Village Attacks - The Executioner Town Hero

Do you even lift bro?

It’s been a while since I painted anything that wasn’t Warhammer, so with all the boardgame miniatures that I need to paint I thought I had best crack on with it! Fortunately, the Executioner Town Hero isn’t a particularly intricate model; he’s mostly shredded muscle, trousers, leather straps and his big ol’ axe. Unfortunately, Grimlord Games has used some pretty grim dark artwork for Village Attacks and the Executioner is no different. His character card has him sporting black trousers, with black boots, a black leather apron and a black hood. Honestly, I've seen goths with a more colourful wardrobe than this guy. Naturally, this wouldn’t do and would make for a pretty boring miniature on the tabletop so I decided to go with something more colourful. Not exactly rainbow bright but not Warhammer grim dark either. As, like the monsters in Village Attacks, the heroes are sorted into one of five colour types. The Executioner is in the yellow type so he gets a damage bonus against yellow monsters, such as the Succubus I painted previously, so I wanted to incorporate yellow onto him somewhere as well. 

By way of actual painting, I started by giving all the exposed skin thin coats of Cadian Fleshtone until it was a solid colour. Next, I blocked out his trousers with Averland Sunset, which as you might imagine took a fair few coats. I didn’t want to give him black leathers as I felt that it would make him look too much like a bumblebee with his yellow trousers. I did paint his boots and the straps under the pauldron with Corvus Black but for the rest of the leathers, I painted them with Mournfang Brown. The beard I painted with a couple of thin coats of Wraithbone, I had originally planned to then layer Basilicanum Grey but I quite like how the white beard looks. Finally, for the axe I painted the handle with Steel Legion Drab, the head and the studs on the leather armour with Leadbelcher. 

With the base colours done I could start on the washes. For the flesh areas, I washed them with (unsurprisingly) Reikland Fleshshade. The black leather details and white beard I washed with Nuln Oil. The trousers, the axe haft and brown leather details I washed with Army Painter Strong Tone. And the axe head I washed with Basillicanum Grey contrast paint.

Once they were dry I started on the layering, for which I cracked out the wet palette. For the flesh, I first layered with Cadian Fleshtone on the muscles then mixed some Kislev Flesh for a final highlight on the tops of the muscles. For the black leather areas,I mixed some Corvus Black with some Ulthuan Grey to highlight the raised areas. And for the brown leather details, I just used some straight Mournfang Brown on the flat areas. On the axe, I layered Leadbelcher along the blades, as they would have been repeatedly sharpened to expose shiny metal. I then used a bit of Runefang Steel to highlight and add some scratches. 

Buns of steel

For the base I kept it pretty simple; I covered it in Stirland Mud which I think washed with Strong Tone. A few dabs of PVA glue to affix a grass tuft and some of Geek Gaming Scenics Base Ready Ground Cover. As the Village Attacks models all have clip bases, I didn’t need to paint the rim so I just clipped on the Executioner’s yellow base and he was done!