So to start this month off, I want to show you guys the Non-Adepticon related painting that I completed this month. Its a short list though so don’t worry, you’ll get your Adepticon coverage shortly!
The first and only model that I completed outside of Adepticon prep was the below Deathwatch Space Marine. I inherited a small Deathwatch army and combined it with my already existing (unpainted) Deathwatch force last year with the intent to (someday) paint it. My plans were moved forward as fellow warlord, Kevin C. has been painting up his Deathwatch and having so much fun doing it that I simply had to join in the fun!
You’ll see the first test model completed below, with the rest of his Kill Team not far behind. I really didn’t want to spend hours edge highlighting these models so I pulled out the airbrush to test my limits and get a nice deep black color.
I’m pretty happy with this tester, it really pulls off the “Special Forces” vibe that the Deathwatch are known for, but I think I will be punching up the grey highlights just a tad on the future models! I’m hoping to get the first 10 models done this month then hop over to finish those Old World Chaos warriors I showed off last month.
Adepticon
Next up we have the main event, Adepticon! I’m going to start out with a quick overview of the army I painted up for the event: My beautiful Ultramarines Boarding party for Horus Heresy! I’ve always wanted to build, paint, and play a force of marines all decked out in boarding shields, and this year’s Adepticon was the perfect opportunity! I didn’t grab any pictures of these lads on the table as I actually only played 1 game with them (I skipped the games to hangout with a couple of British chaps as you’ll read about down below) but they looked marvelous and will definitely be on the table again soon!
Other than Horus Heresy, I was able to play in the Lord of the Rings Doubles Tournament on Friday and partnered with my steadfast companion Middle Earth Mike, we brought a company of 50 Warriors of Minas Tirith to battle…3 battles to be exact!
It was a great outing for Gondor as we pulled out 2 major wins with only one loss! More importantly, we had 6 fantastic opponents and shared many beverages over the course of the day!
If we’re going to be honest, it was a miracle we stayed standing all day, and as such I won’t regale you with tales of the battles, I’ll just leave a nice gallery of pretty pictures below for your viewing pleasure!
I finished Adepticon off with a couple new skirmish games that I shamefully have now fully invested in. Below on the left, you’ll see a picture from a game of What a Cowboy! that I was able to demo, a fierce battle between a Mormon family and a small group of Confederados! You can read more about this showdown here on Goonhammer.com
The right picture above was taken during my first ever game of Warzone: Eternal, a brand new remake of an old wargame from the 90’s that was brought back last year via kickstarter. I walked by their booth in the vendor hall and was immediately smitten with the cool 90’s technopunk vibe of the models and the fast-paced game play. As I mentioned above, I am not fully invested in this game so expect to see some techno-samurai showing up on your hobby feed shortly!
As I continued my (very hungover) stroll through the vendor hall on Thursday, I came across a booth where you could test out the Two Thin Coats paint range, there was no way I was going to resist the opportunity! While I sat there, I was able to chat with a nice British chap about his new business, his new wife, and all of the exciting hobby projects that he is looking forward to over the next few months…oh and then another nice British chap came by and I just had to memorialize it as you can see below next to a nice little frog I painted up at the booth.
Once I was bitten by the painting bug (curse you Duncan) I absolutely needed to paint some more. I wandered around Adepticon forlornly for about an hour before I stumbled on a FREE hobby area! Adepticon yet again proving that it is Disney for wargamers! I grabbed a cheap brush from one of the many vendors around (I later found out they had free brushes, oh well!) and sat down to paint the event model that I received from Victoria Miniatures as part of my Adepticon swag bag!
As you can see, this model turned out incredible! I only had the one size brush and I knocked it out in just a few short hours but I am tremendously happy with the results!
Coming off of the Adepticon high, I am again so thankful for the ladies and gents that throw that incredible event every year. Every time I go I love it more and more- I feel like I still discover new and exciting new ways to enjoy the convention and I will definitely attend again next year! The discovery of Warzone: Eternal(more to come), Duncan’s Two Thin coats, and the Adepticon hobby area have me absolutely buzzing about the next convention…All of that on top of my normal excitement to play my normal games and explore the convention!
Until Next time, Adios!
Austin B.
Short-cuts Make For Long Delays
Well what started as a small detour to break up my painting and prevent burnout has turned into my primary focus. Having examined what I had all in my attic for Battletech, as well as the new releases coming out, plans for the two forces I discussed in the last article have ballooned to many now, as I split up my backlog between factions and try to fit the new releases into the mix as they come out. And, most hilariously, I have even detoured from the two factions I detailed last time in favor of others! No further work has been done on Clan Goliath Scorpion’s Omega Galaxy, or the Bavarian-inspired RDF2 of the Hanseatic League. Instead, others have taken hold of my attention, of whom I shall now regale you!
The first and most far-in are the first of my two custom Mercenary bands: the Solar Knights. Initially planned as a bit of a joke, I quickie decided I actually wanted to move ahead on them in earnest. The idea behind them is rather fun and amusing, with most of the mechs’ names being suitably ‘medieval,’ with such options as the Warhammer, Black Knight, Templar, or Longbow. My other Mercenary company is similarly themed, though I am far looser with theirs than here. Painting all of these took up the majority of the first half of the month, while I worked out more detailed plans for how to divide up my remaining mechs. AT this point, most have actually been allocated to one project or another, and I have only a few spares with no home. For now…
The second of my Mercenary bands, and far less completed than the first since they are a more recent project, again spun out of a joke. The theme this time around is the Wild West, with Scorpions and snakes (the Adder), and eventually Gunslingers, Marshalls, and Enforcers.I really quite like sticking to a theme with most everything. It can be quite fun and ground otherwise absurd projects. Hopefully I will get some more of these guys done this month. Perhaps polish off all the models I currently have for them. There are only about a dozen more to do!
Exiting the Inner Sphere, I’ve also found myself working on two complementary forces: Clan Snow Raven’s Zeta Galaxy, and the Alliance Grenadiers of the Outworlds Alliance. Both come together to form a combined Raven Alliance force, though they remain separate just as their two militaries still do in the lore. In larger games of Alpha Strike I may play the two of them together, but really they’re just two tangentially related painting projects under the Battletech umbrella. Technically Zeta Galaxy shouldn’t be around for the era I am intending to depict, but I’ll let that slide for what is a very cool and fun paint scheme. Best depicted on the Black Python, each mech actually has a jade rhombus painted on their torso. It’s just that for most of the mechs the shape wraps from the front of the torso to the back.
And last of all, heading back to the Inner Sphere, and back to my first Battletech faction, I have a single test model finished for yet one more project: the New Avalon Institute of Science’s (NAIS) Training Cadre, of the Federated Suns/House Davion.
For this unit my plans have not been totally finalized, but I don;y want to push much past a Company (so 12 mechs). I have about 8 models already picked out, so it’s just sorting out the final 4 or so. This unit was more born out of necessity, as with some of the new releases there were several cool mechs that I didn’t really have an appropriate faction to give them to. And with my initial Davions complete, for all extents, I decided that a new, smaller project to eat up some of these mechs would be a fun idea. Plus it was a great opportunity for some wild camouflage! I am hoping to complete a few more of these guys within just the next few days. But otherwise, stay tuned for much more mechs to come next month! That, and perhaps a detour back to Shatterpoint, with the new releases on the horizon…
Kevin C.
