Welcome back to Miniatures of the Month! Do not fear, we haven’t gone away, it’s just a slower few months so I decided to combine two. We’ve had some brief spurts of heat in the UK and I don’t think anyone likes to paint as much in the heat. Especially me, the room I paint in becomes an unbearable hotbox. That said, I’ve got a couple of things to show you today, so let’s continue.
Shambling Undead (Bloodbowl) by Sam de Smith
Something a bit different, this month, a Shambling Undead BB team – the Graven Guardians! These were done to prove to the lesser spawn that a fairly straightforward paint scheme can work.
Prime grey, drybrush bone, drybrush tan. Then VJ Transparent Red, Flame Orange (as a base for rust), Purple, Dead Flesh where appropriate and Leather – all on sprue, which I NEVER do, but again, experiments. Then built and washed with Agrax Earthshade, and built back up, with the addition of gunmetal. Based with a mix of tufts, stirland mud, styrene cobbles from a sheet that’s nearly 20 years old, and grass flock applied with superglue so it discolours to look dead and burnt. There are some minor conversions here and there, head and arm repositioning on ghouls, skeletons and wights, that sort of thing, and switching around arms and back sections on zombies. The lack of even alternate heads, apart from the mummies, does annoy me. Nevertheless, fun models and another team to the pitch!
Grimnyr (40k) by Ross Coulbeck
It’s been a while since I worked on any of my Leagues of Votann, which is a shame because they are a great bunch of dwarves. I have a rough narrative that mine belong to the Accretion Union and they mine for materials as close to black holes as they can because of the mineral wealth there. This means there isn’t a lot of light, on account of the whole black hole thing, so they need to be brightly lit, and I mean really brightly lit.
To that end, and because I thought it was cool, I’ve gone for Magmadroth Flame contrast over White Scar spray for my main colour. It really makes an impression, it’s like the safest of safety coats, which is exactly what they need. Grimnyr especially is probably my favourite Votann model, he’s their only psyker, he looks badass, he’s walking on floating rocks, and I’m biased as I grew up in Grimsby which is named after the Norse god Grimnir. To offset the orange I chose an also fairly bright blue, Teclis Blue, for runes and other highlights. On most Votann I use the blue for ‘power’ areas, like you can see on his two CORVs assistants, but Grimnyr is unique. The rest of his armour is Basilicanum Grey contrast, but that isn’t much on him, more on the CORV’s. Also small note, yes I glued the drones onto their stands before spraying them, dumb move, BUT, decided to paint them in a similar grey to the base made the stands kind of blend in and I honestly might do that more often.
Overall I’m very happy with how Grimnyr turned out. He is one of my main centrepiece models for my Votann so he needed to make an impression. Ain’t nobody losing him in a crowd!
M’Baku (MCP) by Northern Invasion Stu
It has been a long time since I sat down to paint a tabletop miniature, having spent all of my hobby time working through board game models for what seems like ages. I decided to paint M’Baku to add an alternative leadership option to my Wakanda roster.
I didn’t have long to commit to painting, only a couple of hours, so I needed a quick scheme that would look good on the table and would sit well with my existing Wakanda models. When I originally built the model, I used a little green stuff to edge around the base feature so that the models base would match my Wakanda forest look. Once this dried I applied a little PVA and sprinkled some sand over. When everything was dry, I used some Army Painter Leather Brown colour primer on the entire model.
When everything was dry and I had a couple of hours to spare, I set to work. I wanted to use natural colours wherever possible with some contrasting metals to hint toward the future tech of the Wakandan people. I used multiple brown colours for the different parts of the model that were made from leather or wood. I then used a brass colour on the areas I wanted to look like metal. I layered up the skin tones to give a bit of definition but didn’t worry too much about details. I used a thin coat of blue grey on the belt and straps.
The gorilla cloak and fur was painted in a pale cream colour and then dry brushed with ivory. I picked out the eyes with ivory too and added some dark brown dots for the pupils. I used Black Templar contrast paint on the hair and the base feature to tie in with my terrain. Finally, I used some army painter soft tone ink (magical stuff) to tie the whole model together. I’m pretty happy with how he turned out.
The model is a great addition to the Wakandan force and I think the sculpt is excellent.
Armiger (40k) by Ross Coulbeck
Oh boy. Knights. You have no idea how much the idea of Imperial Knights has bounced around my head over the years. They are kick ass giant mechs and you only need a handful of models to have a 2000 pt army. So why did I hesitate? I have to paint them, and I generally don’t like painting big armour panels. But I decided to take the plunge with some Armigers (mini Knights) to test the waters and re-assess my painting techniques while I was at it.
First thing Ross, stop being obsessed with contrast paints. Yes, they are great, but you don’t have to slap them on everything in sight. Two, and related, not everything needs to be undercoated in white. That works for contrast paints, not everything. Both of these lessons you might remember were hard learnt during the disaster that was the painting of my Hekaton Land Fortress. So, I went out and bought more normal paints. A nice semi-royal looking Naggaroth Purple for the main armour panels, but not too bright, I wanted a generally dark look for my scheme, which is why I used Abaddon Black as my secondary armour colour. Next, Flesh Tearer Red. Ok this is a contrast, so sue me, but it’s darker than my Blood Angels Red and fit the scheme for the small highlights. Finally, the bodywork. I went with a classic Leadbelcher with Nuln Oil over it. A lot of Nuln Oil. Probably too much Nuln Oil if I’m honest, but it came out with such a dirty metal look that I don’t mind. I did learn another lesson here though, specifically about painting Knights. If Leadbelcher is the plan, it’s probably best to undercoat it, otherwise it takes forever to paint and this is only a mini knight.
As you can see the Armiger came out quite well. I’ll definitely be making some adjustments to my approach for the second Armiger in the box, as well as future Knights (apparently I’m committed now), but overall I think it’s solid.
