Sláine: Kiss My Paintbrush!

The ‘men of bags’ were inhabitants of Ireland who preceded the Irish pagan gods who defeated them and drove them away.  In our tale they are predecessors of the tribes of Danu and are therefore opposed not only to Slaine and his Sessair but all of the invaders of their land.

All miniatures are Alternative Armies, from their Celtic Myth range.  All paints are the new AP Speedpaints, Warrior Skin is the lead here for a deeper colour.  Hair was a blend of equal parts Medium, Sand Golem, Burnished Red and Hardened Leather.  I’ve gone Chalcolithic (copper age) as inspiration so Brazen Copper for the metal work and I like the saffron dyed garments of the Irish Kerns so decided to port those over to this force as well so they look distinct from the others schemes I’ve already used on this project.  The yellow is Ancient Honey and I’ve done an extra coat on some minis in the recesses and lower down on capes to help to deepen the tone a bit.  First up are the heroes:

Then the tribal commanders, chief, musician, standard and a champion.  The banner is some freehand, I don’t normally bother but LBMS didn’t have anything chalcolithic-y enough.  The banner was black with the pattern marked out first in pencil then overpainted in Vallejo Cold Grey.  Then the whole thing was washed in Occultist Cloak (a blackish blue grey apparently) which takes the edge off the black and helps it look a bit more used.  Then the symbol was overpainted with Vallejo Cold Grey and then a thinner line inside the grey of Vallejo Ivory.

Finally the warriors.  The shields were either Bony Matter for the wicker or an initial coat of Pastel Seafoam (too light a tone) which then had several coats of Thunderbolt Blue over the top, deliberately heavier on the bottom half for a sort of freehand painted two tone effect.  Looks a bit sloppy in the photos but I quite like it a gaming distance.

Coming back to this after a sojourn with Conan.  Here are some January sale winnings.  Annie at Bad Squiddo was having a clearout of the old Atlantis Miniatures resins and I picked up a Pegasus and the pack of 3 werewolves.  Fantastic sculpts (and wonderful customer srevice from Annie as usual).  Based to match the Slaine minis and useful as either Beasts or as a foe for the big man on their own.

The werewolves are just blended grey and white Speedpaints with a spot of black on the nose and some Slaughter Red in the mouth, Blood Red for the eyes.  The rocks are Runic Grey with progressive dry brused Cold Grey Sombre Grey and Wolf Grey.

The Pegasus was a bit of a pain, still not totally happy but he’s good enough.  Holy White over the zenithed primer.  It went a bit dull and patchy :/  I’ve gone back to a “proper” technique of layering thin coats of white over the musculature on the body.  The mane, tail and wings got dry brushed with Ivory and then White in increasingly light high point focused stages.  It’ll do.

I had another Foundry Sláine model and I wanted him riding in a chariot.  I found the ideal model at the Legionary show in Exeter.  There is a chap who has loads of Black Tree Designs models as he used to paint for them.  He had a painted Barbarian Chariot which was a bit oversized for 28mm models with the crew being nearer to 35mm.  That meant it was perfect for Sláine.  No need for me to do more than touch up the paintwork.  I did need to add a broader platform which is made from balsa and allows Sláine enough room and for me to base him and have him removable, rather than having to glue him in.
I was keen to have a model of Sláine’s charioteer, Gerg Three Fingers.  Nothing suitable on the market seemingly so a conversion was needed.  Here is what we started with – a Chaos Marauder with Gerg’s characteristic belly plate and a  spare head from Britannia miniatures, massive by 28mm standards but ideal here.

And we’re aiming for this:

Slaine is carrying the Spear of the Sun and Sword of the Moon and standing on the Stone of Destiny.  A bit of green stuff carved to match the planking of the chariot floor for the base and he’s ready for paint.

