Clearing the Backlog (May-June '22)

 Hey all

Once again, this was intended to be a monthly update, but this time, I felt that there wouldn't be enough meat in May alone (and ended up the same for June too). So I've combined two months for a second time.

Since the last post, we have finally had Defence of the North released, and, being on topic, this entire post is all about Easterlings!

I had an Easterling army to take to a local event in May, for which I had to get a few models painted.

First up was this Kataphrakt Drummer, I had had him sitting in my grey pile for a long while and decided this would be a perfect time to get him sorted and out of purgatory!

It was a great relief to get this guy done, as he's been one of those 'as soon as I get some spare time' guys', watching me sadly, as I take yet another model out to paint before him. He did me well at the tournament, including holding up Sharku from a heroic combat, before dismounting him and getting me the win in Heirlooms.

Next up, was a metal Easterling warrior. I was doing this guy to be a captain dismount for me, and because I just liked the pose. I have several other metal guys, who I'll try to get done soon as I find myself agreeing with those who say that the metal warriors tend to look nicer.

Now we get to some of the newer (kinda) models. I managed to get two Dragon Cult Acolytes done. I decided that I wanted to give a slightly more ninja-ey look to them so reversed the red and black colourings mostly and was very happy with it. I have four more that I'll also try to get done before the end of the year.

With so many warriors done, it was time to sink my teeth into a hero, that hero being everyone's favourite lady-general, Rutabi. She has a gorgeous model, that was a joy to paint and makes a great centrepiece for the Easterling ranks. She was a game changer in a lot of the games, making opponents hesitant to call heroics and when they did, within range, she never failed to copy them!

The Dragon Emperor of Rhun approaches

As May faded away, we got the long awaited book release and I just had to get the Emperor, as he had been what I had so hoped for and eagerly awaited ever since Adam Troke had, years back, teasingly answered a Q&A question 'Would you be looking at the War in the North as an expansion?', with something to the effect of 'THAT would be exactly the sort of area we would be keen to look into!'

When he arrived, I realised just how much work that this guy was going to be. Having written a list for him in late July, I have begun him!

In a first for me, I have taken the approach of painting him in pieces, as like hell was I going to try painting this as a solid piece, unlike those madmen I've seen in the GBHL. They have both my admiration and pity.

I decided to divide the model into parts of; Palanquin base, walkway, hood, 2x drake statues, banner, throne, 6x carriers and the big man himself.

Now where would you begin...obviously with the Emperor himself and dismount, right?

This guy had a lot of buckles (something I really hate painting, probably because I usually do them last and it's like the last hurdle before the downhill sprint of washing and highlights). But once the last buckle was done and he was appropriately highlighted...he looked goddamn awesome! Exactly what you would expect from a leader of a warrior nation.

With the Emperor done, I felt that was the big part of the project done...'oh...sweet Summer child..'

I am about halfway through getting the Palanquin painted, then I need to glue the pieces together and base it.

So far, I have done:

The throne...

...the drake statues...

...and the walkway.

I have got about halfway through the hood at this point and hope to finish it over the weekend, then maybe another 2 weeks to finish the whole thing, as I suspect that the carriers will be a lot of work!

With those two months, I have managed to get another 6.5 models done. This doesn't feel like a lot but  the Emperor is taking a lot of the limited time that I have and is not something that I'd want to rush. It brings my total for the year so far up to: 50.5, a respectable number.

Hopefully, I'll post another update at the end of July, but suspect that I'll combine with August, to have more to write about. Hope that you've enjoyed!