Its been a while since my last update on this mini and that is because I was working on less exciting parts and they took longer than expected to get done. The good news is that despite some challenges, the Knight-Judicator is really starting to come together now. I basically have the bow and hands to paint and his quiver so the end is in sight even if I suspect it will take a couple weeks to get those done. Here’s a look at the mini and then I can share a few thoughts on how things went.
While I obviously got the head and cape done, I spent a good amount of time refining the gold in places where I felt like it could be improved. The back thigh really gave me trouble because it is such a small space and it was hard to glaze in there. It was definitely frustrating to work on. Of all the shapes to paint, cylinders are among the hardest for me anyway and that’s exactly what shape the thigh is. This is also the real reason why I don’t like painting space marines. They have multiple cylinders in their sculpts and if you aren’t really good with your brushwork, its easy to get the highlights crooked and then you have a headache to try and fix.
The head was a bit scary to work on too because I initially had trouble with mohawk part and panicked and started working on the other head (which I don’t like as much) and I messed that one up too only by applying too thick of paint. So I went back to the initial head and instead of trying to pick out each “strand” of hair, I tried to treat it all as one block and that really helped. Fortunately, the rest of the stuff came together smoothly and I’m pretty happy with how its looking currently. There is a thing or two that could be adjusted or improved further but as of right now, I’m ready to work on the last two parts and try and wrap this mini up.
Here a couple other random thoughts for you since my last update.
Since Adepticon, I have not played any tabletop games nor have I had a strong desire to do so. I played Hellboy on the Friday of Adepticon and had a good time with it but since then, I haven’t had any desire to play anything. I’m guessing that it is because I’ve been having so much fun playing Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition on Switch and Lord of the Rings Online but I hope the desire to do some analog gaming comes back over the summer because I have an awful lot of painting for gaming purposes to do.
Thanks in part to Wudugast’s help and some dodgy websites, I’ve been reading some old Battletomes and Codexes for Warhammer: Age of Sigmar and Warhammer 40k. Here are my quick thoughts on them.
Fyreslayers 1st Edition Battletome – I like this faction and their models but I don’t love them and so I’ve often thought about painting them and never gotten around to it. This Battletome does have some really inspiring artwork in it. Probably the best of the different books I’ve read. Here’s an example.
My constructive criticism of the faction is that GW paints them up as volcanic dwarf slayers and its hard to figure out any other way to present them. Even the color schemes provided in the book are basically just moving around the color patterns. The larger models, which feature the Magmadroth, suffer from being repetitive to paint since they’re mostly covered in scales so its hard to want to take them on for a display project even if they’re pretty cool looking.
Drukhari 8th Edition Codex – This was inspiring to read because the Dark Eldar backstory is more interesting than I would have guessed. The idea of a planet made up of kabals that are all trying to one up the other kabals but also inflict sadistic violence on others is surprisingly interesting. In many ways, the Dark Eldar are like vampires but instead of blood, they have to inflict suffering on others instead. The Dark Eldar have a lot of old minis in the line and while there are some cool ones, like Drazhar, which I’ve already painted, they would really benefit from some fresh sculpts. I like the look of the leader mini in the Kill Team that was released recently (I think) so that might be something I pick up down the road as I would enjoy painting another Dark Eldar.
Blades of Khorne 1st Edition Battletome – While the backstory was nothing too special or interesting because Khorne is angry god who likes violence and those who use violence against each other as much as possible, I did get inspiration from the alternate color schemes GW provided. I’ve always liked the look of Khorne minis and Games Workshop has made some great ones in Age of Sigmar. With that said, people generally paint them red and gold or red and brass because it looks good. I was already planning on painting something Khorne in the near future because I enjoy painting red but I came up with an idea or two for other schemes that would look good as well so this was worth it in that sense.
I had heard from other skilled painters that reading the “army books” for Warhammer are a great source of inspiration but I was surprised how true that ended up being. I really like how GW gives you color scheme ideas in the book which they generally do not do for MESBG. I got ideas for two color schemes from the Drukhari codex and two more from Blades of Khorne. Of course, this begs the question for someone painting slowly like me. Can you have too much inspiration and start to want to paint too many things? I think the answer is probably yes but I’ll just have to try and pace myself on reading Codexes and Battletomes so that I don’t get overwhelmed with ideas and discouraged when I realize I don’t have enough time to bring them all to life.
Kuribo's Painting 
The stormcast is really coming together now Jeff, and your brushwork on it is excellent.
Finding inspiration from art or background can be very illuminating, It’s where a lot of my armies and individual models have come from. Having lots of ideas isn’t a bad thing, just need to pick the best one and focus in on it, until finished, then move onto the next ! LOL
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Thanks, Dave! It is nice to see the miniature coming together now for sure. Maybe you’re right on having lots of ideas. Sometimes its hard to figure out how good those ideas are until you work on the project but I suppose that is a not the worst problem to have either.
