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Warhammer AoS – Bastian Carthalos is Complete!

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It took several months and a bit longer than I expected and hoped but the Stormcast display piece is finally done. I’m very happy with how he turned out and I didn’t have any issues in the final phases of the mini so I’ll just share some pictures and talk a bit about my inspiration behind this piece because I don’t think I ever fully explained it. Here’s a look at the final pictures.

This is certainly a photogenic miniature! After putting so much time into it, I’m glad the photos look really good. It was definitely deflating realizing the Blood Elf project didn’t really look as good on film as in person. In terms of my inspiration for this project, it is probably not what you think. I do like Stormcast minis pretty well and have painted a couple in the past and I obviously like the Greco-Roman touches in the armor but I actually have been wanting to paint a Chaos Space Marine for a while now. Truthfully, I don’t like almost any of the GW’s recent sculpts. That may sound incredibly picky and it is, but I find that when you’re thinking about making a commitment of months to paint a single piece, you have to love it or you’ll regret committing to it. The “icy” highlights that GW uses not only look great but were great fun to use on this Stormcast. I might even go so far as to say my armor looks a bit better than the Heavy Metal team’s job on this one…

So when you couple that with a Greco-Roman style mask that they wore during plays in ancient times, you pretty much have my version of this mini. Here’s a quick size comparison picture I took as well. I think it demonstrates why this project took so long. I didn’t really anticipate the Bastian Carthalos being so much bigger than what is already a fairly decent sized miniature.

And thus concludes this project. I don’t plan on doing another display project for a little bit as I have plenty of gaming projects to work on and quite frankly, I look forward to working on smaller stuff for a while. These display painting projects are a bit grueling and the additional pressure of trying to get this done for Golden Demon certainly didn’t help. I want to think everyone who has kindly supported this project and I appreciate your patience as week after week, you were lucky to see a single new piece painted and attached to the mini. It is certainly a slow and painstaking process!

I’ve already gone back to working on Hellboy minis and should have quite a bit to show off next week. Its been a really nice change of pace and I plan on expanding my online presence a bit more in the near future by posting more on Instagram and possibly even sharing some of the painted minis on Facebook as well to see how that goes.

I’ve also been debating taking up some new gaming projects as well. I purchased a rulebook from Osprey called Broken Legions which is basically Greco-Roman-Egyptian fantasy skirmish rules. If that isn’t right up my alley, I don’t know what is! The rulebook is written by the same man who contributed a lot to LOTR SBG, Mark Latham, so the rules look fairly familiar to me as well. With that said, I ran into a stumbling block when I realized that the manufacturer I want to buy minis from isn’t super easy to get in the United States. Victrix seem to make really top-notch historical sculpts but they aren’t super cheap to get here and I can’t find an American source that sells minis and the shield transfers. Even worse, for German barbarians (the perfect foil to Romans), you get no less than 60 minis in a box! That is probably 50 more than I need… My original plan was to build up from Broken Legions into Clash of Spears and you certainly could do that with so many barbarians but I feel a bit overwhelmed by the cost and amount of minis I’d be taking on so I’m wondering if this project might be better left for later on down the road as much as it pains me because I do love this period of history more than any other.

It doesn’t help that I’ve also been eyeing the Lucid Eye Savage Core minis and thinking it would take less painting, the minis are easier to obtain, and I still think it would be fun to get some Prehistoric minis painted up and used in Palaeo Diet and possibly the two other “caveman” rulesets out there. If I can, I’d love eventually go in a more pulp, lost world direction too so there is a lot of potential mileage out of this project.

I guess I can’t go wrong with either option because they should be fun from a hobby and gaming perspective. They’re also lighter games than Fallout which is key, I think. I can’t handle too many more “heavy” games. Of course, I don’t really need more projects but variety in painting is always key for me so I figure, why not add something new to the mix on top of Hellboy and Fallout? We’ll see what direction I decide to go in. It may even be a surprise to myself at this point!

