Dan’s 2025 Side Projects

This is one of the bigger Heroe’s models – it may in fact be the biggest (I can’t be arsed looking through every box to check).

The wing membranes were painted fenrisian grey then highlighted a few times with more and more white scar added each time.

The body was painted calgar sky, washed with drakenhof nightshade, then dry brushed caledor blue.

The teeth and horns were painted zandri dust then highlighted a few times with more and more screaming skull added each time.

The base was painted the same way as the other neutral units (see previous posts).

This model is supposed to be a diamond golem, but for the purposes of this month’s painting competition I’m turning it into a ice golem. That requires nothing more than a name change, as the sculpt and colour scheme work for ice just as easily as they do for diamond.

The model was painted fenrisian grey. It was then given a fairly harsh shade of fenrisian grey mixed with corvus black. Then a further shade was added using this mix with more corvus black added in. Similarly the model was given a harsh highlight of fenrisian grey mixed with white scar. Another highlight was added with this mixture with more white scar added in. A final highlight of pure white scar was applied.

The skirt was painted abaddon black, then warplock bronze. Then it was given a highlight of runelord brass followed by runefang steel.

The base was painted rhinox hide with a few highlights with increasing amounts of zandri dusk being mixed in each time.

The Tower faction were always my favourite when playing the computer game – three ranged units let me just sit back and shoot my enemy off the battlefield.

Lots of varied and vivid colours in this set…

All the models were undercoated grey seer. The gremlin skin was elysian green blended up with ogryn green. The gremlin robes were painted macragge blue blended up with calgar blue. The genie skin was painted the fang blended up with russ grey. The genie and mount blue clouds were painted lothern blue blended up with white scar. The red robes were painted mephiston red blended up with evil sunz scarlet. The brown leathers were painted steel legion drab blended up with kark stone. The horses were painted apothecary white. The yellow trims were painted averland sunset. The iron golem was painted warplock bronze blended up with runefange steel. The green magic was painted moot green blended up with white scar. The Naga’s swords were painted leadbelcher highlighted with runefang steel. The Naga and Titan skin were painted fenrisian greyblended up with pallid wych flesh. The gargoyle was painted corvus black blended up with administratum grey. The Naga snake tail and Titan skirt was painted naggaroth night blended up with pink horror. The Titan’s armour was painted retributor armour highlighted with auric armour gold.

The enchanter is a neutral unit from Heroes of Might and Magic 3; no faction can create them but you can recruit them in certain situations.

The clothes were painted naggaroth night and then highlighted with genestealer purple mixed in. The skin was bugman’s glow with kislev flesh mixed in for the highlighting. The hair was mournefang brown with skrag brown mixed in. The belt was dryad bark with gorthor brown mixed in for the highlights. The gold was retributor armour with auric armour gold used for highlighting.

The base was rhinox hide with zamesi desert mixed in for highlights. The rim was painted abaddon black.

A few glazes of druchii violet were applied to the bottom of the gold horns to simulate the light reflecting off the robes in the gold.

The magical explosion was painted with a mix of white scar and lothern blue, and then a wash of this mix was applied where light from the magic would land on the model.

I wanted these models to look drab and washed out, so I undercoated them mechanicus standard grey, and then for most of the colours, started with a 50:50 mix of the given colour and mechanicus standard grey and then highlighted up by adding in more of the colour each layer.

The skeletal areas used screaming skull. The zombie and vampire flesh used pink horror. The leather used gorthor brown. The red areas used either wild rider red or evil sunz scarlet. The zombies clothes used straken green and elysian green. The wood used doombull brown. The purple clothes used genestealer purple. The metal areas used ironbreaker. The black areas used abaddon black.

The lich’s metal areas got a wash of 50:50 carroburg crimson and druchii violet.

The bases and Necropolis were washed nuln oil. The rims were painted abaddon black.

The Ghost Dragon wings were painted white scar, and then highlighted with more and more lothern blue being added in.

The original plan was to undercoat these models mephiston red, as they’re clearly all red demons. That spray can had ran out, so I fell back on chaos black. That had run out too. So in the end they were sprayed mournefang brown. That turned out to be really great, as when you actually look closely at the art cards for these models (shown above) you will notice that brown is very much the dominant colour.

For nearly every colour used, the approach I took was to start with a 50:50 mix of that colour and mournefang brown, and for each subsequent layer I added in more of that colour to the mix. Each colour got about four or five layers of paint. In this way, most colours transition from mournefang brown in the recesses to the chosen colour. I think this replicates the artwork on the cards really well.

The imp, magog, and pit lord skin used wild rider red. The cerebus and demon fir used skrag brown. The demon, efreeti and devil skin used evil sunz scarlet. All horns and bone used screaming skull. The metal areas used sycorax bronze. The efreeti turban used flash gitz yellow. When painting these areas I tried to revers the highlights, i.e. make it look like the models were being lit from the glowing ground beneath them, rather than a high light source.

The rest of the painting didn’t blend with mournefang brown. The armour plates were simply painted abaddon black, as were the base rims at the end of the painting process. The flames were painted trollslayer orange (this took three coats to get good coverage) and then the recesses were painted flash gitz yellow. This was also used for all the eyes. The flames were then given a wash of casendor yellow.

The flames on the hero models didn’t get any yellow paint or wash, then were just washed with fuegan orange. The hero’s brown areas got a wash with agrax earthshade, and their reigns were painted mephiston red and washed carroburg crimson.

The bases and castle were dry brushed stormvermin fur with trollslayer orange painted into the recesses.

These are the final models for Aeon Trespass: Odyssey.

Clothing was a combination of apothercary white, black templar, basilicanum grey, and militarum green.

The armour was apothecary white with a small amount of iyanden yellow added in. I was trying to get a pale yellow, but there is obviously a bit of blue pigment in the apothecary white, so the result has a green tint to it.

The skin was painted guilliman flesh.

The red bits were blood angels red and the brunette’s hair was painted gore-grunta fur.

The bases were painted black templar with macragge blue rims.

The Ur Fleece was painted plaguebearer flesh all over. Then some bits were painted over with aethermatic blue to get a nice green colour. Some parts were then repainted wraithbone to make them pale again. Apothecary white was then used for the glaive, fish, claws and centre of the chest.

The Dragon of Phobos was painted aethermatic blue over the top 2/3 of its body. Wraithbone was then dry brushed over the bit near the bottom to give a better colour transition, as well as the tips of the claws and horns. Then plaguebearer flesh was applied to the bottom 1/3 of the body, the claws and horns, including over the bits that had been dry brushed. This gave (I think) a good colour transition. The tips of the tails were then painted apothecary white with a bit of volupus pink added in. The entire model was then dry brushed flayed one flesh. The inside of the mouth was painted volupus pink, the teeth painted wraithbone and the eyes abaddon black.

The Medukatos’ hair(?) and head tentacles were painted aethermatic blue. The body was painted apothecary white with a bit of volupus pink added in. The stomach was painted iyanden yellow. The limbs were painted plaguebearer flesh. The mouth and tongue were painted volupus pink. The body and stomach were dry brushed flayed one flesh. The teeth painted wraithbone and the eyes abaddon black. The eyes(?) on the tips of the tentacles were painted wraithbone.

The ruins and ships on the bases were painted skeleton horde. The rest of the bases were painted black templar and the rims macragge blue.