Village Attacks - Fear and Torment

I was on a roll knocking out these Village Attacks expansions and next up was the English folklore focused Fear and Torment expansion. As with the others I started by cleaning up any mould lines as best I could before priming all the models with Colour Forge Standard Grey. Once that was dry I then gave each of the models a coat of AK Interactive Ultra Matt Varnish, a necessary step to ensure the paint adheres to the model and doesn’t just bead together. I then painted the skin of the Exorcist and Battle Mage with Two Thin Coats Dwarven Skin. And lastly before starting the painting proper I gave each of the models a zenithal highlight with Liquitex Titanium White acrylic ink.

Spring-heeled Jack

A Victorian myth that had a habit of attacking servant girls in London at night. Spring-heeled Jack would then escape the scene of the crime by jumping impossibly high over walls and laughing into the night. They also supposedly had the ability to breathe blue flames into their victim’s face to blind them.

The skin of the model is dominated by armoured plates which look great in the artwork. However the small and numerous armour would be both time consuming and tedious to paint. So I didn’t bother. I did want to bring out the texture a bit more than the zenithal highlight already had so I started with a drybrush on the skin to catch all the raised areas. For the skin itself I wanted something a bit more demonic than Guilliman Flesh could provide, so I mixed in some Blood Angels Red in a ratio of two parts Guilliman Flesh to one part Blood Angels Red. To finish things off I then drybrush the skin with Kislev Flesh. 

From there the rest of the model swiftly fell into place. I painted the top hat and cloak with Black Templar, while the band on the hat I painted with Blood Angels Red. So that it stands out a little, I painted the staff with Scale75 Dwarven Gold. 

For the base I first coated it with Astrogranite, Spring-heeled Jack did stalk the city streets after all. For the wash, I didn’t want to use Dark Tone as I felt it would make the model a bit too monotone. Instead I decided to introduce a new colour by giving the base a wash with some thinned Army Painter Speedpaint Malignant Green. Not only did this nicely contrast the red on the model it also gave the impression of grimy and mossy streets. By way of highlights I drybrushed the base with Dawnstone and to break up all the grey I stuck down a couple of Gamer’s Grass 2mm Moss tufts

Black Annis

A hag or witch that supposedly haunts the countryside of Leicestershire. They have a taste for children or lambs, tanning their skins to wear around their waist after they are done eating them. 

I probably should have read up on Black Annis before putting brush to model as I started by giving the skin a coat of Guilliman Flesh. It was then that I realised my mistake, Black Annis should have blue skin. And one of the downsides of using transparent paint is that it’s very difficult to undo mistakes. Fortunately I got very lucky and painted over the Guilliman Flesh with Army Painter Speedpaint Royal Robes resulting in a disgusting blue skin tone rather than a disgusting purple colour. 

The next important area is of course their skin jacket, and with my previous faux pas with the skin I was sure to take my time. Studying the model I worked out that I would need four colours to paint all the patches without the same colours touching. I grabbed my pots of Snakebite Leather, Gore Grunta Fur, Skeleton Horde and Guilliman Flesh, and set about blocking in the skin patches. I then picked out the stitches with Vallejo Dark Fleshtone, this didn’t quite pop as much as I had hoped but it was good enough. 

Moving onto the remaining details, I painted the coat and hood with Army Painter Speedpaint Purple Swarm as Black Annis is an Arcane, and therefore purple, type monster. The trim I of the coat I painted with Cygor Brown, a rich brown that contrasted nicely with the purple. The wraps on the arms and legs I painted with the usual Snakebite Leather. The cuffs that poke out of the wraps on the wrists I painted with Skeleton Horde, which might have been a mistake as Skeleton Horde is pretty much just a more muted Snakebite Leather. It would have to do. I finished things off by painting the bustle of their skirt with a thinned down Army Painter Dark Tone and the wrist blades with Army Painter Speedpaint Broadsword Silver. 

All that was left to paint was the bucket of chum on their back. I wasn’t going to make the same error that I did with Baba Yaga and just slap some Army Painter Speedpaint Malignant Green on it and call it a day. So with that in mind I basecoated the severed limbs with Two Thin Coats Dwarven Skin and the bone with Army Painter Skeleton Bone. For the limb with exposed muscle I didn’t want it to stand out too much so I muted some Two Thin Coats Sword Hilt Burgundy with Dwarven Skin and used that instead. Before moving on I painted the basket that the limbs are in with Wyldwood and the straps holding it to Black Annis with Gore Grunta Fur. Rotating back to the limbs I gave them a wash of Reikland Fleshshade to bring out the texture. To make them suitably bloody I thinned down some Blood for the Blood God as I didn’t want the effect to be too strong and, effectively, washed that over the severed limbs. 

After all that I then kept the base fairly simple, starting with a layer of Stirland Mud that I then washed with Army Painter Strong Tone. I drybrushed the base with Tyrant Skull before sticking down an Army Painter Meadow Flowers for a pop of colour. 

Exorcist

I started off by giving the Exorcist’s skin a wash of Reikland Fleshshade and painting their hair with Army Painter Speedpaint Burnished Red. I paused there for a time as I wasn’t sure how I wanted them to look. In the end I settled on something vaguely reminiscent of priest’s garb and painted the frock and hat with Black Templar. Keeping with a darker theme I then paint the overcoat and the bird on the staff with Garaghak’s Sewer. The boots and gloves I painted in the usual colour I use for leather Gore Grunta Fur. 

Normally I use Skeleton Horde for parchment but as I wanted it to stand out a little more on the Exorcist  instead I used Snakebite Leather, I also used this colour for the tassels on the frock. For the staff I painted the metallic parts with Army Painter Speedpaint Broadsword Silver and the handle with Wyldwood.

For the base I followed the same scheme as Spring-heeled Jack. 

Battle Mage

Unlike the other models in this expansion the Battle Mage isn’t quite as busy with details so they turned out to be quite quick to paint up. As always I started by giving the skin a wash of Reikland Fleshshade and the armour I painted with Army Painter Speedpaint Broadsword Silver.As the Battle Mage is an Arcane (Purple) type like Black Annis is I painted the cloak and lioncloth with Army Painter Speedpaint Purple Swarm. And like the fur trim on Black Annis I painted the tassels on the Battle Mage with Cygor Brown as it contrasts nicely with the purple. The boots and gloves I painted in the usual colour I used for leather: Gore Grunta Fur. 

For the spells, I started by basecoating the spectral swords with Army Painter Matt White which would make the subsequent contrast paints pop out that much more. For similar reasons I drybrushed the arcane shield with Matt White. With that done I gave the swords an even coat of Iyanden Yellow and the shield a coat of Talassar Blue. Both colours have a fair bit of punch to them without overshining the rest of the model. 

For the base I painted the rock with Basilicanum Grey and then followed the same steps as I did for Black Annis.