Cawdor Rehabilitation
Last year, fellow painter and blogger Austin traded my Nomads from the Ash Wastes box (which, honestly, I only got for the Orlocks and the terrain) for an abandoned project of his – Cawdor gangers. While my Orlocks will always be very near and dear to my heart, I’ve often felt that Cawdor epitomizes everything Necromunda – numberless, filth-covered gangers running around with weapons made out of literal trash.
This was the condition of the miniatures that I received from Austin – eight mostly painted, five with some paint on them, and about seven more that were not even assembled. I went about assembling and priming the unassembled ones, as well as an additional box of Redemptionists that I received for my last birthday (more on them later).
With the miniatures that were mostly painted, I just changed the robes color that he painted from a burgundy-purple to a brighter red, to give it more contrast. This was deliberately to unify the paint scheme for the entire Cawdor gang. I also based them and added some flame tufts on the base because, you know, Cawdor.
I next tackled some of the partially painted miniatures, which proved to be more difficult than I was anticipating. I couldn’t do an exact match for colors, so I ended up trying to unify the miniatures with some Agrax Earthshade, to at least cover the differences in grime and gradient. I also started playing around with different colors for the masks, and added some green for the eye lenses, since that will contrast well with the red and beige.
The miniatures that had no paint on them, I used some modified versions of what I had already painted, as well as some tips from online. I did not like the setup of the tutorial, so I will not post it here. Suffice to say, the video used the base – wash – rebase – highlight formula in the most obtuse way possible, reusing the same wash multiple times in contingent regions of the miniature. This really slowed down the painting, since I had to, unnecessarily, wait for the wash to dry before continuing. Not a fan.
Cawdor Redemption
As mentioned previously, I received a box of Cawdor Redemptionists for a birthday a while back, so I decided to add them to the painting queue. It proved… more difficult than I had expected to replicate the paint scheme I used for the gangers with the Redemptionists. I suspect this is because they were much less scraps and tatters and more robes and metal frames.
The final result was quite a bit shinier than I had anticipated, only partly due to the Chrome highlight I used (similar to what I used on my Word Bearers a few years ago which I really liked). They will definitely stand out against the rest of the gangers, but I lost quite a bit of the uniformity that I was going for. Maybe I will give the Redemptionists names, and then use the gangers as chaff in games.
RPG Miniatures
As a bit of a palette cleanser, I decided to take up two miniatures I have used in my ongoing in-person RPGs, Pathfinder and D&D. For Pathfinder, I play as a slightly older rapier-wielding swashbuckler, and I only had one miniature that met that scheme – Janus Draik from the Blackstone Fortress set.
I am quite pleased with how he turned out, and he really stands out as a flamboyant character on the table.
My second miniature was not a Games Workshop miniature, but one that I got from PAX Unplugged last year (https://dmminisus.com/products/dragonborn-paladin-krimmdar). I am playing as a gold dragonborn paladin in the D&D game that my college buddies have going on, so I tried to replicate what equipment my character has – adamantine plate, sun blade, etc.
I’ll be honest, I was not terribly pleased with the sculpt. A lot of detail was missing in the miniature, and so a lot of the contrast I was trying to put into the miniature just didn’t work. Even still, I was able to get a good adamantine effect using watered-down Talassar Blue Contrast over Leadbelcher, with some selective highlights of Chrome. The skin was inspired by this really great video on painting textured gold from Artis Opus (https://youtu.be/i7FeFkvcb38?si=me_c7yh3ckDpB1s-), and the sword was an adaptation of the tutorial on Demonic Hellblades using only Contrast Paints (https://youtu.be/ajZhDsrGa-A?si=T1qrBrFdAkRBAz_8 ).
Deathwatch Incoming
For my April project, I plan to complete my Deathwatch army, which has had quite the storied history. I was able to get a Dreadnought completed before the end of the month, so consider this a teaser.
Until next month!
Michael S.
This month I have more Imperial Fists to add to my slowly growing army and am finally getting back around to Old World. Recently I have been spending a lot of my hobby time playing other board games and card games, but towards the end of the month I got back into the saddle.
I took the better part of a Saturday morning this month to prime and basecoat a bunch of models, including some Hellblasters and a load of skeletons for my Tomb Kings
Basecoating Imperial Fists, even with an airbrush, is quite the test of patience. Many people like to prime in pink/red, but I prefer to work my way up through orange browns as it is much easier to color match in the event you make a mistake later during painting. It also brings out the shadows nicely without oversaturating them, leaving me with a nice muted yellow. These Hellblasters are still sitting primed alongside some other half-painted models, but they are at LEAST primed 😊.
I did manage to get some good work done on a unit of 5 scouts. For the first time, I was happy with the way the fatigues on the scouts turned out. In my long history of painting I have always attempted cream-colored fatigues, only to be disappointed with the final look. The bright yellow of the armor gave me an opportunity to go with a darker, near-black for the cloth.
I incorporated some extra urban rubble into the bases with a simple color pallete of black, browns and greys. The leather pouches need some attention, and the armor needs to be pinwashed, but these guys certainly look good enough to hit the table for now.
While I didn’t have a ton of progress this month, my curio cabinet is starting to come together and is at least all yellow, and only a few intercessors didn’t catch the muted yellow memo. Seeing this small army start to take shape has me excited to paint even more!
Tomb Kings progress has been limited to giving the dragon some proper jewelry and a drybrush. I was initially worried about the model looking too boring, so I tried to work in some reds and purples into the shadows. Not much, but just enough to add some visual interest. So far so good!
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.
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! I don’t know about you but the month of March felt more like a week than a month and I cannot believe we are already a quarter of the way through 2024 already. The good news is that the Warlords have been hard at work this month getting some stunning minis painted.
The even better news is that we have added another member to our already stacked writing crew. If we add any more all stars to this crew we will be giving the AP a run for its money. Without further adieu lets get started with our newest member…
Joe
Salutations! I’m new to AToMW crew and generally a novice hobbyist. I’ve been playing Blood Bowl since ~2010 but have recently begun to expand to Necromunda and Kill Team. I’ve been painting for a while, but I’ve never made an effort to push myself to develop past a basecoat + shade. I’ll be using this space to catalogue my experiments and motivate continued hobbying.
The Junktown Jesters – House Escher, Necromunda
I arbitrate a local Necromunda campaign (some of the AToMW also participate), but I don’t currently play. A local one-day event popped up with a fairly low gang rating (600 vs the usual 1000) and that convinced me to make the push to paint up a few Escher. The Escher have access to all sorts of poisons and that enticed me to give them a try.
I had a batch of Escher already assembled from the Necromunda Underhive box from ~2017. I picked the figures with loadouts similar to my desired gang list and primed them with Vallejo white primer from an airbrush. A quick note: I had upped my painting by underpainting and then applying contrast paints (which is my form of Slap Chop). I prime white, cover the miniature in a wash, and then dry brush heavily to restore highlights. I’ve mostly switched back to using true acrylics (you can judge the results yourself), but I still do this to pop details and help with shading. I struggle with shading and highlighting.
