Sláine: Kiss My Paintbrush!

Celtos Miniatures are now produced by Brigade Games in the UK and this is certainly a Sláine adjacent range. Here we have two druids.  The Cauldron of Blood can have up to three accompanying druids so I’ve picked out these two to go with Cathbad.  Once could easily be a not-Cathbad with his skull mask and the other is probably a not-Sláine holding the Sword of the Moon and Spear of the Sun.  No matter, they are all my druids now.  Painting as per the previous methods for the Earth Tribes.  The bone details were tidied up with some Bonewhite Game Air paint.

Danu – Earth Goddess.  She is the patron goddess of the Sessair and Sláine’s patron god.

Not too much to do on this one so I spent a bit longer on the highlights with non-Speedpaints.  Blend of Speedpaint colours on the hair, thinned with Medium to ensure the zenith showed through consistently.  Crusader Skin was highlighted up with some Game Air Pale Flesh in very thin coats to bolster the strength of the highlight in places.  The jewelery was picked out in white and then a very thin wash of Holy White to give it and the knife a bit of shading.

Cathbad came out quite well.  Cloudburst Blue and Absolution Green on the clothes and the rest as you might expect using the bronze blend that was used earlier in the project on the armour and knife.  The knife then had an edge highlight using Wolf Grey Model Air paint.  The bone face mask was Palid Bone thinned down with some Holy White.  Stripes were Slaughter Red.

The Cauldron of Plenty provides for the Earth Tribes during times of peace.  In times of war it becomes the means to return the dead to battle, as the Cauldron of Blood it transforms the fallen into the Reborn.

Paintwork started with Malignant Green faded down with some Holy White on the skin.  Orkc Skin on the magical vapours which was highlighted with Model Colour Yellow Fluro.  The cauldron itself started with the basic bronze blend I used on the Fomorians of Palid Bone, Dark Wood and Speedpaint Medium. Verdigis finish was provided by Nihilakh Oxide Citadel Technical paint with the upper surfaces wiped back slightly to reveal some of the bronze tone.

The sculpting detail on the cauldron surface is amazing.  I hope the paintwork does it justice.

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…