Painting Lord-Arcanum on Gryph-charger

Recently, I bought some Sacrosanct Stormcast Eternals models from a friend that decided to sell them because they are being moved to Legends. I was OK with that (I liked the models anyway and I don't play competitively); It was a small army (just a bit over 1000 points) and it was nicely painted as well. I especially liked the Sequitors, because I could easily play them as Liberators. However, there was one model that wasn't painted: Lord-Arcanum on Gryph-Charger. 

I have always loved Stormcast heroes on Gryph mounts. I own Lord-Vigilant from the Skaventide box and I'm really looking forward to painting him. However, I think that Lord-Arcanum is probably the best-looking of those mounted heroes. The pose is really dynamic and there's a lot of interesting surfaces on the model (armour, cloth, skin, feathers, etc.). 

As I have already mentioned, Lord-Arcanum was the only model in this small army that was not painted, so I decided to change that immediately. I really enjoyed this paintjob: the model is interesting to paint and the painting scheme is different from my Thunderstrike Stormcast (I painted him to match the rest of the Sacrosanct models). Actually, I am so satisfied with the final result, that I believe this is probably one of the best paintjobs I've done this year.       

Abraxia and some other things

This week, I finally managed to find "Abraxia's Varanspear" set that contains Abraxia and 3 Varanguard. This set was very hard to find - none of the stores where I buy Warhammer miniatures had any in stock (it was out of stock with GW as well). Finally, I found one in a local WH shop. I assembled it yesterday and will assemble the Varanguard in the next few days. Abraxia's model is really beautiful:

Ever since the 2nd edition of "Age of Sigmar", I wanted to play Archaon's elite army - but aside from Archaon and one unit of Varanguard, I have never fully assembled it (main reason is that I've prioritized finishig some other armies over that one). However, it stayed on my "to-do list" all this time and I have never abandoned the idea. As soon as I've seen Abraxia, I knew it's time to finally finish "Swords of Chaos" army. Oh, and let's not forget the fact that in the new edition of Age of Sigmar, "Swords of Chaos" is army of renown, composed only of Archaon. Abraxia and Varanguard (with some awesome rules as well). I really can't wait to finally bring that army to the table - even unpainted (there's already a lot of stuff in the pipeline right now). 

Oh, and here are also some pictures of one of the endless spells for Disciples of Tzeentch (Daemonic Simulacrum):

Painting terrain - Sacrificial Rocks

During the last few weeks, I have been working on some terrain pieces. Actually, I got quite a few of them from a friend who wanted to get rid of most of his wargaming terrain (for both WHFB/AoS and WH40K), so he kindly gave all that stuff to me. There were some really cool terrain pieces in that lot; the most interesting is probably Warscryer Citadel/Skullvane Manse (click here for pictures). I did a lot of work on the Citadel but it's not done yet (however, I expect to finish it soon because there's not much work left to do). Besides that, I managed to do a quick refresh/repaint for the Sacrificial Rocks from the GF9 (that were also part of the lot). Their original color scheme is very dark and I wanted more contrast and brighter colors. I repainted the bases, added mossy effect and made the rocks much lighter (by drybrushing several highlights). Here's the final result:

I find it funny that I was thinking on buying some terrain pieces later this year, to have bit more variety and also be able to build some futuristic-looking terrain for WH40K. These terrain pieces came out of nowhere and saved me a lot of money. Now I can build some great looking battlefields (for both AoS and WH40K). 

Saurus Warriors

As I have mentioned in one of my earlier posts, a while ago I have decided to start Seraphon army. It is slowly starting to take shape - I have finished painting a unit of Saurus Warriors earlier this month, as I want to try playing Seraphon in Spearhead format when AoS 4E comes out. I really like the new Seraphon models (all of them, really) and besides the unit shown on the pictures below, I will have one more unit - but armed with spears. 

Knight-Judicator and Gryph-Hounds

Today I have finished one more model for my Stormcast Eternals army. This time, it's Knight-Judicator and his Gryph-hounds:

While this guy might be carrying a small ballista (that's a pretty damn big bow!), I really like his dynamic, heroic pose and the two doggos. I have always liked the fact that Stormcast Eternals had a wide array of different beasts/animals they used either as mounts, or as a fully functional units. I have an unpainted unit of six Gryph-hounds and I am really looking forward to using it in a battle (mostly just because they look really cool).

I am returning to painting Seraphon now, because I want to have a Spearhead army ready for the new edition of Age of Sigmar :)  

My Stormcast Eternals army (so far)

One of the armies that I play is Stormcast Eternals. I've always loved the idea of heavily armored warriors, but I've never liked the original Stormcast models that much. I always thought they were a bit comical and I also wasn't a fan of their proportions. Sarcosanct models looked a bit better, but for me - something was still missing. However, everything changed when I saw Thunderstrike Stormcast. These models had great proportions and looked way more menacing. I fell in love with Knight-Vexilor and Annihilator models as soon as they were previewed with the rest of the Dominion box. These models were also the reason why I started collecting Stormcast Eternals. 

