Just a quick update today with a bit of progress on my Cathay project. I wanted to get the final Jade Warriors out of the way, so here they are. I built these with halberds for variety – I’ll worry about how effective they are when they eventually hit the battlefield. Same scheme and techniques as with the previous unit – I’m really pleased with how colourful they always turn out.
Also finished are a number of characters. The strategist (yes, the balloon is coming soon!) and the battle standard bearer were built straight from their respective kits, while the mounted Gate Master has been slightly converted with a Jade Warrior champion head, shield and a differently angled weapon arm. For these more complex sculpts I had to add a bluish black to the scheme, but only to use on the Strategist’s trousers. It’s hardly visible, but there might be future models where the colour will feature more prominently.
That’s it for now – I have one final update lined up this year!
It’s done, it’s finally over! My Skaven are done. Some six years have passed since acquiring the first parts of the army in a trade – and most of the actual painting was done intermittently over the course of the last three years. Now I can proudly say that I have completed this project – an extraordinarily rare occurrence for me – and I certainly kept the best for last!
This massive Screaming Bell was another kit I acquired in my super lucky second-hand pile of sprues early this year. The main reason I held out so long to get to this one is because I had to source the correct base from Greenstuff World. Another reason was subassemblies, which I absolutely hate to use. For this model I assembled the Grey Seer on the bell itself, the Rat Ogre, the warpfire brazier, and the rest of the carriage separately to be painted in turn. As far as the paintjob itself goes, nothing special to report as it’s more of the same process I used on the previous 200 rats!
So what’s next for these 4500 or so points of Skaven? Storage, mostly – the Skaven are probably the worst army in The Old World, with terribly overcosted and/or underwhelming units, incredibly restrictive list building, a lack of answers to several problematic enemies, and perhaps most damning of all: that certain element of great risk – great reward that the ratmen once offered is painfully absent. I’m hoping they will one day make their return to The Old World as a fully supported faction, but until then, barring perhaps an occasional 6th edition escapade, they’ll be an army to admire from behind the doors of my cabinet.
On to other projects, then! For the rest of the year I’ll probably schedule some more Cathay, although my current backlog is too great to get finished before ’26 rolls around. Especially with so many other projects vying for my attention!
I have had my Beastmen for about a decade and a half now, and they have graced many a battlefield. Having been conceived in 8th edition, they have mainly been an infantry-only force – that edition was dominated by infantry hordes. My big block of 40 Gors with additional hand weapons, accompanied by a Battle Standard Bearer with a banner buffing their strength, did all the work – so why invest in big, expensive monster models?
The Old World is not 8th edition, however, and the pendulum has swung in the opposite direction towards the big stuff. So I’m dedicating some hobby time in the near future to round out my Beastmen collection with some monsters. Razorgors, for example, are super useful as one can take them in a unit or as single models. They can stack up to -4 AP between their special rules, can deal up to 7 wounds on the charge and can get there fairly reliably with Swiftstride. All that for a Core unit! They’re let down by low WS, next to no saves, and… the model. You see, Razorgors have one official model in just one pose, which is quite expensive and sort of looks like Pumba from The Lion King after he discovered crystal meth.
So when Last Sword released their excellent 3D printable proxies, I asked my chum Thomas who recently acquired a printer to provide me some new Razorgors, and he duly obliged. For a third of the cost of a single official Razorgor, he provided me with three uniquely posed war pigs. I wasn’t even planning on painting them this year, but one look at them and I was in love. Haram, I know!
For the paintjob I decided to work from an undercoat of GW Zandri Dust over which I basecoated VGC Rosy Flesh for a nice pinky pig skin, which I washed with diluted GW Reikland Fleshshade then highlighted back up with the basecoat colour then VGC Pale Flesh. Upon finishing the skin, however, I thought the effect looked kind of flat and boring, so I painted some GW Athonian Camoshade into the folds and creases for a bit more variety. The other colours were just as straightforward, using the same techniques I was using 15 years ago albeit with a newer paint thrown in here and there.
I ended up with models that still looked far too clean and tame, so I decided to use a technique I’ve never used before, which is to flick paint. I thinned some blood effect paint from GW then used a big flat headed brush to speckle the models from the front, focusing on their snouts and trunks. My main objective was to keep the effect reasonably subtle, and I think I managed this quite well.
The end result is a unit I’m extremely happy with, and in no small part due to quality of the sculpts themselves!
