Vanguard/KoW: Modelling for both systems- A Beardragon14 debacle

As I said in the last “moderately entertaining episode” I put aside the 5 bodies from the hard plastic sprue to make spectres.

THE MODELS : The Scarecrow/Spectre hard plastic sprue is a beaut, while both units use the same plastic bodies there are enough options to make very different units. I did not use the “scarecrow heads” (big hats, pumpkins and the like) and only used the head options from the “spectre part” of the sprue. I also refused to use any arms carrying sickles and scythes, but still had enough parts to make individual and interesting options.

Note: there is no reason why I couldn’t use these alternate parts , I just wanted to see if it was possible to stay on theme . The answer is a resounding “yes”

PAINTING: The purple on the “tendrils of vapour” was done with washes as described on the scarecrows. I mainly used this colour to break the models up from being mono-chrome… the purple is also a unifying colour for the army so ties this unit to the rest of the models.

To do the turquoise spirit bodies, I had a go at making my own wash. I am not sure that this is the best method but it worked for me… although I was anxious at times.

The Mix: 1 part stegadon scale green to 2 parts lahmian medium initially to “evenly spread” the colour  and dilute it slightly was step one . Once I fully blended this I added 2 parts water to reduce the viscosity of the mix so that it “ran a bit” (ie it  became more wash like). I then applied two coats of the wash over a white undercoat.

IN GAME: Like the Scarecrows 5 models is not I viable unit for KoW so I shall instead focus on Vanguard. (I think this project will now focus on Vanguard and I may do a KoW one at a later date.)

The Spectre is not in the main rule book nor is it in the Ice and Iron Supplement (** cough ** bit of an oversight there lads) but it does have it’s own card in the starter (and kickstarter) thankfully.  It is a WARRIOR Unit  which means that counts for the 5 model minimum GRUNT/WARRIOR units you must take to make a legal army.

They are worth 14 points each (so I have 70 points here) with ranged (Firebolt 2D8) and Melee (1D8) attacks. Like the Scarecrow they have the STEALTHY rule which improves their defence against ranged attacks by 1.

All of this means that Unlike the Scarecrows I wouldn’t be pushing these blokes forward instead have them hanging back to provide ranged support for melee units.

In my boundless enthusiasm, I purchased a Vanguard Nightstalker Starter box to match the one I bought for the Basileans …. (curse you enthusiasm) . This gave me enough hard plastic sprues to make 15 Scarecrows or Spectres. I went with 10 Scarecrows which the Big Green book of Awesome (KoW 3rd edition rulebook) tells me is not enough for a viable unit ……. Okay then just Vanguard then.

THE MODELS: As mentioned they come on a hard plastic sprue with lots of different options. I only used the “scarecrow ” heads, and there was sufficient variety in the bodies. heads and arm option not to have 2 builds the same. They went together well. Mantic has now well and truly mastered making hard plastic sprues.

(Incidentally at Mantic’s Virtual Open Day yesterday, Ronnie announced that KoW had passed a critical threshold, so as they no longer have to use Kickstarter to make hard plastic sprues for it. Indeed the recent abyssal dwarfs and upcoming goblin and ratkin hard plastic spues show they are committed to that path. Good on them.)

PAINTING: So this was my crash, self taught course in painting Purples and turquoises. I decided to go wash heavy . It wasn’t something I was familar with. After a major disaster on the second mini, I quickly learned the virtue of thinning my wash. I use lahmian medium and it works well but any other medium or water (as long as it is more wash than water funny thing happen there too … voice of experience again) LET EACH COAT FULLY DRY … before applying the next coat. It gives you a better idea of what the final colour is like. Apply more coats in the recesses. I then later applied a highlight of normal paint to raised areas to make it pop a bit.

IN GAME: The Scarecrow is a GRUNT unit, So there is no restrictions on the number you can take. At 8 points each my 10 only set me back 80 points if I take them all leaving plenty of space for additional troops. They are melee only unit with the Stealthy and Mob Assault Special Rules

Stealthy is -1 modifier to all ranged (and magical) attacks against the model which is handy as you want a block of them getting through to the target to use ……

Mob Assault. Basically once 2 or more models assault the same target, they get Crushing Strength (n) against that target. So if 4 Scarecrows are wailing in on a target they get Crushing Strength (4) which means each to hit roll goes from a 6+ to a 2+ … In fact just getting a pair in reduces the 6+ to a 4+ much besterer.

Morale of the story don’t let these boys fight alone, send mobs.

Basileans were down in 4 months and I was cock-a-hoop. I was actually going to paint a complete kickstarter for once.

TIP #1 Don’t ever think that thought out loud. Nature, the Universe and the hobby are all perverse mistresses. (which normally is good thing …. Oh shut up you idiot this is a “family friendly” project …. sheesh …. sorry)

Now that I had the Basileans out of the way. (they were something I wanted to do for a while) I had to choose another faction. I had to choose between the Northern Alliance, the Forces of the Abyss and Nightstalkers.  I thought I really want to do Northern Alliance and the Forces of the Abyss look cool, I probably want to Nightstalkers the least. I know I’ll do the one I want to do the least next, so I get it out of the way. I was an idiot ……..

