"Loping Into Battle, The Bloodmaster Carves Through The Enemy Ranks."

"Each whistling swing of its blade of blood opens throats and splits torsos..."

This 52mm tall "Finecast" Herald of Khorne is produced by “Games Workshop” for their “Age Of Sigmar” range and comes in seven "finely detailed resin" components, which are the devil's own work to assemble as the model doesn't come with any instructions whatsoever. This lack of guidance was admittedly eventually resolved, but not before I had spent some considerable time pouring over the Nottingham-based company's website so as to ascertain how all the Bloodmaster's numerous and somewhat fragile skulls came together.

“The strongest of the Bloodletters”, the figure was treated to two layers of “Vallejo” Heavy Red before being generously washed with "The Army Painter" Strong Tone Quickshade. The "rampaging combat master" was then dry-brushed with more “Vallejo” Heavy Red and, as I wanted the Chaos daemon to tie-in with the palette of his previously-painted brethren, had his horns, hands, hooves, spines and sword hilt undercoated with “Citadel” Abaddon Black. Afterwards, most of these ‘blackened’ areas were blended into the surrounding spotted skin courtesy of some careful dry-brushing.

Skulltaker WIPs - U'zhul has been assembled, primed and had all his gold areas washed

With the majority of the Khorne Hero's flesh completed, I subsequently turned my attention to his truly formidable Blade Of Blood, as well as the great warrior's thigh armour, horn ring and wrist-guards, by priming them all with "Vallejo" Heavy Sienna. These parts were later treated to a double layer of "Vallejo" Gold, a hearty wash of "The Army Painter" Strong Tone Quickshade and a robust yet somewhat careful dry-brush using more “Vallejo” Gold.

Finally, I painted all of the Bloodmaster’s teeth with "Vallejo" Dead White and his forked tongue with Heavy Ochre, before washing them both with "The Army Painter" Strong Tone Quickshade. In addition, I 'picked out' all of the Bloodletter's numerous skulls using a combination of "Vallejo" Iraqi Sand, "The Army Painter" Strong Tone Quickshade, "Vallejo" Dead White" and "Citadel" Carroburg Crimson.

"Toon Realms" WIPs - One of King Victor's Men-At-Arms, Pootle The Wizard and a Royal Guard

Having completed the Blood God's Herald, I am already making some considerable progress on my "Finecast" model of U'zhul the Skulltaker. However, unlike before where I've always primed my Bloodletter's using "Vallejo" Heavy Red, I felt the heavily robed immortal champion would probably be far easier to paint if I finished all his gold adornments first, so have gone with a "Vallejo" Heavy Sienna undercoat instead. This is predominantly due to "Vallejo" Gold having a nasty habit of sending tiny flecks of paint flying onto the rest of the model even when the brush-tip itself is kept well under control.

Sticking with Fantasy wargaming, I have finally turned my attention towards some 'Forces of Light' miniatures for my "Dragon Rampant" project using the "Toon Realms" range by "Lucid Eye Publications". Joining my wizard, Pootle, will be a couple of units of good King's Victor's Men-At-Arms and his Royal Guard; both of whose colour schemes will be inspired by those of Gondor as seen in Peter Jackson's 2003 motion picture "The Return of The King".