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:
I stole some time from the desert of the real, and I have a simple goblin figure to share, a Rackham Goblin with Ball and Chain, to be used as a Mad Git in 9th Age, a Fanatic in Oldhammer or however GW now calls these crazed little chaps.
I’m really sorry I couldn’t find the time to read everybody’s posts lately – I have an impressive backlog to go through now. But I will, slowly.
The sculpt is nice, though a little messy here and there. And don’t ask how the goblin can spin… Chains were a pain to do nmm on and they didn’t turn out that well, plus the paint was chipping all the time no idea why. (Does anybody know a good tutorial on nmm chains or has advice on how to do them?)
I tried to improve my basing a little (hey! the model has a base, that’s an improvement already) and reorganised my basing material.
Handy, but I still need some brighter green grass…
Almost four years ago, daggerandbrush recommended Killyox as the next expansion in this pretty much still starting Wolfen project. Well, it took some time, but I’m glad I eventually managed to get and paint this beast.
There seem to be different Killyox sculpts around. The one I found to buy at a reasonable price lacks the nice pendants attached to the belt in the front, has a toirtoise or drake texture on the leg armour instead of padded leather, and some other differences. But it’s still an imposing sculpt, and a hell of a pointer. See below for comparison.
I decided to paint the leg armour in somewhat iridescent colours, as if it were the hide or shell of a sea creature or something out of Final Fantasy VIII. In general, the miniature has more colours and a warmer palette than the other wolfen I painted so far.
The metallics are a bit more muted than those on the crossbow of the previous mini…
For some of the details and decorations, like the horn and the plate on the moon-shaped icon on his back, I tried yellow and teal with simple white edge highlighting. I must say I quite like it, maybe just a tad too cartoony.
The skin was perhaps the easiest part of the model – just a matter of building shadows carefully with very thin paint and then adding a little pop with some red and yellows. More than a wolf, I decided to paint Killyox as some sort of kitsune, a Japanese fox spirit, in this case with a double pointed tail. I think the white spot made the face more interesting and saved me a lot of trouble with blending.
Overall, I’m very happy with this mini, and it didn’t even take that long to paint, at least compared to my standards!
Next I’ll do an orc, but soon I’ll be back with another wolfen.
I think I’ll count this as done. It will get some finishing touches and the base after after some of the other puppies will be painted.
If you get close, everything looks still a bit messy. But I have made some bold choices here and there and in the end I am satisfied with how it turned out. I used to be scared to paint these Rackham models and now I’m feeling more confident.
The skin (or really short fur) is painted and highlighted with greys, with just a little purples in the highlights. For the next wolfen, I’ll try to add some colour variation. From some angles the pads on the thighs look rough, but you liked them so much I didn’t change them.
The blonde hair is… questionable. I don’t remember how I came up with the idea, but probably from one of the reference pictures on the Confrontation cards. Then I chose to stick with it. After all, there can be blonde werewolves, right?
This last picture is blurry, but it’s there just so you have all the main angles, and it works in a small format. The sculpt clearly focuses on the front: there isn’t a lot here that draws attention.
One lonely wolf howling at Ylia. Next, I think I’ll go with one of the iconic crossbow sculpts…
On to some Rackham wolfen, which are very dear models to me and among those who really made me want to learn how to paint. Unfortunately I sold the first few wolfen I painted years ago, but now I got quite a few from the old range and I’m going to spend some time on them.
This is an old warrior, with the typical sword design and just a basic leg and head swap.
The nmm on the blade took time: I found it much easier to do a good effect on the two blades pointing downwards than on the large surface of the main blade.
The skin is still not done, but I have started to work some purple tones in the gray, to see if it’s true that it would make the model look more lifelike.
The metal on the two pads on his thighs is very blue and meant to be more reflective and bright. I still have to tone it down and add some shadows on the side, but what do you think so far? Does it look strange?
Clearly I should add more color variation in the skin, especially here in the back. And I have to find a nice pop shade of blond for the tail and hair.
Unfortunately, I don’t think I’ll be able to paint much during the holiday season. Best wishes to everybody and catch you in January!
Deuteros 