Afternoon #WarhammerCommunity it's the fourth of #DreadTober2026 and I've been #PaintingWarhammer and this is a quick update of some progress this last week. I actually have done a lot more than this since I took these pics. basically this is just the sepia/soft tone wash on the metallics and thinned Basilicanum Grey Contrast on the grey areas.
It's worth noting though that the grey primer I used on the armour plates is borderline gloss, rather than matt or even satin. Therefore adding water to the contrast paint makes it almost hydrophobic - pooling and not settling as it should.
Luckily contrast is rather sticky in its undiluted form so I would blob on some more paint to get the coverage and then use a paper towel to wick away the excess while still tinting the underlying grey. Or I would scrunch and dab, which would create a mottled pattern to the shading. And I would run my finger across any corners, which would make them almost 100% highlighted by removing all the contrast paint on the edge.
I also added the heraldry stripes on the blue carapace. Once again using masking tape and then pencilling the edges. Rather than just eyeballing it. So although it might technically be perfect it looks like the lines converge a bit.
I'll have a further update on Monday. But I did have a really weird decision making event where I though decals should be the next thing to do - before any highlights! It would definitely obscure the concerns I had with the chevrons and I thought I'd then only have to highlight around the decals. So I glossed some panels started adding decals and then promptly decided that was enough and I should really do some highlights. You'll see next week...
Afternoon #Warhammer Community we've been playing MESBG
We were continuing with the War of the Rohirrim scenarios. This one being where Hera is fighting Shan and Wrot while a snow troll gets involved and Helm Hammerhand saves the day. Ben had played it with Otty and said it was quick with the intention we would finish it before Liam turned up. But in the end we'd only just set up when he arrived so Liam and I got to give it a go.
Hera starts in the middle of the board with Shank and Wrot with the snow troll at the far left and Helm far right. Liam, had moved Hera to join Helm and as I hadn't realy understood the scenario hadn't put the orcs in the way to stop her so I didn't bother.
What followed was some careful measuring depending on who had priority and Helm attacked. But Shank had an ability to make the troll charge while being fearless. Avoiding Helm's terror he was trapped, but he won the duel roll off.
And one-punched the troll. Each wound doing double damage! Shank and Wrot had some weirdly good rolls but not enough to do any damage whatsoever and then Wrot was KO'd
Which left shank to be double teamed by Helm and Hera with the game over, quick smart.
We then decided to revisit last week's sceario, where Hera [in her bridal gear] rides forth to battle Wulf. Otty had played it a couple of times since so it was a chance to try new tactics and not just treat each scenario as 'one and done'!
Hera and Wulf start the battle in the top middle. This time the Hillmen formed a line in the middle with most of the archers on the siege tower. While the Rohirrim formed up with spears in the front rank toward the middle and then every rider has a bow so they were aligned diagonally for over the shoulder shots.
Hera got surrounded and after a poor duel roll spent 2 Might to break even with Wulf, but lost the 50:50 and was cut down. Meanwhile the Rohirrim peppered any archer they could see I think we took down 4 or 5 hillmen in that first turn
In return the Rohan captain was unhorsed and Frealaf rode behind his men to avoid being sniped. Another round of Rohan shooting took a Hillman chief down on the siege tower, with just three hillman warriors charging to face Olwyn. However, with the camp left undefended a sizeable force were attempting to come in at our flank.
This was turn 4 and we'd started to send some of our force forward using the increased strength of the throwing spears. But that was hampered by the reduced hits by moving and shooting. However, the Hillman archers faired much worse. Choosing to target heroes rather than the nearest rider there were multiple 'in the way rolls', coupled with 'horse or rider' rolls, inevitably when it came to the wound roll the 6 required to kill a warrior or 5 to kill the horse either never came or the 5 appeared when the rider was hit!
Otty had convinced Ben to withdraw his forces, hoping to lure is into the killzone. Instead we wheeled to our right and went for the smaller force in the camp. Some failed terror tests didn't help but we had enough to do damage. 2 out of the 3 hillmen on the siege ramp got into combat with Olwyn
But the one out of combat got put down to archery fire. We continued to press into the camp although I'm not sure if we charged at this point or were charged. It might have been a turn of weathering the storm
We had new hillmen running up the siege ramp, but the main force had made their move - Wulf and Targ seeking to heroic combat off that loan cavalry. But the on foot Rohan captain also chose to Heroic combat out of the 4 hillmen that had doubled up in charging our front row of cavalry in the middle. We won the 50:50 so would get to go first, with Frealaf, who also broke free.
And despite Liam's reservations [he thought Targ was the better target for Frealaf] we gambled and trapped Wulf. Having already called a Heroic combat - if we got enough bodies on him he wouldn't be able to do springboard off the combat with his Heroic. We'd nullify it. We both got the 6 required and with our fight values the same it was down to another 50:50. Despite some turns were I was accurately predicting every dice roll I'd make this 50:50 would decide the game. 1-3 Wulf wins and kills Frealaf, 5-6 Frealaf and the rider get 10 hits on Wulf.
We win the 50:50.
5's to wound and Wulf is chopped to bits.
I think at this stage the hillmen were broken, but it was after midnight and we called it a night. I'm not sure what the score was at this stage. Both Hera and Wulf were dead, 2 points each. We'd killed a chief for a point and currently no one had left by the siege tower, but technically the hillmen controlled the camp for a point. So it might 3:3 at this stage, but I think the momentum had swung our way and we were well positioned to capitalise on Wulf's demise. We may finish it off next time...
It felt like a very different game this time around. A lot of fun again. The hillmen archers were woeful and it was a huge contrast with our complete reluctance to do 'in the way' rolls whereas the hillmen somehow sacrificed all their high rolls to not be in the way to only get low numbers for wounding. it almost became a joke. I think all they did was kill the Rohan Captains horse, kill one or two riders and perhaps put a wound or two on Olwyn who 'fated' them.
