Painting the Gor; the Wash

So here is the unit as it stood. I still wanted another color splotch somewhere. But it has to make sense.

Typically I would co with copper or gold for their wristbands etc. But these are mostly leather in appearance.

I like the look. There is a reason you see red and green together a lot at Christmas. Because they look good together. And with brown as my base, it is neutral enough that whatever colors I choose will complement the base so long as they complement each other.

I did briefly consider individualizing the models with varying shades of green but ultimately I struck a balance between speed, convenience, and making them all look like part of the same unit.

Now it was time to try and fix some of the coverage issues. I have never done a wash before.

So I read up on it a bit and gave it a shot. At first I was not going to do it on my unit champion, but then...well...I did.

So now the skin is darkening a bit. We will see if I like it or not.

Beastmen: More color

The above picture is a repost of my work to this point. This is a unit that is troubled. It has coverage issues and is pretty dull. These are sort of the reasons I am not fond of water. In oil I would almost be done with this unit at this point. Here I still have lots of work to do.

Their loin-cloths are kind of my best shot at color. They will not dominate the look but will definitely offer a counter-point to the overall drab look.

For the longest time I was leaning towards some sort of blue. My Warriors of Chaos are based around black and shades of red...red, purple, orange, anything in that color range. So going red would sort of be too close to that.

But..I did not have a blue water base paint. I did have a red. So I went with it.

Usually I do not really like the blood and gore. But in this case it adds a bit of color and makes them look more like a unit worthy of the Primal Fury rule. It sort of works here I think.

That little bit of color...I absolutely love it. Suddenly the unit turned from a drab, colorless affair to something with a hint of excitement.

Beastmen Gor: Color

Although the plan was to add color next, I noticed I had ivory colored paint. I had been trying to figure out what color to paint the horns.

That is a theme you might notice. Sometimes I have a very specific color palette I want to work with. Other times I just sort of pick a color, look it over, pick another color...that is what I am doing here. I started with light brown for the flesh, added dark brown for the legs, the black hooves and certain weapons picked themselves, I like the reflective silver so more blades...the paint is largely picking itself.

There are still certain trouble spots. I do not know what to do with the hair yet. The horn color was another. I have thought about going orange or red with the hair just to add some color to all the earth tones.

So the ivory felt like a stroke of genius. Not yellow in a garish way,, but still "lightening" the overall look. Not just a splash or two of color will really pop.

Now I think the look is really starting to come together. There are still some coverage issues, but the planned wash/dry-brushing should clear a lot of that up. I hope.

Gor Herd Coat 7

 One of my themes with this army will be champions. As a general rule there is no model set apart and clearly identifiable as a unit champion. Even if I assemble one that way, in the middle of a unit he hardly stands out enough.

Even I lose track of which model is my champion, so to make it easy on myself I just always put my units in the same order on the field: Standard Bearer, Musician and Champion next to each other. No model is specifically the champion because he looks different, he is the champion because he stands next to the standard.

For this army, I am changing that up. The plan is for elite units and unit champions to be albinos.

So above you can see I have put silver on the weapon blades, on some belt buckles, etc.

Now I am putting wood coloring on the staffs, weapon handles, etc. Next up: bring on some color.

That is one thing I am noticing. This unit is looking dark and brooding with little color. It is all earth tones. So yeah, next up...time to bring the color.

Gor Herd coat 5

I wanted to start deepening the tones on the chests. I went with sort of a reddish-brown pseudo-dry brush. If I had it to do over again I would probably have a less heavy hand, but that is part of the learning process so I am not overly concerned.

I am working hard to be patient even if a particular stage does not look the way I hoped it would. I probably should have done a wash here instead but again...it is a learning process.

I think on the next unit I will start with the basic block colors, then attempt a wash, then a couple darkening shades as dry brushes with a less heavy hand. But hey...I am making progress.

Gor Unit; Coat 4

Next I selected another basic, block color. The hooves will be black which will also let me do some minor weapons painting.

The plan is to splash a bit of red on weapons in the classic "Ha! We have drawn blood!" motif. Also thinking about having couple streaks on it on some of the front-line models. We will see.

Will go back later with black to hit up stuff like belt buckles, rivets on hoods, etc. Thinking it might be a good base color for the horns but did not go there yet.

I also purchased a super small brush and touched up the eyes and nostrils. As usual my eyes are too big. *Sigh*

We are coming to get you

Gor Unit Coat 3

Here I went with a darker brown for their leg fir. Later I plan to do a really light dry-brush of lighter browns to give a highlighted effect.

Meanwhile, the unit champ makes his first appearance. I suspect he is easy to spot...my idea is to make all unit champions Albinos.

If I like the look, I might do the same with Elite units such as Bestigors. part of the problem is getting white to look good.