More Beastmen will likely make their way to the blog over the coming months – I have a bunch more Minotaurs, a Ghorgon and even a Herdstone lying about. Back to more Skaven it is, now – nearly done!
I have trouble saying no. When Cathay came out a few months ago I just had to. Couldn’t be helped! So I went and grabbed the Battalion box and Gate Keepers right at release. As things go I had a busy summer with little time for the hobby, so I only managed to complete the first unit last week.
As usual I try to start off a new project with a big unit of rank and file. I find this is the easiest way to settle on a colour scheme – the more special a model, the more detailed it usually is, and then it’s easier to add an additional colour to the scheme. In this case I decided on a wine red (VGC Nocturnal Red) and dark orange (VGC Hot Orange) palette with the obligatory jade accents (VGC Foul Green). As with some of my other projects I then used a single wash across everything before highlighting, in this case Agrax Earthshade, which definitely sped up the painting process of these quite intricate models.
The result is a nice unit of twenty Jade Warriors with hand weapons and shields, which on paper at least looks like a very solid core choice.
Now it’s back to more evil furry mutants! Both my Skaven and Beastmen armies have some reinforcements on the way and, with a little luck, they’ll feature here soon. Thanks for reading!
By and large I think GW’s new additions to the Old World range have been a success, but, as Bretonnians would say: les goûts et les couleurs ne se discutent pas. The Bretonnian Foot Knights kit is one I’m sure plenty of hobbyists are satisfied with, but not I. To me, they look overdesigned, a chore to assemble, awkwardly proportioned with hugely oversized weapons and silly helms, and – of course – quite pricy at 67.5 euro for 20 models.
So I wasn’t planning on incorporating a unit of them in my Bretonnian Crusader army until two things happened:
Infantry were massively buffed by the 1.5 update to the game, instantly making them a viable unit.
Victrix Miniatures released a fantastic new kit, suitable for the warriors of the Holy Land, at a much more reasonable 41 euro for 32 models.
I decided to split the Victrix kit into two units of 16 knights, one armed with great weapons, the other with hand weapons and shields. A unit filler will be made for each unit, allowing me to field two blocks of 20 or a single big block of up to 40 knights. To Old Worldify them I used spare heads from the Knights of the Realm kit, which merely required some necks to be cut down to size. Those small shields were added to their shoulders to bulk them up a little. I also added some small accessoires hanging off their belts to add more visual interest – mostly from the Bretonnian plastic kits, but also from Empire Flagellants. Their weapon are mostly the Victrix ones although for the standard and musician I did raid the KOTR kit as well. Some more involved conversion work was necessary here and there though. For example, the two musicians have an open-faced helmet from the Knights Errant, but as I wanted them also to have a crest I transplanted those from the KOTR.
This first batch was a rather heterogeneous one, what with the two command groups, but the rest will be smoother sailing – two batches of 11 plus two unit fillers. That is to say, in terms of assembly… Painting these liveried lads is quite involved, as I’m sure you’ll understand!
End of June is when I celebrate my hobby birthday – 24 years now – and this year I have treated myself to a dose of nostalgia. You see, after the Empire and Orcs & Goblins models from the Warhammer 6th edition starter, plus a short stint (that’s going in the book) of collecting Dwarfs, I landed upon High Elves which remained my army for the rest of that edition.
The thing is, I was an easily distracted 16-year-old without an ounce of the discipline required to actually paint an army. With my weekly allowance I bought a blister here and there, the only criterium being how cool I thought they looked. High Elves were and still are a punishing army for newbie painters – these models demand clean techniques and usually a combination of bright colours (best over a white undercoat) and lots of armour (best over black). I’d like to say my High Elves were nicely painted, but they were such a disparate bunch with too many ordinary troopers remaining grey plastic that you couldn’t call it an army. Ultimately I sold most of them off around 2010 as my interest had waned and never looked back. Until now, that is!
I have sniped some second-hand deals over the past few years and have collected the backbone of a classic High Elf army. With most of my Skaven army out of the way, the second coming of my High Elves is near at hand!
