Let’s see what the team has been up to in the lead up to to the end of the year.
Mike Bettle-Shaffer
It’s been a while since I’ve managed to jump in on one of these, so this is going to be a mix of stuff I’ve completed this month, along with one or two things from last month. First up we’ve got a grip of Spartans from Halo: Flashpoint, completed for a HTPE guide. Some quick schemes so I could get them back in action.
I’ve also started painting up a force for Kings of War: Ambush, which starts at a lower points value than full fat Kings of War. It’s a reasonably manageable number of models, even if I’m still staring down another full stand of Half-Elf Berserkers. I’m trying to paint this entire force without using metallics, while also not spending too long on each model.
Last up, the Byzantine force I finished recently for Saga: Age of Crusades. One of the nice things about Saga, is if you don’t mind being a little ahistorical, a faction for Crusades could easily flex to fill a roster for Vikings. It’s a slippery slope at that point, filled with bags of miniatures.
KyleBe
Over the last year, I’ve taken the deep dive into MCP. For my first contribution to the round up, I’d like to take a little time talking about one of my recent projects as well as a few models I painted this month.
Namor is the most recently almost finished. He’s far from my best work. I hate his Trident for so many reasons. Mostly that it broke early, and now breaks often. I’m also not happy with the highlights I did on it, but I’ll see if I use him more than a few times before I decide to revisit it.
Sunspot is one of the most fun models I’ve worked on in a while. Trying to avoid a cartoonishly blue and red costume while also getting a fire effect that I’m okay with was a fun challenge.
This is a collection of the bulk of the mutants I painted this month, which are most of the models I’ve painted this month. Apocalypse was a blast and him and Archangel definitely brought me back to my childhood watching the X-Men cartoon.
The other project I’ve had going on and off for the last couple of months has been getting some models painted for guests in my garage. I tend to host game nights in my garage since our local store got screwed over by landlords and had to close down. Plus, I have young kids who are starting to get interested in table top gaming. Between those two facts, I was close to having an ulcer when other people were playing with my models. Especially my kids.
I’m not the best painter. I’m happy with my results. But, I put time into painting. So when my kids were grabbing the models I’d put time into, I found myself getting stressed about stuff getting broken.
So, I made myself a completely unnecessary project. I’ve found a couple of collections of painted models second hand, and then I have filled in some of the gaps with some quick and dirty paint jobs for other models. This means I have models my kids can use that I can breathe easy about if (when) they accidentally break something. It also has the side effect of me having models around for new players to use as they start to dive into the game.
It has been kind of fun to aim for painting each model in under an hour. I’m pretty pleased with the results given the amount of time I put in.
SRM
It was a pretty big month for me, even if it was pretty front-heavy. Technically this first model was painted in September before I could talk about it, but you’re getting it now. Think of it like turn-based blog posting.
Goonhammer was out in force on the Warhammer Community roundup of Stormcast Eternals, with Keewa and myself joining some absolutely fantastic painters from around the influencersphere. It was my delight to paint Goth Birb and their enby rider here, even if it did involve laboriously highlighting every feather three times. If you’re a drybrush and Constrast enjoyer, you’ll be able to knock out this model remarkably fast, I imagine. As with so many thing, it’ll be easier if you don’t have my particular brand of brain poison coursing through your cranium.
Speaking of drybrush and Contrast, that’s exactly what I did to knock out these ghosties. My wife’s got a Nighthaunt army that has sat either in boxes or built and primed for several years now, and I took it upon myself to knock out some test models. She’s happy with the outcome, so she’ll likely be murdering my dudes on the tabletop soon!
With my palette thoroughly cleansed, it was time to return to my Stormcast. These models were like putting on a broken in pair of boots, comfortable and well worn. I went for a White Lions of Chrace look on the Lord-Celestant’s lion mantle, and a darker skintone to really pop from between that and the halo. On a related note, I could have pushed the color contrast on the Lord-Relictor’s candles more, as they kind of melt into the verdigris on his bronze armor. I also went for a bronze facemask on him, as I think it looks more sinister than the white he’s often painted with.
The Stormcast train kept-a-chuggin’ as I painted up this pack of birbdogs to join my army on the field. We made a whole video about AoS 4’s first batch of missions, and in many of them you want units that are fast and cheap to grab table edges or central objectives. These little guys are perfect for the job, and they paint up quick too. I used the same colors as Iridan’s Morrgryph, as I seldom record or remember the colors I use for organic textures. We can call that naturalistic variation or laziness, you decide.
