Warhammer Quest - Blackstone Fortress: Traitor Command

Name a more iconic duo. I’ll wait…

Mighty surprised that my wife managed to find one of these for my birthday given its popularity, I’ve no doubt that it cost her a pretty penny indeed. Either way, I was dead keen to get these guys put together and painted. 

What I have learned the hard way about Games Workshop push fit miniatures is that they rarely are that, so putting these together more often than not I would clip off the pegs and use glue instead. The traitor commissar was a bit of a pain, the body is in two halves (front and back) with the head separate. To assemble you have to balance the head on his neck then press the two halves together. As befitting his station, I did however drill the barrel on the commissar’s bolt pistol. For the bases, I sanded them smooth, added a blob or two of Astrogranite and some resin crystals that I got from Greenstuff World. 

For all my Blackstone Fortress hostiles I used Ionrach Skin, which is a nice pale colour with an almost greenish tint to it. Perfect for a bunch of ne'er-do-wells skulking around an alien space station who probably haven't seen any natural light in a while. Washing with Reikland Fleshshade brings back a touch of warmth to the skin. The rest of the Chaos Ogryn fell into place fairly easily; Balor Brown for his trousers, Corvus Black for the boots and Leadbelcher for all the metal bits. I did pick out a few areas with bronze just to break up all the silver. 

Do NOT spill his pint.

The mutated crab claw was the standout feature of the Chaos Ogryn so that’s where I wanted to focus the detail. I initially went with orange, like actual crabs are, but it really didn’t work out. Eventually, I settled on a dark pink, with purple drybrushed on the inside of the pincers, and bone spikes. I used some Screamer Pink thinned heavily with Lahmian Medium to glaze up his forearm and hopefully make the transition a little smoother. I used a bit of Red Tone around the spikes protruding from the skin to give them an slightly inflamed look. 

For the Traitor Commissar I wanted to make him stand out a little and I toyed with the idea of giving him a glossy black leather greatcoat. In the end, I decided to go for a worn leather look instead using the same sponge chipping method that I used on the book for the Village Attacks Lich.  

Probably don’t spill his pint either to be honest…

Similar to the Ogryn, I painted the Commissar’s trousers Balor Brown and picked out the silver details with Leadbelcher. For the boots and other leather details I used Dryad Bark as he already has a lot of black on him already. The skull on his back I painted with Skeleton Bone and for the banner I used Rakarth Flesh. I wanted the Commissar’s power fist to stand out, like the Ogryn’s crab claw, so I used Red Angels Red contrast paint to give it a nice metallic red colour.  It was however a bit too bright, so I darkened it down with a wash of Nuln Oil. With his trenchcoat and red fist, he could almost be Hellboy! I also wanted to make the scar on his face a little more prominent, so I mixed Ionrach Skin with some Rakarth Flesh and a little bit of Screamer Pink to make it look like the scab was fairly recent. I briefly toyed with the idea of putting something on the commissar’s banner but I’m just not good enough at freehand. Maybe one day I’ll do the eight-pointed star.

And finally for the bases, I painted the crystals with a dark green then washed them with Warp Lightning contrast paint. The bases themselves were painted with a glossy black to mimic the inside of a Blackstone Fortress, I then painted some radiating lines with Warpstone Glow. Finally, I drybrushed the crystals and textured areas with Niblet Green and painted the rims with matt black.