Resolution 2020: Clearing the pile of shame

My pile isn’t that bad as I cleared it a few years ago. It has mainly built up because I have focused so much on painting the Conan and Mythic Battles Pantheon kickstarter models in 2017 and 2019. I also relaxed my rule from “no more than one box of models in my queue” to “no more than one box of models per game in my queue” to “I forgot I had a rule”. The 40k hobby weekend is what killed off that rule.

So for this year I’m only going to buy new models if they are required to continue playing a game.

Then the plan is to just paint models faster than kickstarters arrive.

I’ve tried rotating these images and re-uploading them, but the system seems determined to remember the orientation in which they were taken.

With these models finished my Ad Mech force is a fully painted 75 power point list and is ready for my club’s tournament in March.

I’m now free to paint anything from the pile without having to worry about deadlines.

The models all started with an undercoat of leadbelcher spray. They were then drybrushed all over with runefang steel. I then painted the magic wisps of the spells, and stone base and weapon hilts of the objectives with wraithbone.

The aethervoid pendulum was then painted all over with shyish purple. This contrast paint is very strong. I think the effect would have been better if I’d watered the paint down first, but I’m still OK with the end result.

The soulsnare shackles and quicksilver swords were painted aethermatic blue.

The weapon hilts and shields of the objective were painted with various contrast paints.

The plinth objective had iyanden darksun applied to the central sun and orbiting meteors to make them appear gold. The stone base was painted with basilicanum grey.

All of these models started from a corax white undercoat.

Ravenak’s Gnashing Jaws were painted blood angels red, then the teeth were painted wraithbone then with skelton horde.

The Prismatic palisade was washed with a 1:3 mix of iyanden yellow and contrast medium. The skulls on the base were painted skeleton horde and the base was painted basilicanum grey.

The Malevolent Maelstrom was painted aethermatic blue with talassar blue magical whisps.

The Burning Head was painted iyanden yellow at the head, gryph-hound orange behind the head and blood angels red at the end of the flames. All three paints were applied in rapid succession so that I could wet blend the transitions between the colours.

The Geminids of Uhl-Gysh were painted with apothecary white and shyish purple, using alternate colours on each model.

The Emerald Lifeswarm was painted warp lightning and then the insect bodies were picked out ork flesh. I found that the two colours were so similar the bodies didn’t stand out as being darker like I intended, so I repainted them shyish purple.

The Umbral Spellportals were painted iyanden yellow on the frames, aethermatic bluein the portal and magical whisps, and talassar blue was used for the decoration above the portals.

If anyone is wondering why I’m not doing anything with the bases, it is because I will be rebasing all the spells on to clear acrylic bases once they are all painted up.

The purple sun was undercoated Macragge Blue (the most purpley spray colour I had when I built the model) and then painted with shyish purple. Without a light undercoat the contrast paint didn’t work that well. The low areas were dark but I didn’t really get any highlights. To compensate I drybrushed the model with lucius lilac.

The gravetide was undercoated with mournefang brown. I then washed the entire model with agrax eathshade. Once that was dry I drybrushed everything with tyrant skull then picked out the skulls, rocks and broken flagstones with wraithbone. The skulls were then painted hexwraith, the rocks with basilicanum grey and the slabstones with wyldwood. Finally I tidied up the base with mournefang brown.

I almost missed the Chronomantic cogs. I had used the model as an objective marker and left it in an army case. If I hadn’t found the spell card I wouldn’t have gone looking for the model and then been really annoyed when I discovered I had not painted the full set.

It started with a leadbelcher undercoat followed by a drybrush of runefang steel. Some of the cogs were then painted darkoath flesh to give a copper appearance and the rest were painted iyanden yellow to look gold. The magical wisps were painted wraithbone and then warp lightning.

The chests started with an undercoat of mournefang brown spray. I then painted the metal bands and gold coins with leadbelcher. They then had an all-over wash of agrax earthshade. Once dry all the books, papers and other items were painted with wraithbone. The gold areas were then painted with iyanden yellow  and the paper areas were painted with skeleton horde. All remaining items were either painted volpus pink, wyldwood, talassar blue, shyish purple or ork flesh.

The Penumbral Engine was undercoated with leadbelcher spray and then drybrushed with runefange steel. Then the entire model was painted with darkoath flesh, apart from the internal workings and the figurines on the legs, which were painted iyanden yellow.

The endless spells were undercoated with wraithbone spray. They were then painted with skeleton horde, wyldwood, basilicanum grey, shyish purple or hexwraith flame. Finally they were all drybrushed with hellion green. My hellion green is very old so the drybrush effect was very subtle.

A few guys down my local club have started to play Warhammer Underworlds so I picked up the Nightvault boxed set to join in. I thought I could allow myself another 10 models.

They all started with a wraithbone undercoat.

All the metal areas were painted leadbelcher, highlighted runefang steel, and then painted either iyanden yellow for the gold areas or darkoath flesh for bronze areas.

The stormcast robes were painted talassar blue, their weapon grips blood angels red and their spirit flasks aethermatic blue.

The nighthaunts were painted hexwraith flame. Their ropes were painted darkoath flesh, the wooden areas wyldwood, the vines ork flesh and the flowers volupus pink. They were finished off with an all over drybrush of hellion green.

The bases were painted basilicanum grey with details picked out in the colours described above.