A bit of trimming and a touch of greenstuff to fill the join between head and torso.  The three Fomorian fingers were clipped off a zombie standard arm and superglued to the helmet and Gerg is done.  Speedpaints to match the Sessair.  Drilled his hands out and then used some tomato paste tube foil to make the reins.  Strictly speaking he should have two reins for each horse but one each will do.  Lots of flocking and clumps on the base to match the rest and we are done:

I’m done with the Foundry Sláine models.  Stuck with the Speedpaints athough there was some monor edge highlighting of the Sword of the Moon with Game Air Wolf Grey and BoneWhite and Pure White have been used to paint the bone and horn ornaments.  These guys are huge – they are mounted on 40mm rounds and absolutely fill the base.
The first model of Sláine the King in his full regalia with the helmet given to him by Danu is a great model.  The boar-faced belt has had a pair of Greenstuff tusks added.  These were super fiddly and very fragile so I can see why they got omitted from the casting.  I quite like the way the blue has gone a bit patchy on the back but maybe that’s just me.

Sláine mac Roth version.  Grim Black is doing some heavy lifting on this one.

Elfric and the El women are the final set from the Warlord second wave.  Not sure if they have any more planned but it looks like they want to move on now to ABC Warriors which is great for fans of that but a pity from my perspective.

I wanted a slightly other worldliness about the El, they are demons from another dimension after all.  Therefore I highlighted the clothing using Vallejo Fluro colours.  Elfric’s cloak was a blend of Slaughter Red in the recesses and Blood Red for the highlights and then the very top edges of the folds and edges were further emphasised with Magenta Fluro.

Likewise the El women had their 80’s aerobics inspired clothing highlighted with orange, blue and green Fluro paints respectively.

I’ve still got some Slaine bits left to do.  There are a couple of Foundry Slaine models, Slaine’s chariot, a skyship and the Alternatice Armies Sidhe and Fir Bolg.  I may get through them slowly this year but I’m keen to get one of the big miniature boardgames painted beforec December so I’ve mostly moved on to painting my Conan TMG and you can follow my progress here.

Celtos Miniatures are now produced by Brigade Games in the UK and this is certainly a Sláine adjacent range. Here we have two druids.  The Cauldron of Blood can have up to three accompanying druids so I’ve picked out these two to go with Cathbad.  Once could easily be a not-Cathbad with his skull mask and the other is probably a not-Sláine holding the Sword of the Moon and Spear of the Sun.  No matter, they are all my druids now.  Painting as per the previous methods for the Earth Tribes.  The bone details were tidied up with some Bonewhite Game Air paint.

Danu – Earth Goddess.  She is the patron goddess of the Sessair and Sláine’s patron god.

Not too much to do on this one so I spent a bit longer on the highlights with non-Speedpaints.  Blend of Speedpaint colours on the hair, thinned with Medium to ensure the zenith showed through consistently.  Crusader Skin was highlighted up with some Game Air Pale Flesh in very thin coats to bolster the strength of the highlight in places.  The jewelery was picked out in white and then a very thin wash of Holy White to give it and the knife a bit of shading.

Cathbad came out quite well.  Cloudburst Blue and Absolution Green on the clothes and the rest as you might expect using the bronze blend that was used earlier in the project on the armour and knife.  The knife then had an edge highlight using Wolf Grey Model Air paint.  The bone face mask was Palid Bone thinned down with some Holy White.  Stripes were Slaughter Red.

The Cauldron of Plenty provides for the Earth Tribes during times of peace.  In times of war it becomes the means to return the dead to battle, as the Cauldron of Blood it transforms the fallen into the Reborn.

Paintwork started with Malignant Green faded down with some Holy White on the skin.  Orkc Skin on the magical vapours which was highlighted with Model Colour Yellow Fluro.  The cauldron itself started with the basic bronze blend I used on the Fomorians of Palid Bone, Dark Wood and Speedpaint Medium. Verdigis finish was provided by Nihilakh Oxide Citadel Technical paint with the upper surfaces wiped back slightly to reveal some of the bronze tone.

The sculpting detail on the cauldron surface is amazing.  I hope the paintwork does it justice.

Earth Tribe warriors who die in battle are placed into the Cauldron of Blood and after the “blessing” of Danu they emerge as Reborn.  They can continue the fight once again.

