Finished: Weather Shaman

 

The choice for today's model is actually a combination of a few factors: I wanted to clean some projects from my "I really want to paint this soonish" tray; I really like this miniature; I got really bored of using a Dustback Helamite to proxy for my Stormcaller and I believe this model will be a really good fit for that profile!

The Model

This beautiful sculpt is another one of Print Minis Erroish Tribe line. It printed without issues, even though my resin was not dialled in! It comprises of three parts: the mount, the saddle and the shaman herself. I highly recommend painting either everything separately or at least the mount and the saddle, with parts of the shaman as well, to make it easier to reach some of the elements.

The Scheme

I decided to basically mix the scheme for my Dustback Helamites and the Desert Sprinter. The only new colours here are Volupus Pink (Citadel) for the snout and interior of the mouth of the mount and Flesh Tearers Red (Citadel) for the hair of the shaman. The shaman herself was painted in the scheme chosen for my Ash Waste Nomads, with the addition of Guilliman Flesh (Citadel) for the skin.

Summary

I really, really love this model. It was a joy to paint, it printed without issue and I will proudly put the Weather Shaman on the table in the days to come!

Musings: Painting Goals

There are many different ways in which people can try to help themselves either start painting at all or paint more than previously. Last time I wrote about the 1 mini/day system that I devised for myself and that helps me immensely in hobbying (my hobby streak is on day 149) - today I decided to write a bit about a method that gave me mixed results and I had to rethink my approach to suit me better.

What is a painting goal? In short it's a set of miniatures that we "pledge" to paint before buying a certain another set. The idea behind this is that from what I'va seen many miniature hobbyists tend to amass hoards of plastic/resin/metal. Especially if there are absolutely no restrictions imposed on spending. Thus, setting a goal of painting specific miniatures before buying specific miniatures can curb those spending habits. It is also important to make the "I'll paint this" part of the "deal" larger than the "I can buy this" part. This way, even though we ultimately paint to get more stuff in our collection, we are "net ahead", as after painting our pledge and buying the new stuff our pile of unpainted miniatures is still smaller than it was before setting the goal.

It seems really easy, doesn't it? The core of it is as simple as it gets, but it's the minute details that gave me mixed results. First of all, it doesn't take fomo boxes into account. Unfortunately Games Workshop caught me in some of their games - I own all the seasonal boxes for Kill Team and I have also bought many of starter boxes and two of those Army Sets (Krieg and the goblins on wolves one). This is a thing that I decided to not put into painting goals as I'm sure I wouldn't be able to accomplish any of those. Also, if I "need" something for a game (as was the case with the Sha'Dar Hunters for my Nomads) I will just get it. If you look through my monthly summary for the year you'll see that I obtained only fomo boxes, gifts (it basically took three months for all the stuff I ordered for Christmas to arrive) and that solitary Sha'Dar box. So I think it is important to not get into a mindset that every new purchase must be backed by a painting goal. I think that it should compliment what we actually want to paint and if the pull of the new purchase is too strong, just get that new shiny box.

I tried to set goals for everything and it ended up as a disaster. The only goal I actually acomplished was the one set in 2023 - I promised myself that I will get the night goblin Underworlds box after painting 40 goblins. It shows what I mean by the fact that we should be "net ahead" - I painted 40 models to buy I think 6. 

This is why I basically erased most of my list of goals, leaving only a few. I will make a page that lists the goals and their progress starting from now (so the goblin one won't be listed). The page will be divided into two parts: the current goals along with how far along I currently am and the list of accomplished goals (I will probably just leave the goal and reward, without the list of models).

It is also important to note, that accomplishing a goal is an enabler, not an imperative to buy. If your hobby funds are low, just wait till you can afford your unlock!

BTW, One of the goals was reset this year and another one is old and encompasses all the MESGB minis painted since 2023! 

Finished: Mordor Orc Banner

The last miniature from the ones I painted alongside the first dozen Mordor Orcs gets to be published today. It is another very old sculpt that was waiting for paint for almost 20 years and now can proudly display the banner of Mordor for all to see. I am not artistically talented so the freehand looks like a doodle made by a toddler, but I think it's appropriate for orcs!

