A Warhammer Bestiary: Minotaur

Minotaurs are some of my favourite models to use in Warhammer Third Edition. I love the rules that accompany them and I love many of the Citadel ranges available - bar the truly hideous 21st century plastic ones.

Here are my favourite of favourites...

Now these models date from the mid to late 1980s are were sculpted by a number of different GW personalities of that time. Their hybrid creation isn't what interests me though, it is the curious fact that this range of minotaurs are designed to sit on a 25mm square base. They are slightly smaller than the more well known minotaur lords put out around the same time, and have these amusing detachable heads. With ten bodies and nine heads 'out there' they are really quite easy to use to create interesting variants too. 

As you can see in the photograph I headed this blogpost with, I have just completed work on yet another of these models. There wasn't much light today (I prefer to work in pure natural light) but I manged to grab and hour or two to complete him this morning. Despite doing his best to destroy the lampshade behind him, he is standing proud and ready to pound his enemies into a soggy mess. And what a pounding a minotaur can give in Warhammer Third Edition. Let's have a look at their rules...

Blood-greed is one of my preferred rules. I love fielding minotaurs and then rolling to see if they become so infatuated with flesh, that they begin to rip apart the corpses of the dead rather than fighting. Foolish is the foe who disturbs them too, as a frenzied minotaur is even more deadly in combat. 

Mind you, the dice gods have never really looked on my with kindness when I am put in this situation, or in the heat of battle, I forget about the rule entirely. 

Still, they are some of my favourite models in the ranges. 

Orlygg.

A Warhammer Bestiary: Manticore

Ages ago I started a painting project, but like so many others before me, it became lost in the myriad of other projects that I started working on. It was called A Warhammer Bestiary and it was my attempt to paint one model for each entry in the Warhammer Third Edition Bestiary. Clicking on the link will take you through the models I have completed so far, that is the entire 'Intelligent Races' section from the book. I also managed to get a giant painted (the first entry in the 'Giant Races' section, obviously) before McDeath and a couple of other projects took hold. I just checked through my blog and discovered that I first started trying to work through the bestiary over two years ago, and that the last entry I posted was way back in March last year!

Rather by accident, I have started work once again on the project. I had a Jes Goodwin manticore lying around on my workstation for ages and ages, and last night, while I was working on one of this month's entries to A Tale of Four Oldhammer Gamers, I slapped on a little colour and inked on the shading. He is way off my chronological list ( minotaurs are next for the project) but we can treat him as a detour like we did the treemen. 

As it was reasonably bright this morning (for winter) I put my entry to one side and cracked on with this beautiful beast. Surprisingly, he painted up rather quickly and I was very pleased with the result, though there are a couple of areas I would like to revisit on the mane and scorpion tail - but he will do for now. 

The background for Manticores can be found on p.256 of WFB3 and it states that these chaotic beasts were created as a side effect of the collapse of the Old Slann warpgates. They generally have a head of a man, and I painted my model to reflect this little nugget of information, the body of a lion, wings and some kind of prehensile tail, in this model's case - the tail of an arachnid, complete with sting! 

I tried out a few new things with this piece. Painting a decent orange was the first and most significant. Usually, my oranges come out either too muddy (looking like a yellow clay) or far too red, so I am really proud of the rich tone I have managed to bring out here. My secret? The Foundry yellow triad, oh and some careful highlighting too. 

Painting black can be tricky, so I was keen to try out highlighting the colour with blue on the tail. Andy Craig mentioned such a technique to me way back when, so I thought it about time I had a crack at it. It was fairly straightforwards- I selected a bright blue, mixed in a fair blob of black and basecoated the tail, slowly, I added a little more and a little more of the blue until I was using just blue as the final highlight. 

Having a read through the rules, Manticores are fearsome creatures on the tabletop and weigh in at an impressive 200 points each, 250 points if winged! So this model is one terrifying beast! Have a look if you are interested..

Right, I have a couple of other projects on the boil at the moment as I have already said, but hopefully it won't be months and months until I have another crack at a model in this one. I shall be returning to task next time, as I am supposed to be attempting to paint all of the models in the order they are listed in the Bestiary - so my next piece will be a minotaur!

Orlygg

A Warhammer Bestiary: Giant

A Warhammer Bestiary is my attempt at painting a model for every race described in the Third Edition rulebook. So, with the return of natural light and some progression towards actually having a 'weekend' I have decided to carry on with my challenge. If you haven't already done so, you may well want to click the link further up this paragraph to have a look at what I have covered so far. If you cannot be bothered to do so, then let me give you the short story.

So far, I have painted a model to represent everything in the 'Intelligent Races' section of the Bestiary. The model I am sharing today, a classic 1987 Citadel giant, is the first model in the 'Giant Races' section of the rulebook.

And what a model it is. 

Firstly, I need to thank The Citadel Collector, Steve Casey, for this model, as he was kind enough to pass him over to me for this project. So thanks again, Steve - my you find your Nuln Spearman one day!

Secondly, I hated this miniature. Utterly. I can remember reviewing the range some time back for my Acceptable in the '80s series. Let's see if we can find a link to that... 

Here's what I said about this model at the time:

"I just cannot stand the model of Bottle Snottle! Its the really, really crap hand, massively out of proportion to the rest of his body, that puts me right off. He looks like he has spent a long, long time in prison with a giant stack of 'magazines of gentleman's interest' and little else to pass his time. The fact that his weapon, a rather fetching stone headed club,  seems rather incongruous to the rest of the model cements the fact that this model is always going to be passed over in my collection."

