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.

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.

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.

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.

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.