With the completion of the first unit of Hearthkyn Warriors the plan was to crack on and paint the second unit. But after reading the White Dwarf ‘Brush Tips’ article by Max Faleij - where he explained some of the thinking surrounding creating their colour scheme for the Leagues of Votann - my plans changed!
I was particularly drawn by his comments that the ‘set of main colours could be used to denote different unit types (Hearthkyn or Hearthguard) and different materials (armour or void suits).
Max explained that in comparison to the Hearthkyn ‘The Hearthguard are otherwise clad in a richer, darker tone of the same colour, which in turn sits apart from the drab utilitarian grey green of the eco-frame worn by the Brokhyr Thunderkyn.’
Ok, that fitted with how I thought things were going to be for me - but certainly timely words that described what was going to happen with this force.
So, with colours mapped out on my Warriors everything was going to follow the same path - being the set of main colours for the rest of the Army. But, that first the Hearthguard, and then the Thunderkyn, would vary in tone and brightness.
Having these units both already built - installed on asteroid bases resized to the larger 32mm and 40mm size - it was an opportunity to move them up the order and get cracking on to paint them next.
It also meant that I was getting a break and hopefully not getting bogged down painting another 10 Hearthkyn Warriors. Sometimes breaking up the project to do different thinks stops it getting repetitive. Which is a killer of momentum.
If you’ve got a deadline you are trying to achieve - like preparing a new army for an event like Arc40k - then momentum is a vital component to getting everything done on time.
Another part of creating or maintaining momentum is to have multiple things you can do happening at the same time. That’s why I’m also looking at cracking that Sagitaur Box and doing some building and getting onto the cad software and creating an asteroid base at the same time as I paint these two units. But I’ll cover the start to finish of that first vehicle another time.
I had the clearest Idea about how I wanted to paint the Hearthguard - so I undercoated them first in the three tones of Black, Mechanicus Standard Grey and then Grey Seer.
Next I applied the base coats using the airbrush - as I wanted a darker model I started with a 50/50 mix of Kantor and Mccragge Blue. This was added to with sections of Phoenician Purple, Screamer Pink then finally Mephiston Red. Check out the short video…
The other difference to the Hearthguard over the Hearthkyn was that the first coat of their armour was a 50/50 mix of Corvus Black with Stagadon Green.
Next I would be running through the other turquoise colours used on the lighter couloured armour of the Warriors. But the surfaces to which each stage of colour and the resulting transitions of colour to the final highlight was reduced to a much smaller area - limited to the edges of any panel.
Shoulders were to be a key link point with the Warrior’s scheme. The large flat armour panels of the Hearthguard shoulders would mean seeing more of either white or orange. I chose the Orange. Which was placed on both the front facing as well as the top panel of each shoulder pad - with the white/cream colour mimicking the location of white on the warrior shoulderpads.
This also gave me the same background onto which I could put my cut up transfers that would help identify the Hearthguard as another unit from the Nagrim Hegemony.
I also chose to run the leters on the shoulders of the two Iron Kyn in a vertical direction - to differentiate them from the clonekyn troops. I’m pleased with the slight variation across the unit as well as my decision to reverse the numbers so the unit became 01…
Each of my Hearthguard are armed with an EtaCarn Plasma Gun - giving the opportunity to create even more OSL with a plasma glow splashing out of the front and middle vents on each side of the guns. Plus where the guns were pointed or close enough to spill onto parts of the Einhyr then they received OSL in the glowing plasma blue.
We’re not done though! Their Exoarmour is both more enclosing as well as having extra kit over the armour. They have a small belly light aimed at the ground. So on a couple of them I’ve done a tiny spot glow of green from those lights onto the asteroid surface of the base.
So they are now ready to play. Next time I’ll take a run at the Brokhyr Thunderkyn and give you a progress update on the Sagitaur.
Oh, I did make my final purchase to complete the Arc40k army - with the Land Fortress and a 170 mmm oval base to mount it on.
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