SlyRebirth

Just finishing up a unit of 5 Khavalos Deathriders to add to this list. Next up, finishing up a Screaming Bell (which I go around halfway to finishing a couple of weeks ago).

Been meaning to post my lockdown painted list for a while, so here goes: Katakros Vokmortian Gothizar Harvester Mortek Crawler Mortek Guard x 10 Necropolis Stalkers x 3 Varanguard x 3 Gaunt Summoner on Disc Mighty Skullcrushers x 6 Blood Reavers x 20 Blood Warriors x 5 Bloodstoker Khorgorath The OBR is work for my current army, but my clippers broke and my order with new ones is (understandably) taking a while to arrive, so I finally finished up all my Khorne Mortal and Everchosen stuff. Great to get it all off the "to paint" shelf and onto the display shelf.

Size XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXL only.

Do we know that SoB release is definitely only one model (which has three build options)?

Personally, I appreciate them calling out the changes and making it clear what's going to change ahead of time. Pretty sure they didn't do this a few years ago. EDIT: Also, may mean increased trade for FLGS too, who usually offer discounts.

I am very confident that the Great Horned One will support this endeavour, and there is no precedent whatsoever for small details such as dice rolls from derailing Skaven plans at any time in history. Not at all... (I don't have five bells, but I think two would be fun to try :))

Great... I'll take five! 😂 Thanks for the quick answer.

I've been looking for an answer to this for a while, so I thought I'd just ask here. I gather it's perfectly fine to have multiple Screaming Bells (learned from this thread) but I wondered if the buffs/nerfs stack when ringing the bells? I can see that the damage or summon results would be fine, but would you -2 to hit for enemies within range of both Bells if they so rolled?

Jes Bickham said in the AoS lore session at Warhammer Fest that Archaon was going to be featuring heavily in the developments of the Mortal Realms again soon, so I still expect to see Everchosen/STD mash-up at some point in the next 6 months.

I've been trawling through the Azyr app and trying to work out what's left after Legacy factions are taken out, and those units which don't have a book that are still on sale in some form, that could/are likely to move into the Cities of Sigmar book. It's still quite a long list - those with an asterisk are very likely to find a home in a different book. Mistweaver Saih* Tenebrael Shard* Battlemage on Griffon Celestial Hurricanum (& with Battlemage) Luminark of Hysh (& with Celestial Mage) Black Guard Bleakswords Darkshards Dreadspears Executioners Sorceress Sorceress on Black Dragon Excelsior Warpriest Flagellants Hammerers Ironbreakers Irondrakes Longbeards Warden King Demigryph Knights Freeguild General (one version still available) Freeguild General on Griffon (two versions available) Freeguild Greatswords Freeguild Guard Freeguild Handgunners Freeguild Outriders Freeguild Pistoliers Cogsmith Gyrobombers Gyrocopters Helblaster Volley Gun Helstorm Rocket Battery Steam Tank Drakespawn Chariots Drakespawn Knights Dreadlord on Black Dragon War Hydra Anointed Flamespyre Phoenix (& with Anointed) Frostheart Phoenix (& with Anointed) Phoenix Guard Assassin Dark Riders Shadow Warriors Eternal Guard Nomad Prince Sisters of the Thorn Sisters of the Watch Wild Riders Wildwood Rangers I think all of the human and duardin units will make it into the CoS book; I'd suspect that some of the aelf units might be merged into a different book alongside new units (similar to Daughters of Khaine).

