Nov 2, 20225 min read

Leagues of Votann #1

Sadly, I’m not going to be playing at the next Arc40k. There’s a Painting Challenge to run, armies to score, and Best Painted Army to choose and as I’ve joined the organising team for 2023 those will be my big jobs on the event weekend.

But whenever I’ve attended Arc40k it’s seen me build and paint a new army - everytime!

Some habits die hard so why should this event be any different? Maybe I can get the other Organisers to set up armies and we can do a TO’s Parade Challenge! Are you up for it DanTO?

Across a series of articles, myself and several others we’ve roped in, will share the steps we’re taking on this journey to build a 1350pt Arc40k ready army.

I’m looking forward to seeing what the others share with us - hopefully everyone following and reading can pick up some useful tips on collecting, building and painting armies. It should be interesting and inspiring to see what path each will take.

Normally a load of things I’ll be talking about would happen in secret. The WOW of seeing my completed army for the first time for many people during the Parade of Armies has been part of my Player’s Choice winning strategy…

Thankfully, without the pressure to make an impact on the day I can share much more.

The biggest challenge is where to start and what to start with?

That’s easy. Choose the army. I know not so easy for some - especially one returning Player’s Choice winner I talked to recently who’s stuck deciding what will allow them to show off their skills and grab people’s interest and attention.

Then there’s the ArcMeta! What will fit into 1350pts without being seen as overpowered, or trixy because of recent changes or updates to rules, stratagem stacking or points…

Luckily I don’t have to worry about that… I’m not going to mess about telling you some theory behind how or why you choose the army. Pick something you think is cool and will be the best fun to build, paint and play.

Oh right yes that’s the theory isn’t it. I guess the Arc40k site gives you reasons why the scoring focuses on these things - I edited and wrote some of those words. So yes in essence choose an army that can balance and be considered highly as it strives to meet all 4 of the Codex Fez core pillars of Arc40k.

So, moving to my project - I’ve chosen to base this journey on the new Leagues of Votann.

The Army Set is spicy, I’ve just finished watching all the Crusade Battle Report videos on Warhammer+, and the box looks to be such a solid start up for the Army. As well as being cool to paint and fun to play.

There’s three units and two characters, the rules, tokens and cards. Works out to be around 700pts. So that puts the collection at halfway and not only can I start building but also play testing.

Process, Patience, Perspiration, and Inspiration… I like to think that these 4 principles guide me in embarking on and completing any hobby project. And I always seem to apply them in reverse order.

So let’s start with the inspiration!

I saw the official pics of these models some months ago now. And the overriding impression they left on me was Cheese!

Yep now that you’ve read it, do you see anything but a slice of Swiss upon which these heroes stand? This is my first inspiration for my future Leagues of Votann army.

As I looked at these two models I could think of nothing more fun than making bases for the rest of the army that were based upon the sculptured pieces from each kit.

I really wanted that asteroid or moon landscape to be the theme of the entire army. Fighting over a resources filled planet that they need to make their Kin stronger and safer.

So to start the army, and while I waited for the Army Box to arrive, I started the Process of designing and making bases for the rest of the box. Effectively working from the ground up.

Circles, sphere’s and some cloning gave me the first of a set of bases I was able to output as an .stl file. I designed ten 25 mm toppers that fit perfectly on top of the 28.5 mm bases that the Hearthkyn Warrior come with.

Next I created three larger oval base toppers for the Hernkyn Pioneers. The kit comes with a small piece of rock with a square connector.

This can connect to either the right or left back of the model. So I made a spot on each one to drill out and insert a metal pin. Ensuring that once connected they would be safe from damage going in and out of the carry case.

So it was time to export these as .stl files as well. Next I imported 10 25 mm toppers into my slicing program. I sat them straight onto the build plate and was able to pump out a couple of batches within 2 hours.

The larger bases would only fit one at a time on my small 3D resin printer so about the same time to do the larger ones as the 25mm set. Cleaning and then curing them to ensure they were ready for the next few steps.

Next it was time to grab some superglue and stick the toppers to the top of each base I was going to need. Because I had built directly on the build plate and I’d put a curve to each surface - the moon is round right - that meant that there were swirls and layer lines on the top face of every base topper.

I wanted texture and some grit so the next stage was to fill the swirls with astrogranite and add some sand and gravel to make everything more random.

So these 23 bases are ready for the new League of Votann box set. I’ll build the models - hopefully converting and modifying some so they can take advantage of the details of the base and look their best in situation on the floating asteroid on which they will be fighting.

Have you seen something that will make your project planning better?

Because I’ve started before the box arrived I support it shows that even without models there’s always things you can do to progress your project.

Is building from the ground up something you’ve thought of as your starting point for an army project?

Just say cheese… and then I might be ready to paint the bases!

Next time it’s onto the build of the Hearthkyn Warriors - deciding how to arm them as well as how the build will come together in the next article. See you then.