Painting Guide: Neil's Alarith Stoneguard

 Hi all Neil here with a guide on how I painted up my Alarith Stoneguard for my growing Lumineth army.  This is more of a post for myself to be able to find how I did them in future but if you want to find out the colours I used to do them then that's all below.

To Bring The Dawn: A Lord Regent's Companions

 Hi all it's Neil here with another post about my Lumineth tale of five warlords force.  This post will be about both month two and three's unit as the month two unit got delayed considerably (I finished it with 3 days left in month 3).  These units are 5 Vanari Dawnriders who will be my Lord Regents compaions for my path to glory force and a Scinari Loreseeker, who in the background for my force is the brother of the Lord Regent.

To Bring the Dawn: Recruiting the Core

 Hi all its Neil here with the units for my first month of our Age of Sigmar group project, the Lord Regent to lead my force and a unit of 10 Vanari Wardens to form the core of my Lumineth.  Here are these completed units.

To Bring the Dawn: Taking the Coin Malleus

Hi all it's Neil here with a post about a new group project that we've just started here at The Cambridge Warlords.   This new project is kick started by the release of the new 3rd edition for Age of Sigmar (and by the returning ability to game).  It's a tale of four gamers style project so each month we'll be painting up 1-2 boxes/units of miniatures to build up an army and playing games of increasing scope as we paint along together.  

Painting Guide: Neil's Lumineth Realmlords; Vanari Warden

 Hi all it's Neil here with a post that is going to link with an upcoming series.  I've decided to do a new Lumineth force for the imminent version 3 of Age of Sigmar and thought I'd document my painting steps mostly for myself but so that it's out there if anyone wants to copy (I'd be flattered if you did).  So here is the finished Vanari Warden to show the steps for this section of my Lumineth Realmlords force.

Guardians of the Great Plan: Form the Battleline

Hi all its Neil here with another Guardians of the Great Plan post about my slowly expanding Seraphon project.  The latest addition to this force is my first battleline unit of Saurus Warriors armed with clubs and shields.  These are the first real unit for my Seraphon force but for their painting use all the colours from my first post in this series.

Guardians of the Great Plan: Into the Beastgrave

Hi all Neil here with with a new Guardians of the Great Plan post showing how I painted up a unit of terradon riders and the Starblood Stalkers, the Seraphon warband for Warhammer Underworld.  These two had a few new types of features to paint so I've recorded what I did for the models so I don't forget if I come to paint more in future.  This Starblood Stalkers warband is my first foray into Warhammer Underworlds which will probably be the game I use to break back into gaming after the halt caused by Covid.

Guardians of the Great Plan: First Spawned

Hi all its Neil here and today I've got a little post probably more for me about how I'm painting up my Seraphon for Age of Sigmar.  I've gone into quite a bit of detail with lots of pictures to show how each step is building up my final colours.  I've primarily used a Saurus Oldblood to show the steps then used a Skink Starpriest to show the extra parts and differences that are on the skinks compared to the saurus.  I'm hoping to build up a playable 1000 point list to start doing some gaming again after a long break from Age of Sigmar.  Part of the idea with the Seraphon is try to use contrast in a more controlled way trying to improve my usage from the Tyranids I've painted.  So here goes for my full steps:

James' Hobby Projects: Azyrite Plaza

Here we go again with another of my random hobby projects! 

In between some of the larger hobby jobs I want to complete this year, I've got a few smaller projects going on, mostly just things like clearing out long-standing items in my backlog or models I really want to paint. This post will detail something that's a bit of both. 

In my previous post in this series, I detailed the work I'd been doing to finally finish off the Warcry starter sets terrain. In that post, I also mentioned plans to expand upon the set, and what do you know, I've managed to do just that in the form of the Azyrite Shattered Plaza that I finished recently. 

In this post, I'll quickly go through the bits and how I went about painting them and whether I've now developed the terrain painters itch.

Birds of a Feather... a Warcry project, by Medge

In the Bloodwind spoil, birds of a feather fly, kill and die together. 

Welcome to another bash the Backlog; Warcry update. 

When it was first release I was totally blown away by Warcry. The Mortal Realms was somewhat... lacking in Mortals at this stage; the miniatures range featuring lightning-blooded demi-gods, immortal Aelves, Ogors, and Greenskins, daemons and warp-touched men... but very few true-blooded mortals.

Warcry was a window into the lives of the "common man" within the Mortal Realms, although not one we expected to see! With Chaos in the ascendancy for millennia, the "common man" was already a long way down the path of damnation, a path the lead straight to the Evenchosen's doors. Throughout the Realmgate Wars we'd seen what happens to those that had fallen to Chaos, but Warcry brought us models that showed just how many paths there were to corruption!

Previously I've shown off my Iron Golems, one of my favourite of the new Warcry Warbands, and some Chaos Furies, evil lesser daemons that haunt the Bloodwind Spoil.

