Veillotron Posted August 7, 2017 Share Posted August 7, 2017 I recently started playing AoS and for the last five months I have been painting my Stormcast army. I thought I would share with the Community the lore/story I have built as well as my progress as I continue to paint my army. Hope you enjoy, and I look forward to all feedback! From the start I wanted to have a Stormcast army that would be ‘mine’, different from the rest. That meant coming up with a unique identity and background story, as well as a different color scheme and small conversions. Building the Narrative The narrative was in part driven by the look I wanted to give my army. I do not like the Stormcasts’ masks, I much prefer the more traditional helms – so I needed a story which would justify the head swaps I was planning on doing. I also did not like the idea of the Stormcasts losing their personalities and humanity over time as they are reforged – in a world of unending wars, they are doomed to become soulless, robot-like warriors. The idea came when reading this extract from the new Stormcast Battletome: And so, here is a summary of narrative I have built for the Stormshadow Crusaders: In their former lives, all Stormshadow Crusaders were valiant, intelligent and ambitious warriors corrupted by Tzeentch’s power and scheming, but ultimately rescued by The Omnibenevolent Sigmar. In his wisdom, Sigmar used a much different and strenuous reforging process, in order to maintain all of their memories intact. Their knowledge and understanding of the Tzeentch’s forces has been of great help in the constant war against the Architect of Fate. Led by the brothers Kyran and Cyan Ironbane, the Stormshadow Crusaders operate in small strike forces, their mission being as much information gathering as eradication of the hordes of The Great Conspirator. Continuously haunted by their past crimes and ever-thankful to their God-King, the Stormshadow Crusaders are driven by an ardent desire for redemption. Their zealousness and fervour is unmatched. The Stormhost’s colors represent the purification and absolution they strive for but will never attain. Contrary to their brethren, The Crusaders’s armour is often battered, as they bear with pride each war scar suffered on their road to redemption. As a sign of humility and reminder of their past, leaders and heroes wear their old helms, declining the opportunity to wear the more ornate Stormcast ones reserved for their ranks. The Stormshadow Crusaders are disliked, even despised by most other Stormhosts. Their dark past and the fact that they retain a greater portion of their humanity and not only fostered scorn and jealousy amongst other Stormcasts, but also a real distrust of the Stormhost. If there is one thing that Crusaders do not tolerate is their allegiance to Sigmar being questioned - and this has led to many bloody skirmishes with other Stormhosts. So now I have a good reason to be wanting to fight other Stormcast armies… I like the idea of having more human but tormented Stormcasts. Every time they get reforged, the memories from their previous lives are refreshed, and since Sigmar has saved them again, they now have another debt to repay him. So the Crusaders are kinda cursed with this never-ending path to redemption and atonement for their sins… Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Veillotron Posted August 7, 2017 Author Share Posted August 7, 2017 The Painting and Conversions As mentioned above, I was keen on coming up with my own look and color scheme for my Stormcasts. I have always liked aqua blue/turquoise. It is also a color that pops on the table. But since I am planning on painting a Tzeentch army after this one (all models have been purchased already), I needed a different colour scheme. I have always been a fan of the silver and white combo, which feels pure and noble. It is also quite monochromatic, which I like a lot. To make it more interesting I decided to make them battered and dirty. Overall I am satisfied with the results, although I still wonder if they are too bland/monochromatic. To be honest, on the tabletop they do not pop that much… I have been toying with the idea of introducing small sources of OSL (mainly in the major triangular recesses of the hammers and shields, maybe the eyes?) But I am not sure if it would enhance the overall look, or if it would take away from it… Especially on this point I would be interested to hear what you have to say. I also need to work on getting smoother blends – hopefully this will come with practice… With a job that demands long hours and 2 kids, my hobby time has been somewhat limited, and my progress has been much slower than I initially anticipated. It took my about 2 months to finish the 2 units of 5 Liberators shown above... And so for a long time I have been playing with unpainted models (‘streethammer’ I believe is the term?). Subscribing to a Warhammer World Weekend Campaign (“Descent of the Overlords”) gave me all