I can honestly say that my opinion has changed of the sculpt. Though only after some extensive bending and shifting on my part (the model, not me) and some careful placing of his gigantic bone (careful, Chico). The hand that troubled me so much for being a little 'hello sailor' looks much better in its new position and the tilted weapon helps create a sense that this model is self contained upon the base. The example painted up on the original ad (follow the link above if you want to have a look at it) has the weapon dangling down onto the table surface itself. It looks awful like that.

Since writing about the release of these lanky lads, I have heard a tale or two from several ex-Citadel lunatics. Apparently, and this is a BIG apparently, the head of my model was based on Bob Naismith (he of plastic Space Marine fame) and the body, beer gut and all - was inspired by the Goblinmaster, Kev Adams. Now the sculptor of this giant is Nick Bibby, an artist with a reputation of capturing the unwary (often company directors!) in miniature form. 

So who knows - it could be true! The story goes on to recount that neither of the respected sculptors previously mentioned were particularly thrilled with their immortalisation in lead. Perhaps it was 'that hand'?

But this scruffy chap just goes to show that opinions can most certainly change - even about the models you think you totally loathe. Just wait and see... You might see Nagash pop up painted on this blog one day!

Or maybe not. 

So how did I paint him? Well, with paints actually. Though I used quite a range of manufacturers, utilitising modern Citadel Colour, Old Citadel Colour, Coat d'Arms, Army Painter, Windsor and Newton Inks, Citadel Inks and Foundry paints too. The model has stood at the half way stage since last year and only really took of after I had painted up loads of little models. I wanted something different to do.

I started with the flesh like I always do and just continued with the technique I have developed to handle skin. Start with a white undercoat, base with a flesh colour/brown mix and highlight up from there. I used very dark W&S ink to create the shadows in the joins around clothes and equipment. I was particularly pleased with the ginger hair. I used brown and orange mixed together to create the base and highlighted up with orange and yellow straight out of the pot - which is something I don't usually do. But the result was suitably eyepopping and helped me move away from the rather washed out gingers I have recently painted as the highlighters were created by adding Bleached Bone to the mix each time. 

The bone club weapon thing was very straight forwards. I used Foundry's Bone Triad over a Bleached Bone/Brown ink wash base. Quick, simple and effective. Try out some Foundry paint as soon as you get the chance if you haven't yet. The underarm barrel was also fairly simple - with a brown basecoat, brown ink wash and a Bleached Bone drybrush over the top. I painted the metallic rims, washed them in black and then highlighted them back up again. 

The trousers were more adventurous as I tried to develop my tartan painting in light of my McDeath style models. I think the finished result - though difficult to see in the photographs above - is much better than the approach I took with my recent clansmen. The rest of the giant's equipment was very straight forwards, and I used the classic formula of base, wash and highlight for each. I opted to go for quite bright pouches dangling from the belt as a nod to the E Number-like colour schemes of yesteryear. 

So to conclude, I am very pleased with the result. And working on a model of this size after so long was a real challenge. Next, Treemen...

A Warhammer Bestiary: Zoat

Ah, the zoat! For me, this model had the unfavourable status of 'Citadel's ugliest miniature' and I was really rather reluctant to paint it. In fact, I very nearly didn't have a zoat to paint at all (they are quite expensive you know!) and it was only down to luck I managed to pick this one up for my usual price of 'next to nothing.' 

You see, this is a zoat of two halves. I bought the leg section quite some years previously as a 99p lot on eBay and had to wait until only a couple of months ago to get my hands on the top half for a similar price. It wasn't quite the model I was after, considering that I planned back then to only but one zoat, but the one piece zoat with staff wasn't available. I wouldn't have minded paying a little bit more for that model either. 

Still, I had a complete model and it was on the list to paint, so paint it I did. One thing I knew I didn't want to do when working on this model was use any green. I am feeling a little greened out if truth be told after painting snotlings, orcs and lizardmen of late. So I chose a brown colour for my zoat and to be honest with you, I am really rather pleased with the result. I selected a complimentary yellow shade from the chest area, incorporating a little colour harmony into the process, and used bone to paint up the toenails. 

I used purple to help suggest that the creature's mouth is a little more than just a black hole and highlighted the teeth with more bone shades. The eyes were done with the classic red base and tiny yellow dot, which I feel always brings eyes to life on monsters and creatures such as these. Finally, I painted the funny sphere in the zoat's hand in a kind of electric crackling way that was only partially successful. I am not bothered as it was a first go and its certainly a technique that I would like to do again. 

To conclude, I really enjoyed this paint job and I would be more than willing to have another go at the other fantasy zoat at some time.I hope you like him too!

Orlygg

A Warhammer Bestiary: Snotlings

Despite life throwing everything at us at the moment, I have managed to get a bit of painting in recently. One thing that I have lacked is decent light to take photographs of my efforts. As some of your with know, I prefer to use natural light to capture my work and favour a printed out background to add depth and character to the image.

This morning saw a few rays of sunshine break through the eternal grey of November, so I took advantage of the sudden illumination to take a few snaps of my work. Regular readers will already know about my long term painting project 'A Warhammer Bestiary', in which I try and paint up a model for each entry in the Bestiary section. This model, or should that be models, represent snotlings, a race as 'Warhammer' as can be in my opinion. 

Why? They are rather loony, frankly, and tongue in cheek lunacy is a key element of the earlier editions of Warhammer, and GW generally in the 1980s. Puns, silly ideas and in-jokes abound. Comedy is great foil to horror. 