Today I wanted to share some of the Bloodwind spoils more avian options; the Corvus Cabal and Raptoryxes.

James Hobby Projects: Azyrite Township (Warcry Starter Terrain)

Here we go, it's the first blog post of 2021! And what better way to start off than by clearing one of the oldest projects in my backlog, the Azyrite Township from the Warcry starter set. I've been sitting on this terrain for over a year now, and it's been a consistent frustration to not have it painted. It's terrain after all! Not like I have to spend any serious amount of time on it. So, my first goal of 2021 was to crack out the brushes and put the finishing touches onto the set.

Bash the Backlog; Lockdown Edition - by Medge

Welcome back to Bash the Backlog, a mini-series in which I try to correct that most egregious of hobby sins; the huge pile of unpainted plastic!

It's been over six months since my last #BashtheBacklog entry (see Sigmar's Storm for that one!), with most of my backlog work coming as part of Blood of the Angel and For the Greater Good series. I have, however, worked on a few other projects in between these major series; palette-cleanser models between projects or odds-and-ends that either needed tying off, or were supposed to trigger a bigger project that never took off.

As one of my final posts of the year I wanted to capture these one-off projects in a single post so they don't become forgotten, and can act as a little inspiration for what I hope will be a brighter 2021!

So let's jump into it!

The Corpsewrack Mausoleum; a Warcry Project by Medge

Lockdown measures are slowly easing across the country, and the world is beginning to reopen. Despite the steps begin taken to return to normal (or whatever the new 'normal' will be) I suspect it'll be some time before Games Workshop stores are able to host games, and gaming clubs across the country reopen their doors. 

With house-to-house interactions now allowed and social bubbles opening up to allow visitors it's looking like gaming from home may become viable within a few weeks. In preparation for that occasion I've spent some time painting up the Corpsewrack Mausoleum, one of the Warcry Environment boxes (and yes... it's from my backlog!)

Let's dive in and check it out.

Warbands of the Bloodwind Spoil: The Iron Golems, by Medge

From the moment it was first announced Warcry had me hooked in. For years I've been I've been saying the Mortal Realms needs more mortals! Age of Sigmar is a great game, but it's often played as battles between Demi-gods and daemons, immortals and monster. The mortals of the mortal realms are left cowering in the novels, taking no active part in the game itself.

So the launch of Warcry, and the representation of the morals of the realms on the tabletop, was a great thing.

After a few tentative games in the Bloodwind Spoil with existing factions I own (thanks to the Warcry expansions for AoS armies) I've bitten the bullet and painted my own Warcry Warband; the Iron Golems!

Sigmar's Storm; a #BashtheBacklog project by Medge

Welcome to Sigmar's Storm; A #BashtheBacklog #StayHome Age of Sigmar project.

Given the title I'm sure you can all guess the content...

That's right - Sigmarines! I mean Stormcast Eternals... sorry... too much 40k content of late!

As the flagship faction of Age of Sigmar you'd be hard pressed to have missed the Stormcast Eternals. They've seen four waves of releases over the last few years (Warrior Chamber, Extremis Chamber, Vanguard Chamber and the newer Sacroscant Chamber), have a huge and diverse range, feature some stunning big kits alongside extensive Easy-To-Build and multipart ranges, and have been the go to starter faction in both first and second Edition AoS.

With the CoVID-19 lockdown in full force and GW closed we've all been turning to those neglected projects, and I thought it high time I revisited my first AoS army.

How to Paint with Medge: Da Forst-toof Orruk Warclan

Let's be perfectly clear... I'm not a good painter; I'm distinctly average (maybe above average if I push myself, but I'm far from competition worthy!)

So when you read this Blog title as "How to Paint" remember that it doesn't say "How to paint well"!!

The purpose of this series is for me to document exactly how I've gone about painting up models/ units in my collection so that when I come back to them I don't do something totally different.

Path to Glory 2020: Brass Rampagers IV

Month... erm... 4?

Things went awry in February... Just a little bit. I ended up caught up in the excitement of our club Necromunda campaign, so spent most of my painting time focussing on my gangers, hired guns and a "small" amount of terrain. Then in March as came around things took a few surprising turns as the world went into lockdown. I'm now in my eighth week of working from home. This has certainly meant I have had a lot more time for painting, but I've pretty much avoided painting my Blades of Khorne during that time. Instead I have worked through a number of the Forge World dramatis personae for Necromunda, assembled "more" Zone Mortalis terrain, and worked on clearing various backlogs of scatter terrain, a few Warcry scenery bits, and a few random models I had lying around as distractions.

Well as the group approaches the centenary of blogs I thought I should catch up and do some more work on my Brass Rampagers. April saw me make some big achievements in progress - mainly determined by availability of various sprays, layers and washes that became as rare as hen's teeth during lockdown! So here we go... I've also included a few bits here that are not yet part of the Path to Glory campaign, but will likely see use in larger battles in the future (or just sit on a display shelf as lockdown perpetuates...).

