Draconis does…. Kings of War Vanguard

2nd December 2023

Having finished off the spear armed troops it was onto finishing the hand weapon ones. Same treatment applied to these as before.

It was a bit quicker this time as I realised that when I was painting the straps and ropes with a buff leather colour I could use that same colour to basecoat the bones and teeth they are adorned with.

Then it was some work on the shields, a few washes to tie the weapon hafts and handle wraps together, touch ups on the skin and some bold blond hair for the de facto leader.

Still need to sort out some snow for the bases though…

9th December 2023

I was going to post an in progress update – but thought I was close to finishing them. Then work, being ‘under the weather’ etc delayed me.

But now they are all done.

After the zenithal prime I applied an all over covering of Soulblight grey for the fur. This was then drybrushed up with grey followed by a reduced area of drybrushing with white.

Next up it was the skin. I mixed up Talassar blue, Space wolf grey and soulblight grey for the first one.

It came out ok, but I wanted a touch of purple with it. So for the second I added Magos purple to the mix…then more…then more.

In the end it didn’t seem to make much difference – I feel the Talassar blue overpowers the others somewhat. But the two Yetis do have different skin tones though.

Onto the armour. I base coated the armour pieces black, and painted the filigree parts in leadbelcher. For the rest of the armour I did one in gold and one in copper.

I gave both a shade of sepia – but it made them a little too close in tone. These were then highlighted back with their original tones, then finally with a small touch of silver added. I picked out the leather straps at the same time, using different colours on the two.

Next it was the tabards and the ‘shorts’. I struggled on colour choice for a while, then plumped for an earthy orange tone on one, and a purple on the other. The pants again I debated on colours – I picked an earthy green to go with the orange, and a yellow to go with the purple (Minnesota Vikings colours). Reasonably happy with how they came out in the end.

Final stages (that took quite a while over a number of short sessions) were finishing off the club, painting in the nails and claws (and giving them a gloss coat), teeth, eyes (may yet change them to yellow) and all the other little bits you always find at the end ?.

11th December 2023

Getting close to the end of the year now, and I’m not sure if I will be able to finish the warband before 2024 – but here are two more completed.

When mixing the skin tone for the Yetis I used the spare for the Ice Naiads.

For the ice weapons and armour plates on the sides I used pure Talassar blue, highlighted up with Lothern blue followed by white. These were given a gloss varnish at the very end. Snakebite leather for the body armour. Cloth was grey on one and green on the other.

The furs were given a soft brown wash, then highlighted up with ivory and white.

Not super happy with them to be honest, but from a couple of feet they look ok, and work well with the other ones I have finished so far.

15th December 2023

Another two done ?

As always, I dithered a bit on the colours, but kept them earthy and neutral for the most part.

I added touches of colour via the beards, some gems, and the ice blade on one of the Huscarl’s spears.

Also tried out a new way of adding snow to the bases. This one was a case of mixing up my snow flock/dust material with PVA into a paste, and applying that. This way there should be more depth to the look of the snow.

To me they look a bit better irl than in these pics….. but that may be due to my aging eyes ?

I have some bits to work on for a small skirmish game after Christmas, but once that is complete I will be back to finish off the last four of this box.

22nd December 2023

Another couple that I struggled a bit with. For quite some time they just looked a bit rubbish, and I think that may in part be that I was using too much contrast paint and not enough normal painting….. or they are just a bit pants ?

They had the zenithal spray but the skin was a bit too dark to work well with contrast – so I repainted the skin areas with a pale sand colour.

I did the clothing in browns, one I added a red to in order to change the tone a bit.

Then their small cloaks were done in a grey brown for one and an earthy green for the other.

I added the black facial band as per the studio scheme, and gave the hair a pale blue tint – and this did help bring them together somewhat. I may at some point give them some other tattoos… maybe…

I found some of the detail areas a little ‘vague’ on these ones. Maybe older sculpt, or the restic material.

I wouldn’t mind seeing more of the new plastic ones, to see how they compare.

But then it was painting the weapons, straps and teeth around their waists, tidying up fur edges and metal studs etc and they were done. I even added snow to these two as well ?

23^rd December 2023

Last up from the warband box are the Ice Kin hunters.

I painted the cloaks on these while working on the berserkers. For the colour schemes I decided on giving one a colder palette and the other a warmer one. The ‘cold’ got a black/grey cloak, dark blue main clothing with silver details and green underclothes. The warmer one had a brown cloak, light leather main clothing with gold accents, but again had green underclothes.

Like the other recent minis I wasn’t liking them, but eventually when adding the final touches the colour schemes seemed to work ok.

So that’s all 20 of the minis from the box painted. I now need to add snow to all the bases (only done it on the recent few), and get a group shot. (And magnetise the bases too).

Slim possibility of getting in a game before the end of the year…. But lets see what pans out.

24th December 2023

Magnetised all the gang yesterday (will need to roll out to the rest of my Vanguard at somepoint.

For the Yetis I initially tried gouging a socket in the MDF – but it was creating way too much dust for my liking.

Instead I decided to use some washers as shims and use them to raise the base 1mm so the magnets will fit.

Have to see how it goes, and maybe work out something different for the other big guy models perhaps

24th December 2023

With magnetising and applying my snow mix to all the bases my Northern Alliance warband set is complete ?

(May add a few tufts perhaps though)

Pics are a little yellowed due to the lighting available…..

Last thing will be some sort of battle report for Gerry ? No guarantees when, but I will have a go….

27th December 2023

Having magnetised the Northern Alliance it was time to go back and magnetise the two other warbands.

The Forces of the Abyss and Nightstalkers.

For the mantic bases I could glue the magnet in the indentation.

The forces of the Abyss bases were old 20mm gw ones, so for them I needed to glue in a washer to make up the depth.

I wasn’t overly happy with the magnetising on the Yeti bases, so decided to get some gear together for the other mdf bases.

Changed bit on my rotary tool and got a face mask, then created sockets for the magnets.

Much happier with these.

And here they are in the really useful storage box….

31st December 2023

Well, just about made it before the end of the year…..

Wife chose faction first and went for Nightstalkers.

Since the other new faction for this project was the Northern Alliance I chose them.

200pts, with supply grab mission.

Our set ups were roughly mirrored.

We both had two big guys (each had one as a commander) and they were shoring up the middle.

Then a couple of smaller groups of the flanks.

I moved my troops aggressively into the middle, first one clansman – trying to draw out wife’s Butchers.

She didn’t take the bait, so my line moved up as in the picture above.

Into the second turn, she decided to throw her troops forward, and we ended up with an ongoing melee in the middle. Power dice used up, fatigue added for retaliation etc.

On my left flank my Ice Kin hunter had some effective shooting, and a Huscarl engaged as well.

On my right one of her horrors took out my Naiad in a retaliation strike after I engaged the horror with the Naiad and a clansman.

Over the next few turns I whittled down her forces, loosing a couple in return.

My leader Snow Troll suffered 3 wounds in the middle, getting me worried – but eventually the Northern Alliance got the upper hand.

The Nightstalkers were on morale tests, and by the start of turn 5 the remaining horror fled the battlefield.

Had fun overall.

It did end up a bit of a whitewash, but could have easily turned in the middle of the game.

Stars for the northern alliance were the Snow Trolls, Huscarls and the Ice Kin hunter…… basically most of the non grunts.

I think we got most of the rules right though, and wife said she would play again – so that’s good ?