In researching this paint job I took the time to learn a little bit of background to the snotlings. Obviously, they are the smallest and weakest of the goblinoid races and are perhaps the most cunning and sneaking of their species. They have to be, for they live off the scraps to be found from goblins, orcs and even wild animals. Orcs are even known to farm these small creatures and use them as a food source. When desperate, they even herd them into battle!

Surprisingly, Snotlings are not evil in alignment. They lack the cruel streak to be found in their closest relations and should really be considered more of a nuisance than a threat. Their stats certainly reflect this, though interestingly they are immune to poison, perhaps due to the fungus they grow and use a weapons. 

The miniatures themselves, sculpted by Kev Adams, are great fun. Which is what you would expect from the goblinoid range of the 1980s. They models you can see here were rescued by me from a car boot sale last summer. Its amazing what you can find when the winds of luck blow, isn't it? I would certainly want to collect more of these tiny greenskins in the future as they are varied and amusing to work with. If you don't own any or haven't yet painted any, I really recommend that you do!

Next, a zoat! 

A Warhammer Bestiary: Slann

Ahh, proper Slann. Nothing says old school Warhammer like proper Slann. You may well be wondering what I mean by this, as the Slann have been a stalwart of the game for a great many years. Its because these days the slann are relegated to fat frog spell casters. But there was a wild time when an entire army of the frogmen could be fielded en mass. 

Unlike some of the other races in the WFB3 rulebook, the Slann background section is very well fleshed out, and this is most likely due to their appearance in previous supplements, most notably - the Magnificent Sven. After reading the entry I realised that I had erred in my paint job, as I had included gold metallic parts on my Slann and it seems use of metals is very rare. 

Clearly inspired by Aztecs, the Slann are suffering the same decimation of their society thanks to the coughs and colds of Old Worlders. Though unlike the ancient dwellers of the Americas, the slann are descended from a far more powerful and scientific civilisation.  With this in mind, I went on a little internet stroll to pick up some inspiration to paint up this model - which is of course on of the earlier pre-slotta slann models. After sticking the solid base on the plastic base, and building up the ground under foot with greenstuff and sand I opted to go with a yellow skin colour, largely becuase I wanted to work on my technique using this colour. 

I don't think I was totally successful. But I am happy with the way the model came out for this project. Its clear to me that the slann and I have some unfinished business and would dearly like to produce a vividly painted force at some point in the future. 

A Warhammer Bestiary: Skaven

Hello all! Long time no blog. Well, blame the job for that! Still, I cannot complain as I only have one more week to complete (albeit one with Parents' Evening in) and Autumn Half-Term is here. As those of you of an UK extraction will know, this means a whole week off to recharge the batteries until the Christmas Half-Term begins!

Hooray!

I managed a few hours painting today and the result of that is a couple of new models complete in my Warhammer Bestiary project. The first of which I can document here with the first skaven to be added to my collection for some time. 

I have always loved the rat-men, as they started life, and find them to be the most interesting of the more evil races in old school Warhammer. Chaos is the BIG SHOW that will inevitably destroy the world and few humans even know of its true existence. But even few know about the teeming hordes of chaos ratmen that lurk beneath the world poised to conquer all!

As time went by, the skaven became less and less threatening as the 'cowardly' side of them was played to the full. I much prefer the insidious version that saw light of day in the early parts of the Enemy Within Campaign. Cunning schemers who'll do anything to keep their existence a secret, despite their long quests for warpstone. 

This skaven is one such ratman! 

The paint job was relatively simple as I needed something to ease me back into the painting lark after some time away. I basecoated the entire model in brown before basing each of the different parts of the model. Once dry, this got a generous wash of brown ink and was left to dry. It was really easy to just repaint each part in the base colour and highlight up with a little Bleached Bone. 

An enjoyable few hours. 

A Warhammer Bestiary: Orc

Despite not thinking I'd find time, I managed to spend a good few hours today painting. The result of this is three completed figures and a couple more in varying stages of completion. My Warhammer Bestiary project had not seen much attention of late and I felt it time to rectify that fact. Luckily, the next miniature on the list was one of my favourite races - an orc! 

Which figure to pick, though? I nearly rounded on Harboth but in the end I selected this chap. The model was obviously designed to represent a mighty orc champion, complete with arm and leg rings and an enormous helmet crest. He is also named in Blood Bath at Orc's Drift as Grashak Kra. Which is what I shall call him evermore. 

The paint job was a simple one. The flesh was worked up from Snot Green using Goblin Green with increasing amounts of Foundry's Boneyard Light. The metallics were simply the base colour mixed with a little black washed over with a chestnut/brown ink mix and highlighted up with silver. The armour was painted in much the same way, only with a red base and a flesh/orange/red mix to highlight the edges. I added an orange leather belt by mixing brown and orange and highlighting it up with a flesh tone. While the crest was as simple as basecoating in a brown/yellow mix and dry brushing up with layers of added yellow and white. I completed the hair do with a  couple of layers of bright yellow to get things looking uniform. 

And enjoyable hour or two well spent. 

Onwards! 

Orlygg

A Warhammer Bestiary: Lizardman

I must confess to not having got much painting in lately. Its a sad consequence of my profession, as Septembers are notoriously busy for school teachers, especially teachers who have three classes of 30 children to get to know! Still, I am starting to get into a pattern of working (largely involving me rushing around all day long at work) which allows a little bit of time for painting. 

As many of you will recall, I have an ongoing project called 'A Warhammer Bestiary' in which I am attempting to paint a single model for each and every entry in the Third Edition rulebook. I have painted quite a few models already, so of which have been incorporated in to my other armies, but found myself stalling with the lizardmen. In fact, the model you can see here was started months previously but ended up rather neglected as I just couldn't work out how to best paint it. 

