Well, it’s safe to say that I am fully invested in purchasing, printing, and painting Old West miniatures. At this point, I have gotten the chance to play What a Cowboy! (By two Fat Lardies) and Dracula’s America (Osprey Publishing). I’ve also got the rules for Dead Man’s Hand (Great Escape Games) and Dead By Lead (Electi Studios). DMH is very similar to The Chicago Way, which I’ve already played. It has the benefit of having factions with specific rules, which might be interesting. Dead By Lead is a very intriguing system which allows you to craft your own gunslingers by selecting classes and adding traits. This will probably be the next game I attempt.
I currently have this master plan to run a 1-day Old West campaign. All of the models will be provided (with appropriate stats) and folks will be able to drop in, draft their gang, and play with minimal investment. I’m currently trying to figure out how to “get” a few tables of terrain. I’ve been looking at a neoprene mat from Front Line Games and printing some very nice terrain from the Wild West Rush Kickstarter. I’ll post some of that when I actually take a crack at painting it. Right now, printer go BRRR. I’m also considering trying to make some boards (a ravine, a homestead, etc.) but I have zero experience with this. I’ve watched some videos, but the activation energy still seems too high at this point.
Back in December, I showed off a miniature from Dead Man’s Hand (one of the Lawmen) that I had placed in a recessed base to “fix” the metal base he was attached to. I then filled the base in with Stucco to create a flat surface for basing. I’ve finished this process for the rest of the DMH Lawmen. I also 3D printed several models. A majority of these came from 3D Breed’s Wanted line. I’m a BIG fan of these models (and nearly all of them have a mounted version!), but I did scale them down about 5%. I also printed some models from Skull Forge Studios’ official Dead by Lead line. These were definitely 32-35mm scale models. They needed to be scaled down by 20%, but the proportions are more realistic compared to the other models I have so they stick out a bit. Electi Studios also has several models that I picked up (I think still by Skull Forge?), but haven’t printed yet. Finally, I printed a few models from Cast’N’Play’s Wild West Mayhem. These models are VERY cartoony! I scaled these down by 10%, and they certainly stand out, but they are very entertaining models with great detail.
Painting Old West minis has been such a breath of fresh air. I can’t place exactly why I’ve had such a good time, but I have a few guesses:
Every model is an experiment. I’ve returned to under painting my models and applying a base coat using contrast paints. I’ve even experimented with brown underpainting (using a brown ink, followed by a heavy tan dry brush, then a light ivory dry brush). I still end up coming in with acrylics to fix mistakes, but it’s great to “finish” models in an hour and spend time cleaning them up as desired.
A very different color palette. I’ve been using a lot of neutral colors, which isn’t my typical style. Each model still has a pop of color, but trying to get the neutrals to be interesting is a new challenge.
I’ve really been trying to up my basing game. This has involved a lot of research and the acquisition of several new products!
LOW STAKES. I don’t know why these miniatures “don’t matter”, but they don’t! They’re mostly for me. They can be as pretty (or ugly) as I’d like.
I don’t know if it’s necessary for me to specifically discuss every model I’ve completed in January. Instead, I’ll showcase the models (and their bases) and highlight a few of the key features that were most interesting to me.
The first model (DMH) is an example of the underpainting process I’ve been trying for these Old West models that I grabbed from this video by Eric’s Hobby Workshop. I had put underpainting + contrast behind me in favor of layering, so it was a nice homecoming. However, I still cannot get contrast paints to work for jackets and dusters! The second model (Wanted) was the first cowboy finished. I actually came back to it a few weeks later to try painting jeans on it. I think it worked out okay. I’ll definitely be trying again. This third model (DMH) is my 2nd favorite of the bunch (and the first to be based!). I freehanded the pinstripes and was pleased with the result. I will definitely try that again.
The (literal) white hat rifleman (Skull Forge Studios) took me much longer than expected due to all the leather. I ended up trying about 3 different approaches. They all blended together to create the result you see. The cultist and devil (both Wanted) were both needed to playtest a Crossroads Cult gang for Dracula’s America. The cultist is probably one of my weaker models, but I was very pleased with the pants and coat. I ended up dropping this model and breaking one of the guns. I used a piece of wire to fix it. I don’t think anyone can tell. The devil took me a LOOOONG time. I spent a few hours playing with the reds, which really ended up getting away from me. I think he needed some more black. That said, I was very pleased with the dark red of the suit.
The lady (Wanted) is almost completely done in contrast paints. I underpainted her so starkly that I was able to complete her during an extremely unproductive meeting. Her skin needs some work, but I was otherwise pleased with the final result. I especially love her dark purple holsters. Finally, the fellow on the right (Wanted) is perhaps my best model to date. He has actual contract (between lights and darks, not the paints…) going on and looks sufficiently nefarious to serve as the boss of an outlaw gang. This is the first time I’ve tried layering on the folds of a jacket or cloak. There is more to be done, but I was very pleased with the results. I’m planning to have mauve/red be the color scheme of my outlaw gang.
Finally, I’ve been looking at several desert basing tutorials. Some of these are extremely detailed. I ended up focusing mostly on the advice from HeresyBrush when they reviewed the Ammo Wargaming Universe 01: Deserts box (found here). I was VERY tempted to buy this box, but upon review, I ended up having most of the materials included from one brand or another. So I decided to pick up some desert pigment, some crackle medium, and some dead static grass.
You can see from above, my bases are still pretty simplistic. I have some boulder sized rocks, some smaller rocks, a desert sand texture paint, and some dead grass tufts. I’ve played around with painting, shading, and drybrushing the sand. I’m still not sure I’ve found the right mix yet. Several tutorials recommend shading with Seraphim Sepia, but it ends up making the sand look very red. I’ve also had a hard time making layers of drybrush seem unique and interesting. I will continue to test and refine as I watch more videos. Hopefully the inclusion of some dead grass and cracked earth will augment the effect.
Speaking of cracked earth… instead of picking up GW’s Agrellan Earth (to save a few bucks you see), I purchased Vallejo Crackle Medium. I am… not impressed. I’ve followed the advice of some guides online (Vallejo’s own guide isn’t particularly helpful unless you’re airbrush focused), but so far this is the best result I’ve achieved.
Not particularly noticeable or impressive. So I ended up buying Agrellan Earth anyway. Oh well. I also decided to pick up some Base Ready materials from Gamer Geek Scenics.
I particularly like how easy they are to apply and the varied effect you get without much additional effort. You’ll see some bases with these next month!
Well that’s all for this month! 7 models in the first month of the year! Wow! Only… 30 more cowboys to go?
Michael S.
Tale of Many Warlords – February 2025
This month, my hobby time was largely dominated by a single project: an Imperial Fists Storm Speeder. It’s almost ready to take to the battlefield—almost. The base remains unfinished, but I’m particularly excited about it. I used 3D-printed rubble pieces and texture paste to create an urban ruin aesthetic that should complement the model perfectly once painted. Once the base is complete, I’ll attach the speeder and call it done. I’m quite pleased with how this one turned out—the decals really tie everything together, giving it that extra touch of polish.
Beyond the Storm Speeder, I made significant progress on my Tomb Kings collection. I built the first of two 14-man Tomb Guard units, assembling them in their full skeletal glory. But the standout piece from this month’s work is a converted Liche Priest. I would have picked up the official model, but I haven’t been able to find it in stock.
This model was an interesting challenge—I wanted to capture the desiccated, near-mummified look of a Liche Priest rather than a simple skeleton. To achieve this effect, I used Green Stuff, a Tomb Guard body, and miscellaneous bits, then applied several layers of sprue goo to build up the skeletal frame, making it appear more like dried, ancient flesh clinging to bone. I’m incredibly happy with how this conversion turned out, and I can’t wait to see it painted.
Adding to my growing Nehekharan force, I also assembled a resin Battle Standard Bearer and a retro metal Tomb King, the latter destined to be on a chariot. There’s something deeply satisfying about working with these old metal sculpts—the weight, the detail, the nostalgia. That lasted for about 5 minutes before remembering how much of a pain dealing with metal mold slips and lines is.
On the 40K side of things, I also continued a bit of work on an Imperial Fists Librarian. Right now, it’s just in the early stages, with only a few base colors blocked in, but it’s a promising start. He’ll be a striking addition to my growing Fists force once completed.
And finally, I took a moment to survey the growing block of tomb guard on my desk. Sitting there in all their unpainted glory are 14 Tomb Guard alongside various other Tomb Kings models.
The immediate goal is to finish the Storm Speeder’s base and get it fully completed. Then, my focus will shift back to the Tomb Kings, getting some paint on the Liche Priest and hopefully making progress on the Tomb Guard. With so many projects in motion, there’s never a dull moment in the hobby queue.
Until next month—happy painting!
Kevin C.
Battle of Edoras
“Per my previous post…”
As a “reward” to myself for finishing the whole Rohan army, I was able to pick up a boxed set right when it was released. I had these guys assembled practically hours after receiving them, but it just so happened that we had more than a week of miserable rain, sleet, and otherwise yucky weather, preventing me from priming them until after Christmas. Therefore, I had to wait until January to paint them.
Warriors
These new warriors were an interesting challenge to tackle, as they are clearly more detailed. I wanted to try, as close as possible, to replicate the paint scheme I used for the previous warriors. I mostly succeeded, but there were some elements that I had to deviate from considerably, such as the armor (leather versus metal) and the helmets.
Heroes
The heroes were an interesting challenge. Similar to my Theoden miniatures, I used the Warhipster painting tutorials for Haleth and Hama, but with different horse colors. I had already committed to putting heroes on white horses to pick them out in the battlefield, and I think it helps them stand out in a cavalry force.
I will admit, if you could not tell already, that in the very last step where I glue flock on the models, I broke off half of Hama’s arrow. This is quite possibly the thinnest piece of plastic that GW produces (especially since this is true scale, not epic scale like 40K/AOS) and I broke it off. After much cursing of the gods, I was able to half-heartedly glue it back on, although I have little confidence that it will stay on in the long run.
Houses
I actually managed to finish these houses in the last few days of December, but I figured I’d keep these in the update for January. I am somewhat pleased with how they turned out, especially after copying the painting tutorial Jerry sent me here.
I am admittedly very surprised at the scale difference between these houses and the miniatures, which I suppose is the difference between true scale and epic scale. While true scale miniatures are naturally smaller than their epic scale counterparts, if anything, these houses feel bigger than most of the terrain I have painted in the past for 40K. Strange.
The Muster of Rohan
So, after about three months of painting, I have completed my entire Rohan host. I may add a character or two to the army (banner bearers, captains, red-headed warrior princesses, etc.) but for now I am calling it done and moving on to other game systems.
In Other News
First, in preparation for a Necromunda campaign that will be starting soon, I purchased a Genestealer Combat Patrol box. Odd choice I know, but this campaign is expected to have heavy use of vehicles, and I’ve got to be honest, the GSC vehicles as some of the best-looking vehicles in the game. The Achilles Ridgerunner is just *chef’s kiss* so good. I am hoping to have the entire force painted by the end of February, but here they are assembled.
Second, I finally assembled a fully lit display case. I am very excited, as it is more than twice as big as the one I had previously, so I can more effectively store my armies in this one. That being said, it is already full, so I may be in the market for a new one…
For any interested, I got the display case off Amazon here, and it took me about four hours to build.
I sit here editing and collating the fantastic updates by our diligent warlords, the final ones of the year, on a bullet train heading south from Tokyo. Not the most typical of the locations I’ve been known to work from but a fitting place to tie the bow on this fantastic year of hobbying by both myself and the fantastic warlords that have shared their work with us over the course of the year.
I wanted to take a minute before diving into the incredible work of each of the artists to thank the incredible team here at UCH. Each of these men has inspired me and made me work to be a better hobbyist. I started this series in an effort to get more done over the course of the year, and I have accomplished this in spades. I was thankfully not alone in this, dragging 5 other hapless fools onto the year-long journey that you have read through this year. I am incredibly thankful for their writings, and insight. I hope that we can continue to entertain, and maybe even inspire you into 2025 and beyond!
Austin B.
November Progress
Before I move onto December, I actually have to catch you all up on what I was able to accomplish in November! Not that it was very much, hence in part the lack of a post from me in the last month. But I got some work done on some of the new – and older – Shatterpoint boxed sets. I am hoping to get a bit more done before the next set of Rebel and Empire boxes drop sometime in Q2 2025. And I have a bit more to paint up for an event in February. (Events are a great motivator…)
With all the holiday preparation as well as some business at work, I didn’t get as much done as I had hoped, though finally finishing off the “This is Some Rescue” box was nice, and Lando’s box is actually pretty close to completion as well, with the Wing Guard half-way in progress.
December Progress
Now paradoxically, December ended up being a much more free month for me, despite having yet another holiday to prepare for. While it’s also not as much as I have done in some other months, I did get a good few heroes done for my Middle Earth armies in preparation for the new edition, including the Three Hunters: Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli. Mounted, even!
Gamling joins them, as does a mounted Rohan banner bearer – his dismount having been painted over two years ago at this point for my footslogging Rohan army (that I showed off in the first ever post, actually!). I was unfortunately unable to get Theoden done as I had hoped to, so he remains unfinished (unprimed, even), as the model did not arrive till after I returned from my holiday celebrations. Expect him in January, alongside some fitting foes!
Atop those, I actually finally finished my Vampire team that I have left lying unfinished since before the start of this year! (Another item I showed off in the first post, as something “to be done!”) I painted them up to participate in a local event, and even walked away with Most Touchdowns! (Again, events are a great motivator…)
This is a bit of a cheat, since 9 of the models had already been completed (the Vargheist and 8 Thralls) last year. As was Wilhelm Chaney, who is here posing for the family photo. But I had to get those 6 Vampires done eventually, and actually base the whole team, and it was finally done! The project and event also finally got me to base Chaney, hence his inclusion in the photo, despite the fact that he’s been fully painted since his release in 2021!
Year in Review
And that’s it! That rounds out the year! Honestly, for what I wanted to do when I started on my posts, I have admittedly failed. My initial task was to get an army done for Warhammer: The Old World, and I have made significantly little progress in that regard. But as a general motivator to paint, I’m fairly happy with what I have been able to accomplish this year. I have abandoned some projects, most notably that Old World army (for the moment…), and I have certainly hopped around a lot in regards to what I am painting (how many times did I say “this is what I’ll be painting moving forward” only to change it the next month, or come back with some Shatterpoint models instead?), but posting for this blog has at least kept me painting, which isn’t quite something I could say about myself in years prior. Why do you think I have so many incomplete projects? I haven’t always posted consistently, either because I’ve felt I haven’t done enough, or because I was just too busy to get a post ready in time, but every month I have at least done something.
But to sum up what I have done this year:
-10 Squigs, 5 Squig Hoppers, and a Big Boss on Squig, all for The Old World (and all that was done for that game…)
-A whole, rather large Bolt Action army in the First Special Service Force, which consisted of 80 infantry, 2 mules, 2 guns, and 4 vehicles and their crew, completed in a month. As well as another tank and a few accessory pieces completed for the British (which I may have not shown off, oh well…)
-Three whole Blood Bowl Teams (Shadow College, Gnomes, and Vampires), and a small selection of Star Players and accessory models.
–A staggering 46 models for Star Wars: Shatterpoint, in an eclectic mix between Rebels, Imperials, and some Scoundrels.(Though I still haven’t finished those Ewoks…)
-A small handful of Necromunda models.
-Two random mechs? Haha!
-48 Landwehr and some Commanders for my Prussians (most of those never made it on these posts either, woops! Maybe when I do another army update… I also have some cavalry in progress, so perhaps they’ll make it in the next posts in January or Feburary!)
-Plus the above 8 models for MESBG!
I have also built those several dozen German infantry and vehicles, also for Bolt Action, but painting has been delayed as I reassess how I plan to actually paint them, unhappy with my few test models thusfar (hence why they haven’ty been shown). That, and the army book coming in late January means the army will be getting some revisions and new additions.
So my hobby progress has been very mixed, jumping around as I usually do.But it’s still fairly impressive. I certainly managed to churn out more in some years prior, when I was less busy (or at least pretending to be), but I am happy with how far along I have come on some projects, such as the Prussians and my ever-growing Shatterpoint collection; very happy with what I’ve completed, in the various Blood Bowl teams, and especially the FSSF; and fairly interested in what I have planned for the new year. Though I won’t spoil too much of that just yet…
As for my favorite model of the year, it was a bit of a three-way tie for me between Lando, Legolas and Gimli on horseback, and Darth Vader, but I have to say that the Darth Vader I painted way back in June remains one of my most impressive models. It was really fun trying to get some subtle differences between all the different blacks and really make the miniature read and pop without looking too dull, and I am very happy with what I was able to achieve with such a reduced color palette.
I’ll leave you all on that. Happy New Year! Hope to have more for you in the next!
Kevin C.
Dismounted Warriors of Rohan
I had a lot of older Rohan miniatures that I purchased from a friend, and I figured I should finish painting them before getting new Rohan miniatures. These miniatures were quite old – one even had a broken spear point – but I was determined to paint them in the same scheme as the riders. While they are not my best work, they will be good pieces to have in a scrap.
Hail Theoden King!
My friend ended up selling me not one, but TWO Theoden sets (so four miniatures total – two with helmets, two without helmets). I decided to do a little experiment in painting tutorials.
In my painting, especially this year, I use a lot of online painting tutorials. My academic conditioning has trained me to be as forthright as possible in citing them. There are two online painters that I have used, and they both happened to have painting tutorials of Theoden – Warhipster with Contrast+ (https://youtu.be/HYLbQpBF1fI?si=kic1rImVIe4m3X0W), and Pete the Wargamer (https://youtu.be/4vVjtCGy9RY?si=ByF2r_g0mJrcmhP7). I’ve used Warhipster for some of my terrain pieces, and I’ve used Pete for some of my earlier Blood Bowl teams. So, I figured I would compare the two and see how I felt about the results.
For the helmeted version, I used Warhipster. Admittedly, I was nervous about the free use of contrast paint all over the place, and it made it hard to control much of the borders between colors. That being said, I really loved how the miniature turned out, especially the steed.
I used Pete the Wargamer for the unhelmeted version of Theoden, which I suspect was made before the advent of contrast paints, as none were used. I was less pleased with this result, and I found it more frustrating to paint in his style. A lot of this frustration was due to hard-to-reach places and difficult effects to accomplish, such as lightening the raised designs of the armor.
All in all, I believe I liked the Warhipster scheme more, and so I used his method for some of the other miniatures I painted this month (more below).
Eowyn and Merry
I only had one set for Eowyn and Merry, so I decided to wait until after the experiment and copy which paint scheme I liked best. Even though Warhipster did not have a video tutorial for this specific miniature, I used his scheme for the horse, and more or less copied the method I used for the regular Riders of Rohan for Eowyn and Merry.
One thing I did change from the film adaptation is that I maintained all heroes’ horses as white. I plan to continue this with Haleth, Hama, and Hera (coming soon!). This is different from the films, which have the heroes on all different color horses, but I want this to be a visual cue for me when playing pieces on the board.
Battle of Edoras
As a “reward” to myself for finishing the whole Rohan army, I was able to pick up a boxed set right when it was released. I had these guys assembled practically hours after receiving them, but it just so happened that we had more than a week of miserable rain, sleet, and otherwise yucky weather, preventing me from priming them.
