I always go a bit blank when I think about what to put here – what can I say that I haven’t said in previous months? Do I address current events? September was an eventful month in world news, not least of which being the local news of Queen Elizabeth II passing away. Or do I stay away and just share my enthusiasm via the usual superlatives? After all, your hobby that I get to showcase every month is always wonderful to see.
I’m blank. So instead of me writing a fancy intro, drop into the comments and let us know what your favourites are from this month’s showcase! And as always, don’t forget to drop into the PaintSlam discord ot share your hobby! <3 Onwards, to the showcase!
The Fireclaw is a huge, terrifying machine-beast that makes its home in the Frozen Wilds of the Horizon Zero Dawn setting. With it’s large claws, rotary blades and spewing jets of flame, it’s not a creature you want to bump into on your trek across the tundra. This bear-like creature is one of the toughest opponents you will face on your adventure, so prepare well… by reading this painting guide!
In case you’ve been exiled from your tribe for years like Aloy and aren’t aware, the Fireclaw is a monstrous machine from the Horizon Zero Dawn video game. The game was released in 2017 to rave reviews with over 20 million copies sold as of November 2021! The follow up, Horizon Forbidden West, followed in early 2022 to much fanfare and the franchise has even expanded to comic books, a planned television series and, of course, the fantastic board game via Steamforged Games.
Steamforged Games have taken everything that made the video game so special and distilled it perfectly into a table-top format. The expansion pack miniatures (they aren’t so miniature!) being my personal favorites. The Fireclaw, Stormbird and Thunderjaw look simply incredible!
I’ll be working closely from the image above for reference, if you are also painting a Fireclaw I would recommend having various images of the creature on standby to help identify areas of different material and colour.
The first step, as you may have guessed, was to prime the model. I have used a neutral grey primer for this miniature, as there are a lot of grey and black tones across the Fireclaw. Although a smooth coat is preferred, if there is a little roughness, it can help make the model look a little weathered so it’s not neccessarily a bad thing in this case. You can see that the weather seems to have caused a little texture on the primer on the arm here – but I quite like how it works on this model.
This model also comes pre-assembled in the box, and attached to its base. This makes it an ideal project for a hobbyist who doesn’t enjoy the often complex assembly of hard plastic wargaming kits. All of the Horizon Zero dawn models come either pre-assembled or in easy push-fit sets.
With the primer dry and ready to go, I began by picking out various areas of the “flesh” with Vallejo German Grey. This went onto areas like the muzzle, inside the mouth, the various softer areas like the waist and any areas of internal machinery poking out between armour panels. Remember to keep your paints thin and work in layers if the colour of the primer still shows through. I use a wet pallette to help my paints stay thin and usable for longer, but if you use a dry palette remember to add a little water to your colours.
After filling in much of the body with the darker grey, I set about picking out the sinewy cable “muscles” along the neck, arms, torso and legs. This is a sort of coppery colour, so I used Tin Bitz from the Nostalgia ’88 range. This gives a great metallic dull copper effect, without being overly bright.
To further distinguish various areas, I used Contrast Basilicanum Grey to filter a mid grey between the primer colour and the German Grey. This was applied over the feet, claws, wrist “saws”, and various other small details. This just helps break up more of those flat areas and vary the tones, implying different types of metal being used across the body.
Next up, it’s time to get MESSY! It’s time to go over everything, including the “bear” (heh heh) grey primer with Nuln Oil. This is a thin shade paint which slightly tints the surfaces but most settles into the recesses creating clear definition between each area and panel on the model. As you can see, it’s pretty much liquid talent in a bottle!
With the Nuln Oil dry, my next step was to drybrush. I went over everything but the copper with Mechanicus Standard Grey as a strong drybrush, then a lighter drybrush of Dawnstone. We don’t want to go too light, as most of these areas shouldn’t draw the eye compared to the brighter parts to come.
To bring out the more metallic parts of the model, a heavy overbrush of Leadbelcher was applied over the claws, feet, spinning blades and face, as well as a few key areas which looked like moving parts or joints. This is similar to a drybrush but with a little more paint left on the brush so it catches the majority of the area, just leaving the recesses darker. I then apply a little more Nuln Oil over these areas just to bring the shininess down slightly.
Time to start getting some colour down on the main armoured panels across the Fireclaw. There are mostly on the legs, arms, upper back, and the face. For this I used Squig Orange, which is a reddish, subdued orange tone. Orange paints tend to struggle to cover well, so build up over multiple layers. If it looks like the leg armour in the picture above where you can see the grey still showing through, wait until the layer is thoroughly dry then apply another thin layer. You may need 3-4 coats to build up a nice solid colour.
I applied a coat of Fuegan Orange shade over the orange to punch the colour slightly and get some shading into the recesses. After this I spend a little time going around the model with grey to clean up some areas where the orange spilled out of the lines!