In the end, I just went for it and am fairly happy with the result, though its not a classic. Still, its broken the painter's block that I have been suffering with this project, so that is a good thing.

The model you can see here is one of the pre-slotta lizardmen sculpted (I think) by Tom Meier. I built up around the base of the model to create a flat surface and opted to keep the jungle theme I had started with my Coatl model some months previously!

The paintjob was simple and quick. Just a dark green base followed by a green ink wash. Once this was dry, I added layers of green (using Bilious Green) to build up the scales. Red was used as a spot color for the eye and scabbard. The gold was also very easy to do. Just a simple basecoat, chestnut wash and then a gold followed by silver highlight. 

I even added aquatic plants to the base in another experiment in doing something different. I am not sure if I was totally successful here, but no matter. I can all ways pull them off at a later date!

Delving into the background of the lizardmen at the this point in Warhammer's history was also interesting. Their relationship with the Slann is prevalent as you would expect, Only, here they are the product of a failed genetic experiment and were actively hunted down by the Slann, and largely destroyed. The entry goes on to state that the lizardmen live an underground existence, deep than even the dwarfs or goblins, and only rarely appear in the sunlight world for raids. Though not evil, they alignment is alien to those of the sunlight world and communication between them is very rae.

Looking at their rules lizardmen are quite hardy. They are immune to panic and fear reactions as they are extremely solid and resolved. They are also unaffected by the stench of troglodytes and lead units of these foul reptile beasts.

So all in all, a unit of these models is a worthwhile addition for any Oldhammerer, as they are perfect cast members for mysterious raids, tunnel attacks and alien alliances. 

Anyways, onwards to the next model! 

Orlygg

A Warhammer Besitary: Chaotic (and Evil) Warriors and Sorcerers... ohh and a couple of new beastmen of Slaanesh!

Regular readers will know that my output is often sporadic, but has seen a slight increase in recent days. Well, this is due to it being half-term this week, and me being a teacher, I can spare an extra few moments to write up articles for fellow old school Citadel enthusiasts. 

With an increase in spare time, painting will swiftly follow, surely? Well not so for me, not in the first part of this week anyway. I had hit one of those ruts that all painters find themselves stuck in from time to time. I just couldn't find the motivation to pick up the paints and get the chaos warrior that has sat on my desk for two weeks completed. 

Thankfully, I got over my painter's block on Tuesday and have managed to get quite a few miniatures finished off for my Warhammer Bestiary project. If you are coming to this post fresh and wonder what I mean by this, its simple! I am attempting to paint a single model for every entry in the WFB3 Bestiary using old school Citadel lead only. 

The first miniatures to share, in order of the Bestiary, are the Chaotic humans. Here we have a couple of mid '80s Realm of Chaos models. I am not sure who sculpted the warrior, but the sorcerer is one of Jes Goodwin's classic Chaos Sorcerer range.

Starting with the warrior, I chose to paint him up in traditional (for RoC, anyway) Slaaneshi colours as my embryonic Pleasure God old school army needs all the help it can get. As you may know, pastel shades are the order of the day here and the best way to produce those is by adding pure white to any base colour. I didn't really want to go all out on the pink front, so restrained the colour to the breastplate and went for a blue colour scheme for the rest of the armour. I added horn and gold here and there to act as spot colours and used black to suggest a dark leather boot on on of the model's feet. The weapon was just a Bleached Bone job with rust effects created on the blade using old Citadel inks. This model was really a paint by numbers exercise as I have painted quite a few chaos warriors in my time and this one took no real effort.

The sorcerer was a different matter. Here I didn't want to go down the road of any particular god but was inspired instead by the crazy multicoloured chaos schemes of the mid 1980s, with particular reference to the original Chaos Sorcerer advert which can be seen here. I noticed that the sorcerer's head was covered by some kind of facemask and a jester's hood. The colour red immediately sprung to mind here and I decided to offset this tone with white, using grey to create the depth. For the rest of the model, I just painted a bit here one colour and another with another. I played around with the colours until I was happy with the way they had been spaced out. I used red to line the edge of the robes to build some continuity with the jester's hood. I feel that the result works really well, don't you?

On reflection, I found that the purple of the sleeves was too starkly highlighted and felt that they needed bringing down a little. Instead of just repainting them I opted to experiment with a heavy glaze of the base colour (Imperial Purple) first. After this glaze had dried the purple had a far more subtle and warm look so I left the model as it was and concentrated on the base. This type of technique is certainly something I would like to experiment with in the future and something I recommend you try out when you are highlighting cloth. 

The shield on the chaos warrior was another one of my by the book jobs, though I chose green to match with the shoulder pad. I have written several articles on how to paint faces like this and instruction can be found here. The only thing I did differently was to paint the eyes red and dot them with yellow while the paint was still wet. Once dry, I added a line to act as a pupil and used a tiny white spot to create the look of reflecting light. I was not entirely satisfied with the result so I will have another go with it on a future shield. 

As regular readers will know, I have been working on my textile painting technique as it had been a shortcoming of mine throughout this project. I was pleased to discover that the Warhammer Third Edition Bestiary includes a section on EVIL warriors and sorcerers, so I would have a chance to paint a more conservative robe here. Yes, that is EVIL. Demonologists, necromancers and so forth, though I didn't want to walk the brightly coloured route of the model above, nor did I want to tread the street of the 'uber-black' necromancer type either. As a compromise, I opted to paint the model as a hedgewizard and suggested that he was evil by using purple paint and ink washes on his skin. This was a method I used on the evil warrior too. 

