Back in 2021, Games Workshop released the latest in the line of 'new' Warhammer Quest games with Cursed City. Much has been written about various aspects of the game, including lamentations about the limited stock available at launch, how the game plays and whether it is still 'supported' by GW or not, but none of those are what I want to focus on in this post.
Indeed, having played a game or two of both Cursed City and its' predecessor Blackstone Fortress, I'd recommend giving them both a try if you've a party of willing friends ready to regularly head into the darkness of the unknown in search of fortune and glory as the persistent effects of the games do a great job of combining elements of tabletop, board and role-playing games into a nice, Age of Sigmar (or Warhammer 40,000) themed package. But the game itself isn't really what I want to focus on either - I want to dive into some thoughts about the miniatures, their design and the opportunities that these afford gamers and painters.
Regular readers of the blog will know how much I like painting Warhammer Underworlds warbands. There are a few reasons for this, including that they are comprised of relatively few models (so I find it easier to maintain focus and paint them to a high standard) but another of the main attractions to them is that each model is a unique character that has been designed to be recognisably drawn from a particular faction and/or race within the Mortal Realms. Part of this comes from the background text for each warband which explains how they came to be pursuing whatever their agenda within the Underworlds, but for the most part this is driven by the models themselves in how they're posed, armed and detailed.
This isn't something new of course, miniatures designers have been doing this since the first miniatures were sculpted and cast but I think that Citadel in particular have recently reached a great balance of producing miniatures that are (relatively) quick and easy to build, dynamically and evocatively posed and instantly recognisable as what they represent whether painted or not. Which, by a rather circuitous route brings me back to the two strands of gaming and painting I mentioned, so let's look at them one at a time.
Gaming
'Push-fit' or 'easy to build' miniatures have been a pretty constant presence since the late 80's although up until relatively recently the poses and level of detail on them often left quite a lot to be desired. To be fair, this was mostly down to restrictions of design and materials - to be easy to build, they had relatively few pieces which in turn restricted how much freedom sculptors and mould makers had to create minis leading to lots of static poses. From a gaming perspective, this isn't inherently bad as it means you can get everything assembled nice and quickly and get on with the fun of playing the game and I have incredibly fond memories of getting a copy of the 2nd edition of Space Hulk for one of the birthdays in my early teens and having all the Terminators and Genestealers built and ready to perplex my family with shortly after breakfast.
The advent of more advanced sculpting and mould-making techniques has a pretty steady increase in the quality of 'easy to build' miniatures, particularly in terms of more dynamic poses and more refined details with the releases of new editions of games often pushing the limits of what was capable at the time. Assault on Black Reach, Battle for Skull Pass, Dark Vengeance and Island Of Blood were all giant leaps forward, as were Warhammer Underworlds warbands, Indomitus and Dominion but I think Cursed City offers the best contemporary example of just how far push-fit miniatures have come.
The sprue on the left comes from the 8th edition Warhammer Fantasy set Island of Blood released in 2010, while the one on the right is the smaller of the two hero sprues from Cursed City from 2021. Although the Cursed City sprue is about a quarter of the size of the Island of Blood one, it has far less un-used space, but more than that the miniatures have been cut by the mouldmakers in a fashion that ensures that details are fully and faithfully captured.
The miniatures from either sprue would take mere minutes to assemble and require require no glue to stay together, but the Cursed City heroes are packed with as much (if not more) detail and character than many 'multi-pose miniatures' because of the way they've been cut for moulding and casting. If all you wanted to do was treat them as gaming pieces, then they definitely do the trick as you can easily tell the heroes from the villains and they look pretty good even without paint on them.
Single-pose miniatures like those from either of the above sprues do have a drawback I suppose, because by their nature, they'll almost certainly require kitbashing or conversion to be posed or armed differently which can feel somewhat mandatory, especially if you want to use more than one of the same character in an army but I think this is a fair trade off for having well proportioned, amazingly detailed and dynamically posed miniatures - its certainly one I can live with, though I do understand that some folks don't like them.