I decided to start with a Necromunda base, which I primed white… like an idiot. It still worked, but it required a lot more work than if I had just primed it black. I’ve learned my lesson. However, I was VERY pleased with the results. I even freehanded the hazard stripes (which you can probably tell!).
This “recipe” is not mine. I took it from Brush and Boltgun and use it almost exclusively now. There is certainly more I could do, but this was good enough for me. I ended up painting about 3 more before moving on to the ladies.
I had included a death maiden in my gang, but I didn’t have any death maidens built. I also didn’t really like the poses included in the plastic GW kit. Instead, I used one of my two resin Kira the Huntress models (she’s the OG Death Maiden after all). I’ve never played Escher before and this was an expensive conversion. I decided to protect my investment by magnetizing the possible weapons she could have. In the end, the magnetization wasn’t perfect, but it did work out. I ended up magnetizing 6 different arms (3 left, 3 right) for use but decided to focus first on a needle pistol and stiletto sword.
You can see an example of my underpainting here. The body has been coated in diluted indigo ink (roughly 10:1 glaze medium to ink). I use glaze medium to dilute this wash because I believe it coats the model more smoothly and pools nicely in the recesses. It does dramatically increase the dry time though.
I was pretty excited about how this model was turning out. I had also settled on a theme for this gang. Every member was going to be painted like a member of Batman’s Rogues Gallery. The Death Maiden seemed like a perfect fit for Poison Ivy.
I knew that I wanted to do a dark green/bright green color scheme. I also knew that I wanted her to have an inhuman skin tone (Death Maidens are pumped full of chemicals and brought back to life). The greens are both done with acrylics (Forest Green from Reaper and Moot Green from GW) with special care to leave some of the indigo underpaint showing. I think the skin was Gauss Blaster Green from GW. I used contrast paints for the hair, leather, and horns. Overall, I thought this was a dramatic improvement from some of my previous work. The model had some clear shadows, but still comes across flat due to the lack of highlights.
I really wanted a grenade launcher in my Escher gang. I own nearly every Escher weapon pack. None of them contain grenade launchers. I did happen to have an extra genestealer cult grenade launcher. Now listen, I cannot claim to be a kitbasher. However, I was feeling adventurous. So I cut some stuff up, dremel’d off an extra hand, and made an ostentatious ONE HANDED grenade launcher.
In hindsight, I would make some changes (especially under the barrel). At the time? Oh man, this was like doing cocaine. I made this stupid little thing from parts that didn’t go together! Also, a character with a over-sized gun? I knew just the one…
Harley Quinn has that obnoxious popgun in the animated series. I decided this grenade launcher would be its spiritual successor. I challenged myself to do the quartered red/black pattern (first with contrast, then redone with acrylics). I also worked to keep the indigo undercoat on the skin and whites to make them cool whites. I was shooting for a white pleather look with the belts and skirt. I’ll need to go back and find a way to make it stand out a little more from the skin. I also want to add red diamonds to the grenade barrels. This became my favorite model from the bunch.
Just to speed things along, I finished up my leader (represented as the Joker) with quick contrast paints over a slightly modified underpaint job (I added some specific highlights with white before the contrast paints) then painted two Juves, the Dee Dees (from Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker).
You’ll notice I didn’t do anything with the feathers. I still have no idea what to do with them, but I was running out of time and decided I’d come back to them later. I haven’t.
Overall, this was a HUGE hobby project for me. The turnaround was roughly two weeks and I felt like I really pushed myself to try some new things (or revisit things I haven’t done in 5 years… like magnets). I know, dear reader, you have no benchmark for my skills. You’ll just have to trust me that this was a significant step forward for me. I do plan to revisit these ladies, expand the gang, and spend some more time bringing them to life in the future.
The Wynna Dun Warriors – Dwarves, Blood Bowl
My gaming goal this year is to have played every team in Blood Bowl at a tournament. I have 7 teams remaining: dark elves, high elves, elven union, amazons, lizardmen, chaos dwarves, and dwarves. My dwarf team is from the now defunct Star Player Miniatures and was purchased back before GW returned to Blood Bowl. They’ve been assembled and primed for a LONG TIME. I finally decided I was ready to play them. It’s ~12 players total and I’m using them to practice layering and highlighting. Another note: I was terrified of ruining basecoated models with bad highlighting. No more! I’m gonna learn to do this. And generally, I’m quite pleased with the results.
This was my test model for the dwarves painted back in January. I was very pleased with how the skin turned out. I think I did Darkoth Flesh over a basecoat of Tan Skin from Reaper and then did some baby highlighting. I also highlighted the beard and the greens. The beard turned out okay, you can barely tell on the greens. I was still very intimidated here. So I watched a couple videos, notable this one by Vince Venturella, and decide I was never going to get better by being scared. So i adequately thinned my paints and decided to take a crack at another line dwarf.
Look at those greens pop baby! Was this perfect? No. I definitely highlighted a few things too much, but I had a blast. It was awesome to mix the colors (I went with 3 colors with a midtone between) and see the model start to come alive. These images don’t show it (I was so psyched about the green I temporarily forgot the rest of the model), but I did go back and work on the rest of the model. The skin and hair didn’t turn out as nice on the model, but I was still very happy with the end result. On the table, no one will ever notice the flaws but they will notice how much his helmet pops.
I was able to get one more of these experiments done, this time a Troll Slayer that had been partially basecoated months ago.
Again, I was very happy with the greens on this model. I love the way that the bent knee under the skirt pops. I think I over highlighted on the helm, but again it will still look pretty sweet on the table top. Again, the skin turned out okay. There was a lot of skin here and some miscasting of the metal along the back. I will try some different things in the future.
Heartsdale Hedonists – Chaos Chosen, Blood Bowl
I had to put the dwarves on a brief hold because I needed to paint up a model for the Big Lick Brawl team tournament that happens in Roanoke. Due to the team build requirements, I was unable to play one of my 7 missing teams. This will happen again in June for the Amorical Cup. Ah well.
I paid a fellow named Rawlin to paint my Chaos Chosen team way back. It was my first fully painted Blood Bowl team. I absolutely love it. However, when GW revised the rules for Chaos Chosen in 2020 they gave them access to either a minotaur, ogre, or troll. I have a minotaur, but this time my team includes an ogre.
Here is the minotaur from the team, Aurum Barre. I was very hesitant to say “Hey! This mino is an ogre” because folks are gonna forget. Instead, I’ve decided to try and paint up a Chaos Ogre to match this team painted by someone with significantly more skill than me. I decided that this was probably a fool’s errand, so I should probably use this time to keep trying new things. First, I decided to do a zenithal highlight with my airbrush. Second, if I was going to spend the time doing a zenithal I might as well try to glaze to keep those shadows. Oh, and I decided to make my own base using greenstuff to mimic the bases from the painted team.
Here is the ogre post-zenithal. I don’t think this picture really does it justice. I did a three-tone zenithal (black, grey, white) and you can definitely tell where the model has shadows and highlights. I was generally pleased with the result. If I continue to enjoy glazing, I may continue to improve my technique.
Here is my attempt to greenstuff the base to match the rest of the team. Again, this turned out much better than I expected. Applying the primer really made things come to life. We’ll see how it goes.
