Hello everyone,
Since the first edition of Age of Sigmar, Games Workshop has served us Stormcast in every possible way. Much like the Space Marines in Warhammer 40K, it was simply impossible to escape their presence, including on our blog. Like any good compulsive collector, we’ve accumulated a fair number of Stormcast kits over the years. And of course, aside from assembling a few miniatures here and there, we never quite made it to the painting stage.
With the excitement brought on by launching the blog and our desire to share as many articles with you as possible, we’ve set ourselves some painting goals to finally make progress on this army. Our first milestone is to tackle the Vanguard Auxiliary Chamber. In our opinion, this is one of the best ways to approach a collection: setting small, clearly defined goals to avoid getting discouraged by the ever-growing mountain of grey plastic.
The spark for working on this chamber came with the release of Estenna of Brighthall, a miniature that really made us want to dive into this unique sub-faction of the Stormcast Eternals.
We’ll be sharing a full review of Estenna in a future article, so stay tuned!
Let’s rewind a bit, back in 2017, we got our hands on the Blightwar box, which pitted the Stormcast Eternals against the Maggotkin of Nurgle. That box featured the very first sculpt of Neave Blacktalon. But as often happens… once the box was opened, the sprues were carefully packed into a smaller box, which was then stored away in the attic, waiting for that mythical day when the project would finally begin. And now, that day has come.
We chose the iconic Neave Blacktalon as our test model for this project. Today, she’s considered a standard Knight-Zephyros, ever since the character was re-released in the “The Blacktalon” box set. The miniature is still incredibly dynamic, wielding two axes in a pose full of motion and aggression. Her unhelmeted face marked a turning point in the design of female Stormcast characters, especially thanks to her distinctive hairstyle, which has since inspired several other models in the range. The only small downside, in our opinion, is that her head feels slightly undersized compared to the rest of the body, a detail that stands out even more when using the helmetless option… which we still went with, because the facial sculpt adds so much personality to the miniature.
Let’s move on to the color scheme.
Our goal was to find a quick and efficient method for painting the army without sacrificing aesthetics. So we went with a base of gold, which, with a wash and three highlight layers, gives a solid, visually pleasing result in less time.
To add our own personal touch, we chose some more original secondary colors:
- A deep jade green (Game Color Scurvy Green)
- Purple/fuchsia tones (Hastur Purple by ScaleColor and Volupus Pink from the Contrast range)
- Beige (Citadel Rakarth Flesh)
- And white (Carcharodon Grey from Two Thin Coats, highlighted with a pure white — brand doesn’t really matter)
We think this palette works well together, creating an interesting contrast between the coolness of the jade and the warmth of the gold, while adding a subtle touch of mysticism with the purples.
We still need to figure out a fitting scheme for the beasts and creatures, but that will come later, we proceed step by step!
Voici donc la figurine test finalisée, présentée sous différents angles, pour vous donner un aperçu de ce à quoi ressemblera notre force une fois l’armée complète.
And what next?
Buoyed by the enthusiasm of a day spent painting, we quietly assembled 5 Vanguard Hunters.
Why not 10, you ask? Simply because the Blightwar box only contained five, and to the best of our knowledge, we don’t have any others on hand…
That said, let’s be honest, there’s a good chance a “bad surprise” awaits us in the attic, with a few forgotten sprues hidden deep inside a box! Meanwhile, Estenna of Brighthall is already in the works on our painting table, and you can expect to see her appear on the blog very soon with a dedicated review.
We hope you enjoyed this article!
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At the bottom of each post, you’ll find a list of all related blog entries, which we’ll update as the project evolves.
1 – Stormcast Eternals Project : Starting the Vanguard Auxiliary Chamber
2 – Coming soon…
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See you soon!