Painting
For a long time you could definitely tell that a miniature was 'easy to build' no matter how well it was painted. There were certain characteristics that set them apart, such as odd undercuts, slightly distorted and/or overly chunky details and relatively static 'cookie cutter' poses to name just a few. This isn't to say they looked 'bad' but they were definitely distinguishable from their brothers and sisters while on the tabletop and in the display cabinet.
These days though, easy to build miniatures comfortably sit at the same level of quality as their counterparts and once they're painted I think you'd genuinely struggle to tell they were easy to build if you didn't already know. Since the quality of the miniatures is higher and since in the case of Cursed City, many of the models are unique heroes and villains, I think this helps to both encourage and reward painters to push themselves to complete them to a high standard because you find yourself wanting to do the quality and character of the sculpt justice. I would stress though that there is absolutely nothing wrong with painting ypur miniatures to a Battle Ready standard - or indeed any other standard that you're happy with, they are your miniatures and it's your hobby time after all.
Returning to the thought that the miniatures themselves encourage and reward you to take your time though, in order to better illustrate what I mean, let's turn to the two heroes from Cursed City I've painted up so far: Brutogg Corpse Eater and Captain Emelda Braskov.
Brutogg Corpse-Eater, Ogor Mercenary
"I ate one of them gheists once. Waste of time, don't fink I'll bovver next time. Oi, grab that dead vulture our of the gutter would yer?"
An Ogor mercenary with an acquired taste for the flesh of the long-dead who will happily eat skeletons, rotting zombies and even mummified cadavers, Brutogg has come to Ulfenkarn not just to eat his fill of these delicacies, but also to prove that he is the strongest ogor in the realm of Shyish.
First things first, a wee confession: much as I loved this miniature as soon as I saw it, I strongly disliked the horn sculpted on the brow of the leering face on the pauldron, so that was carefully removed while I was assembling everything else.
While planning how I would paint Brutogg up, I knew that I wanted to emphasise that his weapons, armour and clothing are worn from hard use - he's a sellsword after all, so if he's not fighting he's not earning. Translating this on to the miniature took time, as almost everything was established across several stages of painting.
Taking the armour as an example, to create the impression that the helmet, poleyn and applique panels on the gambeson had been 'cold blued' a basecoat of Iron Warriors was shaded with Agrax Earth followed by Nuln Oil. The chainmail had the same initial stages, but then rough patches of rust were added with some thinned Skrag Brown to suggest that it hasn't seen a barrel of sand in some time. Corrosion was then added to cold blued armour using Nihilakh Oxide in some areas and Skrag Brown in others before Ironbreaker was used to add scratches and chips to everything.
Fittingly for a veteran sell-sword, Brutogg carries much of what he needs with him, including spare weapons and provisions and one of artefacts he's accumulated while abroad in Shyish is an amphora (presumably filled with water or wine as he sees fit). When I started painting him, I wasn't actually sure how I wanted the amphora to look, but as I progressed through the other details I gradually settled on the idea of it being made of coarse terracotta to which a white glaze had been applied and that it's seen more than a few miles of use since it was first thrown and fired. In order to create this impression I established a smooth basecoat of Ionrach Skin over which I then stippled some thinned Deepkin Flesh followed by a very light stippling of Ulthuan Grey on the edges of the neck, handle and the ridge on the belly of the amphora. I then thinned some Ionrach Skin with Lahmian Medium to create a glaze and after applying it all over the amphora, I then did a couple of layers focused around the lower areas to tie everything together and create a more natural gradient to the colours.
The final aspects I want to zoom in on with Brutogg are the various different items of his outfit that are made of leather, such as his gambeson and boots, the scabbards of his blades an all the straps, pouches and bindings he is festooned with.
The leather areas were broadly divided into three colours, black, dark brown and tan with each being painted slightly differently to try and create visually interesting yet plausible wear and tear. The boots and leather bindings on his legs are quite heavily scuffed and worn with use for example, as I imagine Brutogg has travelled many miles in them and is unlikely to pay too much attention to what he's kicking, stomping or stepping on.
