Vanguard/KoW: Modelling for both systems- A Beardragon14 debacle

As I said in the last “moderately entertaining episode” I put aside the 5 bodies from the hard plastic sprue to make spectres.

THE MODELS : The Scarecrow/Spectre hard plastic sprue is a beaut, while both units use the same plastic bodies there are enough options to make very different units. I did not use the “scarecrow heads” (big hats, pumpkins and the like) and only used the head options from the “spectre part” of the sprue. I also refused to use any arms carrying sickles and scythes, but still had enough parts to make individual and interesting options.

Note: there is no reason why I couldn’t use these alternate parts , I just wanted to see if it was possible to stay on theme . The answer is a resounding “yes”

PAINTING: The purple on the “tendrils of vapour” was done with washes as described on the scarecrows. I mainly used this colour to break the models up from being mono-chrome… the purple is also a unifying colour for the army so ties this unit to the rest of the models.

To do the turquoise spirit bodies, I had a go at making my own wash. I am not sure that this is the best method but it worked for me… although I was anxious at times.

The Mix: 1 part stegadon scale green to 2 parts lahmian medium initially to “evenly spread” the colour  and dilute it slightly was step one . Once I fully blended this I added 2 parts water to reduce the viscosity of the mix so that it “ran a bit” (ie it  became more wash like). I then applied two coats of the wash over a white undercoat.

IN GAME: Like the Scarecrows 5 models is not I viable unit for KoW so I shall instead focus on Vanguard. (I think this project will now focus on Vanguard and I may do a KoW one at a later date.)

The Spectre is not in the main rule book nor is it in the Ice and Iron Supplement (** cough ** bit of an oversight there lads) but it does have it’s own card in the starter (and kickstarter) thankfully.  It is a WARRIOR Unit  which means that counts for the 5 model minimum GRUNT/WARRIOR units you must take to make a legal army.

They are worth 14 points each (so I have 70 points here) with ranged (Firebolt 2D8) and Melee (1D8) attacks. Like the Scarecrow they have the STEALTHY rule which improves their defence against ranged attacks by 1.

All of this means that Unlike the Scarecrows I wouldn’t be pushing these blokes forward instead have them hanging back to provide ranged support for melee units.

In my boundless enthusiasm, I purchased a Vanguard Nightstalker Starter box to match the one I bought for the Basileans …. (curse you enthusiasm) . This gave me enough hard plastic sprues to make 15 Scarecrows or Spectres. I went with 10 Scarecrows which the Big Green book of Awesome (KoW 3rd edition rulebook) tells me is not enough for a viable unit ……. Okay then just Vanguard then.

THE MODELS: As mentioned they come on a hard plastic sprue with lots of different options. I only used the “scarecrow ” heads, and there was sufficient variety in the bodies. heads and arm option not to have 2 builds the same. They went together well. Mantic has now well and truly mastered making hard plastic sprues.

(Incidentally at Mantic’s Virtual Open Day yesterday, Ronnie announced that KoW had passed a critical threshold, so as they no longer have to use Kickstarter to make hard plastic sprues for it. Indeed the recent abyssal dwarfs and upcoming goblin and ratkin hard plastic spues show they are committed to that path. Good on them.)

PAINTING: So this was my crash, self taught course in painting Purples and turquoises. I decided to go wash heavy . It wasn’t something I was familar with. After a major disaster on the second mini, I quickly learned the virtue of thinning my wash. I use lahmian medium and it works well but any other medium or water (as long as it is more wash than water funny thing happen there too … voice of experience again) LET EACH COAT FULLY DRY … before applying the next coat. It gives you a better idea of what the final colour is like. Apply more coats in the recesses. I then later applied a highlight of normal paint to raised areas to make it pop a bit.

IN GAME: The Scarecrow is a GRUNT unit, So there is no restrictions on the number you can take. At 8 points each my 10 only set me back 80 points if I take them all leaving plenty of space for additional troops. They are melee only unit with the Stealthy and Mob Assault Special Rules

Stealthy is -1 modifier to all ranged (and magical) attacks against the model which is handy as you want a block of them getting through to the target to use ……

Mob Assault. Basically once 2 or more models assault the same target, they get Crushing Strength (n) against that target. So if 4 Scarecrows are wailing in on a target they get Crushing Strength (4) which means each to hit roll goes from a 6+ to a 2+ … In fact just getting a pair in reduces the 6+ to a 4+ much besterer.

Morale of the story don’t let these boys fight alone, send mobs.

