So, I managed to quickly finish the two Rackham miniatures I was painting before leaving. They are two Reapers of Alahan from the Lions of Alahan faction of Confrontation and I am planning to use them as old imperial nobles and Champions in Mordheim.
They have to stand out from the militiamen, so more reds over the muted browns that I am using across the group. The one with grey hair may need some touch ups still, but I think for me these are a good standard.
I may want to modify the eyes of the grey-haired champion: I did want to go for a crazed stare (detail below) but maybe I went too far.
I’d like to add some tonal variation to the face, as well, but it’s so tiny I’m having issues with it. Anyway, I’ll go back to the project no sooner than the end of May. In the meantime, I’m preparing to paint some forestfolk – hoping to find time…
The first one is from the coyly named game Hell Dorado, intended to be used as a youngblood, or at any rate new recruit, in Mordheim. I kept the colour scheme quite brown, to match the crossbowmen and the dogs, even though he’s a bit brighter than them. He must have spent less time in the mud. For the first time in a while this is a mini I painted from scratch, with no old half-done painting over it already. As a result, I think the paintjob is cleaner than usual, with the exception of the blade that gave me a hard time.
He looks nicer from the back! At any rate a pretty good, versatile fig: I can see it work in many different games and a few different eras.
The next miniature is a Rackham Cadwe militia. Very pleasant to paint and I’m happy with it. I just wish I had picked out the folds of the red-brown cloth a bit more: they look nice in real life but disappear in the picture. The nmm on the sword is more cartoony, but I like it and I got lucky and made it work on the first try.
I have completed the first batch of miniatures for the Mordheim project.
The difference between the first Cadwallon crossbowman model, which I had started painting years and years ago, and the others is quite noticeable. Even if I glazed on some colour to it, it remains very desaturated and brown. I was not going to repaint it, and I may keep it on the table as I go on with the project, to get a little dash of paint from time to time.
The red and violet glazes for the two new crossbowmen are more noticeable, and I went for red over brown for some of the cloth and leather. The cobblestones are also integrating more colour – one is done with coarser stippling, for the other I started with a wet blend. I know I should probably have a uniform technique for the bases, but the differences are not that major…
The dogs are very nice models from Hell Dorado, some of the best dog miniatures I can think of. All these are relatively quick paint jobs, for me at least – between two and three hours each, with all the glazing, hedge highlighting and bases, even though it’s hard to count, since I can very rarely spend a whole hour painting at any given time.
Next will be one of the youngbloods and one of the splendid Cadwallon militiamen (these are actually quite daunting, I hope I don’t screw them up).
The next project will be a small warband for Mordheim – LRb, mostly using Rackham Cadwallon models.
Here’s a group picture of all the prepped models.
There are three crossbowmen, six militiamen, a knight, and two muggers (looking like noblemen with pistol and sword) from Confrontation’s Cadwallon faction, and two mercenaries with rapier and dagger and two dogs from Hell Dorado. The dogs especially will fit well with the Rackham models, since they seem to have the same kind of padded armour as the crossbowmen and some of the militiamen.
I had already started painting the Cadwallon Militia Crossbowmen ages ago. Here’s the reference card with the original colour scheme, from Confrontation pills.
One of the challenges was to give some visual interest to the colour scheme that I had chosen, which was basically all brown and sand. I liked it, and I still like it, but it needed something. I decided on a few light glazes of a mix of Vallejo hexed lichen and carmine red on the brigandine (I think that’s the type of armour they are wearing) and I’m very happy with the result.
The base is made with double-thick cereal box cardboard cut into cobblestones, and earth texture paste, but it still needs work: more contrast on the earth, some plants and some green tones all over.
As usual, I’ll advance very slowly but, hey, I already have the bases in place for a change!
C
For those who may be interested, here’s what the models would stand for in Mordheim, Liriving Rulebook:
Deuteros 