Tobold interviews Paul Barnett

Tobold recently posted an email interview he did with Paul Barnett and we get to hear about something other than city/class cuts for a change! Maybe the questions were submitted before Black Friday? Maybe, but Tobold usually enjoys discussing the subtleties and nuances of gaming that many of us take for granted.

Tobold: In other MMORPGs gameplay changes dramatically when you reach the level cap, will that be the same in WAR? How do you manage the design conflict of having to cater for those players who’d rather spend a long time in leveling-up mode, and those who want to reach the level cap as quickly as possible?

Paul: Er, you don’t. Some people just finish things, heck people like finishing things; it’s why jigsaws are popular with analogue people. It’s why books have a last page; it’s why we go on journeys in our car. I like the idea of the journey being as important as the destination, sometimes more so. But some people just don’t see it like that. They want completion as fast as possible. So we just don’t worry about them. That type of player is not really a core hobbyist. They just like to complete games, most have played a lot of MMO’s, a lot, a heck of a lot. They are not true fanatics of the Warhammer game. It’s like saying that a man who has a lot of one-night stands is a romantic. But our game caters for them and gives them a great game, but the real game is found in the journey, found in the people who are looking for a warm, challenging and fun game world. A place gripped with the three core drivers of a good hobby, which are skill, commitment and imagination.

I think the same can be said about MMORPGs in general, not just Warhammer Online. These kinds of games are built to be continuous. Even if you reach the level cap, there’s usually much more to do, be it a raid grind,  RvR grind, or expanding your social relationships. It’s why these games are constantly being patched with new content and why you pay a monthly fee to play them.

You may hit the wall where you just can’t do it any more because it gets boring, and that’s fine, but I don’t think you can ever truly beat an MMORPG. Even if you do, the next expansion will bring you back down a notch. This is probably the main reasons people hop around to different MMOs. They get to the point where they’re either bored or the invetment of time isn’t worth the reward anymore, so they seek something  more refreshing.

I quit DAOC because I had the best gear I could get at the time and the constant RvR became nearly as much of a grind as the PvE it took to get geared out. Also, WoW had just released and I wanted to give it a try. I quit WoW because I reached level 70 and was faced with a fork in the road (raiding treadmill or PvP grind). I had neither the time nor interest to pursue either of them.

No matter how good WAR is at release, I’m sure I’ll eventually quit it for one or more of the reasons listed above. It will either become stale, grindy, or something else will have come along that looks nicer. Even if the MMORPG is built to last forever (or until it becomes unprofitable), my interest in it won’t.

What kind of shelf life will WAR have for you? Why have you quit previous MMORPGs?

Posted in Community News | 4 Comments »

EA Chief: “Investors don’t give a sh*t about quality”

Read this quicky over at GamesIndustry.biz:

“I don’t think the investors give a sh*t about our quality. They care about our earnings per share. They wait for it to happen. We had three years where we didn’t make our expectations. If I were an investor, I would wait and see. That’s fine with me,” Riccitiello explained.

Strangely, as a MMORPG subscriber, I’ve always felt like an investor of sorts in the game I was playing. My monthly fees helped pay for server maintenance, expansions, customer service, keeping the lights on, etc. Yet, quality has always been first and foremost on my mind.

I guess it really comes down to investment vs. risk vs. reward vs. benefit.

A shareholder invests money and if the company tanks, so do all their investments. He or she only sees a reward if the company does well and never sees any sort of interim benefit (aside from marginal dividends).

I on the other hand might play a game for 10 months, investing $149.90, and if the game tanks or takes a sharp turn for the worse I am also out that money. I will never see that money again, no matter how well the game does. For me, the reward is having a great time at it. The benefit is hoping it is fun enough to continue playing (and investing in).

Technically, I suppose an investor and a gamer are two different beasts if you compare them strictly by financials. The gamer is always in a depreciating situation monetarily because the game will never give him or her a financial reward (unless you count eBay). Then again, the gamer isn’t as concerned about financial rewards. They just want to have fun and that is all the reward they need.