Blood Warriors

A key goal for me in the Path to Glory paint-a-thon has been to up the number and quality of my battleline units. I enjoyed batch painting this unit of Blood Warriors, working from a bronze base, through several layers of gold dry-brushing, a Nuln Oil wash over the entire model before beginning to pick out details. The recessed armour plates are washed with Carroburg Crimson, giving them a nice bloody gold look that reflects the red painted armour more commonly used on Khorne models. While pretty close to being 'battle-ready' there are a few bits I will spend more time doing, picking out leather straps, detailing a few spikes and painting the numerous skulls to get them closer to 'parade ready'. I've also get to then have fun with Blood for the Blood God technical!

The April Update - James' Hobby Progress

Turns out being shut away at home has allowed me to be remarkably productive with my hobby time. In my last article I set myself a series of goals, little bits of my backlog that I wanted to have cleared out by the end of May. As April is at a close I wanted to get an article up detailing the things I managed to get done in the last month.

Hobby Updates and Setting Some Goals

Why hello dear readers!

It's been a while since I've made an article for the blog. With a sudden influx of spare time (and a lot of backlog to get through) I figured what better way to spend it than to give an update on what I've been up to recently and to set myself some goals whilst the worlds gone topsy turvy.

Path To Glory Month 2-3 - Slaves to Sigmar

We left off at the end of January with me ushering in my first slaves to darkness models, the Lord on Karkadrak along with 10 Chaos Warriors and 3 Chaos Knights. Though fun to paint (love the rhino-meets-crocodile vibe), I played three games with the fuller army (in greyor basecoated plastic) and just wasn't feeling it. They didn't play like I wanted them to, apart from the Lord on the Rhino once equipped with the -3 rend Runeblade from Malign Sorcery, who (credit to him!) was a true monster. But there  was a change of plan...

In particular, the core chaos warriors and knights didn't have that much offensive bite, the army seemed heavily reliant on its marauders pulling off long charges from deep strike to win the objective / board control game, coupled with the ridiculously powerful slapping down of full hit and wound re-rolls on tank units to do the killing (Warshrines and Sorceror Lords had a lot to answer for...). I may have won the games I played, but would have preferred to just play as Nurgle like I usually do - even though their book may be ageing, it has some more nuanced and cool tactical options.

In addition, being the hobby butterfly we all are, I found myself emerging from the cocoon of this abortive project to nestle on the varied Spring flowers of Adeptus Titanicus (new starter set, great game system, great demo game with Neil), Necromunda (our club gang war has kicked up again recently, and I've painted my Delaque to kick up some fuss across Chem Ridge) and 40k (getting my marines to their full competitive glory, as the first actually fully painted (almost, anyway) 40k army I am able to take to events. I'll try to give these guys the photographic coverage they deserve in periodic "What I've Been Up To" posts.

So, after our group rallied around a prospective AoS doubles event (once COVID-19 lets up), I decided to jump ship - my Slaves are great models and can still do good work in a Nurgle and - eventually - a Khorne army, but I wanted to try to revive my failing enthusiasm and #Bash Some Backlog (thanks Matt) by painting some of the extensive Stormcast Eternals I've amassed by buying multiple copies of the first and second edition starter sets and ruthlessly cutting up and converting (which I really enjoy) to get a unique and cheap army.

For the doubles event, we have 1,000 points each, and I'll be allying with Neil's Seraphon (the successors to the notorious "Neil's Eels" Idoneth list of the doubles we attended in Autumn 2018).

My list will probably be:

Lord Arcanum on Dracoline
3 Evocators on Dracolines
3 Evocators on Dracolines
5 Sequitors
5 Sequitors
coming to a round 1,000 points.

 I'd ideally like more of a mix of mobile units, but once I'd added one set of Thundercats + Thundercatboss and the mandatory selection of what's sadly, I think, the only really decent core unit SCE have, I had 260 points left - not enough to buy anything meaningful alongside my usual favourite unit, the Vanguard Palladors (180pts), as SCE heroes start at 100 points. So I went with even more cats!

At the Autumn 2018 doubles, I was partnered with James, and to everyone's surprise we came second out of 80 odd teams with 5 wins (mostly because Nurgle and Nighthaunt were the new hotness back then and we struck lucky not facing any hugely horrible lists or super skilled players!). So, easy record to beat, right? The only way is up, apart from down.

I've celebrated the new project by finalising a colour scheme and painting up my first Sequitors - I just love these guys in gameplay, being super dependable and useful pieces who can either zip down into cover for a 3+ rerollable save and really hog those objectives, or start dishing out pain with the stormstrike maces. I'm pleased with how the colour scheme has worked out - hopefully my savage and noble but increasingly amnesiac stormhost, the Hounds of Azr, will really project an Ultramarines style heroism with that blue, black and gold.

Till next time!