around his feet. I painted the rest Violet Red and the green bits Citadel Incubi Darkness, highlighted with Warboss Green, for a much colder green than Oberon’s carapace. The skulls were Citadel Zandri Dust, washed with Citadel Agrax Earthshade. The rest of the base was given a coat of Citadel Rhinox Hide and a little static grass.
As my final step, which I haven’t done yet, I’ll varnish the hell out of him because I don’t trust the paint to stay attached to the resin.
Conclusion
I’m very pleased with how my Oberon turned out. He seems to have done his job, too: I’m eagerly awaiting my next opportunity to paint more Weavers.
Finally, here he is next to a Standard Reference Squig:
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