Another week, another expansion for Village Attacks. This time we are diving into Dread and Malice. I’m not sure if there’s an overarching theme to this expansion as there has been with others though. 

As with previous expansions I cleaned up any mould lines before giving everything a coat of Colour Forge Standard Grey primer. To prevent paint from beading up and otherwise failing to adhere to the model, a persistent issue that I have had with Village Attacks models, I gave each of the models a coat of AK Interactive Ultra Matt Varnish. For the Berserker and Engineer I painted the skin with Two Thin Coat Dwarven Skin, tidying up with Two Thin Coats Dungeon Stone. I then gave each model a zenithal highlight with Liquitex Titanium White acrylic ink through my airbrush to bring some easy highlights to the models. 

Krampus

The Krampus accompanies good old Saint Nick as they visit children during the Christmas period. As Saint Nicholas is, well, a saint it would not do for him to be punishing naughty children. Such acts are… unsaintly, and so he outsources said punishment to Krampus. 

To get things started I gave the skin a coat of Army Painter Speedpaint Runic Grey, a blue-grey colour that works nicely for monster skin. The tail I painted with Guilliman Flesh, the grey undercoat desaturating to a dead skin colour. For the fur I went with Black Templar, which contrasted nicely with the blue-grey skin and Skeleton Horde for his horns. Lastly I carefully dabbed some Mephiston Red into his eyes.

Moving onto his various adornments, I painted his skull sack and any handle wraps with Snakebite Leather. I wanted the skulls to pop a little more than his horns so I painted them with a very thin coat of Army Painter Skeleton Bone, thin enough that the zenithal highlight still shows through. I then gave them a wash with Army Painter Strong Tone to bring out some of the definition. As my slapchop adjacent painting style doesn’t handle white particularly well, I basecoated the feathers on the sack with Ulthuan Grey before giving them a coat of Apothecary White contrast paint. From there I painted the gloves with Gore-Grunta Fur and the wood details like the staff and club with Wyldwood. The armour plates, helmet and chains I then painted with Army Painter Broadsword Silver.

Despite Krampus unequivocally being a Christmas monster in Village Attacks they are a Demon (Yellow) type monster. To illustrate this I painted the cloth details with Iyanden Yellow, as it’s quite an orangey-yellow it wasn’t desaturated too badly by the grey undercoat. I then painted the pentagram on the staff with Matt White before giving it a coat of Imperial Fist, a very bright yellow. It gave the impression that the pentagram was glowing. 

For the base I started with a generous layer of Stirland Mud texture paint, which I then washed with Army Painter Strong Tone, followed by a drybrush of Tyrant Skull. I then thinned down some PVA glue and applied it in patches to the base and sprinkled on some static grass. 

Bogeyman

The term bogeyman tends to be a catchall term for an evil spirit that primarily scares children and there are hundreds of iterations across the world. Black Annis for example could be considered a bogeyman. Indeed, the blurb on the back of the player board describes the in-game Bogeyman as an amorphous horror that can take on many shapes. 

For the model I started by giving the skin a coat of Army Painter Speedpaint Runic Grey, this paint is really coming into its own as my go to colour for monster skin. I wanted the marionette puppets to stand out from the model so I gave them a coat of Army Painter Speedpaint Burnished Red, a deep almost brown red. Unfortunately at this point I hit a bit of a wall, I wasn’t sure what colour to paint their big voluminous cloak. As a Mythic type monster I wanted to incorporate red into their scheme but the only two red contrast paints I have are Blood Angels Red or Speedpaint Burnished Red. The former is a bit too bright for such a large area and the latter I had already used. It was at this point that fate made the decision for me. I was using Army Painter Speedpaint Desolate Brown for another project and when I unscrewed the lid it pulled the dropper top out with it, spilling Desolate Brown everywhere. Suddenly I had a large amount of paint I needed to clear up and a large area on the Bogeyman that needed painting. And so my Bogeyman ended up with a drab green cloak, which kind of suits him to be honest. 

For the smoke that billows around the cloak I painted that with Basilicanum Grey. I finished off the marionette that I had started earlier by painting the handle with Cygor Brown and the strings with Army Painter Speedpaint Broadsword Silver. Lastly I painted the eyes with Mephiston Red. 

For what little base there is on the model I first gave it a base coat of Two Thin Coats Scorched Earth and then used some PVA glue to stick on some Geek Gaming Scenics Base Ready Forest Floor and sealed it down with some Geek Gaming Scenics Matt Sealant. 

Berserker

Berserkers are pretty ubiquitous within Viking Age mythology, although I’m not sure they used twin wrist blades…

For the model however, I started by giving the skin a wash of Reikland Fleshshade. The Two Thin Coats Dwarven Skin basecoat and white zenithal highlight had already done all the leg work for me so all wash needed to do was to darken the recesses for me. 

From there I painted the skirt and tassels with Iyanden Yellow as the Berserker is the counterpart to the Krampus he is also a Demon (Yellow) type. Any cloth wraps I picked out with Snakebite Leather and any leather I painted with Gore-Grunta Fur. As befitting his Nordic descent I painted his hair with Army Painter Speedpaint Burnished Red. For all the metallic details like the weapons and armour I painted them with Army Painter Speedpaint Broadsword Silver. 

For the base, I used the same process as the Krampus. 

Engineer

I could have just basecoated the Engineer silver, given it an all over black wash, drybrushed with a brighter silver and called it a day. However I wanted to put in a bit more effort than that. 

Regardless, I started things off the same way as the Beserker by giving the skin a wash of Reikland Fleshshade. For the leather hood he is wearing and the gloves I painted them with Gore-Grunta Fur. The planks of wood on his back I painted with Wyldwood. 

For the mech suit itself I started by painting the knuckle-dusters and knee joints with Black Templar. I then used Gore-Grunta Fur, Basilicanum Grey, Snakebite Leather and Army Painter Speedpaint Runic Grey to paint the various parts of the mech suit. Gore-Grunta Fur and Snakebite Leather giving the impression of copper and brass respectively. But the real benefit was that the multiple paints provided a lot of variety and visual interest to what otherwise could have been quite plain. To then tie it altogether and help sell the look as metallic I drybrushed the mech suit with Necron Compound. 

I finished the Engineer off by painting his beard with Gryph-hound Orange and the tubing on the right arm with Blood Angels Red. Finally, I did the base in the same way as I did the Bogeyman.