Grendel’s Warband for Conquest Last Argument of Kings #PathOfConquest

So they are still a work in progress.

The plan was to do all the buckles etc in gold like the Blooded. Thing was i forgot to write down that i used yellows with the ochre, so when i came to highlight i forgot the yellows.

Ooops. However one of them has a wooden shoulder pad, i refuse to use the word pouldron, soooo it got painted the same colour. now they have wooden buckles etc.

So story wise they are carved by children and given to them, the masks are the same. Directed by the Shaman, the children carve the masks to protect the Ugr from evil and to allow them to keep their innocence.

I will now be making some notes in my painting notebook while  I wait for my Stalkers and let them dry before I do the skin tomorrow and decide if the base fills me with joy.

So got the base coats and a wash down. Before the wash they looked like high colour Lego men. It was a special moment where i glared at them for a bit thinking ‘his is a dark army of monsters, why are you so bright?’

However a couple of things grew out of that. Bare with me I’m pretty shambolic in my musings, but i use them to take new directions

First of all trying to get blue on them he heads of the weapons are going to be made of ice. I think this means i need to add a Dwarf to my command base to represent the person who is making these icy weapons.

The skin tone turned out too dark, but i like it. It has a watery vibe going on there, i’m still going to highlight up to white, but i think it pulls all the other colours together and is less BLUE than the official skin tone, which is the kind of blue you shout through a megaphone.

I think the mask works, i need to carry on the mask theme elsewhere. It has a Warframe, Mobius, Del Toro thing going on there and I like it. You do not have to.

Bright colours, i think i may lean into the brightness. With whites and blues as my basing colours, the brighter the mini, the more it will pop. I could lean into an AOS28 vibe, but I’ve done a lot of armies in that grim muddy look and i think a high colour, high contrast army of monsters will look different and be a lo of fun.

Other thoughts include i need to make a murder tree for my command base, turning it into a little diorama will be fun and my Stalkers are still not here….so i will be ordering from OTT from now on.

OH i forgot, i’m using Vallejo acrylics (just primary colours, ochres and black and white), GW base texture, and Agrax earthshade/Windsor and Newton brown ink depending on which one I pick up first. I mention this as that’s what you are supposed to do in blogs right?

So my Ugr arrived before my Stalkers, thank you OTT.

First up the box is lovely, like really nice. I’m looking at it and thinking ‘so bit of foam and that’s my carry case sorted.

The sprues are okay, a little bit of space on there but if there wasn’t the nice box would be smaller.

One issue with the sprue is the joining points between component and part are big. My suspicion was confirmed when i clipped them off. the connection obscures some detail.

With the joining point and some serious mould lines I’d suggest these are not beginners kits. If you are used to Forgeworld kits you will be fine. Also when sticking them together i’d suggest elastic bands for the torsos so there are no gaps.

They are bloody lovely though. lets be clear, i am not sad these are in my life.

Right on with the plan.

Ugr are meant to be child like. The stereotypical trope is ‘hulk smash or just dim. I feel that after looking at the faces this is the wrong way to go at them. They have quite noble faces, there is a serenity to them.

So my Ugr are gentle children, they are filled with wonder and don’t really want to hurt people. Now the shin guards have a strong ‘cyclops mask’ vibe going on. So to tell the story they wear masks in battle, they become ‘the cyclops’ so its not them doing any harm. This ties into the shamanic theme running through the Nord and ties them to the masks on the blooded. Masks will be a thing in this army I feel. So one on the face and two on the belts.

If anyone has any spare clone heads by the way hit me up 😉

The other thing i have to decide on is skin tone and colour. I don’t want Warmahorde blue for them. As blue is a colour i’m using for cloth a deep blue will just disappear.  Again looking at the lore they are descended from demi gods so with the masks in gold and the contrast colour being red i think an icy turquoise almost white in colour will give a kind of snowy alabaster feel to them.

I think this will give a more beautiful monster than the official scheme. However this may involve an oil paint wash….bum.

All in all i love these mini’s and in the flesh they have much more personality than the official pics show.

I’m not patient. So while waiting for my first batch of Miniatures to turn up i’m working out my list and how i’m going to build it.

This isn’t just because I want to work out what to buy, but also to work out what i’m going to have to convert. CLAK is a new system, well ish, and as such the armies have a lot of options and not a lot of miniatures for them. This means compromise and conversion.