There are a lot of ways to look at this. What do you think!? Aside from the fact that when you (Mythic) get gobbled up by a large, publicly-traded corporation you have a way more complex situation on your hands. What do you think Mr. Riccitiello’s statement says about EA’s interest in Warhammer Online? Damn the quality as long as we can get a good ROI (return on invetment)? I would think a CEO’s responsibility is to his shareholders more than the creative whims of his studios.

What does it say about gamers interested in WAR? Should they play the “wait and see” game too?

Posted in Industry News | 14 Comments »

Will the next WAR beta phase be… release?

Ok… I’ve given it some time to settle, however, the shit just keeps getting stirred up. I didn’t want to have to come back to this so soon, but hey, that’s what having a blog is all about. I get free reign to bitch about the issues I find issuey.

Where do we start? Here’s a good spot! Our friend, Keen, had a chance to interview Mark Jacobs at E3 last week. Hot topics? Class cuts, city cuts, and balance!

I’m really only going to pick on one of these because the other two weren’t so troublesome to me. However, when I read something like this, I simply scratch my head (then write a post about it):

“If our cities are the jewel on the crown, if they are the focus, if they’re complicated and complex the chances are high that we will make some truly epic mistakes. How much more likely would it be if it was 3x this number of cities? We would be going around thinking “Oh my god what did we do?!” Now we can find those bugs, get good suggestions and implement them. If we took what is a great idea, which is the living cities, and said “wow, we’re going to try to multiply that by 3″ - nah. Right decision. One city right now, let’s see how it goes.” - Mark Jacobs

Let me give you a little context here. According to the article, only Altdorf and the Inevitable City were ever planned as “living cities.” Apparently, the other four were simply going to be regular cities. Does that sound ridiculous to you? Yeah, me too. Obviously, Mythic thought so as well, so they decided to cut the other four cities until they could be brought up to “living city” standards.

I’m cool with that, but why release without them? If they were to release with all six, Mark thinks there would be too many problems, bugs and epic mistakes. I guess that doesn’t say much for his confidence in quality assurance and beta testers.

Isn’t this what beta is for? To, you know… test this crap out? Sounds to me like Mark wants the next phase of beta to be release because I don’t think he wants (or plans) to delay again. Hell, if you aren’t going to delay to polish up your “crown jewels,” is there anything else that could stop you?

Why can’t they simply admit their mistake instead of putting all this positive spin out there? I would love for them to say to us:

“Sorry guys. We had a brainwave several months ago to make these cities even better than before, but there was no way we could get all of them in for release. We knew it then, but withheld it from everyone because we didn’t want to scare off potential subscribers and kill the hype buzz. We bit off more than we could chew within a feasible time frame when expanding way beyond our original vision for cities. We realize it will be much harder to take cities with the new “you must capture two fortresses” model, but it’s the best we could do with that we had to work with. Hopefully, you’ll give us a chance to prove ourselves with these new cities whenever they eventually make it in (probably pay-to-play expansions).”

Am I way off base here?

Pardon if I come off a bit pissy, but I’ve played a Mythic game before. Everyone always says, “Oh don’t worry. They surely learned from their past mistakes!” but I won’t buy it until I see the proof in the pudding. I have big doubts as to whether or not they can actually patch major “crown jewel” content without completely screwing up their game.

I always felt like a beta tester when playing DAOC because the stuff they put out in their expansions seemed as though it had never been properly tested before releasing. I wonder if this city stuff is just more of the same.

Posted in Game Speculation | 46 Comments »

Go… See… Now!

Best superhero movie ever. One of the best movies ever. Period.

This is the kind of superhero movie I hope we continue to see as the genre takes its stranglehold on Hollywood. Drama first. Action second. Comedy third. I am really hoping the Watchmen takes this approach. Ironman was awesome… but it isn’t even in the same league as The Dark Knight (it’s true, he’s in the Avengers and Batman is in JLA…).

