Sláine: Kiss My Paintbrush!

Earth Tribe warriors who die in battle are placed into the Cauldron of Blood and after the “blessing” of Danu they emerge as Reborn.  They can continue the fight once again.

The skintone needed a slightly green hue but I wanted to keep them distinct from the colour on the Half Dead so went for a 25% each blend of Crusader Skin, Malignant Green, Holy White and Speedpaint Medium.  All other colours were as per the original Sessair and Fir Domain paintwork but with a drop or two of the above blend in the colours used to give them a slightly off-colour tone that helped to harmonise with the skin.

The one in the middle with sword raised above his head is one of my favourite sculpts in the whole range.

The Badb were the Drune priestesses and bodyguards of the Lord Weird.  Relatively simple paint job and I retained the use of Orc Skin green on the cloth to give them the same look as the Drune Priest.

Getting close to finishing the Drune faction.  These are the Half-Dead, strange zombie like creatures that were once men and were once alive.  Who know what the Drune Priests have done to them but they are still relentless in combat.

The basic skintone was Malignant Green and then every other colour had some of this added to it to give the whole model what I hope looks like a rather unsettling, off-green glow. Other than that I’m using the same colour combination as I did with the Drune Skull Sword Warrior that was the first thing I painted in this project.

There are Beasts of the Forest in the second wave releases.  A bear, wolf, boar and porcupine(!).  Used the same technique as the fomorian mammoth earlier in this blog, i.e. a blend of two Speedpaints with a bit of extra medium on the top to help enhance the colour differential provided by the underlying zenith.  Super quick to do.

You win the internet if you can tell me which Slaine graphic novel the porcupine is in.

Some 3D prints from @aea007 who also printed the mammoth.  I wasn’t too happy with Warlord’s choices of beast so I thought some megafauna would be a better option.

And then magical fauna.  Can’t be Slaine without “the most beautiful and evil of beasts”, a vicious unicorn. This one was a Lucid Eye model, a mount for one of the Root Elves.  Easiest paintwork so far.  The body is the original zenith undercoat, Holy White on mane, tail and feathers, then a very thin coat of Palid Bone on the horn.  Fin.

I had these Confrontation models sitting in a drawer and when I started this project I wanted to use them.  They are Fianna.  I thought the bright graphic  painting style would suite the beautiful sculpts and I was right, go me 🙂

Method

All AP Sppedpaints as usual.  Crusader Skin first and then a highlight to the skin with a mixture of Vallejo Pale Skin and Elf Skin.  I wanted a bright leather colour on the leggings and boots so a 50/50 mix of Hardened Leather and Palid Bone provided a colour that looked great but was so close to Sand Golem that I used that to touch up the missed bits.  The turquoise colour is a mix of 2/3 Plasmatic Bolt to 1/3 Magic Blue with a couple of drops of medium.  This was then mixed with a bit of Vallejo Game Air Wolf Grey to provide an edge highlight.  Finally the metal was Gravelord Grey with a drop of Runic Grey and Cloudburst Blue, edge highlights with neat Vallejo Game Air Wolf Grey.

Details were the flutes done in Palid Bone and handle wraps in Hardened Leather and the standard is Dark Wood cut 50% with Speedpaint Medium.
Finally, the hair was a mix of Palid Bone, Holy White, Sand Golem and Zealot Yellow.  A slightly different mix used for each model to get colours from plain blond to red.

So why are they “Father Jack’s Own”? Well…

The three champions are now finished.  Still excited by this paint scheme.  See the how to guide earlier in this project.  The only addition to the regular Fomorians is the red crest which is straight Blood Red.

I’m back to this project as the second wave minis are waiting on the painting table.  First off though my favourite Slaine miniature – Warped Slaine by Wargames Foundry.

He was painted using a similar approach to the Warlord version.  I spent a bit more time on the additional low/highlights on the skin.  I alos wanted to reflect the woad tattoos with some extra blue in the hair and axe blade.  That meant adding Runic Grey to the Grim Black for the hair and Cloudburst Blue to the Gravelord Grey of the NMM steel.

No contest in the comparison.  I know what will be on the table in the next game.

It is the end of the Spring Clean Challenge and I’ve had a blast painting Sláine. Here’s the grand total of completions:

87 completed items including 67 miniatures and 20 terrain items.

There are 22 Fomorians, 19 Drunes and 26 Earth Tribes.

I used this as an opportunity to paint with a new product range, The Army Painter Speedpaints.  This helped me get a poppy, graphic style on the minis and I tried out NMM for the first time too.  Overall super happy.
Here’s my handy colour swatch for the different AP and Contrast coulors I’ve got.  I found the colour wheel really handy for deciding on colour schemes and picking appropriate contrasting colours.  Great idea, they are only £1 in most places.

And to top it all off I got a like from Pat Mills 🙂

The project will carry on.  The next wave releases in Augist and my pre-order is in.  I’ve also got some Confrontation Fianna and Alternative Armies Fir Bolg and Sidhe to provide some new factions.  I’ve also got the Foundry Sláine character minis to finish along with his chariot and a sky ship too.

I’m still playing simple scenarios and trying to figure out the rules.  The Let’s Play is super helpful, unlike the rulebook.  I’m hoping the rest of the Let’s Play series makes it out fairly soon as there are a few things I haven’t figured out yet.

Thanks for inspiring us with the Spring Clean Challenge.  Looking forward to next year already.