Dungeon Saga – The Warlord of Galahir

It’s 2018 and I’m house-sitting for friends, looking after their two cats. I don’t have any of my stuff, but I want something to work on while I’m staying there. For whatever reason, the enemies of the Warlord of Galahir set are the ones.

It’s one of the multiple expansions for the original version of Dungeon Saga, all of which I received as part of the Kickstarter rewards for that project. I haven’t even finished painting the Undead for the core set at this point. Whatever.

This week, right now, in 2024, I thought I’d finally finished this project.

Some of the included minis… one of which came pre-decapitated. Of course, I didn’t realise until well after I’d received the bundle. Maybe outside any timeframe that I could have requested a replacement, but I also wasn’t overly bothered. In the Pile I located another Goblin from *another range* that was right enough for scale.

The plan was to use the Army Painter method to get them done quickly. I gave all the models a base prime spray of a black, then later a coat of Army Painter Leather Brown spray. I probably could’ve jumped straight to this step.

22 Oct 2018: Batch painting the warband

Next step is laying down all the base colours. I didn’t list the colours used, sadly.

Most likely:

• Army Painter Warpaints Black
• Citadel Blood Red or Mephiston Red
• Citadel Snakebite Leather (Old, not Contrast)
• Citadel Bleached Bone or Army Painter Skeleton Bone
• Army Painter Warpaints Green
• Citadel Boltgun Metal or Leadbelcher? Maybe Army Painter Warpaints Metal

I batch painted these guys, just changing what bit got which colour. For some reason, I didn’t do the three Trolls. I seem to recall that the Leather Brown spray had run out. I’ll get to them soon, I’m sure.

The next step was to break out the Army Painter Quickshade dip. I’ve got a near full tin from a previous project, so it’s an easy choice. Part of the reason I chose this method for this project.

Rather than actually dip I opted to brush it on. It gives much better control than the AP recommended “shake off” method. Also, I’m far less likely to throw a freshly dipped miniature in the sand and gravel downstairs, like I did that other time…

Either I didn’t prep the Matt spray properly, or the day was just too humid (Nov. in my part of the country, quite likely). Whatever it was, the varnish frosted.

I recall I got help from our awesome community here, pretty sure I used olive oil to rectify it. Paint it on, wipe it off. Re-spray again. The day was saved! I wish I’d remembered more recently that this had happened….

So now it has been about five years since I started the Orcs from this set. As it happens, I’ve got a few Character type minis on the painting desk in various stages of completion and I decide I’m going to finish the two that came in this expansion. Then, I’ll get those Trolls that I hadn’t primed, and I can call this set done.

I’ve got the Salamander/ Lizardman-guy character base coated with some colour, and I’ve got an idea.

The other hero of this set is the Gladeswalker Druid. Again, it has been started previously and is sitting on the shelf waiting.

Getting near the end of this project, just have to finish those three trolls that got missed 6 years ago.
I got the paints that seemed the nearest match and got the base colours down.

I didn’t get any more photos after this point, but the process was

• Paint on thinned AP Strongtone Quickshade dip
• Drybrush stone with Citadel Celestra Grey
• Varnish with AP Anti-Shine Matt Varnish
• Have Matt Varnish cloud up really well
• Get really frustrated
• Forget that I’ve already had this happen in this same project, 6 years ago
• Leave them out of the hobby room, because I can’t look at them

You know, the usual.

While going through and picking out some bits and pieces to finish off, I picked up these three. Still clouded from the previous incident. I figured I’d get them done, but I’d have to strip and re-do them.
I started the job on one… then I remembered the oil trick. *sigh*
I used that on the other two, and they came up clean. I repainted the third and then got them varnished. This time, the varnish got super-prepped: One minute under my arm; one minute of shaking; one minute in a hot water bath; another minute of shaking. Also, heat gun on stand-by for post-spray treatment.
Over the top? Probably. But it had been raining again recently, and I’m impatient to call this project done, but not wanting to risk the clouding again.