Half the Warhammer Community team are on holiday this week, so the other half have been painting extra hard to make up for it. We kept whipping them all anyway, just to be sure.
Rob: I picked up a few new Imperial Knights for my Freeblade Lance while attending a local store anniversary – shout out to Jacob at Warhammer Erie – and immediately hit a wall of indecision when it came to painting them. The double-edged sword of Freeblades is that you get to come up with an entirely new colour scheme every time you paint one, but that left me with an armful of Knights and, maybe, too many possibilities.
Then, a lucky break: my local Warhammer group announced the start of an Escalation League, where points limits increase every few weeks so players starting new armies can ramp up their collection. This was the perfect motivation I needed, as the first round is weeks away, and do you know what just happens to fit in a 500-point game?
Who needs more than one model if it’s a really good one? It still needs some cleanup, details, and transfers, but I should have it done just in time.
My Freeblades are the last remnants of a Knight World that fragmented into dozens of small city-states defended by just one or two Knights each, so I look at the provinces of Bretonnia and the Empire from Warhammer: The Old World to get livery inspiration with the right feudal vibe. Next up, I’ll probably be breaking out the reds for something very different from my usual blue and green palettes, and I have some wicked ideas for how I’ll make the top carapace really stand out…
Graeme: After finishing the Ironjawz Bigmob, I started painting the terrain from Spearhead: Fire & Jade, but being a hobby butterfly, I got distracted when I found a blast from the past in a box of miniatures.
Older than some of my esteemed colleagues, Grom the Paunch dates from October 1993, making his miniature debut in White Dwarf 165 after getting rules in Warhammer Armies: Orcs & Goblins earlier that year.* I remember enthusiastically painting him a few months after getting the miniature for Christmas. Thankfully, no photographic evidence of that paint job exists.
Grom was originally released at the heart of what’s now known as Warhammer’s “red period”, when the ’Eavy Metal team used bright red on, well, everything. He was no exception, and it was impossible to resist emulating that scheme, particularly on Grom himself. I also gave the chariot’s wood a red hue, though rather more muted than the original. Of course I’ve used my standard basing scheme rather than the 1990s bright green with flock. I had to draw the line somewhere.
You’ll notice that Niblit is currently bereft of a banner – I’m planning on using Grom as a Snarlboss on War-Wheela for my yet-to-be-painted Gitmob (which is why he’s on an oval base), and I’ll come up with a banner design when I decide on a theme for the tribe. For now, Niblit can just wave an empty pole – he’s just happy to be included.
Gadge: As my main army for Warhammer 40,000 is a contingent of Adeptus Astartes from the Mantis Warriors Chapter, it was only natural that I decided to paint up a kill team of these White Scars successors for the new edition of Kill Team.
I decided to personalise a few of the figures from the Phobos Strike Team set and add lots of extra pouches and kit to reflect their ‘behind the lines’ modus operandi. I also added a blast shield to the demo charge wielding Saboteur, a more ornate shoulder pad to the Reiver Sergeant and most importantly made my Incursor Marksman a little more visually different by giving him a chunky sniper rifle borrowed from an Eliminator (don’t worry potential opponents, it still counts as a stalker marksman bolt carbine in the game!)
While most of my Phobos armour Space Marines are in the Mantis Warriors ‘Tanquility Campaign’ jungle camouflage, I opted for classic green and yellow for these warriors to match the Terminators in my army. To make it obvious for my opponent who’s who in my kill team, I've marked out the specialists with accent colours - red for the demolitions expert and white for the Helix Adept.
Lastly I opted to base them with a hybrid basing style using urban, woodland and industrial elements from my bits box and textured plastic sheet so they don’t look out of place on most battlefields!
Chris: As you can probably tell from my avatar, Necrons are my true love. I am trying to get a 2,000-point tournament army ready by summertime, but that’s something for another article.
Recently though, I’ve been on a bit of a Mortal Realms kick and have been slowly** working my way through Spearhead: Disciples of Tzeentch. I was happy with how these Screamers of Tzeentch turned out – particularly the little dots of Ardcoat on the eyes and tentacles to give them a wet, glassy look.
I also enjoy a game of Warhammer Underworlds over a fizzy pop and recently added Zondara’s Gravebreakers to my roster. I used Contrast paints to achieve a fast but effective colour scheme and get the lovestruck Zondara Rivenheart and co delving through Embergard's mines as quickly as possible.
Tom: This week I have completed more characters for my burgeoning force of Marienburgers, including a Captain on horseback and an Engineer with a longrifle. They will lead a 1,000-point army into battle at the start of May, or at least they will once I actually make inroads into my regiment of Knights Mariner. I should probably get some infantry too. And a Wizard.
Work meanwhile continues on the Sigmarite Chapel, which currently looks like a controlled detonation in a highlighter warehouse, but in a good way. It’s really reinventing the colour wheel.
Andy attended his doubles tournament with his Dark Angels. Andy had not painted his Terminators in time. To this day, they remain unpainted. He’s got another great idea for a conversion though…
* And existing as a cardboard effigy attached to a base in the Warhammer fourth edition boxed game, alongside various other heroes and war machines who featured in the story.
** Glacially…