Basileans were down in 4 months and I was cock-a-hoop. I was actually going to paint a complete kickstarter for once.

TIP #1 Don’t ever think that thought out loud. Nature, the Universe and the hobby are all perverse mistresses. (which normally is good thing …. Oh shut up you idiot this is a “family friendly” project …. sheesh …. sorry)

Now that I had the Basileans out of the way. (they were something I wanted to do for a while) I had to choose another faction. I had to choose between the Northern Alliance, the Forces of the Abyss and Nightstalkers.  I thought I really want to do Northern Alliance and the Forces of the Abyss look cool, I probably want to Nightstalkers the least. I know I’ll do the one I want to do the least next, so I get it out of the way. I was an idiot ……..

TIP # 2 Always do what you love.

I have never had much experience with painting purple and turquoise …. These are the colours I decided to use on my Nightstalkers. It’ll be a learning experience, I said. I ploughed on regardless. Over 2 and a half months (I paint lots of different stuff concurrently, it is normally how I stay focused) I painted 4 units, 10 Scarecrows, 5 Spectres, 5 Phantoms and 5 Reapers.  I paused while assembling the shadow hounds, looked at my assembled Nightstalkers and thought “These look like $#!t”. A series of hobby disasters happened over a fortnight and I stopped. I stopped painting for the better part of 5 months . Played a few games but no hobby.

What brought me back to painting is a bit of a saga, and I won’t go into it. What brought me back to this project were three things . One was Gerry’s Mantic Unboxing videos, another was Ronnie and Rob’s (from Mantic) Preview Videos at the start of the UK lockdown which got warm and gooey for more Mantic hobby and lastly was I took the minis out after not looking at them for 3 quarters of a year and said “what the hell I can save these”

TIP #3 If you walk away from a hobby project always make time to occassionally walk back to it.

I am currently revisiting the units, I have finished the Scarecrows they aren’t great but they aren’t awful anymore either and they’ll be on tomorrow after I take photos.

Thanks for continuing to follow.

B.

THE MODELS: are awesome .  The Abbess is mono pose , The Palace Ogre comes with two heads (No .. It”s not an ettin… Two head options) a sargeant stlye helm and an ordinary one, and two weapon options, halbred in two hands vs halbred in one hand; and thus has 4 different build options.

HINT: When building the abbess don’t glue feet to base as a first step. The left arm has a massive overhang and when packing in a case it is a frail part that sticks out and can easily get caught if not over the base. Build it than place it on the base looking top down so everything is protected by base.

… Take 2 .. sigh .. yes this is a second attemp! Last week I tried to update the project with a magnificent entry full of sage advice, humour. pathos…. and … and the site swallowed it …. I must admit gentle reader I swore…. mostly because I am an awful typist…. anyway … I couldn’t face doing it again so here we are 10 days later …. The Dictator update.

THE MODEL/TIPS : This is the first Mantic resin model that I have painted since their inital releases around 18 months ago. They have improved their game a lot!!! Solid resin casts with deep detail the Dictator goes together beautifully.

Resin Tip # 1 If you haven’t worked with it before always wash resin before applying an undercoat to get rid of the releasing agent. I t makes a hell of a difference.

Resin Tip # 2  My hammer haft was bent (sounds painful … 🙂   ) Resin will also straighten like PVC plastic if you put it in hot water but Don’t mke the water too hot, some years ago a younger Beardragon14 was playing around with a new fangled resin model and straightened it it piping hot 100 degree C water and lost most of his detail. To this day I have the kettle only heat up to 70 degrees when I am straightening resin.

Resin Tip # 3 Unlike PVC Resin appears to have no elastic memory and won’t spring back to it’s original shape. Have a straight edge handy … I use a metal ruler

VANGUARD/KoW

In Vanguard the model costs 41 points and is a COMMAND model (you need 3 GRUNT or WARRIOR Choices per Dictator) He uses both the Red and the white special dice and has “Inspiring” and “Crushing Strength (1)” He also has the spell/special ability “Smite (2)” which makes him quite a melee threat.