The skintone needed a slightly green hue but I wanted to keep them distinct from the colour on the Half Dead so went for a 25% each blend of Crusader Skin, Malignant Green, Holy White and Speedpaint Medium.  All other colours were as per the original Sessair and Fir Domain paintwork but with a drop or two of the above blend in the colours used to give them a slightly off-colour tone that helped to harmonise with the skin.

The one in the middle with sword raised above his head is one of my favourite sculpts in the whole range.

The Badb were the Drune priestesses and bodyguards of the Lord Weird.  Relatively simple paint job and I retained the use of Orc Skin green on the cloth to give them the same look as the Drune Priest.

Getting close to finishing the Drune faction.  These are the Half-Dead, strange zombie like creatures that were once men and were once alive.  Who know what the Drune Priests have done to them but they are still relentless in combat.

The basic skintone was Malignant Green and then every other colour had some of this added to it to give the whole model what I hope looks like a rather unsettling, off-green glow. Other than that I’m using the same colour combination as I did with the Drune Skull Sword Warrior that was the first thing I painted in this project.

There are Beasts of the Forest in the second wave releases.  A bear, wolf, boar and porcupine(!).  Used the same technique as the fomorian mammoth earlier in this blog, i.e. a blend of two Speedpaints with a bit of extra medium on the top to help enhance the colour differential provided by the underlying zenith.  Super quick to do.

You win the internet if you can tell me which Slaine graphic novel the porcupine is in.

Some 3D prints from @aea007 who also printed the mammoth.  I wasn’t too happy with Warlord’s choices of beast so I thought some megafauna would be a better option.

And then magical fauna.  Can’t be Slaine without “the most beautiful and evil of beasts”, a vicious unicorn. This one was a Lucid Eye model, a mount for one of the Root Elves.  Easiest paintwork so far.  The body is the original zenith undercoat, Holy White on mane, tail and feathers, then a very thin coat of Palid Bone on the horn.  Fin.

I had these Confrontation models sitting in a drawer and when I started this project I wanted to use them.  They are Fianna.  I thought the bright graphic  painting style would suite the beautiful sculpts and I was right, go me 🙂

Method

All AP Sppedpaints as usual.  Crusader Skin first and then a highlight to the skin with a mixture of Vallejo Pale Skin and Elf Skin.  I wanted a bright leather colour on the leggings and boots so a 50/50 mix of Hardened Leather and Palid Bone provided a colour that looked great but was so close to Sand Golem that I used that to touch up the missed bits.  The turquoise colour is a mix of 2/3 Plasmatic Bolt to 1/3 Magic Blue with a couple of drops of medium.  This was then mixed with a bit of Vallejo Game Air Wolf Grey to provide an edge highlight.  Finally the metal was Gravelord Grey with a drop of Runic Grey and Cloudburst Blue, edge highlights with neat Vallejo Game Air Wolf Grey.

Details were the flutes done in Palid Bone and handle wraps in Hardened Leather and the standard is Dark Wood cut 50% with Speedpaint Medium.
Finally, the hair was a mix of Palid Bone, Holy White, Sand Golem and Zealot Yellow.  A slightly different mix used for each model to get colours from plain blond to red.

So why are they “Father Jack’s Own”? Well…

The three champions are now finished.  Still excited by this paint scheme.  See the how to guide earlier in this project.  The only addition to the regular Fomorians is the red crest which is straight Blood Red.

I’m back to this project as the second wave minis are waiting on the painting table.  First off though my favourite Slaine miniature – Warped Slaine by Wargames Foundry.

He was painted using a similar approach to the Warlord version.  I spent a bit more time on the additional low/highlights on the skin.  I alos wanted to reflect the woad tattoos with some extra blue in the hair and axe blade.  That meant adding Runic Grey to the Grim Black for the hair and Cloudburst Blue to the Gravelord Grey of the NMM steel.

No contest in the comparison.  I know what will be on the table in the next game.

It is the end of the Spring Clean Challenge and I’ve had a blast painting Sláine. Here’s the grand total of completions:

87 completed items including 67 miniatures and 20 terrain items.

