Warhammer 40,000 - Leagues of Votann Kâhl Yôht Grendok

When I said in my last article that I’d get some more Leagues of Votann kits, that was a lie. I already have some. There’s this one and then another that you will have to wait until next week to see. 

Kâhl Yôht Grendok here was one of the Store Anniversary rewards in 2023. Which was the year of the dwarves to be honest, the Age of Sigmar Store Anniversary reward for that year was Torrk Lennsen, Admiral of The First Fleet for the Kharadron Overlords. And if you know what the Warhammer Day miniature was from 2023 then you can guess what my next article will be. 

For the miniature itself I got him assembled but left him separate from the base. I also used a pin vice to drill out his storm bolter barrels and a small hole in the sole of his foot. Into the latter I glue a short length of brass rod so that I could stick him in a bit of cork on my painting handle and later attach him to his base. With that done, I primed him with Colour Forge Standard Grey.

I started by basecoating the armour with Vallejo Squid Pink, which didn’t take too long using my airbrush but it did mean that I had to back with some Two Thin Coats Dungeon Stone Grey to tidy up any pink that was on anywhere that wasn’t the armour. I then basecoated the face with Cadian Fleshtone before giving the model a zenithal highlight by spraying the model at a forty-five degree with Liquitex Titanium White acrylic ink through my airbrush.

With the undercoats done I march on ahead with the main colours. I started by giving the armour an even coat of Imperial Fist, which over the white areas unsurprisingly stayed yellow but over the pink areas it turned to a beautiful warm orange. For Grendok’s voidsuit I gave it a coat of Militarum Green and for all the leather details such as the boots and coat I painted that with Garaghak’s Sewer, itself a nice rich brown. These contrast paints work wonderfully over the lights and shadows that I had established with my zenithal highlight.

Moving onto the remaining base colours I painted the interior of his coat with Army Painter Skeleton Bone as a nice contrast to the dark brown exterior. The barrel and ammo feed of the storm bolter I painted with Scale75 Thrash Metal whilst the shells, sword hilt and decorative elements of the armour I painted with Scale75 Old Copper. 

With the basecoats done I could start on the washes. I gave the silver details and shells in the ammo feed a wash of Army Painter Dark Tone. Whilst I had the Dark Tone out I also used it to recess shade the armour, helping to visually separate each of the sections of the suit. The remaining bronze areas and the inside of the coat I then washed with Army Painter Strong Tone and the face with Reikland Fleshshade. While I was working on the face, I painted the hair and mustache with Basilicanum Grey as I felt that the Kâhl would be older and wiser than the youthful Hearthkyn. Lastly, I thinned down the Basilicanum Grey and stippled it around the temples to look like stubble. 

For the highlights, I highlighted the edges and folds of the voidsuit with Ionrach Skin and the armour with Vallejo Pale Sand, I even added a small dot of it to each of the rivets on the armour. I continued my tradition of highlighting leather with a series of tiny scratches to make it look aged and worn. I normally use Skrag Brown for this but like the Hearthkyn I used Vallejo Khaki in this instance. I’m still not completely sold on Khaki as a highlight colour for leather but it doesn’t look completely out of place. 

Lastly for the model I needed to do the plasma sword. The method I had used for the Hearthkyn Theyn’s sword looked alright but not great so I made a couple of changes to the process. I started by basecoating the blade with Temple Guard Blue before sponging on Vallejo Night Blue around the edges. I did this by dipping a bit of sponge in the Night Blade and dabbing most of it off on a paper towel before gently touching the sponge to the edge of the sword blade. To finish things off I ran a line of Liquitex Titanium White acrylic ink around the middle of the blade. 

For the base the kit comes with a bit of tactical rock that Grendok has his foot up on like a badass. Said tactical rock wouldn’t really fit in with my lava bases so I needed to improvise slightly. As with the Hearthkyn I started the base by tearing up and sticking down a bit of cork tile, but then I severely roughed up a second piece of second piece of cork and glued it down at an angle. Unfortunately I didn’t get it quite right and by the time that I realised it was too late to fix, my Kâhl therefore has a foot floating above his tactical cork. Ignorant of my error I primed the base black before using Army Painter Matt Black to fill in any areas that the primer missed. 

With that done I used the airbrush to spray some Liquitex Titanium White acrylic ink around the edge of the base. I then sprayed Archive-X AX-022 1975 Reefer Yellow around the edges of the bases, the white/grey undercoat making it much more vibrant than if I had airbrushed it straight over the black primer. Next I sprayed Archive-X AX-025 1975 Caboose Red around the area where the cork tile meets the base creating a dull glow effect, and where it met the Reefer Yellow it created a vibrant orange. I then tidied up the top of the cork tiles with Army Painter Matt Black and then drybrushed it with Two Thin Coats Dungeon Stone. 

To help with the cracking effect of the texture paste I was about to use I first coated the lava areas with a layer of PVA glue. I think it’s supposed to help give the texture paste something to grip to and therefore make bigger cracks. Whether or not this actually makes a difference remains to be seen. As alluded to I then painted a thick layer of Mordant Earth over the lava areas. Once it had fully dried and revealed its crackly nature I tidied up the rims with a hobby knife and painted them matt black. Lastly, I popped Grendok off my painting handle and jabbed the brass rod in his foot into the cork, with a bit of superglue. Only then realising how badly I had messed up the angle of his tactical rock. Sigh. Measure twice, cut once folks.