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.       

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 :)

More painted Stormcast

Recently, I have painted some more Stormcast Eternals models. I really enjoy painting Stormcast, because they can be painted fairly quickly and the models look very good even with a simple paint scheme. Even if you go for the basic battle-ready look (most of which usually involves just painting the armour and applying wash all over it) you should be able to get pretty good results. But if you spend just a bit more time, add a few highlights and work out some finer details, you will get some really beautiful models.  Over the past 8 months, I was able to paint over 1500 points of Stormcast Eternals (which is pretty fast - for me). I wrote recently about how much I've accomplished by doing the work in small batches and this is especially true with Stormcast models, because once you are able to reproduce your paint scheme, you should be able to paint the whole army in no time. Also, the models are bulky and unit sizes are small, which also helps. 

Below are the pictures of models I have painted recently. 

Battle report: Stormcast Eternals vs. Orruk Warclans (1000 points)

Few weeks ago, I played my first game of Age of Sigmar after a while. My friend Nemanja, with whom I have played Warmachine for years, finally decided to give AoS a try, so he assembled a 1000-point Ironjawz army. I played my Stormcast Eternals army - actually, this is the first time I am playing them! Also, my army was almost fully painted, so that was additional motivation for choosing Stormcast over some of my other armies. 

Since this was Nemanja's first game of AoS and my first game after a long break, we decided to use only battleplans, battle tactics and grand strategies from the Core Book (in order to reduce the complexity as much as possible).

Here are the lists:

ORRUK WARCLANS (IRONJAWZ)

LEADER

Orruk Megaboss (140) - General, Mega Bossy
Orruk Warchanter (115)
Orruk Weirdnob Shaman (90) - Arcane tome 

BATTLELINE

Orruk Ardboys (170)
Orruk Brutes (160)

OTHER

Ironskull’s Boyz (80)
Orruk Gore-gruntas (170)

STORMCAST ETERNALS (KNIGHTS EXCELSIOR)

LEADER

Lord-Imperatant (175) - General, Shock ad Awe
Knight-Vexillor with Banner of Apotheosis (160) - Arcane Tome

BATTLELINE

3 x Annihilators (180)
3 x Annihilators (180)
5 x Vindictors (130)
5 x Vindictors (130)

ROUND 1

I have the priority and I decide to let Nemanja go first. He moves up the board and scores his chosen battle tactic - "Seize the Center". On my turn, I choose battle tactic "Break their spirit" and I put Arcane Shield on one unit of Vindictors. Annihilators arrive at the end of movement phase, dealing enough damage with Blazing Impact to kill one Gore-Grunta. Lord-Imperatant shoots and deals single point of damage to another Gore-Grunta. Both units of Annihilators charge: one fails the charge, but the other one deals just enough mortal wounds to kill the wounded Gore-Grunta and the last member of the unit is killed during combat. 

End of round 1

ROUND 2

Nemanja wins the priority and decides to go first and chooses battle tactic "Broken ranks". He then casts Arcane Bolt on Annihilators (dealing 1 mortal wound), puts Mystic Shield on his Boyz, but fails to roll good range for Green Puke. Warchanter gives 'Ard Boyz "Get 'em beat!". Boyz charge Vindictors and use All-out Attack, while I use All-out Defense. However, despite many successful attacks, Boyz score only a single wound on Vindictors. Meanwhile, Annihilators kill two Brutes, but loose one of their own as well. On my turn, I choose "Repel" as my battle tactic. Both units of Vindictors and Lord-Vexillor attack the Boyz, but manage to kill just a couple of them. Annihilators kill one more Brute, while the second unit of Annihilators runs, trying to get to somewhere relevant. 

Lord-Imperatant and his trusty gryph-hound observe the battle

ROUND 3

Nemanja wins the priority again. His battle tactic is "Repel". Ironskull's Boyz charge the Vindictors and join the melee in near the center of  the table. Shaman decides to charge the Annihilators. Ironskull's boys actually roll very good and kill 3 Vindictors, while Shaman does nothing (no surprise there) and is then beaten to death. On my turn, I return all 3 of the slain Vindictors using Knight-Vexillor's banner. I manage to kill most of the 'Ard Boys, while Annihilators take over one of the objectives on the other side of the table (which was my battle tactic as well - "Conquer"). 

End of round 3

However, at this point we had to finish the game. We counted the victory points, and Stormcast won with the score 11 - 6. Despite Orruks ending up in a tough spot by the end of turn 3, both Nemanja and I were really satisfied with the game. I like that the Stormcast are versatile army and can provide multiple playstyles, but most of all I like the fact that I can play a lot of heavy infantry in a single list (it's obvious that Trollblood bricks were my main choice back when I played Warmachine :D). Annihilators are great and with a bit of luck, the turn where they arrive from Azyr can be devastating (and having  Lord-Imperatant helps them quite a bit).
 
UPDATE: Soon after this game, we played a rematch with the same lists and it was a very different game - Nemanja had a much better understanding of his army now. Stormcast managed to win again, but the game went back and forth and we both suffered heavy casualties. Megaboss is a real beast and as soon as he kills a unit or two things get very nasty! We will probably add a bit more variety in one of our next games with some of the scenarios from latest General's Hadbook. Stay tuned! 

