Dan’s 2026 Side Projects

These were the last five models from the Heroes of Might and Magic 3 board game. I had planned to just quickly finish them off with contrast paints, but getting a golden button for this project and having Ben mention how much effort I’d been putting in motivated me to put in a bit more effort.

The greens were waaagh! flesh highlighted with skarsnik green. The browns were painted mournefang brown and highlighted with dethclaw brown. The bones were painted zandri dust and highlighted with screaming skull. The metal bits were painted ironbreaker and washed nuln oil. The black areas were painted corvus black and washed with nuln oil. The skin was painted bugman’s glow and highlighted up with kislev flesh. The stones were painted administratum grey.

The stone bases were painted rhinox hide and highlighted up with zamesi desert. The desert base was painted steel legion drab and highlighted up with balor brown then washed seraphim sepia. The base rims were painted abaddon black.

And with that, the Heroes of Might and Magic 3 models are done…

…except wave two arrived the same week these models made it on to my painting desk. I’d guess there’s just as many models in wave two as there were in wave one!

A very unusual mini from Heroes of Might and Magic 3, the faerie dragon.

The yellow parts of the body were painted averland sunset and highlighted flash gitz yellow. The rest of the body was painted screamer pink and highlighted pink horror. The claws and teeth were painted zandri dust and highlighted ushabti bone.

The wings were painted pink horror at the base and tips, with skarsnik green and flash gitz yellow bands in between. Each colour was blended into it’s neighbours to give a rainbow effect. The wings were then varnished with ‘ardcoat.

The tree on the base was painted mournefang brown and highlighted skrag brown. The mushrooms were painted mephiston red and then highlighted evil sunz scarlet. The grass was painted warboss green and then highlighted skarsnik green. The rocks were painted rhinox hide and highlighted up to zamesi desert. The rim was painted abaddon black.

The scales were painted jokaero orange, washed fuegan orange, then dry brushed trollslayer orange and then very lightly dry brushed ushabti bone.

The wing membranes were painted bugman’s glow, then a layer of cadian fleshtone and then kislev flesh.

The lower tier of the building the dragon stands on was painted dryad bark, then layered with doombull brown followed by tuskgor fur. The higher tiers were painted mechanicus standard grey with a highlight of administratum grey.

The base was painted rhinox hide and then highlighted up with more and more zamesi desert mixed in. The rim was painted abaddon black.

It’s been a while since I tried gold non-metallic metal. In fact, I’ve only done it once before and that was back in November 2020!

Midas Nymph

How time flies!

This time I started by painting the gold areas Rhinox Hide. I then transitioned to Deathclaw Brown, then Averland Sunset, then finally Screaming Skull. For each transition, I first did a layer of the first colour, then a layer of 3:1 mix, then 1:1, then 1:3, then finally a layer of the next pure colour. Each layer covered a slightly smaller area than the last. That’s right – I did 13 layers of paint for this effect.

The Mummy’s bandages where XV-88, highlighted with Tallarn Sand followed by Karak Stone.

The blue bits on the golem were Macragge Blue highlighted with Calgar Blue.

The sand bases were Steel Legion, highlighted with Balor Brown followed by Zamesi Desert. They were then given a wash with seraphim sepia. The rims were painted Abaddon Black.

The skin was painted death world forest, then layered up adding in first elysian green followed by ogryn camo.

The loin cloth was painted dryad bark and highlighted with doombull brown.

The rope belt was painted  xv-88 and highlighted tallarn sand.

The chunk of meat was painted mournefang brown and highlighted with skrag brown.

The bone was painted zandri dustb then highlighted with ushabti bone.

The hair on the Troll’s head and back were washed with athonian camoshade.

The base was painted rhinox hide and highlighted up with zamesi desert. The rim was painted abaddon black.

A fairly simple paint scheme for this one, although I tried my best to replicate the glow effect from within the Dragon’s chest.

The model was painted all over with screamer pink and then highlighted with  pink horrow and then pink horrow mixed with white scar.

The chest area was then painted with  flash gitz mixed with  white scar, highlighted up with more white scar added to each layer. Then I went back to the outer areas of the chest and repainted the higher areas with screamer pink.

The base was painted rhinox hide and highlighted up with zamesi desert. The rim was painted abaddon black.

I finished the Castle hero models which I forgot to do along with the rest of the Castle faction models. The colour scheme is detailed here: https://www.ontabletop.com/project-entry/1955682/

These are the last of the settlement models that I’d missed as I painted the various factions sets, plus the four campsite tokens.

They wee all undercoated grey seer.

The dragon utopia had its walls painted with gryph-hound orange and the roof tiles gore-grunta fur.

The campsite tokens were painted iyanden yellow, with gryph-hound orange painted over the top two thirds, and then blood angels red painted on to the tips. The bases were painted gore-grunta fur.

The three faction bases were all painted apothecary white to give some shading. The Rampart walls were then washed with agrax earthshade and the roofs painted gore-grunta fur.

The Dungeon was washed nuln oil.

The Fortress was painted athonian cammoshade.

The greenery on the bases were painted militarum green and the rocks on the bases skeleton horde. The base rims were painted abaddon black.