Chainghasts

Progress is still being made on my Nighthaunts. I finally got around to finishing these two models: the Chainghasts. Again this is a sped painting project for me. I want to get the army to the tabletop within a reasonable time frame rather than slogging through these to only give up halfway through like so many other armies. The Chainghasts are a rather vital part of the army extending the buffing range of my Spirit Torment character by 12". This allows re-rolls on all 1's to wound which can be quite significant when you see how I roll dice. Also these are the only shooting troops in the army and so they will also be used for opportunistic character sniping if I can get them into the right position. Sadly the unit isn't finished as I want it to have four models, the maximum. This boosts their survivability and shooting so it's an investment worth making.

Ironjawz Brute

Even though I wasn't posting much on here over the last while I was still painting. In fact I managed to paint an entire 1500 point Ironjaw army for Age of Sigmar over the last year. I didn't like the yellow scheme that Games Workshop went for but I do like my Orruks in yellow as you will have seen with my 40k Orks. Inspired by them I kept the scheme going and embellished it just a little with some checks and flames. Even a little rust and scratches. These are now my regular army while I am painting up my Nighthaunt models and while the play style can be a little flat and boring I still enjoy charging these across the table and wrecking havoc.

Shardwrack Spines

I am trying to make a set of terrain specifically for Age of Sigmar based around the Runis of Fellan. This is an area of my own devising and is basically a once glorious city ruined at the outset of the Age of Chaos and now overgrown. To that end I picked up some Shardwrack Spines to add to the set so that I could replace my more mundane trees with something a little more fantastical. I wasn't entirely convinced when I got them out of the box that they would be nice. The garish paint scheme that these are shown in might suit a 40k deathworld but it didn't suit the vegetation that I was envisaging for my ruins. I decided to paint these in a more muted and natural scheme to enforce some more realism on what are very unrealistic plants. I think it worked out well.

These are base coated in Skavenblight Dinge (GW). Somehow I managed to pick up two pots of this and in an attempt to use it I've been painting a lot of things with it. Its a very dirty grey and this looks great for trees and plants. I lightly drybrushed this with Sea Grey (VJ) and washed it with Athonian Camoshade (GW). This green brown wash really brought the tree to life as it added a perfect narural bark colour to it. All I had to do then was pickout the pustules/fungi on the surface. These make the model a little too Nurgle looking but I think when they are painted rather more neutral they can look quite natural. Only the big ones ruin the effect I think. These I actually painted yellow and then highlighted them with Bleached Bone (VJ) to wash out the colour a little.

All in all I think the model came out great and I'll slowly be doing more of these over the coming weeks to replace the forest trees I have while I am waiting for the next round of Azyrite Ruins to be released.

WIP Guardian of Souls

I am still making progress on my Nighthaunt army despite a wicked bout of food poisoning. As I am still awaiting the arrival of a few regiments I have been focusing on characters. This lead me to clipping out the Guardian of Souls and making some progress on him over the weekend. He is a gorgeous model and fun to paint. I am almost there with him now just some of the finishing touches to do still. I kept him in the standard scheme of the rest of the army which in this case means no dark blue robe/cowl. I was tempted to do the fade from dark blue to white on his robe but as I have been experimenting and failing with this of late I decided not to. Its an interesting technique and one I will certainly use in the future but I really need to refine it and the glazes I use for it more before I do it on a character model.  I did try it here on the flames somewhat and it has come out a little stark. It's fine but would have been better if I had gone for a traditional blend. Though that would have taken far longer and the point of this army is to get them done quickly rather than expertly. There are currently a lot of projects calling to me to get done and well I can't do them until the Nighthaunt are at a point where I am happy. I don't think that will take too long. I have maybe three regiments to finish off to get me to a playable 2000 points and with one or two additions more I would have an army where I could mix and match to keep the games interesting.

