GALLERY: Stormcast Eternals and Free Peoples Army

Today I have a special guest article by Andrea S, a local player in the Tourney scene here in Michigan. Many of you may have seen her models on Twitter or heard her and her husband on a recent episode of Garagehammer. I was amazed at the speed and quality that she was putting out Stormcast models and the enthusiasm which she was approaching AoS with. Without further ado, here is Andrea on her Stormcast Eternals/Free Peoples army.

Andrea: I’ve been painting and playing Warhammer Fantasy for a little over 3 years. I started with Daemons, did a 180 and played High Elves, and then went to Empire. After the End Times and Age of Sigmar, going over to Stormcast Eternals seemed like an obvious transition.

We started by buying 2 boxes of the starter sent. As new Stormcast releases came out though, the completionist in me had to have it all. In the end though, I am currently using the Stormcast as part of a larger Order faction army combined with Empire and Alarielle.

After seeing all of the pictures and promos with the gold armor, I wanted to do something a little different. I tried to do a pearlescent armor, but it was not to be. So, I went the silver route to match my Empire. When I started these, I wasn’t planning on playing as a faction army. I wanted to do all Stormcast. However, I really enjoyed the blue and orange of the Empire army, so I wanted to do it all again.

Painting the Stormcast was a lot of fun. I started with white primer (Rustoleum double coverage paint + primer). Then, I went over with a solid coat of Army Painter Plate Mail Metal. A quick wash of Nuln Oil, and then bring up the armor with Ironbreaker and Runefang Steel. My blues started with Sotek Green, quick wash of Coelia Greenshade, and highlight back up with Sotek and Temple Guard Blue.

The oranges are Deathclaw Brown, wash with Seraphim Sepia, and back up with Tau Light Ochre. All of the scrolls are Rakarth Flesh, edged and highlighted with White Scar, and then a heavy wash of Seraphim Sepia. The gold areas are Gehenna’s Gold, washed with Reikland Fleshshade, and then brightened up to Auric Armour Gold.

All of the bases are MDF from Hollow Tree Studios, basic sand from a hardware store primed brown, heavy wash with Agrax Earthshade, and then a few quick, uneven layers of Mournfang, Skrag, and Baneblade Browns. Stones were done with Skavenblight Dinge and Dawnstone, and the bases were edged with Mournfang Brown.

The Celestant-Prime was a bit intimidating. It is an amazing model, and I had planned on painting him in pieces and then assembling at the end. However, with the way the swirls meet up with the robe, and the comets that sit on the joints of the swirls, it made more sense to fully assemble and paint it as one piece. The celestial swirls were base coasted Kantor Blue, and then four heavy layers of Nuln Oil. I went over some of the bubblier spots with Kantor Blue again. The comets are layers of Sotek Green, Altdorf Guard Blue, and a little bit of Teclis blue, with Lahmian Medium mixed with Drakenhof Nightshade to help smooth out the transitions. The wings were done with the same blue as everything else, but then I went in on each wing and did a sharp edge highlight on the front and back with Fenrisian Grey. (That had to be done after a meal and not too much caffeine to stop shaky hands.)

The Prime was painted over a three day weekend, and I spent probably 4-6 hours a day on it. The Judicators and Retributors were done in small batches of time, but I would guestimate that it took me 1.5 hours a model in the end. I tend to be a deadline painter, so I work best when I can count the days left to an event or deadline and have a firm goal, such as one model a day. On top of this, I truly enjoyed painting this group, so I was looking forward to getting them finished and photographed.

The list I took to the Michigan GT last weekend was the Prime, Alarielle, 10 Judicators, 2 groups of 8 Retributors, a War Altar, Steam Tank, 2 cannons, and Karl Franz on Deathclaw. I ended up going 2-3. Against Chaos (and especially Daemons), the list was competitive. There was some user error on my part, but fun games all around.

Thanks for reading! - Andrea

You can follow Andrea on Twitter here (@LuckySixes) to keep up to date on her latest minis. Thank you Andrea for taking the time to show off your Stormcast Eternals army and talk a bit about it!

Do you have an army, hobby project, or other cool hobby related item that you think would be a good fit as a guest article on Mengel Miniatures? You can contact me at TylerM@MengelMiniatures.com to share.

Until next time,

Tyler M.