A few notes from yesterday that might be of some small interest. - There was a rumour going around at about 1pm (one hour before the AoS preview) that the AoS preview had been cancelled. A couple of the GW staff on-site were asking another staffer about it - clearly this was not the case, although it's possible (if unlikely at that late stage) that the line-up had changed and something of note had to be pulled. - In the AoS rules seminar at 11am Jervis Johnson showed a screen grab of the points calculator they use. Not unexpectedly, it assigns a base score to the main statline (move, wounds, save, etc), then there's a tick box for whether a unit can fly, and other elements (number of models, weapons - and whether those cause normal wounds or MW, etc). The interesting part is that they have a list of warscroll abilities that are all given basic points costs (usually 20 or 40 to start with), so that a unit that has an ability which causes 1 MW on charging (for example) will have consistency for the value of that ability with another unit that has the same or similar ability. - Once the calculator has a basic points cost, that information goes to the playtesters to see if the values hold up in the context of synergies, etc. Any differences that come back are then also tracked, and the calculator updated constantly to iterate and refine. The point about the calculator I don't think is to do the work of setting points, but to provide as consistent basis as possible for the subject of balance. There are also other factors taken into account - base size, since it affects the amount of attacks; and one thing called "Puny" which takes into account whether a model has lower survivability (eg single model with 5 wounds) as it has a lower chance to use its abilities more (since it has less chance of lasting to later rounds). - In the AoS Lore seminar at 12pm Jes Bickham very briefly mentioned a reference to the evolution of the game with respect to endless spells, and mentioned the creation of 'named' endless spells in the lore - but possibly also a reference to what's coming up in Forbidden Power (possibly special versions of endless spells that are different in the way that named characters are different from unnamed characters?) - Another point made pretty clearly by Phil Kelly was that Destruction would have its focus. This was in the context of AoS1 being SC vs Chaos (and he said that Order vs Chaos would always be the spine of the evolving narrative, naturally); AoS2 being SC vs Death. So AoS3 may well be Order/SC vs Destruction. Not really a big surprise, but nice to understand some of the thinking. - Jes Bickham was also pretty strong on the point of Archaon coming back "in a big way" - not clear if this is a battletome, or just as part of the narrative evolution. Made me wonder if a STD faction might be led by Archaon... after all, WarCry is basically a big party to please the dude. Anyway, expect him to still play a big part in stuff. - If you're going to attend WH Fest and want to be in one of the main previews, get there very early. We arrived about 9:30am (30 mins before doors opened) and were queuing for over an hour (partly because they couldn't put swag into bags quick enough!) - by the time we got to the Info desk, all preview wristbands for the main systems were gone, though there were still some good ones (see above!) - There were good demos available for things like AoS champions - a good way to pass 20 mins, whether you know a game or not. As you'd expect, staff were all friendly and enthusiastic. - Oddly, the shop there carried pretty much everything you can buy, but nothing was priced... so you'd have to pick stuff up, go through the snaking queue system to the till before you knew how much it would cost. Apparently this wasn't planned... seems like a strange move, so I could believe it was an oversight. As well as the white boxes, there were also old WHFB boxes on the shelves there (square bases only!) - if they had prices and there were some discounts, I think they would have sold a lot more. I think those are the main points of note from what I saw, I'll add other stuff if I think of it. EDIT: Oh, and the Contrast paint looks good. Solid colour as with base paint, but difference in shade where it pools (but quite naturally). Doesn't cover larger, flat areas so well, but it's certainly a great way to get three colours onto a model in a much nicer-looking way than base alone. GW army painter I spoke to claimed that he definitely uses it for his work, which having seen the results I can believe - my expectation is that for now the colour range gives you a bunch of useful starting points, but it isn't exhaustive. So if you're looking for a middle red, blue, green, etc, it's great. But if your starting point needs to be different versions (eg Khorne Red instead of Mephiston, perhaps), then you might still want to go base + shade. Not sure if you can mix Contrast well with other Contrast paints, or other paints in the Base, shade, etc range.

Such a useful tool

This is probably my favourite shot - I feel like facing this bunch would be pretty scary... The recipe for these dryads was pretty straightforward. After priming, the bulk of it is the wood, and if you do this before anything else you can be quick and messy. Dryad Bark all over (except for the loin cloths, skeleton, etc), then Baneblade Brown on any surfaces that would catch light from above (zenithal lighting). Then a highlight of Karak Stone on the lightest/sharpest edges. Then a wash of Agrax Earthshade all over; then a highlight of Rakarth Flesh. And to catch the light and really bring out the forms, a super-light highlight of Stormhost Silver sparingly. The eyes are just Mephiston Red, Evil Sunz Scarlet and a glaze of Bloodletter. The greens (leaves/loincloths and also the same recipe for drybrushing the base) is Castellan Green followed by Loren Forest working outwards. Then highlights of Elysian Green followed by Ogryn Camo. And finally a glaze of Lamenters Yellow really changes the last highlight (Ogryn Camo) and makes it really fresh. That's about it - it's possible to paint the whole unit to a decent standard in just a few hours in this way, with only a bit of extra time for details on stones/skeletons, etc.

Thanks - you're right about the basing. I need to have a little more discipline and patience to finish that side of things too, especially on the larger models. The Alarielle base is huge, so I will take your advice and think of some good stuff to add

I think it's always fun to look back over time and see how your hobby has progressed with practice, learning new techniques... and the influence of Duncan videos! With the most recent batch of pictures I took, I found some efforts from about seven years ago. To put this in perspective, I didn't progress beyond this stage until about 18 months ago (when I watched my first Duncan video to tackle Archaon) - and since then I've painted regularly. But the change between early and recent is quite significant, and I believe that anybody can achieve these results with time, patience, techniques and practice. Here's the first one - a before/after of a good old Dryad. Obviously, the key point here is just that the old picture is base coat only - but then I had no idea about washes, or highlights. I think the skeleton was a dark grey base with a light grey over the top to achieve the dark recess. It's interesting that you can barely make out any detail on the old model - hardly even see the face, or any real shape to the body. So the use of highlights and zenithal lighting style (ie top-down light source given more prominence) definitely helps here. The next one is probably even more stark. A Glade Guard - recently painted since GHB2017 (and painted over the old 'colour scheme') as they may become interesting for allies. Similar to the Dryad, all I had in the old days were about 10-12 paints, and no understanding of how to bring out the detail of a model. I had three units of 10 Glade Guard, and they were all green/brown, with red, yellow or blue hoods to differentiate the units. Urgh! I think I'll enjoy painting over all that old stuff... but nice to have a record of how it's changed.

