Warhammer Fantasy Revisited

After getting distracted by my newly arrived copy of Warlords of Erehwon  (which I keep having to type backwards to get the spelling right 😛 ) I pushed on and got a bit more done on the Chaos forces. The Nurgle force got gloves and boots filled in with Vallejo Cavalry Brown (I am pretty much addicted to this colour…). From here, just the belts, weapon wraps and gold and steel highlights and they are ready to dip. I’ll fix up any obvious errors after the dipping phase…

Nurgle Cavalry got the same Cavalry Brown and a coat of AP Monster Brown on the horses. I know for experience there isn’t much point in layering highlights prior to an AP dip – the dip tints everything and tends to leave any underlying shading as ‘subtle’ at best. Same treatment on the chariot horses and rider.

Finally, Monster Brown on to the Tzeentch knights. I’m sort of stalling on the Khorne knights, don’t really want to introduce a new colour to the faction but painting the newer sculpts with the same approach as the older ones might not have them presenting as well as they otherwise might. I guess I could go for a light tan on the cloth areas just to break it up a little. Will have to think on it…

Hit all the gold metals today – was the first time I had seen the mins under a proper hobby light. Think I’m going to need to hit a lot of the base colours with a second pass, plenty of gaps in the paint (I find silver is a little difficult to paint over in thin coats) and chipping from handling. going to try and push on tonight and get a bit more done. Should still manage to get this lot to the dip stage by the weekend, all going well. Going to take a bit of a break as I am beginning to overstep frequently…

Pushed on and got the leather brown onto all the Khorne and Tzeentch models. Will do Nurgle tomorrow, but that should just be the belts as they have Cavalry Brown for their  boots and gloves. from thee, it will be a pass over the metals to touch up, a beige contrast colour onto the Khorne knights, Khorne horses in black or dark grey, a general pass through to tidy up some bits quickly then I think we are ready for the AP varnish phase 🙂

Well that was a thing….

Decided I wasn’t happy with where the base colours were at – I know that the AP dip hides a multitude of sins and that I am only aiming for tabletop standard, but I do feel something of a sense of duty to those who sculpted the original minis to try to do a half-decent job. So spent about 12 hours today ( @johnlyons not sure how you manage all that painting day in day out without needing a shoulder reconstruction….) going through each colour in turn and applying a second coat or touching up the gaps as appropriate. Then put down detailed colours everywhere else that hadn’t been done yet. There are still details that I could go back and add to but I think that where they are presently will suffice for a presentable tabletop standard once the dip is on etc.

So gameplan form here will be to brush on AP strong Tone dip tomorrow morning and let that settle until Saturday morning. At which point I can base them all and then hit with a matt varnish. So all going well should be done by Sunday?

Today has pretty much meant there is little to no chance of me making meaningful progress on the Elves or Knights of the White Wolf but I might look to do a little just so that they are moved across to ‘in progress’. Will see how my levels of enthusiasm are tracking tomorrow.

Brushed on some AP Strong Tone varnish, thinned a little with mineral turpentine, this morning. Varnish has now settled and I will give it until tomorrow morning to properly cure. Slight pooling at the bottom of some shields (which I can live with as I want these guys to look like they have been on campaign) and some tide marks on one of the banners that will need to be touched up, beyond that not much rehighlighting outside weapon blades required from what I could see on my first brief inspection.

So have been wondering what to do once all these armies are tabletop ready. Am flirting with the idea of replaying the Siege of Middenheim from the 2003 Storm of Chaos campaign as a narrative battle. o that end went hunting about for some siege rules. Best official ones I was able to locate were from Appendix 4 of the WHFB 6th edition rules combined with the siege section form the General’s Compendium (circa same edition – possibly 2003ish again? Great book regardless and well worth tracking down if you still like the idea of massed rank and flank fantasy combat games of any flavour). I have a section of barbican from Printable Scenery that I could use for the wall, but the size of the scenario possibly necessitates more than a 4 foot frontage, so not going to commit to anything until I’ve had a chance to think through what might actually be involved…

And calling the paintathon done here 🙂

Today I checked that the varnish had settled, spent a few hours doing a quick base finish on all the minis and hit them with a matt varnish spray. Gallery of the units finished as part of this project follows:

And fitting the new reinforcement units in with the existing forces:

Not sure that these have all been put together in the most ‘optimal’ way – I’ve pretty much been picking up discount 2nd hand minis on Ebay, stripping and repairing and trying to arrange into what appear to be sensible complete units rather than proceeding with any set goals, so my list composition may be rubbish. I don’t really mind 🙂

Tzeentch looks undercooked here but I have 2 more casters and a chariot to repaint and add to the force. Additionally I have a starter force from Wargods of Aegyptus that I picked up 15 years ago and have been meaning to use as  a unit of Tzeentch chosen, so they’ll get added in too.

Still have beastmen to add, plus daemons. And if anybody is wondering why Slaanesh didn’t get any love in this project, it’s because I already have a large Slaanesh army, which at some point I am going to revisit and try and bring back up to a better standard. So no need to add more to it.

All in all, pretty pleased with the results as a month ago these guys were a mess of smashed and broken minis and spares, and a week and a half ago were only primed. Am now at least happy to field on the tabletop.

From here I’ll switch back to the Middenheim force (would be good to at least get the 150 infantry knocked over in the next month or two) and get stuck in to the High elf Sea Patrol. Figured I’d start by painting up the 2 units of Shadow Warriors and let that inform the painting approach for the remainder of the army.

Thanks for following along 🙂

Still making progress on the Middenheim force. Just blocking colours at this stage in advance of a planned AP dark tone varnish, and i’m guessing, a subsequent rehighlighting of the white areas.

And while it’s not quite a pink tank, I did throw some colours on a few Night Goblins form the 7th ed starter set…

Had one of those nice occurrences on the weekend where everything just lined up and hobbying just fell into place without any roadblocks. Moved my half dozen character models to one side and focused on the (152) standard infantry models. Managed to get necessary base colours down on all models and have just finished applying varnish to the second batch (I did 2/3 yesterday and the last 50 this evening).

The recipe so far (mainly so I have a record for later so please do bear with me…):

• Primed in AP Matt White;
• Vallejo Model Colour Prussian Blue added to various uniform sections depending on the troop type;
• Vallejo Model Colour Basic Skin Tone on all flesh areas;
• Vallejo Game Colour Desert Yellow on the weapon hafts for spears and halberds;
• Vallejo Model Colour Natural Steel on all armour, belt buckles barrels and spiky bits;
• Vallejo Model Colour German camo Black Brown on the rifle and crossbow stocks;
• Vallejo Model Colour orange brown for belts, armour straps and assorted leather areas;
• Vallejo Model Colour black for shoes, boots and caps;
• AP Skeleton Bone for some of the leather and cloth armour where metal armour was not worn just to differentiate things a little and break up the white;
• Vallejo Model Colour Japanese Uniform WW2 for the blonde hair (I usually use Desert Yellow but needed something slightly different as I had used the Desert Yellow on the weapon hafts previously…);
• Vallejo Model Colour Panzer Series Flat Earth for the brown hair;
• All brushed down with AP Strong Tone varnish tinned with a little mineral Turpentine, with a good amount then brushed off the models to prevent too much pooling.

And that’s where we are. Once the varnish settles I will retouch the white on the shield details and rims, and anywhere that there is excessive pooling. Based on the results from a quick look at yesterday’s minis there shouldn’t be too much left to do other than base and matt varnish to get them ready for tabletop.

Then it’s characters and standards and we’re good to go 🙂