Stormcast Eternals Lord-Ordinator

With the release of Malign Portents for AoS, it would have been rude not to pick up one of the cool new models for my Grand Alliance!

Obviously, all 4 of the Malign Portent models are great but as an Order player, I went for the Lord-Ordinator. This guy was a pleasure to paint, I took my time painting him and I especially enjoyed painting something other than annoyed tree folk :)

So, lets go through the colour scheme and process!

As per my usual process, I applied the base coats and highlights before a final shade layer. On top of a black primer layer, the gold armour was base coated with Retributor Armour and then zenithally highlighted with Auric Armour Gold and Liberator Gold.

The black was painted Vallejo Model Air Black and then highlighted with Eshin Grey and Dawnstone. The collar of the tabard and paper (purity?) seal was painted Rakarth Flesh and highlighted with Pallid Wych Flesh and White Scar. The inside of the cloak and other white details were painted Celetra Grey and highlighted with Ulthuan Grey and White Scar.

The lower tabards main section was painted Screamer Pink and highlighted with Pink Horror and Emperor's Children. The rim of the tabard and shoulder pad was painted Kantor Blue and highlighted with Alaitoc Blue and Hoeth Blue. The final main colour, silver, was painted with Vallejo Gunmetal grey and highlighted with Stormhost Silver.

Finally, his head and arms were painted with Bugman's Glow and highlighted with Cadian Fleshtone and Kislev Flesh.

At this point, I glued together the various sub-assemblies I had the model split down to.

Once glued together, I gave the model a coat or two of Vallejo Gloss Varnish and applied various washes of Dark Tone, Strong Tone, Soft Tone and Flesh Wash. All of these were mixed 50/50 with Quickshade Mixing Medium.

As for the base; I recently saw a fantastic scheme for the bases on the Stormcast Eternals Shadespire Warband over on Tale of Painters link here so I used the colours mentioned in that guide.

I'm super happy with how this model came out. I think, without doubt, he's the best model I've painted.

Sylvaneth Treelord

The pressure to get my Sylvaneth army finished for April is well and truly on! To that end, over the past week or so I've been working on this Treelord.

I followed exactly the same colour scheme as that used for my Treelord Ancient here.  I did, however, embrace painting in subassemblies for this model. This is something I didn't do for the Treelord Ancient and I found painting the small green joint areas rather painful! Although it's quite a big model, as a result of using the airbrush, I think he took about 3 days of effort to complete... which isn't bad!

Next, I'll be working on the Malign Portents Lord-Ordinator. He's a great model so can't wait to crack on with him!

WIP Imperial Knight New Base

Bit of an unplanned project this one... when moving some models around in my display case, my Imperial Knight fell off its base! I wasn't very upset by this; I never really liked how I originally based the Knight anyway! (original base can be seen here) What this occurrence allowed, though, was for me to strip the base down and do something better!

I wanted to go with an urban rubble style base and I used the below video as inspiration.

Using the above video in combination with the ForgeWorld modelling masterclass book, I followed the steps detailed below:

Step 1: To get some additional verticality, I glued some spare lozenge shaped bases onto the Knight base. These were placed where the Knights feet sit on the base. Next up I covered the base with DAS modelling clay and, whilst the clay was still pliable, I placed various items of detail such as a Bolt Gun, Rhino door, Chaos Marine backpack.

Step 2: I covered the base with PVA and applied various sizes of grit, stones and sand to create the main texture on the base. Once the initial cover of PVA had dried, I applied a further diluted coat to fix everything in place.

Step 3: I primed the base with Vallejo Black Primer through the airbrush. I then picked out some details with Vallejo Grey Primer.

Step 4: On to the painting! To match the colours used for my Space Marine army, I used Mournfang Brown as the main colour. I then used various lighter/darker shades around the base.

Step 5: Painting the details. I airbrushed the rocks and rubble with Mechanicus Standard Grey and highlighted them with Dawstone and Administratum Grey. The skulls were painted Zandri Dust and highlighted with Ushabti Bone and Screaming Skull. The Rhino door and white details on the Storm Shield were painted Celestra Grey and highlighted Ulthuan Grey and White Scar. The various Space Marine details were painted to represent the colours of the Chaos army my friend uses - Khorne Red and then highlighted with Wazdakka Red and Squig Orange.

Finally, I airbrushed a very diluted mix of Steel Legion Drab and water to represent dried dust. This helped tie all the details together prior to shading and highlighting the base. To protect the base and prepare if for shading I applied airbrushed a couple of coats of Vallejo Gloss Varnish.

The following steps will involve using Brown and Black washes over the gloss varnish. Once those have dried, I will drybrush the various details to bring the colours back up and provide more contract. Further weathering will be applied before, finally, sealing the base with matte varnish.

Sylvaneth Dryads (2nd set of 16)

I posted about my first set of Dryads here. This set came from the 2nd Start Collecting Sylvaneth box I'm working through.

The process used for these models is the same as that described in the post linked above. However, I'm still trying to fine tune my colours/technique for this army so I tried to achieve a brighter finish for the blue details. I did this simply by wiping away the wash from those areas... and it worked a treat!

Next up will be my 2nd unit of Sylvaneth Hunters.

2018 Birthday Weekend at Warhammer World

Last year I went to Warhammer World for my birthday and it was great fun. This year I wanted to improve on a single day visit... so the wife and I went for the weekend!

I've been lucky enough to visit Warhammer World 5 times now (i think). It's easy to get caught up in the hyperbole about the place but, after 5 visits, I do feel able to state with a degree of balance, that it's a fantastic place!

The remodelled store and exhibition centre are great. It was good before... but, as with most things relating to GW these days, they've excelled with the changes made. My first 3 visits to WW were with my gaming buddy. He hasn't visited since the remodel and we are both visiting for a gaming weekend at the end of April. I can't wait to see how he reacts (or how much money he spends!!).

As usual, Bugmans was a great place to hang out. I opted for an Engineer Burger one evening. I'm still not entirely sure how I managed to finish it!! It was huge! so tasty though. I sampled a few pints of Blitzers Best as well... cracking pint! Oh, and Bugmans XXXXXX isn't too bad either!

Anyway, my awesome wife presented me with a not insignificant amount of vouchers before we went. I don't think I've ever concentrated so much on choosing what to buy!! Below is a picture of my haul.

I chose:

• Alarielle The Everqueen
• Deimos Pattern Infernus Predator
• Roboute Guilliman
• Redemptor Dreadnought
• Static Grass
• Kurnoth Hunters
• Exclusive Warhammer World Soundtrack
• Greeting From Cadia (I had 50p of vouchers left over...)

I wanted to achieve 2 goals 1) fleshing out my Sylvaneth list so that I could field 2000 points and 2) add some armour to my upcoming Blood Angels force. The Kurnoth Hunters and Alarielle boxed off my Sylvaneth goal... and I now have 2,300 points available! As for the Blood Angels... I don't especially like the Baal Predator model so chose to go for the Infernus Predator instead. The Easy to Build Repemptor Dreadnought, for £25 was a no-brainer. Guilliman was thrown in as he's a great model, he's a sodding Primarch!!! and I believe he has some cool rules ;)

Expect to see these units being painted up rather quicky!