Hello again. After painting HeroQuest earlier this year I got the urge to start on Battle Masters. I had lots of models and components but no complete copy so I sourced one to pick the best bits. Over the course of half a year I painted and based all the parts for a complete game, and made a storage system to keep the painted models safe in the box.
Without further ado, here are the pictures:
I'll start with pictures of the tower since it's a staple terrain piece for may people. You will see this tower in several pictures.
I wanted the tower to have an old, weathered and ruined look. I used lots of greens to make it look mossy and somewhat wet. I painted the banner in neutral colours as I didn't want it to reflect either side of the game.
The doors (and many of the models for that matter) were painted with a limited amount of technique and a somewhat basic effort.
FORCES OF THE EMPIRE
For my imperial troops I chose an Ostermark colour scheme (purple and yellow) as it is very striking. Also, I hoped it would appeal to my daughter. The Lord Knights have a lot of metal parts but the rest of the army is very colourful.
I had to decide early on how to do the basing. I filled all the lines in the bases with plasticene and glued sand on top. I painted the bases separately from the models which were pinned in place after painting. It took more effort than regular basing but I really hate painting sand after undercoating so I decided this was the least effort.
Each unit got a scroll on the base with name, shield and their number, instead of the old stickers they used to have.
For the knights I had to decide on a 'Bretonnian' type scheme (lots of different colours with their own heraldry) or a uniform scheme. In the end I chose uniform as I didn't want to break up an already small army into two pieces. I went for an easy to paint pattern in my army's main colours, with an easy to paint freehand symbol.
The mighty cannon is one of the centrepieces of the imperial army. They are characterful models. For this project I used a cheap frost effect varnish instead of expensive matte varnish, hence the shinyness. Because I will only use the models for this game (probably) I don't mind too much.
The rear of the cannon, which was painted in pretty basic browns and metals. All of the Battle Masters models don't have very sharp details. I didn't want to go to the effort of painting these in.
The men-at-arms for a nice core for the empire army. These were the first models I painted for the Empire (might as well get these over with, I thought) and also a tester for the colour scheme.
The archers hardly have any faces but as a unit it works well enough. Don't look too closely.
The crowwbowmen. Next tot purple and yellow I kept the rest of the colours basic and natural: lots of browns, bare metals, gold details and white feathers. All these choices save a lot of painting time.
FORCES OF EVIL
The evil forces are basically divided between a chaos part and a greenskin part. For the chaos models I went for unifying colours of black, brass (verdigris) and red. I always try to get away with painting chaos warriors lazily and I guess it shows, but on the table the effect is good enough.
I added a red border to the cloak to give them some colour without ruining their evil, black look.
The chaos warriors are painted in the same scheme as the knights, somewhat simple, somewhat boring but still effective on the table.
For the beastmen I tried to vary their fur tones a little bit to add variety. It worked a little bit. The verdigris is a good way to paint metals on a model if you want them to have a bit more colour. The green complements the browns nicely. That grin cannot be fixed though...
I wasn't a fan of the thug archers but I was actually very pleased how my colour scheme worked out. The skin, red, brass and mostly the bright mohawks really make these units stand out on the table.
The centrepiece of the evil forces is the Ogre model. I painted him to blend in with the rest of the greenskins (rather than with the chaos forces) so lots of natural colours and an evil sun symbol.
The rear of the model. You can see I kept the colour scheme for the clothing and armour very basic.
The orcs were the first models I painted in this project (followed by the goblins), as for some reason Orcs always seem like a hassle to paint to me. I had lots of fun painting these and especially painting the shields (all my shields and bases are freehand). These orcs proved to me I was onto something when starting this project, as the models have an innocent, toy-like charm of their own.
For the wolf riders I tried to make the wolves look natural while also keeping it simple. It worked for me as far as the models worked, I can't really fix the grin on these wolves either. Still fun units to put on the table though.
The goblins were my second unit and I must say I really like how these little critters turned out. These sculpts are very humble but also very much 'Kev Adams', down to the earring! These might be some of my favourite models from the game. Colour wise they were a simpler version of the orcs, without armour.
Besides the models and the towers I also painted the four fences/hedges which you can see in the background on the pictures. They turned out too dark but I don't think it's worth the effort to do something about it as they are flat and boring compared to nice looking scenery.
I made myself think of a storage system for these models as otherwise they would start roaming the house looking for a place to stay. In the end I figured out a way to get them back in the original box with protection. I used two KR Multicase P1T foam trays and cut out lots of pieces to make room for the units. I place them sideways into the tray and this makes everything fit. There is also room for the tower (the biggest piece).
I added some makeshift walls around the side (with the right materials and effort you could do a much nicer job) and put the mat and rules on top.
The whole box became more than twice as high but all the painted models are well protected and easy to move around.
There, I hope you enjoy!
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April 29, 2024, 08:36:51 AM
