Hello everyone, today I have a guest article to you coming from Chris Thomas of the Mantic Universe Podcast. Chris is a self professed mediocre player, who rotates between Firefight, Deadzone, Kings of War, Armada, and Ambush. In this article Chris shares some of his thoughts on ways to finish Kings of War armies. If you would like additional thoughts on painting armies, check out one of my recent articles on improving on tabletop standard paint jobs.
He also wanted me to link to the episode of Mantic Universe Podcast where they discuss the Fast Grow league they are running for Christmas. Check it out!
We all know that making a Kings of War army is a year or more of blood, sweat and tears.
Except, it doesn’t have to be that way. Take the red pill, grab on to something sturdy and follow me down the rabbit hole, where I will wrestle with metaphors, as two Ghostbusters may deal with “crossing the streams” or how Matt Croger might wrestle a croc (in my imagination, if nothing else).
Sure, if you want to win best painted; maybe you do need a load time, and to “think things through”. Who knows? I have never tried it. If you just want an army that looks totally fine from 6 feet away, and will get you up and playing, you should read on.
I am busy, you are busy, who has time to obsess about the army they are painting. I wish I had that time, but I don’t, and that is totally cool. Am I a hero? Your word, not mine. But yes, yes, I am.
What Army to Pick
Totally up to you, and there are tricks for doing most armies quickly. A good option, if you are not sure is to pick up a couple of Ambush starter boxes of Ogres. However, Nightstakers will look cool in any colour, and you don’t have to worry about painting any fine detail (if you don’t want to). Dry brushing can be your friend on monsters, or also on the clothing of the Northern Alliance.
Remember, Dwarves, or men in armour is really quick and easy. Paint it black, dry brush it a metallic colour, wash it. (For great dirty army, just paint it a metal color, and hit it with a brown and sepia wash – Editor) Maybe feather with a brown metal colour, but you don’t have to.
For the sake of the article, let’s assume you picked Ogres.
Plan Your List
Get yourself into the Mantic Companion app, and build an Ambush army (750 points is great). Then an army at you target points level (we seem to have moved to 2300 points now, but 2000 and 1995 are also a thing). If you are not sure, ask around your local scene, and see what people tend to play.
Once you have your lists, get your friends to look over them them, or ask on Kings of War Fanatics, or other Kings of War groups, like Mantic Universe Podcast’s Facebook group. People are friendly and helpful. Remember to mention what your goal is for the army. If you are looking to win Masters with the list, let people know. If you think Ogre Hunters are fun, and the models cool, let people know you are not trying to min-max everything. People will ask helpful questions like “did you forget to include anything with inspiring?”.
Ace of Base
At this point, you have an army list. This will help you plan what models to buy. Remember, a Horde of Large Infantry (like Ogres) 4 models, rather than the full 6 models is acceptable, but 5 or 6 does look cooler. You can paint more, but crucially, you don’t have to.
12 models on the base of an Infantry Regiment will look totally fine, as long as your base looks full.
At this point, find yourself an MDF bases cutting service. You can find the sizes in the Kings of War Rulebook.
MDF is cheap (in the UK, I believe “Warbases” is a thing). Multibasing is the best, and anyone that says otherwise is simply someone waiting for GW to release their “Old Worlde” game. They are a rebel, and a traitor.
When your bases turn up, cut some soft self adhesive magnetic rolls, and stick it to one side of the base, with a ton of super glue . Let this dry, nice and tight to the MDF. Before you glue it. Double check which side is magnetic.
Once this is done…
Go to the garden and get some stones. Wash them. Get some sand (or gravel). Use a mix of PVA glue, and water, and slather it all over the side of the base that does not have magnetic foil glued to it. (I wouldn’t recommend this, texture paint, like from Vallejo, is expensive and the grit is a better size for miniature wargaming. It also leads to easier steps for basing with a better end result – Editor)
Apply the sand, stones and whatever else you fancy, bits of bark can look like cliff faces, if smudged into modelling clay, or cut polystyrene, if you are feeling fancy. A real stone, pressed into some polystyrene can make the polystyrene look like stones (also.. real stones look like stones).
Use modelling clay to sculpt some simple destroyed pillars, or rocks, or whatever you want. Just make sure that the bases don’t look empty.
At this point. Build your models, as required by your list. Don’t be afraid to kit bash heroes.
Spray the terrain (I like matt black, but you do you). Spray your models too. Make sure it is all completely dry.
Time to go to work on the bases. Browns, greys and natural tones work great. As does dry brushing. Try to get the bases looking muddy, dirty and generally natural. More PVA glue, and water, once this is dry and you can stick some flock on. Once that is dry, tap off the excess, and put another coat of PVA and water over the top of it, to seal it. Something I can rarely be bothered to do, but it does help. (Make sure you don’t coat static grass with PVA as this will ruin the “standing” look the grass achieves – Editor)
If you are fancy, and have a friend with a 3D printer, ask them to help you out, printing some cool plastic terrain to stick on the bases. Not required, but very cool. It is a big help for making the bases look “full”.
If you are a visual learner, check out these older articles Billy Smith did on how to Base Miniatures. Article 1 & Article 2
Test Models are for Cowards
Now it is time to pick some colours for your models. What colours do you like painting? If you are not sure, don’t pick white or yellow. Use a colour wheel to help pick. In our example, let’s say we pick orange. Look at the colour on the exact opposite of the wheel, which in this example is a light blue.
Now add in an accent colour, something adjacent to one recently picked, in this case I am picking a green.
⦁ Orange
⦁ Ocean Blue
⦁ Green
There we go! We have our three main colours. I would then suggest using a metal colour, for weapons, buckles etc, and a brown for any belts, leather, purses, or whatever ogres have. I suggest mixing a bit of black or brown in to the weapon colour, and giving it a little variation from dark metal to light, but this is not required at all.
You can look up “xenithol priming” and “slap chop” but, this is a passing fad, like the Marvel movie franchise. In 2 years, everyone will be saying that they never thought it was cool.
Remember. Test models are for cowards. They are for people that are planning to fail, or the kind of people who dither in picking a parking space. You are the kind of dynamic go getter that gets stuff done. You shoot first, ask questions later. You are John McClane,. You are Captain Janeway. At the very least. You are Commander Riker. But under no circumstances are you Wesley Crusher.
The fear of making a terrible mistake will propel you forward, to that glorious finish line.
Just picture the massed crowds shouting your name, as you finish your army, you animal.
Put a little bit more work into highlights on the hero models, and remember, multibasing can hide a multitude of sins.
Get your models to the point you are happy with them. I generally suggest you block out your main colours, give it a wash, then highlight with the main colours over the top of the wash. For heroes you might want to do another highlight, or a bit more detail on the faces, but honestly, this would be completely fine. Army painter strong tone, is a great all round wash.
Under no circumstances, try to paint the eyes. Give a little wash on the faces, and move on with your life.
Now is the fun bit. Assign models, to their correct base. Pile them up, and start gluing your ogre hunters, paymasters and whatever else you have, to their respective bases. Use Superglue, but before you apply and glue just pose them on their bases, to make sure you are happy with how it looks before you must rip anything off your lovingly painted bases.
Once all models are glued on. You have a Kings of War Army. You can play Ambush or a full fat game, and you are a hero. Not many people unlock this hobby achievement, and fewer still know how easy it really is, if you keep it simple.
Now time to battle some Halflings or Nightstalkers and start planning that second army. Doing Kings of War armies is very addictive. I am proud of you.