I started by working on the skin. My friend Joe has been pressing me to try glazing into the recesses to make my skin pop. Well I finally did it! I used Vallejo Red Violet and went to town. You might notice the recesses are quite stark… I definitely needed to dilute my paint some more. Oh well! I’m gonna be glazing some more highlights onto the skin, so we can touch-up as we go. The almost cartoon contrast looks really awesome on the table.
I also decided to glaze some more red violet into the recesses of the pink too. Again, very pleased with the results. I did manage to do some work on the fur and apply to some blacks, but I didn’t get any pictures of those! I’ll finish him up this week. So you’ll have to wait until next month for the finals, dear reader!
Overall, a pretty good month (even if I sneaked a few things from Jan/Feb in here too). Thanks for stopping by!
Michael S.
This month I’ve been working on a few different projects in parallel. My primary focus for the beginning of the month was my heresy-era Death Guard. I’ve enjoyed the game a ton and am excited to get a fully painted army on the table. I got a lot of models basecoated a few months ago, but still had a lot to do.
I finished painting most of the details on a 5-man support squad wielding plasma guns. I had a ton of fun painting some awesome plasma glow on the guns.
In some of the games I’ve played, I’ve felt like I needed a small cheap unit with a little extra punch in taking out heavy infantry. Hopefully these guys will slot in nicely! All I need to do here is paint some lenses, apply a bit of streaking grim to the rest of the unit
Similarly for my Death Guard, my tactical squads had been on hold initially as I was waiting for some legion heads from Forge World. I had two squads of 15 set aside and primed, along with another Heavy Support squad.
I made the least progress on this unit, but still made a big step towards finishing them! I was able to lay down all the base colors, which leaves just a quick wash with Mortarion Grime left. By putting down all the metallics and colors before, I can go over the whole model and achieve some subtle shading/grim all over. This complements some detailed weathering using streaking grime.
Last on my list of projects is a unit of Skeleton Warriors for my Tomb Kings army. I am super excited about how these came out, and how efficient I was able to make the painting process.
I started out with a zenithal undercoat, which is the norm for me at this point. Zenithal undercoat + contrast is quickly becoming my favorite way to paint line troops, and even some centerpiece models. My only variation is that I dislike using a black undercoat in MOST situations. Instead, I like to work with dark colors that match the overall done of the model. I personally find pure black makes a lot of colors look weirdly washed out as they move into shadow. In this case, I started up from Stynlrez’s dark brown primer.
From there, I layered on a few transparent paints to quickly build up the base of the model. I had fully painted up a test model, just to make sure I knew the direction I would be taking things.
From there I was able to easily assembly line the whole painting process. I managed to get most of the base colors down, and all I have left is some select edge highlights and shading the gold on all the models. For this unit, I opted to go with a slightly cold undertone on the gold. Starting out with a greenish-gold, I washed it all with purple to further push some colors into the shadows.
Thats all for me this month! Next month, I’ll be a bit busy, but my goal is to completely finish all 3 of these units and complete building all the models from my Tomb Kings army.
Austin B.
March Progress
In our last monthly update article, I had mentioned my lack of motivation after recent incidents had left me drained, both physically and mentally. The feeling continued on throughout much of February, leaving me dry on content to post for you all. Even as I pushed through base coating 90 Night Goblins, I wasn’t really feeling it – more just going through the motions. It was all very robotic. This, coupled with a growing dislike for how the Night Goblins play, at least as a pure force, really didn’t give me much reason to keep up work on the madcap maniacs this month, much to my dismay. But a couple of other projects filled the gap for me this month instead, and I have made some impressive progress in regards to them, even with my seemingly dwindling time to spend upon these projects. So what are these projects, you might ask?
Well, my local game store runs game and demo days for a few different games, on a consistent schedule. The last Tuesday of every month, for example, is Bolt Action day, while the first Tuesday of every month is Star Wars Shatterpoint day. This only started in January, but my absence from life for two weeks meant that I missed the inaugural events. Still, I mention those games specifically because they are what all my progress this month will about. We’ll start with Bolt Action
Now, I already played Bolt Action, though not with any regularity. I have a few friends who play, but we switch between games constantly. Meanwhile, the other closest store to me runs their Bolt Action game nights on days in which I am normally working in the office, almost two hours away. So it would be safe to say that any drive I had for painting up my remaining backlog of Bolt Action models was fairly low. And I have quite the backlog! Finally, however, at the end of February, I was able to attend the second Bolt Action day, and I had a lot of fun! It was nice to bust out my armies and terrain, and show things off, and even better to play again after a long time of having not. And with that, I felt my motivation come surging back to me, and I felt the urge to paint up my Bolt Action once again!
I own, at current, three different armies for the game. My initial force, Canadians, are mostly painted, with enough done to play up to 1500 points without any bare plastics (or metal!) in sight – but I have plenty alternate units for varied lists that still need work done on them. I have also been slowly working on Italians (Decima MAS to be specific) as an Axis-aligned force to sit opposite my Canadians, though I still have much to grab (and paint, of course) before I can count them as complete. However, it is my third force that we will be discussing today: the First Special Service Force, or just the Force – or FSSF – for short. Though to the Germans they were known as the Devil’s Brigade…
The Power of Motivation – Or How I Stopped Worrying About The Details And Just Started Painting
The Force! While I am still missing a few special weapons and vehicles that I would like to add to it, it’s already at a size far above a standard game. And yes, that’s my terrain in the background!
For a brief overview, the FSSF was a joint American-Canadian commando unit, initially conceived and trained for sabotage operations in Axis-occupied Norway. With the operation’s cancellation, they were instead deployed to Italy in late 1943, where they participated in such major battles as Monte la Difensa and Anzio. While short lived – being disbanded in late 1944 – the Force was the model for the future Special Forces Groups and other foreign equivalents. It’s an oft-not discussed unit participating in an oft-not discussed theatre, so I certainly implore those interested to look into this unit – and honestly the whole of the Italian campaign – further. Luckily, Warlord Games has somewhat recently released two campaign books on the subject of the Italian Campaign, which are filled with plenty info, scenarios, and new units and armies specific to that theatre. In-fact, it was the impending release of Soft Underbelly which got me into the game in the first place!
Infantry make up the backbone of any Bolt Action list, and I have a lot of them here! Armed with a mix of rifles, carbines, submachine guns, automatic rifles, and even the forgotten Johnson light machine gun, I have a lot of choice here!
But enough about history, I want to dedicate this little section to the topic of motivation! Motivation is certainly something we mentioned a lot in relation to the hobby, but I do not really see it discussed much beyond that. Yet it is something that affects us all – and our progress – greatly. Highs can really help us push through tough projects, while lows can make those projects even tougher. It can sometimes be hard to motivate yourself, but the communities and people we surround ourselves with can be powerful motivators, which I am sure can be seen above. And if you can harness that motivation when it does come to you, you can achieve great feats… That is, ifyou can do so before it leaves you once again.
Some commanders, to lead from the front and the back! As well as various weapons teams, and a group of medics. Meanwhile the 456th Parachute Artillery Battalion provides some much needed “heavy” fire support, with towing provided either by the mules, or the Dodge ¾ ton truck. The mules were especially useful to the Force in the rough, mountainous terrain of Italy!