In contrast, the pouch at his belt in which I see him keeping some choice selections of victuals within has the scuffs and scratches focused to create the impression that it's been fastened while full and then repeatedly unfastened and refastened whenever Brutogg is in need of some sustenance and there are no corpses within easy reach.
Emelda Braskov, Captain of Mournhold
"This is my city. I fought for it outside the walls, and by Sigmar's blood I'll fight for it inside, even if I have to drive my sword right through its black and corrupted heart..."Her army destroyed by Radukar the Wolf, Emelda forged her shock and grief into a cold inner steel. She has vowed to slay the vampire at the heart of her beloved city - or die in the attempt.
Although Emelda has lost virtually everything, I reasoned that she would be looking to visit justice upon Radukar and his minions with the heraldry of her people worn defiant and proud, so I painted her armour to look clean and well maintained - no bluing, cold or otherwise here. The initial basecoat was achieved wirh several thinned layers of Ironbreaker which was then carefully shaded with Nuln Oil. Once this was dry, I then used thinned Ironbreaker to build up a brighter silver where the plates catch the light. I then repeated this process with some thinned Runefang Steel to place brighter highlights where I wanted them before finally using Stormfang Silver as an extreme edge highlight for the edges of the armour.
Although Emelda's armour is well maintained, I wanted to create the impression that the fabric of her cloak and tabard have seen some hard campaigning since Mournhold fell and Ulfenkarn was born.
In the meantime though, if you've any thoughts about 'easy to build' miniatures and your experiences with them or on the heroes and villans of Cursed City, I'd love to hear from you and as always - thanks for reading.
I took a similar approach to Emelda's sword, Dawnlight as the Cursed City novel describes her cleaning the blade after combat, although in this case I used Grey Knights Steel for the basecoat as it has a subtle blue hue to it which I thought would help to both set it apart from her armour and help to create the impression that this is not just any old blade. To create some definition, the fuller and flat of the sword were shaded with some thinned Drakenhof Blue before Stormhost Silver was used as an edge highlight. The flat of the blade was then glazed with thinned Drakenhof Blue a couple of times to increase the contrast a little more.
Ordinarily, it's much quicker and easier to drybrush fur, but in the case of the gryph-hound pelt about Emelda's shoulders I decided against this for a couple of reasons. Firstly, drybrushing can get a little messy and I wanted to be able to avoid getting paint over areas I'd already painted, but also because it would mean I had more control over the placement of the highlights and there would be less risk of them looking 'chalky'. Its not something I'd do across a whole army, but on a single character with this level of detail, I think it was well worth the investment of time.
To create the heavy texture on the tabbard, I started with a basecoat of Celestra Grey. The recesses were shaded with thinned Drakenhof Night with any mistakes being corrected with Celestra Grey. I then began to create the texture by stippling Ulthuan Grey on to the flatter areas of the fabric which was followed by a mix of Ulthuan Grey and White Scar then finally pure White Scar. I then glazed some thinned Celestra Grey into the recesses to help create a smoother transition between the layers.
For the cloak I took a slightly different approach; first establishing a basecoat of Kantor Blue which was shaded with Drakenhof Night. I then used thinned Kantor Blue to slowly start to build highlights on the folds and edges. Once I was happy with how this looked, I switched to highlighting, first with Alaitoc Blue and then Hoeth Blue. I applied these highlights using hort brush strokes at an angle to the folds and edges so that once the layers were all in place the fabric looks like it's been stressed and scuffed through use. To help create a little more variation, Space Wolves Grey was used very sparingly to create some extreme highlights in a few places.
Although it's been a while since I painted up Emelda and Brutogg, they're not the only Agents of Defiance from Ulfenkarn that I've picked up to lavish attention on as I also took a shine to Glaurio ven Alten III, Cleona Zeitengale and Jelsen Darrock so have them built, based and awaiting some paint when the muse strikes, so you can expect to see them feature on the blog in the future.
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