I finally did prime them right before Christmas, and I am excited about painting them next month. As an interesting study, I compared one of the new footmen to one of the old ones that I had just completed.
The new ones are clearly more detailed, and just seem much more interesting in scale and posture. I am sad I didn’t have the time to paint these guys this month, but I am excited about having them finished next month.
Gaunt’s Ghosts
While I wasn’t able to finish my Rohan Warriors in time, I was able to knock something off of my shelf in the meantime – my Gaunt’s Ghosts. I have had these guys on my shelf since June 2021, so it was nice to finally complete something extra for me.
As I discussed earlier, I decided to use the Warhipster video tutorial on how to paint these guys (https://youtu.be/MqviEDV03SU?si=GfGTk256Gzi0KGhO). I admit that I was a little disappointed with how the video was laid out. There was a lot of screen time spent on applying the layer, and not a lot of time explaining how one should paint the deviations from Gaunt and Rawne (the two that got the most screen time).
I still think I did a decent job, but I was hoping they would be fantastic. Instead, they are okay, and I am glad that I have them ready to play.
Now, if I could only use them in an actual Kill Team…
Year in Review
I have done more painting in 2024 than any other year previous, which is quite an accomplishment. I have assembled and painted two full armies, nearly completed a third, and gotten a lot of painting projects off my chest. All in all, I painted over 350 miniatures this year (counting those LI infantry 5-on-a-base as one miniature, by the way).
Assembled and painted the entire Bretonnian Army Box
12 Knights
3 Pegasus Knights and Lord on Pegasus
24 Archers
32 Men at Arms
Assembled and painted a huge Legions Imperialis Army
Three boxes of Solar Auxilia (12 Sentinels, 12 Ogryns, and 48 Infantry)
Three Support Artillery Boxes (36 Rapiers, 36 Tarantulas, and 12 Cyclopses)
Baneblades, Malcadors, and Valdors
19 Dracosans
6 Lightnings and two Marauders
Assembled, magnetized, and painted Titan Maniple (Warlord, two Reavers, and four Warhounds)
Painted four Blood Bowl teams (Norse, Black Orcs, and two Halflings)
Painted Kasrkin Kill Team
Painted Rohan Host
36 Rohan Riders
12 Rohan Warriors
Theoden, Eowyn, and Merry
Random Terrain Pieces
That being said, I still have many other projects on my workbench, so my queue for 2025 is already full.
The Best
My favorite miniature that I painted this year was actually one that I never posted. Austin and I went halfsies on some Brutes for Necromunda, and I am really pleased with how mine turned out. Granted, it died on its first campaign game, but that’s how Necromunda rolls.
The Worst
I have an unending hatred for that stupid Duke on Pegasus model. The paint scheme was eventually okay, but I really hated everything about this model – assembling, priming, painting. Glad it’s done with.
What’s Next Year
As far as what I have planned for next year, I already have the queue figured out.
Finish painting Battle of Edoras
Paint my remaining Necromunda miniatures (Cawdor and GSC) in time for our next campaign
Finish painting my old Deathwatch army (had this on my desk since 2016!)
Assemble Meduseld
I have a few more projects, but that will last me a while yet. I also got some new drybrushes for Christmas, so I am excited to try these out.
Until next year!
Jerry S.
Solar Auxilia: No More Lasrifles, Please.
This year has been very exciting for me, the release of plastic Solar Auxilia has been incredible and I have enjoyed every minute of it. From building, to painting, to playing; my hobby journey with Solar Auxilia has been a blast, even if a little longer than I would’ve liked in the end. As you can see here, I was prolific in my Solar Auxilia painting, the total count of infantry clocking in at 115 models in just 8 months, wow! I was able to finish the last 20 infantry this month, something I am very grateful for as I think I am mentally done with this particular scheme for the time being.
I thankfully still love the muted scheme I created for these models, the dark blue coupled with the greys and worn metals of the fatigues and armor plating really lends itself to the so called “dark millennium” and I think really captures the dearth of hope that is to be found on the battle fields of the Horus Heresy.
Bolt Action
I’ve continued the progress on my Bolt Action American force this month, focusing on completing a couple more Weapons teams, a Medium Machine Gun team and a medium anti-tank team that will hopefully help keep my GI’s alive as they navigate the battlefield. I’ve always loved the idea of overwhelming the enemy not in bodies, but in firepower, just as the American Army preferred in WW2 and these last two teams really help accomplish that idea on the tabletop.
Continuing Adventures in Middle Earth
The last of my true hobby progress was again in the realms of Middle earth. I have along with several others, began forming a regular group of MESBG players at a local hobby shop, playing weekly on Mondays and beginning to attend/plan events across the region.
One of those aforementioned events was a Helm’s Deep mega-battle. With 6 people on each side and hundreds of minis on either side, this was a spectacle indeed. It was tremendously fun seeing the many, many models I’ve painted for both Rohan and Isengard featured on the tabletop together. Indeed the Hornburg was manned almost entirely by Rohan models I myself painted! How cool is that!
This has been a great experience thus far and I hope that we can keep this progress moving forward into 2025. Speaking of 2025, the first month of 2025 I will be attending a couple events, hoping to bring a force of Gondor using the Reclamation of Osgiliath army in the new edition. I’ve always loved this part of the books and movies and using the Brothers Gondor together is always a fun time. In past editions, I had not used my Gondor in one force, opting to either use the Rangers of Gondor, or the various defenders of Minas Tirith and had based each force differently. This isn’t inherently an issue but I know it would bug me seeing an army on the table using 2 different basing schemes. As such, I set to work rebasing my warriors of Minas Tirith to match their Ranger pals. I gotta say, I love the results too!
To finish this year off, I spent the last week not at my hobby desk, but traveling around the islands of Japan. That being said, I am still a Warhammer junky through and through and as such, made sure to visit the Warhammer cafe in Tokyo. This is a sweet little spot to stop at in Tokyo, a larger than normal Warhammer store with a variety of incredibly well painted “miniatures” to gawk at while awkwardly trying to explain to your friends the differences between a warlord titan and whatever an “Age of Sigmar” is. Something I undoubtedly failed to do even as my friends tried as hard as they could to understand.
I snagged a couple snapshots of some of my favorite displays which you can see below. This was only a fraction of the total displays and if I ever was able, I would love to play a game and enjoy a coffee in this lovely store. In the meantime, I did snag the delightfully odd “Slaves to darkness” book and a lovely hoody only sold at the Cafe.
Closing thoughts on 2024
The year has flown by, and it was a great one by all accounts! I painted around 400 models this year by my counting:
115 Solar Auxilia
112 Tomb Kings
28 Arnor
42 Bolt Action Americans
35 Word Bearers
A Thunderhawk!
A 6×4 Middle Earth board!
Various miscellaneous characters and one offs.
An absolutely prolific year by numbers and something I am immensely proud of. Even with this wildly productive year, I still have much to do in 2025 and beyond. I was lucky enough to purchase a friend’s entire 40K and 30k collection this year, a great bargain but unfortunately adding to the backlog nearly as many models as I finished this year! UGH!
My favorite part of this year has been the Thunderhawk pictured below. This was an incredible journey, really challenging myself as a hobbyist. I don’t know how I’ll top it in 2025! (Please don’t ask about the Reaver Titan in my closet)
Enough of 2024 though, it’s 2025 now after all! In 2025, I’ve been thinking of what I want to accomplish, and although this list will undoubtedly change, maybe even in the first couple weeks of the year, It’s always a good idea to to start the year with a plan!
Finish my Solar Auxilia army! This should be relatively easy as I’ve only need to paint the tanks still
Finish my Tomb Kings Army. Again, this should be an easier task as there is only the various monsters and characters yet to do.
Paint MY 40K Deathwatch Army. I’m copying Kevin on this, this project needs to get done this year lol.
Tie up the various odds and ends for the various projects I’ve not finished. This is a broad goal, I just want to finish some of the odd characters and squads I’ve picked up over the years for my various armies.
Finally finish painting my Zone Mortalis board
Build and paint either my Warlord or Reaver titan.
Do more character and one-off projects. I’ve been doing a lot of Army painting the past few years and I think it would be rewarding to spend some more time on fewer models, challenging myself in new ways.
Expand the Urban Cowboy Hobbies network. I’ve often thought about starting a YouTube or podcast arm of my media Empire, maybe this is the year to do so!
Until next time!
Michael S
As the year comes to a close, it’s the perfect time to reflect on the progress and joys of hobbying. The last few months have been a busy time for me, balancing a new job and the holidays has left less time for Warhammer. December hobby time for me was mostly 30 minute chunks after work and I was pleasantly surprised with how much I was able to accomplish by adding one or two coats of paint each day. Despite the lack of dedicated time, I was able to paint up and build a few miniatures this month to show off.
December’s Work
My Imperial Fists have taken most of my attention this month. I was able to build a set of terminators and scouts I’ve had on sprue for a while now. I am also about halfway through a squad of Hellblasters (not pictured) bringing the model count up to 15 for the month.
For painting, said Terminators and Scouts received a heavy spray of yellow. 4-5 passes with an Airbrush was the price of a consistent coat of Bronze Brown. Another pass with Golden Yellow brought some color and saturation to the muted yellow-brown basecoat. One final highlight was applied to the most raised surfaces using Light Yellow to push the highlights.
Once I got the worst of the painting behind me, I went in by brush to apply the rest of the colors. The Terminators took around a week and a half of periodic work. Batch painting for 30 minutes every day made short work of this squad.
The Scouts were a bit different, since I was unsure how I wanted to paint them. In the end I settled for using a mix of colors for fatigues boots and leather. The sergeant came out nicely with pretty minimal effort. My next goal will be getting the rest of the squad to the same spot before moving on.
Year in Review: Finish the Damn Model
2024 has been a great year for me in hobbying! While I still find myself flitting from one project or model to another, I’ve painted more complete units this year than in most years I can remember.
Not counting basing, I’ve managed to fully paint the following units.
5 Imperial Fist Terminators
5 Imperial Fist Sternguard
1 Imperial Fist Apothecary
5 Black Templar Assault Intercessors
5 Black Templar Terminators
1 Black Templar Terminator Captain
5 Death Guard Tactical Marines (25 more of them just need me to apply some weathering; Missed opportunity to cash in BIG on hours of work.)
5 Death Guard Terminators
1 Imperial Guard Sentinel
20 Tomb Kings Skeletons
1 Lumineth Light of Eltharion
Furthermore I’ve built the following models, but haven’t had the chance to paint them fully.
Imperial Fist Command Squad
Imperial Fist Impulsor
5 Imperial Fist Intercessors
5 Imperial Fist Hellblasters
1 Black Templar Marshal
20 Imperial Guardsman
Imperial Guard Command Squad
2 Imperial Guard Heavy Weapons Teams
5 Kitbashed Fire Dragons
20 Tomb Kings Skeletons
36 Tomb Kings Skeleton Archers
16 Tomb Kings Skeleton Horses
1 Tomb King Necrolith Bone Dragon
While the list of unpainted models is still long, I’ve been way more engaged with the hobby this year and am looking forward to 2025! I can safely say this is the most productive hobby year I’ve had in a long time if not my entire history playing Warhammer. My goal moving forward is to just finish the damn model!
2024 Superlatives
A final article of the year wouldn’t be complete without a visual review of some of my work and things that stuck out in my mind. I’ve got a few superlatives to award…
Favorite Single Model:
My Imperial Fists Apothecary turned out so much better than I expected white armor to. This was one of my first forays back into oil washes in some time, and I loved the fact. The armor looks crisp but still has definition from the recess shading. I was most proud of the tabard, including a nice helix symbol and freehand outline that looks believable. A first for me in painting cloth!
Favorite Unit:
The first unit of skeletons I painted were a ton of fun! The old style kits brought back a ton of nostalgia from my entrance into the hobby and painting these was a breeze with speedpaints. I loved how the colors came together and am looking forward to getting the rest of them ready to paint in 2025.
Least Favorite Model(s):
After converting these characters up for my Death Guard force, I was really excited to get them painted up in white and green. After starting to paint them, my enthusiasm really dropped away as I felt they didn’t quite look the way I had hoped. My captain simply converted from Narik Dreygur I found is below. The model just hasn’t captured me the way it did once I started painting.
I haven’t totally given up on these three yet. I do eventually plan to get back around to these knowing a complete paint job will go a long way toward making them look a bit less “meh”.
Favorite Base:
This sentinel almost overtook the Apothecary for favorite model, but really the base is what I fell in love with. I put quite a bit of work into building some believable rubble and liquid pigments really helped tie everything together and up the soot and grime needed to sell the effect.
Most Painful Legends Casualty:
These Iron Golems (and 2 units of Untamed Beasts) took me lots of time and work to get looking spiffy in bare steel and the blood of their foes. Despite looking their best, an unfortunately timed retirement via Warhammer Legends meant they never got to see the tabletop with the rest of my Chaos Warriors. Time to start playing Warcry?
Least Fun Model to Build:
It’s a tie between the Skeleton Horsemen from my Tomb Kings and the old Chaos Knights I picked up early this year. Both of these have a lot in common: old models, mould lines, cavalry bases, mould lines, poorly fitted parts, did I mention mould lines?
Upon finishing both of these units, I had to take a sizable break from the hobby to retain my sanity. Enough said.
Favorite Model That Mysteriously Remains Unpainted Despite How Much I Like It:
In contrast to the other Death Guard characters, this captain doesn’t make me disappointed. I still love the conversions and use of a spare Eliminator helmet to give him a hood befitting any good officer of the 14th, but he still remains mostly unpainted.
I blame the result of the other characters I put together, and my frustration with metallics at the time of painting. Instead of powering through, I just left him to sit forever incomplete. I am starting 2025 by pushing him to the top of my priority queue. Hopefully I’ll be able to share a fully completed photo next month!
Looking Forward
In 2025 I am looking forward to another great year of hobbying. My goal is to continue to make progress towards fully completing projects and models instead of leaving them 80% complete for an eternity
A stretch goal would be to have my display cabinet only displaying completed miniatures… Maybe I’ll surprise myself?
IF I can complete that, I also want to branch out in media creation for the hobby and at some point create video tutorials for painting and other aspects of miniature painting. Who knows what the future may hold.
Cheers and happy holidays!
Joe R.
Well, you might have noticed it’s been a few months since I last participated. I fell off the wagon, got back on the wagon, fell off again, brought some paints on holiday, and here we are.
Blood Bowl – The Half-Shell Universe All Stars – Lizardman Team
This project changed dramatically. I got VERY tired of cleaning and assembling the metal models from Greebo (FYI, Greebo has since switched to resin which is much nicer). So, I decided to switch over to a set of 3D printed lizardmen models from BruteFun. It was faster to 1) download the files, 2) arrange and slice the files, 3) print the files, 4) remove the supports/clean the models, and 5) prime the models than it was to assemble a single metal model. I had hoped to finish these in time for Chaos Cup in November, but that did not happen. My friend Neil let me borrow his excellently painted Beach Shark team instead.
These are still very much on my TO DO list, but I do have a huge highlight from this work. I tried my first ever comic book style miniature! I had tried comic style late last year on some Necromunda bases, which worked out okay, but this was a whole model!
I follow Thunderbrush on Patreon, who releases guides on comic book style miniature painting. I still have a long way to go, but I was REALLY pleased with how this turned out.
Pathfinder – Keller Feelgood, NG Cleric of the Endless Road
I started painting this model while I was back in grad school (pre-2015). The model was used as one of my many Pathfinder Society miniatures when I was playing 2-3 times a week. He wasn’t one of my favorites, but the name Keller was cemented along-side his affiliation with Desna (the goddess of dreams in the setting).
This year I was asked to join a Pathfinder campaign in progress by a colleague I met in Kansas City. Turns out she was in DC now! I was a little apprehensive. My gaming group in North Carolina was really exceptional, and I was intimidated to find my place in another group. Thankfully, this has turned out to be a really wonderful group. I decided to revive Keller in Pathfinder 2nd Edition. Keller became a cleric of the Endless Road (a pantheon which includes Desna) with the edict to travel, explore, learn, and help. This incarnation also became an herbalist and brewer, striving to find new ingredients to improve his brews.
Since joining, I’ve worked on this model a couple of times. Each time he moves a little closer to being something I’m proud of. He’s also great for experimentation, since I’m really the only one who cares how he ends up looking on the table. Everyone else is using pre-painted D&D miniatures, so he already feels a little special.
Necromunda – The Junktown Jesters – Escher
I decided to take my paints with me for the holiday. It was a bit of a bust, BUT I did end up working on two additional models for my Batman villain themed Escher.
These are still a work in progress, but I think you can see my progress as a painter reflected in the model on the left. She represents Punchline, a relatively new Batman villain. I got this all done in… 2 hours? And that included playing around with some highlighting. The other one, if you can’t guess, is Mr. Freeze inspired. The skin needs some work still, but I’m fairly pleased with the “bones” of this model. I’ll even try doing some actual plasma effect (probably with dry brushing) and see what happens!
What A Cowboy/Dracula’s America
I got really into western miniatures this year. I don’t know why exactly, but my friend Neil is ALSO into western miniatures. We played a game of What A Cowboy and have aspirations to try Dracula’s America, Dead Man’s Hand, and Dead by Lead in the New Year.
I picked up a batch of metal lawmen from Dead Man’s Hand and was kindly gifted some Wargames Foundry western miniatures for X-Mas. I think this is going to be my next project.
I have already cleaned up the Dead Man’s Hand miniatures (including some shotgun repair work). I really DO NOT LIKE that these miniatures come attached to a mini metal base. So I took a 3D printed base file and messed around with it in TinkerCAD to remove a section. I then put the miniature in and applied Stucco to fill the rest of the hole. Not bad eh? Now I just need to do this for… 25 other western minis. I will still apply some basing materials over this Stucco base.
I also 3D printed a ton of western miniatures. I test printed several to get them in scale with the traditional models. I think it worked out alright. I’ll be mixing and matching as I get things ready to play a mini campaign with Neil. Or maybe all the Warlords will decide westerns are cool and clammer to join in on the fun.
Some Light Reading
I finished off this year by doing some light reading.
Both of these books came highly recommended to help advance novice painters. They have both been exceptional for completely different reasons. I will need to read Figopedia again to truly retain the knowledge it contains, but I walked away understanding significantly more about light and color theory. Tommie Soule does a great job of walking step-by-step through lots of things I’ve ignored over the past several years of painting. He also does a great job encouraging you to play, not stress.
A Year in Review.
Even though I missed participating in the last few months, 2024 has probably been one of the most successful hobby years I’ve ever had. Let’s recall what got accomplished this year.
I arbitrated my first ever Necromunda campaign and played in another!
Joined a Pathfinder Campaign! And ran a 3-session Super Hero adventure
6 Escher styled after various Batman Villains
Necromunda bases for said Escher
Dipped my toe into Comic Book Style
1 Chaos Chosen Ogre painted almost entirely through glazing
1 Blood Bowl Dwarf Team
1 Blood Bowl Chaos Dwarf Team
1 repainted Blood Bowl Halfling Team
Assembled several MDF kits for Necromunda
Assembled Ork Kommandos for Kill Team
Assembled Angels of Death for Kill Team
Assembled Hernkyn Yaegirs for Kill Team + Necromunda
When you look at what the other Warlords have done, this list seems pretty paltry. However, this is probably the most engaged I’ve been with my hobby since moving to Virginia 5 years ago. Much of that comes down to the wonderful community of gamers I’ve surrounded myself with. It’s been wonderful to hang out here, with the other Warlords, and grow into a fledgling painter.