In KoW he is a useful command model, if you aren’t going the cavalry / hero on Monster route. He is a bargin at 90 points retaining his “Inspiring” and “Crushing Strength (1)”  and replacing his smite with “Iron Reslove” … (he has the option for a steed as well for an additional 30 points ….. but I am really not a modder

Well this update came around faster than expected …  read on my masochistic supporters and find out why ……….. (cue mysterious music)

BUILDING THE KIT:  The Basilean sisterhood models come with the same number of parts as the Sisterhood scouts but fewer variations are possible. You get 2 heads (cowled and uncowled) an arm holding a two handed sword, and it’s coresponding support arm (it’s the big sleeve arm) and an arm holding a two handed flail/mace  and it’s corresponding arm (it’s the little sleeve one) . I did lots of dry fits, working out the corresponding arms (rather than blundering on in like usual) and it really is the only way to get a nice fit.  …….. and it is a nice fit too.  These models are the easiest builds I have ever had for two arms holding a weapon  (something I usually find slightly bothersome). They went together like a dream but you only get 4  combinations. They were so easy to build and paint that I got 5  done in  a week (I paint them individually , I can’t batch paint it sucks all the joy from my life … I am more productive since I dispensed with batch painting)

After perusing the rules of both systems there doesn’t seem to be any difference between the way the treat a sword and a flail in KoW. The original model had 2 handed flails, Vanguard has the “vanilla” sisters modelled with swords and the Veteran Sister modelled with a flail. KoW also had no real disticntion between Sisters and Veteran sisters.  So “bugger it ” I thought, I am modelled my rank and file sisters with swords/cowls and the Veteran Sister (as per Vanguard) with a flail/uncowled. To get variation in my 4 “normal ” sisters, I changed the height of the front foot, with some leaping quite high (leaning back) others rushing forward with both feet in contact, and the rest in between.

The heads between the Sisterhood and the Sisterhood Scouts aren’t really interchangable easily. the lugs and holes that the heads slide into are different for each as, without modification the Sisterhood Scouts heads are too wide to fit comfortably on the normal sisterhood.

THE RULES:  In KoW these 5 models make up half a troop and until I can get more they will be used to stand in for one troop (I usually use 7  minis in 10 troop multibases).  In Vanguard the Sisters are WARRIORS which are core (I have 4) . The Veteran Sister is SUPPORT, which means I have to field 3 core WARRIORS for each SUPPORT unit I use. I think that I would give her a run with her sisters as she adds a little extra punch (she uses the “hits more often” Red die rather than the White ones)

Well now the onslaught of the start of the year is over I can “get to” an do some serious painting.

THE KIT: Next entry is a new model/ unit for Basilea, the Sisterhood Scout(s); Warrior Nuns with bows as it were. This model comes with a nice variety of options 2 different head options (cowled and uncowled), 2 different bow arms ( vertical bow and horizontal (ish) bow) and two different right arms (with arrow and with arrow just loosed) giving a total of 8 different builds!!  I decided that the Veteran Sister would let her hair down and the others would be cowled.

More importantly for those who remember previous Basilean Sisters models, the hands on the model are not large enough to crush a rockmelon in one palm, the arms do not look like they should be on something with orange fur in the treetops or Borneo and faces look feminine not equine.

PAINTING TIPS:  As always my tips are rudimentry as I am only an average painter but if you can use it , then fine. The sisters having pale blue cloaks meant that I needed to shade it to get the effect of the folds. I didn’t want to build the colour up from a dark base so it had to be shaded but previous experience had shown  Army Painter’s blue tone and Citadel’s Drakenhoff Nightshade they were both too dark over mid and pale blues. I stumbeled across a hint to mix Lahmian Medium with Citadel washes to lighten them down without getting as runny as you get when you dilute with water. I tried it and it worked a treat and I highlighted with a sky blue. Liked it so much I went back and did the Paladin’s capes.

DEPLOYMENT: In Vanguard the Sisterhood Scouts are WARRIORs so are a core choice so I can take as many of them as I want. The 5 models I have will proxy for a 10 sister troop (on appropriate base) until I can procure another 2, honest Mr Renton I will .( I am not buying another starter pack just yet .. what would I  do with the extra panthers??)

SITUATION :- So my Kickstarter pledge and Basilean starter box has left me with 5 of these beauties.  The only problem being they are monopose and unlike the rest of the minis in the starter there are no variable bits.

I could have done variable fur colours or markings but I wasn’t convinced I could pull it off and not look tacky. Besides Gur Panthers are tan …. (no shove that “it’s your hobby”  philosopy where the sun don’t shine, Little boy beardragon14 gazed in awe at older, wiser, better men war gaming and pouring over books to see if they the 89th Old Farnarkullians had copper or gold belt buckles ….. I am not innovating on the colour of Gur Pathers!!!  Several decades later I still seek these men’s imagined approval. I could no sooner do this than paint a tiger tank pink!) .  So this was my solution (such that it was)

MODELLING AND PAINTING:  The Pathers have 25 x 50 mm Cavalry bases.  From nose to tail tip the mini is about 50 mm but around 20 mm of that is tail. This means that you can have the mini slightly off centre  by about 5mm without it looking obviously lopsided.

