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Edit: I've changed the name of this thread to reflect the larger scope of my blog. It will now serve as an ongoing WIP log for any- and everything Khador-related.

The purpose of this blog is to help me get through my April painting goals, which when complete will form a 500 point Khador army. I'm also looking for any advice/criticism you care to give me - I'm new to painting miniatures, and I'm hoping by posting my WIP you may be able to catch me using poor technique, or doing things the hard way, etc. Please feel free to comment away as brutally as you please. Moving on...

I already completed the Battlegroup box without keeping a log. They turned out like this:



You can read my thoughts on how they turned out and see close-ups of those models here if you like.

This leaves me with the following to paint:

Unit of Iron Fang Pikemen
Unit of Widowmanker
Manhunter solo

The first two items on that list are on backorder at my FLGS, which means I'm starting with the Manhunter, who comes off the shelf like this:



Once opened, the contents of the blister (minus the stat card) are:



4 pieces! I had naively expected more like 2. After test-fitting the joints (sort of a rounded peg meets shallow indentation) I wasn't very pleased with the fit. The leg especially was far from being flush. I decided to pin everything and GS the joins since I'm going to be playing with this mini not just displaying it. Pins in:



As far as pose-ability, arm placement is somewhat restricted by human anatomy, but the leg could easily be perched up on a rock or Cygnaran's head or what have you. I played it safe and went for the stock pose:



24 hours later, the greenstuff had set, so I based and primed him. I started painting today, beginning with the metals. I've just about finished the axes, and I've finished my highlighting on his pants and tunic. I think his pants look pretty decent already, although I'm planning a dark grey wash to get into the stitching and tie the highlights together.



The 4-stage highlighting on the browns is very obvious. Again, I intend to glaze with a dark brown to smooth the highlights. I'll then use the same brown as a wash to darken the folds of the cloth (leather?). I use a Future Floor Wax wash medium for this kind of thing. I'll let it sit overnight to make sure the paint is very dry before I apply the wash/glaze however. I hope to post more within the next few days.

Thanks for reading, and for any tips/tricks/wags-of-the-finger you care to give me!

The Manhunter was fun to paint.

Be careful with PP spears/pikes/whatever. Depending on
the model they can be extremely bendy/fragile. Some
people replace them outright with brass rod.

Thanks for the heads up. That will certainly come into play with the IFPs. I typically use steel paperclips for my pins, so I'll have to source some proper brass rod.

I like your winter camo scheme instead of all red like you typically see. I agree with the rod as every spear they make bends way to easily.

I took some closer looks at the pics of the Pikemen, and am now dreading what sounds to be a necessary replacement of their pikes with rod. Do you drill straight through their hands and use a single piece of rod, or do it in two sections? How do trim out the existing pike - knife/clippers/Dremel? Thanks for the advice!

Pikemen brass rod issue notwithstanding, I thought I'd post of few pics of today's progress. First, a shot of his coat with the glaze applied and lowlighting done. I still have to pick out the stitching detail:



I'm hoping the highlights aren't now too subtle, because in my experience the Dulcote varnish will dim everything down a bit.

The flesh is really important on this figure because there's so much of it. I reached for Reaper paints across two "triads":



I've finished the highlights on the skin, but not the lowlights (again, I'll be glazing and using the glaze colour to build up the lowlights). I'm also really liking how his pants turned out with a nice smooth blend around his knees, although the stitching needs to be detailed there also.




I won't be making any progress on the Manhunter tomorrow, as I'm part of a painting group down at my FLGS and we're all doing the same Rackham Confrontation fig. There's a couple of very skilled painters in the group so I hope to learn something! Thanks for the comments so far.

Hey DFo,

Use 1/16" brass rod for the IFP's pikes! Trust me it is a lot of work, but work that will pay off in the long run. check this out, it's the Brush thralls website and I used this tutorial for my pikemen:

http://www.brushthralls.com/modelling/brass-rod-tutorial.html

Here are my particular results:






Sorry for the crappy pictures, but it's overcast/raining so the light is really bad, but I hope it gives you an idea...if you have any questions I'd love to help out another Khador player!