The Good
My two favorite projects this year were the Chaos Chosen Ogre and the Halfling Team. The Ogre is the only model I “finished” all year, meaning I varnished him with no intent to ever adjust him again. I wasn’t able to get the Halfling Treemen where I wanted them, but those Halflings popped during that whole tournament. It didn’t hurt that I went undefeated either! 😀
I’ve also gotten much better at playing while I paint. When I just decide to work on a model and try something new (instead of rushing towards a deadline) I end up really enjoying myself. My skills have definitely improved because of this.
The Bad
I still struggle to find time to finish my models. I’m able to basecoat fairly well and provide some interest around the model, but I rarely have time to highlight a model to the point I call it finished. Out of all those dwarves I painted for Blood Bowl, I think 2 are actually done. That doesn’t even include their bases (see below)!
Thankfully, I’ve come a long way with regards to highlighting. I used to be scared to even attempt. Now I’m willing to do it and just see what happens and learn along the way.
The Ugly
I am bad at working on bases! Those two or three Necromunda bases are the best I’ve ever done. I am barely finishing the models, let alone spending any time on the bases. However, I have started keeping my models separate from the bases so that I can more easily access hard to reach spots on the model. That’s some progress right?
Next Year!
Another Necromunda campaign is in the works. Hopefully it’ll be done in Mid-January. I might even share it here if Jerry lets me! And with that, I want to thank all the other Warlords for their support over the year and for letting me bask in their greatness.
Special thanks to Jerry for being so enthusiastic about my participation and always working to keep us all on task!
Happy New Year!
Mike P. Painting My Empire Army for Adepticon: 12 Weeks, 102 Models, and a Dream
With 12 weeks left until Adepticon, I’m staring down a monumental challenge: painting 102 Empire models to complete my army. Thankfully, my general on griffon is already done, and he’s looking fantastic—he’s the centerpiece of the force, and I’m using him as the visual anchor for the rest of the army. Now, it’s all about getting the rest of the troops ready in time for the big event.
Week-by-Week Strategy
I’ve broken this project into manageable chunks: about 9 models per week. It’s still ambitious, but it’s doable if I stick to a plan. My approach is to focus on one unit or type of model at a time. Here’s how I’m structuring it:
1. Core Troops First: I’m starting with the infantry. They’re the backbone of the Empire, and getting those blocks of state troops painted will give me a sense of progress early on. I’m batch painting them, working in groups of 10 to 15 models to keep the momentum going.
2. Special Units and Heroes: Once the bulk of the infantry is done, I’ll move on to the knights, artillery, and their crews. These models have a bit more detail, so I plan to give them some extra attention. After that, I’ll tackle the heroes and other supporting characters, which will be fun because they let me experiment with more intricate techniques.
3. Final Touches: The last few weeks will be all about basing, finishing details, and making sure everything looks cohesive.
Staying Consistent
My general on griffon has set the standard for my army’s color scheme: rich reds, deep blues, and gold accents inspired by Altdorf. I’ve painted a couple of test models for the infantry to make sure the scheme translates well across the army. The key is to keep things consistent while still adding variety with unit markings, banners, and other small details.
Weekly Workflow
Here’s what a typical week looks like for me:
• Monday-Wednesday: Prime and base coat the models. I’m keeping it simple with a black primer and working up from there.
• Thursday-Friday: Apply washes and highlights. This is where the models really start to come to life.
• Saturday-Sunday: Focus on the details—faces, weapon hilts, feathers, and any other bits that make the models pop.
The Challenge and the Fun
It’s easy to feel overwhelmed looking at the sheer number of models left to paint, but breaking it down into smaller goals keeps me motivated. I also remind myself why I’m doing this: to field an incredible-looking army at Adepticon. Seeing the blocks of troops come together and imagining them charging into battle makes the effort worth it.
Looking Ahead
I know the last few weeks will be intense, but I’m already planning for that final push. Once the army is done, I’ll add some finishing touches—like weathering and flocking the bases—to tie everything together. If I have time, I’d love to create a display board to really show off the army.
There’s a lot of work ahead, but I’m enjoying the process. Every painted model is a step closer to the goal, and I can’t wait to see my Empire army in action at Adepticon.
Another month done, I can’t believe we’re already through November, how the year has flown by…. But even as the days get shorter, our diligent hobbyists keep working. While this month’s article is a shorter one, I think you’ll be impressed by the work completed nonetheless!
Kevin C.
On to my third act for the year… my Rohirrim, which I have had sitting on my shelf for about a year. They aren’t the worst offender in my queue; I still haven’t finished my pre-Primaris Deathwatch, which have sat unfinished since 2016. Even still, with the new edition of Lord of the Rings coming down the pike, and all of my Necromunda buddies having played it and enjoyed it, I figured I should get in on the action. And I refuse to play with unpainted miniatures, so…
Riders of Rohan
My main source for instruction on painting the Riders was the Duncan Rhodes tutorial. He does a great job with setting the stage for one method of painting the Rohan riders, that I then used to experiment with in variations in later iterations. For most of the elements on the rider, he uses a base, wash, rebase, highlight method, and I replicated that method.
For the cloak and the shield edges, I used Castellan Green, Agrax Earthshade, Castellan Green, and highlight of Loren Green.
The red cloth underneath was Khorne Red, Agrax Earthshade, Khorne Red, and Wazdakka Red.
The trousers, sleeves, and helmet were Doombull Brown, Agrax Earthshade (noting a pattern here?), Doombull Brown, and Skrag Brown. The contrast between these last two coats was a bit too stark, but seeing as how the bits were small, I think I was able to get away with it.
At this point, I should note that, since most everything was a wash of Agrax Earthshade, I obviously started with a base on everything, washed almost everything (except the face and hair) and then brought them back up to base color, and then did the edge highlight. The rebasing and highlight got rid of much of the shine from the wash, but if you don’t rebase your models after the wash, you will definitely need to Matte Varnish them, or else they will have a weird shine to them, like so.
The white emblem on the shields, I went with a consistent Rakarth Flesh, Agrax Earthshade, Rakarth Flesh, and highlight of Pallid Wych Flesh. This proved pretty difficult near the end, as there is not a truly defined edge to the emblem, so many of the later emblems became sloppy.
The metals were Iron Hands Steel and Retributor Armor, both washed with Agrax Earthshade, and highlighted with Stormhost Silver and Liberator Gold respectively. I decided not to go with Chrome on these miniatures. While I love Chrome, and it makes everything pop, I felt as though it would’ve taken away from the more earthy tones of the Rohirrim. Maybe if/when I do Minas Tirith…
Finally, the skin (what little can be seen) was Bugman’s Glow, Reikland Fleshshade, Cadian Fleshtone, and Kislev Fleshtone. The hair was Zandri Dust, Seraphim Sepia, then Ushabti Bone. While I usually try to do multiple fleshtones and hair colors with other miniatures, I felt that there was enough variation in the miniatures that I kept them all blond and pale-skinned. Rohan is not necessarily known for being a diverse cosmopolitan place.
The horses I based in Mournfang Brown, and then washed in Agrax Earthshade. I then brought up the highlights from Mournfang, to 50/50 Mournfang and Skrag Brown, and finally an edge highlight of Skrag Brown. While Duncan does a wash for the mane and tail, I decided to use a Contrast of Wyldwood, to get a darker, richer contrast (no pun intended) across the mount.
The socks on the hooves were an interesting project, and one I’ve never done. I started with a 50/50 mix of Skrag Brown and Rakarth Flesh, then a highlight of Rakarth Flesh, and finally an “edge” highlight (mostly at the ankle) of Pallid Wych Flesh. I think the socks turned out great, and I replicated them across the entire set.
At this point, I should note that these were much harder to paint than I’ve done for a while, as unlike most of the 40K/Fantasy stuff I’ve been painting recently, these are true scale. I’ve painted true scale before, namely Infinity, but I find that I often have to give up on painting detail on the faces. Thankfully, most the of the faces here are taken up by either helmet or beard, but it is something that annoys me.
More Riders of Rohan
Now that I had my first set of 12 finished, I continued on to my next set of 24. Absolutely no variation in the posture of the miniatures, so I had to settle on varying something else. So I chose different horse colors…
For many of these recipes, I used the painting tutorial that I found here:
I didn’t do black or white horses, for separate reasons. I plan to keep white horses for my heroes – Theoden, Eowyn, Hama, and Haleth. And I don’t like doing black horses as they tend to look too dark and monochromatic on the field. So, for the basic riders, I went with dark brown, tan, grey, and spotted.
I also didn’t want painted horses (much to my wife’s chagrin, as she owns a painted horse), namely because that screams Mustang to me, which is an American breed. Rohan, being based on Anglo-Saxon England, didn’t seem like a natural fit for painted horses.
The paint recipes, while they ended up working, didn’t work quite as well as Duncan Rhodes’ methods. Some of the color transitions, especially with the lighter colored horses, were too stark for my tastes. Still, they diversified the colors of the army, so I’m pleased with how they turned out.
Final Result
Well, I’ve been told by Austin that 36 Riders of Rohan is more than a Rohan player will ever need. For a Bretonnian player, 36 cavalry seems a bit small, but I will take his word for that.
Not quite Pelennor Fields level of cavalry (I’d need 5,964 more horses for that, apparently), but this will get me through a few games.
Next month, I plan to paint my Warriors of Rohan (dismounted) and the heroes I have currently, Theoden, Eowyn, and Merry. Finally, the boxed set should arrive in the middle of the month, so it is possible that I can get those miniatures assembled and painted before the end of the year is out, thus completing THREE armies in one year.
Jerry S.
Kevin’s progress this month a tough act to follow wow! I’m incredibly impressed by his conviction and ability to finish the projects he starts!
On my side, I had a pretty prolific month myself! Even with a week away due to the Thanksgiving holiday, I was still able to finish almost 50 models!
In the true wargaming tradition, Instead of finishing either of the 3 projects I’m currently working on (Solar Auxilia, Tomb Kings, or Arnor/Angmar for Middle Earth SPG) I started a brand new one at the end of September. As I hinted at last month, that new project was a reinforced platoon of American GI’s in winter clothing from Warlord Games for their brand new Bolt Action 3.0!
A little background on that, I grew up watching old war movies with my dad, The Great Escape, Von Ryan’s Express, A Bridge Too Far, the list goes on and on. I always loved these movies, the overexaggerated good guys and bad guys, corny action scenes, these movies hold a very special place in my heart.
I’ve always had my eye on Bolt Action, the game really pulls on those Hollywood WW2 themes from the old movies and the models are all overexaggerated and cartoony, just the way I like them. I’ve actually started 3 Bolt Action armies over the years, picking up Germans, Soviets, and Americans in the past, picking them up and then putting them down and selling them one by one. This time was different though, the new ruleset provided a great jumping off point and the absolutely awesome American Winter Infantry kit that came out in September was the perfect opportunity to jump into the game once more!
And Jump in I did! I picked up the new Battle of the Bulge starter set, a Sherman tank, another 30 infantrymen, and a whole plethora of support weapons. This gave me a sold 70 infantry as well as 2 vehicles to support them
This month, I managed paint the 30 infantry I had assembled in October, as well as a few of the weapons team I picked up. While I haven’t finished the basing on all of the models (darn you Amazon and your slow snow deliveries) I was able to lock down exactly how I wanted to base these guys. A sparse snow covering with some foliage and grass poking out of the snow. This gave the bases the look of a snow covered forest floor, perfect for any battlefield in the Winter of 1944/45 or for the snow-covered alpine peaks of Italy.
With this batch done, I got cracking on assembling the second wave of infantry, their heavier support weapons and then the much needed vehicle support!
Returning to the Old World
Switching back to one of the projects that y’all have seen quite a bit of this year, I dusted off my Old World army of 2024 and finished the last 10 Skeletons from the Tomb Kings Battalion I bought to begin the year!
I still love painting these Skeletons, even after finishing over 100 total this year so far! This last block of 10 is the last group of Skeleton Warriors/Archers I need for the 2000 Point Tomb King army I’ve been working on this year and as you can see below, the completed Skeletons look a formidable sight on the battlefield.
Now that the basic infantry is done, I can finally start the fun stuff. I’ve got a whole group of Stalkers, Scorpions, and Ushabti to get painted up and ready to defend the lands of Khemri! I guess I should even paint up one of those “Tomb Kings” that everybody has been talking about…Even the undead need a leader after all.
Before we move onto the last batch of models I worked on this week, I couldn’t let you leave before showing you the fearsome Necrosphinx I finished constructing this month.
News from the Kingdom of Arnor
Some of you readers may know this already but I got my start in wargaming way back in the early naughts with the release of the Lord of the Rings Strategy Battlegame. This game has always been my bread and butter, and while I took a break for a a year or so, the announcement of the new edition has brought me fully back.
I’ve been working on a middle earth gaming board the past few months, and an nice Arnor army to battle on it as you’ll see in the past few articles. I was able to continue this progress this month with a force of 6 Arnor Knights and a captain to lead them.
I wasn’t able to finish these brave defenders of Arnor this month but I imagine I’ll finish these in the first week of this month. Ready in time for the new Edition on 12/14!
Speaking of both next month and the new edition, I’ve got some huge plans for next year to go along with the new edition! I don’t have much in the way of details quite yet but I hope to share some more information next month!
I am heading to Bretonnia France next month, not for hobbying reasons, so I knew that I would get almost nothing done for the month of September. And, given that I have small kids, October through December tend to be riddled with other commitments. Noting all of that, I decided to set myself a goal of finishing all of the Bretonnians from the starter set before I left next month. And, I did it. I f*cking did it. Men at Arms These guys were not as fun to paint as the archers, but they were more straightforward. Similar to the archers, I tried to keep the clothing to earth tones – greys, greens, beige – with the exception of the heraldry on the shields.
With regards to the peasant standards, I wanted to strike a balance between eye-popping and drab (somewhat difficult, as you can imagine). Drab, since peasants have the special rule that their standards only count for half VP, because they are peasants. I think keeping it brown and lightening the border was enough to keep it eye-catching while also keeping with the drab color of the peasants.
I haven’t yet decided whether to add a sigil to the shields. If I do, it will probably be a white lion rampant, to represent maybe a cadet branch of the House of Couronne on crusade. Ideas abound. The Entire Army Seven months to the day after receiving the box, I have the entire army finished, based, and dullcoted. I am very much looking forward to putting them on the field soon.
What’s Next Given that I finished my Legions Imperialis army, and I know my buddies want to start an LI campaign soon, I would like to finish the titans that I have sitting around from Adeptus Titanicus. They are assembled, but not painted. I plan to paint them in the livery of Legio Invicta, from Dan Abnett’s Titanicus, which does not have rules in AT but I can still play in Titandeath. Following that, I plan to finish out the year painting some Rohan models I purchased a few months back. I never played Lord of the Rings, and with the new edition coming out, and the new film War of the Rohirrim coming to theaters in December, this seems like the perfect time to do so.
Joe R.
It was an incredibly busy month over here. August stated with the Atlantic Coast Charity Cup (ACCC) early in the month. You may recall I was working on a Dwarf Blood Bowl team for that event. The month ended with the NOVA Open over the Labor Day weekend. I helped facilitate several of the Blood Bowl events at NOVA, but I also was hoping to play my Chaos Dwarf Blood Bowl team in the Slaughterdays event. If you’re lucky (and I’m diligent), I’m hoping to post a full synopsis of NOVA Open later this month.
Okay, let’s check out what got done…
Blood Bowl – The Wynnstaadt Warriors II – Dwarf Team
I am currently playing this the Warriors in our local Blood Bowl league (it’s not going well, FYI). They are also one of the 7 remaining teams (8 with Gnomes) that I haven’t played at a tournament. The goal in 2024 was to knock out all 7 remaining teams. I don’t think that’s going to happen, but I am going to try and get as many done as possible.
I spent a good amount of time working on the first two linemen for this team. I posted one last month. Here is the second.
I was very satisfied with this model. Then, I played a game with him and fell in love. His gold cape shines like the morning sun. He REALLY pops! I still need to go back and try the eyes, but for the moment I was happy to bask in a job well done.
Sadly, I was not on pace to finish this team before the ACCC. So, I decided to start slapping paint on models and agree to come back and finish them later. Essentially, each model got enough paint to apply a vibrant base layer and then an appropriately colored wash (either Nuln Oil, Agrax Earthsade, or Seraphim Sepia). Here is a group shot of the “table ready” team.
As you can see, they look fine. Everything is blocked in for me to come back and highlight later. Sadly, I noticed a few spots (on almost every model) where the 3D prints failed. While certainly a bummer, I’ve made peace with it. I doubt most folks will eve notice once they’re done.
I printed some Dungeon-Delve inspired bases from Asgard Rising. If you look closely, I worked up a demo base on the 2nd model from the left. I even applied a little fluorescent ooze spotting. It needs some work.
The Wynnstaat Warriors went to ACCC. They went 1-1-1. Overall I had a good time, but I think Dwarves are not the best team to suit my playstyle. I did win a full set of Artis Opus dry brushes in the charity raffle though! Huzzah!
Blood Bowl – The Zinzinnati Bearclaws – Chaos Dwarf Team
I knew I wanted to knock another team out for the NOVA Open. My Chaos Dwarf team one of the first things I ever printed for Blood Bowl. I used a combination of figures from the Artisan Guild range which come with modular hands. I really like that Artisan Guild generally features male and female models. I was able to mirror a couple poses and glue on hands with no weapons. At the time I shrunk them down about 15%. I wish I hadn’t done that, but here we are! Keep rolling.
Sadly, I ended up with the same problem as the Warriors. There was absolutely not enough time to get these models completed to the level I’d like. So like before, I decided to get a clean basecoat on and apply the key metallics to make the models pop.
The Dark Iron Dwarves from Warcraft were the original inspiration here. Anyone who played Vanilla World of Warcraft may remember hours of grinding to collect Dark Iron Ore. In my mind, Dark Iron Ore is a bit like adamantium. I wanted it to be a shiny black metal. I tried a few different options, but eventually landed on Turbo Dork’s Purple Grey over a black basecoat. It ends up with a really nice hue that pops, but still reads as very dark.
These models are also pinned to a set of resin lava bases I purchased before the advent of resin 3D printing. These are mold cast resin bases baby! I can’t remember what company I purchased them from, but I’ve had them for at least 8 years. I also quickly applied some paint to the bases with the intent to go back and make them look more lava-esque at a later date.
Now for those of you tracking at home, you may recall that a new Chaos Dwarf team was announced at NOVA. Oh well. The current plan is to slice of some hands and add new hands to clearly designate the new positionals. So, no worries! I’m confident it’ll work out just fine.
Illustritive Miniature Painting with Will Hahn (aka Sic Willy)
I signed up for one painting class at NOVA. Honestly, I could probably spend this entire article discussing what I learned. Sadly, I don’t have time. So I’ll give you the highlights:
We evaluated illustrative styles to determine their key features, especially with regards to black lining and highlights.
We all painted the same sci-fi bust. Will painted his on camera and came around to check on our progress.
I used non-linear shading on my model. I started with a pale skin down to pink down to purple. It was fun.
We black lined the model!