the motivation that I needed – there was no way I was going to paint a whole 2000pts army in a month, but at least I had to get all my models ‘table-ready’. And so I did. Below are some of my unfinished but table-ready models, so you can see the small conversions I have been making: My Lord Celestant on Dracoth (with new helm, pauldron and shield) My Lord-Celestant (just head swap) My Celestant-Prime (minus the magical swirlies, angelic wings and new head swap). Regarding the color scheme of his celestial ball (the typical Caledor Sky/Temple Guard Blue and White combo): I wonder if the blue is too strong? I am thinking of toning it down slightly, probably coming up with a color scheme which is in-between this version and the one used by GW to paint their Spirit Hosts (with the Nihilakh Oxide). I do not like the CP’s swirlies, and decided to not include them. I also am not a big fan of the CP’s wings. For travelling purposes, having him wingless is also more convenient. However, I have tried yesterday the wings of the Knight-Azyros, and he does look quite good with them. So that’s another point I am debating. Again, views welcomed… My Lord-Aquilor: (not table-ready yet) - head swap, arm swap and skull chalice added. I’ll spare you the details, but the skull chalice is linked to a) the narrative story I have built for Cyan Ironbane, my leader and b) my strong desire to one day win the new GW skull chalice, which is awesome. It will never happen, but once can dream… The idea is to have a different helm for each leader/hero. The reasons why the CP, LA and LC have all the same helm are: - It is my favorite helm from one of my favorite miniatures when I was a kid. - The LC is actually my hero Cyan Ironbane, before he got ‘promoted’ to Lord-Aquilor. My LA was not ready for the Descent of the Overlords campaign, and I couldn’t go without my hero leading the charge… - The Celestant-Prime has the same because he’s cool and he can (the lore says that he can alter his image to look like the Stormhost he’s helping… I am aiming to have the army completed in time for Armies on Parade, alongside with a presentation board. I’ll keep posting photos as I complete units… Thanks for reading! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Veillotron Posted August 7, 2017 Author Share Posted August 7, 2017 The List(s) I wanted to have a list that fits my narrative and my playing style – a small, hard-hitting force which can move quickly around the board. Unfortunately, for the event I played in I wasn’t able to finish painting the models I wanted and so I brought this more conventional list: Leaders/Heroes General: Lord Celestant on Dracoth (Staunch Defender, Armour of Destiny, Keen-Clawed) 220pts Celestant-Prime 360pts Lord-Celestant on foot 100pts Elites 2x Fulminators 240pts 2x Fulminators 240pts 5x Retributors 220pts 5x Protectors 200pts A small but valiant gryph-hound 40pts Battlelines 5x Liberators (hammers and shield, grandhammer on prime) 100pts 5x liberators (hammers and shield, grandhammer on prime) 100pts 5x judicators (with bows) 160pts Total: 1980 points. The Celestant-Prime was actually a lot of fun to play… I’ll have to find a way to get him in more games… My ideal list, which needs a few more models painted before being fielded: Leaders/Heroes General: Lord-Aquilor (Staunch Defender, Armour of Destiny) 200pts Lord Celestant on Dracoth (Keen-Clawed) 220pts Lord-Castellant 100pts Knight-Heraldor 120pts Lord-Relictor 80pts Elites 2x Fulminators 240pts 2x Fulminators 240pts 6x Vanguard-Palladors (with javelins) 440pts Battlelines 5x Liberators (hammers and shield, grandhammer on prime) 100pts 5x liberators (hammers and shield, grandhammer on prime) 100pts 5x Vanguard-hunters 140pts Total: 1980 points. I am still playing with it… I love the look of the prosecutors, and would like to include a few units with Javelins since they are cheap. If so, I would have to drop a few heroes. I actually prefer the judicators to the vanguard-hunters, but having a vanguard-style army I feel that I need to have at least one unit of hunters in there… And they look cool with their bear capes. Anyway, for the moment the judicators are table-ready and the hunters are not, so that would get me to 2000pts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kramer Posted August 7, 2017 Share Posted August 7, 2017 Very cool set up! To me they don't look bland in the pictures. But it's hard to say if they need some color to make them pop more on the table without seeing it. I would just try it on a liberator or something and check it out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
