Geekdad Paints! Stormcast Eternals and Base Experiments

I mentioned in a previous GeekDad Paints! post that even though my friend and I weren’t yet halfway through my first Warcry campaign I had already purchased my second warband, the Stormcast Eternals. I was excited to complete the first campaign and get started on our second. And then Lockdown happened. Our ongoing campaign was relegated to the already overflowing “when the world gets back to normal” pile and I discovered that I had more than enough time on my hands for painting my second team of warriors.

For those who don’t know—and I was definitely in this camp at the beginning of 2020—Warcry is a small-scale skirmish version of Warhammer. Usually played by two people, each player controls a group fighters over a series of battle rounds where they duke it out to complete specific objectives.

I was introduced to Warcry very recently by my friend, a seasoned veteran of many Warhammer campaigns, and an accomplished model painter. Although I had some experience with painting minifigures for tabletop games, my skills with the brush are more likely to evoke comparisons with Jackson Pollack rather than Da Vinci.

Nonetheless, I am enjoying experimenting with different styles, reading through pages and pages of “how to paint” articles online, and ignoring all of the top tips I can find.

I now have enough Citadel Paints to create a rainbow with the pots in my paint box, which, sadly, is a far more satisfying artistic accomplishment than my actual finished models.

The Stormcast Eternals are supposed to be the embodiment of justice, truth, and order, therefore (in my mind at least) they wear shiny gold armor and have cool laser swords and blue crossbow things. So, to paint them I first sprayed with a primer of Mechanicus Standard Grey, then based the models with Gehenna’s Gold and Mcragge Blue for the armor, Ushabti Bone for the skin, Khorne Red for the laser sword, and Caledor Sky for the crossbow. I then washed the gold with Reikland Fleshshade Gloss, and the skin with Citadel Shade Seraphim Sepia, then layered over the washes with a lighter Auric Armour Gold, Sotek Green, and Baharroth Blue for the crossbow, and Runefang Steel for the sword hilt. In an attempt to create a glowing effect for the sword I used Technical – Ardcoat and layered over with Screamer Pink, Dechala Lilac, and White Scar, before dry-brushing the tips with Skink Blue.

As well as the sword- and crossbow-wielding Vanguard Hunters, the warband includes three Aetherwings—kind of falcon-like birds—I used the same general paint scheme, adding in some Xereus Purple, Doombull Brown, Jokaero Orange, and a Druchii Violet shade wash.

When you purchase the Stormcast Eternals warband, as well as coming with the ability cards of the included warriors, it also features a card for Gryph-hounds, but if you want to use these in your warband you have to buy an additional set. They really know how to take my money in the Warhammer shop.

Experiments with Bases

Having completed the main paint scheme for my Stormcast Eternals warband, I now needed to finish them off with some interesting bases. I’d previously played around with creating lava effects using Mordant Earth technical paints, now I wanted to do something slightly different.

First, I had to complete some testing with different basing techniques. I was using Mordant Earth, Valhallan Blizzard, Army Painter Frozen Tufts, and Army Painter Brown Battle Ground gravel.

Models with Bases

I decided the best option was to go with the blue bases to match the blue trim of the Eternals’ armor, the Aetherwings, and the Gryph-hounds. I’m not entirely sure why there is snow on this landscape and I haven’t read enough of the official Age of Sigmar lore to come up with a fancy explanation.

Overall I was really pleased with my finished attempt.

Now I just have to wait until we can actually meet up again to continue our campaign. The Stormcast Eternals hit pretty hard and I’m excited to see how they’ll fair.

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