Speaking of which, the plan is to paint their teeth white, then do a light coating of yellow. Heavier than a wash or drybrush but not deep enough to be a full coat. Doubt I can pull it off but I will try.

I notice one fellow to the left still has grey on his belly which reinforces my coverage problems. The funny thing is I thought I was not thinning the paint enough, but that makes it look like I am thinning it too much.

I will get better with experience.

I hope.

Beastmen Gor Coat 2

Click on the picture to expand it. Well, this coat felt good when I was applying it. I was really just trying to drybrush on some deeper color, but instead they are very, very splotchy. Hopefully a wash and then a drybrush of the basecoat color will fix that.

There are a couple of models that look really good but a couple of the others look like they have a rash or a bad breakout of Gor leprosy or something. On the bright side...it is water. Worst case, I wipe them off and start again. Best case...I love the look.

List strategy

I have mentioned previously that the Bad Dice podcast where they interviewed Mark Wildman was the basis for my inspiration.

I absolutely love magic, though traditionally it has been...let us be polite and say ineffective. I routinely out-spend the opponent by 4-1 or more margins in points on magic but get dominated in the magic phase anyway.

Well, with the Herdstone/Bray-Shaman spam I should be in good shape to have plenty of magic dice to buff the units.

However, one key difference between the type of list he runs and mine is I plan a big block of Minotaurs and probably no Bestigors.

It also helps that this will never be a tournament army barring the unforeseen, so I can play at whatever points level I want.

My current want is to play high enough to allow 6ish Minotaurs, a Doombull, a Gorebull, and still have a Great Bray-Shaman and 3 or 4 level 1a.

So I will be well into the 3k point range.

That is one place the Beastmen have a vast advantage over other armies. Whereas my Warriors of Chaos have little to no Core choices I want to play, needing instead primarily space for Specials (max possible numbers of Knights), the High Elfs I want to populate my list with special choices (Dragon Princes, White Lions, Swordmasters), and so forth, the Beastmen list revolves around its core.

I do like the steadfast core Gor idea. I like the idea of Primal Fury/extra hand weapon attack-generating hordes boosted with the occasional Beastlord or Wargor, with just a few Minotaurs from any other part of the list.

I might even drop in a chariot or three since they are core.

So oddly, my plan with the Beastmen is to play BIGGER games.

Which someone runs counter to my idea of getting the army painted to a higher-than-usual for me standard before I play them.

On the bright side, that will give them time to bring out the Ghorgon model...

The first coat(s)

Starting a painting project is always difficult for me. I go back and forth about what color scheme to use, how in-depth to go...and worse yet, I develop an intense desire to play a game of Warhammer. Typically with the unit I am painting.

However, as you can see there is one Minotaur (non-GW, I should point out...and painted about 8 years ago for no apparent reason) and one unit painted...and that unit was not painted by me, though it IS painted to a higher standard than I suspect I will attain.

Be that as it may, the plan is to not play the Beastmen army until I have them painted and ready to go. So I selected one unit that I am not even sure what is. I think it is Ungor.



The Minions are Watching

I decided to block in their chest colors. The plan is to do several shadings of deepening colors of brown...yeah, I know, it is backwards...but what are you going to do.

I did notice the unfortunate fact that them being assembled makes certain sections very hard to reach with even the tiniest brush. Good to know, I will not assemble the ones in the battalion until they are painted.

At first I was getting a bit frustrated as I almost immediately began encountering the same coverage problems that had me using oils instead of water-based for so many years. But knowing I would be putting more coats on, I found a way to ignore that issue and completed the first coat. Not great looking yet...but not supposed to be, either, so no big deal.    

                                                                                                                  

Paint prep

So here is a picture showing the models more or less completely painted. Not sure how well it shows up in the picture, though clicking on them should expand them to show more detail.

I did a lot of shading, some highlighting. About the only thing I did not do is a wash or outlining.  I like the way they turned out. Lack of tools was the biggest issue. I did not have a brush small enough to do eyes or even to do their lips properly. I will purchase one before starting on the Beastmen.

Of course, the classic water paint problem...dull models...crept into the picture. But by dipping them in polyurethane gloss, I got the sheen I like which is below.

So now I have a unit I really like the look of. I plan to let them dry overnight and base them with the same light green sand I used for the Wood Elf army.

So all in all, I think this project was a huge success. If it went wrong, no harm done. Some Night Goblins I do not really need have poor paint jobs.

If it succeeded...which it did...then I have a sharp-looking unit, have done the prep-work to figure out how to work on the Beastmen models. So now I have a unit of Gor sitting on my paint table to start work on. I will try to post work in progress pics. We will see how long I maintain this level of interest.