The evil sorcerer is my personal favourite painted model in this series so far. I feel like I got the face, hair and clothing right here and it really is rather surprising to compare the quality of the result with miniatures I produced last year. A project as varied as this certainly helps improve your skill and I heartily recommend such an endeavour to anyone. 

For the evil warrior, I choose a old Paladin model that I had lying around in a draw. I wanted something unconnect to chaos, for this model would represent an evil man, rather than one who had sold his soul to the Ruinous Powers. I quite liked the idea that he was a fallen knight too. I went quite John Blanche on the hat and boots, using natural tones based on cheetah fur before using white and black dots to give the impression of markings. I struggled with the silver plate armour though, and the gold is rather lack lustre too. So I have found myself a new target for future work, painting gold and silver across large flat spaces on a model. Thankfully, I am now armed with advice from the Greatest, Fraser Gray, and I plan to base with yellow when I paint gold in the future. 

I chose purple as a spot colour for the gloves and scarf on the warrior. Purple is a royal colour but it tends to have a whiff of deceit about it too, well for me anyway. The shield was a touch up on an old Paper Tiger design from back in the late '70s and you can find a tutorial about how to achieve such a shield here. I added a gold shield rim to help tie the shield in with the rest of the model and washed over the entire design with a chestnut ink glaze. This aged the 'look' of the shield and gave the model and aura of experience I think.

In addition to the four models shown above, I also painted up a couple of new beastmen for the very slowly developing Slaaneshi army I am building. The blue fleshed model was painted first in about thirty minutes and employed very few colours. The flesh (and fur) was just a light blue basecoat worked up through highlights in stages of additional white. The horn was Bleached Bone drybrushed with white. The belt was a simple leather brown with a Bleached Bone highlight. For the chainmail, it was silver mixed with black base with a silver highlight while the club was created with a little red being added to the belt basecolour, and again highlighted up by adding Bleached Bone. Upon reflection, I am quite pleased with the result considering how little time I actually spent on it. It is easily the quickest paintjob I have produced since by 'base and wash' days, circa 1988. 

The second beastman took me longer, about two hours. The fur was drybrushed up using the same mix as I used for the first beastman's belt, only I added the final highlights with brush before using pink and brown ink to build up an impression of the boar like mouth and nose. Pure white was used to highlight the teeth. Drybrushing with a final highlight via brush was used to complete the weapon too. With the edges of the axe blade having a pure silver line added to it. I feel these kind of touches make a blade look suitably sharp. 

The gold scale mail was completed using my usual method. Using Imperial Purple (again!) I quickly highlighted up the leather bands that hang from the beastman's girdle and used gold dots to pick out the studs on the end. I used exactly the same pink mix (red with white paint, 50:50) to work up the girdle itself, adding a touch of white each time to draw out the detail. Another nice result here with this beastman, with some nice rich colours and took little effort to complete. 

And so here I will leave you. Half-term draws to a close and I feel like I have got over my slump. Next, I need to turn my attentions to the tropical forests of Lustria as I tackle '80s Lizardmen. Right, I better get basecoating!

Orlygg.

A Warhammer Bestiary: Chaos Cultist

The holidays are upon me once more. Lots of family time, including a trip to the beach, has been spent I have left this blog alone for a while. I often find that this is a good thing, as endless updates of every tiny Oldhammer related thing I do would be tedious, would it not? 

So to kick things off once more, let's revisit Brugal Vassel in a little more detail shall we? Those of you who have read the battle report concerning the Daemon-Prince and Woodcutter will no doubt be familiar with this miniature, as he played a leading role in that scenario. 

As many of you will know, I am working on painting fabric at the moment. I enjoy setting myself little targets and working on them through the models I select for this series. In years past, I must admit to often choosing miniatures that were well within my comfort zone (plastic Space Marines) but I grew dissatisfied that the models I was producing were not of the standard I was after. I felt that they lacked 'a style'. Now, I am forced to select models based on the Bestiary and in many cases come across things that I would have never previously thought about painting. 

For the Chaos Cultists mention in the Bestiary I chose the first model that does not have its origins in the Warhammer range. This miniature was part of the Cthulhu collection put out by Citadel in the mid '80s. Later, it was included as part of the Shadows Over Bogenhafen range as an example of one of the cultists. In that regard, I chose to paint it up as it would cover both bases - a suitable cultist model and an opportunity to paint fabric. 

As I have written before, I have always found fabric a difficult subject to get looking right on a model. So, I had a quite glance through my WD archive and read a bit of what has been published online. Piecing together all this information, I managed to concoct my own method which seems to produce good results. What struck me was how simple the technique was in the end. Basecoat over white, in this case Imperial Purple, and shade with the base coat mixed with black, probably 40:60 black/purple. I watered this mix down and carefully applied it where I though the folds were at their deepest before tidying things up with the basecoat once more. Once dry, it was very simple to add a little Bleached Bone to the basecolour and highlight the edges of the folds. I kept the paint here very fluid, almost like milk, as I find it so much easier to apply in this state. I added a little white to this highlight mix and added an extra hint here and there too. Everything else was finished off using my usual method. 

The job was done in about one hour.

What do you think?

Orlygg

A Warhammer Bestiary: Were

Here's my latest painted figure. A Night Horrors werewolf. Now, I am sure that many of you are familiar with the Night Horrors range as it is really rather collectible, not to mention home to one or two rather pricey models. I have heard it said from others that this particular range is rather difficult to complete but I couldn't say for sure if this were true as I have never had any real problems getting hold of any of the models in the collection. 

