Age of Sigmar Saurus Warrior (Carl)

It’s been a very long time between updates, looking back over the last few years this seems to be a bit of a pattern. A busy start to the year then a gap. Maybe I’m an autumn and winter painter…

Anyway, moving on.

I did actually finish another Minas Tirith warrior in May but haven’t taken the photo yet. So that inclusion in the list of completions is pending.

I have a completion today though. It’s a Seraphon Saurus Warrior for Age of Sigmar, or rather the Spearhead variant of the game.

The model is one of the old plastic Warhammer lizardmen from one of the starter sets but I’ve based him up with a current base size to make him ‘legal’.

This one is a test for the sand/desert lizard scheme I’m going for. I’ll be doing some orange stripes from the spine on the bigger models, such as the Kroxigors and the Carnosaur. On the whole I’m reasonably happy with it.

It’s completion number 18 for the year!

Age of Sigmar Chaos Chariot (Carl)

I recently finished my Slaves to Darkness Chaos Chariot. Aside from my attempts to wear away at the lead (& plastic) mountain I had the added incentive to get this finished as I’d committed to going to an evening Age of Sigmar Spearhead event at Warhammer World.

The Chaos Chariot was the only model I didn’t have ready for the event so it got bumped up the painting queue. But due to a combination of family life and work shifts I ran the painting very close to the wire completing it in the morning of the event. The build was generally quite enjoyable, I built and painted it in subassemblies however, due to running so close in time, I had to cut a few corners on the painting so the horses and a few details aren’t as ‘finished’ as I’d ideally have liked.

My main gripe was the reins, by all the gods of hobbying they were a challenge, it might have been my build skills but I struggled. After much swearing, huffing and general bad tempered moaning I resigned myself to having a gap that I couldn’t avoid. But in a flash of inspiration I cut a spiky bit from the haft of an unused axehead from the kit and shaped it to the gap, hurrah! Problem solved. If I hadn’t got so wound up with trying to match the kit instructions and simply trusted hobby experience I could have got to this solution a lot quicker. Something to try to remember.

I was gifted this model for my birthday earlier this year and I’ve actually got it completed within six months! That’s a big deal for me.

At the event, a casual affair with ‘Quests’ to complete along with playing the games, I had a win and a draw and completed about half of the quests. It was loads of fun to play in and using a painted force was a big ‘feel good’ moment for me. My opponents were lovely chaps, there were a lot of beautifully painted armies present and good natured story swapping and chat amongst players. A very enjoyable experience all round.

So that’s another completion for 2024 putting my total on 32!

Age of Sigmar Chaos Lord (Carl)

Another finish for 2024 and it’s the Chaos Lord for Age of Sigmar. Unlike a lot of the other chaos minis I’ve been working on, this one has been incredibly quick and straight forward.

Although I did have a bit of a crisis with the blade of his glaive. I got it to the point where I was happy with it. Then, I don’t know why, I tried to do a little bit of glowing effect bling, failed terribly and had to repaint it to bring it back to where it is now.

Other than that, pretty easy.

Total minis completed in 2024 now at 31!

Slaves to Darkness Chaos Knight (Carl)

After months of inactivity I’ve finally finished the last Chaos Knight for my Slaves to Darkness Age of Sigmar force.

I’ve not managed to pick up a brush in months due to work and home being busy.

This takes my tally of completions for the year to 30. Got to get my mojo rolling a lot faster if I want to complete 52 by year end.

Warcry (Age of Sigmar) Darkoath Savagers (Carl)

The last day of May sees me finally scrape in with two finishes. Hobby time this month has been consumed by cleaning up and priming the Darkoath Savager models from Games Workshop’s Warcry game.

They’ll be performing double duty for me as part of my Slaves to Darkness Age of Sigmar army.

To say that I’ve been swearng, moaning, ranting and generally crying during the process of cleanup and build of the Darkoath models is an understatement. I intensely dislike the way the models have been split and compiled on the sprues. Half a forearm!? Sheesh.

Anyway, that aside, when they’re built and primed they’re lovely models, full of Conan style character.

Pictured here are my first two (out of ten) finishes. Hopefully in June I’ll get the other eight done along with, more importantly, my final Chaos Knight.

These two models make my total completions for the year so far 29!

Tzeentch old Warhammer/Battlemasters Chaos Knight (Carl)

Another completion towards my Age of Sigmar Chaps Knights unit, this time a Tzeentch themed Knight.

It’s another old GW/Battlemasters model, I wasn’t entirely sure where I was going with the colour scheme so it’s a bit darker than I wanted but it’s finished.

That makes 27 completions in 2024 and only one Knight left to go to complete the unit.

Old Warhammer/Battlemasters Chaos Knight (Carl)

 

Hot on the heels of the sweetly scented allure of the old Realms of Chaos Slaaneshi Chaos Knight follows the no less pungent Nurgle Knight.

This time the model is one of the old Games Workshop & MB Games collaboration Battermasters models. This one was quite quick to do, I do think Nurgle themed models allow for a looser approach to applying colours.

