Although some may know it only as a fast-paced, exciting board game in its own right, Warhammer Underworlds is also the perfect opportunity to show off your painting skills on an extremely diverse range of models. We checked in with world-class painter Tyler Mengel, who has a few things to say about the warbands he’s been working on.
Tyler: I’ve played Warhammer Underworlds off and on since the game first came out. I love tackling one-off warbands as small hobby projects, and I really enjoy the game as well – the combination of miniatures and fast-paced gameplay really works for me.
The first warband I painted was Steelheart’s Champions. The self-contained nature of the game let me try out a colour scheme that was different from how I was painting my Stormcast Eternals at the time.
When I’m working on an army, I usually find a method of painting that is quick enough that I can get lots of models finished in a reasonable amount of time. Since these three models were on their own, I was able to slow down a bit and do some blending on Steelheart’s sword and his tabard. If you missed it previously, you can see how I tackled their armour and robes in my painting tutorial.
The moment I saw the Godsworn Hunt I knew I wanted to paint them. I really like the Darkoath aesthetic – they’re so unlike anything else in the Chaos range. They’re clearly servants of the Dark Gods, but none of them have any overt Chaos symbols on them. It’s a really fresh take on the idea, and it had me hooked instantly.
I entered into a one-day Warhammer Underworlds event at AdeptiCon to motivate me to get them painted, and have somewhere to show them off. This group also made the trip with me over to Nottingham when I attended Games Workshop’s Contrast painter’s weekend, as this warband was a great way to practise a bunch of different skin tones.
Fast forward to 2020, and lockdown. With AdeptiCon cancelled, and no other events in the foreseeable future, I decided to paint some more warbands, starting with Rippa’s Snarlfangs.
These are a cool reinvention of classic Goblin Wolf Riders from the World-that-Was. Originally I was just going to do a quick Contrast paint job on them. This turned into a rather long project as I rediscovered what I loved so much about painting warbands. They were the perfect self-contained project that I could try out new techniques on and really pour some effort into.
The Wurmspat were a no-brainer for me since I had already completed Fecula herself to use in my Maggotkin army. I converted Sepsimus to have an axe instead of a spear so he could pull double duty as a Lord of Plagues in my army if I wanted.
Around this time I also realised how great a game Warhammer Underworlds was when stuck at home. Even though I couldn’t do face to face games, it was easy to play using webcams, as long as my friend and I both had the same boards. This encouraged me to paint even more of my warband collection.
Next up were Hrothgorn’s Mantrappers. I really just wanted to paint an ogor and test out some flesh techniques, plus his faithful Frost Sabre is just such a cool model.
I used snow basing on them to really drive home the Everwinter feeling. I even ended up making some icicles to hang off Hrothgorn’s crossbow by (carefully) melting some spare flying stands I had, glueing them on, then coating them with ‘Ardcoat.
As an avid Death collector I had already painted up the Briar Queen and a few of her Chainrasps to use in my army, so I only had a few more models to finish up to have the full Thorns of the Briar Queen warband done.
I used these as a bit of a break from the more labour-intensive warbands like the Snarlfangs and Mantrappers. They were painted following my Nighthaunt scheme, which I’m well versed in, and is a bit quicker since it’s for an army. I also ended up putting them on different bases so that they would match the rest of my Warhammer Age of Sigmar force.
I did a similar thing with the Sepulchral Guard.
I had converted the Sepulchral Warden into a Wight King a while ago using a spare crown bit from the Black Coach kit. The rest of the warband were ready to paint – I’d meant to do them way back after finishing Steelheart’s Champions. Better late than never! These were another fairly quick batch of models as they followed my skeleton scheme.
I really love how different each Warhammer Underworlds warband is from the next, and how varied all the projects are. It’s like having a little taste of each Warhammer Age of Sigmar faction. Tackling these warbands as self-contained projects has also helped me explore all the different ways that Contrast paint can be used.
I’ve since picked up more warbands. I have a Daughters of Khaine army, so I’ll be painting Morgwaeth’s Blade-Coven to match them, and Morgok’s Krushas will be a great way to test out some orruk skin techniques. With the constantly expanding roster of warbands, who knows what fun projects await!
Thanks, Tyler! Are you working on any warbands of your own at the moment? Make sure to share your sterling work with us on Facebook, and if you haven’t found your favourite yet check out the gallery on the Warhammer Underworlds website. It’s packed full of bands of daring adventurers, vicious killers, and determined hunters just waiting to tackle the living mountain.