Community Spotlight: Kings Of War, Fantasy Samurai & Trench Terrain

Come and join us for another delve into the Projects to find the best of the best from the last week or so. We’ll be getting stuck into lots of great-looking miniature wargaming painting and hobbying this week…

…always let us know what YOU have been working on and share it across the site.

Kings Of War by zoidpinhead

We start off this week with a project by zoidpinhead, who has been writing an awesome series of articles for us over the past month or so about getting stuck into Kings of War. This is the project that sits alongside that series of articles and offers more insights and hobby.

The recent additions to the project have covered the formation of the army that zoidpinhead is going to be using for this adventure into the world of Pannithor. There are some great tutorials and step-by-step guides in this project AND in the articles, all about getting your Abyssal Dwarfs ready for the tabletop and in fine fashion too.

I have also really liked the battle report and the learning game that zoidpinhead put together recently.

You can do all of the theorycrafting in the world but until you get a game onto the tabletop and actually play it, you'll not know if it's going to work or not. This was a great initial game to follow along with, as it talked through the game and zoidpinhead's thoughts, plus brought up some talking points for future endeavours.

Whilst this was an initially solo foray into Kings of War, it made zoidpinhead think about the fine margins that you get in games like Kings of War and how to watch out for mistakes in the future. They did win. A solo game. But, it's still a win. Make sure to keep an eye out for more from zoidpinhead in the future as part of this project and the article series.

Bushido by redvers

redvers is back with plenty more from their collection of Bushido miniatures, showing off all of the bright colours in action across several different miniatures.

The focus in July was all about completing Bushido miniatures. One of them that really caught my eye was Satou Hatchi, one of the skeletal samurai from the Bushido range. I really like the classic red for the samurai armour, which is very iconic. That, combined with the eerie purple smoke, helps to sell the vibe behind the miniatures.

More miniatures then joined the collection in the form of two halves of the Bushido Starter Set. Here we have the Hozumi family...

...and the Kiyozumi family

The two nicely contrasting colours really help to draw the eye to the details of each of the miniatures. I love the warmer reds and oranges of the Hozumi family and how it sits against the colder tones of the green from the Kiyozumi. This also helps to show off the depth offered as part of the Bushido range, with very classically standard samurai alongside some larger-than-life characters.

I think picking out the purple faces in the dark smoke within the Hozumi character's magical spell was particularly inspired. I would have just drybrushed that and left it as it is. Going that extra step with the painting really helps. A good tip for a smaller, skirmishing force.

Trench Crusade Terrain by Scarhandpainting

We finish off this week by checking out some more stunning terrain building by the talented scarhandpainting. They have been doing more for the Grimdark world of Trench Crusade and built a board based on a piece of artwork that sparked a fun idea.

The artwork in question that prompted this terrain project was the Steel Necropolis, which shows a tank graveyard beneath the rising sun. A bloody and broken landscape is littered with the corpses of many armoured fighting vehicles that have been ravaged by the forces of Heaven and Hell. This set the grey matter alight and turned an idea into an awesome project.

The tanks were 3D printed and came from the TANKS COLLECTION 1941-1945 – Soviet and German, offering a great array of different vehicles that could be smashed to pieces and turned into terrain cheaply. The idea was that a lot of the tanks would be implemented into the terrain but also had to feel like they told a story AND ended up being playable at the same time.

I think scarhandpainting has managed to achieve that with the terrain that you see here, working in loads of cool stories around these vehicles, trapped in their final moments on the battlefield. Concerning it's playability, well, the terrain also made an appearance at an event and it looks like it all went down well!

It looks great seeing a bunch of the different pieces implemented into the mix alongside other terrain elements. Not only does the terrain look great but it helps to tell a story about what has happened in that moment on the battlefield. The ruins of past battles give the impression that this war has been dragging on for a long time. It certainly helps to sell the vibe.

What Are You Painting Right Now?

Every week, we’re absolutely blown away by the incredible topics that are put into the Projects; it’s getting more difficult to choose Community Spotlights! We love your work and we hope to see a lot more of it in the future!

If you fancy getting your hobby fingers out and showing off your newest paint job, terrain piece or even greatest gaming achievement, we want to know about it! We don’t mind if you’re a newcomer to painting or a veteran of the brush; everything you do inspires us to create more and more content together!

What do you think of the entries this week?