Total completions: 26 for the year!

Warhammer Realms of Chaos Knight (Carl)

More progress on the Slaves to Darkness army for Age of Sigmar, this time an old Warhammer Realms of Chaos knight.

I’ve painted this one to be the Slaanesh representive for the unit. The intention is to have all four chaos powers represented and an Undivided knight leading them. I’ve already got a Khornate knight painted from when I started the project a while back.

This completion means I’m now onto 25 completions in 2024.

Warcry Fomoroid Crusher (Carl)

Another finish for the year! This time the Fomoroid Crusher for Warcry (and Age of Sigmar). I absolutely love this model, so much that I’m actually considering getting another one to build and paint the other variant.

I had a bit of a wobble on the colour scheme halfway through. I had to do a bit of an overpaint on the bandages/wraps around his arms but otherwise it was pretty straight forward.

This completion puts me at 24 for 2024. I’ve got a good pace going on at the moment despite a few periods of inactivity.

Completed Tarantulos Warcry Warband (Carl)

It’s a month since completing my first model (partly delayed due to having surgery) but I’ve finally completed my Tarantulos warband for Warcry.

The models are also part of my Age of Sigmar Slaves to Darkness army. Completing them also puts my AoS 1000 point force over halfway to completion as, combined with my Chaos Warriors unit, there’s now two thirds of the total models painted.

They’re based as with most of my GW models to represent a desert/wasteland theme. Quite happy with them now I’ve battled through the fiddly details.

This also puts my total completed models in 2024 at 23! Woohoo!

Warcry Tarantulos Brood (Carl)

 After quite a long gap I’ve managed another finish for 2024. This is the first of the Tarantulos Brood for Warcry, the models are also part of my Slaves to Darkness Age of Sigmar army so two games for one model.

I’ve had them sitting primed with skin tones done in Carroburg Crimson for months. But that skin tone had kept them from being finished. I wasn’t keen. But I finally gave myself a good talking too and just went with it.

These models are very fiddly, I think they’re going to take quite a while to complete. But at least I’ve got my first one done to get a feel for the colour combinations.

Looking at it now, I don’t entirely fall out with it.

Old Warhammer Chaos Warriors (Carl)

We’re into February already! Blimey the year is already whistling by.

I’ve managed to complete the remaining 7 Chaos Warriors for my 10 man unit for my Age of Sigmar Slaves to Darkness 1000pt force. They were a bit of a slog as I got a bit lost halfway through with ideas of doing clearly defined followers of Khorne, Tzeentch, Nurgle and Slaanesh.

My original plan was to do two each of the four powers and plus two undivided to make a truly balanced (undivided) unit. But I got a bit distracted. The final unit (which I’ll do a full shot of when the whole army is finished) has four clearly defined followers, four hinted at and two undivided. It still works just differently to my original intention.

Anyway, here’s the seven completions that along with the three previously finished mean I’ve got one completed unit for my Ages of Sigmar force! Hooray!

This also makes 10 actual completions in 2024!

Old Warhammer/Battlemasters Chaos Warrior (Carl)

 After a couple of days with no progress I’ve managed to complete one of the Chaos Warriors for my Age of Sigmar Slaves to Darkness force. The model is one of the earlier plastic citadel Chaos Warriors which also saw action in the GW & MB collaboration game Battlemasters.

It’s a poor photo (quickly taken on the phone in poor light) but here it is, completion number 3 of 2024.

I’ve got a couple more Chaos Warriors close to completion so they’ll hopefully be finished in the next few days.

Age of Sigmar - Ogor Glutton (Nick)

Another 3 months on and to be honest this guy was done not long after the Savage Orruk of my last post, but I was holding back on the blog update as I intended to add rust effects.
A few experiments on spare weapons didn't achieve the result I was looking for so have decided to call him done for now as I like how he looks anyway, and I 'might' come back to add that rust en masse at a later date.

On a positive note, this 'is' the first of the Ogor Mawtribes destined for our Warhammer Age of Sigmar doubles tournament army as mentioned in the last post, sadly though we were unable to attend and neither army is at the stage it should be by now.

He is a straight out of the box Ogor Glutton model, or Ogre Kingdoms Bull for you old skool square base fans, updated for Age of Sigmar with a 40mm round base and the gutplate armour replaced with a round Chaos Marauder shield (as I had always intended for variation from the norm) which now added a nice tie-in with Carl's Slaves to Darkness chaos army - they have obviously been hanging around together (the Ogors probably attached as mercenaries), the chaos effects either rewards, payment or loot when they have turned on their paymasters!

Again this one was started with the brown zenithal prime I've previously used on my Orruks and Orks, although I had to redo a couple of times and mask off other areas with Airbrush Masking Putty as it seems a good, strong bone highlight is required for a smooth flesh tone - this also required a few attempts, pure Darkoath Flesh contrast paint pooled really badly however using Guilliman Flesh contrast paint to 'colourise' the primer and then Army Painter Flesh Wash to add depth achieved the result I was after.

