Odd Job: Storm Warrior

Hopefully you've been enjoying the posts from the other members of TW as much as I have.  There's a lot of personalities and interests in the group, which means there's something for everyone!  Today I have an update with a small project I've done on the side while my hand-me-down Tau lot sits in Super Clean.

I received about 1250 points of Tau from TW member Tom Hoger, who is shifting his focus to Warhammer Fantasy.  He was working on the classic Tau Sept color scheme (above), but soon they'll join the ranks of Kai'oran!

Sometimes when you grind out model after model for an army (especially larger ones found in 40k), it can wear on you.  This is our hobby, and the last thing we want is for it to feel like a job!  Whenever I find myself in a rut like this I take a break by going to a Reaper model.


For those who may not know, a couple of years ago Reaper Miniatures launched a Kickstarter campaign to get their Bones line of miniatures started.  The campaign was wildly successful and greatly exceeded its goal, becoming the third most funded KS campaign at the time.  It's the campaign that started the miniatures gaming KS trend you see today.  Since then, Reaper has ran a second campaign that met similar success

I dropped about a $100 onto the first Bones KS, which gave me pretty much any miniature I could ask for when playing D&D.  While Reaper runs some gaming systems the beauty of its model range is that if you do any kind of pen and paper RPG there's a mini that represents exactly what you want. It's pretty awesome!

Even though I don't play a lot of D&D anymore, having the models around is nice because it's nice to take a break from painting wargaming miniatures.  You get to use different colors and try new techniques on textures you've never done.  You basically get to do whatever odd job you want.

So here is my odd job before I get cracking on reconstructing the Tau: the Storm Warrior.

Storm Warrior

Since I do mostly Tau and Convergence models, I feel like I paint very few "real" fantasy models.  Plus, since most of my models are heavily armored/metal I haven't done much in the way of natural flesh or fabric shading.  With the Storm Warrior, I intend to fix that.

Notice that the blade is bent a little.  It's one of the few things I do not like about Bones, but it's not a deal breaker.

 I'm pretty stoked with how the model turned out.  The shade looks natural, the enchanted blade looks great, and I even added a scar over the model's left eye.  All in all, it's a pretty imposing hero or army general on the table-top!

Blended cape FTW!

Perhaps the detail I'm most proud of on this model is the blended cloak.  I used the two-brush blending method and thinning agent to create the effect.  There's still some areas where the contrast is stark, but it's my best effort to date.  

That's all I have for now, but stay tuned.  I'm about to start a massive Tau project (thank goodness for Unbound armies!), which will be the subject of most of my posts in the near (and possibly far) future.  I'll be away on business soon, but stick around to see what other trappings TW has to offer!