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Today I built the contents of the current Start Collecting! Slaves to Darkness box set. This was a quick turnaround for me, as I only received the box this morning!

The Chaos Warriors and Chaos Lord were a joy to build, going together quickly and easily, with most joins andthe like hidden in clever ways – which is to be expected, as the models in this set are modern “Easy to Build” push-fit miniatures.

The Chaos Knights were slightly more frustrating to build, especially the unit champion, who just didn’t seem to want to go together without either popping apart again, or with some massive gaps. By clipping of some pegs, and applying some extra plastic glue though, I managed to get it assembled with only a small amount of cursing. The rest of the unit were slightly better, with the most frustrating issue being the distribution of the parts across all 3 sprues, instead of being grouped together logically like most other kits.

With a core set of units assembled now, hopefully the weather will hold and I’ll be able to start getting some paint on them this weekend!

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Today was productive, thanks to a lazy Sunday afternoon. I managed to build 2 units of Slaves to Darkness – Warriors and Knights – that, (shamefully?) I’ve had in my backlog for 11 years …

My hope is I can get a good chunk of them on the way too finished this week, ahead of the new army box arriving. I’ve been trying to create a mortal Chaos army for a long time now, but something always seems to happen that derails the project. Fingers crossed for this attempt!

I’ve got more Knights and Warriors to build, along with some heroes and a chariot. If the weather doesn’t play nice, and I can’t get the already built models sprayed, then the alternative goal is to finish building the rest of the backlog.

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I have a lot of posts to catch-up on… as always. Not much painting, for a variety of reasons, but plenty of assembly and “making” projects. Up first is a few units of Men-At-Arms, that will eventually be part of a 3D-printed approximation of the Bretonnian army I had as a teenager for Warhammer Fantasy Battles 5th Edition. So far I’ve got:

  • 10x Spearmen
  • 10x Halberdiers
  • 10x Bowmen

And the first of the “nobles” in the form of a Sorceress.

I think I need more Bowmen and Spearmen to match what I originally had, then I can move onto the real fun part – the various types of Bretonnian Knight!

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This is labeled as a work in progress, but the model is basically done, barring a couple of touch-ups, and actually attaching it to a base.

By-and-large, the process for most details were as per this tutorial from Cult of Paint:

The gloves and many other parts of the scheme were also painted this way. I deviated with the red, trying to get a deeper colour, and the black robes were painted by going from Valejjo Model Color Black > Scale 75 Eclipse Grey > Scale 75 Graphene Grey.

The skin was painted with Scale75 Artist Dark Brown Ochre, blended through Scale 75 Artist Wood, then adding small highlights by mixing in Scale 75 Artist Buff. I tried to paint in the eyes, but my own eyes are no longer up to the task, so I ended up just shading in the sockets. I might give it one last go, when I do the final corrections, but the last thing I want is to be obscuring detail – or worse – make a mistake that means repainting the whole face.

The materials on the model representing a fabric (or similar) material were given a coat of Ammo Ultra-Matte varnish, to differentiate them from the satin finish of the armour.

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Continuing on with my long-neglected Custodes, I started repainting the miniatures I had already started on the project, to match the same process as used on the Shield-Commander. The gold has come out very slightly different to on the Commander, but I put that down to not pushing the highlights as much, and starting from a different base colour (spraying over a gold primer, rather than black).

I’ve really just got the plumes, spear blades, and adding some definition to the gloves, then these will be ready for basing.

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It’s the last belated January post! this time it’s a conversion, and something an extra bit special (to me) – a custom Shield-Captain/Shield-Commander to lead the Adeptus Custodes force I’ve had as “work in progress” since at least 2018.

It’s based on the amazing Bastian Carthalos miniature, with parts from across the Custodes range. The torso, and one shoulder pad, is from Trajan Valoris, the hands and spear from the Wardens kit, and the rest comes from the Allarus Terminators.

This was by far the most complicated conversion I’ve done in a very long time! I had to do some sculpting with Milliput on the cloak, to get parts to blend together, and there was a lot of work to get the torso pieces to fit together. There was lots of gap filling, and more than a bit of swearing as things either didn’t work how I wanted to first time, or turned out to be a lot more fiddly! Still, I’m really happy with how it’s turned out. I’ll have a post soon (in February!) to show off the painted version.

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The last miniature painted in January, but not quite the last of my January Catch-up! (Yes, I’m conscious we’re nearly halfway through February)

After painting up all those skeletons earlier in the month, I needed something to lead them. I’d had one of the heroes from Cursed City sitting on my shelf for a while, intending to use it as a Necromancer in the bigger Soulblight army, so it seemed a natural choice.

Apart from the mask/gold trim and the staff, everything was painted with a Contrast Paint or equivalent, over a zenithal primer + white drybrush starting point. I wanted a fairly “classic” feel, so I stuck to the pallete of purple (Arcane Purple), blue (Ultramarines Blue), and red (Life Red), which were all over 4th Edition Undead armies. Most areas are unhighlighted, but those that were were done by mixing Ivory into the original starting colour.

For something that took less than an hour to paint, I’m really happy with how this turned out!

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In a burst of unexpected productivity, I built on the success of clearing some of my terrain backlog by… painting some more, smaller, terrain pieces!

First up was some “Sector Fronteris” terrain. I’d been itching to try our Lupercal Green and Sons of Horus Green, and this seemed like the perfect oppotunity. Both colours were applied zenithally over the black primer, then at the end I gave everything a light drybrush of Sons of Horus Green + Hellbound Flesh by Scale 75.

Metals were picked out in Gun Metal, then had some new rust effects from Ammo By Mig applied over the top as an experiment.

Ruined edges were given a light spray with black, to simulate soot.

I had some small scatter pieces left over from the Azyrite Ruins set, so I painted them in much the same process. The real only difference was I picked out some details as bronze – see the Realmgate notes below – and applied some weathering effects to the fountains – puddles, leaves, and some patinas to the bronze.

Finally, I painted a Baleful Realmgate that I’ve had sitting basecoated since I first bought-in to Age of Sigmar.

Over a Mechanicus Standard Grey primer, I sprayed Reddish Grey and Stone Grey, both by AK Interactive. The magic effect was given a spray of white ink, then given several thin layers of Neon Orange ink, letting it fade out towards the tips. Bronze areas were picked out in Gun Metal, drybrushed with Brass, then given some a turquise oil wash for weathering. Skulls were picked out with Skeleton Horde. The XPVC base was painted German Camo Black-Brown, in anticipation of some burnt/dead grass flock or static grass being applied.

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I’ve had these ruins sitting waiting for paint for well over a year. Originally they were going to be a creamy sandstone colour, but I liked my 40K ruins so much, I used much the same recipe again.

The wood was painted with a wash of Snakebite Leather Contrast Paint over a dark, warm, grey, then drybrushed with an ochre, then Karak Stone.