Painting Stormcast Eternals Annihilators - alternate scheme

Few months ago, I have decided to build a small Stormcast Eternals army. As I have mentioned in one of my previous posts, I really like the look of Thunderstrike Stormcast, so I based the army primarily on those models - or, to be even more precise, on Annihilators. When I realized that you could play Annihilators as Battleline troops in Knights Excelsior army, it was easy to choose which Stormhost to play. So I ended up with Stormcast models from Dominon set and several units of Annihilators on top of that :D 

I opted for gold armour on most of the miniatures because since I painted Custodes, I was very confident that I could paint similar colour scheme fairly quickly. However, for my general (Lord-Imperatant) and one unit of Annihilators I wanted to do something else - I wanted them to be different from the rest of the army. I wanted the general to stand out anyway, but then I got the idea of him having some kind of "honor guard" or his most trusted warriors. Since I did not like the original Knights Excelsior colour scheme (the one with bright white armour), I experimented a bit until I found alternative scheme that I liked a lot. You can see the result on the pictures below.

If you are interested in painting the armour on your Stormcast (or some other miniatures) in a similar way, here's how to do it:

• the miniature was primed with white primer
• an all-over wash of GW Nighthaunt Gloom was applied (for bit lighter colour, you can also apply a mix of Nighthaunt Gloom and Lhamian Medium)
• apply a light drybrush of Vallejo Wolf Gray all over the armour
• add edge highlights to armour plates using GW White Scar

Lord-Imperatant will share the same colour scheme, but he is not finished yet - as soon as that happens, I will post the pictures. 

Yndrasta, the Celestial Spear

In one of my previous posts, I mentioned taking a break when working on a particularly complex paintjob and painting something completely different during that break. This was an advice on miniature painting that have read somewhere long time ago - but started using it only recently. Now I wish I've done that earlier!

In the past, I've struggled a lot with some of the models that I've painted, because certain phases of the process were either very complex and demanding or easy but time-consuming (and usually, utterly boring). Also, there were situations when I had time to paint, but I simply did not feel like it. In all of these situations, I usually pushed myself to continue working on the model - but, on multiple occasions, that led to the results that I was not happy with. And it's really bad f you take a look at the model later, knowing that you half-assed it. It's normal to burn out a bit when you work on something demanding for a longer periods of time, but forcing yourself is really not the solution. What I should have done was taking a break. And during that break, you either do something else and leave painting aside, or (if you still want to paint) you work on a different model. There is a good chance that you will feel refreshed and motivated when you return to the model that you were originally working on.   

And that is exactly what I did when I decided to make a break from painting Be'lakor, the Dark Master.

As I have mentioned in my previous post, I really enjoyed working on Be'lakor. I have also painted most of the model very quickly (which motivated me a lot), but when I needed to paint his wings, I had to stop and think on what exactly I wanted to do with them. And because I liked the model a lot, I did not want to hurry. And so - I made a break.

During this break, I did a bit of research on how to paint demonic wings (by looking at a lot of pictures of not only Be'lakor, but other similar models as well) and I kept momentum when it comes to painting by working on Yndrasta, the Celestial Spear. I knew from the start how I wanted to paint Yndrasta and I also knew that I could finish the model fairly quickly. The whole paintjob took 6 - 8 hours (done as multiple smaller sessions over the course of the week) and I was very satisfied with the result. In the same time, working on something entirely different kept the painting (as an activity) fresh and fun. It is important to note that, if you want to do something similar, this "plan B" should be a less complex/smaller model - it may not be a good idea to switch from working on one complex model to another. I would aim for something smaller in scope, that would shake the things up and give you an opportunity to actually finish something. The worst possible scenario is to start working on two difficult models - and give up on both of them out of frustration.

 

So, here's how my Yndrasta looks like:

And since I have figured out how I want Be'lakor's wings to look like - I can't wait to finish the model now!

Painting Stormcast Eternals Annihlators

Recently I painted two units of Annihilators for my small Stormcast Eternals army. I wanted to take a break from working on Kairos Fateweaver and I was also pretty confident that after painting Adeptus Custodes, I was able to quickly paint gold armour. 

I really like the Annihilators - actually, I like a lot of the new Stormcast models that were released when the Age of Sigmar 3rd edition came out. However, the Annihilators with shields and Knight-Vexillor with Banner of Apotheosis really stand out. Initially, I bought a unit of annihilators because I wanted to use them as allies for my Sylvaneth or Idoneth, but I ended up building a 1000-points Knights Excelsior force (because I like the idea of all-paladin army). Below you can see the picture of one of the units I painted.

I wanted to keep the paint scheme simple and effective, and use the shields as the main contrasting part of the miniature. The general process is described below: 

• Miniatures were primed with GW Retributor Gold
• Armour was washed with GW Contrast Gore-Grunta Fur
• Armour was drybrushed with GW Retributor Gold
  
• Armour was drybrushed with Vallejo Game Color Polished Gold
• Armour was highlighted with Vallejo Game Color Silver
  
• Chainmail was painted with Vallejo Game Color Silver and washed with GW Nuln Oil
• Hammers were painted with Vallejo Game Color Gunmetal, washed with GW Nuln Oil and then highlighted with Vallejo Game Color Silver
• Shields were painted with Stormvermin Fur and washed with several layers of Nuln Oil
• Central part of each shield was painted with GW Moot Green, washed with GW Contrast Warp Lightning and highlighted again with Moot Green. 
• Belts and leather straps were painted with Vallejo Game Color Leather Brown and highlighted with GW Cadian Fleshtone

With this colour scheme, I was able to work very quickly: in total, I spent about 2 hours on each model, including basing.