Challenge 2015: The Obligatory February Post

Ejhin De Vanth

Spectre of Acheron

Centaurs

Cerberus

One thing I always wanted to do was make sure I updated at least once in every month. Like January, February has been pretty grim painting-wise, but it I’ve just about squeezed in another batch of Confrontation Acheron miniatures before the month is out.

Ejhin is a Faithful caster in an army that doesn’t really use Faith (their magical casters are much stronger) so I’ve never used her or her huge hat.

The Spectre is a bit of an odd one. Like a lot of early Confrontation models its stats are pretty low, but it has a special rule where it will auto-kill anybody it hits in the chest (Confrontation has wound locations) as it pulls their heart out.

Centaurs are yet more early models, and are another oddity in that they’re fast shooters in an army known for its slow, shambling approach and preference for magical attacks at range. They’re not good at what they do, but if you need someone to do it, they’re your only option (or where at one point, the Black Wolf does a similar job I think).

Lastly the Cerberus is pretty much what it looks like – a big monster ready to charge in and rip people up. It can have a few special rules when bound to some of the Acheronian noble houses, one of which shuts down enemy models with the ‘Fierce’ ability nearby. Which can be very handy sometimes.

Like the rest of the models for the faction, I’ve used a grey and purple scheme across everything, which works.

Tally: 15

Challenge 2015: Confrontation Acheron

Challenge 2015 is underway!

As mentioned previously, I’ve spent the festive period moving house, hence the lack of picnic table in the photos. I’m not completely set up for hobby stuff in the new place yet, so it’s taken a while to get all this kicked off again. I have just taken delivery of a fancy new lamp with a magnifying lens ringed with white LEDs, maybe that’ll help.

Anyway, 2015 is going to be a little different. Having about halved my painting backlog over the last two years, I’m less concerned with numbers of unpainted models, and instead I want to focus on getting some of the long-standing projects done (and some newer I guess). So then, my targets are:

• Rackham Confrontation Acheron
• Mantic Deadzone/Warpath Enforcers
• Games Workshop Epic Imperial Guard
• Hail Caesar/Kings of War Romans

Also, I’ve got more Infinity I’ll be getting done, and continuing with that off and on during the year (potentially the same for games like Godslayer, just got to wait and see what comes out).

With that in mind, I’m starting the year working on the oldest stuff I have, my Acheron. The scheme for the army is purple and grey, this seems to go well with whatever the body of the model is, either the bone of a skeleton, the rotting flesh of a zombie or the sallow skin of something like a ghoul.

Challenge Tally: 10

Challenge 2014: Acheron Morbid Puppets

Morbid Puppets

A brief foray back into the world of Aarklash sees the completion of these Morbid Puppets, ultra-cheap summonable troops for the game’s Undead faction. As befitting such a role their stats are truly terrible, but most of the time they’ll only be on the table trying to block off charges to the caster who summoned them. With my Rackham stuff I’m trying to use up all of my older paints (as I’ll never have to try to match to them), so although the bone was AP Skeleton Bone, it was washed with the classic GW Devlan Mud, and the metal parts are Boltgun metal (with Chainmail drybrush). All the leather, cloth etc was done with Codex Grey. All metal and fabric parts were also ‘Devlan Mudded’.

Challenge Tally: 92/300

Challenge 2013: Ophidians complete!

S’Erum, Ophidian Sydion

S’Erum rear detail view

S’Erum head detail

S’Ygma head detail

S’Ygma, Ophidian Umbrella Bearer (not really)

S’Erum umbrella detail view

Ophidian Warriors

Ophidian Vortirans

Vortiran head detail

Other Vortiran head detail

That’s it! All my Ophidians are completed, and unlike the recently completed AdMech force, there’ll never be any more of these to un-complete the project!

It’s funny, the closer I get to completing projects, the harder it seems to just push that extra bit to get them done. Maybe I subconciously like being ‘nearly there’, it seems less daunting than thinking ‘right, new project, 200 Romans, off we go!”

Anyway, these are all painted in broadly the same scheme as previous Ophidian entries, the main difference being the snakes’ skin tones, which are all unique shades of brown, green or blue. I did find some fairly spectacular-looking snakes on a google image search, but my skill with brush is only so great, and I didn’t feel up to ruining these models with ugly blotches of colour.

S’Ygma is one of main proofs of Rackham’s insistence on beauty over functionality – that umbrella (actually, now that I think about it, it’s a parasol) is a huge chunk of metal, that sits on the end of a tiny metal pole. Needless to say, my original long broke, and I actually shortened the pole significantly so that I could glue the parasol onto other parts of the model to try to hold it securely. Fortunatley, S’Ygma isn’t that great in the game so it’s likely he can now stay in my display case forever!

Challenge Tally: 397/500

 

Challenge 2013: Ophidian Archers

Ophidian archers

Somehow these 2 miniatures took well over a week to paint. Still, the fantastic ’50 models in a month’ run had to end at some point. I think I’m looking at an unofficial target of 500 for the year, which should be achievable and leave me with just a few ‘big armies’ to paint in 2014 (well, that is until new games come out/Kickstarter deliveries come through).

These snakes complement the slaves/apostates I painted earlier in the month and leave me with just 6 Ophidians to paint to get the whole warband done. The armour/cloth/weapons are done in exactly the same gold/purple/grey/purple wash scheme as before, I couldn’t decide between green and blue for the scaly skin so tried both. I prefer the green but I think the rest of them will still be mixed to make them stand out a bit from each other (the two models are the same but with a head swap with a warrior and posing of the tail – I’ve got 2 of each of the Ophidian models and have done similar on all of them).

