Reforging Age Of Sigmar Armies

Took a break from Stormcast to do more Fyreslayers with another character and some of the Hearthguard.

Some images of more of the miniatures painted over the last few months for Stormcast Eternals and more…

I have worked on two additional characters for my Anvils of the Heldenhammer, reworking the “grimdark” schemes to be more in line with the new faction I want to bring to the tabletop.

Above you have the old and new Knight-Arcanum, reworked for the Anvils of the Heldenhammer scheme. I quite liked the old one, especially with the object source lighting, but I also really like the black, red and gold.

We also have the Lord-Imperatant with his loyal gryph-hound also in their new and old schemes below.

I quite enjoyed working on the features of the Lord-Imperatant’s cloak and doing a bit more work on elements like the cloaks. I think the gryph-hound also looks more fun in that new scheme although the blue fur/feathers is something I want to return to.

So the first unit of Vindictors has been redone and revamped to match the new Anvils Of The Heldenhammer scheme. I have really enjoyed seeing this scheme come to life and whilst it’s a bit more involved compared to the grimdark one, it looks really nice when all of the miniatures are arrayed together.

The drybrush of dark blue over the black armour seems to work well and I am quite proud of the work done on the gold and the red. I have been making use of more than just Nuln Oil with these folks which is unheard of! I also liked painting up the various bare heads as well as the white helmets.

I also painted up a couple of character miniatures as you’ll have seen in the post before this. I finished off the basing for the Knight-Relictor and painted up the Knight-Arcanum which was one of the special releases from last month.

Again, I am really liking this scheme and it’s good to see the faction coming together. I have one more unit of Vindictors to revamp + another Knight-Arcanum and a Lord Imperatant. From there, we’d then move on to new miniatures which means another small win for the Spring Clean Hobby Challenge 2024.

I am nothing if not a hobby butterfly. With the coming of the new edition I had to rethink how I was going to be building up my Stormcast Eternals. With that in mind, I decided to tweak my old Thunderstrike miniatures with a new, official scheme.

Previously, my miniatures had been painted in a Grimdark style but with a liberal application of black spray I have started from the beginning again. This is how they looked before…

I liked the old scheme but it meant that I was somewhat locked in. I always liked the Anvils Of The Heldenhammer and so that’s where I’m starting when it comes to the new scheme.

It’s quite fun to do. Start with black, a drybrush of dark blue followed by accents of gold, red and silver. The bone helmet is quite fun as a draw to characters or champions and I’m quite happy with the final result.

As you can see, the factory line has begun…

…and it shouldn’t take me long to get a unit done once I set my mind to it. This is a little Spring Clean Hobby Challenge within a challenge in many ways.

Oh, and here is another of the characters I recently finished for my Anvils Of The Heldenhammer!

This is technically another spring clean project as he was picked up last year and has sat basically unpainted for months.

I have more Fyreslayer stuff to do as well but this has been fun!

I have now finished off the core focus of the spring clean hobby challenge and the Chosen Axes for Warhammer Underworlds are now done and dusted!

I really enjoyed working on these and nailing that classic scheme for the Fyreslayers. I rimmed the bases in black rather than brown to mark them out as being for a different game. It will no doubt annoy me when I come to include them in my larger army but that’s a problem for future Ben.

Now, I just need to work my way through a whole bunch of bonus Fyreslayers!

Finished all of the basecoats on my Warhammer Underworlds warband. Always dread this process on Fyreslayers as it’s a LOT of one or two colours. But, they are done now!

The core focus of this actual Spring Clean Hobby Challenge is the Fyreslayer’s Warhammer Underworlds warband. They are the miniatures that have gone through the ringer and I’m now working on…

I have done the work on the skin and the beards plus I’ve added the red where it needs to be. Next up will be detailing the weapons and getting them finished.

I’ve come to really enjoy adding lore and background to an army. I swear it makes them fight better on the tabletop. To that end, here is my current lore for my Fyreslayers focusing on the characters I have at the moment. I also like adding in friend’s armies as my foes so there’s some connective tissue in the games we play!

