15 mm
The pseudo-amphibioid natives of the jungle world Kwiell were progressing well through their version of the Bronze Age when the first sky visitors arrived. Unfortunately for the Ikwen ("the Forest's Children" in their own language of hypersonic clicks and squeals) the visitors were not a curious scientific team, but a fleet of freebooters hired by the Human Empire to scout out sources of the fusion-modulating superheavy element unbihexium.
Upon learning of the Ikwen, the Empire ordered its contractors to not only extract the planet's unbihexium, but capture thousands of the Forest's Children as slave labourers. Their resistance with primitive weapons would have been doomed if not for the hasty arrival of military advisors and equipment from both the Cultural Collective and the Garafraxian "Chloros", hoping to starve the Empire of a strategic resource. Now the Ikwen find themselves in the middle of a three-way proxy war, with their own home hanging in the balance...
Figures are from Loud Ninja Games via 15mm.co.uk, with thanks to Eli Arndt, Todd Ulrich and Roderick Campbell for creating such a cool species! :)
Very nicely portrayed, Mr. M. The Ikwen body colors must surely blend in perfectly with the jungle flora in which they live and move.
ReplyDeleteAnd the jungle debris on the warrior bases is perfect. OORAH!
Thanks. I modeled the colours after South American poison dart frogs, which are aposematic, ie. their colours warn predators of their toxic nature. I don't yet know why my Ikwen are blue and orange, other than that it made them more fun to paint.
DeleteI echo Jay, great colours and incredible basing... Bravo!
ReplyDeleteNice use of the 'black orb' eye finish you recommended to me - especially as they have four eyes !!
ReplyDeleteGlad you like! We don't see too many four-eyed animals on Earth for a reason: eyes are "costly" features to develop and maintain during growth. On the Ikwen, who knows? Maybe one pair are low-resolution "wide scanners" and the other are acute but with a narrow focus. Or maybe they sense different light levels or colours?
DeleteAllison, you nailed it!
DeleteOn Kwiell, complex eyes never developed. Almost all animals have at least two sets and some even more. In the Ikwen, the front set it the focus eyes and the rear set are a wider, less focused array. This give the Ikwen an amazing field of vision but with separate organs for specific parts of the job.