Werewolves are rather rare in the Citadel Miniatures world. I cannot actually think of many suitable models for representing them. In fact, I more modern times they have been removed altogether from the background, of at least it was so when I was still reading the fluff. With the speed and reversals of background change in the last ten years they may well have an entire army book out by now! 

Unusually for a living creature, the werewolf has become linked to undead armies. I have always found this rather strange as, despite the bestial urges, weres are ultimately alive. During the 1980s, the alignment of weres in Warhammer was rather ambiguous. The Bestiary remarks that they are neutral beings, and just as likely to be kind as they are callous. The choice of their behavior is up to the GM or players, though of course the more beast the were becomes the more likely he is to devolve into a giant wolf, with all the animalistic urges such a creature must act upon. 

I like the way the rules suggest you use the were. Transformations to wolf man need to be forced by the characters will and a 6 needs to be rolled in order for the change to take place. Being in close proximity to violence may well change this to a 5+, while hand to hand combat will allow a player to use a 4+ to ensure change into a wolf man. The rules are really rather interesting and I really do recommend having a read of them if you have a copy of WFB3 to hand. 

Of course, then there is the threat of transforming into the unpredictable giant wolf. A creature likely to attack friend and foe!

All in all, the weres are a rather complex unit which have a strong bond with the Norse, though are not found exclusively there. The background suggests that many woodcutters and forest men are secretly weres, living peacefully in the forests of the Empire and ensuring that their changes harm nothing but the wild animals of the woods. 

This was a fairly simple paint job really. Ink washes and drybrushing were the orders of the day when it came to completing the wolf fur. I found this took quite a bit of work to get the right tone but achieved it by switching from adding white for the highlight to adding Bleached Bone. The trousers were done using my normal method, as were the torn apart shoes. The eyes were dotted yellow and the lips were painted. I have found that when doing mouths that mixing in the skin tone with red or purple produces a better result that just using paint straight from the pot. 

Try it.

Onwards to more humans now. A trilogy infact! Chaos cultist, warrior and sorcerer. I better get painting!

Orlygg

A Warhammer Bestiary: Norse

Next up on my project to paint a single model for every entry in the Warhammer Third Edition rule book sees us stopping among the Norse. One thing that may strike the unwary about this race is that back in the day the Norse where just another human society and pretty much neutral in the case of alignment. They could be good and they could be evil, just like any other human. Chaos was a less tangible thing and was largely unheard of by the general populace of the Warhammer World. This ignorance of ultimate and inevitable doom is what made the mythos of the '80s so powerful, something that the impossibly insane modern interpretation seems to lack. 

Now in many cases the Norse were a missing army from Warhammer Armies. Their armylist saw the light of day in WD 107 and can been viewed by following this link. A quick scan through the units will reveal a very different view of the race when compared to the modern chaos infested tribes. Here we have tribes of coastal raiders just as likely to battle with groups of goblins as they are clashing with the mortal powers of chaos. Invasions of the Old World would be just as likely as desperate pacts with fellow humans to defeat the hideous foe. 

The stereotypical Norse is everything the historically inaccurate viking would be. Bearded, axe in hand with an impractically horned helm perched aggressively on the top of their blonde haired head. Well, I chose something different. This wonderful shield maiden/valkyrie miniature. She has the whiff of Wagner about her, don't you think? Something suitably operatic that fits wonderfully with the old interpretation of the Warhammer World. 

She was a pretty straightforward paint too. Skin, hair and armour where all completed with tried and tested techniques that I have used previously on models in this project. The only slight difference was the use of a blue glaze to subtly changed the colour of the silver armour she wears over that ample bosom. It was to be the clothing that I would put the time in. Sweeping folds of material are another one of those challenging jobs for me. This is most likely due to my previous method of basecoating and washing to create the depth. The wash always let the the fabric looking too deep if such a thing sounds reasonable?

Having a quick think about things, I opted to use a similar method of blending as I have used for larger creatures, such as the fimir. Starting with a light blue basecoat (using the same ink as I used on the armour) it was a simple case of layering up the shades to purest (ish) white. I was satisfied with the result but would like to play around with the technique with a darker colour in future. The shield finished off the model and was completed using my usual method. However, I used a metallic rim rather than a black one so the boss of the shield would fit in with the rest of the model. 

In conclusion, a really enjoyable paint up this one. The model is a testament to the old school sense of humour that used to prevail against the ever encompassing tide of 'skullz 'n' grimdark'. 

Orlygg. 

A Warhammer Bestiary: Human

Its been a slow weekend. The kids have been under the weather and so things are a bit tiresome at home. The surfaces are sticky with drying Calpol and many a bowl of food has been brought forth from the kitchen for those who dwell in front of the TV! Here and there, I snatched a little time to work on my painting project. Next on the 'To Do List' was the human category. This includes the humble human, the Norse as well as more chaotic and evil archetypes. 

Its a tad odd to be painting a mere human after all of the strange and unusual creatures that have thus far seen my attentions. The humble everyman was an interesting change in direction for me with the need to work with realistic, rural colours to clothe this most regular (or is he?) of individuals. 

I had plenty of choice for model but found myself choosing this lovely figure, perhaps due to the fact that an illustration of him appears in the WFRP rulebook. There are obvious wafts of fairy tales about this chap but his chainmail vest lets us know that this is a Warhammer model and not a character in a child's story. With that large axe casually hefted over his shoulder, here is a man who couldn't be a more common sight in the forests of the Old World but who wouldn't shy from dispatching a pesky goblin. 