Thanks,
Chappy P!

PS: I just saw what the pictures looked like and man they don't look as bad in real life!! Yikes, it looks like I painted them with my foot while blind folded...stupid camera and photographer =)

Thanks CP! I knew of the brushthralls site, but didn't know they covered this issue. As to the pics - don't worry. I'm well aware of how frustrating it can be to get an image that looks anything like reality. I like the blacked-out scheme though. Very menacing. And those pikes are dead straight!

yup good ol 1/16" brass rod! I cut lengths of brass rod equal to the pike itself, plus a little extra to fit inside the Head and butt of the pike.

Cut the pike and then pin all the pieces together, like it's laid out in the thralls website. Again it seems daunting but it's so worth it!

PS: not to hijack your thread, but my Khadoran force is based off from the Black Dragon IFP unit mentioned in NQ #1. Basically the scheme is black/silver and gold.

anyway, your painting looks really good, keep us updated with your progress. I'll have to do the same with both this force and my new Butcher Man o War army! I have just about all the pieces, and I am starting the painting!

Keep us posted and keep it up!

Thanks,
Chappy P!

Who can argue with the Butcher and a ton of Man o' Wars? No one, that's who. I look forward to reading about it.

I think there's one line of fluff in the Prime book about Khador having experimented with camouflage, and I remember thinking "YES! Justification for wimping out on painting all that red!" I'm not sure if your reasons were similar, but good call on the Black Dragons nonetheless.

More from me on the Manhunter after the weekend...

1/16" brass rod is such the way to go. It can be frustratingly slow work drilling out the hands, but well worth it.

Nice to see the motherland (in camo even!). I'm surprised you didn't do Sorscha in camo as well (?).

syr8766 wrote:I'm surprised you didn't do Sorscha in camo as well (?).

I thought Khadorans would find it somewhat unbecoming an officer to be attempting to escape the notice of the enemy. Plus, if the eyes of her foes are drawn to the little spot of bright red, they might not notice the enormous metal steamy fellow painted to blend in with the treeline (huge plume of coal exhaust notwithstanding - mmm, carbon).

Going forward, I plan to use the camo exclusivly on 'jacks and paint troopers the traditional red. Man o' Wars will be a toss-up. I fully intend to paint a Kodiak (when I get one) olive drab, however.

you know I had a thought which would be to late maybe...

Have you heard of the Khadoran 111th or 701st armies?

In Superiority at the end of the Khadoran section they have alternate paint schemes and your reminds me of the 111th border legion where the army is all decked out in Winter camo, even Sorcha...the winter camo is mainly white.

The same is true for the 701st, which again is Sorcha, but the army has special rules found in NQ #9, and it mainly consist of winterguard.

Anyway the point I am trying to make is that you could put your sorcha in a simple green bath and redo her in all white instead of the red. With both of these armies the only red she has is on the inside of her Great coat.

Anyway it's just a thought...again keep us posted!

Thanks,
Chappy P!

Hmm... I can see how Sorscha would look cool in white with a red inner liner. I can't see myself repainting THIS Sorscha, but there's an alternative sculpt after all. I'll have to take a good hard look at my IFPs when I get them assembled and make the call on white vs red. I'm currently sourcing back-issues of No Quarter on eBay, so I might actually have some idea of what the heck you're talking about in the not-so-distant future.

Hey No Problem! Issue #1 of NQ is really hard to find, someone was nice enough to copy the section of the issue that i needed. Some LGS, have older issues which is worth a shot.

Yeah the alternate model is the one that I have seen with the White scheme with red liner, personally I think a unit of IFP's would look amazing in white with some red and gold accents!

just my 2 cents,
Thanks,
Chappy P!

Well, I got home from the FLGS painting clinic on Saturday and, astonishingly, felt like painting more! So between Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon, I have finished the Manhunter. Here's the last few WIP pics - first up, the glazed and low-lighted flesh:



On the above pic, you can see that I based the fur trim a dark brown. I then drybrushed this with an off-white to acheive this:



I was actually pleased enough with how the single drybrush looked that I didn't bother with another light drybrush in pure white as I thought it might end up too bright.