41 thoughts on “Warhammer AoS – Bastian Carthalos is Complete!”

  2. Your Stormcast is far better than you see in Heavy Metal in my opinion Jeff, and you should be proud of what you have achieved, sounds like a good idea not to take on another display for a bit, and enjoy painting your gaming mini’s for a while.
    The trials of a miniature gamer, do I get this next, or should I look over there, I think we all suffer from that one from time to time ! LOL Whichever direction you decide to go in, I know it will be impressive when you start adding paint.

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    1. Thank you, Dave! I am definitely proud of this one and I think it is probably my best work yet (which is always nice to say!). I will say that its always a good problem to have when you have multiple projects you’re interested in and both of them are very likely to be fun!

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  3. Your time and effort paid off mate, that figure looks epic. Truly impressive!

    As for Broken Legions, I am aware of the game but do not know much about it. Victrix on the other hand I am very familiar with and I think their plastic multi-part 28mm classical lines are among the very best, especially the newer stuff. That said I can see where the expense might be an issue.

    Send me an email if you want to discuss me sending over a couple of Germanic sprues as a bit of a thank you for your help over the last year.

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    1. Thank you, mate! Its really great to hear people like the final mini after quite a bit of work 🙂

      Broken Legions came out a little while ago and has very little hype or buzz around it since then. It isn’t particularly revolutionary with the rules and it is somewhat limited because it is one of the Osprey books that has a relatively low page count. With that said, there aren’t many options for Roman skirmish games so that immediately makes it a winner in my book.

      I sent you an email and feel free to delete this comment (or I can do it, if you’re not able) so that the whole world can’t see your email. I don’t want you getting a bunch of spam as a result of your generosity!

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      2. I have edited it out of your comment so hopefully that helps. I had no idea that I can edit anyone’s comments however I want. It is a good thing none of us are power hungry!

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  5. It’s a shame you couldn’t have entered it, it’s so well done! I think my favorite part is his face.

    I’m glad I mostly had what I needed for Broken Legions, buying the monsters I want is being costly in itself. Seems like everything I look at that I like is UK based and shipping is a bear. End up looking on Ebay to see if I can find it there.

    The Savage Core figures look promising and can’t go wrong with Lost World pulp scenarios.

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      1. Found a minotaur from WizKids that I ended up getting. Just seems like the UK has the best fantasy and historic figures that tempt me.

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      2. Agreed, they really do have a leg up on us here. Especially when it comes to historical minis. There seem to be a lot of metal mini manufacturers going strong in the UK too, I’ve noticed.

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      3. I took a look at the sculpts and these are really nice. I think they might be the best option for Bret and I so thank you for mentioning them, mate! Foundry makes quite a bit of mythological minis but they’re too small I think to scale with modern minis like Victrix. I think Foundry might be a bit expensive to get in the US as well though I haven’t seriously investigated that yet either.

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    2. It would have been nice to enter, though unfortunately, I don’t think it would have brought home any hardware. Maybe next year, I can get fired up to paint something LOTR. I would like to be able to do that, if I can.

      You’re much further along than me with Broken Legions so I’ll be curious to see what you think of the game. I’m glad you’re finding some options too. Our friend Grumpy Gnome gave a good idea with Reaper Bones. There’s quite a bit in that one particular line/release that could be useful for us. I’m not entirely sure if it is out or when it comes out but I’ll be keeping my eye out for it.

      I think Savage Core is still winning out right now and I will be placing my order for some later tonight!

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      1. If ahead you mean spending money on monsters and adding to the unpainted pile, then sure, I’m further ahead.

        I feel that I need to make some cheat sheets to go along with what I’m planning to play, the rule book being small seems disjointed in finding particulars of character play aspects.

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      2. Well you’re ahead me on unpainted monsters but also, you have Romans and Barbarians painted if I remember correctly and I have a grand total of zero minis for this period so I’ve got a long ways to go.

