Heresy & Heroes

Well, it has been a while, hasn’t it? I actually finished painting something for the first time in absolutely ages, and it’s the Underworlds warband, the Gorechosen of Dromm. I’m happy with them, and after I talk you through the painting of this threesome (saucy), I will give you some insight as to why I’ve been a little slow with the brushes of late. Now, how ‘bout dat Blood God…

I wanted to paint this warband for a number of reasons. First off, I wanted an Underworlds warband because I haven’t had a viable one in ages, and I’d quite like to play a few games of it. I’m not really playing many games right now, so having a good excuse to roll some dice is something I’ve been hankering for. I picked Dromm and his pals because when I first saw Drom himself, I was instantly reminded of the art of Frank Frazetta and I wanted to use a palette very much inspired by this artist of legend as I set about this project. Dromm just looks like a Conan villain to me, so lots of warm browns and subtler shades of oranges and reds were a starting point, though I did turn up the Warhammer-ish-ness a bit too.

I started painting them ages ago, but as I’ve just not had too much time to paint of late, they’ve taken me a lot longer than I would have liked to finish. Thankfully, with the England cricket team in Pakistan at the moment, and Test matches kicking off at 5am or thereabouts UK time, I’ve had an excuse to be up early, and sit quietly with my paints. 

The whole gang is a tribute to Khorne with a nod to Frazetta, and I’ve been continuing to experiment with NMM and playing around with the effects I can achieve based around this technique – I don’t use it much so I’m still getting to a place I like with it and as I’m painting these for me, and not a competition, I just played around with stuff. The big dude looked like he needed a lot of fresh blood on his hands, so I went over the top there. Dromm should have glowing eyes and the shiniest of brass, while the little dude has daemonically red skin. I had loads of fun just playing around with these, and I haven’t really painted for fun in ages, this was incredibly cathartic. Are contrast paints good for creating lighting effects? Let’s find out! Painting horns/bone is boring, so can I just do it simply and quickly? I sure can! This was an exercise in fun, and I loved it.

As many will know, I spent a lot of time preparing for Golden Demon at the start of the year, and while I had a fun, but ultimately disappointing time at that event, due once again to my own over-inflated understanding of my abilities, coming back with another pin was a little, well, disappointing. Now, the standard this year was insane, and everyone I spoke to, from first time entrants to seasoned veterans said the same thing, and my one thing that earned a pin, maybe in years past, it could have snuck a bronze, but there was no chance of that and while others have pushed their standards to new heights, I still feel like I’m playing catch up. What’s more, I was going to do a special podcast about Golden Demon but everything i recorded of myself came off as sanctimonious crap, so I shelved that after working hard on it too. I was a little low, but painting these guys has helped lift me up a bit.

What’s more, I won’t be able to attend 2023’s Golden Demon event due to prior commitments, so I don’t have to worry about pushing myself like that for at least another year, so I need my hobby to give me a fun kind of fizz in the meantime, and this was perfect for that.

And it has got me enthused to do more, which is great. There are some oldhammer pieces I want to get to, a Kill Team project for more small games, and plenty more Necromunda goodness that i need to get from my mind onto my desk. So I’m sorry I’ve been a bit quiet with painting of late, but I will be doing more from now on – I promise. Time to have fun with paints again. 

Anyway, that’s my ramble on painting done, and I hope you like the Gorechosen. As soon as I have some games with them, I’ll try and post some stuff to my instagram (@my_life_in_miniatures) and I’m also now on Mastodon (because fuck Elon) as @HeresyHeroes@warhammer.social – come find me and say hi! 

Anyway, I hope you’re looking forward to a fun festive period, and I hope all of your Christmas wishes come true if Christmas is your sort of thing. Until next time, onwards!