For me in particular, I struggle constantly with the fact that I can be a bit too detail-oriented, and I put a lot of time and effort into my models. This makes for some stunning work but doesn’t necessarily make for timely completion of projects. Even smaller projects such as Blood Bowl teams can take me long periods of time to complete, and I can often find my motivation waning part-way through, especially for longer projects – hence why finishing up some of those incomplete teams are a part of my overall hobby goals for this year! So how did I knock out an army like this in a little over two weeks? Well, just as the title for this section says, I just stopped caring about the details.
The vehicles are where the majority of the actual detail work was put. Particular care was taken with the placement of transfers to make them look correct – though I did not go so mad as to add the bumper codes!
You’ve probably noticed from the photos so far that these figures aren’t quite up to the same hobby standard as the Night Goblins I have been sharing so far. The idea with this project wasn’t necessarily to produce a truly stunning force, but to simply knock one out as fast as I possibly could. I had a lot of miniatures to paint, having collected all my various options to allow me to build effective forces at various game sizes. The Force here is 82 models (more once you count the mule drivers and vehicle crews amongst those numbers), and I needed to be able to get through it all at once or I knew I was liable to not finish it, ever. Even now I’m still waffling on painting the last pair of vehicles I have for them – though incentive to finish them is low with how much fun the GMC in particular has been to run!
As a last and fun little note, all the infantry models for the Force are metal. Yes, metal! The models are mostly from Artizan’s specific Devil’s Brigade line, or their line of US Paratroopers (due to the similarity in uniform cut). There are a couple of models from Warlord (an MMG team, and both Jeeps) and Brigade Games (a pair of Johnson LMGs). Meanwhile the GMC and ¾ ton truck come from Rubicon Models. And the Mules? Well they’re actually from Wizkids’ Pathfinder Deep Cuts line! I really love the fact that I have my pick of manufacturers in regards to Historical models, and hopefully I’ll be able to show off a few more interesting finds throughout the year as I show off some of my other Historical projects.
I have actually gone back since these pictures and finished the basing on these model, adding flower tufts and clump foliage to really give them some life. I may show some of that off in next month’s update…
May The Motivation Be With You, Always
Now that I have probably talked to death about Bolt Action, let’s move onto Star Wars Shatterpoint! Before this month, I had not played a single game of Shatterpoint. I had an interest in it as it was first coming out, but my friends did not seem as excited. So I held off on getting anything for it. However, seeing that my local store was running a game and demo night, I figured I may as well try it out. And with the recent release of the two Ewok Squad Packs, my interest had already been piqued yet again. So I went to the event, and much as the Bolt Action one I had a ton of fun. The group was very friendly and inviting, and the game was really enjoyable. Not even a week later I was walking out with the two Ewok Squad packs to start my own burgeoning collection… followed by the Fearless and Inventive Squad Pack a week after that! I was fully hooked. And with progress on the Force coming to a close, I was already feeling the draw of another Force…
That said, progress on this front has been slower. I haven’t had the same amount of time in these last few weeks as I did in the first two weeks of this month. As such, only the models in the first image are actually complete – and not even, as their bases have yet to be done! But I still have not decided on how I want to do their bases, anyways, so I am leaving that to the end. Still, I have been chipping away at this little project every day or so, putting paint to brush when I can – when I’m not playing, that is! Hopefully I’ll have this lot done by the time we update next, maybe with some new additions…? I’ll probably talk more then about my experiences with the game too, hopefully then having more than two games under my belt.
Revisiting My Goals
Now, as I had noted earlier on in my part of this post, I have actually not been entirely enjoying the way Night Goblins play as a pure force in The Old World, and the arrival of the Orcs and Goblins Arcane Journal – as well as the returning models – has given me a lot more options to mull over. It is very likely that I will be revising my goals in regards to my Old World army, switching to another list which contains fewer – or maybe even no – Night Goblins. We shall see. I have been mulling over lists for both the Nomadic Waaagh and the Troll Horde Armies of Infamy, as well as just some standard Grand Army lists with more Orcs about. I’ve still got my current focus squarely on Shatterpoint, and I have a few other projects I could turn to in order to consume my time as I think, but hopefully I will have a more concrete idea on what I want to be doing with my Orcs and Goblins come either next month, or the month after, as well as maybe some things to show you to that effect! In any case, that is all for me at this time. Tune in next month to see what entirely different project I decide to do then!
Kevin C.
Now that all my guys have been assembled, based, and primed, it was time to paint. I did attempt a zenithal priming job with these guys. I used a dark primer (either black for the knights or brown for the filthy peasants) over all the miniatures, and using a Wraithbone or Grey Seer primer from the top for a zenithal coat. While it did give me a good lighting on the miniatures, it ended up being mostly a waste of time, since I used several coats on my knights, so the primer made almost no difference.
Heraldry
So, I know that Border Princes Exiles list is all the rage for Net Lists for Bretonnians these days, but honestly I couldn’t imagine doing anything other than an Errantry War list. The entire lore behind Bretonnia just screams going out on a quest, so of course I had to do it. Many people balk at the idea of having to paint several different heraldic devises, but I see that as a feature, not a bug.
However, unlike my previous army from 15 years ago, I decided to be smarter about this army’s heraldry. Real-world French heraldry would generally use five colors (red, blue, black, green, and purple) and two metals (gold/yellow and silver/white). Purple was incredibly rare due to its expensive nature, so it was generally reserved for royalty, leaving us with four regular colors. In-lore Bretonnia tends to shun the idea of using green in heraldry, for two reasons. Green is cheap to produce, so it tends to be worn by peasants, therefore not something that noble knights want to use. Also, green tends to be associated with the Fey (i.e. The Green Knight), which is also not something knights are keen to emphasize. So, that leaves us with black, red, blue, white, and yellow.
Moreover, we should not just use the combinations willy-nilly. According to the Rule of Tinctures (yes, it’s a thing), charges of color should not be on a field of color, and charges of metal should not be on a field of metal. So, one should not have a white emblem on a yellow field, or a black emblem on a red or blue field. This limits your emblem/field tincture combinations considerably.
My Paint Scheme
So, much of my paint scheme was shamelessly stolen from Duncan Rhodes’ great tutorial on YouTube, making changes for the Citadel paints (since there no reliable vendors for Two Thin Coats in my area) and changing up the heraldry. That being said, I think the tutorial worked out great – check it out for yourself.
For the emblems, I was able to find some really great decals on Etsy, since the Bretonnian army set only came with a very limited set of axe decals (not anticipating people using multiple heraldries for their knights).
I managed to get all 12 knights, two lances worth, painted before the end of the month, and I’m pretty pleased with the results.
I am hopeful that I can complete the last four knights (the three Pegasus knights and the Duke on Royal Pegasus) by the end of next month – in between my kids’ Spring Break and a planned trip to Texas.
What Else I’ve Been Working On
I was able to finish a group of miniatures that have been on my shelf for over a year (received for Christmas 2022) – my Norse Blood Bowl Team! I wasn’t terribly pleased with the eyes on the guys, but I’m glad with the color scheme.