Mainfaction – Vostarg
Subfaction – Stoutborn’s Slayers

During the early portions of the Realmgate Wars when Sigmar unleashed his Stormhost back into The Mortal Realms to cleanse the forces of Chaos from Aqshy, The Vostarg Lodge was first and foremost amongst the Fyreslayers to lend their aid, for a good settlement of Ur-gold of course. Amongst the lodge, Gelvarg and the Stoutborns found themselves besting many of Sigmar’s enemies but during one unfortunate battle, Gelvarg and his kin were abroad fighting Khorne’s warriors only to return to their Magmahold which had been ransacked by Ogors in their absence.

The only survivors of the Magmahold were Gelvarg Stoutborn and his ally Ulrorri Gleamcrest. They also found the broken body of Smurgi Boldsunder amongst the ruins, his axes still clutched in dying hands. After recuperating, Stoutborn took on the role of a Grimhold Exile and Boldsunder that of a Doomseeker, looking for vengeance. Gleamcrest, meanwhile, did what he could to guide the two hot-headed Duardin, directing their anger and fury.

To this day, Stoutborn’s Slayers range Aqshy, following the trail of the Ogor Mawtribe that ransacked his home. They know not who the true warlord was that led the army that day but with every warband of Ogors Stoutborn finds, he “questions” any survivors, seeking the truth and the real source of his vengeance.

• Auric Runemaster – Ulrorri Gleamcrest
• Grimhold Exile – Gelvarg Stoutborn
• Doomseeker – Smurgi Boldsunder

That’s it so far but I’m going to work on doing a bit more lore for these fellows and maybe see if they can get into a bit of battle report action.

One of the nice things about this hobby is that you can just strip your miniatures and start again. I’ve done that multiple times with my miniatures as you can see below!

As you can see, that Warhammer Underworlds warband has been purple and then it got turned into the grimdark scheme you see below!

It is going to be fun re-vamping them once again to work with the brighter scheme for the Fyreslayers. I will admit I do kinda like that older grimdark scheme and it was a fun experiment but it’s time for a change!

I also managed to get some images of my old Doomseeker paint scheme and as you can see, he has turned into something a lot brighter and deadlier!

As my painting skills have changed and developed over the years, I’ve liked approaching things from different perspectives. I’m now finding quite the joy in painting things to “match” a given scheme in the books from GW.

There will always be a space for grimdark and other ideas but I quite like the idea of trying to challenge myself with those brighter schemes once again.

With that in mind, I needed to have a look at what I already have and what needs tweaking. That Warhammer Underworlds warband that you have already seen is on the “spring cleaning” block and is going to be getting a new coat of paint.

They have now been given a new coat of paint, undercoated in Wraithbone, and will be on the painting desk soon. I am looking forward to revisiting the miniatures with the new scheme. It’s something that I have done before but it’s good to get a reset here.

Some more older miniatures have also been repainted for this updated army. I took the old Doomseeker and Auric Runemaster that were once part of The Silver Tower have been repainted to match the new Lodge paint scheme.

I have also started working through a whole bunch of older miniatures and taking another shot at them. A lot of these were originally undercoated black as I was going to be painting them with red skin. But, I changed my mind and they have now been painted up to match the new Lodge as above.

The first idea I had when it came to my Fyreslayers was to craft them to match Lodge Caengan and paint them to look like Duregar, more familiar in games like Dungeons & Dragons.

You can see how those older miniatures looked here in the previous project and below.

Whilst I liked the idea of painting my Duardin purple, I revisited the Fyreslayers earlier this year as an army and potential ally of my Stormcast Eternals. That meant that I found myself wanting to re-work the paint scheme and so out came the Dettol and so began the stripping.

My idea is to now take these miniatures and paint them up to match Lodge Vostarg, the classic pale-skinned and flaming red-haired scheme of the Fyreslayers.