After this, all that remained were the straps on his arms/axes and various details.

I'm going to post the finished model in the M&P pages, so click here to see it.

OK, so I dropped by the shop today to see if any of my minis had arrived. Only 2 blisters of Iron Fang Pikemen had (still waiting on the boxed set and the Unit Attachment), but I took them home with my anyway to get started on the dreaded pike replacement unanimously suggested (thanks again for the tip, everyone).

First up, here's what I got home with. Notice the severe case of ED on the pike on the right:



They look like this out of the packaging, with the pikes straightened, but still mighty wonky:



I used the pikes as a template to cut some brass rod to the appropriate length, chopped the ends of the pike, drilled them out (quite tricky) and test-fit them onto the rods:



Next up was to drill out the fist holding the pike (also rather tricky), and clean up the fragments of pewter pike remaining with the hobby knife:



Here's what the original and the sturdier version look like side-by-side. Close enough for jazz!



I'm concerned about how the other pose will work out, since the fist of the model doesn't entirely surround the pike - I'm saving this for tomorrow:



So that's 1 down, 3 more to go in this lot. Then just another 7. Ick. The next pics I post will be of these 4 all assembled, but I won't be painting them until I have the whole unit together to work on in assembly-line fashion. I'm hoping it won't be too much longer before the rest of my IFPs and my Widowmakers arrive, or I'm not going to acheive my April goals!

In other news, yesterday I managed to fling my Sorscha figure across my kitchen (I made a sweeping gesture while holding what I must have thought was an EMPTY 1.5" Sabol foam sheet). The damage consisted of a few small chips in the paint and the breaking off of the handle of her weapon (a separate piece which I didn't pin due to the small size). I repaired her, but she's a bit the worse for wear - the universe seems to be telling me to take the good Chaplain's advice and paint up another Sorscha in white armour. Therefore, my IFPs will also be painted with white armour, although I'd like to keep their capes a deep red - what do you all think of that scheme?

My first 4 IFPs with brass pike shafts:



And I only screwed up one drill hole! (A pike butt - a little GS should hide my sins.)

Anyway, I am now completely stalled pending more models arriving at my FLGS. I'll be there tomorrow to play a few games, so hopefully they'll have something for me. Until such a time, this thread is on hiatus!

Update:

The rest of my 1st 500 is still all backordered, so I would appear to be screwed on completing my April vows. Ah well. To fill the void, I've painted up a Butcher (no WIP) which can be seen here. There are a couple of Khador blisters on the shelf in my FLGS which I have no current need for, but which have been reduced, so I may end up with a Field Gun and Irusk before I even have my first full unit. I'll continue to trickle in updates as applicable.

Well done drilling out the pikes and replacing with brass rod. Really look the business now, instead of bendy and dumb

- Salvage

Well, since my IFPs and Widowmaker are lost in the eternal limbo of backorder, I've decided to proceed with model in my 750 list. First up, a Greylord Ternion unit. Pretty boring assembly here - just a litte GS on the Koldun's axe arm:



I also have a Man-o-War Kovnik on the go, and he's a bit more interesting. I'm using the BrushThralls method of straightening his posture, forming a brass rod "T" up from his waist and across his shoulders:




You can then "hang" his upper torso off the waist brass rod. Here's a pic before trimming down the rod:



I GS'd the two halves of his torso together because the fit was gappy. When I do this on other MoWs, I'm going to let this GS cure before moving on to the next step as the halves kept separating under the pressure I had to apply to it to smoosh it down over this GS ball:



I ended up with a fairly erect (as opposed to limbo-ing) Kovnik. I attempted to texture the visible GS like chainmail, but I'm not much for sculpting:



I also pinned, greenstuffed, and superglued the super-narrow wrist of his axe arm. I don't know why PP even bothered with a ball-and-socket here as there no chance in hell superglue alone would hold the weigh of the enormous weapon:



I'm now waiting for all the GS to cure before moving on with the arm attachment (I think I drilled the pin holes at the wrong angle - ick) and then to priming and painting. The Greylord Koldun's cloak looks like it's going to present quite a challenge but could look very cool if don't screw up.