And I can’t forget to add these nice bad boys, for when my Vikings get thirsty…
Until next month!
Jerry S.
March was a busy month for me, I spent over half the month out of town but I was able to some of my in-progress minis with me to get some much needed hobbying done. All in all I got most of what I wanted to achieve done this month so I can’t complain too much.
To start, I finally began painting my epic minis. I began with painting the bases for all of my White Scars infantry as well as a couple knights I had sitting around. While I haven’t began painting the infantry, the popular opinion seems to be that painting the bases separately is the way to go.
As you can see, I decided to paint my bases a very light grey with some darker black/grey road accents. This very neutral basing scheme should really let the brightly colored miniatures pop. I will likely stick to a similar scheme when I begin painting the Legions Imperialis board that has been occupying my 3d printer the past few weeks-very excited to track the progress on that.
I started small with the infantry bases but the fun on Epic scale modeling is the ability to field truly massive units and there is nothing more massive than the mighty Warlord Titan.
Titans in a Epic Scale
As many of our readers may know, I subscribe to the belief that the best models are blue models, and as such, my titans will be members of the bluest Legio: Legio Astorum aka, “The Warp Runners”. Known for their speed and their blue color scheme.
Step one: the superstructure has been based, washed and dry-brushed. I stuck with a simple scheme for the metallics because I’m lazy and because I felt that the blue and yellow armor plates should be the highlight of the model.
Really happy with the way this model turned out, the pale yellow accents really works well with the dark blue primary colors. I still need to add transfers, and GW has yet to send me the 120mm base this big guy will eventually call home but I’m waiting until I finish the last three titans before I add transfers and the final basing.
Booty Shot
After the Warlord, I decided to stay big, but not as big. I was lucky to trade away half my Legions Imperialis starter set to fellow warlord Austin for the above pictured Warlord titan as well as the 2 Warhound titans below and since I was cruising through the Warlord I thought the Warhounds were a logical next step.
Growing up, I remember seeing my first Warhound titan in a Gamesworkshop. I was only in my early teens but I was blown away by the size, detail and design of the iconic model. All these years later I am still enamored by the Warhound titan and I have actually built and painted 2 in full scale.(I walked throught the building process on this very blog!) Seeing these legendary models in Epic scale has been a treat. The Gamesworkshop design team has really brought their A-game with these minis and even standing at a quarter height these warhounds are still stunning models.
Warhound #1/4: I haven’t named any of my titans yet but I based the color scheme and livery off of my 28mm scale WarhoundsWarhound Titan #2/4: I really love these models, I had much more room to add detail and I will likely go back at a later date to add some more.
Tombs and their Guards
Next up on the docket this month was my burgeoning Tomb Kings army. Last month I showed off pictures of my first regiment of Skeleton Warriors decked out in turquois and white scheme that my friend (and fellow warlord) Mike and Fiance have affectionately dubbed the “Tarheel scheme”.
This month I went way back to some models that have been hiding in a box for over a decade since I bought them new in a now closed model train store. I am happy to report I finished my 20 skeleton-strong unit of OG tomb guard as well as the original Tomb Herald from 20 years ago. My plan was to finish 2 units of my Tomb kings but unfortunately as often is the case, life got in the way of that.
Nonetheless, I am very happy with my progress this month and am happy to see this army grow!
First Up we have the first painted character in my army- The ubiquitous Tomb Herald. This is hardly my favorite model- in fact it may be my least favorite model that I own but alas, I have to get it done.
Since the main theme of my army will be based around the mortuary cult who’s colors are red and black, I decided that the army’s banner should have a similar scheme. I’m not sure this was the correct call as the browns combined with black and a dark red don’t really allow the banner to pop on the table as much as I would like so I may change that later.
My gripes with the color scheme on the Tomb Herald are not present in these tomb guard however as I think the scheme really works for these elite warriors. While the new Tomb Guard are absolutely beautiful models I love these old school skeletons for different reasons. I think they more perfectly fit the theme of the Tomb King’s Mortuary Cult that I am building toward. I love these models even with their flaws and they will be a regular on the tabletop in my house.
The first 10 Tomb Guard, I have 20 painted but unfortunately I forgot to pick up super glue at the store this weekend so the second 10 are missing their shields-I promise they are done though!A closer look at these fantastic models.
A question for our readers, what good are Tomb Guard if they have no tomb to guard? Not much good at all I suppose, which is why I got to work on my printer and was able to print out a beautiful tomb that will over time grow to a full Tomb Complex and serve as a fitting battlefield for my games of Warhammer: The Old World over the next couple years.
A full body shot of my first Tomb Kings Terrain, complete with Tarheel skeletons to show scale.
There never seems to be enough time in the month to get done as much hobbying as I’d like but I am pretty happy with my results this month. Between work and a much needed Vacation, I was only home half of March so I can always fall back on that excuse.
April is looking to be another crazy month for me in the UCH household. With more travel taking my time away from my hobby projects, I will temper my expectations on Hobby progress. With that being said I hope to update y’all in a month with at least one more Tomb King’s unit completed, hopefully some sort of update on my Legions Imperialis army and if everything goes well, I hope to have my full scale Reaver Titan prepped and cleaned for a very productive May.
Well that’s all we have for you this month over at Urban Cowboy Hobbies. There’s a lot still to come this year so stay tuned. Let us know in the comments what you are most excited to see in the next couple months!
The weather is starting to better, the days are getting longer and it’s finally time for another installment of your favorite Warhammer blog series. This was the first full month many of us had our Warhammer: The Old World minis and as you are about to see, we made a ton of progress, if not a lot of painting progress….
Michael S.
This month I spent more time than I hoped assembling models.
The Stone Age
I am naturally a bit slower than most when it comes to the building and painting process. I absolutely HATE seeing mold lines on a mini while I am painting, so my excitement to build some retro models lasted about 10 minutes, or as long as it takes to trim horrendous mold lines from a single skeleton torso. Many years of building modern kits has spoiled me on what I consider a long clean-up job for a mini, so after crawling across the finish line for my first 10 skeletons, I knew I had to change something about my process.
The Industrial Age
Knowing I had to build another… checks notes… 62 skeleton warriors drained me of most of my remaining excitement. I was in for the long haul and there was no turning back.
One of the few redeeming qualities of miniatures made in the 90s/2000s was the ability to mix and match parts. Very few pieces were numbered, and all you had to do was glue some arms to a body and that body to a base. It wasn’t until somewhat recently that mono-pose kits became the norm much to the displeasure of kitbashers everywhere. Another bonus of these interchangeable parts was that there was ALMOST no way to assemble your minis incorrectly. With this in mind, I pulled out my heavy duty clippers and got to work clipping out all the remaining skeleton spearmen. After about 15 minutes of focused work, I was left with my very own homemade box of citadel skulls!
My gameplan here was to streamline the process by building them all at once in an assembly line.
Clip out all the parts
Use a sharp hobby knife to cut away any extra material left from the sprue
Use a dull hobby knife to scrape away any mold lines
Use some fine sandpaper to smooth out any harsh lines left by previous steps
Assemble
With a plan in place, I wasted no further time. I trimmed each piece, and moved it to the other side of the bin. Each step only used a single tool, so I didn’t have to worry much about picking up and putting down the same tool hundreds of times over the course of the whole kit.
