Blades in the Bog

"And when all the most renowned in the ancient sagas are named, the Fennblades must be counted the foremost in strength and accomplishments, in zeal and valor.

In keeping with the theme of coming back to start up activity in this blog once more, I thought it might be worthwhile to discuss some of the first models that I ever painted (and my namesake on this blog):  The Fennblades.

I'd be a liar if I told you that I tidily finished all of these in one go.  They were completed piecemeal over an extended period and, as such, the quality is not always consistent across the whole lot. Since painting them though, I have significantly improved the quality of my setup for taking pictures of models, so hopefully we can do them some justice. The Fennblades were one of the first units that drew me into wanting to play this army in Warmachine/Hordes in the first place. When discussing the potential of switching over to this game with my partner in crime, I asked if there was a facsimile for Warhammer Orcs in this game. His response was something along the lines of, "Well, kind of. Except they're more like trolls, and they have rocks for hair, and they wear kilts."

Patient Zero (front)

My quick response was "There isn't anything in that sentence I don't love." He then went on to discuss the stalled pet project to convert an old WHFB Orc army in to the Trollkin Horde and alliance of beasts on display here. 

The Fennblades had that stereotypical highlander aesthetic that I was immediately drawn to. I was a bit nervous at the prospect since I had only ever painted Black Templar Space Marines before and had what I'd considered middling success at best. But after the better part of a weekend (conveniently extended by a snow day) of going back and forth between painting and instructional Youtube videos I was the proud owner of my first painted Ork-blade.  At this point, I only had a selection of paints I'd picked up a local, somewhat run-down hobby store plus whatever I had leftover from my Black Templars a few years prior. 

Patient Zero (back)

I decided on a red color scheme for the kilt, since I thought it would provide the best contrast against the green skin of the ork. This tartan pattern would be subject to a few different experiments and variations which still live on in some of the later models. I kept this color scheme for everything else that was in the melee-oriented portions of my army, which you may remember from the Madrak article a ways back.

Most of this is painted in fairly standard ways, though the only wash I had on this one was an old pot of Devlan Mud. That did teach me a number of places where brown wash did make a lot of sense though, particularly the teeth and armor. I later would wind up going back to this model as well as many others to drybrush a layer of muddy weathering along the bottom of the tartan, boots, and armor with (using GW's Gorthor Brown). He also got a significant face lift on his base, along with the rest of the unit.


Now of course, the problem with painting an infantry unit like this is that there are several of them. This is both daunting and time consuming by any measure.  But the unit only reaches its full potential when fielding all the models, and it's no fun fielding a half painted unit. The big challenge in my mind was one of ensuring a certain amount of diversity in my orks all kitted out in similar armor and leathers. So, in come a whole host of different greens and browns to create multiple skin tones and leather shades.

Many of these other Fennblade models were painted in batches of two or three, with a somewhat noticeable jump in my painting competence between each set. I would paint some of the unit, then take a break from this to paint something of a different size or color scheme. That way I wouldn't get bogged won in the monotony of painting the same type of equipment for days on end. It helps somewhat that each of these are significantly larger than human size infantry, so they are able to take on a certain amount of complexity in their own right individually.

So, some coloring decisions needed to be made on an ork-by-ork basis. As everyone knows, racial diversity is at the backbone of any functioning beast-humanoid collective. I wanted to paint some orks in the cartoonish green to which many of us have grown accustomed, but I felt some of them would also look good in some darker, deeper, or drabber hues as well. Some orks were based in GW Death World Forest, some in GW Waagh Flesh. Some were washed with GW Biel-Tan Green, others in Athonian Camoshade.  The same mentality holds true for the Fennblades' armor. Some armor wash washed in GW Agrax Earthshade, some in Nuln Oil. I also applied varying degrees of the wash to different models to achieve slight color variations. I tried experimenting with both layering and drybrushing for skin tones. As of this writing I am not certain which I completely prefer as I have had mixed results with both techniques on different models.

Fennblade Leader

However, I have as yet neglected some of the models in the full unit. Namely the officer class.  This is the Leader of the Fennblade Unit, which was provided with what I have come to refer to as his "Jaw-met". I figured it was the easiest model to distinguish from the others, and as such paint with more distinctive armor. This was initially painted in GW Hashut Copper, then knocked back with several coats of GW Agrax Earthshade. I did not yet have as many of the paint options that I have been building since his painting and needed to create a weathered bronze effect with the materials I had at my disposal at the time. The Jaw-met was painted in black, then drybrushed a few times over with GW Leadbelcher. My favorite detail is still the scar over his right eye. Nothing that you might notice from table distance, but I still know it's there.

 The final models to be added to the mix were the attachment Fennblade Officer and Drummer. For the officer I went for a black iron sort of look, basing the armor in GW Abaddon Black and drybrushing with various shade of metallic until I was satsified it looked like metal. I kept the same look for the sword as well.

The Drummer that Hungry Kithkar modeled for me was also a joy to paint, since it had a few fun details to experiment with. One was the drumskin, nothing that was particularly revolutionary, but painting the weathering effect was enjoyable. A neat smaller detail was the eye bandage, molded from green stuff and wrapped around his head. I got the blood effect just by dabbing small amounts of old GW Scab Red onto the bandage until I felt it was adequately stained. The head of the drumstick is also a skull, which I thought was a nice touch, so thanks, Kithkar.  Taken together, the officers for this unit add a splash of different colors, which helps to break the monotony that can happen with infantry units.

The Fennblades unit forms the backbone of a lot of my lists on the table. The models together also present what I think is a decently varied color palette despite being locked into a large amount of greens, browns, and iron metallic colors.

I'd say we were getting the band back together, but I'm afraid of copyright infringement.

 

That about does it over here at Ravening Kriels HQ. I hope you all enjoyed this paint article on one of the most used infantry units in my army list thus far. Stay tuned for more articles on painting, basing, and other tangentially related topics here on the Ravening Kriels Official Blog.

-- The Fangorious Fennblade