With the recent release of the Leagues of Votann, we’re going to take a look at some different methods for getting your vertically-challenged space-capitalists ready for war. We’ll be focusing on the five major Leagues covered in the Codex to start with, and in this article we’re going to zoom in on the master armourers of the Ymyr Conglomerate.
Cronch’s Method
Although I ultimately decided on a custom scheme for my army set, I originally planned to paint the Ymyr Conglomerate. With this in mind, as soon as I picked up the free miniature of the month from my local Warhammer store I got to work testing a scheme. Unfortunately, because I’m not smart, I didn’t take a huge amount of photos of the process! My initial starting point was this “top paint picks” image shared on Warhammer Community.
I first put the model together, tacking the gun arm on with superglue so that I could pop it off to access the chest armour details. After building and cleaning up the mini, I primed it in Chaos Black spray, then popped the arm off to start basecoating.
The model was basecoated mostly in line with the GW-suggested paints above, with a few exceptions. The main armour colour was based Mephiston Red, with Stegadon Scale Green used for the undersuit. Brown leather boot parts, pouches and belts were Thondia Brown, “hard” black areas such as the gun casing and face mask were Army Painter Matt Black (my favourite black!) and the “soft” black areas such as boots and gloves were painted with Vallejo Model Color German Grey. Fun fact, this grey is almost a 1:1 match for Citadel Corvus Black, but has much more solid coverage. To round the basecoats out, the silver metals were based with Leadbelcher and the few brass bits got a coat of Runelord Brass.
With the basecoats in place, it was time to start adding some definition to the warrior. First off, a round of washes was applied to most of the model – Nuln Oil for the metal and black areas, Coelia Greenshade for the undersuit, and Agrax Earthshade for the brown and brass areas. After this, I tackled the red armour. To start with I dark-lined the panels with Nuln Oil for definition. However I wasn’t really satisfied with this effect, and I was keen to push myself a bit here, so I mixed some Mephiston Red down with some black paint and thinned it out with water into a glaze consistency.
This glaze was applied in a few thin coats to add some shadow and modulation to the armour panels. In the deepest shadows, I did a second pass with more black mixed in. Finally, I glazed back in some areas with some thinned Mephiston Red, to make sure the model wasn’t too dark overall. It’s worth noting here that, in my opinion at least, when you’re army painting it is not hugely worth the time to make sure the shadows are being placed in exactly realistic places. Adding some visual interest to the model is the name of the game, and frankly incorrect light modulation does that just as well as perfectly-placed imaginary light sources do.
With shading tackled, I could focus on highlights and final details. I also glued the arm on at this point, as I didn’t want to waste time highlighting bits that wouldn’t be seen. I followed a pretty standard GW house style here, highlighting each area with a couple of colours of increasing brightness in turn. The red armour got highlights of Evil Sunz Scarlet and then Cadian Fleshtone, to avoid the armour reading as orange. The undersuit was highlighted with Thunderhawk Blue and Fenrisian Grey. Brown leathers were highlighted with Skrag Brown, and black leathers were highlighted with Eshin Grey and Stormvermin Fur. For hard black areas, I used edge highlights of Mechanicus Standard Grey, followed by bright points of Administratum Grey. Metals were highlighted with Stormhost Silver, and a touch of Canoptek Alloy for the brass.
Highlights done, it was time for finishing touches. The visor was painted with Thousand Sons Blue, and glazed with Ahriman Blue and Temple Guard Blue to highlight, before adding hard edge highlights and glare lines of Blue Horror and Vallejo Model Color White (any white would do).
To lean into the slightly Nordic aesthetic, I wanted to do some runes/patterns on the shoulders. I based these in Morghast Bone, before going over with Wraithbone, and then tidying up with Mephiston Red.
I based the model with Astrogranite, adding a couple of small tufts while the texture was still wet. Once dry I washed the base, including tufts, with patchy blobs of different green Citadel washes – Athonian Camoshade and Biel-Tan Green. Once these had dried I drybrushed the base, again making sure to catch the tufts, with some light colours – I honestly can’t remember what I used, but my guesses are on some combo of Dawnstone, Ulthuan Grey, Karak Stone, and Screaming Skull.
Overall, I’m quite happy with how he came out! There are definitely things I could improve (rush less, be neater) but I think an army of these would look fearsome lined up on the tabletop.
Liam’s Method
The Ymyr Conglomerate was the natural fit for me, because it’s the red one. I approached this very similarly to how I approach my Blood Angels and Sisters of Battle, by starting from a Mephiston Red prime – if most of the model is going to be red, it may as well start that way!
The armour is then a further layer of Mephiston Red highlighted with Wild Rider Red. Looking at the codex, the fabric of the undersuit is grey, but quite a bluish grey. After living in ignorance for much of my life so far I’ve recently discovered Dark Reaper, and it’s the perfect colour for the undersuits here, highlighted with Fenrisian Grey. To keep the knee pads distinct I went with VMC Black Grey highlighted with Mechanicus Standard Grey.
The bolter is VMC Black highlighted with the same colours as the undersuit – Dark Reaper and Fenrisian Grey on the corners – and all the metal is my standard Darkstar Old Silver washed with Nuln Oil. The leather is low-key, painted Catachan Flesh and then highlighted with Steel Legion Drab.
Finally for the faceplate I went with a VMC Ancient Gold, with the eye picked out in Baharroth Blue.
The scheme is basically the same for Einyhr, although without the undersuit:
Basing is some straightforward Astrogranite washed with Agrax, and some alien tufts from Gamers Grass to add some xenoflora.
That’s pretty much it – a nice straightforward way to get your Ymyr on the table.