TIP # 2 Always do what you love.

I have never had much experience with painting purple and turquoise …. These are the colours I decided to use on my Nightstalkers. It’ll be a learning experience, I said. I ploughed on regardless. Over 2 and a half months (I paint lots of different stuff concurrently, it is normally how I stay focused) I painted 4 units, 10 Scarecrows, 5 Spectres, 5 Phantoms and 5 Reapers.  I paused while assembling the shadow hounds, looked at my assembled Nightstalkers and thought “These look like $#!t”. A series of hobby disasters happened over a fortnight and I stopped. I stopped painting for the better part of 5 months . Played a few games but no hobby.

What brought me back to painting is a bit of a saga, and I won’t go into it. What brought me back to this project were three things . One was Gerry’s Mantic Unboxing videos, another was Ronnie and Rob’s (from Mantic) Preview Videos at the start of the UK lockdown which got warm and gooey for more Mantic hobby and lastly was I took the minis out after not looking at them for 3 quarters of a year and said “what the hell I can save these”

TIP #3 If you walk away from a hobby project always make time to occassionally walk back to it.

I am currently revisiting the units, I have finished the Scarecrows they aren’t great but they aren’t awful anymore either and they’ll be on tomorrow after I take photos.

Thanks for continuing to follow.

B.

THE MODELS: are awesome .  The Abbess is mono pose , The Palace Ogre comes with two heads (No .. It”s not an ettin… Two head options) a sargeant stlye helm and an ordinary one, and two weapon options, halbred in two hands vs halbred in one hand; and thus has 4 different build options.

HINT: When building the abbess don’t glue feet to base as a first step. The left arm has a massive overhang and when packing in a case it is a frail part that sticks out and can easily get caught if not over the base. Build it than place it on the base looking top down so everything is protected by base.

… Take 2 .. sigh .. yes this is a second attemp! Last week I tried to update the project with a magnificent entry full of sage advice, humour. pathos…. and … and the site swallowed it …. I must admit gentle reader I swore…. mostly because I am an awful typist…. anyway … I couldn’t face doing it again so here we are 10 days later …. The Dictator update.

THE MODEL/TIPS : This is the first Mantic resin model that I have painted since their inital releases around 18 months ago. They have improved their game a lot!!! Solid resin casts with deep detail the Dictator goes together beautifully.

Resin Tip # 1 If you haven’t worked with it before always wash resin before applying an undercoat to get rid of the releasing agent. I t makes a hell of a difference.

Resin Tip # 2  My hammer haft was bent (sounds painful … 🙂   ) Resin will also straighten like PVC plastic if you put it in hot water but Don’t mke the water too hot, some years ago a younger Beardragon14 was playing around with a new fangled resin model and straightened it it piping hot 100 degree C water and lost most of his detail. To this day I have the kettle only heat up to 70 degrees when I am straightening resin.

Resin Tip # 3 Unlike PVC Resin appears to have no elastic memory and won’t spring back to it’s original shape. Have a straight edge handy … I use a metal ruler

VANGUARD/KoW

In Vanguard the model costs 41 points and is a COMMAND model (you need 3 GRUNT or WARRIOR Choices per Dictator) He uses both the Red and the white special dice and has “Inspiring” and “Crushing Strength (1)” He also has the spell/special ability “Smite (2)” which makes him quite a melee threat.

In KoW he is a useful command model, if you aren’t going the cavalry / hero on Monster route. He is a bargin at 90 points retaining his “Inspiring” and “Crushing Strength (1)”  and replacing his smite with “Iron Reslove” … (he has the option for a steed as well for an additional 30 points ….. but I am really not a modder

Well this update came around faster than expected …  read on my masochistic supporters and find out why ……….. (cue mysterious music)

BUILDING THE KIT:  The Basilean sisterhood models come with the same number of parts as the Sisterhood scouts but fewer variations are possible. You get 2 heads (cowled and uncowled) an arm holding a two handed sword, and it’s coresponding support arm (it’s the big sleeve arm) and an arm holding a two handed flail/mace  and it’s corresponding arm (it’s the little sleeve one) . I did lots of dry fits, working out the corresponding arms (rather than blundering on in like usual) and it really is the only way to get a nice fit.  …….. and it is a nice fit too.  These models are the easiest builds I have ever had for two arms holding a weapon  (something I usually find slightly bothersome). They went together like a dream but you only get 4  combinations. They were so easy to build and paint that I got 5  done in  a week (I paint them individually , I can’t batch paint it sucks all the joy from my life … I am more productive since I dispensed with batch painting)

After perusing the rules of both systems there doesn’t seem to be any difference between the way the treat a sword and a flail in KoW. The original model had 2 handed flails, Vanguard has the “vanilla” sisters modelled with swords and the Veteran Sister modelled with a flail. KoW also had no real disticntion between Sisters and Veteran sisters.  So “bugger it ” I thought, I am modelled my rank and file sisters with swords/cowls and the Veteran Sister (as per Vanguard) with a flail/uncowled. To get variation in my 4 “normal ” sisters, I changed the height of the front foot, with some leaping quite high (leaning back) others rushing forward with both feet in contact, and the rest in between.