Uncharacteristically for me, I have decided to work from a starting list of 1000 points for The Old world, using the Old World Army Builder. The reason is that I’ll be tempted to paint all those fantastic niche units like Dragon Princes and characters and such, without actually having something playable after a few months. I believe this will also motivate me to stick to this project for a while, although I will paint the last of my Skaven intermittently. Anyway, here’s the list:
=== High Elf Realms [996 pts] Warhammer: The Old World, High Elf Realms ===
++ Characters [341 pts] ++
Archmage [230 pts] – Hand weapon – Level 4 Wizard – On foot – Ruby Ring of Ruin – Silvery Wand – Battle Magic
Noble [111 pts] – Hand weapon – Great weapon – Light armour – Shield – General – On foot – Armour of Caledor – Pure of Heart
++ Core Units [421 pts] ++
5 Silver Helms [138 pts] – Hand weapons – Lances – Hand weapons (Hooves) – Heavy armour – Barding – Shields – High Helm (champion) – Standard bearer – Musician
I’ve gone for a varied force with a focus on the ‘vanilla’ choices such as Spearelves, Archers and Silver Helms, backed up by sneaky Shadow Warriors and Swordmasters which were and still are my favourite unit fluff-wise. A level 4 Archmage is, of course, a competitive pick to counterbalance the ‘soft’ choices I’ve made elsewhere.
A word on the paintjob, then. For my new army I went through several colour scheme tests before landing upon this one. Once again I have leveraged the ease of an all-over shade, in this case GW Targor Rageshade, to unify most of the colours and cut down on quite a bit of the process. To balance all the reddish hues I have gone wth good old turquoise and a pale green for the gems. Lastly, some white was added for small detailing such as plumes and sashes.
And as for the shields on the Spearelves: I’m super proud of how they turned out. I was practically forced to find an alternative as many of my second hand models were missing theirs, so instead of looking at aftermarket kite shields I had a look through my historical sprues and opted for Greek hoplons from my Victrix set. Those freehands, based upon designs from the 6th edition armybook, really complete the look. I’ll probably be giving my Silver Helms the same treatment!
That’s it for today, friends. Work continues on my Swordmasters and Shadow Warriors, and I hope to get this first 1000 points done before the end of July. More on those later.
As I’m slowly winding down work on my Skaven army I realise I’ve kept the big stuff for last again. Typical of a batch painter, eh?
Skaven are a completely rubbish army in The Old World as it currently stands, but that hasn’t stopped me from painting a full army. Hell Pit Abominations are one of the better units in the list, so I decided I had to include one in order to have a chance at ever actually winning. The new Brood Terror model for AOS is actually a great fit and is more readily available in shops than the old model, so I went with the former.
Painting this big model was straightforward as I used the exact same colours and techniques as the other 150+ Skaven that have passed my painting desk over the past years. Still, I tried some extra techniques with the final detailing, such as 1) actually painting the eyes and 2) adding some soreness to the skin where it transitions into the metal parts.
Not much more to say about this model really. All that’s left to paint for my Skaven are two characters, a batch of Plague Monks and another big thing, a Screaming Bell, before I call the project done (for now).
It is every wargamer’s dream, I believe, to have a wargaming table full of fantastic scenery on which to host his battles. In my own case, I have made strides towards this goal in recent years, as evidenced by my Fortified Manor kit. Today however, I have for you a piece of scenery I had previously not made any strides towards, nay! Not even babysteps.
I bought this Sarissa Precision MDF windmill back in ’15 for a Market Garden-themed Bolt Action table I envisioned. My interest in actually getting the piece painted waned after I had put the first layers to the roof – by the beard of Zeus, painting MDF is thoroughly miserable! So the piece sat untouched in a box ever since I moved house until, recently, I rearranged my hobby den to make room for a homeworking desk. Inspiration struck at once when I realized I had plenty of bitz left from the Fortified Manor to Warhammerify my windmill, so here we are today!
The first thing I did was to glue back one of the sail that had cracked in prolonged storage. The fix was imperfect, but I decided it would suit the run-down aesthetic typical of the Old World. So I added further to the look by clipping the ends off each sail (they were too long to be practical anyway) and to add some damage to each one. The base of the windmill was an awkwardly perfect square, so I cut this back into a much more irregular shape that looks more organic on a wargaming table.
Then I added a large amount of bits for detail, as the MDF kit was rather barebones. I replaced the very basic winch above the top cargo door with a much nicer plastic one, added windows to each side, a shield plaque, a little bit of roof above the door, some decorative gargoyles on the roof, and a very neat clock that fit the middle of the windshaft just perfectly. I’m proudest of all, however, of the addition of the dormer window. This I had to cut to size as the windmill roof is curved rather than straight, then work into the roof with some putty.