Why so serious? Why the hell not!? I’m a 28 year old male and, while I still get giddy over big explosions and cool special effects, I am much more interested in a solid story. This movie has it in spades (playing card reference intended).

Almost all the film villains we’ve been introduced to over the years all have some kind of motive. Money. Power. Revenge. It isn’t very often we meet one who is just in it for raw and brutal chaos.  Best line you’ll hear in the movie (paraphrased). “You complete me. I think we’re destined to fight forever. The unstoppable force vs. the immovable object. You can’t kill me because you have some strict, uncorruptable code and I can’t kill you because you’re just too much fun!”

And I walked out of the movie with a deep sense of sadness (buried under total awe). They won’t fight forever because Heath Ledger is dead. I wasn’t too affected by his death when I heard about it all those months ago, aside from the normal feeling of “Wow, that sucks.” After watching this movie, for me, there is no other Joker. No comic book Joker. No Jack Nicholson Joker. Heath nailed it completely and made it his own. I hope they never revive the character again because it has already been done to perfection and anything less would be disrespectful to everything Heath put into it.

They say, if you’re going to go out, you might as well go out on top. I can say with certainty that this is the case with Mr. Ledger. The legacy of his Joker will last several lifetimes I’m sure.

I’m not going to critique the entire film, but suffice it to say, I think Christopher Nolan and company made a work of art that should be appreciated by everyone from comic book fans to non comic book fans. It transcends the genre (as I’ve read in other reviews and agree with 100%). It feels like it never ends (at 2:32:00 running time), but trust me, you won’t want it to.

I can’t wait for the third installment, but I don’t think they’ll be able to top this one. It’s just that good.

Posted in Personal | 11 Comments »

Know Your Gods - Grungni, Valaya, and Grimnir

Part Five of Ten - Know Your Gods is an original Warhammer Online lore series by Cicadymn (Sam).

After a long day’s battle, sometimes it’s just best to sit down and enjoy a tankard of Ale. It’s been pretty tough—what with all the avenging of your family’s name and criticism of how today’s Dwarfs can’t hold a candle to when you were younger. You may be simply looking to drown your sorrows, but deep down, you know that you’re still a fan of these Dwarven gods.

To start off, let’s look at Grungni first. Grungni is the ancestral god of the Dwarfs, said to have been carved by time into the first mountains. It was he who lead the Dwarfs out of the increasing perils of the upper world and into their home of the earth. Grungni is pictured as a male dwarf clad in chain mail with a gray forked beard that nearly reaches his feet. However, Grungni is more than just the dwarf responsible for his people moving into the earth; to the Dwarfs, he was the one who discovered mining and smelting. In fact, the creation of iron and steel are credited to him. These new metals helped the Dwarfs defeat their enemies with greater ease. Grungni is very widely worshiped by the miners, blacksmiths, and engineers who hold his teachings close to their professions. Want to really check him out? Take a trip over to Karak Azul and visit his greatest shrine. Don’t forget to pick up some amazing armor and weapons while you’re there.

With Grungni satisfied, it’s time to look into the next Dwarven god, Valaya. Valaya is a little strange, because if you haven’t already been able to tell by the name, Valaya is a female! It’s traditionally strange for Dwarfs to worship a female, but today it really has become common practice. For good reason as well, since Valaya is the protector of the homeland and clan. She protects her followers with special blessings, warding them from the ruinous powers of Chaos. Augmenting a Dwarf’s natural stubbornness with godly protection, makes for one tough opponent. Finally, it is said that the Dwarfs capitol city, Karaz-a-Karak, was actually founded by Valaya herself. Keep that in mind when you walk through their gates for the very first time. When you cross that threshold into the city, you’re  being watched out for by none other than Valaya.