The heads between the Sisterhood and the Sisterhood Scouts aren’t really interchangable easily. the lugs and holes that the heads slide into are different for each as, without modification the Sisterhood Scouts heads are too wide to fit comfortably on the normal sisterhood.

THE RULES:  In KoW these 5 models make up half a troop and until I can get more they will be used to stand in for one troop (I usually use 7  minis in 10 troop multibases).  In Vanguard the Sisters are WARRIORS which are core (I have 4) . The Veteran Sister is SUPPORT, which means I have to field 3 core WARRIORS for each SUPPORT unit I use. I think that I would give her a run with her sisters as she adds a little extra punch (she uses the “hits more often” Red die rather than the White ones)

Well now the onslaught of the start of the year is over I can “get to” an do some serious painting.

THE KIT: Next entry is a new model/ unit for Basilea, the Sisterhood Scout(s); Warrior Nuns with bows as it were. This model comes with a nice variety of options 2 different head options (cowled and uncowled), 2 different bow arms ( vertical bow and horizontal (ish) bow) and two different right arms (with arrow and with arrow just loosed) giving a total of 8 different builds!!  I decided that the Veteran Sister would let her hair down and the others would be cowled.

More importantly for those who remember previous Basilean Sisters models, the hands on the model are not large enough to crush a rockmelon in one palm, the arms do not look like they should be on something with orange fur in the treetops or Borneo and faces look feminine not equine.

PAINTING TIPS:  As always my tips are rudimentry as I am only an average painter but if you can use it , then fine. The sisters having pale blue cloaks meant that I needed to shade it to get the effect of the folds. I didn’t want to build the colour up from a dark base so it had to be shaded but previous experience had shown  Army Painter’s blue tone and Citadel’s Drakenhoff Nightshade they were both too dark over mid and pale blues. I stumbeled across a hint to mix Lahmian Medium with Citadel washes to lighten them down without getting as runny as you get when you dilute with water. I tried it and it worked a treat and I highlighted with a sky blue. Liked it so much I went back and did the Paladin’s capes.

DEPLOYMENT: In Vanguard the Sisterhood Scouts are WARRIORs so are a core choice so I can take as many of them as I want. The 5 models I have will proxy for a 10 sister troop (on appropriate base) until I can procure another 2, honest Mr Renton I will .( I am not buying another starter pack just yet .. what would I  do with the extra panthers??)

SITUATION :- So my Kickstarter pledge and Basilean starter box has left me with 5 of these beauties.  The only problem being they are monopose and unlike the rest of the minis in the starter there are no variable bits.

I could have done variable fur colours or markings but I wasn’t convinced I could pull it off and not look tacky. Besides Gur Panthers are tan …. (no shove that “it’s your hobby”  philosopy where the sun don’t shine, Little boy beardragon14 gazed in awe at older, wiser, better men war gaming and pouring over books to see if they the 89th Old Farnarkullians had copper or gold belt buckles ….. I am not innovating on the colour of Gur Pathers!!!  Several decades later I still seek these men’s imagined approval. I could no sooner do this than paint a tiger tank pink!) .  So this was my solution (such that it was)

MODELLING AND PAINTING:  The Pathers have 25 x 50 mm Cavalry bases.  From nose to tail tip the mini is about 50 mm but around 20 mm of that is tail. This means that you can have the mini slightly off centre  by about 5mm without it looking obviously lopsided.

I modelled the ‘leader’ Panther with his nose/tail tip aligning with the front/back.  The next two I did about 2mm back,  then the other two a little further back than that. I did this to break up the profile silhouette  of rhe 5 ranked up together, hopefully tricking the eye the all 5 were identical.

While I wanted all the panthers to have the same base and high light colour I did want some variation in the fur. To do this I used two different washes ( 3 were sepia and 2 were fleshshade) to give a slight change in tint. Again it breaks them up when ranked up together …. but it is not really noticeable why.

USE: In COK’19 (That’s what we cool kids call Clash of Kings 2019 … we’re sooooooo edgey) there are rules for a KoW Basilean cavalry troop of 5 Gur Panthers. That’s what I now have painted!!  HUZZAH !!

In the Vangaurd rules a Gur Panther is a SUPPORT model.  This means I can only take one Panther for every 3 GRUNT or WARRIOR models I pick.  This means that except in very large games I will be unlikely to deploy all 5 pathers at once …. I’ll play around with list building later in the project . Ahh well.