44 - John Constantine

I chipped away at John Constantine through out the week and finished him off late Saturday night.  This was a rewarding model to paint. I tried using some colours for basecoats that have never worked out for me in the past because I could not figure out what to highlight it with, but finally cracked it. 

I wanted dark grey for his pants, but to stand out from Jason Blood's pants.  I decided to use Scale 75 (S75) Petroleum Grey.  This is a dark grey that has almost a slight brown/purple tint to it when it dries.  I have never used it right.  This time I mixed in some S75 Artic Blue for the highlights.  The light tones of the blue mixed well with the purple hue of the grey.  To darken the pants after the highlights and to add more shadow I did a light glaze of watered down black. 

I also wanted his trench coat to stand out from Jason's jacket.  I chose to go with an old Flames of War colour, US Field Drab.  It is a beige with a slight yellow tint.  I did the highlights by adding in Citadel (C) Pallid Wych Flesh.  I then used some watered down S75 Dubai Brown with a drop of black to add some shadows to the recesses.     

I got the dirty blonde hair by using a mix of Vallego (V) Middlestone and V Beige Brown.  I then added S75 Birch for the highlights. 

From looking at his rules I imagine that John Constantine will play the roll of hard to kill support.  He has good power level at 10, then fairly basic human stats for everything else.  A Willpower 12 is nice though.  He is slow, but does have access to a Blue/3 Power 14" Teleport move.  He has slightly below average defense for Physical and Energy defense with a 14, but great Mind and Supernatural defense with an 18.  However his low defenses are mitigated by a few of his special abilities. 

First is Charm.  Any model that wants to attack him has to first pass a Willpower test.  It is super annoying in BMG, I cant imagine it is any less annoying in DCU.  Secondly if Constantine is targeted by an attack, he can redirect it toward a different friendly model within 2 inches with Final Fate (once per turn).  Basically it is a reverse body guard.  Although he has to chose to do this before using this Charm rule. 

His Dirty Cheater ability is very reliable.  It allows you to choose the defense of the model you are attacking and the attack also ignores resistances (so if Constantine is throwing a Fire Bolt, which is usually Supernatural Damage, at Enchantress, who has high Supernatural defense, Constantine can choose to role against he Physical defense of 15 instead.  Making it easier to hit her and now the attack ignores her Supernatural Resistance/1). 

His attacks have a fairly high power cost (3 and 4) for relatively lower damage (1 and 2 mainly).  However all his attacks have a great effects.  His Fire Bolt is an explosive 2 (everyone within 2" gets hit).  The Magic Seal has Ensnare/8 (-8" to movement).  Mind Tricks has Stun/3 (-3 Power counters) and Dazzle/3 (-3 Mind Defense).  Hellfire is a spray template with Ensnare/3 (-3" movement).  He can really slow people down and hurt them if they clump together. 

His skills go nicely with his support/harassment role.  Luck Allows him to re-roll a single die each turn.  Mastermind adds an addition turn counter to the bag for his team.  Power Thief allows him to steal power from people he hits with close combat attacks (and for some reason the exploding Fire Bolt attack is a close combat attack).  Strategist gives his team an additional "pass" during activation. 

Constantine is not dealing the damage of Zatana, nor is he the brute force of Blood/Etrigan.  He is however survivable, effective and super annoying!

The Justice League Dark is coming together, two models left.  Up next with Black Orchid. 

Kevin