With this model, I spent quite a bit of time on the face. I was quite keen to get that '80s Citadel 'look' to the face and try and copy some of the lovely paint jobs you can find in old White Dwarfs. I am very pleased with the results and I am proud to say that this model has the best face I think I have painted so far. 

The rest of the model was quite straight forwards. Though I did dwell on the boots and managed to get the soft, leather look I have been trying to achieve with footwear. I matched the tone with his belt to help frame the red of his trousers. These were originally green but on completion I felt that the trousers didn't work with the rest of the model and swiftly changed them to a scarlet russet. For some reason, as I painted this model I conjured up a bit of background for him. A humble woodsman by the name Jon Branch, he works the woods north of Delberz but hides a dark secret beneath his countryman facade. 

Can you fathom what this secret might be? 

All will be revealed I promise! 

Orlygg.

A Warhammer Bestiary: Hobgoblin

I am really pleased with the way my hobgoblin has turned out. After a period of not being able to paint I felt that my technique were slipping slightly and I wasn't entirely happy with what I was producing. This hobgoblin makes me feel like I have returned to form. 

Hobgoblins are another one of those lost races that I have been painting and writing about recently. Though they survived the great cull of 4th Edition, their background saw some revision and the hobgoblins were aligned with the chaos dwarfs, who  ended up with an armylist all of their own after WFB3! 

In Third Edition Warhammer, the hobgoblins were heavily based on the Mongol empire with lots of jokes based on that premise. Instead of Mongol, it was Mourngul and they were lead by the Hobgobla Khan. Indeed, this Khan is said to rule the largest empire in the Warhammer World, ranging from the edge of the Old World across the steppes to far Cathay. If you read my post about half-orcs, you will know a thing or two about goblinoids and hair. As you will have no doubt spotted, this hobgoblin sports a rather fetching hairdo, signifying that he is indeed a half-hobgoblin! 

With this in mind I set about thinking about how to paint him. The figure shown here is the commander of the hobgoblin rocket team. A cracking set of models. Now, probing the background a little more, I found out that these crews were recruited from vassal tribes that dwell nearby the Cathay boarder. With this in mind, and with the hair on the model, I'd imagined that this unfortunate was the product of another one of those forced breeding sessions with human captives.

I had a pot of paint from the Creature Paint Set called Hobgoblin Orange and had always thought that the creatures were orange in colour. Flicking through the WFB3 rulebook I was disappointed to find that the Bestiary suggests that they should be painted in a similar way to other goblinoids. In the end, I opted for an orange skin tone to reflect the creature's human origins because, well, I can. I seriously doubt any of my readers are going to take the haughty tone with me and tell me that I have painted my miniatures wrong. And I suspect that I am far from the first to do this with my hobgoblins...

There was nothing particularly new about my painting with this model. Skin tone aside, I used tried and tested colours for the armour, equipment and hair and I feel it all melded quite well together. The whip was the only problem and in the end I used an almost off white to finish and create some contrast to the bronze armour. 

Additionally, if you have a spare rocket launcher and stand (illustrated below) please do get in touch with me as I would love to finish off this little group of models. I have all the crew but no actual rocket to fire and I would really appreciate the chance to use them in a game at some point! 

Thanks!

Orlygg

A Warhammer Bestiary: Half-Orc

I am back at work now and I no longer feel like I have Slaanesh's right stiletto stabbing me in the throat every time that I swallow. I am sitting at my desk in my 'Oldhammer Area' typing this with a pile of unpainted lead and a load of wrapped up trades that I STILL haven't got to the post office! Apologies if you are waiting. I am a bit crap! 

I have just finished tinkering with the next miniature in the Warhammer Bestiary project though, and have produced a half-orc this time. Yes, I have spelled that correctly, a half-orc. Things such as they existed back in the day, and the background was very clear about their origins. Half-orcs were cross breeds between humans and orcs, goblins or hobgoblins. Quite how 'the breeding' was actually done is left to the reader's imagination but what really interested me about their background was not the hint of rape and woman stealing (presumably by the goblinoids, because it would be a desperate man indeed who'd plot to bonk a goblin surely?) but the fact that evil half-orcs (yes, you can choose their alignment in WFB3) can lead goblin units, even armies but, and this is a great but (particularly for colourful narrative) they can also lead human units. 

Well how about that for an interesting gaming scenario? A half-orc leading human troops against a goblinoid threat!

I had one half-orc model in my collection and it was this rather dynamic looking chap dressed in furs. After stripping him down and releasing him from his twenty year sentence of enamel paint I promptly set to work on him. 

Not only does this model have a great pose, its also very interestingly attired. Padded (almost Native American style) armour with animal skins over the top. I assumed that they may have been intended to be wolf pelts but I interpreted them as fox fur and had an rewarding time trying to do justice to the orange tones required. He has a primitive, survivalist feel to him and there was something about fox fur that rang a creative bell. 

He was painted using my usual method. White undercoat, basecoat, homemade ink wash and then layering up to the highlight for each of the base colours. The mace head was achieved by good old ink wash and drybrush. Originally, I used drybrushing to bring out the details on the fur by found the finished results rather flat and boring. Instead, it tried a more 'painterly' style and dabbed the colour on here and their (using fur as a reference) before drawing the colour out with ink washes, again dabbed on. I left the edges and tail of the skin pretty much white to help give the edge some definition. 

Finishing up with the flesh I opted for a much darker green, created by mixing in dark fleshy brown (he is after all a human/orc mix) and then highlighting up with Bleached Bone being added to the mix. Red eyes and a purple lip finished off the 'look' suitable for one of orcish ancestry. 