To highlight the orange and create more depth, I made a roughly 50:50 mix of Cadian Fleshtone and Squig Orange, and drybrushed this over all of the orange areas. This catches the raised details and adds a lot of visual interest to the coloured areas.
Now comes a fun part, weathering the orange areas up a bit! As you can imagine, creatures like the Fireclaw get dinged about a bit in combat and from just life in the Frozen Wilds! So here I take Thondia Brown (you could also use Rhinox Hide or any other darker brown for this) and do dots and dashes along the edges and raised curves where paint would be likely to get chipped off. You can also add scratches here and there too. I thinned it down a little and painted it into some of the recesses to help convey depth, then painted the top of the base brown in preparation for the basing later.
To prepare for the glowy green and yellow-fire effects, areas like like the cabling, “eyes”, heat vents, and shoulder fire sacs are painted with Corax White. This will give a super bright effect once we add some Contrast paints to these areas!
A bit more bright colour! I used Karandras Green contrast on the arm cables and fire sacs on the shoulders. The “eyes” got painted with Aethermatic Blue, and then the heat vents and neck cables recieved a coat of Iyanden Yellow contrast. I also thinned the yellow down and applied it around the stomach area where the majority of the heat vents are.
I used Phalanx Yellow to highlight some of the yellow areas, then used Warboss Green on the green areas to smooth off the colour towards the centre and reduce any patchiness, with Moot Green used as a highlight on the cables. Looking at the concept art I noticed the orange panels did have some subtle variance, so I used Berserker Bloodshade over some of the panels to darken them slightly and bring them closer towards red tones.
Now we’re in a good place with it, I pick out some extra details like the yellow stripes on various parts of the body, and on the blades at the forearms. I also use Corax White to paint on some of the symbols here and there around the orange areas!
At this point I noticed the black areas needed a little more work – they’re a sort of carbon fibre texture in-game, but because replicating that would be extremely difficult, I drybrushed on a mix of German Grey and Leadbelcher, with a final stipple of the same mix to add texture and a shine to these areas.
Then I took Mythril Silver, and dotted it into the edges where the brown had earlier been used to create weathering, indicating “bear” metal showing through.
After this I decided to work on the base a bit, so I used Geek Gaming Scenics scrublands from their base ready sets, then added a bit of Valhallan Blizzard texture paint.
At the back of the model, there’s a power pack of some kind. I wasn’t able to find any clear pictures of this, but it had coils and exposed vents, which I painted Enchanted Blue and highlighted with a mix of that paint and Vallejo Verdigris paint to create a gentle glow effect! For the final step I painted the edge of the base with Corax White… and called it done!
Check out the final piece below!
And there you go! I’m equal parts proud and terrified of this very angry boy! Thanks once again to SFG for providing the Fireclaw Expansion for me and contacting me to create what I hope is a fun painting guide for you all. And don’t forget to check out the Horizon Zero Dawn core games over at the Steamforged Games website!
Above: The core set! I’m a big fan of the included game boards which show the routes the creatures traverse, just like in the video games!
August is finally behind us, and as we look forward to the month of September and all it holds (Leagues of Votann, anyone?) let’s take a look at what amazing hobby you folks in the PaintSlam Community got up to over the course of August! We’ve got forest critters, mechs, tanks, dwarfs, assassins… if you can think of it, someone has painted it! Enjoy!
Whoaaaaaa, we’re halfway there~eeehhh~~, whoaaaa paintin’ on a chairrrr~~~
*cough* sorry about that, what I meant to say was: Welcome to the June community showcase for #PaintSlam22! It’s another amazing month for hobby, and this month’s showcase is chock full of colour! We’ve also got a couple of new faces in this one so if this was your first month for PaintSlam, welcome!
If you’re reading this and want to get involved, check out all the details here. And now, let’s get into the gallery.
*Sorry if some of the pics are low res, I’m not sure why my Discord is suddenly only giving me low-res images…
First up, please allow me to apologise for not getting a community showcase post up over the last couple of months. For one reason or another I’ve struggled to get into the right headspace to sit down and compile things, which I am very sorry for. On the plus side, this post compiles your wonderful hobby from both May and April in the Community Showcase channel from the official PaintSlam Discord server! So grab a Cornetto, put on some summer beats and enjoy the lovely miniatures below!
If you’re a Warhammer fan of a certain vintage, you’ll have fond memories of colours like Goblin Green, Titillating Pink, Ultramarines Blue, and Snakebite Leather. There are a few paint ranges which offer the same colour range as recreations, but in this video I want to talk about Nostalgia ’88 by Warcolours. (Affiliate link)
This is a range of colours designed to replicate the 80s range of Citadel Colour paints. They come in 20ml flip top pots that look very familiar to the original ones, and have a very similar smell and consistency to those classic paints that many of us grew up using. Warcolours also state they have a 99% colour accuracy to the original range.
