Part 2: ScatteredFlesh's Beastmen

Let’s cut straight to the point, here is my first 400 points: Dragon Ogre Lord - 400 points.

Nidhogg the Deathbreather, Lord of the Thorns of Chaos, Ugle-fuck, he goes by many names… You’ve met Nidhogg in the introduction post, where I did my silly little fanfic-style audio lore-thing on his background. So to recap, Nidhogg is, through the blessings of Nurgle, old as the trees of the Drakwald forest (as is the model itself, well, it’s only a year younger than I am so 30 years old) and living in a man-dragon-ogre-cave surrounded by his own filth (much like the painter of the model itself).

… And there you were, thinking that the Beastmen are supposed to be a horde army. So, if there is such a thing as meta-playing this Tale of X Gamers-thing… Then I believe I have achieved the cheese max. He is barely even a beastman, really. One model was all it took. I even stole the base from another project that didn’t turn out how I wanted, and I think it looks dashing. It captures the moment of Nidhogg’s awakening as he exits the cave, bringing the filth and undeath with him to the Old World… His deadly morning breath, smothering the borderlands of the Empire…

In the distance, flint gives life to torches as they're set aflame, pitchforks are raised to the night sky, the roar of thousands of enraged plebeians (that’s you, the readers) grows to a crescendo… Alright, alright, calm down everybody. I have more for you, and I present to you - My slowly growing beastmen army.

Monopose minis can put a stick in my wheels so to speak, as I find it a lot more tedious with the lack of variation. I slow down a lot because of it, and I thought it would be torture to do all 15 of them at once. Some people like to split it into maybe 3-4 models at a time, but I found it to be tolerable with my way of doing it. Let me take you through the process.

I kind of just shot from the hip and did a bunch of washes of different shades of brown over a brown base coat with a white zenithal from a shitty spray can. Three passes of thinned down contrast paint (I used snakebite leather, ratling grime and flesh tearers red in varied, improvised mixes) and then some tan paint mixed in with the colors to make quick highlights. Finally, to bring them together, I give them all one more wash, but now with a dark warm ochre. The models that were brightest in color from the contrast layers were painted with the same oil wash as the darker models, but with less thinner/mineral spirits. When dry, I remove some of the oil paint with Q-tips with mineral spirits This brings them together even more to a baseline that makes them feel like a unit.

Still, the results give a slight variation over the whole unit, which keeps things a bit more interesting while painting. I’m just slapping on paints that I think would give an interesting undertone. Then, when I block in the rest, my interest is kept up by the curiosity of how the khorne red and the black of the clothing and shields will work together with each goatman's unique hue. The models themselves are quite well suited for this technique, except their mohawk hair which tends to need a cleanup with some regular paints. The edges of the axes were painted with a dark blue oil paint which I then used mineral spirits to remove from the edges to create this extremely cheap, barely passable NMM. I probably need to spend a bit more time on the NMM to get it to a level that I’m comfortable with, but it will do for now. Inspired by Thomas’s Ogres, I did a couple small free-hands on the shields.

Part 2: January - Niklas' Orcs & Goblins

"What're ya standin around droolin fer ya slimy git!? The 'umies are right there! Come on, go over there and bash 'em! Don't make me prod ya with me stikka! There we go, that's better, wait... why're ya lookin' at me like that? Oi! Let me go you- WAAAAH!"
- Last words of former boss Snik Eye-Poker, before being eaten by a troll

Phew! Painting 400 points of goblins in one month is not an easy task, especially when you've joined the challenge 10 days late! I also didn't realize that trolls are a lot cheaper in Warhammer Renaissance than in 5th edition, argh! Luckily I could boost the points of my shaman with an added level and some magic items.

I have painted like a madman the last few weeks and still just barely made it with a day to spare. With that said, I've discovered that painting goblins is super fun! There's just something about working on the little mean green buggers that's very enjoyable.

The regiment of 30 classic monopose plastic goblins painted up fairly quick, and I did not spend too much time on each individual one. I actually forgot to glue on the shields before I started painting them, so they will be shieldless for now.

 The trolls were amazingly fun to paint, and I spent a bit more time on them. For some reason I'm missing the third unique sculpt from this set, so two of them have the same poses.

The only model that isn't a Citadel sculpt this month was this little winged fella. He's an obscure 90s model from Armada Enterprises, and I decided he'd make a good goblin shaman. I'm not sure what the wings are supposed to be but they do give off a kind of forest goblin vibe.

The final goblins I painted for the month was the command group for the goblin regiment. Three absolute classics from 1989 by Kev Adams. All of them are filled with so much character.

January points total:

Characters

- 1 Common Goblin Shaman Champion (Level 2)
(Dispel Magic Scroll, Amulet of Fire) - 120 pts

- 1 Common Goblin Champion
(Black Gem of Gnar) - 28.5 pts

Regiments

 - 32 Common Goblin Infantry
    (Spears, light armour, standard and musician,
    Banner of Gobbo Awesomeness) - 132 pts

- 3 River Trolls - 120 pts

Total: 400.5 pts