Warhammer Underworlds Shadespire Steelhearts Champions - almost there

With the preliminary basing of one Knight out of the way I felt sated enough I could try and move these closer to completion. I did all the obsidian weaponry and highlighted the leather on hilts and kilts.

I also did the obligatory glowing eyes with some dubious results. Then I added some battle-damage to the armour which I was even less pleased about. It doesn't look quite as bad in this picture but I thought it was too harsh and spoiled the prisitine look.

But these guys will have been in Shadespire for eons, brand new armour isn't an option so with one damaged and two undamaged I had a choice - fix the damaged one or push on through with the other two...

And I went for damage, this time with Skavenblight Dinge and used a sponge for more randomness. I think it was the right decision, although the execution was better this time it was still not quite right. however, better to try and fail [slightly] than to take the easy route.

I also added the [other] obligatory verdigris on the armour, some extra highlights and a little white stripe on his cloak.

Now to varnish and they're done!

Imperial Knights - House Corvus Twins in manufactorum pt2. 'the running man'

Got chance to go pick up my Knight legs from Liam, this is what he did for me.

I wanted it in motion, I had quite the mental block that was preventing me from attempting both knight's poses at once and we'd discussed how much he enjoyed the modelling side so I bullied him into doing it for me.

But I'm going to be putting it on a different base so it'll be moving a little bit more 'at pace'.

I think that tread pattern is ribbon cable actually. It's pretty cool anyways.

And the resculpted toe joints.

Here's the base, starting with a section from a Star Wars Ice Planet of Hoth toy that was going in the bin. I screwed it in place.

And tried three different placements. Starting in the bottom left black hole, then the middle left and finally I had to have it standing on the hatch.

Every other position had been unbalanced or almost horizontal! Now I have quite a linear approach to some of these projects. As much as the hobby butterfly flits me from one project to another when I get the urge I must act on it.

Filling out this base filled my thoughts not just over the weekend but I'd been visualising it ever since I passed the parts to Liam. With the bits back the Shadespire painting went backseat. I ripped up some MDF and hot glued it in place to bulk out the base.

I then covered it in tile adhesive/grout [although some of the previous MDF shot look better]. Regardless it adds weight to the base making the cantilever effect much more stable.

I added some crappily placed stones and slate, hopefully the subsequent PVA and sand will help it look better...

And again, in situ. There's a big screw in his front right toe that will be hot glued into the hole I made [and drilled through into my finger - Blood for the Blood G.O.D.!]. Another pin is in the corner of the right foot left toe and it'll just stand on the hatch for a third point of contact,

It's still leaning forward a little too much perhaps. I'll see when I come to glue it on if a slice of slate under the toe might just angle him upwards a few degrees more.

I foresee this being a Gallant perhaps, with the fist and sword running into combat

It should naturally be leaning back a bit more than this once it;s glued in place, but that shim under the tow might make it look more sensible.

And then I have to deal with it's twin.

So with that burst of single-minded effort I'm all tuckered out thinking I have to do it again, but stepping onto this old Ben10 toy...

Imperial Knights - House Corvus Twins in Manufactorum
Parts: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 |

Warhammer Underworlds Shadespire Steelhearts Champions - highlights

I'm starting to lay down highlights now on the grey. On the one hand that's really enjoyable, wet blending is quite rewarding in a way, although I'm probably not being as careful with the blends as I ought. To cap it all I was using a white craft acrylic that was thinning particularly well with water, which made the blending much more difficult.

On the other hand the effort/time spent doing it is beginning to move these from my 'muse' to something that I'm bored of, this is in part because I'm getting flashback to space marine armour. Particularly the thighs end up unrewarding... I might also mention I washed the purple to add some shading, except I mustn't have cleaned the brush thoroughly after the last thing I used it on - Warplock Bronze. So now the cloak is a little contaminated with bronze particles throughout...

I also shaded/highlighted the parchment scrolls. All the black needs to be done too - weapons and leather followed by the brown leather on the kilt and weapon handles, should I have gone with a different colour to reduce the palette?

Need to get these done!

Warhammer Underworlds Shadespire Steelhearts Champions - base/coating

I continue to avoid painting my Dark Shroud and instead invest more time in Steelhearts Champions
following this basing tutorial from RobPaintsModels I stippled on the greens and yellow for the moss, again a little brighter than Rob's but c'est la vie.

Rhinox Hide got added for the dirt and then a Stonewall Grey final drybrush just bleached a lot of vibrancy from it. In particular the purple and green washes seemed to have disappeared.

So I added some more purple, taking particular care to shade around the feet and underneath, not a shadow as such but that will help frame the models on the base.

Leave, vines, shading and highlighting the soil and the purple areas. I also painted the armour Stonewall Grey - completely covering up all that lovely zenithal pre-shading.

What I didn't realise was that thinning you paints meant tiny paint spatter flecks all over the bases! Bearing in mind I have spots all over my Red Planet BASES! you'd think I'd be down with tha but NO! I did a quick purple was over the top of it. They're not completely covered, you can still see some texture and it's even more purple but it's the best of a bad job.