Therefore these should be of interest to hobbyists who grew up with classic games like Warhammer Fantasy Battles, Rogue Trader, Space Crusade and Heroquest. If you have fond memories of sitting at the kitchen table painting small lead heroes and powerful monsters, read on…
Warcolours very kindly sent me a sample set of 18 of their paints to try out, specificially the following colours:
01 – Bronzed Flesh 08 – Enchanted Blue 10 – Swamp Brown 13 – Hobgoblin Orange 17 – Goblin Green 21 – Ghoul Grey 23 – Electric Blue 24 – Red Gore 27 – Titillating Pink 39 – Salamander Green 42 – Marine Dark Blue 43 – Space Wolf Grey 44 – Blue Grey 48 – Striking Scorpion Green 51 – Ork Flesh 52 – Serpentbite Leather 54 – Hawk Turquoise 68 – Amethyst Purple
One of the things I really like is that they currently have a wide range of the paints from the era already available beyond what I’ve got to test here, and they have even recreated some of the classic paint sets of the era such as the Creature and Monster paint sets.
In order to test these paints I thought it would be very much appropriate to paint some era-appropriate models with them, so I picked out some classic 80s Wood Elves!
These guys have been around the block a few times! For the painting process for these I also streamed live on my Twitch Channel, if you’re fast you might still catch the VOD to watch me using these paints in person!
Above you can see the unit musician, snapped at the point where I’d finished applying base coats ready to be shaded. The nostalgia paints used above are Goblin Green (tunic), Salamander Green (leggings), Serpentbite Leather (boots), Gore Red (harp), Hobgoblin Orange (hair), Swamp Brown (pouches, straps), Bronzed Flesh (skin, harp strings), and Marine Dark Blue (sword grip). The metallics shown are citadel’s Leadbelcher and Screaming Bell.
Most of these colours covered very nicely with two thin coats. I was pleased with the solid and vivid colours from Gore Red and Goblin Green in particular. Serpentbite did take an extra layer to get a flat coat, with Salamanders Green requiring the most layers to build up the colour.
This is where I noticed a strong similarity to the paints these attempt to replicate – they are rather transparent even over a few thin layers. Unlike most contemporary paints you will likely not be able to paint directly over areas of another colour easily, so you will probably want to take your white paint and clean up any areas before applying the next colour.
The red notably had the same properties as the classic paint of showing any dark colours through quite obviously if not painted over a clean white base. Whilst in a modern paint this could be considered a flaw, I believe this is a deliberate choice in retaining the accuracy of these paints and their original consistency and coverage.
As with the paints of the 80s, these do work best over a white undercoat. The natural transparency makes the colours pop brightly against that base colour. I would not recommend using these over darker base coats unless you’re happy to apply a few more layers to build the colour up or want a less vibrant appearance.
Above, I applied Guilliman Flesh to the hair and skin areas from the Citadel Contrast range, and Agrax Earthshade over all the other areas. The shade did flow nicely over the Nostalgia paints, retaining much of the brightness of the colours. As you can see above this simple technique gives you a pleasing effect that would be perfectly acceptable for gaming with.
And here you can see the full group of 5 miniatures. I re-highlighted with the base colours for each of the areas, then mixed in lighter shades such as hobgoblin orange into the red to highlight. Some of the top highlights were done with citadel colours where I wanted a more specific look. Overall I was impressed by the brightness and accuracy of the Warcolour collection.
Of course, Newer painters without the nostalgia are likely to wonder what the fuss is aboute, given the convenience and coverage of paints such as the Citadel base paints or Vallejo’s Game Colour paints. But for folks like me who have very fond memories of those classic colours, the nostalgia ’88 paints are very much worth a look at if you’re missing the feels and smells of those bygone years!
And for fun, here’s a more modern (as in, mid-2000s… practically yesterday!) Wood Elf Spellsinger which I painted again using mostly these Warcolours paints…
On this model I did a little blending with the warcolours paints, such as the Hawk Turquoise of the spite being mixed in with a little swamp brown to aid the transition between colours and to create various shades of grey for the staff which was base-coated in Ghoul Grey. The colours mixed well. You may recall paint mixing was very common in these early days before the Citadel Colour range had 300+ colours!
In all, I can say I was impressed with the range in that it really achieves what it sets out to do. Everything about them feels like using those paints from childhood, for better and for worse. If you’re after that nostalgic kick and want to recreate that experience of painting with the old paints – especially for those working on Oldhammer armies like myself – they’re definitely worth your time.
Newer hobbyists used to the properties of more recent paint ranges are likely to be somewhat befuddled by them though. But then, that’s literally in the name of the product. Nostalgia ’88 – if you have the nostaglia, go for them! If you don’t, well, I guess we’re spoiled for choice these days for fantastic paint ranges so use what you’re happiest with!
Summary:
Focussing on accurately replicating the paints of the 80s, these paints succeed at what they are designed for. They bring the good, and the bad, of the era back to your painting desk. Give them a go and you’ll enjoy them – as long as you have the nostalgia!
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