This was the most time consuming part of building, but if you want great looking models, you have to start with a cleaned miniature. This is even more important for older models where the molds aren’t in great condition. The images below show a before and after of some pretty severe mold slips. That’s definitely going to leave a mark if not addressed in assembly. You’ll notice a few mold lines on the spine that just aren’t worth the effort, but the legs trimmed up nicely.
Mold lines that follow sharp edges on the model are often missed. I find taking a few seconds to clean these adds a lot to a mini’s final appearance. Edge highlights on super sharp edges (Like the shield on the right) have a tendency to be unnaturally thin compared to even a razor thin edge highlight on more rounded corners. Making sure all of your “sharp” edges are similar in shape makes it easier to get a good consistent edge highlight. Since the shields are going to be a major focus of these soldiers, it pays to take a little extra time now to prep them.
Once I took my final pass on all the parts, I sorted them as I went into small bins to keep parts of each type together. This made the assembly stage fly by. All in all I was able to assemble the other 30 spearmen in about 9 hours from start to finish. While it is by no means blazing fast, I am reasonably happy with the amount of time I spent given I was able to make all but a few mold shifts completely disappear.
From here on out, the rest of the process felt like assembling a lego kit.
The Information Age (Learning From My Mistakes)
Don’t play tomb kings.
Just kidding! Despite my desk being covered in a fine dusting of plastic shavings, ranking up my first two squads of warriors brought back all of my excitement and more. With larger projects, it easy to lose sight of the end goals, so breaking it down into smaller chunks really helped me stay motivated.
Tools For Retaining Your Sanity
Flash Scraper
Throughout my build of my Tomb Kings army, my most valuable tool has been a very dull hobby knife. A dulled blade is the perfect tool for scraping at mold lines, and is much less likely to damage a part then a sharp blade is. I have tried several other tools, including some dedicated micro deburring tools and have yet to find anything that is as easy to use and effective as a dull hobby knife.
Extra-Thin Plastic Cement
Some textures are just plain awful to clean if a mold line runs over them. In particular, plasma coils and rib cages come to mind. My preferred method for quickly tackling these is a quick light scrape with my dull hobby knife and some extra-thin cement. Brushing over just a tiny bit is usually enough to melt any shavings stuck in the detail and help hide the join.
Rubber Bands
Another useful tool was a handful of rubber bands in various sizes. Some parts, particularly the Skeleton Horses, just don’t want to stay together. Snapping a rubber band around parts as they dry helps speed up the assembly line process of building immensely. The Necrolith dragon also benefits from the added pressure to keep the ribcage together as it dries.
Other Projects
I sadly did nothing else this month except clip, sand and assemble tiny small skeletons.
Austin B.
February Progress?
Unlike the others, I have had to build fairly little this month. Between the fact that my army is composed of primarily of the mono-pose, single piece Night Goblins from Battle of Skull Pass, and I’d already done a fair bit of building last month, all I really had to do this month was rebase… checks notes… 90 goblins! Not really the most exciting process, but a far cry from removing mold lines from and assembling models nearly as old as I am. A simple afternoon and that was done. So now it was time to paint them, right?
Nope! Unfortunately I had some rather personal issues arise that tore through the first three weeks of this month, leaving me both short on capability and motivation for anything hobby related. While I have now begun the long process that is painting a veritable horde of goblins within the past few days, I am not even close to where I had hoped to be. Still, the process has been started, and I hope to have all or most of these basic bobos (gobos?) done by the next update.
Shush on the desk. It’s organized clutter, damnit! Maybe… Now, where did I put that pot of Nuln Oil again…?
Now, progress wasn’t on a complete standstill during the tumultuous early weeks of this month, and I was able to assemble a few further hero models and some unit fillers, mostly comprised of spare bits and the Looncourt models from Warhammer Underworlds. I won’t show those off quite yet though, as I still have a bit of work I want to do on them.
“February” Progress
Now, despite what was stated above, I am not without any work to show off! Between the time of our last post in January, and my unfortunate incident in early February, I was able to get a few more miniatures painted. Firstly, I finished up four more members to join the Squig Hopper unit for the model I showed off in the last update. The other five will come in time…
Furthermore, I was able to get ten Squigs done for a Squig Herder unit. They’ve been let loose! Where are their herders? Well, you’ll hopefully see them next month, so they can round off (or round up) the unit.
And last, but not least, I was able to paint perhaps one of my favorite models from the new Gloomspite Gitz range, the Loonboss on Giant Cave Squig. While he cannot lead my armies in the Old World, he’s still certainly an intimidating presence! The sickle-blade, the mask, the giant squig tongue… Ugh, I just love everything about this model.
Well, that’s it from me! Hopefully I have more to show you all next month. Much more…
Kevin C
So, as this is being posted, I am currently out of my house due to asbestos abatement, so my hobbying availability has certainly taken a hit in recent weeks. That being said, I was able to assemble the entire boxed set of Bretonnians before I left. Here are my thoughts:
The first thing that came to mind was just how much the sprues have changed in the past 20 years. Compare and contrast the two sprues, Men-at-Arms basically unchanged from when they were released back in … checks notes… 1998, and the Lord on Pegasus that was just released.
The tightness of the Lord on Pegasus sprue is definitely more in fashion these days, I assume thanks to the significant advancement in CAD software over the intervening years. I do appreciate the lack of waste that the smaller, tighter sprues offer, but at times they make it hard to cut pieces off the sprue cleanly, due to the weird angles. I have definitely had this problem with some of the newer kits, like the kill teams and this Lord on Pegasus. More on him later…
Knights
The knights were delightfully simple to build. I chose to keep the rider and the shield removed from the horse until after I have painted them, so that I can get to the hard to reach spaces while painting.
Don’t mind the reindeer water mug…
I like keeping helmets on all my models whenever possible. Not because I am bad at painting faces (or, not only because I am bad at painting faces), but it helps to build the uniformity of the unit. I will be differentiating them in different ways, however, mostly through heraldry.
Archers
Don’t get me wrong, I like archers. However, they definitely have the peasant, unclean look. I actually prefer the older monopose archer models from the early 1990s which always looked … healthier to me? Anyway…
It is a good thing we have those stakes and braziers – they are a must for any Bretonnian player. That being said, even though there are tons of stakes with these archer sprues, there are only two 100x25mm bases for them to go on, meaning you can only construct a single unit with stakes. I’m going to see if I can procure more long narrow bases for more stake emplacements.
Men at Arms
So, I’ll be honest, I don’t like the look of these guys. Filthy peasants. That being said, I am so glad Games Workshop made the decision to move all infantry to 25mm bases. These guys can actually finally rank up cleanly. Well, with the exception of the banner knocking the guy behind him in the face. You know, the banner that doesn’t count for VPs for your opponent? Yeah, that one…
Similar to the knights, I have kept the shields off these guys, in order to be able to reach the rest of the miniature behind the shield. On the table, I will probably run these guys as a single large unit, but I ended up building two command sets, just in case.