The purple elements are really bright and glossy because the paint is really cheap from a stationers. I'm confident washes and varnish will knock it back though.

I keep referring to Rob's guide to painting the Champions but I'm also making my own changes. Metallics follow my own recipe - it's my signature now even if his way was easier, quicker and an opportunity to try something different...

I had painted the helmet bronze too, but switched back to white as he was too gilded. Waepons are black, they'll be Obsidian blades as I like the idea it looks like they're carved out of the Flyreslayers! 😀 

Some more highlights on the gold, then shade it back and highlight again. Pin shading has been done on the armour, so a tidy up with Stonewall Grey and then white.

Purples should be a lot fun too but that's something new, it already looks like it's tying the model into the base. It's almost like I planned it all this way!

Deathwatch OVERKILL-ED!?

Much has been mentioned recently over the removal of Horus Heresy - Betrayal at Calth and Burning of Prospero. These were games in their own right but in all honesty folk were getting them for the models. Obviously they were ideal for Heresy era fans, those wishing to play Horus Heresy could fill out an army cheaply without resorting to older Mk armour from Forgeworld. Or, you might just want to play 40k with some cool retro looking Astartes, not to mention the original way to access Custodes.

That said, with the advent of Primaris Marines the need for these models in their own boxed games was probably quite expensive in production when you'd already started offer smaller tactical squad boxes of the same figures. Folk could still buy the earlier Marks albeit at not quite as good value and there was now no need to add in all the game components. It was a commercially sensible decision, the games aren't 'organised play' like Killt Team or Shadespire so no reason to keep them around.

Which brings us to Deathwatch Overkill, which seems to have also been axed, and yet I'm not sur eanyone noticed. I'll admit my journalistic investigation has not stretched to asking GW directly if it's gone but it is no longer on their website, no longer on 3rd party retailers and one GW store manager described his sole remaing copy as 'contraband' and supposed to be returned to HQ.

Now in principle the same valid commercial reasons for axing the Heresy games ring true here, the main difference being that we have multi-pose, Acolytes, Neophytes and now even Aberrants. What is sad is that the universal advice to those wishing to start Genestealer Cults - buy 2 boxes of Deathwatch Overkill is no longer appropriate. Definitely the most cost-effective way to fill out your army [not to mention Kill-Team Cassius, but that again has been carved off].

It's also sad about the game. I can't comment on the Heresy game but I like Deathwatch Overkill, I played it last night and I still really like it. Although I haven't played Shadespire yet I have a sneekinn suspicion the 'deck building' nature might be very similar to the Broodmind Deck mechanic in Overkill.

I'm not saying this is a mistake by GW or we should demand it's return, it may well come back in the future, like Space Hulk [also no longer available, again]. What I am saying is this was the best of the three games that came out before these boxed games got their act together. It's arguably the most valuable [we'll ignore renegades ;) ] and it therfore deserves far more of a lament than the Heresy games.

Farewell Ghosar Quintus!

Warhammer Underworlds Shadespire Steelhearts Champions - basing

This is quite an insightful little post about me I think. Recent posts [in particular the last one!] showed how I sensibly thought to use the delay in starting my Knights to crack on with the Dark Shroud but it's failing to ignite my passion to push on and get it done. I'm doing little bits, perhaps I might reach a tipping point? I also pointed out how the Primaris Marines are a bit 'big' for me and I'm on record as not a huge fan of painting power armour. Yet I find myself suddenly enthused at painting Steelhearts Champions from Shadespire!?

I'd managed to snag a copy of the game for just £27 on ebay, all models built [so no Big Build required 😃, but then no stamp either ☹️]. I'd been looking around on YouTube and found this basing tutorial from RobPaintsModels which is pretty cool and I thought I might get something more akin to what I'd hoped to achieve with the Fyreslayers [although I do still like what I did do]. So started with a black primer, then a grey prime on the base and a zenithal white spray on the models. Then I did a Valejo Stonewall Grey coat on the stones, adding some Citadel Skavenblight Dinge for darker more textured effect. This was then drybrushed white for definition [as per the tutorial]. I don;t normally drybrush, a bit of wetbrush perhaps but this was powder puff drybrushing which actually works on 'stone'.

Army Painter Strong Tone wash next.

Next up is a mix of purple and green shades. I actually don't have a green shade, just a green glaze so in for a penny. And I've since discovered Drakenhof Nightshade is blue, NOT purple!

I'm thinking this is beginning to deviate a bit from Rob's tutorial now, doesn't seem to be as dark [that'll be because it's supposed to be blue and a green shade, not a glaze!] but I am pleased with the results so far and can't wait to crack on with the rest of it.

I think the key thing here is I have a plan, even if it's not following it perfectly I know what I'm doing next and decisions are being left to someone else [mostly]. To that end I'll be following Rob's tutorial on how to paint them, hence the white, although I'll probably be painting over it all anyway.