Kellar's Keep is focused on saving the King and his army from being besieged by Zargon's forces. The besiegers are tribes of Orcs and Goblins along with the occasional henchmen and the forces of Dread. Therefore, the miniatures in this pack are basically re-treads of some of the sculpts from the Core box. You get 8 more orcs, 6 more goblins, 3 more Abominations, a wooden door and an iron door. Not that much to paint really.
As usual, I am planning on painting them all up with my Speedpaints. I am trying to match my Core set for the most part. To do that, I start by undercoating them all with Grey Seer spray. Then, a dark grey wash, followed by the white drybrushing. This has become standard practice for my Speedpaints as it yields strong results.
I decided to start off with the Orcs. Per the last time, I made use of Malignant Green as the flesh color. From there, I used the Graveyard Grey for their armor to give that cast iron look. I spent some time looking through my paint colors. I did not want to duplicate the Red and Blue tabards I made for the past group. Instead I used Zealot Yellow, Cloudburst Blue, a Purple, and a Absolution Green. Finally, I used a combination of Pallid Bone and Runic Grey on the weapons. When it was all done, I washed them in light tone, and painted up the bases with Runic Grey and a black rim.
Ready to be spray varnished, I took them outside the next day and gave them a spray. One problem, I didn't use my matte varnish. I accidentally sprayed them with Grey Seer again! FETH IT ALL! I had to go back in and start over again with half-painted dudes. Thankfully, it was much quicker to fix than the initial paint job. Here they are again, this time properly matte varnished......
They ended up usable. The lesson here kids is always double check before spraying and focus on what you are doing. I was thinking way too much about some work stuff and paid a heavy price for my negligence.
Here they are mixed in with the original Orcs from the Core set....
..... they mix together just fine. Perhaps the new ones are a tad darker? That took me over 100+ HQ models painted this year!
Then, it was time to go onto the next batch, the Goblins. I have not really enjoyed painting these little dudes. Something about them just bothers me. I started with the same Malignant Green flesh as the start. Then, it got a bit tougher. I wanted to keep some of the Magic Blue from the originals, BUT I did wanted them all to look unique. No duplicate paint jobs. I had to go back and look closely on what I did last time.
Not much to say about these little guys. I used Magic Blue as a unifying part of their clothing. Then, I used a variety of colors to finish them off, mostly natural tones. I used Crusader Flesh, Hardened Leather, and Sand Golemn. For metallics I mostly used Runic Grey or Graveyard Grey. I sprinkled a few Metallic Speedpaints in for good measure and a bit of the glitter. The bases were standard Runic Grey with a black rim.
For the Abominations, I had to go back and re-read how I did them from the last time! I didn't recall. I did the same basic steps. I painted the plates Wizard Orb from my basic Army Painter sets. Then, I used Absolution Green on the flesh of the model to give a somewhat two-toned look. For the fins and eyes I used Zealot Yellow. The loincloths I used different colors to again try to be able to differentiate them. The weapons were Runic Grey, Hoplite Bronze, and Pallid Bone for he blades, again with each being different to help identify unique Abominations in game. Then, it was standard basing.
The last thing was to paint up the two doors that came in the set. Nothing fancy. One is off wood and the other is iron. These represent where some missions begin or end. Therefore, I want them to be somewhat unique from the other doorways in the game.
Oooooohhhh, spooky.
Here are the old "in with the new'! I mixed up my Core Set and my Kellar's Keep all together to see how they looked. Not a bad mix-and-match if I do say so myself. I always get a bit nervous trying to go back and recreate a color scheme instead of doing it all together when the memories are fresh.
So, still to do for the year are an Anglo-Saxon army and the Return of the Witch Lord for Heroquest. I have to admit, not having to assemble the models makes these Heroquest models pretty quick, fun, and easy to paint! We'll see what comes out next!
Until next time!
NOOOOOO!!! The primer instead of clear coat disaster. I feel for you, my friend. Actually, my chief enemy around here is summer humidity. In fact, my friend Jason who lives in South Carolina (they scoff at what we call humidity) has given up on spray coating altogether. He brush seals everything, now.
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