Draconis does…. Kings of War Vanguard

These were worked on as part of my TerrainFest 2023 project through October, but I have decided to post up a picture here as they were initially a part of this project.

For more pictures please head over to my TerrainFest project here:

Draconis does…. TerrainFest 2023 (Deadzone, KoW Vanguard and Mordheim)

23rd November 2023

Well, its been almost three weeks since I have done any hobby, following on from my TerrainFest work.

As often happens, other things took up my time and motivation waned somewhat.

So, last night while on a call with some friends I just laid down some basic colours onto my primed Northern Alliance Clanspeeps.

Its not great work, and is still definitely at the stage where it all looks rubbish….. but it is some movement at least, and hopefully will lead onto further progress over the next few days.

Just some basic clothing colours in shades of brown and grey really (with a touch of green)

27th November 2023

Got in a couple of short sessions since last update, and made a bit of progress. They still look a bit pants to me, but I’m hoping it will turn around at the end.

I worked on the straps, belts, wrist wraps and boots.

Then I started adding some hair colour to most of them (still some blond and grey to work on), weapon hafts, a bit of work on shields, and some skin tones.

Overall a bit piecemeal still, and I think that working on ten at the same time perhaps isn’t the right way for me at the moment. Luckily for the rest they are in twos, so hopefully that should help.

I also think that not having a coherent approach to them from the start has hindered me a little too. Hopefully I can finish them this week, then get into the restic ones perhaps. Busy time of year, but if I can get some good sessions in I may have them finished before Christmas…. And maybe even have time for a quick battle before the end of the year.

1st December 2023

Last night I finished off the spear armed grunts.

I decided the split the grunts into their two groups, spear armed and hand weapon armed, to split the workload. Still have to sort some snow flock/basing for them yet.

There were lots of little bits left to do on them – many more straps, animal bones and teeth, bone parts of the weapons, shield details, the hair on the blonde and grey haired peeps etc.

But here are the spear armed ones…

2nd December 2023

Having finished off the spear armed troops it was onto finishing the hand weapon ones. Same treatment applied to these as before.

It was a bit quicker this time as I realised that when I was painting the straps and ropes with a buff leather colour I could use that same colour to basecoat the bones and teeth they are adorned with.

Then it was some work on the shields, a few washes to tie the weapon hafts and handle wraps together, touch ups on the skin and some bold blond hair for the de facto leader.

Still need to sort out some snow for the bases though…

9th December 2023

I was going to post an in progress update – but thought I was close to finishing them. Then work, being ‘under the weather’ etc delayed me.

But now they are all done.

After the zenithal prime I applied an all over covering of Soulblight grey for the fur. This was then drybrushed up with grey followed by a reduced area of drybrushing with white.

Next up it was the skin. I mixed up Talassar blue, Space wolf grey and soulblight grey for the first one.

It came out ok, but I wanted a touch of purple with it. So for the second I added Magos purple to the mix…then more…then more.

In the end it didn’t seem to make much difference – I feel the Talassar blue overpowers the others somewhat. But the two Yetis do have different skin tones though.

Onto the armour. I base coated the armour pieces black, and painted the filigree parts in leadbelcher. For the rest of the armour I did one in gold and one in copper.

I gave both a shade of sepia – but it made them a little too close in tone. These were then highlighted back with their original tones, then finally with a small touch of silver added. I picked out the leather straps at the same time, using different colours on the two.

Next it was the tabards and the ‘shorts’. I struggled on colour choice for a while, then plumped for an earthy orange tone on one, and a purple on the other. The pants again I debated on colours – I picked an earthy green to go with the orange, and a yellow to go with the purple (Minnesota Vikings colours). Reasonably happy with how they came out in the end.

Final stages (that took quite a while over a number of short sessions) were finishing off the club, painting in the nails and claws (and giving them a gloss coat), teeth, eyes (may yet change them to yellow) and all the other little bits you always find at the end ?.

11th December 2023

Getting close to the end of the year now, and I’m not sure if I will be able to finish the warband before 2024 – but here are two more completed.

When mixing the skin tone for the Yetis I used the spare for the Ice Naiads.

For the ice weapons and armour plates on the sides I used pure Talassar blue, highlighted up with Lothern blue followed by white. These were given a gloss varnish at the very end. Snakebite leather for the body armour. Cloth was grey on one and green on the other.

The furs were given a soft brown wash, then highlighted up with ivory and white.

Not super happy with them to be honest, but from a couple of feet they look ok, and work well with the other ones I have finished so far.

15th December 2023

Another two done ?

As always, I dithered a bit on the colours, but kept them earthy and neutral for the most part.

I added touches of colour via the beards, some gems, and the ice blade on one of the Huscarl’s spears.

Also tried out a new way of adding snow to the bases. This one was a case of mixing up my snow flock/dust material with PVA into a paste, and applying that. This way there should be more depth to the look of the snow.

To me they look a bit better irl than in these pics….. but that may be due to my aging eyes ?

I have some bits to work on for a small skirmish game after Christmas, but once that is complete I will be back to finish off the last four of this box.