The Shysh Reaper

Swinging into action comes the third of the Endless spells. This one is specific to the Nighthaunt unlike the previous two. I picked up the box for completions sake to be honest as I don't rate any of the spells in it that highly. They are good, don't get me wrong, but I think they are currently out competed by the standard spells from Malign Sorcery. This model is pretty cool though so as a distraction from the Chainrasps I painted it. I wasn't happy with how the Aethervoid Pendulum came out and this is essentially version two. I made the highlighting more extreme and I think this captures the jade colour I was going for better. As for the metal pieces and the wood I didn't want these to be in natural colous so I kept them within the scheme. The metal is mainly blue with some stippled silver to give a metallic impression rather than just being straight up mettalic. My method for doing this could be a little better but as I've only begun experimenting with the technique recently it came out well enough. The flames were another experiment. I have been doing them mainly blue and for this I changed that to green. I think its actually better for magical flames but I am not sure that it would look as good on the ghost models. They definitely look better with a more blue shade, probably as this ties in well with the cowls they have. Next up I'll be painting the Grimghast Reapers and Spirit Torment.

Tomb Banshee - The Lady of Laments

You might have seen her before but now she is actually finished. When I started painting her I had no idea how I wanted to do the base. Now that I've made the decision its time for her and the Knight of Shrouds to finally get done. As her base is pretty large and fairly empty I made sure to add a good section of cobblestones/flagstones. I could have added a few more decorative elements to make it look a little more interesting but as these take a lot of time to do and I only have ten spearheads left to use I thought I'd reserve the railings at least for some of the characters or on bases that are smaller so I don't need to use so much. I think the dark grey stone contrasts well enough with the lighter models on top and also doesn't distract from them. A lot of basing schemes at the moment go for very high contrast and I often find myself looking at the bases more than the models. If anyone has a few spare spear tips from the Freeguild box I'd take them off you.

The Horde is Complete

I've the first twenty Chainrasps done. As I've said before: painting twenty in one go is pretty soul destroying. I do have another twenty to do for my eventual list but for now I can bask in the glory of having finished these and quickly move on to the next unit. I am going to continue working my way through the Soul Wars box, even if the units aren't complete they still will add to the army and reduce what I have to paint when I do pick up units boxes. I put together the Grimghast Reapers, more on that tomorrow, and I'll start on them tonight.
The colours I'm using for the army will remain the same. I'll bring some red into the Reapers to break up the scheme just slightly. It'll also tie in well with the Black Coach as it has some proper cloth elements. I really like the combination of Incubi Darkness with Stegadon Scale Green, both are GW paints. It's a nice subtle highlight and with the larger Grimghasts I'll even try to bring this up to an edge highlight of a stronger green, Kalibite Green (GW). The models are mush larger than the Chainrasps and I think the large dark surface that dominates them would be too boring without at least a subtle edge highlight to bring it up.

Aethervoid Pendulum

I've been making progress on my Nighthaunts, I swear! However I've also been making progress with my endless spells. I'm not sure why I decided to paint the Aethervoid Pendulum, we'd been talking about it during last weeks game and maybe that spurred me into action. Its done now and ready to be swung in earnest. The spell seems okay but I'm waiting on a ruling to see if it really can travel only in one direction or if it can move back and forth along its line of travel. Its far more useful if it can go back and forth though also its potentially for more dangerous to my own army. If I cast this spell I'd much prefer that it keep going forwards towards the enemy than potentially coming right back at me.

I went with a simple paint scheme in keeping with my Nighthaunts. I was inspired by some of the work I've seen done on the Necrons and I think the sharp (but barely visible in the photograph) highlight of green brings some nice variance in the model. I'd actually be tempted to add another final highlight but we'll have to wait and see on that front as I have to get the Chainrasps done. A solid evenings work will see the full twenty ready for the battlefield.

Chainrasp Horde

Disappointingly it seems I will have a lot more chainrasps to do in the near future. Now that the book has been released I've seen the battalions and the most interesting ones are comprised mainly of chainrasps. I knew I'd have to paint more but as these do take quite a while to paint I had hoped forty would be close enough to suffice. That would fill the minimum requirement of the battalions but to be effective I think I would have to go for two units of forty. Hopefully we will get a good multi-part kits for these that has a little more variance than the ones from the boxed set. at least that would make the painting a little less tedious.

Having complained a lot I'll switch gear and show you the current status of the twenty models from the starter box. These are just about done. Most of the work left are little details and the bases. I got a good bit of time over the weekend to paint which helped me to progress with these nicely. The cloaks could probably do with one more highlight but I don't have a colour suitable for this at the moment so I have to search a little further. I don't want the hassle of mixing any paints for these. As far as is possible I want to go with readily available paints. The cloak is Incubi Darkness, washed with Nuln Oil and then highlighted with Incubi darkness and Stegadon scale green. The quality of the photograph here makes it impossible to really see much of the paintwork. Still the highlights are subtle, the way I like them, but they are just not visible enough. I'll spend a few moments on the GW website later in the day and see what paint might fit with the ideas I've got.

After the Chainrasps are done I want to start with the Glaivewraith Stalkers. I haven't as yet taken any off the sprue but as these are larger models hopefully they will be easier to put together and possibly quicker to paint. It is easy to forget that the larger surface area of a model can take a lot longer to paint than something smaller. The endless Spells for example take an age to paint simply because the surface areas are massive.... maybe I need a bigger brush? Anyway more on them towards the end of the week.

Purple Sun of Xereus

I picked up the Malign Sorceries expansion when it came out last weekend. The spells look amazing and its nice to have them represented on the battlefield again, just like in the good old days of fourth and fifth edition. They were removed I think, as templates at least, once sixth rolled around and this was probably for the best. However as models these work excellently on the battlefield. Not only do they look cool but they have a big impact on the game. I suppose that's just conjecture on my part as I haven't used them yet but it does look like they'll be huge.

I was mainly interested on the Grave Tide but for some reason I probably did like everyone else and glued the Purple sun together. This was easy enough as the internal frame worked a treat. I guess they might begin to use this on other bigger models in the future as it makes them very sturdy. Everything pushed together well despite the smaller spikes being a little too sharp for my delicate thumbs. The kit has a big problem with gaps and while I filled them all using the Gloss Varnish method it just wasn't enough. I should have done a coat or two more to really smooth them out. As this was the first time that I had tried the method however I can't expect great results. Next time I'll know. As for painting I didn't want such a dark orb as is shown in the picture and I didn't want to go and buy a load of purple paint that I'll barely ever use. I had a purple wash and that was going to suffice! With that in mind I sprayed the Sun white. Over the purple plastic it was hard to get a solid colour so in the end I had to brush a layer of white on. Over that I added some diluted Druchi Violet. This came out quite pink and so I gave the recessed areas a second wash to deepen the colour and bring it up to a more purple hue.

The fun started next with a simple line highlight of white along the most raised areas. I could have targeted this better but the effect I got is good so I'm happy with it. At that stage I had the Purple Sun basically done but as it was essentially all one colour it looked really boring. To change it up a bit I started blending the tips of the spikes out to Incubi Darkness. This worked really well on the downward pointing spikes but on those that pointed upwards it was hard to control the wash and prevent tide lines. Again it came out good enough that I didn't really worry too much about fixing any errors. For the base piece I decided again that going purple with it wasn't going to look that good so I went for a blue green. Its subtly different from the spikes but not much and most people won't notice it. Finally when it came to basing the model I went with a fairly standard basing scheme to match my armies and the board. However I guess that the passage of the Purple sun must have some effect on the ground behind it and so I used one of the crackle texture paints to give that effect and I painted it to look like ash. All in all this model was good fun to paint and while it won't see much board time sadly it will look great in the collection.

More work on the Chainrasps

Progress continues apace with my Chainrasps. I definitely think that batch painting 22 models wasn't the best decision but at least I still feel like I am making some progress. I've done the basic washes on them all now and tonight I'll be hitting them with a special Coelia Greenshade mix to create a greater depth on the white robes they have. That shouldn't take long but so far that prediction has been wrong at every step. After that wash is dry I can apply some more localised washes of Waywatcher Green to create some variance in the colours. It's totally unnecessary but breaks up what could be a rather monotonous scheme. If all goes well I can even start the highlighting stage. The target is to have these done by the end of the weekend. I don't know if that will include the bases but it would be nice if it did.