        I totally agree on cheat sheets for the game. I was wanting to come up with something exactly like that to help make the rules easy to remember, especially with all of the various special rules units might have. There is a very small Facebook group for Broken Legions. I’ll try and check and see if anybody has made stuff like that for the game and made it available there. That would save us a bit of time, if so.

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      3. A quick morning follow-up, I can not find a Quick Reference Sheet in the FB group. There are mentions of it when I do a search but it is the first group I’ve seen that doesn’t have a files section enabled so that is puzzling and disappointing. There are roster sheets for the game available on Osprey’s website if you do some digging there. It sounds like we’ll have to make our own cheat sheets for this game, for better and worse!

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  7. I agree completely with Dave Stone in preferring your mini to a Heavy Metal version. 🙂 Really does look excellent and the base complements the figure very nicely indeed! And it’s nice to see Hellboy again! I like the sound of both of your future gaming options actually so I’ll be interested to see which way you jump!

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    1. Thank you for the kind words as always, John! 🙂 If you enjoyed seeing Hellboy this week, then get ready for next weekend where I have another version of him to show off! I’m glad to hear you like both gaming directions and I suppose that in a certain light, they’re both historicals as well 😀

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  8. He looks incredible, matey, and you should be very proud of the work and effort you put into painting him as it’s totally paid off. The base is wonderful, really subtle highlighting and shading that brings a sense of realism. Excellent work!

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    1. Thank you, Matt! Its been great having your support on this project as I didn’t want to let you down with this Stormcast, especially since you’re painting more and more GW yourself these days 🙂

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  9. Badass space marine looks badass so you certainly have a great looking miniature there and should be shown off here and everywhere.

    I haven’t heard of Broken Legions but you know I love Clash of Spears. So that’s obviously the way you want to go. 😀
    But yeah, it’s a wargamer dilemma on what genre to invest our time and money in next. If I’m starting something totally new a big factor is how long will it take to get playable.

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    1. You gave me a chuckle by calling it a space marine. This is actually a fantasy Warhammer mini but I like to call them fantasy space marines because that’s basically what they are no matter how GW dresses them up 🙂

      Broken Legions wouldn’t work with your Dark Ages stuff, but if you ever join the light side of the force and go Roman, you could give it a go. Greeks or Egyptians are welcome too! You even get to throw in a minotaur or centaur in your games if you want! I am convinced that Clash of Spears could be a great way to play the Roman setting so I hope to get there eventually. Its going to take plenty of time and painting though. I figure I win with either option because it gives me a chance to repurpose a lot of the old LOTR terrain I made and haven’t used in several years now. Except for those crop fields which I still think will make their way to you one of these days 🙂

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  10. Can’t comment on your last update, so doing with a new comment.

    Thanks for the update, I will probably do some “Xerox art” with the roster and add particulars under the characters.

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    1. I had the same problem responding to Rick earlier today so no worries. You’re welcome and you’ll have to show me what you come up with when you get around to it. I think that a blog called Mapper’s Marvelous Miniatures and Terrain should be in your future as well 😉

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    1. Thank you for the kind words! Badger Games is the exact source I was talking about in this update so you’re spot on! 🙂 Unfortunately, they have no Roman shield transfers in stock currently but hopefully they will restock them down the road.

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  13. The end result was well worth the effort, Jeff, he looks superb.
    I never appreciated just how big he was, thanks for size comparison.
    It’s been a fun and interesting experience following your progress through this one and it will be interesting to see what you turn to next, when you decide to return to display painting that is.🙂

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    1. Thank you, Justin! I really didn’t appreciate the size either until I get to the end and then the time I spent painting it started to make sense! I have several display projects on my mind so I doubt I’ll be able to get away from it for long 🙂

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  16. Both Hellboy and the Sigmarite look amazing. Great red skin and there is so much to take in with the Sigmarite. The mask really draws me in. Must be the cool colour contrast to the rest of the mini. Really nice celestial look.

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