The last Dwarven deity that I’ll mention is going to be Grimnir the Fearless. Grimnir is probably the god that all you Dwarfs who are a little fed up with the Greenskins, Chaos, or Dark Elves are going to want to know about. Grimnir is the warrior god of the Dwarfs. If you were wanting undaunted courage and fearlessness, then look no further because you’ve found the deity that is brimming with it. Grimnir is definitely a tragic hero, and a model of how Dwarven stubbornness can catch up with even the greatest dwarf. When the powers of Chaos began to spill into the realm of the dwarfs, Grimnir received two axes forged by Grungni himself out of the excessively rare starmetal gromril. Grimnir made a vow to reach the north pole and stop the forces of Chaos himself. Ignoring the warnings of both Valaya and Grungni, he left one of his axes with his son and set out for the north pole, never to be seen again. Now sporting the trademark mohawk and bodily runes. The dwarfs view him with a grim look in this respect because rather than leaving for glorious battle or miracles, they view it as that he fell into the darkness long ago, never to be seen again. As such, Grimnir is venerated by the Slayers cult who take it upon themselves to mimic his actions by shaving their heads, marking their bodies with runes, and seeking fights against nearly impossible odds. Worthy to note, one of Grimnir’s axes is in the hands of Thorgrim Grudgebearer, the current High King of the Dwarfs. The other is said to be held by a legendary Slayer named Gotrek Gurnisson, who found it in the Chaos Wastes.

So how do you know if you’re a worshiper of one of these gods? Well there are a few things to look at. Are you under five feet tall? Do you have an excessive addiction to gold and ale? Do you plan on being the best smithy in the world? What about the highest protector of your city? Perhaps you have a death wish and want to retain your honor for a short while against odds that are simply unrealistic? If you answered yes to a few of these questions then good news! There is a high chance that you need to sit down and have a chat with yourself and your dwarven deity of choice. If you’re a little sketchy about worshiping something that’s a good two feet or more shorter then you, I understand. There are still another five more chances left to find your personal saviour. Surely they wont hold a grudge if you do decide to come around to them in the end. After all, Dwarfs are known for their forgiveness and kindness, right?

Posted in Guides | 9 Comments »

New site feature: Guides!

I’m not ready for anyone to see it yet, but you may have noticed the new Guides page link appearing in our navigation up top. It is password protected, but I have mentioned the password on this site before, so feel free to try cracking it! I wouldn’t try too many times though… I’m not sure if WordPress IP-blocks repeat crackers (that was not a racial comment)!

The page will basically list all our exclusives from TheGreenskin.com (there are quite a few already and tons more in development) as well as other guides from around the community. They are currently broken down into five main categories, and each category will launch with anywhere from 3-10 guides.

My hope is for this page to become an invaluable resource for Warhammer Online fans around the world. To do this, the page will be community-driven, allowing players to submit new guides. That should make it pretty useful, imho!

I r teh excited!

Posted in Site News | 11 Comments »

Know Your Gods - Khaine

Part Four of Ten - Know Your Gods is an original Warhammer Online lore series by Cicadymn (Sam).

So, after looking in to the forces of Chaos, the deity of the Empire, those elvish folk might feel a bit left out. Here at TheGreenskin, we want everybody to feel welcome, even though we might be a little less hostile to those who’s skin color is of a more foresty shade. We still want you to come over none-the-less. That’s why today we’re going to talk about Khaine.

When people first caught wind of the Disciple of Khaine, players flocked to it. They couldn’t get enough! And as we’ve seen in the community, healer classes are really getting a lot of attention by future players in WAR than they have in any other MMO to date. So, I’m going to do my best to sum up the patron god for all you Khaine worshipers out there. If I don’t nail it, you can always turn me into a sacrifice, right? That would be very fitting, as to the Dark Elves, Khaine is the Lord of Murder. His full name is Khaela Mensha Khaine, which roughly translates to “Bloody-Handed Khaine.” While Khaine is the exalted god of the Dark Elves, I do have a bit of bad news for them. Khaine is also worshiped by the High Elves. Ironic, right? Khaine isn’t constantly worshiped by the High Elves, but rather, he is their god of war. When High Elves stride into battle, Khaine is the one they want on their side. That being said, it is considered inappropriate for him to be worshiped in times of peace. As the story goes, the first Phoenix King of the High Elves actually used Khaine’s blessed weapon, known as the Sword of Khaine or the Widowmaker, to fight back the overwhelming swarm of Chaos from invading their homeland. Khaine’s sword is said to be so strong that it can kill god or man indiscriminately.