Chainrasps and a few others

Work has started on my Nighthaunts. I picked up everything last week and then promptly got distracted by a Purple Sun. Somehow I had the idea that it would be quick to paint. It wasn't but its nearly done now, more to follow on that during the week. As for the Nighthaunts the models are lovely but rather flimsy. It takes a while to get them off the sprue and once you've come to the point of putting them together you will discover a lot of gaps that need filling. They are great, don't get me wrong but one of the limitations of push-fit models is gaps in bad places. I tried to fill them with some gloss varnish and it worked for some. Though I noticed that if you aren't careful in applying it you will actually exacerbate the problem by creating two ridges that run parallel to the gap you need to fill. people have recommended GW's 'Ardcoat for the job and that might be better. I was using Vajello gloss Varnish.
Anyway I have managed to get two of the three colours on these guys that constitutes their base coat, Ulthuan Grey and Incubi Darkness. The third is for the metals and is Leadbelcher. Once that's on tonight I can start washing the models and hopefully I will make rather rapid progress from there. I have pre-mixed both a blue and a dark green wash so I don't have to worry about getting ratios correct each time. The only wash I'll still mix by hand is Waywatcher Green as I use it very sparingly over the models.
If all goes to plan I'll be able to post updates each day this week and by the end of it I'll have the bulk of the Starter Box done. That's the plan anyway.

The First of the Nighthaunts

They are done finally! These Spirit hosts took a little longer than expected but in the end I think it was worth it. I may have mentioned before that I am using Tyler Mengels' excellent painting guide for the models in my Nighthaunts army. I am trying to get this army knocked out quickly as time is extremely limited at the moment.  If I could get the army done by the end of the summer I would be extremely happy. Having seen how extensive the range is I am not sure if that's going to be entirely possible. Anyway these models were a bit of a pain to put together. Once I got familiar with the kit though it wasn't too hard. I think the instructions could be done a little better but hey these came out fine. Painting consisted of a white spray followed up with a nice thin coat of Ulthuan Grey (GW). This is quite blue but pale enough to work well with my washes and the final white highlight. I've made up some magic blue wash with about 60% Lahmian Medium and 40% Nikhilak Oxide, both from GW. This is still a little thick for me but making sure that the coverage is even and thin is fine. It can pool and that ruins the effect. After this I give some spot shading with thinned down Waywatcher Green (GW). Thats the easy work done as after this I highlight in two stages, Ulthuan Grey and White. As these models have a lot of surface area this can take its time. Hopefully the smaller Chainrasps will be quicker.

For bases I have gone with a graveyard theme as a lot of the models in the range come with this as standard. I made some railings and flagstones for the bases and with the addition of what comes in the kit I think it all works well together. Some dead looking vegetation tops this off for a nice Shysh look.

Spirit Host W.I.P.

I don't have long to wait for the rest of the Nighthaunt models to be released, in the meantime I am trying to keep busy with some of the battleline requirements. I'm told that the Spirit Hosts are an excellent inclusion in the army and as I can already pick them up, how could I resist. I know the kit is much maligned online due to how difficult it is to put together and well I do have to agree somewhat. It definitely isn't the easiest to put together but its still okay. I've had worse Malifaux kits for instance. Anyway now that I have six put together I hopefully won't have anymore to do.. I followed the same painting scheme as I have done for my other models in the army. The white was a little intimidating to do over such a large surface. It took a lot longer than expected to be honest. Still the effect came out fine and should be a lot quicker to replicate on smaller models with less surface are to cover. At least that's the hope... I still have work to do on the base of this model. I think I am going for a graveyard theme. My hand was a little forced with the easy to put together models coming with these style of details integral to the model. I think it will look great but it is a lot of work to get it to look right.

