Grendel’s Warband for Conquest Last Argument of Kings #PathOfConquest

So they are done.

I think between the golden weapons and the tats they look different to raiders. Of course the stalker heads help a lot.

Enjoy.

Day two. I’ve got most of the work done on these.

Whats outstanding? I need to highlight the bases, sort out the hair, add some highlights to the tats.

I’m pleased that the tattoos worked, i chose not to blacken the top of the faces for now as i think it may be a bit too much. I may try it on a couple of them to see if it works.

Now i wont be able to do anymore till next weekend as marking and grown up work stuff, but here is where im at.

A lot further down this blog i have the plan for my Ulfhednar. The TLDR is i’m using black tattoo’s across the face and shoulders to make them stand out from raiders along with Stalker heads.

One of the choices i have made is to avoid using green on them. All the other units will. This will make them distinct. Also i’m using light colours to make the tattoos stand out more.

So far i’ve got the base coats and a wash down. I think it shows well where this will be going. very light organic colours that will make it look like there is more skin than is actually there so the tats stand out.

Rightiho. Phase 2 proper start. I picked up some other raiders while i wait for a restock.
As always really nice sculpts.

So i saved a lot of Stalker heads. As there is unlikely to be Ulfhednar in the near future i’m making my own as i said at the start of the project.

So choices. I’ve chosen to leave the shoulder pads off to give more skin to paint markings on. This also means their silhouette will be different to the raiders.

The Stalker heads work, and for any of you who are interested they fit the raider bodies pretty snuggly with a bit of pressure.

I have also chosen to not add the plate to the banner, it makes it look more ramshackle, more feral.

So come Friday, rain willing, i’ll get them under coated and try and get them done over the weekend.

So got the painting done. Just waiting for my replacement base and then it will be basing and snow.

One of the things i have added is runic tattoos. This is to show the oaths the Nord have made with the Jotnar when they defeated them.

Anyway here are the pictures.

Unless i’m on Holiday or its the weekend i don’t really get to paint at the moment. The joys of being a teacher in the current world. So today i’m pretty much full on with this project.

Choices i have made.
The skin tone is a Vallejo pastel green. I think it gives a odd organic plant feel without it going full cucumber. Amusingly its my base colour for my 30k Death Guard.
I went with autumnal leaves. Sure the army is winter themed, but its a magical being and it contrasts well with the green.

The shields that make up his armour i think is a very cool idea. Rather than giving them heraldry, i kept them blank. Using colours repeated from the mini. adding grain to the wood to make them pop a little better. I’m still working on the NMM gold on them. That is not finished.
Also one of the shield rims, due to the way the pieces need to be moulded, makes the shield look about 2ft thick. So i will be adding snow to hide that later.

I’m about half way through the cloth. Now i haven’t painted a large mini that isnt a tank since the first release of the GW manticore. So this was ‘fun’.

Ive tried to make the highlights look ragged and used cross hatches in places to make the texture of cloth stand out, rather than make it look like plastic sheeting.

I think it works.

So still have to do the red cloth and the rope. Then i need to go in and sort out details such as wood poking out of arms rather than hair, tidying up highlights and the like. Oh and tattoos. Needs tats.

More tommorrow.

So my raiders haven’t turned up yet, however my Jotnar has. So while my Shaman waits for its phase 2 reinforcements i will start work on my phase 3 Jotnar.

As always the kits are gorgeous, although as always it did need a lot of clean up with a lot of mould lines. More disappointing, the main round base was also missing. I’ve emailed OTT so hopefully that will be fixed soon.

So thoughts? I went with the tree head, its the more strange and fits with the Grendel base. I think I may actually go with a green skin tone and orange leaves. I think this will lean into the strangeness of an army of monsters; also it will tie to the Ugr quite well. I think using a green and highlighting up with a flesh will look pretty good, this means the green skin will look different to any of the other greens I might use to tie the mini into the stalkers.

Also i’m going to have a look at the Conflict first argument of kings FB group and the OTT blogs to find some heraldry I like for the shield on his hip.

I have to have a big think about the dominant colour as with a greenish skin, blue will make the whole mini look to heavy and dark. That said if I highlight light it will work.

So that’s my weekend sorted out.

Drekki stalked among the stones, his flame red hair slowing behind him in the wind like the lazy floating embers of a smouldering fire. He approached the throng of dispossessed that sat around the bonfire waiting for him. Shadows flickered across the rune marked rocks he was picking his way through.

As each shadow caressed a rune or pictogram another truth was opened and revealed to Drekki, moving darkness pointing out truth and prophecy.

All around him the mad and dispossessed from ice in the far north watched him with the eyes that gleamed a passion that was only felt by the truly fervent or those touched with visions.

And they had been touched. Where Drekki walked visions and dreams haunted those that had lost, those that mourned, those that the cold had stolen from them. Like those shadows he now watched, visions and dreams flickered from him like shadow from flame. 

Dreams of a void beyond the ice, a wyrm that devoured all it gazed upon, of a terrible darkness that swam beneath the ice. A darkness that was making its way south like cracks spreading from shattering ice.

They knew that they had to follow, that Drekki somehow was guiding them south for a reason, and for that they were loyal. They would throw themselves into combat with wild abandon. Tearing at their enemies with blade or blooded fingers, like frenzied animals knowing their only way out was forward. They knew they had a purpose guided by this fire that walked.

Drekki, smiled as he looked at his devotees. He knew the truth of what laid beneath the ice. The horror that was coming. He knew that on the ice only the strong would survive and that the Einharjer and their blooded descendants could stand against it. Like the times before when they fought the Jotnar, they would be the ice storm that would cut down the enemies of the Nord.

Yet Drekki had a plan. To take his followers and the Blooded Grendel and forge a weapon of them. A spear to drive into the heart of this darkness, a spear forged from the mad and the monstrous.

Was that not what the Einharjar were now he thought to himself, was this warhost not the perfect legacy of these fallen legends? Not flawless divine beings that was the fad in the city, but warriors and killers that were red in tooth and claw.

‘My children,’ he began as he stared at the madmen in their blackened tattoos that surrounded him, he made eye contact with each as he stalked around the assembled warriors, the flickering flame casting shadows across his aging face.

‘I have seen a truth in the shadow of the fire, a darkness is coming and we must act…..’

The killers howled in response.