So, what kind of holidays can you expect for this Lord of Murder? Well he’s got a few dedicated to him, firstly the Harvest of Souls and then the Death Night. As you may have guessed, they involve killing. Lots of killing. While these are not High Elf holidays, you can bet your bottom dollar that the Dark Elves are ready to jump on them. During these times Dark Elves kill anyone, friend or foe, that shows any sign of weakness. Such prolonged exposure to the brutal nature of Khaine has of course skewed their views of killing. Rather than just a brutal solution to a problem, they see it as an art form and strive to become perfect at it. As we talked about in Khorne’s article, the temple of Khaine, rather then a battlefield is a great temple held in the fortress city of Ghrond in Naggaroth. The seat in the temple is heralded as one of great power. As such, Morathi the Queen Mother and Crone Hellebron the High Priestess of the temple both claim that they are in absolute charge of the temple, and it often leads to conflict. These conflicts are kept in check by Malekith the Witch King of the Dark Elves. Some people say that Khaine is simply Khorne by another name, though that claim is adamantly denied by the followers of Khaine, stating that Khorne isn’t refined and subtle, while Khaine is.

Whats in it for you, a loyal followers of Khaine? Well, if you were unlucky enough to grow up in a Dark Elf city chances are you would be well aware of Death Night. If you happened to have been captured during that night by any of the Witch Elves who were prowling the streets you would have different things happen to you. One, if you were a female you would be taken to the temple and trained to become a Witch Elf. However, for the opposite sex something a little less pleasant was about to happen. You would be taken back to the temple and thrown into a massive cauldron of boiling blood. If you somehow, by the grace of Khaine, managed to survive you would be trained to become one of the most feared assassins in the Elven world. If you manage to survive the night, you thank your lucky stars by making a household sacrifice, usually a favorite slave or a really old relative that you have just lying around. If you’re into strange gifts from far off gods, this might not be your deity of choice. However, if you enjoy refining your skills in murder, love the thrill of battle, yet don’t want it to be mindless. If you’ve got a fetish for blood and enjoy sacrificing slaves then Khaine might just be the god for you.

Now I know what you must be thinking, “You’re only on part four! I can’t decide yet!” Don’t worry, there are plenty more gods to choose from. While you wait, you can mull over those we’ve seen so far and dream about what’s to come. Tune in next time for more information on the next Warhammer god. If I haven’t gotten to the one you’re thinking of, don’t worry, I will! it’s just a matter of time.

Posted in Guides | 4 Comments »

Forum Watch (July 8 - July 15, 2008)

Greetings WARfans! Can you believe it? It’s back! Forum Watch! Brought to you again by that asexual old website thegreenskin.com and your beta-free host with the most! Me! Cicadymn! Now without further delay lets get to cracking!

It’s been a long week. A really long week. This Forum Watch is even on time can you believe it? Want to know how long of a week it has been? Scroll back to the last episode of Forum Watch. Are you back? Yea. It’s been a very very long week. But that’s in the past now and there are blue skies and puppy dogs in our future so lets take a look at what the community has put together. It seems like there is a lot of fuss over the female class choices for WAR, that’s surprising because with 90% + of the gaming population being male, you wouldn’t think that this would be a big deal…Then again, perhaps you feel better thinking that the guy behind that sexy witch elf is really a girl? But there is lots more to check out than just gender confused young men! Check out all these great threads! Don’t forget to stay tuned for more Know Your Gods segments and other parts to the incredibly awesome Grimgor Ironhide Modeling Guide! Now what do I always say kids? Stay ready, WAR is coming.

You heard it here first! And a little while ago!

• But that doesn’t mean people around Warhammer Alliance forums can’t enjoy a little bit of notoriety. When it comes to picking new classes, I think I’m in agreement with a lot of people over there. I particularly like Horvak’s response to Slayer concerns on the second page. It seems like every complaint that is put forth against them can within reason be argued against. Damn you lore nazi! I want Slayers!