A good game, but the guys are working next Thursday and I can't go the week after so not sure when we'll get together again... 🥺
Afternoon #WarhammerCommunity it's the third of #DreadTober2026 and I've been #PaintingWarhammer I wasn't bluffing when I said I'd managed to get my head back in the game! You can see I got all the Retributor Armour highlights on the brassy/bronze metallics.
I also bit the bullet and added the armour plates on too. Then picked out the various colours. The yellow areas had Instar Vintage-17 which is an equivalent of Macharious Solar Orange.
Then the yellow is IV-16, and Iyanden Dark Sun equivalent. It's amazing how beige it looks in the bottle but how yellow it goes on the model.
Everything has since had a sepia/AP Soft Tone wash to tone down the metallics and blend some of the transitions or add shadows. All thee weapons were done to, all 10 of them and the heads.
When I took the Warhound pics I hadn't done anything to the Porphyrions. So I decided to do all the planned yellow areas and this is after the shade washes.
I don't know how I'm going to reconcile the chevrons on the legs.
Especially as they wrap around the legs of the knight on the right.
But I love the choices I've made and will find a way to make them work.
What I've also discovered is previously the Warhounds were worth just 5 hobby points each! Despite them being on 80mm bases, where the 5pt category is up to 70mm. The spare 6 weapons are another 6 points and the Porphyrions are 5pts each. So, this will be worth 26 points when done, but I do feel a little robbed, but what can you do?
Afternoon #WarhammerCommunity it's the second of #DreadTober2026 and this may not look like progress but I've actually done all the VGC Hammered Copper highlights. I'd taken a hit to the motivation by losing the heads for the Warhounds but I thought there was still value in pressing on with the copper. I had hoped to do the Retributor Armour highlights too, but I actually had an early night instead. It's really hard to balance DreadTober with my Season goal to get more sleep!
Still, I will get the Retributor armour done tonight and maybe also add the shade wash and pick out the armour colours. That might bring me back on track.
I also got all 10 weapons highlighted and primed some of the armour plates. They were a little behind but I'll bring them up to speed before the weekend.
The Porphyrions are highlighted too and the process at least made me feel much less worried about getting these done too. I hope I've not jinxed myself there.
But despite my initial concerns over how much detail is on them this came together really quickly, so I have revised hope they can progress swifter than I'd imagined.
Afternoon #Warhammer Community we've been playing MESBG and it was great for us all to be there together again.
We were continuing with the War of the Rohirrim scenarios. This one being the end where Hera [in her bridal gear] rides forth to battle Wulf.
Hera and Wulf start the battle in the top right. All the Hillmen are congregated around the siege tower ramp, with Olwyn at the top of it stopping those already on the ramp. Meanwhile Frealaf and the riders of Rohan come in from the bottom. The Hillmen score a point each by killing Frealaf, a Rohan Captain, getting 3 Hillmen off the end of the siege ramp, having more warriors in the bottom right quadrant and 2 points for killing Hera. Rohan score one point each for killing General Targ, a Hillman Captain, stopping any Hillmen from escaping the siege ramp and having more Rohirrim in the bottom right camp. There is also 2 points for killing Wulf. I was with Otty who was already doom-mongering because there were 20 Hillman Archers and Hera was only able to get an 'in the way' by hiding next to a rocky step in the hill. We're also having to cope with a lot of terror-inducing flaming brands.
But, once again my dice were on fire 🎲🔥 We managed to make a lot of charges and if we won the duel there were often 2 cavalry against one Hillman - 4 wound rolls and only needing a 4 on the dice to kill. So a lot of Hillman fell under the hooves. In return if a Hillman won they also were sometimes killing on 4's - +1 for hatred of Rohan and there were a lot of 2-handed weapons for another +1.
Having won the priority on a few turns General Targ was able to call a heroic move to blunt the cavalry and hold us back. Olwyn had done work on the ramp, killing 2 Hillmen, and about to take out 2 more. A Rohan Captain had joined Hera but was getting bogged down by numbers.
The dice continued to work in our favour. Even if it was just a lot of 4's rolled that always seemed to be just enough to win a duel or take priority. It was almost comical. We went from believing the game was a foregone conclusion before we tarted to utterly dominating.
By about 10:30 Liam and Ben were ready for going home.
Their dice were just so poor. They'd gone from swapping them at ever opportunity to even considering using our Rohan dice! 🤣 This was the Hillman chief's morale check as they were broken, and he fled the board! Ben had even shot into combat, wounded General Targ and killed an archer on the ramp! But then Olwyn fell and the ramp was clear, except for the NPC crone.
But we played on and with the Hillmen heading for the end of the ramp we used our own bows to stop all but one of them, but that was enough, they needed 3 to exit. But elsewhere there was some success and Hera, Frealaf and the Rohan Captain all fell with just Wulf and Targ the only heroes left.
My dice continued to swing wildly - a mix of success and failure.
We tried to get to Wulf and hold the village quadrant.
Targ was still a threat but his sole wound was his downfall. Having been hit by friendly fire he succumbed and we surrounded Wulf bu were beaten back.
More units abandoned the field.
and we reformed the line to take down Wulf and the last Hillman archer.
We surrounded them
Absolute scenes as Wulf rolls his 3D6 duel dice!
Taking the field completely with a final score of 6:4 to Rohan
This was the dead pile.
And those who's luck just wouldn't rise to the occasion.
A really good game but so much was dictated by dice rolls that they just couldn't reconcile in the end. If they'd got the Hillmen off the ramp that would have been 5:5, but that failed morale check by the chief and getting shot on the ramp lost them the game.
