That gets a line all to itself because it's such damn epic news.
Okay, so it's only one of a handful I've painted since I started this blog, but I'd like to think I can legitimately say I write about modelling AND painting now.
The miniature in question started life as a Stormcast Eternal Liberator. I had grabbed a few off Ebay to slake my curiosity when Warhammer Age of Sigmar was released, and needed to find something to do with them that wasn't starting yet another whole new army.
With a small fantasy Chaos warband already in my collection, an obvious solution was to build another spikey fella to swell their ranks.
In the old days spikey Chaos miniatures were kind of a running joke. If you wanted to make a character look evil you just stuck cocktail sticks all over him.
It's pretty clear from this blog that I never grew up – what worked fine for me back then was probably going to be okay today. So out came the cocktail sticks.
The rest of the conversion job was also pretty simple. I swapped out his head, weapon and shield for more appropriate ones, added a couple of skulls, and sculpted some rough baddie faces onto his armour.
I was then ready to throw down some base colour. I am a long way from being the world's greatest painter, but my miniatures are usually an okay tabletop standard. For me a finished miniature is about conveying a sense of the character more than displaying exceptional craftsmanship and skill.
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| Because I don't have either of those to display |
Once I started with the colour I realised that I didn't really like what I'd done to the miniature. My simple conversion work wasn't enough. The miniature needed more detail.
The excellent Empire Flagellants kit can always be relied upon to get you out of a tight spot, so it wasn't long before my warrior had gained some rolled up parchment, a small leather purse and an hourglass. I also sculpted on a fur kilt as I felt this to be more appropriate for a warrior of the Northern Wastes, than the hanging leather pteruges of the Liberator. I then went on to add some extra jewellery chain to his weapon arm, and extra horns to his helm.
What with the Stormcasts' oversized physiques I figured this fella would be the kind of guy that always gets pushed to the front during a fight. Everybody knows someone like that. The guy at school who appears two years older than everyone else in the class, already shaving before he's learnt to read, and always ending up having to deal with any scraps that his smaller mates get involved in.
In the case of the guy below he could have been born this way, he could have fallen in a vat of magic potion or, most likely, been blessed by his chosen Chaos God.
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| Chaos did it |
And although I was much happier with him now, I really hated what I'd done with the new horns on his helmet. I mulled it over for a while before deciding to remove the existing horns altogether and reposition them along with another similar set facing the other way. Much better in my book, and a suitable, yet subtle upgrade for a champion.
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| It's all about subtlety |
Once this was done I was ready to start the painting for real – mainly washes and dry-brushed highlights. However when he was nearly finished I gave him a liberal splattering of oil-painted rust. I didn't want him to shine too brightly, after all he's not meant to be a good guy.
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| Or worse, a worshipper of Slaanesh |
But that begs the question as to which Chaos God he does follow. You may remember a few weeks ago I wrote this article about the Ruinous Powers and how many of them there really are. In my next post I'll tie that up by introducing the theme for my Chaos warband.
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