Painting wise I tried a different approach in working from a white basecoat then applying a medium brown like a thick wash so as to catch the rather shallow planking detail. This turned out disastrous – for some reason there were surface tension issues and the paint beaded up. So I proceeded with a regular coat of brown first, then washed with a dark brown before coming in with some (admittedly shoddy) drybrushing. For the roofs the same method was used as for those of the Fortified Manor so as to tie the pieces together.
All in all, I’m quite chuffed with the result. It’s a big piece that’s left my pile of shame and it’s probably the most interesting scenery piece I’ll put on my table for a while to come.
No more scenery projects in the immediate future, save perhaps the acquisition of a bigger gaming mat – 4×4 Is definitely too cramped for the games I’m hosting at my house lately!
Hot on the tail of the previous post with lots of trolls are, well, more trolls! It’s like my blog posts have regenerate, too! As I previously wrote I came into possession of a large job lot late last year, which turned out to contain many interesting models. Among them were two boxes of three River Trolls, one of which had already been assembled and primed. The river variant of trolls didn’t feature in my plans for my greenskin army, but my Wolves of the Sea could use some monstrous infantry, so I decided to convert these to Chaos Trolls.
Converting them ultimately turned out to be a lazy job on my part, sorry! As they have the option to take additional hand weapons I replaced their hands with those from the Minotaur kit. Then I undercoated them GW Death Guard Green, drybrushed them GW Nurgling Green then VGC Dead Flesh. I painted all the scaly bits VGC Stonewall Grey, then applied an all over wash of GW Kroak Green followed by a glaze of GW Tyran Blue on the scales.
Layering next – Dead Flesh on the green bits and Stonewall Grey on the scales. I ended up with a colour scheme not far from classic River Trolls, which isn’t very chaotic at all – but then again, my Wolves of the Sea are also similarly neutral looking. I decided my monstrous additions, including perhaps a dragon down the line, would also have to look rather generic; as if they are from a Nordic saga instead of from the Chaos wastes, so to speak.
Lots more to come for my Wolves of the Sea, although I’ll be returning to more Marauders next. It’s an army where every single model needs at least a small amount of conversion work as well as an above average paintjob, so I’ll be proud to show you more. Toodles!
For the past two years or so I have been veering between my various Warhammer projects of the past decade. One army I have thus far somewhat neglected, however, are my greenskins. Most of these I painted back when 7 th edition came out in ’06. In a way, it was my first army ever. Although a previous iteration of greenskins, Empire, and Elves of all kind had passed through my juvenile hands, this project was the first one where I exercised disciplined batch painting to produce a unified look. Were the paintjobs qualitative? Not exactly – this was the era just before foundation paints and modern washes, so I made do with lots of drybrushing and some crude layering. Still, I think the paintjobs stood the test of time.
Now, during these long years, GW has continued to produce new Night Goblins and adjacent models in the style of Warhammer – for, as we all know, all the good Age of Sigmar stuff takes its cues the Old World – and thus I have the opportunity to add to my army. Back then I lacked some Night Goblin characters and some Stone Trolls for my force, so here are the new guys!
First up are these AOS trolls which I will be using as Stone Trolls. Ranking them up on 40x40mm wasn’t too bad. Not a bad kit of models at all! These first three I bought some years ago on holiday in France, but I have three more on the way from a big job lot.
Mollog’s Mob were a warband I have coveted for years but didn’t get round to collecting back in the day. I was happy to find them second hand late last year. Mollog himself will be an extra troll or perhaps even a troll character model, the flying squig can go in with his land-locked chums, and the rest can go in with the gobbos as unit fillers.
Borgit’s Beastgrabbas are my most recent acquisition. I just think they look neat – sometimes that’s the best motivation, isn’t it? The big guy will also be just a troll for the unit, the two gobbos hiding underneath the squigskin are a fun unit filler for a Squig herd, and the rest will probably be used as unit champions.
Regarding basing: I used brown rims on my army in the past, but I’m switching to black because a) pretty much all my armies have black rims as well as my movement trays; b) black covers well and c) I used Bestial Brown in the past and the Vallejo replacements have dreadful coverage. I’ll be revisiting all my armies in future to update their rims to black. As for the tops of these bases: yes, they need some more love. I’ll be looking at some brownish tufts soon to get the wasteland feel across some more.
abrushwithbattles 