Challenge Tally: 384/300

Challenge 2013: Master Sulfur

Sulfur on his Red Troll

Sulfur’s mask – close up

And so ends the ‘Confrontation misc.’ project (unless you include all of my Cadwallon in it). Sulfur, like the Archon, is painted in a whole host of older Citadel and Vallejo paints that I’m using up before the dry out completely (mostly Citadel here – Snakebite Leather, Fortress Grey, Boltgun Metal, so on). Sulfur himself is a Goblin (not easy to make out) wearing a mask. I had no clue what colour to go for (the Rackham studio paint job, like many of theirs, is at far too high a level to try and replicate), so I though bright orange is as good as any other – after all, he’s a magician that masters Fire. That’ll do.

Challenge Tally: 379/300

 

Challenge 2013: Archon of the Faathi

Archon of the Faathi

Archon of the Faathi – side view

At least I think it’s spelt Faathi. The Archon was a bit of an oddity – it was the only model ever produced for the ‘Concord of the Eagle’ faction. This was supposed to be a faction of ancient Destiny-aligned beings who were opposed to the Utopians and Ophidians; but wheras the latter got a small but full range of models and the plans for the Utopians will I guess forever be a mystery the Concordians (?) were a cobbled-together alliance of grunts from the Destiny factions. Goblin militia, Wolfen Fang Warriors, Dwarf Warriors of the Plains, Orc Brutes, so on. The Archons were Immortal (in game rules terms) Minotaurs from another plane of existence trying to get the Destiny races to take more of an active stand against Light and Darkness. Unfortunately the game imploded before anyone could find out how they got on.

My Archon is mainly painted with Citadel’s old Dwarf Bronze armour, Vallejo Silver mail, Vallejo Electric Blue tabard and Citadel Bestial Brown skin and fur (can you tell I’m trying to use up some older paints on this guy?). Lots of Army Painted Strong Tone went on afterwards (except on the Blue, which was given an Asurmen wash).

Challenge Tally: 378/300

Challenge 2013: Ophidian Slaves

Ayane, Syhee

Syhees

Slaves

Asps

Reinforcing the alread-seen Apostates are the representatives of the Ophidians’ slave caste. The first up is Ayane, S’Erum’s personal Syhee. She’s a major character in the Ashes of Wrath novel that Rackham published, and became a miniature (though stat-wise she’s not brilliant and I don’t think I ever used her). Regular Syhees are next – like Apostates they have the drawback of not being Toxic, Toxic is one of the strengths of the Ophidian army and the toxic dice need to be carefully managed. Having non-contributing members of the warband could be problem.

Then there are the regular Slaves, solid stats for a relatively low cost and help bump their masters’ Toxic pool. Great choice. Lastly come the Asps, the Ophidians’ assassins. They’re supposed to be a magical fusion of an Ophidian and a Human to enable them to infiltrate human cultures.

Obviously all these are painted the exact same scheme as the Apostates, with the slight additions of Uniform Grey hair (which becomes a muted purple nicely with Leviathan Purple wash) and the Asps’ Army Painter Greenskin… green… skin. I guess. I was apprehensive as to how good this would look with a Purple wash (I usually use a brown wash on greenskinned creatures) but I like the effect and I think I’ll go for it again at some point.

Challenge Tally: 371/300

Challenge 2013: Ophidians!

Ophidian Apostates

Okay, so they’re not technically Ophidians per sé, but they are in their army. These Apostates carry on the “Darkness factions in Confrontation wear purple” theme my Mid Nor and Acheron started, but whereas the Mid Nor wear their purple against a striking rich blue, and the Acheron wear it standing out above gunmetals and grey, the Ophidians will be lording it over all with a very regal gold!

The colours are almost all Army Painter – Alien Purple, Greedy Gold, Uniform Grey, Platemail Metal, and Necrotic Flesh (on the ‘trophies’), as well as Vallejo’s Elf Flesh (for the Apostates themselves). The skin, robes, weapons and armour all received a Citadel Leviathan Purple wash, whilst the corpses had  Asurmen Blue and the slaves adorning ‘hammer guy’ had Ogryn Flesh applied. Lots of careful highlighting later they were completed.

Incidentally, I thoroughly recommend purple washes over gold. I used to always used warm browns (Citadel’s old Chestnut Ink, etc) and thought it was okay, but a purple wash seems to really capture the opulence of a rich, warm gold colour.

I guess the summer is the time for getting bored of ongoing painting projects and deciding to launch entirely new ones! As well as last update’s Kings of War Undead, I also plan this month to start painting my Hail Caesar Romans (I’ve put some paint on a few but I’ve got a slightly new scheme and basing style for the rest of them) and also my Epic Titan Legion. Hopefully I’ll find time to dip back into the other projects as well!

Challenge Tally: 362/300

Challenge 2013: Confrontation Armoured Chariot

Armoured Chariot

Finally complete is this armoured chariot for Rackham’s Tir-Na-Bor Dwarves. I had to take a break halfway through to get my car fixed, but when I came back to it I put it on a base at it was difficult to hold and paint withouth rubbing the paint off. This seemed to get me over the ‘hump’ and get it finished.

Lots of OOP paint went onto this one… the hull is mostly Citadel’s Tin Bitz with Brazen Brass trim and Dwarf Bronze on the boiler and cannon. The wheels are Boltgun Metal, and the cannon’s barrel is Chainmail. The Dwarf’s skin is Rackam’s Cadwe Flesh, washed twice with Ogryn Flesh and highlighted with Vallejo’s Elf Flesh. The leathers are Snakebite Leather and the wooden parts (and Razorback fur) are Army Painter Leather Brown. The whole thing (yep, all of it) then had a AP Strong Tone wash before some drybrushing along the edges.

Challenge Tally: 331/300 (I should really count this as more than one…)