Choosing paints

I decided not to assemble my new purchases yet. perhaps as soon as Saturday I will have in hand the models I traded for. So I want to paint them first since they are already assembled.

So meanwhile I have been doing prep work. I finished painting the Lothern Sea Guard and then dug up some night goblins I had laying around. I purchased some water paints and brushes and started working.

I have been experimenting with how much to thin the paint and some dry brushing. So far I have used three colors. I blocked out their robes in dark brown, then painted the bits of iron such as the tips of the bows, belt buckles, etc in black.

I then experimented with dry brushing on the black trying to darken certain areas.

Then I used a lighter brown for the bows and arrow shafts. This time I tried it two ways; first I dry brushed the robes to highlight the folds. The first one saw me leave too much paint on the brush and therefore leave too much paint on the model.

This illustrates one reason water might be a nice improvement for me. With my unsteady hand, I tend to get a lot of "bleed" when I paint. With water, it is a very easy fix.

Then I really thinned it down to do a wash on a few models I did not block out in dark brown. Those are drying as I type this.

The rest of it I am very pleased with. There are some coverage issues, but that might be because the light was insufficient at first. I have found a new way to light my work space so it is looking better and I am now able to see the models.

So I think I will be ready to start painging the Beastmen about Monday night. I have some plans to make them a really, really sharp looking army. I have to declare this water experiment a success so far.

The painting choice

As a general rule I only use oil-base paints when I paint an army. This is for several reasons.

First and foremost, appearance. I prefer the glossy, almost "wet look" I get from oil paints. Second, familiarity. Those are what I have used my entire life, I know what they SHOULD do and how to do it.

I did once use water base. I purchased several apple-barrel paints and started work on some Dwarf figures with it.

I hated it.

I did not like the dull look. I did not like the way it did not give very good coverage. I hated the dull look. I missed the shine. I hated the dull look.

Yes, I disliked the flatness that much. Between that and the horrid coverage rate I just could not stand the water-based paints.

I went back to my beloved oil-base. Meanwhile, a friend wanted to do some painting, so I sent the water-based paints and more Dwarf figures to her. She went nuts.

And she did much better than I. She got good coverage. The figures did not look flat. They looked spectacular, in fact.

Well, with starting the Beastmen army, I started thinking about some of the things I wanted to do with it. I want to take time to paint it correctly. With that in mind...I actually have been considering trying the water-base paints again.

I like the work a couple members of our group have managed with water. They can get some of the shine. They do not get the metallics I adore, but there are ways around that.

Furthermore, there are many more tutorials on how to work with water-based than with oil-based.

So since I am starting a new army, I think I will go out on a limb here. I will use water for this army.

Of course, loving my gloss-look as I do, that means I will need a gloss varnish or coating when done...but the extra step will be worth it.

The really amazing thing here is I am actually looking forward to the process. Usually, painting is a chore that I put off as much as possible. I hate doing the painting. It is tedious, boring, and is most explicitly NOT playing the game, which is what I really love.

Yet here is a case where I am looking forward to painting the army. I am planning my colors, considering stuff like doing some of the washes, blending and shading that makes an army really stand out.

That is not fair...I think my Warriors of Chaos army really POPS due to the way I did it.

But that is looking at the army as a whole. It is not worthy of picking up individual models and examining them.

I want the Beastmen to be different. I want them to have that shading and definition that great looking models have.

My initial plan was to paint up enough for a game this weekend.

The new plan is to take my time, do a unit at a time and try to make the best looking army I have ever painted.

I also have plans to make cool bases to use with them. We will see if all this works out.

The Beginning

When I first started playing Warhammer I was playing the Brettonians. They were the perfect army for me. Knights, Dragons, and magic. They rocked.

The primary problem was my competitive nature. Without the Internet, we did not know they were a borderline broken army, much too strong. Add to that my advantage in strategic and tactical knowledge over my gaming partners and they simply never lost a game.

After a while we drifted away from Warhammer. When we came back to it, I promised not to take the Bretonnians again. I had long wanted to play the Wood Elfs for their Wardancers. I also wanted to play the Empire and High Elfs. And Lizardmen. I wavered back and forth.

Eventually I went in to purchase the High Elf Army, got a wild hair and bought the Wood Elf army instead.

They proved highly effective for me. I never lost a game with them. Unfortunately, the entire reason I wanted to play them, the Wardancers, were so bad that I hated them.

Example; the first time I used them I charged into a depleted Night Goblin regiment (in 7th edition: this meant I should have wiped out their front rank, taken no attacks in return, and should have routed them handily), did no wounds, a couple of them died, they broke and ran.

I tried them three more times. I combo charged them. I flank charged stuff. I charged in alone. I went war machine hunting.

And three times in four games, they ran without doing a wound.