So lets get into it.

Here’s the list.

Blooded with ravens, tactics retinue 1 and mark of the bear
5 stands of stalkers with full upgrades
3 stands of Ugr (which will be replaced with werewolves once the miniatures are available)
5 stands of Trolls with full upgrades (the miniatures are coming)
1 giant

1 Shaman
3 Stands of Raiders
3 Stands of Raiders
3 Stands of Ulfednar with savage and banner
3 Stands of Ulfednar with savage and banner

Right here is the thing. I need a plan for buying and painting.

As you can see from the list there is some stuff in there that there arn’t mini’s for. Specifically the Trolls and the

Stage 1
Blooded, done
3 Stalkers.
3 Ugr

Stage 2
Shaman
3 raiders
2 stalkers
3 Ulfednar.

So stage 2 plan is the biggy.

I need to work out how i’m going to make Ulfednar. I have a plan.

You see im going to have 4 spare stalker bodies, and im going to save as many of the metal masks from the Stalker sets. This should allow me a lot of conversion parts and use the Raiders kit as a basis for them.

Ulfednar are traditionally seen with wolf pelts, i wont have time to sculpt this and Para Bellum don’t have kits with wolf pelt bits.

What to do? well a bit of research into the Ulfednar see’s that as well as wolf pelts they dyed their skin black. More plans are a foot.

The plan:

Use raiders and spare stalkers for bodies.
The top of the head and shoulders to be painted with charcoal paint to show hey have dyed their skin, possible extending down the bodies in geometric patterns or wolf fangs from shoulder blades to pectorals.
Use Stalker masks in place of horned helmets etc to give them a more ‘feral’ killers look. This also gives an impression that they are kept somewhere, almost chained up before being unleashed.

I like the idea of ‘unleashed madmen’ as a concept. People of the north who have seen too much and now are crazed killers that don’t feel pain sheparded by a Shaman who understands their madness.

I may break my sketch book out and have a crack at basic designs.

One thing that has disappointed me while i’ve been planning around this project is the lack of female figures. Although a female shaman would be at odds with the background, some female stalkers or raiders would be great to add a bit of diversity. Also the only female character so far seems to be the boob window mage, which ain’t great if you want to stay in the Para Bellum range.

While i wait for the post, here’s some more research images.

So i’ve fallen in love with Conquest Last Argument of Kings, or as it shall be known CLAK because i’m lazy when it comes to typing.

The miniatures are pretty, the art is divine and the background is actually interesting. All of this backed up with a world that will progress. Which is a bonus as most do not, yes i’m looking at you 40k….

So where to start? Well the Path to Conquest. However as a naturally rebellious person i’m doing it my way.

First up was grab a mini and paint it. In this case its the Nord blooded.

I’ve just come off the back of three months oil painting an Adeptus Custodes army so I decided this project would be Acrylic.

I decided to use green and blues as they are next to each other on the colour wheel with yellows through reds to be my contrasting colours.

Rather than use metallic paints i’ve decided to go with NMM…..something i have never done before. Im pleased with the gold…..the steal sword not so much.

You can see the finished piece below.

Now I have colours on a mini, some decisions around colours.

Blur I think is going to be a regal colour, the colours of Grendel. If you are close to him you get more blue, otherwise greens will be more prominent.

Also because i painted Grendel’s leg armour green, i think armour plates will be done in greens and greys.

Basing wise i think ice. The frozen north of the world has more ‘things and horrors’ and this is a warband of monsters.

Next up is the Background.

It will expand as things are going. However at the moment Grendel is a blooded more happy with monsters than civilisation, so the army will be the odder troops. Less Huscals and more Stalkers and Monsters.

So the list….

Blooded warlord
3 stands of Stalkers
3 Stands of Ugr

Now this is no where near the 600 points for stage 1, however i want monsters so I’m holding out for trolls to be released. Realistically that might be a while. Als0 looking at a lot of the units in the list i want madmen and monsters so i may have to buy stuff and convert.  I think raiders can be used for some of the more berserk units, but as i am trying to stay within Para Bellums range of mini’s there maybe some compromises to be made with the list.

One of the very cool things i discovered, was when i emailed to find out about the look of some of the unreleased units i got a reply from Leandros and although they aren’t going to release pictures to a random spod, it was really nice to get a polite email back.

Now to wait for my Ugr and Stalkers to arrive in the post…..