I really enjoyed this one, though he was in all fairness probably the hardest paint job I have had to do so far. I did however learn an interesting fact about hair on goblinoids. There has long been this debate about whether or not orcs and goblins should have hair. These days its a resounding NO but the background in WFB3 is clear. Any goblinoid with hair is in fact a half-orc (the term is a blanket that covers goblins, orcs and hobgoblins without distinctions) so those early gobbos with mohicans and what not are really just crossbreeds. Obviously, post 1992 when the background was geared towards a younger market any such allusion to rape was promptly removed. So half-orcs died out as quickly as goblin hair. 

Anyway, onwards and upwards tonight. Another goblinoid next - a hobgoblin. Now where did I leave that orange?

Orlygg.

A Warhammer Bestiary: Halfling

I have been rather poorly of late. Tonsillitus in fact. The bacterial type. Its not an illness that I have had before and it is far, far from serious but why is it so bloody awful? Swollen throat, very painful swallowing and insomnia. I did my usual thing when ill, I just took to my bed, took my medicine and got on with it. Still, its taken just under two weeks to feel well enough to get get back to work on the blog. Why cannot there be a nice cosy disease like old Arkwright from Open All Hours pines for? Something that sees you signed off from work for a week or two, now real pain of discomfort and you are still able to get lots of nice miniature type stuff done! Nurgle, are you listening?

Thankfully, I have been able to work on finishing off a series of models I was painting for my Warhammer Bestiary project. The first of these was this plucky little halfing. Brave, honest and always hungry these ruddy souls bravely defend the Moot (and their considerable vegetable patches) with determination. 

I didn't have any of these models in my collection so it was a quick trip to eBay to source one. There were plenty about at reasonable prices. Sadly, halflings are another one of those lost races that used to be part of Warhammer, though they are still mentioned in the fluff occasionally no new models have been produced for some years, which is a real shame as they are so full of character. And are perfect for creating fun little scenarios around them. A bit like gnomes. 

I started this one using my usual method. White undercoat. Base colours over the top. Then the whole model was washed with my special ink wash: 1:2:1 black/brown/chestnut ink (with a drop or two of water) and allowed to dry. This is essentially a homemade Devlan Mud that dries a little darker and is used to help create the depth that these models need to look satisfying. 

Then it was a simple case of layering up colours and applying them to the model. I chose rural colours and messed around with orange ink to try and create an interesting tone for the halfling's hat. A little bit of highlighting here and there as well as a drybrush with Chainmail and Mithril Silver to get that mail popping out nicely. 

I really enjoyed painting this little chap. It was possible to get him finished in two sittings which is always rather satisfying as you feel that you have accomplished something. I hadn't really painted for a couple of weeks before tackling this little chap and its incredible how my technique tends to drop if I stop work on the miniatures for a week of two. Hopefully, over the next few evenings I can get some of the other models I started before I was ill finished and get back up into good form before tackling some more challenging models. 

Orlygg. 

Painting something different: Exploring different ranges

As many of you will know, I am primarily a chaos man. Old school Citadel from about '85 to about '90 being my preferred models to paint. That was until I actually painted up an army. As anyone who paints armies to a high standard, and by that I mean a high standard personally, things can get a bit relentless. Last year, I created a Khorne Army where every model was different but I still felt the strain of painting models in similar styles and colour schemes. 

It wasn't until I started my Warhammer Bestiary project did I realise how much more stimulating and exciting painting a far wider range of models actually is. Especially if you begin work on models that you have never attempted before or even considered painting at all! 

Yesterday, I was clearing through some old boxes when I found this model. He came from a trade that went wrong as he arrived in my possession very damaged by the postal service. The axe was bent and the arm snapped off. So, I had discarded him as he was not a figure I expected to need any time soon (or indeed ever). But something about him stirred my creative spirit so with the help of a little brass rod and a bit of greenstuff I repaired him. Blasting him for an hour or so under the lamp saw the greenstuff cured sufficiently for me to begin work. 

And here he is...

The model reminds me of Conan. By this I mean the proper one, written by Robert E Howard and illustrated by Frank Frazetta. That archetype was undoubtably in the mind of whoever sculpted this model back in the 1980s. He also made me think of the old Heroquest barbarian with whom I had had so many adventures as a youngster. Inspired by these thoughts, and the paint schemes from the Heroquest era, I set about doing him a good service with the hairy wand. I was keen to work on flesh painting and the blending required to get the look right. So after some consultation of Mike McVey's old '80s work, I set off and after a couple of pleasant hours he was finished and based. 

Though the belt was slightly miscast and obviously supposed to be leather, I painted its as a golden girdle complete with gigantic emerald jewel. The size of this model makes me think he represents a barbarian of considerable prowess so would be entitled to a precious stone or two. 

No doubt, this barbarian chap could easily dispatch multiple enemies with that repaired axe without even breaking out in a sweat. So I depicted him battling a number of skeletons when I was taking the pictures of the completed model. Proper old school don't you think?

But in reflection, I realised that if it wasn't for a whim I would probably never painted this model or enjoyed the process quite so much. After a quick rummage in the collection, I discovered enough models to do a small sized raiding party of barbarians that would prove quite useful for the narrative games that I enjoy. 

So my challenge for you in the coming days is thus. Go back to the leadpile, pluck forth a miniature that you would never have considered painting before and get on with it. Try out colours that you wouldn't usually use, dabble with a techniques that you feel need work or that you want to show off and really enjoy the process of painting for its sake alone. 

Go on, try it! 

Orlygg