This was a 4-hour class. Probably 3 hours was painting. By about 3.5 hours, I was about at my limit. That said, Will was great. I tried several techniques that were outside my comfort zone and really enjoyed them. My only critique would be to focus on a section of the model at a time to give us more opportunity to learn how to black line. Here is the pre- and post-black lined model.
Not perfect, but overall very pleased with my first attempt at the technique.
Impromptu Speed Painting Competition
We were lucky enough to share hallway space with the folks from Mental Health Charity Painters. They were doing speed painting competitions for charity with a series of donated models. You pay a little cash, select a pre-primed model, and try to paint that sucker in 1 hour. Here is what I ended up with.
BRO! I painted this in an hour! You can probably tell, but I was so proud. I even based him in pseudo comic style. Come on!
This was all done using Army Painter speed paints. Sadly, the zenithal on my model wasn’t very good. I worked really hard to make my model pop, but it wasn’t happening. I didn’t end up winning the event, but I now have a really cool model to turn into a Blood Bowl coach. I’m thinking his name will be R’lyeh Fhtagn. Hopefully you’ll see a highlighted version of him in the near future.
Blood Bowl – The Half-Shell Universe All Stars – Lizardman Team
Finally, I am working on my 3rd Blood Bowl team. I’m hoping to play these at Chaos Cup this November, giving me lots of time. The team will be based on the Ninja Turtles, which each lizard’s color scheme reflecting a specific character. I’m also going to try a comic book style based on the original TMNT comics from the 80s. It’s a big undertaking, but I have a lot of time.
I received a metal lizardman from Greebo Games a couple years ago as part of a trade. Jesus H. Christ these models are annoying. I’m still planning to assemble them at this time, but I definitely put together a 3D print just in case they become too annoying. Anyway, here’s where we’re at. Every single model is like 6 pieces. Ugh.
Well, that’s enough for this month folks! Hopefully I’ll actually finish some models in the coming weeks. Maybe!
Austin B.
A Long Absence
Some of you may have noticed that I did not make a post last month. Well unfortunately, life did what it does on occasion and I ended up being very busy during most of July and August, and didn’t end up having much time or motivation to paint. As such, I decided to skip last month’s post and push on painting more for the next month. Now here we are again, and with some more goodies to show you!
Now disappointingly, my NOVA prep was also damaged by this sudden bout of business, and so I did not get done with all that I had wanted to in the lead up to that event. My Legions Imperialis collection is still lagging behind, and my Vampire team for Blood Bowl still remains incomplete. As a result, I ended up swapping the Legions Imperialis event for some Blood Bowl Sevens, and I ended up taking my Gnomes to the 11s tournament at NOVA. I had a lot of fun still, and played a staggering number of Blood Bowl games (22!) across five events and four days. But hopefully I will be able to keep to my hobby goals moving forward – though with NOVA now behind us, those goals have changed, and I will discuss what my plans are for the future later. For now, onto the miniatures!
A Rebellion is Brewing
Yes, yes, more Shatterpoint. This time, however, with much more of a focus on the Rebellion! Honestly, I am much more interested in the Rebels as a faction than the Empire, though I love the two of them, so I am excited that there are now much more Rebel boxes out, and so I have begun painting my way through them, if in a rather haphazard manner. While I have (finally) completed Han’s box fully, I’ve only painted Leia from This Is Some Rescue, and have only tackled Chopper, Sabine, and Kallus for the Spectres so far (with the ISBs being painted alongside Kallus since they were all mostly the same steps anyhow). I really ought to get to the rest of the Spectres soon, especially as I intend to attend more Shatterpoint tournaments in the future, and the Spectres in particular seem to be a rather viable build when it comes to the Rebels. I hope to finish painting the rest of my current Shatterpoint product before year’s end. I am not even beginning to think about the five other boxes that are planned for release this year, even though I do really want at least three of them (and really all five). But I need to get what I have painted before I can really think about buying any more! Tough I may make an exception for Lando…
A Small Distraction
I am not sure if I mentioned in any earlier articles, but I do have a rather significant Battletech collection, split across a number of nations / color schemes. A a bit of a break from all of the Shatterpoint painting, even as different and varied as the Rebels are, I decided to break out some of my unpainted Battletech and work on getting another few Lances together for one of my forces – the Marian Hegemony. These two mechs join an existing force of 10 other mechs and 5 vehicles, and you’ll likely see some more as time goes on and I tire of my other projects. I plan to return to these as needed, to take a break from some rather repetitive painting that I plan to be doing soon here… And as for that…
A Grand Army
This is a bit of a cheat, as these are actually some of the first models I finished in September. But with the NOVA weekend delaying our posting, I figured I would add these models here, especially as they are rather indicative of what I plan to be painting for the majority of my time moving forward! I showed off the existing army way back in January, and now these Landwehr are the newest unit to join my Prussians for the Napoleonic Wars in Black Powder! Specifically in this case, these are from the 4th East Prussian Landwehr. I have one Battalion remaining to complete the Regiment, and you’re likely to see them in my progress for September. But really, the plan now is to finally return to painting my Black Powder army, after a rather prolonged break, as I have a lot to do for them, and I would rather like to make a dent in the project – or even complete it in it’s entirety (at least regarding what I have purchased for it). But what all is left? Besides the aforementioned remaining Landwehr battalion, I still need to paint my Commanders, two small units of Jaegers, a Battalion of Grenadiers, three Battalions of Reserve Infantry, a Regiment of Hussars, a Regiment of Dragoons, three Regiments of Landwehr Cavalry, and five cannons (two foot, three horse).
Now that sounds like a lot, and it is, I won’t lie. But thankfully, the painting processes for these models are not particularly complex or time-consuming. These Landwehr took about a week of intermittent sessions, and that was with trying to actually paint both Battalions at once. Along the process I decided that was too daunting, and just chose to complete the one Battalion. But the second is almost complete, and could be done within another 2 or 3 painting sessions. Most other units are of similar complexity and time requirement, and so the hope is that I can get a unit done every week or two, provided I have the time to sit down and actually do the work. The most daunting task is the cavalry, as horses are rather time-consuming and not very fun to paint. As such, the idea is to splice the cavalry in-between the infantry units, so as to not burn myself out too much. Along with breaking things up with Shatterpoint and Battletech. I do not expect to have this army done by the end of the year by any means, but the hope is to make a sizeable dent in what remains in what little time there is left. Hopefully I will be able to show you that through my next updates!
Jerry S.
The NOVA Open
August was a fun month! As a couple of our other writers have pointed out, the end of August is the NOVA open every year. Tradition dictates that the month before any convention is spent frantically finishing any models that you are planning to play with and I am a sucker for a good tradition. This year I wanted to bring my Thunderhawk to NOVA, a small project to cram into only a month….
Well I did it! I wanted to do a little more weathering but I had to keep it clean for this event-I’ll dirty her up before the next sortie.
On the way to NOVA!
The other half of my NOVA adventure was back to leave the Age of Darkness and return to my old stomping ground- Middle Earth. A journey I gladly took with my ole pal Middle Earth Mike, aka Mike P. on this blog.
We participated in the always fun Doubles Tournament, I brought the hyper-elite Rangers of the North and Mike brought the ubiquitous Hobbits of the Shire…. We lost every game but I wanted to share a picture of my 6 man army and a picture of Me and Mike at the event!
My 6 Rangers of the North, with a photobomb of the Ultramarines terminators I was unable to finish before NOVA started.
In Other News…
NOVA was a blast but it wasn’t the only thing that I got up to this month. I also painted up my first Killteam! A group of Tactical Marines from Tortuga Bay, I love these Truescale marines and keeping the OG Tactical Marine vibe is fantastic. News of the new edition has me a bit chuffed though as they no longer will be playable, oh well!
On the WIP side of things, the past 9 days of September have also been busy over here. Now that the Thunderhawk is off my hobby desk, I can start working on some other projects, so a little sneak peak on what to expect in next month’s edition. Not going to write too much now though, you need to wait a couple weeks!
Looks like a building of some sort??? Wonder what it will be in the end.A Deathwatch army? Where did this come from? OddWhoa that is a clean looking white, I wonder if any more clean cut White Scars will be joining him?Solar Auxilia tanks?! That a surprise! A new painting style it seems like too, how interesting.
Michael S.
After a few months away from painting, I was excited to get back to the hobby this month! With a few different projects staring at me, I dabbled a bit here and there on a few items. I spent some time slapping contrast paint on some imperial guard and painstakingly edge-highlighting some Black Templars to properly readjust myself to the highs lows of the hobby, respectively.
The model I was most excited to show off this month is an Imperial Guard sentinel. I picked up a Fall of Cadia box set some time ago for next to nothing as a breakaway from my typical hobby work on Space Marines. I also went with a bright color palette of the Vresh Grenadiers. I wanted something easy to paint with mostly™ contrast paint and landed on the following.
The weathering was a bit of an experiment with Newsh from Monument Hobbies. Afterwards I found I was still a fan of regular oil washes, but I can’t deny it was way less of a hassle than working with oil thinners and is about 80% as good.
On the space marine side of things, I put together and basecoated a sizable set of Imperial Fists. I went with a more pale, mustard yellow rather than a base color with more vibrance.
To get a nice crisp color I went with a faint modulation of yellow-browns, then gave everything a quick gloss coat to prep for an enamel pin wash. All in all, I was pretty happy with the progress on these fists. I am hoping to get more progress on them next month!
Next up is a 5-man squad of Terminators for my Black Templars. These were mostly basecoated, but adding a nice bit of color to the base makes them look much more complete.
That’s all for me this month! Next month I plan to get the last of my Tomb Kings built and hopefully a little paint on them as well.
My Journey of Painting Empire and Hobbit Miniatures
Over the past few months, I’ve been diving into the world of painting miniatures for Warhammer: The Old World and the Middle-Earth Strategy Battle Game, focusing on Empire and Hobbit models. This journey has been both challenging and rewarding, allowing me to combine my love for gaming with creative expression.
Painting the Empire
The Empire has always fascinated me with its blend of medieval aesthetics and vibrant color schemes. Painting these miniatures was an exciting project, and I wanted to capture the essence of these noble warriors through the following techniques:
-Classic Colors and Detailing: I started with the Empire’s signature reds and whites, using these bold colors to paint the uniforms and shields. To add realism, I incorporated metallic paints and experimented with techniques to achieve a metallic sheen on their armor.
-Intricate Heraldry: One of the most enjoyable parts was painting the intricate heraldry and banners. I used fine brushes to add tiny details to the crests, which required patience but significantly enhanced the models’ appearance.
– **Bases and Terrain:** To complement the miniatures, I crafted bases that mirrored the landscapes of the Empire. I added textures like cobblestones and grass tufts to create a sense of battle-worn terrain, making the models look like they were standing in the midst of a skirmish.
Painting Hobbits
Painting Hobbit miniatures for the **Middle-Earth Strategy Battle Game** was an entirely different experience. Hobbits are characterized by their simplicity and charm, which I aimed to capture in my painting.
-Earthy Tones and Subtle Shading: I used earthy colors like browns, greens, and muted reds to paint their clothing, ensuring the tones were warm and inviting. For shading, I employed washes to add depth to their small cloaks and tunics, highlighting the folds and creases.
Community and Learning Resources
Throughout this journey, I’ve leaned heavily on the painting community for inspiration and advice. YouTube tutorials from channels like “Warhammer TV” provided step-by-step guides that helped refine my skills. Social media platforms like Instagram offered a space to share my progress and gather feedback from fellow enthusiasts, while local hobby workshops and competitions fueled my passion by connecting me with like-minded individuals.
Conclusion
Focusing on Empire and Hobbit miniatures has been a delightful artistic adventure. Whether it’s the disciplined soldiers of the Empire or the endearing Hobbits of the Shire, each miniature tells a story, and painting them has deepened my connection to these fascinating worlds. As I continue to hone my techniques, I look forward to exploring even more characters and bringing them to life with my own artistic touch.
Jerry S.
Wow July was a fun month. The oppressive heat of the southern summer, and a quick bout with Covid put a pin in my outdoor activities and forced me to spend most of my free time indoors. I aimed to take maximum advantage of my situation by painting as much as possible!
Painting in the Age of Darkness
With NOVA looming in the near future, my #1 priority this month has been getting my Thunderhawk ready for the tabletop. Every NOVA, myself and a couple friends play in the Horus Heresy megabattle that is hosted on Saturday evening. Its typically the only chance we have to bring out our truly titanic(pun intended) warmachines and this year Mike P. and I are hoping to reveal our super heavy fliers to the world. To do that though, I need to finish painting mine!
I made some great progress on the massive bird, airbrushing all of the blue and white panels then tackling the majority of the metallics with the brush.
I’m not 100% happy with the way the paneling as turned out. I was hoping there would be a little more visual interest but I have yet to shade and highlight so that will hopefully help. stay tuned and if everything goes right, I will have a completed thunderhawk ready for the next update!
The thunderhawk has been just eating my painting time this month but I managed to step away for a couple hours and painted up the new Hibou Khan that was released earlier this summer.
Hibou Khan
I am very pleased with how this model turned out. As many of you know, white is a famously difficult color to get right and I went back and forth for months on how I would be painting my White Scars. The process I settled on seems to be exactly what I was hoping for as it allows me to paint a crisp white and then dirty it down. This really sells the effect of a polished white armor that has been well used.
One more step in the Old World
Moving away from Horus Heresy, I was also able to paint yet another block of skeletons for my tomb kings. This time they are equipped with bows instead of spears though! Very exciting. I’ve got 1 last block of 10 skeleton archers to paint before the year closes but I hope to paint some of the more esoteric units that the Tomb Kings can call upon in the next couple months.
A Return to Middle Earth
To close the month out, I want to share a special teaser for a project that I’m hoping to work on as the year ends.
I’ve always loved the kingdoms of men in The Lord of The Rings, the men of Gondor especially. The recent slow drip of reveals from games workshop has fully awoken something inside of me and I had the uncontrollable urge to paint some Middle Earth models ahead of the Fall of Arnor book coming later this year.
I have some really big plans for this book, my 3d printer is running and the long neglected Arnor models in my cupboard are stirring…. But this may be for a later update. For now, here is a test model for my soon to be Army of Arnor.
Kevin C.
Well, gonna brag here a bit… I was very productive this month. I am well on my way to having at least two armies fully completed by the end of the year (possibly even three – more on that later). These are armies that did not even have a single miniature painted or assembled a year ago.
But first, Blood Bowl.
(My Very Own) Halfling Blood Bowl Team
Last month, I painted up someone else’s Halfling Blood Bowl Team. I was unsure how the paint scheme was going to look, but I ended up being quite pleased with it, so I copied it for myself.
I decided to put them on smaller bases, being wee men. I’m not sure if I like the decision to be honest, as the flock static grass I use for most of my Blood Bowl teams seems a bit crowded on these bases where they didn’t on the larger bases. Something to keep in mind for some of the smaller bases in the future.
You can really see the grass crowding with my MVP for this team… the bloodthirsty Akhorne. Still, I’m glad I have this miniature finished.
Dracosans to Complete My Solar Auxilia
So, Dracosans were released by GW a few weeks ago, but I already had printed off 19 third-party miniatures, so I figured I’d paint those guys up rather than needing to buy more kits. I think the third-party miniatures ended up working great, as long as I keep them right side up.
The printer did not do a very good job with the bottom side of the tanks, however, so I gave almost no attention to the bottom. They proved very difficult to paint, so I didn’t even bother. Still, better than the Rogal Dorn coming in without a bottom plate (que ribbing Jerry…)
And, with the Dracosans done, that completes this stage of my Legions Imperialis Army. I do plan on painting up my Titans later this year, but here are my Vostroyans in all their glory.
I will be bringing a portion of these guys to NOVA, so we will see how they do.
Bretonnian Archers
My final task of this month was to complete my Bretonnian Archers. This was the first time I painted peasants for the Bretonnian army, so I wanted to make sure they were plenty dirty, muddy, and rustic.
A lot of paint schemes I have seen online, including the video tutorial I watched by Duncan Rhodes, have the peasants wearing the livery of the army. However, I wanted to keep these guys in a consistent color of browns, greys, and greens – colors that were absent from my knights. I am hopeful that the Archers (and eventually the Men at Arms) will be so contrasted with the knights that the difference in status will be apparent on the table top.
It looks like I will finish my Men at Arms next month, and thus the entirety of my Bretonnian starter set before NOVA. Granted, I am not bringing them to NOVA (yet) but I will be delighted to finish such a goal that I set out for myself.
I have even finished all of the shields, which I painted separately. I believe painting them separate from the bodies is the only way to go, and I’m glad I had that foresight. I knew I wanted to colors of old Couronne (red and blue quartered), but I am unsure whether I will add a sigil to the heraldry.
I will take a full army picture when the Men at Arms are complete. Until then, take care!
Joe R.
Here we are again! I had initially thought my contributions would be fairly limited this month, but I had forgotten some non-painting activities that surely count!
Five Parsecs from Home – Prep 5PFH is a solo sci-fi wargame campaign experience written by Nordic Weasel Games and produced by Modiphius. It’s miniature agnostic and I have a ton of sci-fi minis! However, I started my own campaign roughly a year ago and have done very little to advance the story. I had no terrain! So, after a year of collecting and printing terrain I’m finally ready to get things rolling again. I’ve assigned minis to each member of my tramp freighter crew and plan to begin running adventures and painting the miniatures in the coming months. Thanks Necromunda for giving me everything I could ever hope for to play in a sci-fi world!
Like all good science fiction there are a suite of alien races. Titan Forge Games released STL files specifically for 5PFH which includes some of these aliens. I printed myself an Engineer (a race in this particular setting) to represent my own Engineer, E’Loo. However, I didn’t like their model for the war-like race called the K’Erin. Lots of folks use 40K Orks for this, but I wanted to use Eldar instead. I had received a box of Corsair Voidscarred at NOVA Open one year, but never built them. I also have the Striking Scorpions from the Kill Team: Salvation box. This leads to my next project…
Kill Team –Corsair Voidscarred I finally assembled these models! Talk about a task. This was maybe the most complicated set of GW models I’ve ever worked on. I’m used to Necromunda and Blood Bowl where you basically get duplicates of the same sprue. The Corsairs come with 3 unique sprues that are not organized in any fashion (as far as I could tell). It was something like 160 pieces.
I chose to make the following agents: Voidscarred Felarch (magnetized with a neuro disruptor or shuriken rifle), Voidscarred Gunner w/ blaster, Voidscarred Heavy Gunner w/ wraithcannon, Voidscarred Starstorm Duellist, Voidscarred Kurnite Hunter, Voidscarred Shade Runner, Voidscarred Kurnathi, Voidscarred Fate Dealer, Voidscarred Way Seeker, and Voidscarred Soul Weaver. This was mostly chosen as “rule of cool”, but I did find some recommendations online. I have so many bits left over that I might purchase some additional bodies on Ebay and make a couple standard warriors as substitutions (as someone else suggested). Aside from being the toughest models I’ve assembled (so far), I also took care to smooth out sprue connection points and remove mold lines. This is new for me. I traditionally feel victorious having assembled the models. I don’t usually take the time to make them look good.
I selected the Voidscarred Kurnathi to be Ki Starvoid, my K’Erin. I printed out some additional industrial bases which I will paint in a Necromunda style (as seen in my first article). I’ll get Ki primed in the next week or so and blue tac him to his base until I’m ready to paint him in earnest.