I modelled the ‘leader’ Panther with his nose/tail tip aligning with the front/back.  The next two I did about 2mm back,  then the other two a little further back than that. I did this to break up the profile silhouette  of rhe 5 ranked up together, hopefully tricking the eye the all 5 were identical.

While I wanted all the panthers to have the same base and high light colour I did want some variation in the fur. To do this I used two different washes ( 3 were sepia and 2 were fleshshade) to give a slight change in tint. Again it breaks them up when ranked up together …. but it is not really noticeable why.

USE: In COK’19 (That’s what we cool kids call Clash of Kings 2019 … we’re sooooooo edgey) there are rules for a KoW Basilean cavalry troop of 5 Gur Panthers. That’s what I now have painted!!  HUZZAH !!

In the Vangaurd rules a Gur Panther is a SUPPORT model.  This means I can only take one Panther for every 3 GRUNT or WARRIOR models I pick.  This means that except in very large games I will be unlikely to deploy all 5 pathers at once …. I’ll play around with list building later in the project . Ahh well.

SITUATION: So I have 5 Basilean paladins to assemble. The options in the box include two different head options and assembling with a 2 handed sword (A Paladin Defender) or a one handed sword and Mace ( a Paladin Chaplain).

In Vanguard a Paladin Defender is a WARRIOR so can count as a core choice, a Paladin Chaplain is a SPELLCASTER so I can only pick one Spellcaster per 3 core choices. Hmmm.

On top of this if I use the dodgey 50% is enough models for a base my 5 Paladins could give me enough for a single Paladin troop in Kings of War.

I therefore decide to make One Chaplain and 4 defenders, and use the Chaplain as the leader for a KoW troop of  Basilean Paladin Foot Guard.

MODELLING HINTS:  The chaplain goes together a treat however when assembling the defenders ensure you attach the arm with weapon on it first, with the sword’s blade close to horizontal.  I made the error of attaching the supporting arms first and has to adjust the sword arms to fit. It wasn’t a disaster but takes a little more fiddling around (and in one case use of green stuff) .  Again Mantic, for buffoons like myself a quick set of instructions would be grand.

Anyway here are my brave lads.

APOLOGY – No photos as Captain Doofus*, left his final 5 Man-at-Arms and two sargeants  at his place of work abode before bolting for his extended Christmas break. Sorry.

*Captain Doofus MAY be Beardragon14’s secret super hero identity , but of course I can’t tell. Super Powers include snatching failure from the jaws of success and total recall of any fact the split second after it was of any use. *SIGH*

BUILD HINTS CROSSBOW MEN.  The crossbowmen models are 100% better than the old metal plastic hybrids, however, if like me, you like  nice set of instructions, well, work out what pieces you are going to use before you start gluing as there are very definite pairs of arms which should be used together.

Mantic is you read this please put a set of assembly instructions on your website like Warcradle have done, as I am still not 100% certain on how I’d make 5 crossbowmen from the spue… I think I know, but with out clipping all the bits out and trialing it I am not certain.

Next update in an hour as I have completed my 5 paladins and started on the Gur Panthers. See I haven’t been wasting my holidays! Thanks for reading

SITUATION:- So I was taking stock and preparing to construct sargeants when I realised that I didn’t have 3 of the beggars , I had 5 !!! 3 in the kickstarter and 2 extras in the Basilean starter box. Although now excited at being able to start my own sargent’s mess in Basilea , I did need to rethink my plans.

RE-THUNK PLANS:- I decided  to do the kickstarter sargeants first (as refered to earlier I am a card carrying hobby butterfly, too much of the same thing drives me from hobby)

I needed one to lead my Man-at-arms regiment. He was to be kitted out with a spear to match his boys, a helmet (he’s going into battle ffs) and a standard (as every good regiment needs its colours).

The second Sargeant, will be his “Vanguard” equivalent, spear and helmet but with a shield instead… you don’t need a standard on elite secret missions, you know.

The final Sargeant will be in charge of my crossbow troop. As such he will have no helm (all the better to spot the enemy with), a sword (for self defense) and a standard (As crossbowmen need colours too). I have also clipped off a spare crossbow from the Man-at arms sprue and attached it to his rear belt. No point being a crossbowman sargeant if you don’t have a crossbow.

