Chaos in the Old World: Painted Models

I was planning to do an article about Chaos in the Old World anyway. But since I managed to paint all of the game's models in one whole day, I wanted to show them to you. Since I swapped to white primer, painting really got faster - maybe a solution on my being-a-slow-painter-issue (expect an article about black vs. white primers soon). Without further ado, here are the miniatures:

Bloodthirster, Bloodletters and Khorne Cultists

Great Unclean One, Plagebearers and Nurgle Cultists

Lord of Change, Pink Horrors and Tzeentch Cultists

Keeper of Secrets, Daemonettes and Slaanesh Cultists 

Vermin Lord, Rat Ogres and Clan Rats 

Daemon Prince of Chaos (W.I.P.)

I hope you enjoyed your weekend and found all your Easter eggs!

Today, I want to show you my Daemon Prince of Chaos. I've built this guy about two years ago and didn't paint him much over the time. Maybe that's because the model is definitely going to be the army's centerpiece and I don't want to mess this up. I'm telling you how to build the metal Daemon Prince because I don't like the new plastic version of the model which looks too much like a cartoon figure to me.

My winged Daemon Prince

Here is what you need to build a metal winged Daemon Prince of Chaos, spiced with some hints for building the miniature:

• Metal Daemon Prince of Chaos
• Metal Wings from the Greater Daemon of Tzeentch
• Green Stuff for the hood and to fill the gap between shoulders and wings
• Important: The wings need to be pinned to the Daemon Prince miniature. Without pinning and probably a lot of green stuff, the prince won't be winged for long ;-)

Apart from pinning the wings to the miniature, building a Daemon Prince like this one is pretty straightforward. Still, I can't decide if I'm going to paint him in the colours of my Dire Wolves or in the colours of the Death Guard legion I'm about to start building this year. My Dire Wolves are linked to the Space Wolves chapter, so I'd rather go with the concept of many great leaders, i.e. a lot of mighty Chaos Lords and Sorcerers. With his angelic wings and the moody hood, I find that this Daemon Prince would go well with a Death Guard army. What do you think?

Tutorial: Fiery Daemon Sword

Today, my Soul Grinder is going to be in the centre of attention, or to be exact, its sword. People sometimes ask me how I did the fire effect and it's not that difficult at all.

A sword of fire will draw attention to your model.

So, here is the step by step guide to painting a fiery daemon sword:

1. Paint the burning part of the sword entirely white.
2. Strongly drybrush this part of the sword with a yellow paint, leaving a few white spots visible.
3. Drybrush this part of the sword with an orange paint.
4. Lightly drybrush this part of the sword with a red paint (note: the more steps you take, i.e. the more you blend the colours while going from white to red, the finer the effect will look afterwards) 
5. Now drybrush this part of the sword really lightly with a black paint.
6. Assuming you already painted the metal part of the sword: Strongly drybrush the area between the fire and the metal part of the sword to give it a charred look.

Have fun trying this on your own Soul Grinder or daemonic weapon! But you could just as easily use this method to paint any fire on any other model. Here are two pictures of the complete model which didn't quite fit into my improvised cardboard photo box:

Dire Wolves: Hounds of Chaos

Yesterday, I introduced you to my DIY chapter: The Dire Wolves


Today, I'm going to tell you about and show you a traitor marine's best friend: the Hounds of Chaos. They are (quite) cheap, easy to make, even easier to paint and can be a really annoying unit for your opponent. I use them as lesser daemons of chaos.

Point-wise, lesser daemons are expensive because you could almost get another marine for one of those dogs. But the day I care point for point efficiency has yet to be invented. I love lesser daemons for the surprise element they bring to the game - almost every opponent in a friendly game forgets about them, which makes me smile even broader the turn they arrive.

They have another advantage: Put an icon of chaos in your troop and those hellhounds will not scatter. They can even charge on the turn of their arrival and thanks to having a 5++ save, they can be a nasty tarpit unit for big bugs, 'uge orks or the like. Sure, the standard marine might be the more reasonable choice, point for point, but they are also way less fun. So, my advice: never go to battle without lesser daemons. But don't forget to bring an icon!

Enough talk about how much fun they are in battle. They are even easier to build together and paint. Hint: Superglue a washer under the bases of the hounds - otherwise they will likely fall over. Done that? Superb! Here comes the painting tutorial:

Painting the fur

1. Drybrush the whole model with Bleached Bone
2. Wash the fur parts with Badab Black or Devlan Mud (for a black or brown fur); HINT: Add a blueish wash if you want black fur

Painting the Wounds and Mouths

1. Wash the (drybrushed) areas with Baal Red repeatedly until red enough ;-)

Painting the eyes

1. Lightly drybrush or paint the area around the eye with the base colour the eye is going to get (e.g. orange, light blue etc.)
2. Paint the eye in the base colour
3. Paint a smaller area of the eye in the base colour mixed with Skull White (1:1)
4. Paint a dot in the eyes with pure Skull White

Yes, it is that easy! I like quick and easy. The drybrush with Bleached Bone and the washes that follow do look quite natural on those models (if natural is what one is going for with daemonic hellhounds). Hope you liked it. The next articles will focus on marines again. See ya!

PS: The "dust" on the models is some leftover from a former snow effect.