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The stormcast is coming along nicely! Treating hair (even when it’s a Mohawk!) as a single block is the right idea I think. It was one of the big realisations for me that I should paint highlights across the whole volume and not hair by hair. You can then add separation between strands afterward if necessary.
I’ve been really enjoying reading through army books and codexes recently too. I read all these books mostly as a gamer in the past, but am loving the background and painting sections these days where I paint much more than game!
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Its unusual on a GW mini to have hair so fine that you can’t use a brush on it but that’s the case here. I’m glad to hear you like how its shaping up too. Its taken a long time to get to where it is so I’m relieved that its coming together.
I’m glad to hear that you also take inspiration from those books too. GW does a nice job putting the books together so its well worth the time to read them, I reckon!
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The Stormcast is looking fantastic! The golds are gorgeous and the reds have a real depth to them. Looking forward to seeing more progress!
I too like looking through old rulebooks. Realm of Chaos: Slaves to Darkness (Khorne and Slaanesh) and its companion book The Lost and the Damned (Tzeentch and Nurgle) are my faves along with the original Rogue Trader book. They’re out there as PDFs if you’re interested 🙂
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Thanks, Matt! I’m looking forward to more progress and wrapping this project up too.
I haven’t looked at the older books in quite some time but I should do that and see what inspiration I can draw. Thanks for the suggestion!
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The Stormcast is coming along very nicely, Jeff! 🙂 I tend to have too many ideas sometimes and just have to wait for the passage of time to weed some of them out! I always enjoyed the older Warmachine books for the backstory and different troops in them as they gradually expanded the rules, but once they revamped the rules and brought out faction books they didn’t seem as good to me (and it’s a long time since I’ve played Warmachine).
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Thanks, John! 🙂 That is not a bad approach with ideas. I guess I do tend to have some ideas fall by the wayside as time goes on. Funnily enough, some ideas I had a few years ago have come back to me now that I’m back to painting Warhammer so maybe good ideas never die! 🙂
I don’t know much about Warmachine but I imagine the books are pretty similar in that they contain lore, pretty images, and rules. One area where it sounds like they’re similar is that some editions of the books are better than others. I had to do some research to find that info out because it isn’t necessarily easy to figure out on your own!
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the miniature is really looking great. You’re putting in a lot of work on it so I hope the end result will meet with your desires. 😁
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Thanks, Stew! It has taken quite a while but I’ve enjoyed it for the most part. I messed something up this weekend which certainly has me thinking about the amount of time spent on this project but more on that next update…
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The miniature looks awesome. I am in awe if people who can spend so long on a single miniature. I do occasionally buy old army books. Not sure why as I have absolutely no interest in GW games. Part nostalgia maybe and possibly the lore is of interest.
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Thanks, mate! I’m glad to hear it isn’t just me who has taken an interest in the older books. They’re pretty well done and not too expensive so they’re worth a look, I’d say!
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Coming along brilliantly mate!
Great idea to seek inspiration from older tomes. I do not think you can have too much inspiration… but there truly is never enough time.
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Thanks, mate! And I would agree that inspiration is generally good maybe even when you have too much. Speaking of time, isn’t about time for another update from you? 🙂
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I keep meaning to get something posted but I have a couple of terrain pieces I am trying to finish for the next update and I keep finding something I want to change on them before calling them “good enough”. Soon. Hopefully they will be done soon.
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Sounds good to me. I look forward to it!
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Wow, this is looking really good! The helm is looking really great and really liking the highlights on the gold. The red cloak really catches the eye too. At first I thought he was holding a spear as the stance seemed to suggest that. Will see how it looks with a bow! 😃
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Thanks, Brian! I’m glad you like how its shaping up and a spear would actually be pretty cool for this mini. At the rate I’m going, I will probably only have the back finished for the next update. This project is really taking some time to complete!
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Worth the time though, it’s turning out pretty amazing!
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Cheers! 🙂
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That model is coming along great and the mohawk is looking great so vibrant! Looking forward to seeing how it turns out!
All the codex’s / army books have some really cool art work in I remember seeing that slayer picture before and thinking it was amazing and then like you been a bit turned off by the models.
I do hope you have a go with the Khorne, I’ve got a small force of these (that are not red and gold) but not been inspired by them for an age, so I do look forward to see how would paint them.
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Thanks, mate! I’m looking forward to finishing it as well. I’m also glad to hear that you share my opinions on the Fyreslayers. You can see the potential but it isn’t quite there yet.
I will definitely paint something Khorne in the near future. I want to buy the Skullgrinder mini from AoS but its been out of stock for weeks from GW so the wait will go on for a while yet, I reckon. I’m not sure if I’ll paint the typical red and gold scheme or the alternative one first but I hope you’ll find it interesting when I do get around to it.
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Wow, that Stormcast is coming on so well. The depth of colour on his coat is just *chef’s kiss*! And I know that the armour has been pretty much done for a while but it’s just amazing what you’ve done there. Great work, and now my appetite is whetted to see the final updates.
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Thanks, mate! 😀 I’m going to work on another update today so you won’t have to wait too long!
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