Blood Bowl – The Wynnstaadt Warriors I – Dwarf Team I continued to work on my Dwarf team this month. I’ve been playing games with them in my local Blood Bowl league while also trying to paint them. They were cast by a 3rd party Blood Bowl provider a ways back and I started noticing a few problems. I won’t go into heavy detail but kept having pieces fall off in the middle of my games. Some of these pieces, like the helmet wings shown below, has been an ongoing thorn in my side. So, I decided to try and pin them.
This was a pain in the ass. I had read recently to avoid using paper clips (my go to at this point) and try something softer. One suggestion was to use solder. I really liked using solder because it was much easier to clean at the end due to its softness. However, I’ve purchased some aluminum wire for future efforts.
I absolutely destroyed these helmet wings. As you can see, I’ve had to use green stuff to clean up spots where the drill removed entire parts of the wing. However, when painted, you can’t really tell the difference. Hopefully, the wings won’t be falling off anytime soon. HOWEVER, I dropped one of the blitzers while trying to drill his helmet for the pin. His hand popped off and ended up getting pretty mashed out of shape. As did his helmet. So, I decided I was done with these models and went in search of a new Dwarf team.
Blood Bowl – The Wynnstaadt Warriors II – Dwarf Team I had purchased the metal team above because 1) no one I knew had those models and 2)I liked the aesthetic. At the time, EVERYONE had the GW 3rd edition Blood Bowl team. I own the current GW Dwarf team, but again, everyone is using it. I wanted something different. I searched through a few teams until I decided on Torchlight Miniatures Sewer Guard. These dwarves have a very constable-esque vibe that I thought would be pleasant to paint. The positionals have a very steam-punk vibe, which I liked less, but oh well. It was cool.
I printed a few test models and realized these Dwarves were HUGE. They rivaled my Chaos Chosen Blockers! So, I shrunk them down to 90% and decided to try a new resin I’d been saving: Siraya Tech FAST Smokey Black. I usually use ST FAST Grey, which is a great resin but the pigment separates from the resin over time. If I don’t print for a couple of days, I end up spending a bunch of time resuspending the pigment. Smokey Black is clear resin with a dye added. Dyes are soluble in their medium, meaning they don’t separate. I can leave this resin sitting and it’s ready to go whenever I’m ready. It also looks incredibly cool! I think I’ll be sticking with this moving forward.
The models are still big, but more in line with the GW dwarves (~33 mm from foot to head). They definitely warrant 32mm bases. I primed a few and went about blocking my scheme on a test model. You can see the test model below.
I originally had more gold sprinkled about the model (specifically on the helm), but my wife convinced me to keep the gold for the fabrics and use silver for any metal. I tried it out and agreed (though I kept the center of the belt gold because… reasons?). This also marks one of the first times I’ve tried to paint a model without attaching it to a base. As you can see, he’s just blue tac’d. It was amazing to pick the model up and get to some of those hard-to-reach places! Again, this will probably be standard moving forward. I worked on the test model for another couple hours and ended roughly here.
I was generally pretty pleased. Some of the green highlights were too bright, so I took my midtone and glazed them back down. I think it helped, but I didn’t capture a picture of it. I’ve since started blocking another Dwarf. The hope is to have 12 models done by the Atlantic Coast Charity Cup. It might be a challenge, but I’m going to try my best!
Another month, another Blood Bowl post, and guess what? It’s Gnomes again! I showed off the start of my actual Gnome team last month, and now I have the full team done! There’s still several associated Star Players I want (or need) to finish still, but the actual team is complete!
This team was a blast to paint. Lots of fun. The Treemen and various animals in particular were rather enjoyable, as they offered something different to break up the monotonous red tones of the team. I am very happy with how they turned out as a whole though. I hadn’t figured that red on red would work for a scheme, but I wanted to try it after seeing a painting (of a Gnome, by the way) with a similar outfit. And now you can see the Poppin’ Daisies (yes, that’s my team name) in all their glory!
Atop the actual team itself, I was able to complete Rodney Roachbait for use as a Star Player with them. He was also a nice change of pace since, again, he features more colors than red! That said, this model was surprisingly detailed and took longer than I had expected to get him done. I had planned to paint several other things alongside him during one evening, yet he ended up taking up the whole session by himself!
As said above, I still have several Star Players to get to before I can truly call this team done. At least for those I actually have, there’s still Rumbelow Sheepskin and Griff Oberwald to get painted up, the former of which I’ll be completing this week in preparation for the Goonhammer Open’s Swelter Bowl. I’ll be bringing the Gnomes and their ram-riding fellow along to battle the heat and the other contestants for sweaty glory! I don’t expect to win much, but it should be a fun time at least. So you can expect to see Rumbelow at least in terms of Blood Bowl content next month, perhaps alongside some other stuff as I still work my way to NOVA!
Long Live The Empire!
Alongside the Gnomes, and also in preparation for the Goonhammer Open, I have been hurriedly painting my way through my Shatterpoint backlog, in some vain attempt to catch up to the steady stream of releases. Given that the Goonhammer Open decided on the Premiere format for their event, my attention has shifted rather considerably over to the Imperial forces I have been mustering (given they actually have enough units out to make a decent Premiere list). And so I have been making my way through the mostly black-clad Imperial forces, making good on the knowledge gained from last month’s painting of the Fifth Brother. Given my general dissatisfaction with the final result on him, I revised my approach to black armor, and these are the results of that:
Starting us off we’ve got Iden Versio and her Inferno Squad, as well as some generic Imperial Special Forces, and a Death Trooper Escort! Just as I said last month, I went with a starker blue-grey for the cloths in order to separate them from the now more sheer black armor paneling. This is far less apparent on the Death Trooper escort, but it’s certainly visible on the rest of them above. This helped a ton in breaking things up and making the models far more readable. But these elite forces weren’t the only additions to my completed pile… That Death Trooper escorts someone, doesn’t he?
Yes, Moff Gideon! Not to be confused with Gideon Hask of Inferno Squad above! This one shows off the new cloth and armor techniques perhaps the best, with the new cloth color being very visible against the armor panels, and the bright highlights helping make the armor pop. But what I am really most happy with is the Darksaber. It was rather enjoyable and surprisingly easy to get that edge gleam to work. And interestingly, it’s using many of the same colors used for both the armor and the cloth. Still, there’s one more of the Emperor’s servants that I got completed. The most infamous of them all!
Darth Vader! Specifically, the one from the Duel pack, most commonly referred to as Vader1 by the community (due to the fact that the Duel pack released before the “Fear and Dead Men” squad pack). This is definitely my favorite between the two sculpts of Vader in this game. The pose is fantastic. The way the cloak billows is very well executed. It was such a joy to paint, even though it was mostly the same 6 paints being used over and over again. It was a very nice model to end the month on, but it isn’t the last of the Imperials I still have to do! At least in preparation for the Goonhammer Open, I still need to finish painting the Grand Inquisitor and the Third Sister. If I have the time, I plan to repaint the Fifth Brother to match with my new methods as well. Beyond that, I still have two Dark Troopers, the Fourth Sister, and the other Vader to polish off my Imperial forces (at least until Thrawn and his crew get released in August). My Rebels are even further behind on progress, especially with the Ghost crew releasing in just a week! I’m hoping to catch up on Shatterpoint within the next month or few, so I can be on top of the releases moving forward. Though continued NOVA prep and other distractions may hamper those plans in the short term.That’s it for me for this month. I hope to have even more exciting things to show you all next month, and perhaps even a super surprise!
Kevin C.
Bretonnian Duke on Royal Pegasus
Have I mentioned yet how much I hate this miniature?
I ended up salvaging the look of the model, namely by using a great video of how to paint most of the parts from Duncan Rhodes (only available to subscribers, sadly). I probably should have left the wings off prior to painting, as so many of the pieces and parts were really hard to reach. I was going to do a decal heraldry, but I chose against it, since there is only a place on the shield for the heraldry.
With the Duke complete, all of my knights are finished, and all that I have left are the filthy peasants. More to come next month, hopefully!
Legions Imperialis Tanks and Aircraft
I was finally able to procure some much-needed air support for my Vostroyans. As much as I hate the infantry for Legions Imperialis, the planes and tanks have been mostly delightful to build and straightforward to paint. It is unfortunate that I have not yet figured out how to play well with them.
I still have the Dracosans to paint to complete my Vostroyan Expeditionary Force, so they will have to wait until next month.
Blood Bowl Project
So, I mentioned that I have a Halfling BB Team on the backburner a few months ago, and Friend of the Blog asked, “Hey, while you are working on your Halfling BB Team, can you work on mine also?” So, I used his team as test cases for a paint scheme.
In the whole, I like the scheme and I plan to use it for my own team. This was the first time doing NMM techniques for rusted metal (on the pots, pans, and plates) and I think it looks good. I will probably replicate this for my own team, which I will show next month.
For the overall scheme, I used the tutorial provided by The Putrid Painter.
In addition, I was able to get the treemen done for both Friend of the Blog as well as my own Halfling team. Three Halfling treemen, and one gnarly looking Gnome treeman, ready to hit the pitch.
I don’t know if I’ll end up using any of his other tutorials in the future, since he seems to focus on Nurgle-ish themes (hence the name), and I don’t tend to go that way, but I appreciated the tutorials.
See you all next month, hopefully with some newly finished Bretonnian Archers!
Joe R.
Well, the astute of you might have noticed that my section of this monthly post was absent. Well, I spent the greater part of May getting my halflings ready for the Amorical Cup. Especially the last week of May, which is traditionally when I write this post! So I bailed to get things painted, still didn’t get everything painted, and went to Ottawa anyway!
The Moot Points – Halflings, Blood Bowl
Okay. The last we left off, I had shown off a near completed Bisque Batson (aka Shazam! Or the OG Captain Marvel for those in the know).
Bisque’s cape (not pictured here) is one of my favorite features of this mini. I also think the white and gold turned out especially good. Overall, he’s very vibrant on the table. The style is a little cartoony, but I think I’m okay with that! They’re based on comic book characters after all.
After doing the gold on Bisque, I was feeling confident enough to work on my favorite model on the whole team, Michael Jon Custard (aka Booster Gold). Back when the Halfling team only had two positionals (Treemen & Halflings), MJC was an all-star. Now that the Halflings have a few more positions, I decided to run MJC as one of my catchers.
Here is a picture of the original MJC. (I still did a VERY bad job taking before pictures. Just trust that all of these models started somewhere in this ballpark. This exercise has absolutely breathed new life into this team.
Not that long ago, I was very worried about highlighting and shading. I would basecoat a model, MAYBE throw a brown or black shade over the entire model and call it good. This model doesn’t even have a shade! Pretty sure this is Reaper New Gold and Tanned Flesh with Citadel Mordian Blue. Oh, and the basing is a coat of the extremely short lived GW texture paint Lustrian Undergrowth. He’s sat like this for years.
So I started out by recoating all the gold with GW Retributor Armor and applying a “glaze” of VMC Red-Violet into the recesses of the skin (like I’d done on the other two so far). Then I took a 1:1 mix of Agrax Earthshade and Acrylic Medium and washed the gold. Here’s how that went.
I started out by recoating all the gold with GW Retributor Armor and applying a “glaze” of VMC Red-Violet into the recesses of the skin (like I’d done on the other two so far). Then I took a 1:1 mix of Agrax Earthshade and Acrylic Medium and washed the gold. Here’s how that went.From here I started cleaning up the skin. I’ve found with these models that even if I mess up on other parts of the model (and I do!), having the skin develop provides a good distraction.
Here he is after some initial cleanup. Next up I used the Reaper Blue Triad (Sapphire Blue, True Blue, Sky Blue) to work on the shoulder pads and the pants. The shoulder pads turned out much nicer. Then I added some gold highlights with Auric Armor Gold and just a small amount of Stormhost Silver. Finally, he has a black eye (which you can barely make out in the picture above) so I mixed some Reaper Blue with VMC Red-Violet until I got something I liked. Oh! And I based Geek Gaming Scenics Spring sawdust grass. Here is the finished product.
Overall, very pleased. A fine British friend of mine suggested the basing could use some additional flair. I agree! However, that got pushed to the backburned for now.
Next up? Hal Gourdon (the Green Lantern)
Of all the Halflings I painted in preparation for this event, I’m the most disappointed with Hal. I used the Two Thin Coats green triad (Wyvern, Emerald, and Ethereal Greens). I’m very happy with my TTC paints overall, btw. You’ll be seeing that come up more with future models. However, I think I got scared to push the green highlights with Hal. I may go back and give him another go. However, I also used the TTC black triad (Doom Death Black, Death Reaper, and Dungeon Stone Grey) on the pants, and felt that went pretty well. I was also unsure how to paint his pouty lip. Open to advice here!
Poor Hal. He’s not even my favorite Green Lantern… I’ll hit you rapid fire with rest of the models.
Here is Berry Allen (the Flash). I was VERY pleased with this model. The VMC Red-Violet helped shade the reds, the yellows, and the skin! I also tried to glaze the brighter yellow on in a few layers (Reaper Sun Yellow over GW Averland Sunset). Reaper Sun Yellow is a garbage paint, but the glazing effect mostly worked out. I think I’ll be picking up a new bright yellow soon.This is Hank McSoy (aka The Beast). I painted him in the traditional yellow-blue scheme of the original X-Men, but I kept his hair blue as an homage to the modern version of Beast. Again, VMC Red-Violet did a bunch of work here to provide shadows for the skin, blues, and yellows. I didn’t usually run Hank because I didn’t think his paint job was very interesting, now I think he’s one of the most interesting on the table!This is Ted Korn (aka the 2nd Blue Beetle) and MJC’s best friend and partner in crime. It’s convenient that this ended up being my second favorite model in the whole bunch. Ted required a lot of work though. He was originally Teal and Sky Blue. After reviewing some of my favorite appearances of the Blue Beetle, I decided to go with a primarily Blue/Light Blue scheme. Teal does often show up on modern colorings of Ted, so I kept his cape (not really visible here) teal. I also painted his classic yellow goggles and even added a specular highlight! Huzzah! Growth! It was worth the repaint and he looks awesome sitting on the table.This is another model I am very proud of. Arthur Curry (aka Aquaman) tends to be one of my tougher halflings. I used my scheme from MJC for the gold and decided to push the TTC green highlights a little higher here. I also used a dark blue to shade the orange which turned out to be a big problem. I spent a lot of time correcting the saturation because the blue looked very unnatural.
Now we get into the problem children. The last three models took me forever to complete, largely because they needed to be completely repainted. Their original schemes just didn’t work with the vision I had in mid. Some of them turned out great, but others will be joining Hal in the “eh” category.
Unlike Steak Rogers (aka Captain America) I could not “do this all day”. I had decided that I wanted to do a different blue with this model to change things up. So I decided to use GW The Fang, Russ Grey, and Fenrisian Grey for a slightly desaturated look. I spent a lot of time fighting with those paints. Honestly? I think they’re just old. They’re from the initial relaunch of the Citadel paint line as GW paints. However, Steve did eventually come together, even though I’m still a little disappointed with the way the blue-grey came out.This is another of my favorite models, even if the paint job didn’t turn out exactly as planned. This is LoCal (aka Lobo) the dedicated fouler of the Moot Points. The sculpt of this model has a ton of character, and I’ve been using him for years to put the boot to downed opponents. He also required an entire repaint because the white skin preventing me from using while anywhere else on the model. I tried to differentiate blacks by using black with grey highlights on the helm and black with blue highlights for the leather. It kinda worked? The best thing about this whole model is that I got his moustache painted on. Oh, and the purple turned out good too.
The sculpt of this model has a ton of character, and I’ve been using him for years to put the boot to downed opponents.
Finally, in the 11th hour I realized I was a halfling short. So I picked the most painted halfling I had remaining and got him based coated. I introduce you to J’John J’Juice, the Martian Manhunter.
He’s green! He has almost no highlights. He was good enough! However, the shirt caused a real problem because I felt like there was too much blue all together. I eventually “solved” it by going with a darker blue. I might ultimately go back and make it black/grey just to keep things cleaner. Again, open to suggestions.
So, you might possibly be wondering how we did at Amorical. We did much better than we anticipated! I ended up going 3 Wins and 3 Ties with the halflings, landing me at 23rd out of 200 participants. I came in… 3rd (?) for the Stunty Cup. My team. DUBBL Trouble came in 9th overall (out of 50) and came in 2nd (!!!) for our low point team build. Overall, it was a great time!
Bonus! – Blood Bowl
I’ve continued to work on my Dwarf team (the Wynnstaat Warriors) from my first A Tale of Many Warlords. I’ve swapped to using the TTC green triad mentioned above. I’m still getting used to highlighting, but ever model has something that works. In this case, I was proud of the skin, helmet, and ball.
The wrinkles in the clothing, especially on the belly, were tough. I eventually got tired of messing with them and called this model good. I’m not sure how I’m going to base any of them. I’ll probably wait until the end to figure it out.
Also, as of writing, the Northern Virginia BB Tournament scene just closed out the 3rd annual Akhorne 8s. I was slotted as the odd player out (OPO), who plays if we have an uneven number of coaches in attendance. I ended up sitting out, but still got my Akhorne cleaned up just in case. I painted this little fellow for the 1st Akhorne 8s and felt he was the best thing I had ever painted at the time. I still think he’s very cute, but I touched up some places on the fur where the contrast paint didn’t take very well.
I based him today! I applied a layer of Stirland Mud, let that dry, and tried to selectively add my sawdust grass. I ended up covering most of the mud… oh well. Look at that white line though! I applied that by putting a thick, wet coat of TTC Trooper White on a tooth pick and pressing it firmly onto the base. My British friend remains unimpressed. Maybe a skull? Can you ever really please the British?
That’s it for me folks, expect more Blood Bowl each month. I’m on a quest paint the last 7 teams I haven’t played (dwarves, chaos dwarves, high elves, elven union, dark elves, and lizardmen) and get them played by the end of the year. Wish me luck!
Jerry S.
Happy July everybody! June was a great month for me in the hobby, even if I didn’t hit all of my goals. I started the month planning on having all of my Legions Imperialis infantry finished and the whole army built. I fell a little short of this, only finishing 10 stands of terminators and only partially completing the rest of the infantry.
In an effort to procrastinate painting my smaller infantry, I did get substantial painting done on my 28mm Solar Auxilia. Finishing 40 las rifles, 10 Velataris, and 3 ogryns. I continue to love painting these models. Even got a second game with them!
This is the first month this year that I did not finish any Old World models, a streak I do not intend to continue. Look forward to seeing some more skeletons, mummies and constructs in the coming months.
Lets start with the smallest models in my collection:
This scheme isn’t too laborious, a necessity when painting such large quantities of such small models.
Here are the completed terminators for my White Scars. This scheme isn’t too laborious, a necessity when painting such large quantities of such small models.
These were painted with a simple zenithal of white over light grey, with some Mephiston red trim, with black and metal details painted on, covered with an umber oil wash to call out more of the details.
Here is my whole Legions Army, assembled and primed. There is certainly something to be said about how cool these models look ranked up en mass. I look forward to seeing the completed army on the tabletop, even if I loath the painting process.
Moving onto bigger, better Heresy- I had a prolific month painting Solar Auxilia, finishing a full 40 Las Rifles, 10 of the elite Velataris, and 3 of the hulking Charonite Ogryns.
I love the look of these resin Lasriflemen but I have to admit, painting the new plastics is a much smoother process. Luckily I have another 20 of the plastics yet to build and paint. These Ogryns are absolutely brutal sculpts, and I mean that in the best way possible. They aren’t very good on the tabletop but they are absolutely fearsome on the painting table.