Mordheim Witch

It seems I’m on a roll with blogging having had more than one post in the last month. Let’s see if I can keep it up.... I doubt it. Anyway painting has continued and this time I’m back to Age of Sigmar via Mordheim. I picked up this fantastic model when specialist game were producing some really characterful models back in the day. I never played with the Mordheim Witch as by the time I bought her the Mordheim craze had passed our group by. I did use her as a Necromancer in my Warhammer Fantasy Army but she was painted really poorly. In anticipation of having another Undead army soon but having no models to paint I decided I could redo her and test some freehand designs. I’m happy with the result and once I come to base the army she’ll get the same treatment.

Azyrite Ruins

I’m slowly getting some terrain done for Age of Sigmar. I’ve been eyeing up the Azyrite Ruins kit since it came out and I finally grabbed one last week. The kits great, not quite as modular as I’d have liked but good enough to get some variation in the final pieces. Of course I couldn’t just do a simple build I had to complicate it. I saw somewhere online that somebody had built a realm gate in with the kit and as I don’t have a realm gate yet this seemed a good way to make a unique looking one. This is still very much a WIP but hopefully I can get it finished in the next few days.

Knight of Shrouds

I’ve decided that I’m going all in on the Nighthaunts for Age of Sigmar. The new models are really great, one of the best collections I’ve seen for the game since the Ironjawz. With them being in the starter set which I was going to pick up anyway I might as well accept the fact that these are my new army. To that end I’ve picked up the Knight of Shrouds so that I can get some of the painting front loaded on this project. I’ll have very limited painting time in a few weeks so whatever I can get done beforehand will be a huge bonus. This model is great, easy to put together and proved quick to paint. I might do an extra highlight on the blue cowl but I haven’t decided on that just yet. I followed the same procedure as the Tomb Banshee but as I mentioned there I just went with a single wash on the white rather than two. This was a good decision as it maintains the white as the dominant colour rather than changing it into a more blue or green colour.

Nighthaunts on the Horizon

I  think I’m going to be one of many people who start a new army this summer: the Nighthaunts. I’ve been tempted by this army for a long while but as the range was so small I didn’t think I’d enjoy playing them in the long run. Now that the range is being massively expanded and included in the new starter box for Age of Sigmar I’ve got little excuse but to start them. I’m a big fan of the new models and they look like they can both be fun and quick to paint. I don’t have as much time to paint as I used to so it’s I,Portents that if I start a project I get to finish it. I’ve enough stuff lying around half done, I don’t need to add to it.

The best way to really decide if I want to start a new army is to paint a starter model and that’s just what I did. I’ve  had a Tomb Banshee for a while and it’s the perfect model to test an ethereal scheme on. I’ve used Tyler Mengels tutorial from here as a basis. I did an extra coat of the Oxide and that was too much, I’m future I’ll be more sparing in how I apply it. Still the rest came out well enough and I’ve learned or at least considered things I change for future models. I want to get this army done quickly so that I can get back to doing more Stormcast.

Warboss Grimrak

I recently finished my Orruk Megaboss, Grimrak. He came out surprisingly well for the amount of time I put into him. I've slowly been collecting Ironjawz over the last few months and painting them up. As a lazy blogger I haven't been posting shots up but I hoping to get a few more regular ones up here. Anyway this is just a taster of whats to come with my Ironjawz.

Wasteland Bases

It's not the greatest of photographs but I think it gets the message across. I usually always do the same type of bases for my armies as it makes it easier to mix and match them as I want and it fits with my terrain collection. For the Ironjawz however I really wanted to do something different. I had tried a few ways that would combine what you see here with what I have done previously and well it just didn't work. I had been wanting to play with the new GW texture paints too so this served a double purpose. I could do some new basing techniques and try out the new paints at the same time. While this isn't finished its close to being done. The addition of the skull adds a lot of character and evokes the landscape in a way that the colours and texture just don't manage. I'll stick with this scheme for now and add a few more elements. Some dried grass tufts and low bushes would also be good. I just have to get some wire thats fine enough to make the style of thorny bushes I imagine growing in this wasteland.