In the third and final part of our Path to Glory series, we catch up once more with our four intrepid Warhammer hobbyists to see how their new collections have been progressing. If you missed part one and part two, give them a quick read first, but otherwise, it’s on with the show.
Gav – Idoneth Deepkin
Gav: After starting my Path to Glory force with a unit of Namarti Thralls and then adding a second unit, surely I’d finish off the army with a third one? Of course not. There’s only one way to round things off – Duinclaw!
In a pinch, other units might have worked, but this was who I really wanted to add to my army. I wanted to do something a bit different with his paint scheme, so rather than going for a traditional orange, I tried something darker, more akin to the colour of live lobster. In the end, I went for Shyish Purple with a quick drybrush of Lucius Lilac.
I painted the aelves of Elathain’s Soulraid in a similar way to the rest of my Idoneth Deepkin – Blood Angels Red skin, and Magos Purple or Talassar Blue on the fabrics. As the leader, I had to make Elathain look as impressive as possible, so his armour was drybrushed Retributor Armour over Black Templar. I do wish that I had just a little more painting skill as I’d really have liked to turn the wood on the Spinefin’s base into a “No Fishing” sign. Ah well, that’s definitely something to aim for in the future.
I will say that the Idoneth Deepkin have really gotten their hooks into me, and I’ll definitely be looking at scaling up the army. I’d really like to add an Akhelian Leviadon, but with red aelves, an orange shark, and a purple crab in my army, it would obviously have to be an interesting colour. As they say in the ocean, any-fin’ goes…
Laura – Gloomspite Gitz
Laura: I must first begin this final entry with my trogg-hat in hand as, sadly, real-world complications have gotten in the way of my Path to Glory, and my Troggoths remain unfinished. I do, however, have some final work in progress pieces to show off and fly the flag of Destruction (just a little bit behind the others).
I wanted my Troggoths to look like creepy Death-infused monsters, so I gave them the legs of Morghasts, making them look taller and also more hunched over, as if they're bearing down on some unlucky victims. I also gave them a face swap with some Squigs, specifically some of the more monstrous looking ones to really add to that creepy vibe!
The largest addition to this force has been the Mega-Gargant, which I wanted to look like it was a partner to my previous one – but also more savage and monstrous. The head is taken from a Zombie Dragon, along with a glorious shock of hair from Magnus the Red and bits and pieces from some Banshee kit for flyaway locks. Crowned by Verminlord horns, and decked out in the armour of Magnus The Red, this guy looks like an ancient barbarian king, risen from beyond the grave by the mysterious powers of Shyish, who has called his troggoth followers to his unholy banner.
I’m really looking forward to getting this gang painted up to throw some dice (and bones) with my fellow warlords!
Martin – Soulblight Gravelords
Martin: The last few weeks have been a dream in terms of painting. Spending the lion's share of the time on the vampires really paid off, as the more organic stuff in the Dire Wolves and Fell Bats have been pretty easy to get a nice finish on.
For the Dire Wolves, I built up a nice dark grey drybrush over a Chaos Black undercoat and then painted all the wounds and rotting bits Khorne Red. I then picked out all the exposed bones and teeth with Morghast Bone. Next up, I used a coat of Ardcoat and then Lahmian Medium to get a matt finish. Finally I used Blood for the Blood God over all the exposed flesh to get a gory look, which really stands out against the matt black fur. I’m delighted with the results.
For the Fell Bats, I went for a base coat of Rhinox Hide and airbrushed some Bugman’s Glow and Cadian Fleshtone on the wings and heads to get an interesting transition. After that, I tidied up the ‘fingers’ and fur with Rhinox Hide again. A little Guilliman Flesh on the faces to bring out the detail and some Basilicanum Grey on the fur for some shading brought everything together. Finally, I used Morghast Bone again for the claws, and highlighted the faces and wings with Cadian Fleshtone.
Everything was based with sand, painted XV-88, then drybrushed Ushabti Bone and Pallid Wych Flesh, with a final thin shade of Agrax Earthshade to add definition. I attached a mixture of different tufts to add some interest to the bases. While I was basing the Dire Wolves, I decided to change my rim colour from black to Steel Legion Drab. I felt that the black was taking attention away from all the black on the models, and now that I’ve applied it to the whole force, I’m much happier with it.
With that done, I have completed the 1,000-point order of battle of Mariana Von Carstein. I look forward to the restarting of late-night gaming at Warhammer World (hopefully soon), so we can kick off our Path to Glory battles in earnest. Come at me, fellow warlords…
Joel – Hedonites of Slaanesh
Joel: For the last addition to my Path to Glory list, I've added a second unit of Myrmidesh Painbringers to give myself an extra objective-holding unit. This is also a good reminder that if you use paint mixes, make sure to write them down so you can stay consistent… oops.
Nevertheless, they turned out nicely, and I've now got a great force which I'm going to use for matched play battles too.
The painting was slowed down by the crazy heatwave we had here in the UK a few weeks ago. I know a lot of others had the same problem, so I started building up a couple of extra bits too, ready to expand into matched play games. The Fane of Slaanesh was a lovely opportunity to paint something extremely different, and I’ll also have Synessa, the Voice of Slaanesh, to add soon in as another fun centrepiece with some magical capability. Once I add a Lord of Pain in too, I'll be able to run my Painbringers as Battleline units and will have enough units for armies up to 1,500 points.
As for where I go from here, I hope to play some games with my fellow Path to Glory warlords at some point, as I've loved seeing their projects grow. No matter the outcome, I'm sure it will be excessive amounts of fun.
Thanks for all your efforts over the course of the series, folks. If you’ve been following in their footsteps, we’d love to see what you’ve been working on – share them with us on Twitter, Instagram, and on our Warhammer Age of Sigmar Facebook page with #PaintingWarhammer.