To start the month off, I watched the Lord of The Rings trilogy again… This, coupled with the upcoming supplement for Arnor and Angmar gave me an incredible urge to paint up some lord of the rings SPG models. Luckily I had the perfect trio of minis to paint up ahead of the new supplement…
The Witch King of Angmar!
I had the new plastics sitting in a cupboard along with the original Metal black rider model so I pulled out my brushes and gave these models a quick paintjob. I haven’t added flock to these just yet as I’m unsure if they will be joining my mordor army or my Angmar army. A decision that will likely wait until we have the new book in hand.
I’m very excited of July, a month without any work travel gives me great opportunity to get some hobbying done. I’m going to need every bit of that time if I plan on being prepared for NOVA as well. I have quite a bit of painting that still needs to be done ahead of my NOVA Events. I’ve listed the below things I need to finish to keep me honest!
Ultramarines
Paint my Thunderhawk and Base
build and paint 5 more Ultramarine Cataphractii Terminator
Stretch Goal: Paint Roboute Guilliman
Build and paint 20 Praetorian Breachers
Solar Auxilia
Paint my Solar Auxilia Command Squad
Paint 2 leman russes
Paint 1 Malcador
Build and paint 20 Companions
Build and paint 2 Auroxes
Its a long list, lets see if I can pull it out!
And that’s a wrap for this month’s hobby update! From finished Gnomes to ongoing Blood Bowl projects and Warhammer painting, we’ve seen a wide range of impressive work. Even though not all goals were met, the dedication and progress are truly inspiring. Can’t wait to see what next month’s updates will bring!
Remember to keep an eye out for more updates and surprises in the coming months! Happy hobbying, everyone!
…that I completed my College of Shadows team! I had showed off my single test-gnome at the end of last month’s article, so it seemed only fitting that I start this one off with the completed team! Representing the College of Shadows is my team, “Hello From Down Under,” sporting two Skaven Blitzers, two Gutter Runners, one Skaven Thrower, one Witch Elf, one Dark Elf Lineman, two Woodland Foxes, one Gnome Beastmaster, one Gnome Illusionist, and two Gnome Linemen! Quite an eclectic mix, no? But that’s what I love about the Dungeon Bowl teams. They offer an amazing opportunity to bring together the various Blood Bowl teams. And with the recent addition of Gnomes to their roster, I figured it was high time I get the College of Shadows painted up! Here are some close-ups of the various members…
I went with grey foxes for the Shadows team, since I felt they fit in more with the team’s color scheme than the starker red fox one might expect. And I am pretty happy with how they turned out!
You may also notice one additional, mysterious member I have yet to mention. That, my dear readers, is my Wizard! Alongside the eight Colleges, I want to also make up eight Wizards to act as sideline tokens for the Inducement. This is the first of those, the Grey Wizard, who quietly sports his team’s colors with the dark blue frill on his robes and an emerald scarf underneath them. While most of the Colleges are fairly easy to build from the Collegiate Arcane/Empire Wizards kit, the Grey Wizards are unrepresented, so he ended up requiring a bit of work to get right. The hat I had to sculpt, and the skull was added to the staff by replacing one of the other ornaments. Fun hobby tip, floss makes great rope or bandages, and I used that to tie the skull onto the staff.
With some playtesting already done, it is likely that I’ll have a few more members still to paint up for this team, to beef up the roster slightly. But at least my initial roster is complete! That said, the College of Shadows team was not the only thing I have done this month for Blood Bowl! With our local league starting up I decided I needed to get a team finished up for that. I had initially figured I’d run Vampires, but with them being rather overrepresented in the league by the time I was signing up, I switched my decision last minute to… Gnomes! Yes, more Gnomes! I really love the new Gnome models, and I had bought a second box to do up an 11s team. Given I had just gotten some experience painting them up, I figured now was a decent time to continue with them, just in a different color scheme. And so I am proud to present to you the “Poppin’ Daisies,” my Gnome team!
They’re not quite complete yet for this article, but they likely will be done within the next week or two. Alongside some Star Players that I plan to play with them. And speaking of Star Players…
I have completed an Akhorne the Squirrel! This was a fun little side project I had been wanting to do for a while, and now with a League to join and the opportunity to make use of him, I figured I would get the little bugger done! The skull pile in particular was really fun to figure out. The center is actually just filled with modelling putty, with the skulls pressed into the sides. Plus a few loose jaw-bones to fill in gaps here or there… That Skulls kit really is great.
Now hopefully by next month I will be able to show you the full Gnome team, Stars included. But atop that, as I said last month, I do really need to return to my Vampire team, who may well be getting their own Stars to show off! I do need to get them done for NOVA – or maybe even the Goonhammer Open, which I intend to attend! So work needs to be completed on them post-haste.
May The Force Be With You
Alongside all the Blood Bowl stuff I have completed this month, I’ve also been more slowly working through my Shatterpoint backlog, which is growing larger with every month. And with there also being a Shatterpoint event at the Goonhammer Open, I may be needing to speed up the process in preparation there too! Plus we have new boxes coming out next week… Yeah, it’s rough! But you know what’s harder? Painting white! Or at least I thought it was…
Yes, what I have added to the completed pile this month is some Stormtroopers! And they were not quite the pain to paint as I thought they would have been. But then I think that might have been aided by some new paints I procured. The release of the Warpaints Fanatic range has certainly taken local painters by storm, and all the good press I have heard regarding the line convinced me to pick up a few paints to give them a try. I think the results speak for themselves. The white here is fairly simple: GW Grey Seer primer, washed with GW Soulblight Grey – which is pretty much my standard start for white nowadays – then layered over with the new WPF Brigade Grey, and then highlighted with the WPF Matt White.
I have had a ton of issues with other companies’ white paints before. GW’s tends to dry up in the pot (though all their paints to, the white just does it faster) and is rather chunky, while Vallejo’s tends to get clogged in the dropper top and separates constantly. But these two paints I have yet to have any issues with. I have cautious optimism moving forward with the rest of the Fanatics range, but I have been duly impressed thus far. Oh, and pre-loaded mixing balls. Need I say more?
Beyond the Stormtroopers, I also tried my hand at the iconic black armour of many other Imperial units by painting the Fifth Brother. This model was more of a hassle to paint, though that primarily came down to the paint scheme more than anything. Black on black is very difficult to pull off. Differentiating two or three different blacks on the same model was a challenge and, while I am happy with the end result, I do not thing I quite achieved what I was going for. Further models will probably go with a grey for cloths, to have at least some difference.
In The Far Future…
…there is only more to paint! Alongside the upcoming events and the necessity to paint through all these models for them, I’ve also volunteered to be the Arbitrator for a small Necromunda campaign with some other friends of mine. While I might not have much to show for it next month – as I am only in the preparations stage at the moment – I will be working on an Escher gang to play in this campaign, as well as terrain for it which I will definitely show off once I get around to it. I have already gotten back into the swing of things with a quick palette-cleanser/test-subject in this Hive Scum, for whom I used as an experiment piece for a process for dirty white armour. That might show up with a few models in the future as well…
Kevin C.
Bretonnian Pegasus Knights
After a month of losing progress on my Bretonnians, I am back to it! I wanted to make sure I finished all of my knights before working on the filthy peasants, so this month was all about getting the Pegasus Knights completed. For these, as with my regular knights, I painted the knights detached from the mount, and glued them when they were complete.
In contrast with many white and light-colored Pegasus knights I’ve seen online, as well as my old Pegasus knights, I wanted to paint these mounts brown. This way, I could really explore the color spectrum along the wings, and get some cool feathering effects. I’m not sure I am entirely thrilled with the blend I instituted on the wings, since the colors were not quite as smooth of transitions as I would’ve liked to make them look natural. But, as always, washes and drybrush cover many sins.
My hope is that, next month, when I work on the Royal Pegasus (which will be white), it will be a good contrast to the more rustic look of these “normal” Pegasus knights.
Legions Imperialis Solar Auxilia Support (Rapiers and Cyclopses)
The support batteries were rough to hold onto – they had to be assembled beforehand, so I couldn’t simply paint them on the sprue like I did with the tercio infantry, but they were much smaller than the tanks and liable to get lost. In the end, I had to store them in a bin until I could get to painting them. Finally, I was able to do so this month.
I did nothing fancy with these guys – just Iron Hands Steel with Nuln Oil on any of the metal bits, and my Vostroyan tank paint scheme:
Zandri Dust Base
Ushabti Bone Heavy Drybrush
Athonian Camoshade Wash
Screaming Skull Light Drybrush
Blood Angel Red for any detail markings
Thank goodness I painted the bases beforehand. I think that saved me a massive headache of trying to do these in conjunction with the miniatures.
Inquisitorial Stormtroopers (Kasrkin) Kill Team
My final main project for this month has been the Inquisitorial Stormtroopers I’ve been wanting to paint up for a while now. I like how they play as a kill team – no synergy shenanigans, no layering dependencies, just reliable firepower – so I’d like to bring them to NOVA this year if I can.
I used to play a lot of Darktide back in the day (you know, six months ago), so I figured that it’s only natural that I do an Inquisitorial Stormtrooper squad paint scheme. I used much of the advice from Peachy’s video on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_8wtU28oJw), though it is less of a “speed paint” than one might believe watching the video. It took quite a bit for me to finish this squad, but I got it done.
When I finished painting them, I thought they looked good. However, once I finished painting them, I sprayed them with dullcote. Sadly, it was less “dull” than I was hoping, and it is still quite shiny, so the pictures do not make them look great.
True to form, I wanted to make sure all the troops had masks on – except for this mad lad. He’s the Warhammer+ miniature from last year, which I decided to paint at the same time in the same skin. Maybe I’ll use him as a proxy or something.
Other Projects
As you well know, dear reader, we are preparing for a campaign in Legions Imperialis, so we are trying to paint up as many buildings as we can. Using a pretty simple paint scheme that have been used for Osgiliath Ruins (detailed here: https://youtu.be/QbYRtcSU5fs?si=assJoiAuH9IWzf7p), I painted up two additional buildings for the campaign.
Jerry S.
Howdy readers! I gotta say, May was a great month for me in the hobby space. I was able to get a solid start on my new Solar Auxilia, finish painting my Legions Imperialis Titans, build a firstborn tactical squad for Killteam, 3d-print a board for the squad to fight on, completely build a Thunderhawk gunship, and get a couple units done for my Tomb Kings! A busy month indeed over in my studio, hopefully June brings just as much productivity my way.
First up, I want to show you readers the Solar Auxilia that I painted up this month. I’m particularly proud of the paint scheme of these models as it was relatively quick and looks absolutely fantastic on the tabletop. I mostly followed the painting guide here from Feral Painter. his metals and fatigues are almost an exact match for what I ended up with, the only real changes I made to the scheme were changing the helmets and shoulders with Kantor Blue with a Thrash Metal Drybrush overtop to give a nice weathered blue look to these guys. I love how the red eyelenses contrast with the blue armorplates. This scheme was so quick that I was able to paint up 20 of these guys in just one week!
Staying in the Heresy era, I was able to finish painting (sans basing and decals) my Epic Scale titans- Two Warhounds and a Reaver titan! I love the Legio Astorum scheme that I’ve settled on and I look forward to getting these guys on the tabletop soon. As Kevin mentioned, our gaming group is starting a campaign in July and I have a TON of models I still need to get built and painted before I can play a proper game. The main thing holding me back was deciding on a basing scheme for the army but I am happy to say that I think I finally have a winning scheme picked out. A simple wasteland basing to make the Whites of my Space Marines pop, as well as contrast the Blues of my titans well. Looking forward to having the whole epic force painted up soon.
switching gears away from massive armies and grand battlefields, at the behest of Kevin, I have started a space marine killteam (pictured below) using some first born bits on Tortuga Bay bodies. I love the look of these guys and I expect to get them painted in the near future.
Of course, I can’t start a new game without creating a whole board for it, and as you can see, my printer has been very busy this month creating a space for my and anybody else in my gaming group a space to play.
Switching gears once yet again, I managed to put in some more work on my Tomb kings army, building and painting my first Old World Monster-The mighty Bone Giant! This isn’t my favorite model in the world but It was a quick paint and stands out on the tabletop.
Also painted this month was “most of” my casket of souls. As you can see, I left out the mortuary priest. This was mostly because I intend to paint all four of the army’s priests at the same time, or at least close together, to preserve the uniformity of the cult.
Last but certainly not least, I finished the build of my Thunderhawk. I think by mass this is the largest “mini” I have ever built. I absolutely love this model, it was a challenging build but not as bad as the Warhound titan’s I’ve built. I’ll probably write up a side article detailing my building process in the future so stay tuned!
In the meantime- please enjoy looking at this beautiful bird resting upon its roost.
That’s all for me this month, and what a busy month it was! The month of June will likely be a good hobby month for me as I race to finish my Solar aux and thunderhawk for NOVA as well as paint an entire legions Imperialis army for our upcoming campaign in July so stay tuned!
Michael S.
This month I took some time to build and prime up a number of models from various projects. I did manage to get some paint on a couple, but most of my hobby time was spent on the less glorious parts of mold-line trimming and laying down enough yellow primer to finally get good coverage (It takes more than you’d think!)
I painted up one of the squads I primed for my Templars and was quite happy with the way they turned out. They were slightly altered from the typical assault intercessor kit using a few bits and bobs leftover from other templar kits. Edge highlighting tends to take me a while, so I was happy to get these 5 done in a few hours.
I also primed and built about 20 Imperial Fists models. I threw a bit more paint on one of the lieutenants to get a feel for how I wanted the armor to look. I’ve tried a few different methods for getting the right shade of yellow, and I am happy with this method I’ve come up with.
I started with a Yellow-Brown basecoat and relied on a mix of some enamel washes to get the right shading in the recesses. Using enamel washes is much faster than acrylic due to the similar properties to oil washes.
Last for painting this month, I tested out a scheme for the Imperial Guard Combat Patrol I showed earlier on the blog. I got all the models fully primed, and a few fully painted.
May was a bit of a slower hobby month, so that’s all for me! I am aiming to jump back to my Death Guard/Tomb Kings in June!
Howdy All! I’m taking lead this month and I gotta admit I’m pretty happy with my progress this month. This has been a pretty exciting month on my hobby desk. I continued my roll with my Tomb Kings and was able to get a good amount of progress on a couple Horus Heresy projects.
Tomb Kings
To start, I’ve continued making steady progress on my Tomb Kings with another block of 20 skeletons painted in the teal white scheme that I showed off in February. This is my 3rd 20 skeleton block completed and they make quite the sight all lined up. These 3 blocks of bones will be the main bulk of my Tomb Kings army for the time being.
While I still have 20 skeleton archers to paint, I will be taking a small break from painting the rank and file this month to paint up some of the more fun models in the Tomb Kings lineup. Below is a work in progress shot of a casket of souls I was working on as our April deadline arrived. I am very much looking forward to seeing this model completed, as well as one of the more Colossal models in the range.
The Horus Heresy
Turning our attention to the 31st millennium- I made some great progress on a squad of 5 Gal Vorbak and a Terminator Captain for my Word Bearers force that I will be using at the NOVA Open’s Zone Mortalis event in September.
This was my first time painting a fire effect and while the transitions could be a little smoother, I am thrilled with the finished product.
Solar Auxilia
I’ve been waffling back and forth on what army I wanted to bring to my NOVA doubles event and this month’s release gave me my answer. Anybody who knows me, knows that my first love in warhammer is the humble guardsman. The release of Solar Auxilia in plastic, has given me the incredible opportunity to work on an army that I’ve always loved, albeit from afar. I have acquired a few of the resin models from the always generous Mike P. and along with my headfirst dive into the new plastics, I will soon be able to put a 3000 point (unpainted) army on the field.
Needless to say, I’ve gone fully off the deep end on this release as this isn’t even half of the pile of Solar Auxilia models I have in my backlog now.
I think its safe to say that for the rest of the year, our loyal readers can expect to see a constant stream of finished Solar Auxilia models to join the already steady stream of Tomb Kings.
To finish up this month, I have a couple pictures of my first painted epic White Scars, alongside some 3d printed terrain that will be used as an Armies on Parade board for the NOVA open.
Oh and this landing pad….I wonder what will be calling this home…..
Kevin C.
Sadly, in contrast to last month where I had two Bretonnian units done, this month I have … none. With several deliverables at work, as well as a family trip down to Texas to see the eclipse in the middle of the month, my hobby time was severely curtailed. But, I was able to see a total solar eclipse for the first time, albeit through the clouds. So, this was cool…
I’ve also started hitting a groove where I watch my friends (and wife) play Helldivers 2 during the evenings, defending managed democracy, while I paint. It’s an enjoyable distraction, and I get to keep up with the gossip.
Legions Imperialis
So, I have a butt-ton of LI stuff to still paint:
Three Support Boxes (thank you Austin for needling me into buying a third)
Two Malcador Infernuses (Infernii?)
Two Valdor Tanks
Six Lightning Fighters
Two Marauder Bombers
Four Warhound Titans
Two Reaver Titans
I am very, very slowly making my way through the list. I decided to get the bases done, all in one go, with the technique shown on the Games Workshop Youtube channel video here (https://youtu.be/6MB5hLu9dlw).
Wraithbone primer
Seraphim Sepia Wash
Stipple brush with White Scar
This provides a nice contrast to my red & gold Vostroyans – it’s lighter in color, but still from the warm side of the palette, so it brings the force together.
After these were complete, I got super lazy and primed all of the platforms in the Support box Leadbelcher, and painted a few details on them after I got back from Texas. They are not great, but they are done, which has a quality all of its own.
Blood Bowl Black Orcs
These were not mine, but friends of the blog, who are Very Serious Blood Bowl Players™, needed a team done by May 3. I told them I could help them out, since I’ve painted Black Orcs before, which was a bit ambitious of me, considering my workload this month.
For Orc skin, I generally like doing lighter green skin, since that tends to make them pop on the table more. I really like Duncan Rhodes’ recipe that he uses for his Goff Boy in this video (https://youtu.be/EHxvAN7haMs). It’s not Blood Bowl, but it works well for most orcs, and it’s scalable – meaning, if I want to add extra details, it’s definitely doable.
Orruk Flesh Base
Athonian Camoshade Wash
Orruk Flesh first highlight
Nurgling Green second highlight
Kislev Flesh on select areas – lips, eartips, nosetips, scar tissue
Because they are supposed to be Black Orcs, I based the armor all in Leadbelcher and then covered it in Black Contrast – very easy dark armor there that you can then build upon with Stormhost Silver highlight. For the leather pants and belts, I used two different recipes for brown that I also use for my Bretonnians.
Rhinox Hide 🡪 Doombull Brown 🡪 Tuskgor Fur for the pants (I use this for the leather bits on Bretonnians)
Mournfang Brown 🡪 Skrag Brown for the belts
Because, as noted before, the owners of these Black Orcs are Very Serious Blood Bowl Players™, they needed these minis to have numbers for League Play. For the orcs, this isn’t a problem, but there is not a lot of armor for the goblins. So, I decided to put the numbers on their butts.
Finally, I decided to try out Technical Paints, using more or less the same recipe I plan to use for the movement trays for my Bretonnians, as shown in this video (https://youtu.be/k7tUuwJgZAs). Stirland Mud, Agrax Earthshade, and Gorthor Brown, along with healthy heaping of grass flock. To make it more football-like, I added white lines to the grass, using a coffee stirrer.
