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Showing posts with label Warcry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Warcry. Show all posts

Monday, 12 February 2024

A-Haunting We Will go... My Nighthaunt Warcry Warband

Good morning/afternoon/evening everyone!

This week, I thought I'd show you my Nighthaunt warband for Warcry. Along with Kill Team, Warcry is one of my favourite games at the moment and, up until recently, I was playing it at least once a fortnight with a group of friends. I've even managed to get The Better Half to give it a go.* Like Kill Team, it's a game that's quick and easy to learn, with no complicated rules to get bogged down in. Warbands are typically less than a dozen miniatures and games take no more than 90 minutes or so to play. The fact that almost every faction in the Age of Sigmar universe has warband rules (some with multiple warbands available) and each warband has a wide choice of models to choose from makes it ideal for a hobby butterfly (like me) or someone who has access to only a few models for any given faction. It's easy to put together a viable warband from a few cheap Ebay purchases. I have had a few warbands planned for years, mostly making use of models that I already had kicking around, and the Nighthaunt was the first one that I got around to assembling as a viable force. I had loads of models to choose from, as I had collected quite a few from the Mortal Realms partwork, so I chose what I considered to be a good mix of lightweight cheap troops, medium-strength troops, and a couple of real heavy hitters. 

Having assembled my force (and given them a name- Lord Balowskyr's Retinue) I used a few test models to create a paint scheme which meant I could get the warband painted and ready in double-quick time. Here it is:

1. Spray with Grey Seer, then a zenithal overspray of Corax White

2. Then an all-over wash of a mix of Nihalikh Oxide/Hexwraith Flame/Athonian Camoshade.

3. Add in some Dark Angels Green into the previous mix and apply this in a pin wash, just around the deepest recesses, and where the different layers of cloak meet. Also apply this mix on the hands, blending it out up the arms.

4. Apply a wetbrush stipple of Grey Seer.

5. Paint all the details: 

Metal: Leadbelcher; Brass: Runelord Brass; Wood: Gorthor Brown; Leather: Mournfang Brown; Copper: Vallejo Copper; Gravestones: Mechanicus Standard Grey followed by Administratum Grey; Bone: Ushabti Bone followed by Screaming Skull. Then wash all of these areas with a mix of Agrax Earthshade, Athonian Camoshade and Nuln Oil.

6. Using a very soft brush, apply a light drybrush of Grey Seer followed by White Scar.

7. Blend Tesseract Glow around where the ghost form meets the base. 

8. Use the mix from step 3 and apply it to the tips of any ghostly flames. 

9. For the bases, I first applied some Stirland Battlemire, whish was drybrushed with Mournfang Brown then XV-88. I then applied Leaf Litter from Javis, stuck down with PVA glue. When the glue was dry, I sprayed the whole model with gloss varnish, then a spray of matt varnish. I then drybrushed Grey Seer around where the model met the base. Once all that was dry, I washed the base with Agrax Earthshade, then added Nuln Oil wet in wet around edges. And here's how they turned out:**

Lord Balowskyr, Knight of Shrouds
Lady Natasha, Guardian of Souls
The Brothers
Gwen, Edwin and Rikard
Nell, Vyvian, Mhikal


And, if you'd prefer that information in an easier format, here it is- my first one-sheet painting guide*** 



Since I started playing with them, they've fared quite well, I've won a few and lost a few. The playing style for them takes some getting used to, as they're fragile on the battlefield, but have some useful abilities, but they're good fun to play with. The next warband I need to do is to finish painting the Skaven one for The Better Half, that I started months ago****. After that, who knows? I've got miniatures for at least half a dozen other warbands, and a Stormcast Eternals one that is already half-painted (which I started for some other long-forgotten project.) To be honest, I'd happily paint up one of each of all the available warbands, there's so much character in each one. Trouble is, I'd also like to do the same with Blood Bowl, Underworlds, Necromunda...

Thanks for reading!

p.s. if you like what I'm doing here, a click on the link below and the donation of the price of a pot of paint would be a wonderful gesture. I'm thinking of adding special stuff to the Ko-fi, like competitions and prize draws, so it'd be a good idea to at least have a look there now and then 😁 


*True to form, she beat me. She beats me at every game we play...

**A gold star if you can identify the inspiration for their names...

***I realise I'm far from the first to do this idea, but I love a good bandwagon...

****She's very patient...


Thursday, 29 August 2019

Warcry Diary: Day 4

DAY 4: Friday 23rd August

Good morning/afternoon/evening everyone!
FINALLY, with the completion of the last main pieces (and a couple of little ones I'd previously overlooked), the terrain is all assembled.


