Khorne Bloodbound Bloodreavers WIP

Still working on my Khorne army. Joined a Firestorm campaign group to push me to keep painting. I’ve settled on a paint scheme, but that’s for a later post – once I have better samples of the scheme ready. In the meantime I’ve been trying to churn through the 80 Bloodreavers I wound up with. I know each won’t be a masterpiece, so hopefully I can move with some average speed through the batch. Did the flesh tones wash on all of them one night. Honestly, the Badger flesh primer + the wash = that might be all the work I do on skin tones for these guys, it looks very nice on the bulk of them in person. Group shot:

Age of Sigmar Khorne Bloodbound Army

Yep, another one. I may have started collecting some Bloodbound after I picked up Shadespire and the sweet Garrek’s Reavers models within. Always loved the AoS sculpts for Khorne, but I already have a ‘horde’ army with Orcs. BUT Shadespire got me to take the plunge again. I’ve bought it piecemeal over the past couple months and now that things have settled into a dull roar otherwise I’m carving out some time to get working on them. Starting with texturing the bases. Since some I bought were already assembled those took more TLC to get the Vallejo Dark Earth texture product on, but overall after a few hours last night I have all the army’s current bases textured. Hopefully judicious use of the airbrush will get these guys painted up fast. Reds and flesh and metals. Easy, right?

Shadespire Painting pt. 2

Worked for a bit last night on the Bloodbound for Shadespire. Here’s where I am now with those bad boys and a shot of where I am with all the bases.

The bases have been a delight to paint. Nothing fancy just some quick base colors/wash/hilight. Here’s what I’ve been using:
Base color – Badger’s Stynylrez gray aibrush primer
Wash – Nuln Oil
Drybrush 1 – Dawnstone
Drybrush 2 – Administratum Gray
Leaves – base color Elysian Green
Branches – base color X-88
Dirt – Mournfang Brown, wash Agrax Earthshade
Skulls – base color Zandri Dust, wash Agrax Earthshade, H1 Ushabti Bone, H2, Sceaming Skull

 

Garrek’s Reavers
I’m happy I finally worked out a flesh recipe that works for me and the time I have to get things done. I’ll get the blues and reds darker obviously. I had a ‘happy accident’ in the blues (ew). I’d painted two of the guys with black pants (see pt. 1) and when I went to look at doing a deep blue similar to Red Gobbo’s (pt. 1) I started painting this blue over the black. I am liking this much better than the blue then shaded with a black/blue wash (as you can see if you compare them in the group shot). I think I might go back and hit them with black and then blue over that. Debating…This is also serving as my test run for my actual Bloodbound army so whatever colors work here I’ll be carrying them over to the AoS figs.

Flesh Tones: base is Stynylrez light flesh, washed with Reikland Fleshshade, then drybrushed hilights of Kislev Flesh (need to double check that), and then Flayed one Flesh afterward, last was a thin wash of the Reikland Fleshshade again. I’m still messing with the scars, will post what I’m doing with them later. I might try an even thinner second Reikland on future models.

Shadespire Painting Fun

Started painting up the Shadespire models. The Bloodbound are, to me, more characterful but all have been fun so far. The bases are great, and except for a couple hiccups with the pieces being too tight on assembly I’ve had a blast working on everything so far. There’s not a huge amount of work done, but here are a few pix.

The bases primed. All are preformed for each model, and have great textures. 

Stormcast. Going for something white armored I think, hence the white primer.

Garrek’s Reavers in progress. Used the Badger airbrush light flesh primer, very happy I did so.

I was shooting for the black and red style but then saw these pictures from the Red Gobbo. I will definitely be using the blue/gray leggings in the mix, hits what I wanted perfectly. His S

hadespire album.  His blog.

 

GW’s Shadespire

When GW announced Shadespire I was relatively unimpressed. The initial images looked like a hot mess. An uninspired big hex grid map, some cards, some custom dice, and a few models. Nothing about gameplay initially, just ‘here ya go, buy this.’

I ignored everything about it after that, and then a demo copy showed up at Brookhurst Hobbies. I flipped through the box and was a little less sour on it and curious. The models were gorgeous (I’ve always been partial to the Bloodbound models even though I don’t have…didn’t have…any for an army). Then out of pure designer curiosity I sat down and tried the game out.

…and fell in deep like with it. The game is intended to play fast, roughly 20 minutes (GW says, I say more like 40 for 2 players) in length, and can scale up to 4 players. It’s not a miniatures game, it’s a hex map board game. Much more of an arena style combat game than anything else. The beauty of the mechanics is in how you the decks interact with the game elements and allow for some creative tactics. Whether you prefer to strike boldly or maneuver for objectives things can change based on the positioning of the boards at setup as well as what cards the players use to build their decks. I like cards, so this is a Good Thing to me.

Some folks have compared it to X-wing in the card customizing category. I think it should be more aptly compared to Runewars to a degree since you’re buying full warbands in the expansions and not single ships, but that’s a ticky tack debate. The buy model is what’s being compared here. Each warband, including those in the boxed set, comes with its own unique deck of power and objective cards (the two decks used), and generics of each. These generics can be used across all warbands, but no warband’s kit comes with every general card. If you want generic card X for your BLoodbound you may need to buy the Ironjawz box since that card wasn’t in the Bloodbound deck (or starter box at all). Sounds annoying for those who want to chase the cards and play more competitively. But wait, unlike X-Wing or Runewars that Ironjawz warband is self-contained and can be played out of the box as well. You have not only picked up the additional generic cards but another Warband to swap in and out. Since games are very short and the model count so low – currently we have seen the range running 3-7 depending on the Warband – some options for what you play are nice to have.

GW’s putting some effort into this game, even supporting competitive events in stores! Who do these guys think they are? 90’s GW?

This isn’t a comprehensive review of the game, but a quick heads up that you may want to check it out if you have the opportunity. It’s not for everyone, but I hope you find it to your liking as I have.