Supporting My Bretonnians
So, I was not able to paint any Bretonnian miniatures, but that doesn’t mean I did not paint anything for The Old World. A few months ago, I bought some movement trays from Litko, when they had just released Lance Formation shaped movement trays. I finally got time to glue them together and paint them accordingly. I also magnetized both the Knight bases and the movement trays, for easier transport. Hopefully this will make transporting them so much easier than packing them individually – I will not be doing that again.
That is all for me. I am hopeful that next month I will have the remainder of my knights completed. Until then!
Austin B.
April Advancements
Much like some of the others, this month has been a busy time for me, particularly with work. But still, I was able to get a bit of hobbying done in what little free time I had, though not quite as much as I had hoped. Between the lack of time and my constant jumping between projects, I don’t have as much to show as some of the others here – though with a few things in stages on the painting table, the next month might prove more productive! Still, it wasn’t a meaningless month, and I’ve still made great progress on miniatures for my newest obsession: Star Wars Shatterpoint. And necessarily, too, as my locals is having a tournament on May 11th that I plan to attend with a fully painted roster!
I’ll start with perhaps one of my favorites, the “Fearless and Inventive” squad pack, harkening back to the opening scenes of Return of the Jedi, with Leia in her bounty hunter getup, Lando and R2D2 in disguise, and Luke in his iconic black robes. R2 and Luke were technically completed last month, but were not yet based. All of these were very fun to paint up, all being very individual – though I did struggle a great deal with R2 as many of his details were rather small and soft. Luke was ultimately the easiest, just being almost entirely black robes. Ultimately though I found Leia (or well, Boushh) the most fun to paint, as I got to play around with trying to differentiate a few different tans and browns on a single model. My current intention is to run these guys as one of my squads in the upcoming event, so I was happy to get them all done.
Next up, and totally new for you all, is the “That’s Good Business” squad pack. Have I mentioned how much I love the box names for Shatterpoint? They’re great, and this box has probably one of the best. Haha! But here we have what will likely be my second squad for the event, as Shatterpoint lists require you run two squads together to form your Strike Team. And who better to assist our Rebel friends than the magnificent Hondo Ohnaka and his band of pirates? Hondo here especially was a real joy to paint (well, except for the monkey-lizard on his shoulder, whom I should have left off for sub-assembly. Again the uniqueness aspect of many of these Shatterpoint squads strikes again, as really every one of these models was fun and individual. Unfortunately that individuality also means batch painting is nearly impossible, so the time it takes to paint these models is increased compared to my more usual projects – certainly a contributing factor to my significant decrease in finished models to show off this month.
Now, if I have the time between the end of this month and the event, the plan is actually to replace the Weequay Pirates above with the generic Bounty Hunters from my recently acquired “Fistfull of Credits” squad pack. You will almost certainly see them – and likely their named compatriots – in the next monthly updated. But if I can get them done in the remaining week and a half is yet to be seen…?
Other than that, further progress has been made on the initial two boxes I purchased, the two different Ewok squad packs. Again, some of these were already complete at the end of last month, but now I have finished some more of them and have gotten them all based up. The generic Ewoks still remain unfinished though. Unlike many of the other models, they have not been very fun to paint, at least for me. To be honest, it is partially my fault for having assembled them completely first, instead of doing them in sub-assemblies. But partially it’s the model’s fault, as each of the Ewoks, of which there are three to a base, have nearly the same amount of detail as the individual character models, so the time required to paint them to my standard is just absurd. Hopefully they will be done by next month, but I am not so sure I will get back to them before other things.
Plans And Preparations
Beyond all my progress with Shatterpoint, I’ve been turning my attention towards preparing my various lists for the NOVA Open this year. I have signed up for most of the Blood Bowl events at NOVA, as well as one event for Legions Imperialis. Though the convention is months away, I do not want to have to be painting frantically in the weeks leading up to the event, and would rather get my various teams and whatnot completed beforehand, so I can shift focus back to my other projects. Of course, why not kill two birds with one stone though, and complete some things I want to do anyways, or projects that I have been holding off on? I haven’t fully decided on all the teams I will be bringing for the various Blood Bowl events, but I do have a short list that I figure I will make the focus of things for a while. Meanwhile, I need to get my Legions Imperialis painted up anyways, as I am falling behind with the releases, so they were to become a priority anyways. And I have already started on my Solar Auxilia Support boxes, as well as a clutch of vehicles that I have added since I last showed off the army. I had hoped to have some of them done this month, but the support weapons have proven to be a bit of a chore to paint – though the vehicles are thankfully the opposite.
Now on the Blood Bowl side of things, I think I will be soon focusing on finishing up my Vampire team that has been sleeping in its coffin for a few months now. But besides that, the one team I have most certainly decided to bring is the College of Shadows for Dungeon Bowl, and I have begun the task of painting up that eclectic mix of Dark Elves, Skaven, and… Gnomes!
This little buddy is the test model for my College of Shadows team, showing off the team colors of dark blue and emerald green. He will be joined by a few more of his kind, alongside some Skaven Blitzers, Gutter Runners, and a Thrower, as well as the terrifying Witch Elf and another Dark Elf lineman. But more on them next month, hopefully! And maybe a little magical surprise to go along with them…
Michael S.
This month I’ve been busy with lots of travel, but wanted to still get as much does as possible. Last month, I set some ambitious goals of fully completing 3 units. Sadly, I fell a bit short of my original goal. I was able to complete 2 of my 3 units. In addition, I made some good progress on a few other models that were waiting for some paint. All said and done, not all too disappointed given my busy month!
First off, my Heresy Death Guard. These tactical support marines have made an appearance before as a half-finished unit, but I finally got transfers applied. They are just waiting for some varnish!
I am pretty stoked about the final look for this unit. The transfers really brings them together.
Next up, my Tomb Kings have their first completed regiment. A unit of skeleton warriors in bright red. Quite happy with how this scheme turned out, and I am looking forward to painting the next unit. This was a fun exercise in contrast paint for me, a tool I haven’t heavily used before as the primary paint for a unit.
With the completed units out of the way, I wanted to showcase a few miscellaneous models from my desk. My longtime 40k army is Black Templars, though shameful few models are fully painted. After painting the units above, I had the itch to get back to edge highlighting some black armor and pulled out a few models. I was able to get some paint on a few of the terminators from Leviathan.
Frustratingly, the AP Speedpaint I used on the shoulderpad started to crackle when drying. This seems to be a side effect of using it over top of a less-than-matte undercoat. It was relatively easy to hit it with a wash to “fix” the crackle effect, but the shoulder pad ended up a much darker color than I intended. Despite this setback, I was super happy with how the cape and face turned out. The heraldry needs some attention, as to the metallics, but otherwise the model is coming together nicely.
In a departure to some non-GW models, I spent a little bit of time working on my Malifaux crew. I wanted to play with some of my new vibrant colors from the updated Vallejo Game Color range. As a long time VGC-hater, these paints have quickly become my go-to. The original colors often had a satin/glossy finish, and many colors had poor coverage. The updated range is quite the opposite!
That just about does it for me! May is shaping up to be a similarly busy month, so in an effort to achieve my goals, I am only aiming to finish my unit of tactical marines left over from this month. Happy hobbying!
Mike P.
Firstly, a huge shoutout to Mike and Taylor—it was fantastic meeting you both over the weekend, and I’m incredibly grateful for all the love and support.
Now, to bring everyone up to speed: I’ve admittedly taken a bit of a break from wielding the paintbrush recently. Truth be told, last month’s update was missing because, A, my productivity took a dip, and B, I’ve been pouring my efforts into completing my final papers for my bachelor’s degree. However, amidst the chaos, I managed to make some progress on a remarkable new project—the Bretonnian Paladin. This model has been an absolute joy to paint, though I must confess, I lost track of time completely immersed in the process. But hey, sometimes that’s just part of the magic, isn’t it?
In my initial article, I briefly mentioned my visit to Warhammer World, and now I’m excited to delve deeper into how I made that journey happen and share my experiences along the way. This isn’t meant to be the definitive guide, but rather a practical roadmap for those looking to embark on this adventure without breaking the bank. For those unfamiliar, Warhammer World is akin to Yankee Stadium for baseball fans or the Canton, Ohio for football enthusiasts—it’s the ultimate destination for tabletop miniatures aficionados, often likened to the “Disney World” of our niche hobby.
Surprisingly, prior to my own visit in 2022, I struggled to find comprehensive guidance on how to make the trip a reality. Despite reaching out to others who had been, I never received that insider’s perspective or “homeboy hook-up” that would truly demystify the process. It felt like an elusive secret guarded by those in the know. Since returning from my trip, I’ve been approached by numerous people seeking advice on how to replicate my experience and make their own Warhammer World pilgrimage. Thus, I feel compelled to share my insights and tips with fellow hobbyists eager to take the leap.
Picture it: mid-June 2022, a world still grappling with the aftershocks of COVID, and I’m feeling the weight of it all as I juggle the demands of my job. Every day feels like an uphill battle against the monotony, and I’m yearning for a break—something to shake up the routine. Then, in a moment of sheer desperation, a wild idea strikes me: what if I just went to Warhammer World?
Of course, there are hurdles to clear. Being married and in my line of work, jetting off to another country isn’t exactly a spontaneous decision. I figured it was just a fleeting daydream, something to ponder over my morning coffee. But then, I decided to broach the subject with my wife, expecting a skeptical response. To my surprise, she actually gave me her blessing. Emboldened by this unexpected support, I approached my workplace the next day—and to my astonishment, they too gave me the green light after some necessary paperwork and phone calls. Just like that, within the span of a single week, I had all the necessary approvals to make this impromptu self-adventure a reality. Shocking, indeed.
With all the necessary approvals in hand, I wasted no time. I swiftly purchased a plane ticket for the following Sunday, flying out from Baltimore to London. Anticipating my biggest hurdles, I tackled them head-on: securing my plane ticket, lodging, and a round-trip day train ticket. I knew that if I could nail down these three essentials, the entire trip would start to take shape. In terms of finances, I managed to snag all three items combined for a mere grand. Now, don’t get me wrong—I wasn’t living it up at the Ritz Carlton. Instead, I opted for a more budget-friendly option: a hostel above a pub in Shoreditch, a vibrant neighborhood in London. At just around 40 bucks a night, it was a steal; and if there are two things that I love most in this world, its beer and Warhammer.
As Sunday night descended, my wife dropped me off at BWI, and I embarked on a red-eye flight bound for London, with a layover in Iceland adding an unexpected twist to the journey. Despite my extensive flying experience, this particular flight proved to be one for the books. Peering out of my window, I was greeted by the breathtaking sight of Greenland’s icy expanse as the early morning light cast a mesmerizing glow. Upon touching down in Iceland, however, I received less-than-ideal news: my next flight was delayed by a whopping 8 hours, leaving me stranded in the Keflavik airport. Yet, surprisingly, I found myself unfazed by the setback. After all, there are certainly worse places to be marooned than in Iceland. To pass the time, I indulged in a few early morning beers, sampled some delectable Icelandic Pizza (a culinary delight!), and embraced my inner nomad by catching some shut-eye for the next five hours. Despite the unexpected delay, I couldn’t help but appreciate the unique experience unfolding before me.
Photo I took over GreenlandSleeping off a few in Keflavik
Arriving in London late on a Monday afternoon, I wasted no time immersing myself in the vibrant energy of the city. With nothing but a trusty raincoat and my rucksack, I navigated the bustling streets, hopping on a shuttle (the Tube) from the airport to Liverpool Street Station. From there, a brief stroll led me to my humble abode for the night—a cozy hostel. After checking in, I rewarded myself with a well-deserved pint downstairs at the pub before calling it a night.
The next morning dawned bright and early, with a thrilling agenda awaiting me: a journey to the legendary Warhammer World in Nottingham. Armed with my faithful rucksack, I took the Tube to Paddington Station, where I boarded the East Midlands Railway (EMR) bound for my destination. The scenic two-hour train ride whisked me away to Nottingham, where I embarked on a picturesque half-hour walk along the serene river, finally arriving at the hallowed grounds of Warhammer World.
As I stepped foot inside, a sense of accomplishment washed over me. After nearly two decades of yearning, I had finally made it. For the next six hours, I savored every moment, immersing myself in the sights, scents, and exhibits that surrounded me. From leisurely strolls through the exhibit hall to perusing the offerings in the store, to soaking in the vibrant atmosphere of the gaming hall, I was in my element. A few pints and a hearty lunch at Bugman’s Bar only added to the euphoria of the experience.
My favorite exhibit in the Exhibition Hall This ridiculous Burger I ordered for Lunch at Bugman’s Bar. It was amazing.
But alas, all good things must come to an end. Reluctantly, I bid farewell to Warhammer World, walking back to the train station and embarking on the return journey back to London. As the train whisked me away, I couldn’t help but reflect on the incredible journey I had just undertaken—a journey that had taken me from the comforts of my home in Maryland, USA, to the very heart of my long-held dreams. It was a feeling like no other, and I relished every moment of it.
For my final two days in London, I fully embraced my inner tourist, immersing myself in the rich tapestry of experiences the city had to offer. From the storied walls of the Tower of London to the spine-tingling thrills of the London Dungeon—an absolute must-see, by the way—I left no stone unturned in my quest for adventure.
With boundless energy and an insatiable curiosity, I traversed the city streets, weaving through iconic landmarks like Buckingham Palace and delving into the depths of world-class museums that housed treasures from centuries past. Along the way, I found myself forging new connections, striking up conversations with fellow travelers and locals alike, each encounter adding a vibrant hue to the canvas of my London adventure. Of course, no exploration of London would be complete without indulging in its vibrant pub culture. With a pint in hand, I raised a toast to new experiences and cherished memories, savoring the camaraderie and warmth that permeated each bustling establishment.
Photo I took of Parliament
As the sun set on my final evening in this captivating city, I couldn’t help but reflect on the whirlwind of experiences that had unfolded over the past several days. With a sense of fulfillment and contentment, I bid farewell to London, knowing that I had seized every opportunity and embraced every moment to the fullest. And so, as Friday morning dawned, I embarked on the journey homeward, my heart brimming with gratitude for the memories made and the adventures shared. England had left an indelible mark on my soul, and as I soared through the skies, I carried with me the essence of this remarkable journey—a journey of discovery, connection, and boundless exploration.
From meticulously planning each step to navigating unexpected delays and serendipitous encounters, every moment has been a testament to the beauty of embracing the unknown. Warhammer World provided a sanctuary for my passion, while London’s historic landmarks and vibrant culture offered a tapestry of experiences unlike any other. All this at a cost around 1300 USD. As I bid farewell to London and head home, I’m filled with gratitude for the memories made and the lessons learned. I am grateful to share these experiences and insights with other hobbyists searching for Warhammer World and looking to embark on their own journey. This adventure reignited my passion for exploration and reminded me of the power of seizing every opportunity . So much so that I even made the trip two more time since then. Here’s to the journey—the highs, the lows, and everything in between.
Joe R.
Welcome back everyone! Last month was quite the spread of hobby related projects (I might have snuck a few in from previous months). This month is quite different! However, things are ramping up in preparation for a Blood Bowl tournament in Canada!
Heartsdale Hedonists – Chaos Chosen, Blood Bowl
Those of you who read through last month will recognize this heading already. I was preparing for a Blood Bowl tournament in Roanoke VA (the Big Lick Brawl). I had decided to outfit my Chaos Chosen with an Ogre instead of the traditional Minotaur. However, I didn’t have one of those painted! That wouldn’t have been a huge deal, except I paid a fellow named Rawlin to paint my Chaos Chosen team around 10 years ago. I wanted to paint my Ogre to match (as closely as I could manage) to the existing team.
Here is the minotaur from the team, Aurum Barre, that I am trying to match with the Ogre. I do my best painting when I am experimenting with new skills or pushing myself outside of my small comfort zone. Last month I showed a zenithal highlight of the ogre, some putty work to try matching the basing, and some initial glazing.
I spent roughly another week on the Ogre, who I named Argenti Barre, from the last update. I continued to glaze some additional layers onto the skin and generally block in the few spaces without any color. I was very
pleased with the skin, HOWEVER, I definitely think it would benefit from a few additional passes on the highlights. I’m not going to fret.
At this point, I was pretty pleased with the product. The pink tones did NOT match, but I didn’t think it was going to be distracting enough for folks to call it out. I started working on the base. Again, I don’t think it matches completely, but it’s close enough. I was about to call it done when I decided to add a blood effect to the hand (just like the Minotaur has!). You can see the results below. Again, I was very pleased with the effect. I varnished this model! I almost never do that! To finish off, I decided to use a gloss varnish on the metal surfaces and the shoulder pad. I think it looks pretty cool.
Overall, Argenti did very well at Big Lick Brawl. He even got a few compliments, especially from people who know my track record with finishing things.
The Moot Points – Halflings, Blood Bowl
Okay! Here we go! Halflings are one of my favorite teams in Blood Bowl. Not because they are a particularly amazing team, but because they come with their own built-in vibe. You might say, “Joe… don’t all stunty teams come with the same vibe?” No random internet person! I’ve had a lot of success with Ogres, so when I play Ogres I’m playing to win. Halflings? Not so much. This is my fun, maybe I’ll win, but I’m just here for a great time. Why? Well, every one of my team members is based off a different superhero. They are all painted to reflect the hero they represent. This means I can directly look at the model and know who it is. This has led to some legends on the team. Michael John Custard (Booster Gold) is a ball hog but tends to pull off the big plays when I need them. Thor Odinsoup can take punches on the line all day and rarely get injured. This team was produced by Willy Miniatures through a Kickstarter several years ago. They are sculpted by Pedro Ramos, who is one of my favorite creatives working in Blood Bowl.
A few of us from the Northern Virginia area are headed up to Ottawa for the Amorical Cup in early June. The Amorical Cup is designed to be a North American Team tournament for Blood Bowl. It was supposed to occur in 2020, but obviously that didn’t happen. Now it’s back! I thought it would be nice to give the Moot Points a fresh coat of paint and make them look a little more dynamic if we’re going to travel to a different country for Blood Bowl. I painted this team years ago. In this case, “painted” means I base coated them. They look fine on the table, but I know with a little TLC they could look so much better.
Unfortunately, I forgot to take BEFORE pictures of the miniatures I’m presenting today. I’ll make sure to grab those for the next batch. Overall, I need to touch-up 13 Halflings, 2 Treemen, and the star player Griff Oberwald.
I had recently picked up a few triads from Two Thin Coats (Black to dark grey, Ivory to white, wave 1 greens) and wanted to test out those paints. So I selected my Batman Halfling, Bruce Wyne. Bruce’s main colors are Grey and black, with yellow and blue as secondary colors. I wasn’t planning to glaze this time, so I expected the highlights to come across a little more cartoony than Argenti. I did REALLY like glazing the Vallejo Red-Violet into the skin recesses, so I started with that. I cleaned up all of the basecoats. They had accumulated a lot of chips and I had applied a very sloppy wash, which had really dulled the colors. I worked the skin a bit. It’s not my best work, but it’s definitely better than it was.