We can only assume he was comatose after losing his Choppa

• What other reason would there be to have such a small bit of new material on Paul! I think we need our favorite PR guy to get out amongst the crowds and give Mark Jacobs a break. Once his suave accent graces computer speakers again I think everything will end alright.

And with a resounding “HELL YEAZ” WAR was made

• I’m glad to see with all the negative hype out there we can get some of the good ole boys at War-RvR to answer the new question “Are you going to play WAR at launch?” with the only proper answer. HELLZ YEA!

Don’t forget! We’re gonna have lots of style choices

• Whether your the kind of guy that needs to be dressed in all pink remains to be seen. But the dye system I can tell is going to be a lot of fun! What am I going to do you ask? Oh you didn’t? Well I’ll tell you anyways…I believe my guild (Artillery FTW again) is going to go with a color scheme. That way when you’re killed by a large group of players that all look alike you’ll know who’s responsible and make sure to avoid those colors again!

You know, I never did get that sandwich…

• But that’s no excuse for lack of having a female tank! I’m sure one is very much in the works, but come launch it looks like all you purty little destruction ladies are going to have to roll something else, unless you feel like being a big ugly Orc/Northmen.
  

If you haven’t seen it yet, you should check it out!

• Because even though they’re not 100% spot on, it’s fun to check out anyways. It’s time Warhammer got some of the spotlight in the comic world! The boys at TenTonHammer WAR were more then happy to point it out for those that missed it!

I cannot disagree with this post enough

• But it’s always good for a laugh! Stop on by to VN boards and check out this inflammatory post! Catch it before it goes out!

Not so much tanks this time, but just classes in general!

• I know, I know, Destruction has the only female only class but still! There really aren’t all that many options when you look at it! Good luck to the Chaos chicas! I wouldn’t mind female Chosen but then again my point of view may be skewed by that Secret Life of Mobs comic! Then again those asexual greenskins aren’t helping the numbers any.
  

Do the pro’s outweigh the cons?

• With the chicken system it’s a pretty gray area! I for one wouldn’t want to leave any guild members in the dust. That being the reason why WAR may need some sort of mentoring system so that players can make it down into lower areas to assist their guild mates! Then again, perhaps if the PvE area is a chicken free zone it wont be bad at all!

So, will you kill the squig? Or the Bright Wizard?

• I can bet which one would be easier…but then again watching the light in the Bright Wizard’s eyes dwindle away will be even more fun! So with the options of PvE and RvR how are you going to make it to the next level?
  

Posted in Forum Watch | 1 Comment »

Letting the dust settle… for now.

Syp just posted a new feature over on his site called The Gab Bag, kind of like the Grab Bag, but different! This time around, he asked Arbitrary, Regis, and I to join him in a discussion breaking down various statements made by Mark Jacobs about the whole Black Friday fiasco.

He nicely prefaces my comments with a statement that I made them very shortly after hearing the announcements, so I was still pretty riled up. Thanks, mate!

That’s pretty much the last I’m going to talk about these issues for a while. At the moment, I feel there’s no sense arguing in circles when we lack so many key details. Apparently, Mythic will make some official statements soon (hopefully, not just the recent Q&A pieces on the Herald…) to clarify capital cities, classes, and punkbuster. Mark has also hinted at releasing a new State of the Game announcement soon.

I will definitely respond once new information is released, but I’ve pretty much said all I can say right now. I’m still very disappointed, but I’m hoping they can resolve or avoid some of the major arguments I’ve brought up. Ultimately, they could keep their lips zipped and I’d still give this game a try at release, but if you read the little “About Us” box in the upper-right hand corner of this site, you know I’ll continue to call it as I see it. That is, afterall, what the core of this blog is all about. A personal soapbox for me to vent when I’m angry and gush when I’m happy.

Posted in Community News | 3 Comments »

Grimgor Ironhide Modelling Guide - Part 2

This guide was written by Warhammer Alliance member, Romanus.

