Fans of Warhammer Underworlds are all abuzz about Direchasm, which is on store shelves as you read this! We shared these stunning new models (read all about Myari’s Purifiers and the Dread Pageant) with some of the most keen members of the studio and Warhammer Community teams, and now they’re ready to show off their hard work building and painting them up. Let’s take a look!
Jay: I already have a fledgling Lumineth Realm-lords army, and so I wanted my Myari’s Purifiers to fit straight into that force. I sprayed the models with Grey Seer, and then used Contrast paints for the armour and cloth. I used Apothecary White for the armour, and then Aethermatic Blue and Talassar Blue for the different colours of cloth.
I’m really looking forward to getting my Myari’s Purifiers on the tabletop – their flexible play style allows them to take on all comers, and they can excel at any type of game if their deck is built for it.
I don’t usually play the forces of Chaos – in fact, these are the first Slaanesh models I’ve ever painted! The detail on them is simply stunning, and I had great fun painting the various scars, metal studs, and straps. I wanted to keep the colours on them as the standard Slaaneshi colours, and so their cloth is all purple, with some bright pink hair and tassels to give some extra colour to the models.
I’ve started building a few decks for the Dread Pageant already, mainly focussing around Vasillac and powering him up to dish out some wicked damage to any who come too near!
Nick: When I got hold of the new Direchasm boxed set, the first thing I did was assemble those awesome new miniatures – they’re just so good. I knew I would want to paint the base separately, as I find it much easier for the moulded bases like those you get in this set.
Now, as to painting, I took a good bit of time to think about this. I had painted a few Slaaneshi models before, but not many, and I hadn't painted any Lumineth Realm-lords at all. With that in mind, I was racking my brains... and then, a thought struck!
I knew Warhammer TV's Peachy was making two great painting videos for the warbands, so I snuck in while he wasn't watching and had a cheeky read of his super top-secret painting scripts before he filmed them. Those are what I have used as a basis for painting both my warbands – Peachy's awesome How to Paint: Myari's Purifiers and How to Paint: The Dread Pageant painting videos.
This is what it looks like if you use the techniques in that video to paint your whole warband – pretty cool results. I strongly urge anyone who is about to paint up their warbands to go and watch the videos. They’ll really help.
Ben G: The perfect followers of the Dark Prince are just gorgeous, and I enjoy that they come boxed with a selection of delicious aelf-souls for consumption later too! Not that I’m biased…
I used the same purple and silver armour recipe that I’ve used for my Slaaneshi Slaves to Darkness and Beasts of Chaos armies. This is why my Slakeslash has bright pink skin too, in line with my other Gors.
The Lumineth warband were an interesting challenge, as they’re very much outside of my normal Chaos-based comfort zone. I wanted them to contrast nicely with the bold, dark palette of the Dread Pageant, so I pulled on some old-school High Elf influence with the blue and yellow, along with more blonde silvers and golds to bring out the bright sheen.
Ben B: Warhammer Underworlds has been solidly on my radar since its release and with every new boxed set – Shadespire, Nightvault, Beastgrave, and now Direchasm – it has upped the ante with the dynamism of the models.
Both warbands began with a base coat of Wraithbone followed by a wave of different Contrast paints, finished with a light drybrush of Wraithbone on the Purifiers’ cloaks and Emperor's Children over the cloth of the Dread Pageant.
Painting the Purifiers, much like painting the rest of the Lumineth range, was an absolute delight. The well-defined shapes, edges, and details really helped my Contrast paint style to make the most of the sculpts. With all the different textures across this warband, it really helped get the most out of the Contrast paints.
Turning my attention to the Dread Pageant was taking a step into the realm of Slaanesh, which I’d never actually gone into before. I can happily say there is no better way to get stuck into the style of Slaanesh mortals than with this warband. The sculpts are nothing short of genius and really get me excited for upcoming releases of Slaanesh models.
Gav: Since the release of Contrast paints last year, I’ve been a little bit obsessed with Shyish Purple and have been looking for as many excuses to use it as possible – let’s just say that I’ve painted more Genestealers in the last 12 months than ever before! I knew it had to be the main colour that I used on the Dread Pageant.
I then tried to use as much gold and silver on the models as possible to really pull out that Slaaneshi excess. My favourite model to paint was definitely Slakeslash – such an incredible miniature.
I usually play aggro-style warbands in Warhammer Underworlds, and I typically try to take out enemy fighters in a single attack. It will be interesting to instead try a more “death by a thousand cuts” approach to get the Hedonites Inspired.
When I get a new Warhammer Underworlds warband, I assemble them straight away so that I can use them as quickly as possible, worrying about painting them later. With Myari’s Purifiers, I realised early on that they were going to be so much easier to paint in sub-assemblies. I wanted to give them a really traditional, almost High Elf look, but I still haven’t mastered painting white. Thinking back to one of my first issues of White Dwarf (158, I think,) I remember that there was artwork on the front of Teclis wearing mainly blue, so that’s the route I took, using Talassar Blue as the main colour.
Again, I tried to use a lot of gold on the models to emphasise that slight haughtiness of the Lumineth. Both warbands feature tassels on the models, and I painted them all Volupus Pink to try and give something that tied them both together.
As you can see, the Direchasm models look fantastic in all manner of different colour schemes. If you haven’t secured a copy yet, treat yourself to the latest season of Warhammer Underworlds and get both of these incredible warbands in one fell swoop. Grab it online or hit up your local shop if you want to make sure you have it before the holidays!