You can see I had a little trouble highlighting the black, especially on the helmet and shoulder pad. I still haven’t figured out how to highlight spheres. So I basically edge highlighted and picked out a few bright highlights. I suspect this will be a problem with the whole team. I was really pleased with the yellow highlights. You can really see them on the shoulder pad, but they ended up really helping the model pop.
Finally, I finished by basing the model with Geek Gaming Scenics spring “sawdust grass”. I just applied a layer of semi thick PVA and dunked it into the sawdust. So far, it’s been pretty durable. I will definitely add a white Blood Bowl lines (time permitting) once the team has been cleaned up.
Then I jumped over to Bisquey Batson (Shazam! Or Captain Marvel for you comics OGs out there). Bisquey had the same problems as Bruce. Again, I started by glazing red violet into the recesses of the skin and then brightening the skin up. Then I started working on the whites. I’m pretty sure the basecoat color was the grey from the old citadel foundation paints. I wanted to preserve some of that color in the shadows. I… didn’t do a great job. I used Ulthuan Grey as the next highlight, which REALLY popped the whites. I finished with some very limited highlights from Two Thin Coats Trooper White. I’m still working on Bisquey’s reds and golds, but he’s definitely moved up in the world. I am planning to finish him this week and get him based.
Howdy Readers! Welcome to January’s issue of A Tale of Many Warlords. Lets waste no time and get right into introductions, First up we have the Master of Disaster, and a very good friend of mine- Mike!
Mike P
An Epic Saga of Mike’s Miniatures: A Tale of Battlefields and Brushes
In today’s opening exploration, we delve into a topic that captivates the mind and sparks curiosity. Join me on this journey as we unravel the intricacies and discover the nuances of bringing Warhammer to life. From its historical roots to its contemporary relevance , we embark on a thoughtful exploration that aims to deepen our understanding and ignite meaningful conversation along the way. Welcome to a journey of discovery and enlightenment with our exploration my Hobby.
Rewind to two decades back, my journey into the realms of Warhammer began during the days of my youth in Middle School. It was a defining moment when I laid eyes on my inaugural Warhammer Models – the gallant Bretonnians, encased in the enchanting allure of an ancient Battalion Box.
From that pivotal moment, I found myself utterly captivated. The allure of the hobby became irresistible, compelling me to immerse myself in any way possible. I embarked on my inaugural journey, assembling my first army – the Warhammer Fantasy Vampire Counts. I eagerly earned every penny, even raking leaves and mowing lawns for a chance to expand my collection. The enchantment deepened as I delved into the mesmerizing pages of army books, developing a profound love for the old world and everything associated with Warhammer and Games Workshop. So intense was this passion that it led me to start another army, and thus, my quest for amassing an Empire Army began.
From the enchanting realms of Warhammer Fantasy, my passion for the hobby flourished. A delightful memory that still echoes in my mind is attending the Midnight Release/Mega Battle for ‘Battle of Skull Pass’ back in 2006 – an event immortalized by the poster that proudly adorns my collection (still can be seen in the above photo). As the years unfolded, I expanded my horizons, assembling an Imperial Guard (Astra Militarum) Army for Warhammer 40,000 and delving deeply into the Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game during my High School days. The pinnacle of my Warhammer Gaming golden age unfolded between 2007 and 2011, where playing all three systems at a Games Workshop at the Bel Air, MD store became the epitome of my tabletop adventures. I mean I was there every Saturday, every Sunday, and when I was finally able to drive I was there on week nights too. Reflecting on those years, every game I play today carries the spirit and memories of that golden era.
Then came the first heartbreak in my hobby journey: the closure of my local Games Workshop. A familiar sorrow for many seasoned hobbyists, it marked a somber and perplexing chapter. Determined not to relinquish what had become a significant part of my life, I persevered by redirecting my hobby pilgrimage to a store thirty minutes south, nestled in White Marsh, MD. Far from surrendering, I took a leap and applied to join the store as a part-time employee. To my delight, I secured the role and served as a part-time team member at the White Marsh Games Workshop from 2012 to 2013. Every moment was a joy, engaging in discussions about the hobby with longstanding enthusiasts, newcomers, and everyone in between. It was more than a job; it was my calling.
Regrettably, in 2013, that shop met a similar fate when it was closed down by Headquarters. This event marked the onset of what many seasoned hobbyists refer to as the ‘Hobby Dark Ages.’ It’s a phase where we still cherish the hobby but find ourselves detached, not keeping up with it as passionately as we’d like. It’s a shared experience among enthusiasts, a period of hiatus that everyone eventually encounters. My own Hobby Dark Ages persisted until 2017 when I had the pleasure of meeting new hobby buddies. This rekindled my fervor, and I once again found myself deeply drawn to being an integral part of this vibrant and awesome community.
Since then, I’ve had the pleasure of connecting with amazing individuals within various Warhammer hobby communities. My journey has taken me to tournaments and events spanning the United States and even across the pond to the United Kingdom. Throughout, I’ve remained dedicated to crafting my own Warhammer hobby experience to the best of my abilities.
Continuing my journey, I’ve taken a proactive approach by crafting my own hobby bucket list. This endeavor has led me to exciting experiences such as attending Adepticon, Las Vegas Open, and Warhammer World not once, but twice—stories that deserve articles of their own, reserved for another time. Among the aspirations on my bucket list, one goal stands out prominently—I am determined to establish and sustain my own podcast. In fact, a few years ago, I ventured into podcasting, creating my own show. Despite the initial enthusiasm, it didn’t progress beyond the third episode, but this setback only fuels my determination to make it a success in the future.
At present, my journey in the Warhammer Hobby is thriving. Nestled in the depths of my basement, I’ve curated a captivating hobby room—a haven where creativity and passion converge. Bolstered by a steadfast circle of hobby friends, our collective enthusiasm fuels the vibrant exchange of ideas and inspiration. Fueled by a resolute drive, I am unwavering in my commitment to advance my quest within the Warhammer Hobby. The combination of a dedicated space, a supportive network of friends, and an unyielding determination sets the stage for an exciting and fulfilling continuation of my Warhammer journey.
My Now Basement 2024: A gaming and hobby hideaway with full 6×4 table, towers of painted miniatures (some are hidden on that back wall), and a painting station to keep those creative juices flowing. It’s something that Ive always wanted- working 20 years for and is still a continued work in progress.
In closing, as I continue to embark on the ongoing journey of these articles, my aim is to delve into topics that currently captivate my attention as well as that of the audiences. Beyond sharing my personal projects (currently working on Warhammer Old World), I am eager to address questions that may linger in the minds of fellow hobbyists. Curious about the experience of conventions like Nova Open or Adepticon? Wondering about the logistics of a North American hobbyist making their pilgrimage to Warhammer World? These are the queries I aim to explore and demystify.
Warhammer World: This was the first picture that I took as I hopped out of my taxi in 2022.
If you have your own ideas or burning questions, don’t hesitate to reach out to me on Instagram @middleearth_mike. I’m here to engage with the community and bring forth content that resonates with your interests and inquiries. Until then, be good to each other and keep on hobbying.
I’m looking forward to seeing what Mike has to show us this year, an incredible painter, I have a feeling we will be seeing an incredible Warhammer: Old World dwarf army coming from him this year.
Next Up we have a new friend of mine and another longtime Warhammer enthusiast-Kevin!
About Me
I am a 38-year-old college professor and suburban dad of three. While I did a little bit of miniature wargaming in middle school, my real hobbyist career started after college for me, over 15 years ago. My very first army was Bretonnians, and while I have collected many armies since then, they have always remained my first love.
Granted, I was not a very good painter back then. This was just when Foundation Paints were just coming out (those are “Base Paints” for the youths), and so I was delighted with just doing one layer of paint and being done. I did try to paint all the knights different colors though.
About ten years ago, I sold (almost) my whole army. I just had my first kid, and I was not getting any games in, so I decided to sell the army and clear off some space.
I have regretted it ever since. The only painted miniature I have left from that army is one standard bearer on Pegasus, because I loved how the model turned out. It’s not my best, but I remain quite proud of it.
What I have been working on recently
I have admittedly really gotten into skirmish games these past two years, namely Kill Team, Necromunda, and Blood Bowl. A lot of folks in my area play these games, so I’ve been very motivated to get some miniatures on the table. As an added benefit to the Kill Team boxes, I was able to add to my terrain reservoir, which will hopefully come in handy with the games I have planned next year.
Some of the kill teams have been truly fun to paint, and less taxing than painting a whole army. Below are some of my favorites.
I have also started collecting an army for Epic…. Sorry, “Legions Imperialis”.
Another army that I have sold and regretted selling was my rather large Vostroyan 40K army, so I decided to recreate my Vostroyans in 30K (even though technically they did not participate in the Heresy).I’m not as excited about this army as I am about Bretonnians, but my friends are gearing up for a campaign so I figured I’d join in.
What will I be working on?
The number one hobby goal I have this year is to rebuild my Bretonnian army, only better. My main goal is to have each knight in its own heraldry, which much more thoughtful layouts of the coats of arms. I will be aiming to make some progress on these guys each month, hopefully a unit a month.
In addition to this project, I have a few other small projects to split up in between. Two Blood Bowl teams (Norse and Halflings), two kill teams (Votann and Kasrkin), and a new Necromunda gang (Cawdor) to split up my hobby work. I’m hoping I can share pictures of al of these guys as I complete them.
Kevin’s enthusiasm for his Brettonians has been palpable, and I think we have a lot to look forward to as we watch him recreate his army of yesteryear.
Michael S.
About Me
I walked into a Games Workshop for the first time about 16 years ago with no idea how much fun I’d have immersing myself in all of the aspects the hobby has to offer. From playing, painting, and reading as many Black Library novels as I can get my hands on, I’ve spent countless hours enjoying 40k and Age of Sigmar alike. Like many long-time fans, I’ve picked up and put down the hobby for periods. My most recent return to the hobby was in 2018, shortly after the release of 40K’s 8th Edition. I always tried to make time for hobbying during college, but it wasn’t until after I moved back to my hometown that I was able to make time for more regular hobbying and gaming sessions with friends.
Just over 5 years later, I find myself still enjoying the hobby just as much as I used to! Gaming and hobby sessions find themselves farther apart these days, but I still find myself coming back to miniature wargames when I get some free time.
What Have I Been Doing Lately
In the past year, I jumped on the Horus Heresy train. I had a great time playing my first few games and got a little in over my head reinforcing the 14th legion before my Age of Darkness box was fully painted.
In addition to making steady progress on my Heresy army, I’ve picked up a small Malifaux crew to hopefully get into some non-GW wargames. Putting the tiny models together was an absolute pain, but the sculpts themselves are beautiful!
In between larger goals I’ve also been taking time to work on unpainted units and develop a method for painting large units quickly. I’m guilty of having plenty of unpainted miniatures and getting far too invested in the details when I do get around to painting. I’ve been working on staying motivated and making sure I move quickly through rank-and-file minis so I can play with a fully painted army.
What Will I be working on?
Since the announcement of the Old World, I’ve been looking forward to finally getting a taste of Warhammer Fantasy. I was always too much of a sci-fi fanboy during Fantasy’s heyday to delve into the game, but in the past few years, I took a dive into Age of Sigmar and found a lot to love about the game. After playing a handful of games (and pouting about the double-turn), AoS quickly became my favorite wargame. When Fantasy’s return was announced, I immediately knew what army I would play…
You can expect to see lots of updates from me on the building, basing, and painting of the Old World’s spookiest skeletons.
Between updates and posts about my Tomb Kings force, I’ll also be aiming to include various smaller projects from my collection including various 40k and Sigmar models to break up the monotony. Here are a handful of pieces in various stages of completion that I am excited about.
Austin
About Me
I was introduced to the hobby by a friend of mine during middle school, soon to be 15 years back, when he brought in a Games Workshop catalogue. I was immediately enamored and begged my parents to let me begin playing, and for my birthday that year they brought me to the local GW and I picked out the Battle for Skull Pass set, with my initial focus being mainly on the Dwarfs. While I had a bit of a hobby low period in 2013 and 2014, by 2015, now having a job and no sense of finances, my hobby really kicked into high gear. The rest is history, and I have been playing not only Games Workshop games, but all manner of miniature games ever since – though now with a bit more restraint to my budget!
Over the past few years in particular, I have actually moved away from the likes of 40k and Age of Sigmar. While I have kept up with the Specialist Games, A lot of my hobby focus has shifted instead towards historical gaming. I have been thoroughly enjoying the likes of Black Powder and Bolt Action. Some of my friends are even musing over Pike and Shotte, so maybe we will see some of that from me in the coming months…
What Have I Been Doing Lately?
Over the past few years, I have committed myself to a myriad of projects, some of which have been false starts, and others of which I am very proud of. In terms of completion of projects this past year, I am all over the place – something which I am trying to remedy – but I have been able to complete several larger-scale projects, including two more Lord of the Rings forces: Theodred’s Guard, led by my converted Prince Theodred, and a Doubles half for the Black Gate Opens (which I plan to eventually make into a full army). I’ve also gotten a very solid amount of Prussians done for Black Powder.
In between the larger projects, I have been working occasionally on smaller ones, such as Blood Bowl teams and Necromunda gangs, as well as loads of Battlemechs. Though again, some false starts do mean I am left with some of these only partially completed, while others remain in-progress as palate cleansers.
Of course, my pride and joy of this past year has to be my Legions Imperialis force. This is perhaps my fastest force I have taken to completion, breezing through a fully 3000 points in only a few weeks. That said, I still have more to work on for it, including several Titans, as well as upcoming releases to bolster my forces and provide much needed transportation and fire support…
What Will I Be Working On?
Like some of the others here, the announcement of the Old World has brought me much excitement and jubilation. Initially, my plans were going to simply be to rebase and finish painting my Dark Elves, which would have been a fairly simple task as they are mostly complete. But as I was organizing my “pile of shame” and figuring what I could sell or what I wanted to keep, I came across a box of the new Age of Sigmar Squig Hoppers, reminding me of my start in the hobby with the Battle for Skull Pass set. And when a friend mentioned he was trying to get rid of a horde of those BFSP Night Goblins, I knew what I had to so. And so my main hobby goal will be the completion of a Night Goblin horde, the opposite side to the force I began with all those years ago! And I have even finished a test model!
Between my progress on the madcap maniacs, I’ll also be aiming to complete more models for my Corpse Grinder Cult gang, to aid in my group’s ongoing campaign, as well as finish off my Vampire and College of Life teams for Blood and Dungeon Bowl respectively. I will also likely work towards my initial plan of finishing off my Dark Elves, and updating them for the Old World – though perhaps much more slowly than initially anticipated. Besides that, some more Legions Imperialis will likely fly off my painting desk, and I even have some terrain in the works for that game that I am excited to show you all! Otherwise, who knows what else I will do in the meantime? I still have more mechs, as well as Italians, and Prussians, and even some sneaky magpies, that all need to get done eventually. Though whether the horde of cloaked hooligans will give me time for them or not is yet to be seen…
Jerry
After reading through these awesome write-ups and looking at some incredible models, I gotta say how excited I am to see the progress of each of these talented grog nards through the year. I will bring up the rear this time by giving a brief intro to who I am, how I got here in my Warhammer journey and how I plan to use 2024 to make some hobby progress.
I began my Warhammer journey about 20 years ago with the Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring starter set; I was instantly hooked.
Fast forward a few years and I discovered my number one love: The Imperial Guard in 40k. I’ve collected four Imperial Guard armies in the 15 years since, painting several hundred infantry and scores of vehicles.
Gaunt’s Ghosts! The novels were a key factor and I’ve luckily been able to grab a small group of the old metals over the past few years.
A Sample of Steel Legion that I finished a few years ago. I’m always looking for additions to this group so there may be more of these on the way if I snag a good deal.
A small group of Catachan that I painted previously, never did decide on a basing style for this group.
I’ve decided to spare you from going over my whole Cadian force but I cannot go over my hobby history without sharing my Cadians. Here is a sample of the whole force but I assure you, the above group does not even scratch the surface of my Cadian collection.
While the Guard was my first, greatest love, there has been other projects that have piqued my interest. I have spent a lot of time painting and playing Lord of the Rings and more recently the Horus Heresy. I actually just finished my second Horus Heresy army, a small Zone Mortalis Word Bearers force.
A small contingent of the Word Bearers force I finished late in 2023.My pride and joy, one of two Warhound Titans I finished this year.
Like several of my other warlords, my recent interest has been focused on the new Legion Imperialis and Warhammer: The Old World. For most of the next year, my focus will be on building, painting, and hopefully playing a new army for each of these systems.
For Legions Imperialis I eagerly await the release of bikes of all variety to begin a small White Scars force. For The Old World, I intend to finish the Tomb Kings army I began over 10 years ago. I am incredibly excited for these two games as the predecessors of each game were discontinued before I expanded my hobby away from Warhammer 40k.
Knowing me, I doubt my attention will be completely focused on Epic White Scars and the Monarchs of Khemri. My mind already wanders to other projects in the world of Warhammer Fantasy….The Empire sure does look good these days. I also have a veritable mountain of terrain that needs work for Horus Heresy. Oh and one other project that looms large above my desk…
A little preview of a project that may take my attention this year.
Thank you for reading the first installment of A Tale of Many Warlords! Now that we all know each other and have our feet under us, I look forward to seeing what my fellow warlords have in store for this year.
Please feel free to leave a comment below on what you think, what are you looking forward to the most? What models should the warlords paint first? Let us know below!
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Hello, and happy new year! With the new year always comes new ideas, goals or aspirations and this year was no different. When I started this blog last year, I didn’t really have a focus in mind, the goal being to write about the things I enjoy and share that with an audience of people that are interested in what I have to say.
As the year went along, I found I really enjoyed two things, writing movie reviews, and writing about my wargaming and painting. Sharing my hobby has been both cathartic and also a good way to keep myself motivated. Even when I haven’t been posting, I have been watching movies, and painting models.
So as I sit here in the new year, I have decided on a new format for this blog. I would love to provide more content for my followers, expand the participation in the hobby, and also to keep me and hopefully others more motivated to paint, play and to write about the hobby journey.
With that in mind, let me announce the focus of Urban Cowboy Hobbies for 2024…
A Tale of Several Warlords
Some of you may be familiar with the idea of a “Tale of Four Warlords” but if you are not, let me give you an introduction. A couple decades ago, a popular magazine in the hobby space named after a certain dwarf started a series called, as you might guess, “A Tale of Four Warlords” the idea of this series was simple, four hobbyists came together at the beginning of the year and made a solemn vow to each work on a hobby project that interested them and then post updates and pictures each month to document their progress. This series proved to be quiet successful, both as an interesting read, and as a tool to get the Warlords’ armies finished.
With the memory of those brave hobbyists in mind, I along with “several” other warlords will be embarking on a similar journey. As of today, I have four others planning on sharing this experience with me, and the initial update will be coming before the end of the month. My promise to you the readers will be to provide updates, hopefully at least once a month, maybe more! I will also be on the hunt for other hobbyists to provide some one off content, or possibly even join the monthly series!
PS: I will still be writing periodic content for other things as it fits me(probably mostly movie reviews). My lack of focus continues, don’t you worry.
The metals were Iron Hands Steel and Retributor Armor, both washed with Agrax Earthshade, and highlighted with Stormhost Silver and Liberator Gold respectively. I decided not to go with Chrome on these miniatures. While I love Chrome, and it makes everything pop, I felt as though it would’ve taken away from the more earthy tones of the Rohirrim. Maybe if/when I do Minas Tirith…
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