ENDORSEMENT:- Hello, my name is Beardragon14 and I hate PVC… there I got it off my chest. (So much so that I have lots of PVC models in there boxes unlooked at ,  I blame Wizards of the Coast’s D&D prepaints for this …. Lord they were $#!t minis) .

I am prepared to make a confession however, Mantic’s PVC is actually really good, It isn’t sickenly bendy, it holds lots of fine detail and I am deliriously happy with the models. So much so that I broke out the fences set I got from Mantic’s terrain crate kickstarter, and painted it up too as I went along. I really enjoyed both projects …. you could knock me over with a feather.

TUTORIAL BIT- The downside to PVC is that some of the bits may be a little bent out of shape. to fix this I just used the PVC tempering method and , it came back a treat.

Step 1: Stick the bit in hot water  for a couple of second pull it out and straighten if necessary. ( I say this as my two bent spears spang back to straight, through the plastic’s elastic memory and didn’t need straightening)

Step 2 While still soft plunge it into cold water, this hardens up the PVC nicely.

Yes it is a simple tip … but I am a simple man .

Progress:  So I have constructed the first spue of Men-at-arms and let me say this, they are a delight. If you owned the original plastics let me assuage any fears, these rank up and don’t look like break dancing fools.  Paint is currently being applied.

Tutorial:  Many people often ask me, gee Mr Beardragon14 , how do you paint shiney metal armour so quickly, given that you are basically a talentless hack??

Here are is the three step process that I came up with earlier in the year to paint Hallowed Knights Stormcast Eternals, and Warriors of Gondor quickly.

Step 1: Spray the models with a gunmetal base.

Step 2. Give a heavy drybrush with a silver paint

Step 3. Give a reasonable wash with Nuln Oil Gloss.

and metal is done … quick and easy , any idiot can do it … (and this idiot  is proof)

THE PLAN.  My  Vanguard Kickstarter Bundle came with 10 hard plastic Men-at-arms and 2 PVC Plastic Sergeants for said Men-at-arms giving me a grand total of 11 minis which can be used to form a regiment (I am not having two sergeants in one regiment….. It’s just not done).

Needless to say this is not enough so I ordered another Basilean Starter Box giving me another 5 Men-at-arms and another sergeant.

My main regiment will be armed with spears it will arranged  in a 3-4-3-4 arrangement and will require 13 Men-at-arms and one sergeant.

The two remainig Men-at-arms will be done as Crossbowmen for Vanguard games initially  but along with one sergeant will be the front rank of a future Crossbowmen troop (3-4)….Hopefully Kings of War Basilean Men-at-arms box gets released soon, so I can finish it.

The remaing sergeant will be done as a swordsman and will be sans troops initially …. maybe one day if  his do is derring……

THE PROBLEM:   So 10 Ironclads and 1 throwing mastiff done.  Now I have to build the base so I don’t have to have a full regiment painted and ….. sigh ….  get the Ironclads to rank up. Yes, I have yet again fallen foul, of getting two minis side by side without them  having a gap between the bases, this first happen to me in 2001 with the original Citadel Plastic Chaos warrior kit, and I am still making this mistake. This is the problem of building minis individually  for skirmish and not thinking about ranking them up later . I didn’t think that one through.

It also occurred to me that I shall have a hole in the base when the mastiff is removed ….

THE  SOLUTION:  I rank the dwarfs up in a pattern that works, but I don’t really want “this dward must go there” so a cut back the extra Ironclads I have to do from 3 to 2 to literally give me more wriggle room.

I construct the two minis, then get a mantic 20mm regiment movement tray, slot in the front rank, glue in an empty 20mm base in the void, I repeat this with the second rank , then the third and finally the fourth. I then quickly and carefully remove the minis in case any “glue creep” is seeking to make them a permenant addition to the regimental base.  The base is then painted and textured and the job’s a good ‘un.

I also paint up a loose filler base with an orc’s head on it to replace the mastiff when he has been deployed. That’s the Ironclads done …on to the Basilean Men-at-arms. *oh boy, oh boy, oh boy*

THE PROBLEM : So in early July, Ieun’s Ironclads have had a few skirmishes, are fully painted, and I look down at my hobby desk , still filled with other interesting projects (I am after all a Twice Illustrious Master of the Order of the Hobby Butterfly) and I see the unused portions of Dwarf Ironclad sprues. “Ah” , I think, ” That’s right I was going to have a go at making a regiment out of them.”

