Die Hard Chaos General, Witch & some friends

With the Townscape complete, I finally have room on my desk to get back to painting miniatures. As a starting of point I decided to give a few special models extra attention before getting back to my usual army painting shtick. Front and center where two models from an order I placed with Die Hard Miniatures. Lets get started with my brand new Chaos General. 

A wonderful sculpt by Die Hard and, thanks to the latest General's Handbook, I can make an appropriate AoS warscroll for him.

Helgan Half Snake, wielding two blades and accompanied by an enraged Cockatrice, is a Kickstarter Exclusive miniature by Die Hard Miniatures. This company was founded by wargaming veterans Tim Prow, Chaz Elliot and Drew Williams (and assisted by illustrator Richard Luong). I got a fanboy induced buzz by getting to message about the models with Tim Prow. Way back in the eighties he was one of the 'Eavy Metal team's painters whose work I admired. I love how the internet gives you a chance to chat with someone you only read about way back then. But enough (hopefully not too) creepy fandom, lets move along to the miniature itself. The Chaos General is a metal model so it took a bit of extra care to glue it together. As a reward you get that nice, hefty old school weight. I decided to give Helgan a Slaanesh look, by going for a pink lower half. The top half was airbrushed with GW Incubi Darkness, and built up by mixing Kabalite Green in. I made the highlights by adding light grey to the mix and going for extra thin highlights.

Freehanding flowers on a bit of cloth was harder then I expected it to be. Will keep practicing. 

I decided to go a bit crazy on the highlighting and went for a more watery mix with multiple highlights. In order to get the contrast right, I painted the robe beneath the armor black, but it made the model a bit boring so I thought 'lets go full eighties' and went for a bright green to contrast with the pink. I also freehanded a flower pattern on the robe as I'm planning to go for a bit of Japanese kimono influenced models later on this year. I also freehanded a bit of a snakeskin pattern on the tail and extra veins on the (I got dipped thrice) cockatrice. I had a lot of trouble picking proper colors for that part of the model (and I'm still not 100% sold on the green). Its covered in varnish now (so hands of Merijn!). I can't wait to stick this guy on the tabletop. With the new 'create your own character rules' in AoS's latest General's Handbook I can actually do that. Ah the joys of non-competitive gaming.

I am very happy with my paint job on Lucrezia, but somehow the picture doesn't do it full justice. Time to read another 'how to take pictures of models' tutorial.

Second on my paint station was Lucrezia the Marsh Hag, another Die Hard Miniature from one of their Kickstarters. This model had so much detail it made my eyes water. In the end I decided to just apply green to the robes, brown to the cloak and wing it (this is always a good point to channel your inner Bob Ross and say "there are no mistakes, just happy little accidents"). After the basic tones were set and highlighted I had to wear my 'old man' Optivisor for most of the rest of the model. My eyes just couldn't make sense of the skulls, bones and threads on the model. After briefly contemplating Wizard of Oz style green skin, I decided to give her an unhealthy pale white skin-tone instead. I used Rakarth Flesh as a base color, washed with Reikland Fleshshade and then built the skin tone up with very thin layers of Pallid Wych Flesh.  

Sometimes drybrushing is the exact technique needed for a surface. Fur for example. 

I painted the cloak a base color of Vallejo Beastly Brown and then used a bit of drybrushing and select applications of wash to make it look reasonably rough. I build up the inside in a dark flesh color (Bugman's Glow) to give it a nasty 'flayed yesterday and worn on the same day' look. I look forward to using this model as a Necromancer for my Legion of Nagash. That makes two painted Die Hard Necromancers in my collection (both amazing). I still have a full unit of Die Hard skeletons sitting ready to be washed, glued and painted. I can't wait to get started on these (but there's also a bunch of Flesh Eater Court ghouls almost finished and I have some Lumineth Realm Lords demanding paint).

I am rather happy with Ember, but I can't shake the feeling I didn't do the model full justice.

Next up was Ember, she's a Wood Elf Archer from the first Die Hard Kickstarter I backed. She has returned to my paint station multiple times (with dips in between) as I constantly screwed up the paint job. I finally forced myself to just keep painting and finish the model. I don't think the paint job does the sculpt justice, but I don't think I can do a hell of a lot better. So I'll declare her finished and take pride in getting yet another model painted. 

I've finally applied paint to Pedrogo and should actually paint the rest of the Circle of Chaos as well.

As I was painting models that had been sitting around in primer too long, I picked up Pedrogo the Chaos Dwarf from the 2017 Circle of Chaos kickstarter that was organized by Ramshackle Games' Curtis Fell. I picked up a bunch of Oldhammer inspired models in that Kickstarter and aside from a Malal Daemon that I screwed up (or was that from the Pantheon Kickstarter?) I never really got around to applying paint to them. The trick to getting this dwarf colored consisted (as with most Dwarves) mostly out of painting it metallic and then picking out the few bits that did not have a metal look. 

I painted the glove a nice green and kept his dr. Claw like hand metal, seen from the back the effect works quite well. "I'll get you Gadget!"

Having practiced with thinner applications of highlight layers on the Die Hard models I went wild with the red cloak on this guy. It annoys me at a very basic level that GW's 'Eavy Metal team can make red keep its dark look, while highlighting it to what looks like bone color, and mine mostly turns out bright orange and washed out looking. I think I got a bit closer to unraveling the secret to non-orange reds (or at least approaching it to a level my amateur eyes are happy with) by not only highlighting the outer flaps of the cloak, but also darkening the inside folds of the fabric with a deeper red/brown. 

Over the top, silly and slightly crazy. I love troll slayers.

A while back I took all the metal (and some plastic) Dwarves I collected over the past half decade out of their plastic container and washed and primed them. I now have the option to grab random dwarves and paint them. This troll slayer is one of that lot. He's a hefty metal fellow (on a 32mm base) but full of character. During painting I discovered his left eye is closed as if blackened so I had a lot of fun trying to make it look puffy by applying little dots of black, blue and screamer pink (I was wearing my Optivisor anyway). It doesn't really show in the picture (and not in real life either) but I know its there and messing around with paints is an end onto itself. Isn't it? 

I am very chuffed with the highlights on the blue here. 

I was very happy with the highlights on his pants. Once again the 'multiple thin layers' approach is paying off. Look at me learning new skills! 

"Come closer troll, and feel my wrathful head!"

Last but not least I painted this old objective marker. A captured troll slayer. I think I'm going to call him Grugnar the Headbutter and use him in a regular unit some day. Attempting to headbutt trolls to death sound like a very Slayery thing to do after all (that and hum 'Raining Blood' all day). With this model I finish this roundup of painting regular models instead of buildings. Its a lot of fun to get back to painting small details. Aside from that, it is a good reminder to look at companies outside of GW regularly. There are some amazing, creative and wonderful sculpts out there and it makes your collection more interesting to add some 'outside forces' to it. Mirliton Goblin War Giant you will be mine some day...