I have been a fan of the models produced for Shadespire  since they where first released.  While I will always prefer multi-pose models over single pose, credit must be given to Games Workshop with the quality of their plastic models.  They are clearly years ahead of their competitors and I personally believe that their line of Shadespire and the follow on edition models are some of the best.  While the idea of a quasi-collectable card game is not normally in my wheelhouse, I just couldn’t resist the temptation of the models to give them a try.  Using my new airbrush toy, the Eyes of the Nine where the first to go for a full spin.

From what I have gathered the Eyes of the Nine are not a very popular/powerful warband in the game.  Their sorcerer doesn’t live up to the hype and the two scrubs are easily swept off the board.  In terms of ascetics though I think they are a heavy hitter!  Of the six models of the warband I was able to knock out a chunk of the painting beyond priming with the airbrush.  This considerably sped up (for me) the painting time and I must say I quite like the results. 

Vortemis

Vortemis the All-Seeing was the only member of the group who didn’t get any airbrush action besides priming.  Although I probably could have used it on his wings, he is such a skinny fellow that I wanted to keep it simple.  I followed some tips from Warhammer TV on painting him up and in the end I was quite happy with how he turned out.  I did go a bit too far I think on trying to add pupils to the many eyes he is sporting.  The one on the palm of his hand turned out well but the rest I could have done without.  Overall I like the model and I think it is designed well.  

K’Charik

The muscle of the group!  K’Charik and most of the Tzaangor models I have seen are all great designs.  Past the priming I used the airbrush with a trio of greys to set his skin and then did a wash/filter to tint the skin blue.  It worked well!  The sword on this guy is just absolutely awesome.  Painting swords is still an area that I need to work on.  My original design didn’t come out good enough and I ended up using some Vallejo True Metallic paints to get it looking better.  Still not 100% in my opinion.  I don’t know why I struggle with swords so much.  I tried to replicate the crazy looking feathers that come with box art and I didn’t even come close.  I also don’t think the budding feathers on his chest and arms aren’t as crisp as they should have been.  The horns are another area that could have been better.  I did get some great tips from The Mind of Mengel on painting Tzaangors.  It can be found here.  It is a great resource if you want to paint some of your own.  

Turosh and Narvia

The two lovebirds!  I’m a big fan of the Tzeentch cultist look with the many-eyed bird masks.  These two were the first two models from Project Skin Tone that I got to see once fully completed.  Narvia’s skin came out better overall compared to Turosh, but both look great once fully painted.  They also gave me a chance to work on blending colors over large flat surfaces.  Games Workshop makes this look great so I gave it a try on their shields.

Before the model was fully painted I thought I had captured the look, but the effect was somewhat lost once all the colors were on the models.  Perhaps I should have gone more extreme on my highlighting?  Regardless I feel the transition looked smooth and turned out much better than what I could have done with a brush.  I tried to hand paint a red to blue blend on their loincloths and it didn’t turn out anywhere near as good as I had hoped.  I didn’t dwell on it though and continued to push on.  

The Blue Horror

This guy is the MVP of the bunch.  In game wise probably not, but for having fun with the airbrush most certainly.  For this guy I once again turned to Rob from RobPaintsModels for a step by step on painting both him and the Brimstone Horror.  This was my first attempt at painting Object Source Lighting (OSL) on a model.  I started first by getting the skin tones painted up from a purple to the nice blue horror blue. 

Once the flames where finished I carefully added a yellow tint to the blue skin turning the illuminated portions of his skin greenish.  This was a one-shot process as I wasn’t about to go back to the drawing board if it didn’t work.  In the end I think the yellow was a bit too strong to how I would have preferred, but I am more than pleased with the result.  

Brimstone Horror

After the highs of doing the blue horror this little duo was a bit of a let down.  I think they could have come out better as I don’t really get much of an OSL vibe from them.  Painting fire is always difficult for me and an airbrush doesn’t make it any easier.  The size of these two also made it tough for my caveman aim. I could have gone to a smaller needle size but I want to stay at the .4mm size as it’s more utilitarian than anything smaller.  

The Bases

Bases is usually where I drop the ball on miniature projects.  I’m so close to finishing a project that the base gets rushed so I can get the point of completion.  These bases I put some work into and I tried out some new techniques.  I picked up some sponging sticks from Green Stuff World to go over the bases with.  This gave the bases a nice texture and broke up the smoothness of the stones.  I also experimented with washing select stones with washes of varying colors to give them slight tone differences.  I used everything from green to flesh washes.  The final steps of dry brushing the entire bases brought the stones together but the slight tones left them interesting.  As you can tell I didn’t glue my models to the bases during construction which made the basing much easier. 

Wrap up and Sexy Shots

I don’t think card driven games is really my cup of tea, but having a finished and attractive looking warband to play with is great.  I took a few sexy shots of the group and tried putting some of the OSL models on a black background to see if that makes the effect more pronounced.  I won’t be revisiting Shadespire for awhile but I have two more warbands with skin tone complete.  Perhaps I’ll try the powerhouse of The Chosen Axes!