A couple of weeks back I was chatting to the manager of my local Warhammer store about the forthcoming launch of the fourth edition of Age of Sigmar. After comparing some of our thoughts for what the new rules might be like along with some opinions on the Skaven resurgence and where the narrative focus of the edition might lie, we got on to the topic of the Dawnbringer Crusades 'event' that's currently underway and whether I wanted to join up.
For those unaware, the Dawnbringer Crusades are taking place across the globe over the next couple of months, with each Warhammer store being assigned the name of a Freeguild Crusade that has found an ideal spot to found a settlement in the wilds of the Mortal Realms (ours is Bastian Spear) and hobbyists can then complete challenges to score points which will then determine the fate of the settlement. The challenges range from things like 'play any game of Age of Sigmar' and 'paint any hero' (1 point each) to 'build and paint a Spearhead box set' (6 points).
Completing 18 points of challenges will net you a collectable Coin Malleus but when you sign up you pledge to either try to ensure the nascent settlement is successfully founded or to cast it down until no trace remains with the 'side' that has the most points a the end of the event being victorious.
Because our store is quite small, there'll be a bit more of a focus on smaller games of Age of Sigmar, including Warcry which is handy as I recently finished painting up Quorle's Pathfinders. The Dawnbringer Crusade will not only be a great opportunity to keep them progressing upon the narrative campaign I have them on, but will hopefully help inspire me to get a few more models painted too. So, all in all , signing up to take part seemed like a great idea and I've pledged to try and ensure that settlers of Bastian Spear survive the predations of the Mortal Realms.
That's all well and good, but what's all this got to do with Armand Callis? I hear you asking. Well, I recently finished reading Callis and Toll by David Annandale and having really enjoyed it, I felt inspired to paint up one of the titular characters from the novel. Fortunately Callis counts as a Hero in Age of Sigmar and he has a profile for use in Warcry as well. Not only does this mean that I can net myself a point for getting him painted up, but I might be able to get him on the tabletop and giving some foes the benefit of both barrels sometime soon to boot.
In painting Callis I've heavily referenced both the box art and the cover of the novel and doing so offered an opportunity to try something a bit different with the armour plate that he wears. Most of the time these days, I paint silver armour in quite dark tones, but Callis' is much brighter and cleaner - achieving the look takes a few extra steps, but I think it was well worthwhile taking the time to do as I'm really pleased with the polished look of the finished armour.
Unlike a lot of the more modern Citadel miniatures, Callis is actually rather simple and uncomplicated by details (not that I'm complaining about more detailed miniatures by any means) but it definitely made it a bit easier to focus attention on the key aspects of the mini and be able to use texture on the various fabrics to create visual interest and narrative. This also meant that it was possible to keep the colour palette quite restricted too, which feels quite apt given that Callis is a pretty pragmatic character - subterfuge and subtlety are not his preferred approach to a situation, but then he's a warrior of the Freeguild first and foremost.
Another departure from 'routine' was the way I painted the stone on Callis' base. The Cinderfall district of Hammerhal-Aqshy is described in both the novels and AoS rulebook as being grimy, dirty and perpetually coated in ash, I went for a darker tone on the cobbles, using Mechanicus Standard Grey as the initial colour for them. For contrast, I painted the ashes accumulating on the street in a much paler tone to suggest that they're freshly fallen from the Bellows Towers. To complete the look , the water flowing through the gutter has a slightly greenish tinge to it as I wanted it to look dirty and polluted. I basecoated the water with Incubi Darkness and then highlighted up the ripples before playing with glazes of Nuln Oil and Coelia Greenshade until I was happy with how it looked.
With Callis acting as a wee palate cleanser of sorts after the Wildercorps, I think I'm ready to turn my focus to the Allies I built last month for the Warband as not only will it be good to get them painted up for the gaming table, but they can help snag some points for the Dawnbringer Crusade of Bastian Spear as well, so hopefully I'll be sharing some pics of them soon. Until next time though, thanks for reading and happy hobbying.
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