awcamawn Posted August 8, 2017 Share Posted August 8, 2017 Tales of redemption always make for great fluff! Cool read, and love the head swaps, they really alter the look/feel of those hero models in an awesome way.Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mad Stalin Posted August 8, 2017 Share Posted August 8, 2017 Wonderfull work, I think you're in the good way. You work desatured color so OSL or satured color in some details will work well. Where come from the helmet please ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chord Posted August 8, 2017 Share Posted August 8, 2017 They look great, especially the colors on the prime Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Veillotron Posted August 8, 2017 Author Share Posted August 8, 2017 On 2017-08-07 at 3:21 PM, Kramer said: Very cool set up! To me they don't look bland in the pictures. But it's hard to say if they need some color to make them pop more on the table without seeing it. I would just try it on a liberator or something and check it out. Thanks for the kind words and advice. You are correct, the best way to find out is to try it out on a model... I'll try it out on one of my 'table-ready' guys, to avoid having to repaint one of the finished ones... 13 hours ago, Mad Stalin said: Wonderfull work, I think you're in the good way. You work desatured color so OSL or satured color in some details will work well. Where come from the helmet please ? Thank you for the feedback. The helmets are coming from models I bought in the late 80s/early 90s... I don't know who produced them (from previous discussions on the forum they might not be Citadel, but GW did let me use them in one of their official event)... 7 hours ago, chord said: They look great, especially the colors on the prime Cheers! The one thing I should have done with the Prime (it is a bit late now) is to sand down / carve some of the flowing ends of the cape to make them look more natural before painting the model. It is a bit late now... 15 hours ago, awcamawn said: Tales of redemption always make for great fluff! Cool read, and love the head swaps, they really alter the look/feel of those hero models in an awesome way. Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk Thanks for the kind words! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roark Posted August 8, 2017 Share Posted August 8, 2017 Veillatron, are you me?! This is so strange. I had an almost identical notion for my Stormcast, ie: 1. Chapter/Chamber of dudes redeemed from Chaos as mortals. 2. Silver/chrome and white colour scheme They look fantastic mate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Veillotron Posted August 9, 2017 Author Share Posted August 9, 2017 2 hours ago, Roark said: Veillatron, are you me?! This is so strange. I had an almost identical notion for my Stormcast, ie: 1. Chapter/Chamber of dudes redeemed from Chaos as mortals. 2. Silver/chrome and white colour scheme They look fantastic mate. What can I say - great minds think alike? Thank you Sir for the compliment... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. White Posted August 9, 2017 Share Posted August 9, 2017 What is your secret to painting the white? Very smooth looking! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Veillotron Posted August 9, 2017 Author Share Posted August 9, 2017 10 hours ago, Mr. White said: What is your secret to painting the white? Very smooth looking! Very kind of you, Mr. White. Re the smoothness, it must be due to the quality and distance of the photo; looking closely at the model it could be a lot smoother (that is one of the biggest problem I have, coming up with a super smooth transition. Even if I do 6 coats of glazing, it never looks the way I want. Something to work on...) Re my white recipe, I am using 2 blends: Mix of Zandri Dust and Celestra Grey for the darker tone / base color Mix of Ushabti Bone and Ulthuan Grey for the 'normal' tone / layer color. For the darker recesses (the folds in the cape of the Prime is a good example) I mixed some black with the darker tone. For the highlights I used a 3:1 mix of White Scar and the 'normal' tone. I probably made my life more difficult than it should have been, but the Zandri/Ushabti combo was to ivory/yellowish, whilst the Celestra Grey/Ulthuan Grey was to bluish. So I decided to mix both... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Veillotron Posted August 10, 2017 Author Share Posted August 10, 2017 As I mentioned above, I am not the biggest fan of the Stormcasts' death masks; for some of my units I found that including a visor improved the aesthetics (personal taste, of course). With green stuff, quite easy to do. A few painting WIP examples: I have 2 units of Retributors and 1 units of Protectors. Since the visor works best for the Stormcasts that have 'helmets', I went for Retributor heads for my Protectors. A side benefit is the ability to allocate my 4 Starsoul maces the way I want across the 3 units and keeping the cohesive look. Actually, none of my opponents ever noticed the change unless I pointed it out, but I sleep better at night :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hot_boy_ronald Posted August 14, 2017 Share Posted August 14, 2017 Do you have an album with more pictures? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.