Shadespire Liberators

Liberators, Stealheart’s Champions, Stormcast Eternals, and who knows what other names they may go by, and for someone who isn’t into the world of Warhammer, it all gets a little confusing!

I brought Shadespire quite some time ago now; it looked a promising little two-player skirmish game, but after a dozen or so plays it has sat on my shelf untouched. Why? I hear you ask, well, in those dozen or so games the Stealhearts won every single one of them, irrespective of who was playing them. They pretty much reamed Garrek’s Reavers every time, and so I lost interest – maybe I just didn’t give it enough of a chance?

One thing I really did like, though, was the miniatures – this is a GW game after all – and I’ve finally managed to get them painted up, well, at least one side anyway, the others are still a work in progress (almost done).

So, on to the… Eternals, for want of a better name, and these I painted in pretty much their standard colours, as per Games Workshop’s Website – there is a very good tutorial for these, and that can be found HERE.

Things didn’t get off to a very good start though. After I’d primed them black, I basecoated the entire miniatures with Glorious Gold (all paints Vallejo, unless otherwise stated). I sprayed a very thin coat, leaving the recesses black, and this gave an excellent feeling of depth to the armour. However, the third one, Obryn, well, let’s just say I had a moment! My mind wandered, my finger kept pulling the trigger, and things went wayward!

The coat was so thick he could have worn it as a winter warmer! It looked, and indeed was, a different colour to the others, and I’d managed to coat the entire model – no nice dark recesses here!

If you look closely you’ll be able to see that Obryn’s armour (that’s him with the hammer) is a deeper shade of gold, though it isn’t as obvious as it was. I’ve managed to lighten it a little whilst darkening the other two, but under a good light you can still tell.

To be honest, the rest of these were fairly straightforward, they’re certainly not as detailed as the Reavers. There’s a little freehand on the shoulder, just a lightening bolt, which was easy enough, and Severin’s face is better than I usually manage, so I think I’m improving there. I also like the way the white is done – Dead White over a base of Ghost Grey.

I had a chance to put Citadel’s contrast paint to use on the pennants, by applying Skeleton Horde over a basecoat of Dead White. This was then finished with a light drybrush of Bonewhite – I’m quite pleased with the outcome.

I also like the finish on the stones, especially the lighter tones, which was achieved by stippling Heavy Warmgrey across certain sections and then the whole area was given a dab of Umber wash, quickly followed by a dab of Green Wash, and then allowing them to blend together – nice!

I do feel that my painting is definitely improving, and one of the biggest reasons for this, I think, is that I’m learning to judge the paint consistency better. I’m now applying two or three nice thin coats and achieving a very solid and consistent finish. I’ve switched to using a wet palette too, which is something I wished I’d done ages ago, as it helps control exactly how much paint I’m putting on the brush, and it’s consistency.

So, that just leaves me to varnish them now, and I’m undecided as to what to do here. I usually apply a matt finish, but I’m thinking a satin one may work better for the armour, and then apply matt to the rest of the figure – if anyone has any suggestions as to which would work best, I’d love to hear them, thanks.

Now to finish the Reavers…

In Pictures…