High on the rush of painting 6 models in as many days, I dug into my first models from the Battletech Mercenaries Kickstarter. This was my first time painting more than a lance or Clan Star at a time, batch painting a Tactical Squad-esque group of 9. It’s not quite as relaxing as knocking out a single box, but it does get that backlog cleared out which is good enough for me. I’ve slowly been adding more detail to these as I paint them, with more use of spot colors and transfers. They add visual interest and verisimilitude, and if you’re working through your own pile of idiot robots, I recommend you try something similar. Hell, we even wrote a handy little guide about transfers that you can follow.
Next month is a bit of a mystery, though as I write this I’m laboring through Chaplain Grimaldus and his cyborg running crew. They are possibly the most model per model I’ve painted all year, giant monsters notwithstanding. Who will join them? Now that’s a mystery that not even I know the answer to.
Cytoplasm
Of the various Kings of War armies I have been working on, Trident Realms was perhaps the trickiest for me. Not because of the models themselves, but rather because I had acquired two different collections second-hand, and had my own collection as well. I had three different colour schemes (not to mention basing schemes) going on, but I put off bringing them together as it would require repainting and rebasing a lot of minis.
Well, I have finally taken the plunge and after finishing some Gigas and Water Elementals, it was time for the Naiad Wyrmriders.
These are some crazy models, and I’ll tell you why.
Firstly, they are metal, so each piece is quite heavy. Over longer painting sessions, I would need to stretch my fingers just to avoid developing carpal tunnel syndrome. Thankfully I only went for four on a horde base, so it didn’t take too long. I painted them individually and then put them onto the base, which in the end is probably 500 grams in weight.
Secondly, these models are surprisingly dynamic, but that means assembly is precarious. Metal is fine to work with, in fact I prefer it to resin, but when it comes to getting things to stick that are at strange angles… well that’s not fun at all. I’ve heard some horror stories about assembling these model, but I got through it relatively unscathed. Let’s just hope they stay this way. Mantic have since produced these models in resin, which will drastically improve the assembly process.
I do love the wyrms themselves. These are excellent dynamic models and I went very simple in painting them. Base-coated in my old pot of Citadel Mithril Silver, then alternating patches of Hexwraith Flame and Aethermatic Blue along the body, Fleshtearers Red along the spines of the fins, and then highlight the red with some actual Army Painter Red.
My only true complaint about the models are the faces of the Naiad riders. The mould line goes right down the middle of the face, and unfortunately one of them has a left and right side of the face that doesn’t quite line up. Just don’t put mould lines in faces, because this is where everyone looks. Otherwise, very pleased with my horde of Naiad Wyrmriders and looking forward to setting these down on a table with an ominous boom.
Rockfish
Ok so once again I did a completely chaotic mix of different things, let’s get into it!
We’ve got battletech…
We’ve got necromunda, in a cheating scheme…
Death Company…
Giant knights…
Tiny Aquilons…
A pile of ruined buildings…
Tiny big spaceships from space…
And that’s all for now!
Saffgor
The hope is certainly to have a fully painted 2k ready by the end of November, but this month I’ve been working on some extras & allies for my Ash Wastes Admech, and I wouldn’t be shocked if Agents of the Imperium is essentially a second army by the time I’m done. Following the trend of my Callidus, converted from an Escher Death Maiden, we have an Eversor from a Wyld Runner. The orange lighting, for added spooky effect, comes from only the finest lava lamps.
In addition, given the changes that have hit Admech itself, I wanted to get on the bandwagon for allying in Battle Sisters & an Immolator, in order to grab that sweet sweet Ignores Cover on my other tanks. I wanted these Sisters to keep with the dubious loyalty present already in my army, so we have a witchy Simulacrum Imperialis, and some Escher head upgrades coming in the mail soon to complete that look. Finally, I went out on a limb and started work on Kastelan-Ambulls in case I ever get the knack for robots, but frankly that part of the army doesn’t excite me all that much. There is something to be said about range completion, though.
Soggy
This month was pretty productive, while being all over the show. I started off with a pallet cleanser of the starter Blitzbowl teams – which I’m looking forward to check and and see how it differs from Blood Bowl.
After this I worked on two fliers for a doubles list for an upcoming event. As fliers are rather terrible in this edition I don’t expect to be doing much for my doubles partner!
Lasty, I finished up a Sicaran while it was raining and I couldn’t prime the final thing for the doubles list while it was raining heavily outside. I’ve been meaning to try out an Armoured Spearhead for some time, so this will be a great addition.