Duke on Pegasus
Alright, now I’m really going to gripe. This was easily the WORST kit I have ever had to build. The instructions were bad, but I’ve had that before. What really made this kit terrible was two-fold: the miniature itself is hollow (most likely to reduce cost of plastic), and the joins were flat. This means that I have to hold the pieces together, often at weird angles, and they did not want to stay together.
Even after completing the model, instead of feeling a sense of accomplishment of a job well done, I just lifted my hands in disgust and said “good riddance”. I am not entirely confident it will stay glued together through the painting process, namely because the joins are so flipping precarious. As I said, I hated building this model.
Putting It All Together
Well, despite delays in shipping thanks to freak weather in Memphis, and having to deal with unexpected home repairs this month, I was able to build the entire army in the month of February.
My hope moving forward is that I will be able to finish painting a unit for each of our future updates, and given that, should have the entire set done by mid-summer.
Now to wait until nice, low-humidity weather, to be able to prime. Meanwhile…
In Other Hobby News
I was able to finish the rest of my Legions Imperialis miniatures, as well as a pair of Baenblades. I still do not like painting the infantry, but having them all complete is a nice feeling.
I put everything I currently own for Epic together (that has been painted, at least). What kills me is that, it is 20 tanks and 88 infantry bases, and the whole of it only adds up to 1850 points. Still waiting on those aircraft to get back into stock, as well as those support boxes…
I was able to get a good game of Legions in against my buddy Pox a few nights back. He has been printing terrain almost nonstop for the past two months, so he’s got a pretty sizeable and impressive table. I still lost, mostly due to my own mistakes, but it was good to finally put a fully painted army on the table.
Jerry S
February was one of those months in my hobby journey where it felt like I was getting nothing done. Looking back at the pictures of what I worked on this month however, nothing could be further from the truth. While I wasn’t spending my hobby time painting, I was certainly still moving my project(s) along.
After finally getting (most of) my Tomb Kings kits from Games-workshop, I was able to start the long and arduous process of building my skeletons. Michael detailed that terrible process more eloquently than I ever could up above so I will spare you the details.
My goal for the month was to get my “Battleline” built and ready for the painting booth and I am happy to report that I was successful! I actually was able to sneak in a couple Sepulchral Stalkers and some Ushabti as well(not pictured).
All told I’ve assembled 40 skeleton spearman, 20 archers, 20 Tomb Guard, a Casket of Souls and several different character models.
I still have a pile of models to build but I thought this was a good launching point to begin the painting phase. I’ve always been a sucker for teal tomb kings livery. To me, it just works perfectly with white and I had a ton of fun painting different shield designs on each of the warriors. This something I haven’t often done in my hobby history so I took every opportunity to vary the shields here. I already have some more ideas for the second and third batches of spearmen as well so we all have that to look forward to!
While this first block isn’t perfect (I already have some ideas for improvements I want to make), I am happy to have locked in my scheme and I am sure to refine it over the next…100 skeletons….
In other hobby news, after many years of wishing and wanting, I finally decided to snag a PLA printer. I grabbed the P1S after seeing the incredible results one of my friends was getting from his and I am absolutely in love with this machine. I’ve only had it a week but I have been testing and printing at a furious pace.
The main reason I bought this printer was to print terrain for my various game systems and to test it out I printed the below tower and cottage. As you can see the detail is outstanding and the setting I used were more “fast and dirty” than I would use going forward so I have high hopes as I learn how to use this amazing tool.
One of the main draws for Legions Imperialis for me is the ability to create the truly epic landscapes that we all imagine our battles to be fought. The next couple pictures are some proof of concepts for an industrial spaceport board that I plan on printing, building and painting ahead of a Legions Imperialis campaign this summer.
While I did not get as much final product done this month as I would’ve liked, there is no denying that I got a lot of work done. I hope to get some more finished minis out in March though. My goal as of today is to get my block of 20 Tomb Guard finished, quickly followed by a character or two from my tomb kings. After that I hope to get some paint on some Legions Imperialis titans as I wait for jetbikes to release.
Finally, I am hoping to keep up the pace with printing, I have a ton to learn with CAD and I hope to get some epic terrain pieces out here in the coming months.
It’s been quite the month, albeit with precious few hours to dedicate to my hobbies. Work, life, you know how it goes…
However, amidst the hustle and bustle, I’ve managed to make some progress on my builds and put paint to a few models. In today’s article, I’m excited to showcase some of these creations along with the meticulous steps from inception to completion.
Currently, my focus lies predominantly in the realm of the Old World. There’s a certain charm to those aged metal GW sculpts, each one brimming with character even after two decades.
Following the assembly of the models—admittedly less labor-intensive with metal ones—I embark on a methodical assembly line process. Any gaps within the bases are deftly filled with green stuff (special thanks to Jerry for supplying me with this same line of green stuff a few years back). This meticulous step ensures a seamless finish, ready for the application of texture, typically sand, onto the base. Once the green stuff has set, I meticulously apply a uniform coat of PVA glue onto the base before plunging it into my sand pit. Though this entire process can span about an hour, the crucial point lies in allowing ample time for the sand and PVA glue to fully cure before progressing to priming.
Once the sand has fully set, the model is primed and ready for the next stage. For priming, I rely on “Stynylrez” primer applied through an airbrush, ensuring a flawlessly even coat. Gone are the days of struggling with old rattle cans, where achieving the pristine flatness I desired seemed like an elusive feat. Given the material of these models, multiple layers of primer are essential to guarantee a solid coat, a meticulous process that demands patience and attention to detail. I can’t count the number of models I’ve had to abandon due to botched priming attempts, underscoring the importance of taking the time to get it right.
Once the primer has fully cured and every layer is meticulously covered, it’s time to dive into the exciting realm of painting. My approach to painting involves a blend of simple yet labor-intensive techniques, including basecoats, washes, layering, and highlights. It’s a methodical process that demands patience and attention to detail. With each miniature, I find myself investing hours, ensuring that every brushstroke contributes to the final masterpiece. While this meticulous approach may result in slower progress, the end result is undeniably worth it.
In the past, I’ve experimented with prioritizing quantity over quality, rushing through projects in an attempt to churn out as many miniatures as possible. However, I’ve come to realize that the depth of my affection for a model is directly proportional to the time and effort I invest in it. The miniatures that receive the full extent of my attention and care hold a special place in my heart, each one a testament to the passion and dedication poured into its creation.
Introducing a recent addition to my painting arsenal: the two thin coats paint range. In fact, I dove headfirst into this new venture, acquiring the entirety of wave two and half of wave one without hesitation. Let me tell you, these paints have exceeded my expectations in every aspect. Their smooth consistency and vibrant pigmentation seamlessly complement my existing Citadel paints, resulting in a harmonious blend ideal for layering and highlighting techniques.
After numerous painstaking hours of meticulous brushwork, I proudly unveiled the final iteration of the three models I had been diligently working on. The culmination of this laborious process revealed a level of detail and depth that truly surpassed my initial aspirations.
As you can see, we are all hard at work over here at Urban Cowboy Hobbies and I can honestly say the best is yet to come for each of our warlords. Stay tuned as each of us keeps moving forward with our hobby goals and I hope that we have motivated y’all to get after it yourselves.
HowdyHammer 
Leave a comment