The Miniature:

Another very old metal model. Removing all the flash and mold lines was not as awful as it usually is. The details are good and much of the orc is covered in metal, which makes painting it my way quite easy. I really like how this model turned out and honestly I believe that this sculpt is much better than the current one available in the Mordor Orc Commanders pack. 

The Scheme:

1. Slapchop underpainting
2. Militarum Green (Citadel) for the skin
3. Ruddy Fur (Army Painter) for the cloth
4. Desolate Brown (Army Painter) for the cloth element wrapped around his neck
5. Wyldwood (Citadel) for the wood
6. Skeleton Horde (Citadel) for the cloth wraps
7. Black Templar (Citadel) for boots, belts and the flag cloth
8. Fiery Vermilion (Army Painter) for the freehan
9. Heavy Metal (Army Painter) for the metals
10. Voodoo Shade (Army Painter) for the metals
11. Base: Dark Earth + Agrax Earthshade (Citadel) + drybrush Gorthor Brown (Citadel) + Gamers Grass 2mm moss

Finshed: Shagrat

 

Today we are graced by the presence of the commander of Cirith Ungol himself. Another model from my still vast backlog of MESBG models and the slowly dwindling backlog of Mordor miniatures.

The Miniature

As, I believe, all the hero models from 20 years ago, it is a metal sculpt. Not overly detailed, but still full of character and evoking memories of his appearance in the movie.

The Scheme

1. Slapchop underpainting
2. Noble Skin (Army Painter) for the skin
3. Skeleton Horde (Citadel) for the hair
4. Occultist Cloak (Army Painter) for most of the clothes
5. Gore-grunta Fur (Citadel) for the "tabard" on his chest
6. Black Templar (Citadel) for the belts, straps, boots and gloves
7. Heavy Metal (Army Painter) for the armour and metallic bits on the orc
8. Leadbelcher (Citadel) for Frodo's chainmail that he's holding
9. Voodoo Shade (Army Painter) on his own armour
10. Blue Tone (Army Painter) for the mithril chainmail
11. Stormhost Silver (Citadel) drybrush for the mithril chainmail
12. Base: Dark Earth + Agrax Earthsade + Gorthor Brown drybrush + 2 mm moss from Gamer Grass

Summary

This model was easy and fun to paint. Having both Gorbag and Shagrat enables me to field Cirith Ungol in MESBG. It would be nice to get Shelob at some point and some Mordor Uruk-hai, either from GW or some proxies (for some test games of the list I will probably proxy them with regular Isengard Uruk-hai).

Finished: First dozen of Mordor Orcs

 I had a sprue-worth of Mordor Orcs taken off sprue, but never assembled. As I needed a new project for my "at least 1 miniature/day" system I decided that the time to tackle those models has come. I also had a "theme" in mind. Instead of my usual, quite strict scheme for models I wanted to achieve a "rabble" effect, with the models having clothes and skin of different colours, but still look cogerent as a group and I believe I managed to achieve this with this lot.

Miniatures

The miniatures are monopose Mordor Orcs. The sculpts are really, really old, with all that entails for the MESBG range - sometimes what a certain detail is or when it starts and ends depends on painter's judgement. But in all honesty, I had a blast painting those miniatures as I really do like the sculpts. They are fairly dynamic and most of them are open, so reaching everywhere is quite easy

Scheme

1. Like I said, I wanted to achieve a certain feel for the lads, so there is quite a number of paints involved!
2. Slapchop underpainting
3. Military Green (Citadel), Snakebite Leather (Citadel), Noble Skin (Army Painter) for the skin
4. Ratling Grime (Citadel)/Skeleton Horde (Citadel) for the hair
5. Black Templar (Citadel) for any straps and most of the leather
6. Garaghak Sewer (Citadel) for the quivers and leather gloves of the archers
7. Wyldwood (Citadel) for the wood
8. Agarros Dunes (Citadel)/ Desolate Brown (Army Painter)/ Burnt Moss (Army Painter)/ Ruddy Fur (Army Painter)/ Gore-grunta Fur (Citadel) for the clothes
9. Basilicanum Grey (Citadel) for the furs
10. Heavy Metal (Army Painter) for the armour, weapons and other metal elements
11. Voodoo Shade for all the metal elements
12. Base: Dark Earth + Agrax Earthshade + Drybrush Gorthor Brown + Gamers Grass 2mm moss

Summary

Despite their age, Mordor Orcs are still fun to paint and I really like the achieved effect and how they look as a group. Cant wait to see how they perform on the battlefield!