The rest is Games Workshop's 'Contrast Paints' and my usual choices for gold and silver, metalwork aged with Basilicanum Grey contrast paint and Army Painter Strong Tone wash - the new Ratling Grime contrast paint would probably work really well here too.

So rather embarrassingly this is only the second finish of the year so far, however after some good hobby time at the weekend I'm looking at an end of year push like 2021 to get those numbers up!!

Age of Sigmar - Savage Orruk (Nick)

Wow, nearly into August and my first post and finished mini of the year - how embarrassing!

The year started so well, carrying on where 2021 left off and I should have had another 30+ War of the Roses figures finished in Jan/Feb for the Never Mind the Billhooks event in March, unfortunately I was unable to attend the event and so they never passed the finishing post.

Various projects have moved along in the meantime, but mainly building and prep work - the do 'something' every day mantra continues and I haven't missed a single day, but with little to show for it.

However here is the first to make it into the public domain and quite a surprise entry, not least for me, a Savage Orruk for Warhammer Age of Sigmar:

Carl and I have entered a doubles event at Warhammer World in August and while Carl continues with his old Slaves to Darkness Chaos project, I settled on Ogor Mawtribes which have been sat unbuilt in their box since they first came out some 18 years ago!! ...and just happened to be a 1000 points army in new money.

 - but hang on you say, this isn't an Ogor... well no, having stalled on the Ogors I got an itch to do some Bonesplitterz Savage Orruks and this is me actually scratching that itch.  Only a week in so far, let's see if they replace the Ogors this time around or are just a convenient diversion to avoid finishing what I should?

Again all the heavy lifting is done with Games Workshop's 'Contrast Paints' over the same brown zenithal prime as my 40k Ork Boy only this time I decided a lighter, brighter green was in order which is where the new Mantis Warriors Green contrast paint comes in followed by Army Painter's Green Wash to add depth and darken the overall shade slightly ...and to go with that a good excuse to use the psychedelic shade of Talassar Blue for the warpaint (I had considered orange or pink warpaint, but blue just seems right -  and sits much happier next to the green if there's a slight overlap, which would muddy the other colours).

So not the year of painting I had planned so far, and certainly not what I expected to be my first finished mini but hopefully the start of plenty more to come as there aren't many weeks now for both myself and Carl to finish our armies... wish us luck!

Age of Sigmar - Crypt Ghoul (Nick)

Well we're not even into December yet and here we are, with the first finish of the new relaxed regime - just static grass added to a figure I'd been working on for a while.

This is a Crypt Ghoul from Games Workshop, the test piece from a potential Flesh Eater Courts army for Age of Sigmar:

Mostly Citadel Contrast Paints over a Black/White zenithal prime to provide extra depth and shadow, I'm hoping they prove fairly quick to churn out if I proceed and the dark red (Flesh Tearers Red) you can't quite see on the loincloth, as well as the leathery brown (Snakebite Leather), will provide great contrasting spot colours against the icy blue (Gryph-Charger Grey).

Also my first time using Green Stuff World's Coagulated Blood effect as befits the background theme of these creatures, but definitely went for the less is more approach rather than too much gore which I'm not a great fan of.

Warhammer Age of Sigmar - Knight-Incantor (Nick)

Something completely different from my painting station this time! ...something Games Workshop ...something Warhammer!!

Yes, I succumbed to the new version of Warhammer Age of Sigmar and although I was headed down the brand new Nighthaunt (ghosts and gheists) route as is my won't with all things undead in fantasy gaming my first finished mini is actually a Stormcast Eternal from the newly unveiled Sacrosanct Chamber (wizards and other magically attuned sorts).

This chap comes free with the £5 'Getting Started with Warhammer Age of Sigmar' magazine which is a really good deal tbh - or should that be you get a free magazine with a £5 miniature? either way it's a fantastic looking miniature and would normally be £15-20 on his own!

Painting wise the main feature was an experiment using my airbrush for the armour, starting from black primer I used Vallejo Air Gunmetal, Steel and Chrome for zenithal highlights before over spraying with Badger's Ghost Tint Brown.  To be fair I was originally thinking of  much darker, bronze colour but I'm happy enough with the final red copper effect and just need to try for more definition next time.

Amazingly this is also a push-fit miniature, and I defy anyone to tell where the joins are as the engineering is truly remarkable (although I have glued mine as I would for any model).

I always said I would never even consider using Stormcast, being as they first seemed, 40k Terminators dumped in the fantasy world of Warhammer just to sell more of that genre by making it a mirror of the 40k universe.

But things have come along way in the last 3 years though, and this sculpt really captivated my imagination plus I much prefer it to the female one in the Soul Wars starter set - this is looking like the start of a very slippery slope and a return to all things GW!!

It's a long time since I painted anything like this and I had to relearn a style I used to be very familiar with but much less so in recent years.  I certainly don't find it as easy as I did in my youth, but I definitely enjoyed it and it made for a complete change - even if my patience for a finished result isn't quite the saint like quality I used to have!