And so, what started as a small army is now decent-sized Thunderstrike Stormcast collection based around Annihilators. I really love Annihilator models and the fact that you could play them as battleline in Knights Excelsior army made them even better! I have painted most of the models, but there's still a few  more units to go until everything is completed. The colour scheme I have chosen is variation of the Ghyran Guard scheme from the army book (and the idea behind the army is that these warriors are sworn to Alarielle and protect some of the Sylvaneth groves). This scheme is simple, but looks good on the table; I was able to replicate it easily and quickly paint full units - this gave me a lot of motivation to keep painting more. One thing that made these models really stand out were the bases. In this case, I chose pre-made "Temple" bases from GamersGrass. Below you can see how a finished Annihilator model looks like:

And now's the time for some "group photos" of the models that I have painted so far:

As I mentioned, there's a few more units I own that I haven't painted yet (including some more Annihilators). I am really looking forward to the new Stormcast models that will be introduced in 4th edition, because they are clearly the continuation of this aesthetic that I really like - dark, menacing warriors in heavy armor. I think they are going to be a great addition to my army :)

Belthanos, First Thorn of Kurnoth

Recently, a good friend of mine surprised me and gave me Belthanos, First Thorn of Kurnoth as a present. I haven't added anything to my Sylvaneth army for a while and when Belthanos was announced, I immediately fell in love with the model. So when I got the present, I assembled it the very next day and started painting immediately. Sylvaneth are my primary army and I enjoy painting them - and this model was no exception. I was eager to get him ready as soon as possible, so I managed to get it fully painted only few days after I got it. You can see the finished model on the pictures below:

Kairos Fateweaver

Recently, I have finished painting my Kairos Fateweaver. This paintjob took a while - I was working on this model in many sessions over the course of 6 months (maybe even a bit more than that). I had a very clear idea of what I wanted to achieve and wanted to work slowly and methodically, to get the desired effect. You can see the final result on the pictures below: 

In case that you are wondering about the symbols on his book - that is an actual word written in the runes of the Dark Tongue of Chaos (it translates to "Knowledge"). I have many old rulebooks lying around and I use them often for references. Hordes of Chaos and Beasts of Chaos army books from WHFB 6th edition have a cool section describing the Dark Tongue and Chaos Runes. This was a great opportunity to use those runes on a model. I am very happy about the end result and the model looks absolutely great on the battlefield (especially if you pair it with a Lord of Change). 

My Khorne Army - it is done!

And here it is - my Khorne army is now fully painted! This was my main hobby project for 2023 and I am very happy that I completed it. If you follow this blog, you were able to see how the the army slowly took shape, since I made several posts about it over the course of the year. My plan is to use this army primarily as Blades of Khorne army for Age of Sigmar, but I also want to play it as Daemons of Chaos army for Warhammer 40K and older editions of WHFB (and The Old World probably, since Daemons will get a PDF on release date). 

Back in March, I wrote an article about dealing with my pile of shame (you can find the article here). In that article, I stated that the approach that worked for me was painting models in smaller sessions few times per week. For the past 18 months, this approach worked really well - and I want to keep it that way. Actually, it worked so well that I managed to paint quite a few models besides my Khorne daemons:

• Bastian Carthalos
• Knight-Vexillor with Banner of Apotheosis
• Lord-Imperatant
• a unit of Plaguebearers
• Chaos Knight Rampager
• Chaos Kinght Huntsman (almost done)
• Kairos Fateweaver (almost done)
• new Daemon Prince model (almost done)

As you can see, it's a mix of heroes, units and large models, which required a lot of work and different approaches. Some of these models were not featured on the blog - so I will fix that mistake and take some nice photos in the next couple of weeks. The models which are not fully complete are around 90% done - but I had to stop working on them in order to finish painting Khorne Daemons; I plan to finish Kairos and Daemon Prince by the end of January. 

And now, here are some group photos:  

I hope to be able to play my first game before the end of the January - I can't wait to see my models on the table. I'm a bit worried about AoS rotation that is likely to happen this summer (because I really like the new Blades of Khorne battletome and after seeing what was done to WH40K in 10th edition I don't know what to expect from the rotation). Anyway, time will tell - but I will try to get as many games as possible.

 

So, what would be the next steps for this army? I have half-painted set of Khorne Judgements and Skull Altar that I want to paint next. After that, I would like to add some more Bloodletters to my army - probably one or two units, but that's probably all I am going to add this year. However, I want to have a horde of Bloodletters at some point in the future! I think it would be fun and it would look great on the table - after all, that's how I'm imagining the proper Khorne army would look like. Another Bloodthirster and few more Bloodcrushers would also be nice - but not right now. I have already set my hobby goal for 2024 - but I that's something I'm going to cover in the next post. Until then, stay tuned and... Blood for the Blood God!