Finished: Gorbag

 

Gorbag is one of the commanders at Cirith Ungol, one of Shagrat's underlings. He's the first hero for Mordor I painted in 20 years (as years ago I painted one of the Nazgul, but as with most of my MESBG miniatures, I intend to repaint that model). The only "problem" with painting him is that currently I couldn't use this model in a game. He's available only for the Cirith Ungol list alongside Shagrat and the only regular warriors that Shagrat can have in his warband are Mordor Uruk-hai and I have none. So, unless in this new edition it's legal to have a general without a warband, Gorbag will have to wait on a shelf for the reinforcement to arrive.

The Miniature

It is a very old metal sculpt with all it's drawbacks. The details are ok, but for some reason undercoating this model hadn't been as easy as it was for the plastic orcs. I had to work on the model with black paint and then it chipped a bit during painting, so I had to go back with it.

The pose is fairly open, which helps with slapchop. The only area that was actually difficult to reach was the armpit on one of the arms.

The Scheme

I tried to recreate the box art with what I had and I ended up with:

1. Slapchop underpainting
2. Militarum Green (Citadel) for the skin
3. Ratling Grime (Citadel) for the skin
4. Basilicanum Grey (Citadel) for the fur pants
5. Black Templar (Citadel) for the boots
6. Gore-Grunta Fur (Citadel) for the leather armour
7. Garaghak Sewer (Citadel) for all the straps and belts
8. Ushabti Bone (Citadel) for the teets
9. Heavy Metal (Army Painter) for the metal element
10. Voodoo Shade (Army Painter) for the metal elements
11. Base: Dark Earth, Agrax Earthshade, Gorthor Brown drybrush, Gamer's Grass 2mm Moss

Summary

Even though I generally don't like painting metal models, painting Mordor Orcs is fun in general. I do hope that I'll be able to field that model at one point, either in MESBG or some other fantasy game that accepts models of this scale!

Finished: Sand Sprinter and Erroish Beast Trainer

 

Another small project finished. I had those two models printed since either October or November last year, but recently I just felt the urge to finally slap some paint on them. The sculpts were created by the talented artists at Print Minis. They create a very wide range of miniatures suitable to use in gothic, sci-fi settings and games such as Space Weirdos, Grimdark Future: Firefight (especially as the Gangs of Eden), Xenos Rampant or, if you want a game from the currently biggest publisher: Necromunda.

The Miniatures

Those two minis come from the Sand Sprinters and Erroish Beast Trainer set. These particular Sprinter is a male, but there is also a female version of the bug available, as well as a version of the trainer kneeling near his companion and gently patting it, suitable for a diorama or an NPC element in a game.

The scuplts printed without issues and the support removal was a breeze. I was a little bit afraid of snapping the fiddly bits on the Sprinter, but all the claws survived  the process, even without using warm water.

The Sprinter's sculpt is quite simple in its design and it yields to speedpaint really well, it was a real joy to paint this particular miniature! The Trainer has a fair number of details, but it is well within the limits of what is fun to paint and it is definitely not overwhelming.

The Scheme

I decided to paint those minis as part of my Ash Waste Nomads tribe. This means that for the Trainer I used the exact same scheme as for the Nomads. The Sprinter is just three paints over a slapchop gradient: Plasmatic Bolt for the carapace, Bony Matter for the legs and soft underbelly and Ratling Grime for mandibles and claws.

Summary

This is a great set and I wholeheartedly recommend buying and printing it to anyone that wants to add to their collection of sci-fi post apocalyptic wastelands denizens!