A Gathering of Mighty Painters

As  I mentioned in the previous post, I plan taking part in the painting challenge called "A Gathering of Mighty Painters", that is organised for fans of 4 edition WFB. Such events are good additional incentive for painting miniatures, and help accomplishing your painting goals.

The army of the Cynath twins is in need of infantry reinforcements, and so I composed a 2000 point army list, that will feature stuff I shall paint in the first half of 2022.

The part that is most important:

Dark Elf General (helberd, heavy armor, shield) – 160+2+3+1 = 166

Dark Elf Battle Standard Bearer (cold one, heavy armor, shield, lance) – 98+10+3+1+2 = 114

3 Cold One Knights - 126

19 Executioners (standard bearer, musician) – 336

Champion (great weapon, heavy armor) – 48+2+3=53

18 Black Guards (standard bearer, musician) – 300

Champion (helberd, heavy armor) – 48+2+3=53

2xScythed Beastmen Chariot (dark elf chariots proxy rules) – 2x106 = 212

5 Ogres (proxy rules for snakemen miniatures) (additional hand weapons) = 5x(40+1)= 205

TOTAL: 1565

The part that is optional:

Assassin – 56

 10 Crossbowman – 130

10 Crossbowman - 130

TOTAL:  316

Here are the miniatures unpainted/in need of stripping ;) The Snakemen are still missing, as I am waiting for the latest DieHard Miniatures kickstarter package to reach my destination. I added them to the roster to spice things up for myself, have a April - monster entry, and also because I want to have a "monster unit" worthy of entering a painting competition on next Oldhammer Poland event, and think that normal, 20mm based units don't make such a striking effect as ogre/troll sized ones :)

Depending on the amount of time I have for painting, I can paint the optional part, or just fill the missing points with magic items for my general, champions and banners. Using just the "sure / probable" part of the roster, the 7 months rotation could look something like that:

January: Unit - first half of the Black Guards or Executioners

February: War Machine - Chariots

March: Unit - second half of the Black Guards or Executioners

April: Monster - Snakemen Unit

May: Unit - first half of the Black Guards or Executioners

June: Character - Cold One Knights / Army Standard Bearer

July: Unit - second half of the Black Guards or Executioners

If you wonder, why I included the 4 cold one riding models in the "infantry reinforcements roster" - I have only 8 knights painted so far, and  it is not enough to field to small units, or one that is really big. Guess that with those additional knights, the cavalry part of the army will be 100% complete too. Also, I really like to paint cold ones, they are totally different than elves / infantry in general, so painting some colourful skin and scales will spice things up a bit.

Chariots were added for a similar reason - currently I only have one chariot painted, and I find them to be much more effective when used in higher numbers. Also, as the February rotation is "war machine", I needed something fitting that spot:)

Here are some of the cold one knights that I have already painted, although they still need a banner, and the "little banners on their lances thing";):

As we are not allowed to paint anything before 2 January, I shall spend the next two months on preparing all the models, removing mould lines, converting the command groups for the infantry units, the general, the army standard bearer, priming and basing. I must admit that the prospect isn't 100% exciting, but on the other side, I also plan on trying out airbrushing the basic colours on these models, so perhaps it will be a useful "mass painting" endeavour. 

Depending on how terrible my efforts will turn out, expect some WIP photos of the above mentioned process in the coming weeks :)