I have to say, having got this far, how impressed I am with the terrain pieces in this set. Pictures don't do justice to the level of detail, how the finished kits look, or just how much there is in the box. Never mind a good Warcry set up, there's nearly enough here for a good setup for a full-scale Age of Sigmar battle. Even unpainted, it looks awesome on the game board, and I can't wait for my first game.


However, it must be said that there is one big issue with this set. The instructions. They're rubbish. They don't give a complete guide to assembling all the pieces and they completely fail to mention that, for some of the missions in the book, you will need to use some of the pieces separately, when the instructions tell you to glue them. This is a huge oversight. This is a starter set, designed to bring new people in to the hobby, and be a standalone product. You should not need to go online and find video guides in order to find out how to pt the terrain pieces together. I'd have been absolutely furious if I'd stuck these pieces together right away, without knowing of the issues and the online solutions. This sort of error is not good enough if you're a new startup. In a product from the the world's most experienced manufacturer of this type of thing it's unforgivable. Slap on the wrists, GW.

Anyway, having got that off my chest, I am happy to report that all the terrain in the set, once assembled, fits neatly into the box. Excellent news for those (like me) who have limited storage space at home.
Right, on with the warbands!

Total time so far: 5 hours

Thanks for reading!
-Stu

Warcry Diary: Day 3


DAY 3: Tuesday 20th August

Good morning/afternoon/evening everyone!
A slight variation from my usual Warcry entry today. Instead of reporting on my usual (lack of) progress I thought I'd mention a couple of Warcry-related products that arrived today. First up are these resin bases from Gladius Game Arts. There's two styles to choose from, and sets available for all the current warbands, as well as the chaos beasts from the starter set. I bought the ones for the Raptoryx and Furies, to see what they were like and I have to say I'm impressed. I'll be ordering a set for the Iron Golems and Untamed Beasts too, and I'll give a full review of them once I've got them painted. I wouldn't mind seeing a set for the scenery pieces too (subtle hint...). The current sets can be ordered here.



Garfy Etherington, he of Garfy's Get A Grips, Tale of Painters and regular contributor to the Warcry Facebook page I run, has released his latest product, the Initiative Tracker. This useful little gadget has slots for all the dice you need to play the game. As with all Garfy's designs, it is simple, elegant and does exactly what it says on the tin. The Tracker can be bought from here. I highly recommend his grips too, they're fantastic.



Okay, that's it for this supplemental entry. I'll be back soon, hopefully with all the terrain finished!
Thanks for reading-Stu

Sunday, 25 August 2019

Warcry Diary: Day 2


DAY TWO Wednesday 14th August

Good morning/afternoon/evening everyone!
Ugh, has it really been over a week? That sucks. Well, at least I managed to sneak an hour's worth of assembly in today, and got all the barricades and little loose pieces of scenery done. It's not much, I'll admit, but it's something and, honestly, with the last few weeks I've had, I'm glad for that something. Anyway, the plan is to try and get all the scenery put together by the end of the weekend, then get the figures stuck together by the end of the month so that The Better Half and I can get a game in on one of the rare occasions we get an evening off together. I'll leave you with some not entirely exciting pictures of the bits I did today...

Total time so far: 3 hours
Thanks for reading!
-Stu

Warcry Diary: Day 1

Good morning/afternoon/evening everyone!

With everyone and their dog doing posts about Warcry, I was wondering what I could do to bring something different to the table. Then it occurred to me, there's all these posts by pros who got the set in advance of release, had days in which they could devote themselves to getting it all ready and built and painted and photographed, etc. etc. So I thought, "How about looking at it from the perspective of an everyday gamer, with limited hobby time, and how he/she would get on with getting the set ready for play." So that's what I'm going to do. And the thing is, I don't have to make anything up. I am an everyday gamer with limited hobby time. I genuinely bought Warcry as a way to get some proper gaming done with The Better Half, so I have real reasons to get in done as quickly as possible, but with only one or two hours some nights in order to do it. So I'm going to be documenting the build, from sprue to first game and beyond, in the form of my Warcry diary.
The Eightpoints beckon. Have at it!

DAY ONE Monday 5th August.
So, I bought Warcry on Saturday, and managed to have a good look at it and do a bit of an unboxing review of the contents, which you can see here. On Sunday I didn't manage to get any hobby time, due to Real World Stuff, but I have managed to get some done today. I decide I'd begin by assembling the terrain. I've never put together any terrain kits before, so I was really interested to see how this lot was going to go together. The first bits I tackled were the bell tower and the state. I utilised the guide to sticking the terrain together from Waywalker Studios and the video from Blackjack Legacy, to make sure I wasn't sticking any bits down that I shouldn't be. I left the skeletons from the alcoves in the bell tower unglued as well, for ease of painting later. A bit of Blu-Tak keeps them in place for now. As suggested, I've kept the steps on both, and the platform on the statue separate.
Total time spent: 2 hours.