Ride to ruin (February’s Snag a Normie Challenge)

Progress has been stalled a bit this week as I spent the first half of the week fighting back the lurgey  and the second half of it mourning my pre-lurgey existence as I succumbed to darkness…

Still, you can paint with snot streaming down your face and minus the internal organs you coughed up days ago! I had fooled myself into thinking that painting the horse-lords would be a nice treat after the orcs but, though there were 12 fewer models, I used a couple more colours so it still turned into a conveyor belt.

Honestly, it was a pretty straight forward, no mess production line. The only mistake was priming in Army Painter Fur Brown which wasn’t really brown enough but I hadn’t managed to get any Leather Brown in time so I just had to make do. Other than that, base colours were simple:

Leatherwork, weapon shafts, etc Revell Leather Brown with a wash of GW Agrax Earthshade.

Cloth Vallejo Cavalry Brown with a wash of GW Agrax Earthshade.

Cloak and shields GW Waaagh Flesh with a wash of Biel-tan Green.

Mail, weapons, helmet details Army Painter Gun Metal with a wash of GW Nuln Oil.

Shield details were done in P3 Marrow White or GW Gehenna’s Gold (this was also used for tiny bits of detailing on some of the helmets).

A couple of models needed a few extra colours to break up fabric so I used GW Eshin grey and Steel Legion Drab which both got washed with Agrax Earthshade.

All the hair was done with GW Uriel Yellow mixed with differing amounts of Army Painter Fur Brown to give a mix of shades of blonde though most came out looking much the same ?. Everyone got a wash of Agrax here too as well as over the skin tone which was GW Kislev Flesh.

Horses used most of the same colours so that they tied into their riders and so I didn’t need to think too much about horse genetics.

Hair/fur colours were Leather brown, Steel Legion Drab, and Stormvermin Grey (I’ll need to go check on this one cos I know that’s not the exact name). Manes were a mix of the matching colour (as horses tend to have in nature) and something a little darker. Saddles and reins etc were painted in Cavalry Brown, Leather Brown or Steel Legion Drab.

Riders got glued to horses and the washes were done at this point so most of the horses got a coat of Agrax though I was using Nuln Oil until I realised that I need the little I have left for the Witch King on his Fell Beast.

All in all, I’m happy with them all. They were nicer models than the orcs though some of the definition between hair and the fletching of the arrows was awful… I can only assume that when you have long hair and are riding a horse, it causes a huge amount of movement and your flowing locks tangle with your arrows and become like a King Rat on your back.

I’ve pretty much given up on tracking my time through this project but I did remember to start and stop a timer during the final six riders and their horses (they took about 7 hours start to finish).

Models painted: 81

Models remaining: 3