• Part 1 - Assembly
• Part 2 - Painting
• Part 3 - Basing

Hi all, and welcome to part two of the Grimgor Ironhide Modelling Guide. Last time, we left off with the model pinned, glued together, and assembled. This week we look at painting the model itself.

Since Grimgor is a Warlord, I’m going to go for a dark feel for him and his armour along with small details picked out. I also want to focus the attention to the top half of the miniature, so I’ll mainly add the brightest colours to this area, while keeping the lower half quite dark. Anyway, on with the show.

First we need to undercoat the model. For this I used Chaos Black, as I wanted the model to have a dark tone overall and to give a good base colour to work from.

I then painted the skin areas of the model with Catachan Green to give a dark almost natural tone to the skin. Brighter greens can be used such as Dark Angels Green. At this stage I then washed the model with Badab Black to add shading to the model.

The skin was then highlighted again with Catachan Green and then a final highlight of Camo Green. Highlighting is where you pick out the higher points on the model to give a shading affect. I also tried to blend each highlight in with the previous by thinning my paints down to about the consistency of milk.

The face was then concentrated on with the gums and tongue being painted first with a base colour of Red Gore followed by highlight layers of a 75:25 Red Gore/Tentacle Pink and then 50:50 Red Gore/Tentacle Pink. The eye was also painted with Red Gore followed by highlight layers of Blood Red and Fiery Orange. The teeth where painted with Graveyard Earth, then highlighted with Bleached Bone and then a mix of Bleached Bone/Skull White.

Next up I tackled the strapping for the armour and the armour itself. For the strapping a base of Scorched Brown was used, followed by a highlight of Bestial Brown. Boltgun Metal was then used to pick out the buckles on the strapping.

For the armour I wanted a very worn and chipped look, but I also wanted to maintain the blackness of it. Boltgun Metal was used by putting a small amount on the paint brush and then gently running along the edges of each armour plate. In places you can get a bit messy with it to look like it has been worn a bit more, but the trick here is to not overdo it. The chest plate face and the chainmail of the armour was also given a coat of Boltgun Metal and then washed with Badab Black. It was then highlighted with Chainmail paint to brighten it up and distinguish it from the rest of the armour. The Chains were also done in this way.

For the weapon itself I started with a base coat of Boltgun Metal for the metal pieces and Scorched Brown for the haft of the axe, which was then given a wash of Badab Black. The metal pieces where then highlighted with Boltgun Metal again and then with Chainmail. Bestial Brown was painted onto the haft of the axe in thin strips to try and emulate wood grain and then given a wash of Devlin Mud. For the blood and gore, a mix of both Red Ink and Black Ink was used and stippled on to the desired effect. Stippling is where small amounts of paint, or in this case ink, are dabbed on to get a mottled effect.

Lastly, we have the severed knight’s head in his right hand. I wanted to make it look like an Empire Knight’s Panther. To do this, the helm was painted again with Boltgun Metal and highlighted with Chainmail after a wash with Badab Black (beginning to see a pattern). The ribbons were painted with Regal Blue and highlighted with Enchanted Blue, while the white one was first painted with Ice Blue and then with Skull White. The gold crest was painted with Shining Gold and washed with Gryphonne Sepia. The reith was painted with Dark Angels Green and then highlighted with Snot Green and then Scorpion Green. Lastly the skin tone was done with Tanned Flesh and then highlighted with Dwarf Flesh and then Elf Flesh. For the neck, just use the same method as with the gore on the axe.

And now we are finished! Well, sort of. Small items were picked out like the teeth hanging from various places and the small dwarf trophy on his belt. His pants where also painted with Graveyard Earth and then washed with Devlan Mud. After that, he was all done.

Thanks for your time everyone! Next week, we will focus on how to effectively base the model.

Cheers, Romanus

For all paints, washes, and inks visit: http://uk.games-workshop.com/storefront/store.uk?do=List_Models&code=300952&orignav=300810

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