There are 22 Fomorians, 19 Drunes and 26 Earth Tribes.

I used this as an opportunity to paint with a new product range, The Army Painter Speedpaints.  This helped me get a poppy, graphic style on the minis and I tried out NMM for the first time too.  Overall super happy.
Here’s my handy colour swatch for the different AP and Contrast coulors I’ve got.  I found the colour wheel really handy for deciding on colour schemes and picking appropriate contrasting colours.  Great idea, they are only £1 in most places.

And to top it all off I got a like from Pat Mills 🙂

The project will carry on.  The next wave releases in Augist and my pre-order is in.  I’ve also got some Confrontation Fianna and Alternative Armies Fir Bolg and Sidhe to provide some new factions.  I’ve also got the Foundry Sláine character minis to finish along with his chariot and a sky ship too.

I’m still playing simple scenarios and trying to figure out the rules.  The Let’s Play is super helpful, unlike the rulebook.  I’m hoping the rest of the Let’s Play series makes it out fairly soon as there are a few things I haven’t figured out yet.

Thanks for inspiring us with the Spring Clean Challenge.  Looking forward to next year already.

Decided to expand the Earth Tribes beyond the Sessair.  These are the Fir Domain who use their shields to help reverberate their battle cry.  Their king is Rudraige who bears the Silver Sword of the Moon.

I’ve been working from the Mongoose D20 Slaine RPG book for this tribe which has a useful illustration of this technique.

The figures are Roy Eastland sculpts currently available through North Star Figures.  AP Speedpaints for the main colours in the style previously described.  Tartan stripes are Vallejo Model Air Mediterranean Blue over the AP Fire Giant Orange and Vallejo Amarantha Red over AP Cloudburst Blue.

Here they all are with their King.  Not bad for scale as far as I’m concerned.

Had a go at the opening scenario tonight.  I have to say that these rules aren’t the easiest to get on top of for first time players.  We were very grateful for the OTT Let’s Play which definitely helped with the combat sequence but there are a couple of things that I’ll need to spend some time looking up.  I need to get my head around the Winded rule and as long as I can work through the references on pages 10, 15, 19, 23 & 28 I’m sure I can figure it out.  Is it just me or should that have been put in one place?

Anyhow, here are some shots from the playthroughs.  Game 1 was mostly for testing the play sequence and movement rules.  Slaine and Ukko ran away and were impossible to catch after good D6 rolls on their Sprints.

So far so good and onto Game 2.  This time combat would be the focus.  Slaine and Ukko reset to the central stone and decide to rush at the Skullswords and Drune Priest.  Mass combat ensues where all of the specialist cards are played and Slaine comes out victorious.

We’ll play the other starter scenario that introduces Blood Points and hopefully be a bit more familiar with some terms that the writers clearly think we know already.  I appreciate this is their second version of the 2000AD rules but I didn’t play Judge Dredd and the rulebook seems to be written for people who did.

I post on Insta and the Slaine, Ukko and Nest photo I put up this weekend got a like from Pat Mills – author of Slaine.  I’m never washing my Instagram again.

The starter set heroes, Sláine, Ukko the Dwarf and Nest the Druid.

King Rudraige with the Silver Sword of the Moon, King Gann with the Flaming Spear of the Sun and Mongan Axehead of the Sessair.

Thanks to @demonsub for the inspiration for the colours on the Spear of the Sun.  I was going to go for bright gold but was reminded that in the Bisley art it has this demonic possession look too so settled on this having seen it in demonsub’s project.

Sláine the King and Niamh.  This is the bonus Sláine miniature for pre-ordering.  This colour scheme for Niamh comes from the “Sláine the King” comic cover art and is a fantastic version of a 1980’s leotard in a Olivia Neuton John “Physical” video style (one for the teenagers there).

That’s it for the Warlord first release miniatures.  Whilst we are waiting for the second wave release in August I’m continuing with the additional miniatures and will start on the playthough of the game scenarios.  I’ll take a group shot once the table is set up.