I also saw the Dwarf Throwing Mastiff on the sprue and have to come to a decision about how to use him. I don’t like having pets permantly attached to the regimental bases, so they can be removed once used. I also don’t like have them, flopping about loose as they are easy to lose.

THE SOLUTION: I make a single model , he slowly gets painted, repeat etc. They drop on and off my schedule and by the end of September I have the 2 remaining “vanilla” Ironclads painted.

I reach a decision on the Throwing Mastiff. Careful drooling over, er analysis of the upcoming Mantic Dwarf models shows a Dwarf hero called a “Master of the Hounds” I as yet have no idea what his KoW/V rules are going to be but just in case there are rules for a base of hounds later on, I put my Throwing Mastiff on his own 20mm base so I can drop him in and out of my regimental base and he can be a part of the Hound Master’s pack (if he has one).  It is Mid October, the little fella is assembled , painted and based in a little over an hour…. I was really worried about what to do with him.

Late last week, I got notice that my Vanguard Kickstarter was going to arrive on Tuesday, panic ensues. This is because part of The Order of the Hobby Butterfly Laws stipulate that while you can have multiple projects from multiple systems on the go at once you can’t have two projects from the same system on the go at once. (Obviously this is so one of the projects doesn’t feel neglected and thereby fail to perform when called upon in the heat of battle in the future. …… Yes, I am mad). I really want to get stuck into the Basilean Men-at-arms ( I have waited soooooooooooo long) I quickly assemble the Ironclad Musician and Standard Bearer and finish them Thursday just gone.

So it’s April I want a small 6 model Warband to mess around with the Beta test Rules.

THE PROBLEM: I don’t have any stock Mantic models infantry models painted up that aren’t in unit Multi-bases. ( Personal Neurosis: I like  to use the company’s models with the company’s rules.. If I like the game I try to support the company who makes it , exception RPGs … as you use what you can get your hands on. Third party manufacturers don’t get money off me , if you use them that is your perogative, I’m fine with it, it’s your hobby , I personally don’t).

I like multi-bases for KoW as I am getting old and couldn’t be @r$ed painting up full battalions any more.  I usually run at 66.6% rounded up. With Vanguard I need individual models but want a way to easily convert them into a multi-base (at about two thirds model count).  I need 5 troops and one leader/sergeant to start

THE SOLUTION:  I rumage through the cupboard of requirement where I have boxes of unpainted models …. (sigh) … and find the Mantic 2nd edition 2 Player starter, “The Battle for Ironhold”. I purchased it, just in case I needed it …..sigh, when I saw that it was the last one in stock. It features Dwarfs (yay!!) and Undead (pffft)  I check the back of the box it contains 10 Ironclad troops, enough for me to start with.  I  do some quick Maths and realise that I need another 4 troops to make the 14 I need for a full battalion for KoW and order in another box of Ironclads (the extra 16 bodies will come in useful .. honest),  some extra 20 mm bases (you’ll see) and some Mantic movement trays.

I knock out the Ironclad Sergeant and 5 troops in swift order. Play with them, and proceed to have them all painted up by the end of June. The lads and I played  6 happy games of Vanguard during that time, we had fun  and had a 50% success rate (unheard of)

DISCLAIMER: I am not a painter’s @r$e. I am improving, even in my dotage, but these are only table top standard. It is also the first time I attempted free hand symbols, they are adequate but not great, particularly under a camera’s close up.

I usually paint models in ones or two with 4 other projects on the go at the same time. It has increased my productivity even though this seems odd and counter productive.

PAINTING Steps.

My Mantic Dwarfs (& Forge Fathers) have an Orange/Black/Bronze pallette with a Sky Blue spot colour. I can turn one of these out in an hour and a half tops.

I use a white spray undercoat, then I wash all over with Nuln Oil GLOSS. This fills in the recesses, picks out the detail for my world weary eyes yet doesn’t darken down the white surfaces for the base coats I then add.

Base Coats were kept to minimum, mid flesh, Orange , black, Bronze, and brown(s) . I then give it an all over wash either Agarax Earthshade or Army Painter Strong Tone.

When this drys I pick out a few highlights with lighter versions of the base coat colours, base it and the job’s done. It is effective to produce average standard troops quickly.

This is going to be out of chronological order. My Vanguard/KoW project actually started around 7 months ago with the release of Mantic’s Beta Rules for Vanguard. As I know many of you just want to see the loot from the Kickstarter I will start with that. Indeed one gentleman that I hold in high esteem just wants to sniff the screen. Far be it from me to deny him ;-).