Come and join us for another delve into the Forums and Projects to find the best of the best from the last week or so. We're going to be getting stuck into lots of great looking pieces this week...

...make sure to always let us know what YOU have been working on and share it across the site.

Fantasy Heroes by zaphf

The first awesome bit of painting we're going to be looking at today comes from user zaphf who has put together this awesome collection of painted Fantasy figures. This is a nice array of different pieces which show off lots of fascinating techniques. The first of them is this very charming Bard...

This fellow is looking particular swish! I love the colour choices across the model blending together some nice pinks and bright greens. Bards have always been the 'colourful' members of a roleplaying group and I think this take on the minstrel character really does bring that to the fore. I also really like that zaphf has managed to pick out the facial features so nicely, really working on getting that smirk across in the final paint job.

Next up we go from colourful fabrics and instead look to some smashing armour work. This a dark and dangerous-looking warrior, presented as such in that battered bronze/iron armour.

Twin this with the nice green picked out for the cloth and that shock of white hair and you have a character that might well be an anime villain! I could see him being the leader of a group of guards in a roleplaying campaign who is secretly much deadlier than he lets on!

Last but not least we have my favourite miniature from the selection zaphf chose to show off to us. Here is a wonderful Tortle!

One element of the painting which I think zaphf seems to get particularly right is his use of shading and tones in order to make the models pop. This fellow here looks absolutely wonderful, from the light green of his shell through to the mottled skin, dark eyes and the creaky old staff he holds in his hands. I think the little spot of terracotta red used for the pot really helps add a nice spot colour to the figure too, breaking up a lot of the other natural tones.

Gauls by innes

Next up, we're looking to show off some awesome Gauls for those playing Ancient battles against the Romans. This particular warband has been painted up by innes and looks brilliant, especially with the photographs being taken outside to show off all of the detail.

One of the things about painting Gauls from this period is that you can be tempted to just paint them all in muddy browns and greens. innes has looked last that and really worked hard to create interesting looking models which will stand out on the tabletop. The really nice flashes of blue, red, yellow and purple across the models speak to a culture which is as much about being flashy as it is being a warrior!

The really nice things about this is that the colours then work really well against the skin tones that you see a lot on Gauls. They tend to like bearing their chests and howling at the top of their lungs so you're going to have a lot of skin on display! It would be nice to see some tattoo work or woad here and there but I since I can't even do that I imagine it doesn't work for me to ask others to give it a go!

I think one of the key elements of this force and its paint scheme that really works for me though is the fact that it is going to look so different from the Romans and other forces on the tabletop.

Whilst Romans and Greeks, for example, are going to be clad in their armour with very uniform looking attire these Gauls are going to all feel like individuals and stand out when you start getting into tight clashes, be they as part of skirmishes or larger battles.

Warcry Warbands by doctorether

Lastly, we're looking at some more from the world of Age Of Sigmar as doctorether painted up some of the warbands from Warcry alongside some stunning terrain in these images here.

Here we have the Iron Golems who are looking deadly and dangerous in their standard paint scheme. I love the battered red armour and how that deeper colour works well against that pale skin. The same talent has gone into painting up the Untamed Beasts as you can see here...

This particular warband was painted up using the contrast paints from Games Workshop and I would suggest that it has done a pretty sterling job of making these models pop. I also have to give props to doctorether for painting up that eerie looking terrain for them to battle on. I don't think I'd want to be wandering around in those ruins.

Finally, I wanted to bring special attention to the awesome photography on display here showing these warbands clashing.

It's very cool to see models in the midst of battle and pictures like this are what drew my eye to wargaming in the first place when I was flicking through the pages of White Dwarf. If you're interested in seeing those Nighthaunts by the way then you can go and check them out on the project linked above.

What Are You Painting Right Now?

Every week we’re absolutely blown away by the incredible topics that are put into the Projects, it’s getting more difficult to choose Community Spotlights! We love your work and we hope to see a lot more of it in the future!

If you fancy getting your hobby fingers out and showing off your newest paint job, terrain piece or even greatest gaming achievement, we want to know about it!

We don’t mind if you’re a newcomer to painting or a veteran of the brush, everything you do inspires us to create more and more content together!

What do you think of the entries this week?