So it was a little while ago I finished my Sylvaneth, but it's taken a while (and a new camera) to get some decent pictures. So here's the completed Treelord Ancient, with the loincloth sampled in to match Alarielle's dress and leaves in the colour of Autumn (because he is ancient, after all). Just to show the contrast, here's a snap with the TLA next to the much younger Treelord back-to-back. And here's another just to show the theming of the wider army, with a Tree Revenant (I prefer pale flesh to creepy blue skin!) and a Dryad. Hope you like them! Comments, feedback, advice or questions always welcome. I'm working on some shots of the other elements of the army, will post soon.

Just a quick update to show the finished Treelord Ancient with the autumnal leaves/beard now in context. I'm quite pleased with the results, and this guy really stands out from the normal Treelord that's painted in nice, fresh Spring greens. Note on the cloth - this light blue colour is used to match in with Alarielle's dress, in case you were wondering why such a colour departure from the rest of the model Questions/comments/feedback welcome.

That waterfall is genius! And so disgusting!

More Sylvaneth from my army today, here's one of the Tree Revenants up close. After Allarielle this was one of the first models I painted, and was keen to use them to try to bridge the wood vs flesh themes. Allarielle (and maybe Drycha I guess) are the only other models with the opportunity for flesh tones, and while GW's scheme make the Revs ethereal, I wanted something that would tie in with Allarielle's flesh tones. It was also the first model that I established the green tones - a recipe I've followed for all other 'spring greens' across the army now. It's as follows (you can see it on the leaves and thingy hanging from the belt... whatever it is and grades out from low to high: Castellan Green Loren Green Elysian Green Ogryn Camo Hexos Palesun (edges/tips) Lamenter's Yellow (over Hexos Palesun/Ogryn Camo areas) It's given a nice blend, I think. And complements the blue rinse nicely... (I have a second unit of five with a purple rinse). Meanwhile, ornaments follow the exact same scheme as Allarielle's danglies, to echo that consistency. Hope you like it! (edit: this one's not based yet...)

Moving away from the WIP stuff, to something finished a couple of weeks ago. Across the Sylvaneth force I've tried to maintain some consistency, taking the lead from Allarielle. So the Tree Revenant banner is blue/purple, or purple/blue, because those are Allarielle's dress and soul amphora shades. For the tree-based stuff (Revenants' lower body, dryads, K hunters, treeman, Drycha) I also wanted a consistent recipe and approach. I also wanted to experiment with zenithal lighting to see if it would make the models a bit more striking on the tabletop. So here's an example Dryad. I'll post unit pictures and some of the other models in due course, but it's enough to show the direction I wanted. The advantage to this style on wood/natural models is that unlike smooth armour, you don't need to be quite so precise. So it's more... artistic... is perhaps the kind description! The recipe is as follows: Zandri Dust primer Dryad Bark base Baneblade Brown lighter areas Karak Stone highlights Agrax Earthshade Wash Rakarth Flesh highlights Stormhost Silver super-highlights Instead of the normal diffuse lighting technique, lighter areas and highlights were focused on those areas as if the light source was directly above. Only slight highlights applied to shadowed areas to bring out a little depth, but no more. I found that I could complete a unit of 5 models quite painlessly, and actually managed to complete a batch of 10 within a week to this standard. As a unit, they look consistent, but the variety of Dryad poses/branches, etc still makes means they avoid looking uniform. The silver highlights don't really show in this picture, but it's a subtle ploy to catch and reflect the light on the most important parts. The faces are interesting... they look a little bit like the Terminator (with the red eyes), but the contours and scary face is really emphasised. Elsewhere on the body the silver is used very sparingly on the sharpest/most prominent parts only. Upper edges of claws, shoulderblade ridges, etc. It's almost dry-brushed, more like a sheen than a paint layer... but if you try it and put too much on, it's easy to tone down with some careful Nuln Oil. Obviously this model wasn't fully based, but for reference, the recipe there is: Lustrian Undergrowth Nuln Oil Castellan Green drybrush Loren Green drybrush Elysian Green drybrush Ogryn Camo drybrush Citadel grass tufts (I forget, but the lighter green and red/green varieties). Steel Legion Drab (rim) I'll post more pics later of the unit together, and you'll be able to see the basing too.