With Grashrak’s Despoilers done I was keen to get the other warband in the Beastgrave box done so that I could play some games. Sure I could use the Wurmspat but as I had to learn the game yet I wanted to use the starter decks in the Beastgrave box. 

In any case, I set to assembling the models. Which, honestly, was a bit more of a challenge than the Wurmspat or Grashrak’s Despoilers. The reason being: push fit and skinny miniatures is not a great mix. There is a trick you can do with push-fit miniatures to make things a bit easier, and that’s to clip away a bit of the slot that the tabs push into. This makes it easier to put together and the bond can be strengthened with plastic glue anyway. The trouble is this approach doesn’t really work for Skaeth’s band of merry elves because there’s so little of them that the slots are integrated into details so you can’t cut anything away. This leaves you trying to push some rather delicate models together with rather more force than should be exerted on them. In fact I nearly snapped off Karthaen’s horn trying to get these guys put together. And some of them are sort of hovering over their base as I couldn’t push them all the way in without risking snapping their legs off. The upside of all the over engineering that Games Workshop has done on these  is that there wasn’t much in the way of gap filling that needed to be done. Once the greenstuff had cured I primed them grey and gathered the paints I would need. 

I started, as I usually do, with the skin. In almost every depiction elves will normally have very pale skin, so with that in mind I base coated the skin with a few layers of Kislev Flesh. The lower half of Skaeth I painted with Mournfang Brown and Lighaen’s fur I painted with a few thin coats of Tau Light Ochre. For the hair and fur, I went with Jokaero Orange for all the miniatures. Even Lighaen’s mane.

For the armour I wasn’t feeling the red padding and green-tinted gold in the artwork, so instead I went with a rich green and copper which I feel has a much more forest feel to it. Specifically, I painted the padding with a few coats of Warpstone Glow and the trim with Vallejo Hammered Copper. I also used Hammer Copper for the hilts of any blades. For the blades themselves, I decided on Scale 75’s Peridot Alchemy, the same green metallic colour I had used for my Putrid Blightkings. Turns out it’s actually quite a bright colour if you don’t mute the snot out of it with weathering techniques and enamel washes. For the leather straps and pouches, I went with my usual Mournfang Brown and for a bit of variety some Rhinox Hide. Finally, the tabards I painted with Incubi Darkness in keeping with the green theme of the models.

For the bases I started by painting the ground with Dryad Bark and the water on Sheoch’s bases with Thousand Suns Blue. The branches and any wood details I painted with Army Painter Oak Brown, whilst for the leaves I used Death Guard Green. To break up the green, I painted the centre of the flowers with a dot of Vallejo Heavy Goldbrown.  With all the basecoats done I gave the models a coat of matt varnish to seal them ready for oil washes. 

Once the varnish had cured properly, I mixed up my oil washes with some thinner. For the skin details, I used Abteilung 502 Flesh Shadow. I used Sap Green for the bases and any areas of the green metallics. In hindsight, for the bases, I should have used the same darker green mix that I used for the Wurmspat but the pure Sap Green worked well for the green metallics. Aside from the hair which I washed with black, everything else got a wash of Burnt Umber. I then used q-tips and make-up sponges damp with white spirit to remove any wash from the highest areas, leaving the wash in the recesses. With that done, I left the models for about a week so that the oil washes could fully cure. 

I could then make a start on the layering, which is especially important as oil washes darken down the model even more than acrylic washes do. As with the basecoats, I started with the skin, layering Kislev Flesh on the raised areas and leaving the wash in the recesses. I did the same process with Mournfang Brown on their goat legs and Skaeth’s horse body, and then again with Tau Light Ochre on Lighaen’s fur. I then repeated this process with Vallejo Hammered Copper and Scale75 Peridot Alchemy on the metallics. This was especially important as most metallic paints have a slightly glossy finish, to help boost that metallic shine. I had eliminated this finish when I used a matt varnish, so going back in with the base metallics really helped to restore that metallic look. Lastly, I layered some Jokaero Orange back onto the hair. 

With the layering done I cracked out the wet palette to make a start on the highlights. I started with the fur, mixing Mournfang Brown with some Vallejo Pale Sand and applying it to the legs and Skaeth’s lower half. I did a similar thing with Lighaen’s fur, mixing Tau Light Ochre with Pale Sand this time. Whilst I had Pale Sand on my palette, I also mixed it with Incubi Darkness to edge highlight the cloth tabards. The Pale Sand desaturated the Incubi Darkness more than I would have liked but I think it turned out alright for a highlight. For the skin I mixed Kislev Flesh with some Pallid Wych Flesh, which turned out a little chalky. So I added a bit of Lahmian Medium to keep things smooth. Next, to highlight the padding I mixed Warpstone Glow with some Yriel Yellow applying it to two sides of the pads’ four. Finally, for Skaeth’s horns I first layered with Army Painter Skeleton Bone then mixed in some Vallejo Pale Sand to highlight the tips. 

With the mixing done I could move onto the more straightforward highlights. For example, adding streaks of Troll Slayer Orange to the hair. For the leather details, I highlighted them by adding small scratches of paint along the edges to help give it the impression of worn leather. For the brown leather, these scratches were added with Skrag Brown. And for the black leather, they were done with Two Thin Coats Dungeon Stone. 

The last of the highlights I needed to do was on the metallic areas. For this, I lightened some Vallejo Hammered Copper with Scale75 Thrash Metal to edge highlight the bronze areas. I finished off the bronze and green metallic areas with point highlights of pure Scale75 Thrash Metal. 

The last thing I needed to do was the bases, and fortunately there wasn’t much I needed to do. All I really needed to do was layer the leaves with Death Guard Green then highlight them with Ionrach Skin. And then, highlight the edges of the wooden branches with Vallejo Khaki. I finished off the vegetation by highlighting the centre of each flower with a dot of Yriel Yellow. Last but by no means least, I painted the rims of the base black. 

Pretty pleased with how these turned out. They’re not quite as good as Grashrak’s Despoilers or The Wurmspat in my opinion but I guess that’s because I’m a little out of practice with oil washes. In any case, now that I’m done with both warbands from Beastgrave I suppose I should now actually play a game of Warhammer Underworlds.