It’s time now to check in detail what the members of the Chaos hordes have been able to accomplish.
Chaos Alliance Checkpoint 1
Our evil friends have been working very hard. The gods of Chaos are dancing in rejoice…
Javi
Undisputable leader in the campaign progression, Javi has managed to overcome with huge margin the painting objective for this month. Let’s see what he has to tell us about this unusual progress:
¡Here we are, the first checkpoint!
In truth, I’ve managed very well myself, I’ve painted much more than I expected!
I have maaaaaaaany Chaos Dwarves to paint (well, maybe not so many, but more than the 1000 points of the campaign :P), so I thought that depending on my painting pace I could maybe try to paint all of them in the campaign, I must have more than 2500 points, so I must do practically double what my companions are doing to meet my personal goal.
With this assumption, I had to prioritize speed, so I chose a fast painting style, tabletop no doubt, trying to spend more time with the main pieces of the army.
The warriors have been very pleasant to paint, and using true metals, I was able to do them really quickly. A simple and pretty design, my favourites of the army no doubt.
On the other side, the ‘k´daai fireborn’, I had a lot of trouble painting these and I did what I could. I don’t feel very proud of these!To improve their look overall and increase the coherence of the block I made some lava bases, quite outstanding and great for the army overall. I think this was a great idea despite the great amount of time I spent doing them. I almost had to change the idea half way, I’m glad I did it!
The next miniature is going to be the main piece of my Chaos Dwarves, Drazoath, as he is the reason I started collecting these dwarves and one of my favourite miniatures from all the GW/FW catalogue, so I’ll dedicate more care to this one than what I spent on the rest. 🙂
I get to this first checkpoint with almost 1000 painted points, so I’m very happy, let’s see if I manage to continue at this pace and keep with the deadlines. Wish me luck! See you in the next Checkpoint!
Javi updated his plans and increased 500 points over the original plan. The guy is even mocking us… ‘let’s see if I manage to continue at this pace and keep with deadlines’… oh my… XD
However, we should also take into account the painting standard… 🙂
Armando
In the realm of blood, the god sitting on the skull throne is anxious for Armando to continue at the current pace. However, he asks for a bit more blood if possible, he never gets enough of that. Let’s see what Armando has to say about his gore lovers.
In this first stage of the campaign, I decided to start painting the basic troops of my army. On the one hand, I would be done with the largest number of the miniatures in this first phase, and then afterwards I could dedicate more time to the characters and have enough time for the 500 points for August.
On the other hand, apart from executing the first tests of the colour scheme, I could also try painting tabletop miniatures and also serially. This is the first time I paint this way and I was not entirely sure of how to do it.
Once I decided the colours I would use for the army, it has been very fast and fun I have to say. Assuming there would be imperfections in the models because of painting this way, everything became easier for me.
In a Khorne army, the colour plan is very simple, mainly red and gold. In the case of the Bloodreavers, there are also many skin areas. I chose to do some NMM without many complications. As for the bases, I think I will leave them for a later phase and try to do them all at the same time, together with the rest of the units.
In general I am quite pleased with the result. As I say, this is the first time I paint this way and I am enjoying it very much.
Next unit: Blood Warriors.
Armando is basically complying with Khorne’s commands, skull by skull. ‘So say we blood.’
Phobos
The disciples of Tzeentch adore change. To embrace this, Phobos has decided to change his marital status and get married before the first Checkpoint. Of course, married to a Tzeentch acolyte, as it should be. His painting pace is also not bad according to his progress counter. Let’s see what he has to say.
First of all I had to be able to comply with at least a miniature before the first voluntary Checkpoint, because I will not be able to work on the project for a couple of weeks (the things you do for marriage). That is why I decided to begin with one of the heroes, the smallest one that is 120 points and that will let me get an idea of the time that I can invest in each miniature with an acceptable result. Since the objective is to build more than 1000 points, I didn’t want to extend the work too much in specific areas and I looked more for the effect than the smoothness, so that miniatures look good at gaming distance.
Since the miniature is made out of two main pieces, I separated them for a more comfortable painting. The first step I took, and this is common to all the army, is double priming. I first prime the whole model in black, and then, once dry, I prime in white over the top, simulating light. This will help me to have intense colours in the lights and at the same time, have the shadows and gaps painted without effort. A great time saver!
The next step was mainly work by airbrush, and it consisted in working on the cape, which is the element that occupied the largest surface, and which I considered that it would take the longest time. Therefore, I used Phtalo Blue from Golden to apply the basecoat and then highlighted with Vallejo’s Sky Blue. I wanted to achieve a very saturated and contrasted result with the army, and I think that is a good start. I also applied airbrush layers of the same blue and Old Pink by Vallejo mixed with Violet Red to the platform where the shaman is standing. For the trunk I used Emerald from Golden and some shadows with Black Red by Vallejo. This would be the end of the airbrush work after a bit more than an hour (apologies for not having a photo of the airbrush work alone).
With the brush now I applied basecoats to the rest of the miniature, mainly the golden parts, purples in the area of the eyes and the part of the trunk with Old Pink by Vallejo.
The following formula will be used for the gold of the whole army. Snakebite Leather by Citadel and a bit of Matt Yellow by Vallejo. If the armour has many gaps, such as this one, I apply washes with heavily dilluted Brown Ink, in this case Burnt Sienna by Liquitex. I do a sketch of where I want the deepest shadows to be with purple ink and Snakebite Leather. I do the same with the lights, in this case is Ice Yellow with a bit of Yellow. My intention is to highlight the areas where I don’t really care that everything is smooth. I also do not care if I lose saturation, if I go over too much with the Ice Yellow because afterwards I will apply some glazes with Yellow on the areas of strongest light. I also do not worry too much that everything is too saturated with inks, I will apply matt medium from Vallejo afterwards.
I like to edge highlight in light and shadow throughout the whole process, especially when working in NMM to be able to follow progress. In this area I worked for a couple of hours to achieve a result I would be happy with. Once this was done, I went over the areas that were incomplete and that I saw as less important to waste as little time as I could. Basecoat, wash, and then highlights prioritizing the long distance effect over smoothness.
And this is the end result after highlighting lights and shadows and applying a few lightspots with White from Golden. I am very happy with the result even if I have to optimize the process to make it faster for units of 20 miniatures. Hopefully this will be done after this first checkpoint, when I have more time for the project.
In the next Checkpoint I will show you a more detailed step by step article on the golden areas. Excuse the few photos shared but haste is never good for organization.
Change, change, change. This is the way of Tzeentch. Phobos obeys, and makes some changes to his list. This is now his plan:
And thus ends the Reign of Chaos. For now…
To complete the Checkpoint 1 summary, we need to see what the Order guys have been able to accomplish. Stay tuned!
