Hobby Update: SAGA Age of Magic

Welcome back!

Tonight, I continued working on my Great Kingdoms warband, focusing on the flying beast that my warlord will be mounted on. Below are the steps I took.

First, I unified the mini with a coat of Krylon Grey Primer. While Reaper Miniatures promises that their PVC Reaper Bones line do not require primer, I'm honestly skeptical. Likewise, as I added some putty elements myself I wanted a nice, even base to work from.

Next up, I broke out the airbrush. I lean heavily on zenithal sprays, which I find to be as close to an "easy mode" for minis as possible. I'll explain how I use zenithal here. I first evenly coat the mini with the base color.

Next, I use a slightly lighter shade of paint and airbrush it from a high angle on the mini, at least 45 degrees or greater. This lighter tone simulates an overhead light source striking the mini. 

I finally hit the mini with a jet of even lighter paint. This last spray is done from an even higher angle (normally directly above) than the prior and with less quantity. This coat acts as an extreme highlight from an overhead light source.

Et voila, a very quick method for giving even, smooth, consistent lighting across a mini. Once the zenithal is complete, I knock out each base color as evenly and cleanly as possible.

With the base colors applied, I then begin washing the miniature. I'm quite fond of Army Painter Quickshades and use them primarily. The mini below was washed with the Strong Tone wash.

Washes are only the first step; I'll need to re-highlight, do some clean ups, drybrush, and perform further washes to accomplish my desired look. However, when paired with zenithal spray, they provide a quick, effective tool which produces impressive results.

In addition to this painting, I also did some assembling. Rather than dive headlong into my Lords of the Wild warband, I decided to finally give a little love to some minis gifted to me by the great Tobias Ivan Tjubkovskij of Admiralty Miniatures. Most Notably, Tobias has sculpted a great line of Tjublings, his love letter to the classic Chaos Dwarfs of bygone Warhammer Fantasy Battles. I've been greedily eyeing these dwarfs for about a year now, but being laid off, having to relocate for work, and, most importantly, finding a dearth of Kings of War players (which the minis were initially intended for) put them on the back burner.

However, no more excuses! These guys are being brought to life. I've been poring through the Masters of the Underneath warband rules and am very excited to use these minis to represent them on the battlefield. I don't have quite enough to make a full warband currently, but that can be easily remedied via Etsy.

I may have added some extra flare to this warlord's cap...

Stay tuned for more updates!

-Nick