When the primary reason you want to play an army is useless, it really takes away the desire to play that army. Sure, the maneuver/shooting routine was fun. But every time I looked at the Wardancers I just wanted to hurl.

I tried the Dwarf army, but they were too slow and too boring. Because they are so slow, to deal with stuff like Hydras, H-pit abominations and so  forth means a couple cannons, preferably with Rune of Flaming, are mandatory. Add a unit or two of Thunderers and suddenly you have a gun line.

Sitting back waiting for your opponent to come into your warriors after passing though a kill-zone is effective, but boring. Furthermore, their flavor unit, the Slayers, are brutally bad as well. If they had something like a 5+ Ward save...MAYBE they would be playable. With just T to protect them? Brutal. they never survive to attack the monsters they are supposed to have a fighting chance against.

Much like the Wardancers, they really are not worth taking.

So I settled on the Warriors of Chaos and absolutely love them. They are my favorite army by far.

I love the epic, back-breaking charges the Knights put on. I have had some success with Magic, though never enough to make back the points I put into it. I would be best off just taking it defensively, as it has been marginally effective at best. But I love it.

I like the look, I like the feel, I like the play style. The Warriors fit me to a T, except for their lack of shooting.

Every list looks basically the same, though, so I have been trying recently to change up, play some different armies.

First I played with the High Elf army. I will probably continue to tweak them a bit but the army is just missing something. I am not sure what it is. They are fast, have Knights, good magic, some shooting. They have all the tools to be spectacular. I suspect I will grow to love them.

I think part of the problem might be the look of them. Individually I like each model, but the overall look of the army just...whiffs. I cannot put my finger on why. So we will see what happens with the High Elf army.

Went back to the Dwarf army. I had forgotten how slow they are. I did manage to pull out a win, but it was based almost entirely on shooting and I found the army lacking. they have no wizards and no Knights, so they are missing a couple key things I am looking for. Plus...they are ssssoooooooo slow. 3/6 pales in comparison even to the Warriors of Chaos 4/8 movement. And that is so slow I learned to hate WoC infantry, even though most people love the Marauder and Chaos Warrior blocks.

I like fast, hard hitting armies.

Ironically, my last two games were played as Dwarfs and Warriors of Chaos. I played a guy using my Wood Elf army. He loved the look and feel of the army. He had some Beastmen. The relative values were pretty close so we traded.

Part of my impetus was listening to The Bad Dice podcast in which Mark Wildman discussed how he built his Beastmen army.

He pointed out how even Gors and Ungors could be made into guys with S4 or S5. Yet because of their near total lack of armor, they are not the rock-hard troops I am used to using. Thus they are a vastly different style to what I typically play, but they have the ability to be outstanding in close combat and magic.

They also have an element I really need to develop. All to often, when I take a casualty or two, it tends to alter my plan of attack. With their complete lack of armor/ruggedness, the Beastmen do not allow that. I have to learn to stick them in.

So the Beastmen have a couple of elements I am looking for. They are fast, have the potential to do some nice magic, and are a vastly different play style to my typical Warriors armies.

That last is more important than you might think. The idea of playing a second army more frequently is to make the games more varied which keeps them fresh and exciting. Playing an army that dies on looking at it, expects to take over 50% casualties and is more of a grind army than anything is something new and exciting.

So with the trade in place, I started playing around with a list.

This is where playstyle matters. Wildman did a good job of bringing to my attention an item the Beastmen have I was not aware of, specifically the Herdstone.

Typically my magic phases end up with me having the same or fewer dice than my opponents. So typically, magic phases have come down to "throw six dice at a spell hoping for irresistible."

With the beastmen, it will be more "spam the spell you want until it goes with a variety of less powerful casters".

Unlike Wildman, however, I like the mix of having hard-punching Minotaurs, plan to have a Ghorgon (though I expect him before seeing combat far too often to make him a SMART choice) along with the Gor and Ungor herds.

In the next post, I will go about explaining how I came to conceive my first list.

For now, I am just excited to have a new army i am excited to build.

Welcome to the herd, I tell myself. Here come the Beastmen.

Unit 2 part 2

One of the issues I had with the Gor unit was they felt so drab for so long. Added to that is the indisputable fact that even the most casual search of the Internet for the best way to paint miniatures almost without exception say to paint "inside out" combined to alter the order I painted this unit.

Almost immediately I wanted to add a splash of color. Red just makes the model look 100% better even with most of it still gray or that sickly taupe color. The lips are, as normal for me, too large, but that is easy to fix later so no harm done.

Now I need to get some darker color started. I like the template of lighter "flesh" and darker fur so again I went a darker brown for the leg fur..

Just three colors in and already I am starting to think these will look much better. I have some ideas for the hair to really make them stand out. I just wish I knew what these models are...