Can't wait until I see an Army Shot so that you'll have
enough for an Army Profile!

Me too malfred... me too. I'll definitely whip up a profile when I have enough painted figures to make it worthwhile. Hopefully in another month or so!

Well, I've been away from the painting table for the last couple of days because I've been playing actual games with my Khadorans! Lots of fun, but it makes baby Jesus cry to see unpainted models on the table. So today I sat down with my Greylord Ternion, painted their cloaks up a colour which ended up not working at all, and stripped the paint back of to try again. This was somewhat disheartening, so I thought I'd post a pic to this thread to keep my motivation up:



The inside of their cloaks are done but everything else is just in the blocking stage. The white shoulderpad on the guy on the right is the beginning of my attempt to replicate Wayfarer's method (and thus results) from one of his threads which he was kind enough to describe to me.

My goal is to have these guys finished for Saturday... I'm not sure I'd put money on it.

Looking good. Makes me wanna pull out my bare metal khadorians and paint em up.

Well, my Ternion's finished and posted here.

I must say, these models are by a wide margin the least enjoyable PP minis I've painted to date. Lots of detail, but much of it so shallowly molded that it was a challenge not to lose it. The Koldun's cloak didn't turn out as nicely as I hoped it might (simple based red / inked red examples I've seen online look better - going for white was a mistake). I rushed them a bit towards the end to get them off my table.

However, getting them done means I get to start on the MoW Kovnik! I'm going to paint him in four separate pieces (legs&torso&arm, arm&axe, shield, banner) and I'm going to attempt to put some Khadoran script on the banner.

After that, it'll be time for the rest of the IFPs (if I can get them) or a MoW Demo Corps unit. I had trouble getting motivated with those Greylords, but hopefully this won't be an issue going forward!

Looking very nice Dfo!

I can't say I've tried WM yet, but several of the mini's look great, especially from the pictures you have painted. Keep up the good work!

How are those Reaper MS paints working for you as well?

I really like the Master Series. The paint's thin enough for base coating right out of the dropper bottle, it has a high pigment count which makes it great for washes, and the triad system is gold for a lazy person such as myself who dislikes mixing paints.

The negatives are poor coverage on the usual suspects (reds, yellows), and the metallics get chunky really fast on your palette (adding a little flow improver works wonders).

When I got back into the hobby a couple of months ago, I picked up the first 108 paints in the series packaged up in a carry case for around $270 Canadian and I haven't regretted it.

Changing topic slightly, I don't want to come off as one of the rapidly-multiplying breed of PP zealots, but you should definitely give the game a try. You can have a lot of fun game after game with just a $50 Battlegroup - I'm precariously close to picking up a Hordes box even before getting 500 points of Khador on the field.

Thanks for the feedback!

Well, it's been over a week since I posted my finished Greylords, so I thought I'd better post an update. I haven't had much time for painting over the last week, partly due to real life, but also partly due to having my first go at building a gaming table! Here's what I have so far:



I wanted a 4'x4' table, but 4'x3' was the biggest I could fit in my car. I used part of the remaining wood to build the hill, and was working some more terrain out of it when my Dremel wood-cutting bit sheared in half. Hmm.

Anyway, also visible on the table are some Pegasus Hobbies plastic walls (6 for $10, couldn't resist), a CD-based piece of rough terrain, and some lovely cardboard buildings from the 5th Edition WHFB boxed set . Baby steps!

The scuff marks in the flock you may notice were caused by one of my girlfriend's friends who decided to throw her magazine onto my still-drying table. I have enough flock left over to patch it up, however, so that's OK.

I hope to report back soon with some progress on my MoW Kovnik, and I'm quite excited because my Widowmakers have finally arrived! I want to get them into action ASAP. More delays are on the horizon, however, as I'm flying out to Vegas this weekend which will eat into my hobby time. I'm also anticipating a week-long hangover which may put a damper on things.

As always, thanks for reading!

One last update before Vegas...

First up, the completed axe arm, shield and banner pole for the MoW Kovnik:



And the latest addition to the family! Absolutely nothing to report here - they're all single-piece figures: