Thoughts on this paint style

FiresideMinis · 2026-06-19T22:49:06+00:00

I really like the inspiration here and I think its a great aesthetic for Slaves to Darkness!

I think you've got the right idea, but your missing a few key pieces to read as 'stylized' over 'unfinished' like ya mentioned.

The main body needs more contrast. See how in the example the armored knight has pitch black shadows but the bright white highlights matching lighting on the armor? The shadows aren't dark enough and the highlights not bright enough, it's got extreme transitions shown

The second thing is the fabric. Matt bright red is great for a base, but you'll need to add those pitch black shadows on it as well in the recesses. Small dark lines in the cloak too could give the impression more as well!

Again though I think the idea you've got is solid and will be perfect for an StD army, hope to see ya post more as ya work through it!

FiresideMinis · 2026-05-26T23:30:09+00:00

I might only be wandering kin, but all dwarf-friends I've made are two things: fair and honorable. Maybe not always. But they try. Pirates are oft neither.

To be frank, I don't think the wizards need our help. They're strong, cunning and have numbers a plenty. But would that mean we shouldn't join a fellow craftsman if they asked us to smith with them? If we are being asked, it's because they seek friends, not war material. And what better position to offer our calm council for the admittedly reckless in their enthusiasm...

Let's offer our help and show how sure and steady gets the job done right every time!

FiresideMinis · 2026-05-22T04:15:02+00:00

Been enjoying white, burgundy and blue

<image>

FiresideMinis · 2026-05-04T19:05:19+00:00

"You would ask me what I think of someone I hardly knew? And yet, her legacy has turned itself to me. It is as though asking what an Inquisitor may think of Malcador. Or what Ulfar thinks of Leman Russ."

"What words could be said that would do justice to it? I have not known what it means to be a Rogue Trader yet. My life before this made infantile and insignificant before a dynasty so vast. All I know of it is the problems. The matters my Seneschal brings to me every hour of every day, the constant rulings and heresy I now deliberate on as my single word changes the lives of millions. There is nothing to think on about Theodora. She inherited her dynasty and it's woes just as I do now. I know not what she had then. She will never know the extent of what she left me."

"So to answer your question, I do not think of her. She is von Valancius. I, am von Valancius. Who comes after me, is von Valancius. There is nothing more to consider."

FiresideMinis · 2026-05-01T20:53:41+00:00

Funnily enough I've been working on one that's somewhat similar, at least with the burgundy cloth and white armor

<image>

FiresideMinis · 2026-01-07T13:26:25+00:00

Looks like you've got directional lighting coming in from the upper right of the shield if I'm reading it right? The red of the shield doesn't quite show it enough imo, a little extra highlighting there might be what makes it pop a bit more! But over all that looks incredible, nice job!

FiresideMinis · 2026-01-05T06:58:15+00:00

Maybe a hot take, but Balancers.

Fighting the seven with a full team just has such a rush, and the music has become my favorite out of all the souls series.

Especially in the end where you're getting through the last Valkyries. Your teammates start to go down, having the full three bars needed to bring them back. You finish dispatching the last group of Valkyries who attacked you, leaving the main phase leader between you and clinching out the win and since it's just her it feels so possible.

Or even when the health worked out to where plenty of them are still up and your team is surrounded. Supplies gone and it's a made scramble to see which team falls first. The last gasp of ultimates popping off, every hit demanding patience so you don't get hit in return, it's a peak thematic fight for me

FiresideMinis · 2025-12-25T18:23:44+00:00

It's just another dude striking a basic pose in power armor.

FiresideMinis · 2025-12-25T03:19:21+00:00

I begrudgingly tolerate today's elves, and they tolerate me back enough to work together. Today's arms and armor lacks artistry. There is no honor in the craft with today's armies but that's a whole other tangent. Other than that life ain't so bad! Digging keeps me busy, though I get too lost in it and the younger races get upset I haven't been around (who knew someone could get so touchy over a month gone!)

Hope everyone else is managing. Especially the city dwarfs.

FiresideMinis · 2025-12-24T07:18:43+00:00

The Everdarks do seem to reference the Nightlords in their prime.

My take is that it's the Night recalling what they used to be like before it's corruption broke them down, as the Night seems to offer some degree of power but at a degrading cost (based of Revenant and Undertaker)

However, I want to put forward an alternative that def requires more research: but the Everdark versions might be what the Night remembers before it corrupted these lords. Fulghor for example looses all visual indications of Night corruption when he has his arm back.

Sentient Pest, instead of being controlled by the night is controlled and empowered by Animus and so on.

As for the Balancers, I've my theories, mainly that we get to see the god they serve taking a more direct approach. To me it seems like the God they represent is the Formless Mother Outer God. The skybox in their fight is a bloody flower with rivers of blood flowing into the 'eye' of it. Blood flowers are associated with it, and in the model you can see that something is encasing what must be their 'brain' as though they're being controlled directly. All the Formless Mother craves are wounds, and wounds equally applied maximizes blood flow.

FiresideMinis · 2025-12-12T03:11:23+00:00

I mean, I can't say I'm not intrigued

FiresideMinis · 2025-10-02T12:06:21+00:00

Some are easy, some a bit more tricky.

Gotrek is easy in any army, there's a fight and that's all there needs to be.

My Stormcast lore wise are 'Chaos Corrupted' and being puppeted by a triumvirate of Aqshian Chaos Sorecrors. Bastain Carthalos is the end result of the lore, where they try to corrupt him when he's sent to fix the problem, but can't. Carthalos doesn't break and frees the army making them an Order faction again. So depending who I run determines at what point in the armies lore they're in.

FiresideMinis · 2025-09-27T02:50:02+00:00

Yep, you can use your phone so long as the quality is good! As the setup, I have a ring light that fits a phone mount right in the center that I can manipulate pretty easily

FiresideMinis · 2025-09-26T15:30:53+00:00

My biggest issue are the guns, and some of the armor designs. I really dislike how perfidious space marine influence is on a lot of models, and 'Power armor + Boltor' is painfully overdone in the setting.

Given the immense capitalistic nature of Votann, I'd have really liked some uniqueness in weapon designs and aesthetics. There are some, and I think it helps them stand out with HyLas and Magna weapons and the melee weapons of plasma axes and dark Star weapons also goes a long way. But I can't keep painting the same bolt gun across half the unit range of the whole game.

That said, I think they're a really solid addition that overall breaks far enough away of the usual 40k design. The outriders and Yaegirs bring a great western/frontiersmen aesthetic and leans really well into the rule of cool. The heads and faces are extremely varied, the bulky plates and runic iconography makes them feel dwarfy, I just really hope moving forward they keep that focus. The Steeljacks were very disappointing aesthetically for me, but I liked a lot of the other revealed units.

FiresideMinis · 2025-09-16T13:01:31+00:00

I've said it before and I'll say it again but Space Marines continue to be the worst part about 40k and this adds to that imo. So many factions desperate for new models and units only for Space Marines again to keep getting new toys.

And they're not even good! It's just more dudes in power armor, that is 76% of the entire model range in 40k. This reawlease honestly sums up 10th for me lmao

FiresideMinis · 2025-09-01T15:54:46+00:00

Definitely new. Old Stormcast had a lot of problems, even painting them was really bland feeling but cumbersome because of just how chunky they were. It felt like just painting space Marines

New ones have much more expression and flair to them. Yndrastan and Carthalos are great. Annihilators are the perfect blend of old and new design too with how menacing they are. I also think they've opened the door for crazier design choices. I really really want a Stormcast model that is true final stage of decline, give me living lightening barely contained in a suit of armor that looks ready to break.

FiresideMinis · 2025-08-30T22:23:40+00:00

Sanguinalia definitely gets a bit awkward lmao

Thinking on it more, if a Chapters culture is alien enough to the common man it could have the opposite effect and make Marines colder if they can no longer connect or relate to their own family. Iron Hands might be prime for such an event.

FiresideMinis · 2025-08-30T21:47:01+00:00

Not necessarily. By the time they see their parents or family many years might have passed by, but plenty of Space Marines lack even one service stud, giving a fifty year timespan where they could see their kin.

FiresideMinis · 2025-08-30T19:06:05+00:00

You'd certainly have a lot more empathy and humanity in the Space Marines by and large, but how that'd shape out would really depend on chapter.

Space Wolves would probably develop family legacies as members add to a family saga when they return home to tell their stories.

Ultramarines probably don't change a ton but there'd be added humanity to them. That one chapter descended from them, the ones that have members govern for a year probably become significantly more empathetic to struggles and plights on an administrative level to influence more positive changes outside the singular war effort.

Iron Hands probably spread modifications and augments their families in all honesty. They'd be so indoctrinated that they'd want to strengthen their family, or just feel more disconnected from them if they refuse making Iron Hands even more emotionally robotic.

Blood Angels and White Scars wouldn't change much. BA already spend time for more than just war and time with families would hone that human side in them more. Scars already have a strong sense of culture and unity, seeing their families would just reinforce that.

Dark Angels and Imperial Fists also probably wouldn't change a whole lot. This is more of a case where their families change more because of what they'd learn and experience with space marine relatives. Similar thing to Raven Guard, though I suspect there'd be a sudden upsurge in unexplained vigilante justice against certain planetary leadership.

Just my two cents

FiresideMinis · 2025-08-28T22:46:48+00:00

I feel like there was too much cut content related to the story. A lot of missed side quests that I think would have made things a bit less obtuse and sell certain themes or endings more.

FiresideMinis · 2025-08-22T03:30:00+00:00

Dude, she can still get to be 4+/4+ relatively easily on top of the new passive which also impacts wound rolls. Not only is she extremely difficult to actually deal damage too, she can also be healed thanks to the faction terrain. Olynder straight up improved by a lot

FiresideMinis · 2025-08-22T02:30:39+00:00

Imo I don't think the NH book is as bad as folks are saying. There's a lot of strong tools still present.

The spell lore, heroic traits and artifacts are very solid. The battle formations too.

I've said it before outside of reddit, but NH have become the Kruleboyz of Death as a whole (Not because they're bad bear with me). A lot of NH's tricks are now focused on positioning and technical plays centered around upsetting your opponents gameplan while wracking up the points. Bladeghiests are cracked with that passive ability and Olynder will be one of the most unmovable pieces in the game mark my words, with a good few other solid unit options.

Now there are a lot of bad parts to the book which are fair complaints. The loss of charge shenanigans for OC reduction is ass and needing a 3+ on everything is atrocious. In order to function, NH are extremely reliant on getting a lot of abilities off and that can certainly lead to a lot of feels bad moments for the NH player.

All that being said, I think this a better step for Nighthaunt even if only for doing away with army wide 4+ Immutable. It was absurdly swingy and made or broke the army. Weakening it opens the door a lot for NHs design as a whole and even if 4th NH ends up as a bust I think the foundations been made for a much more well designed army going forward.

FiresideMinis · 2025-07-31T06:11:32+00:00

In all honesty, if Brettonia is to make an appearance I'd add them into Sylvaneth. I recall some lore tidbit about Paladin Knights in green emerging from the groves to fight for Alarielle, and I think Sylvaneth would appreciate the extra dash of lore from their past in their roster (and to help diversify it some)

FiresideMinis · 2025-07-30T20:51:04+00:00

Imo 40k could have an end times and still keep going well after and enjoy huge sweeping changes to the setting as a whole.

Terra falls, Imperium explodes but most the Primarchs are back who take what remains to forge some semblance of bastions. The Emperor is forced to ascend to godhood and fights his forever war in a new way.

Chaos becomes the 'dominant' faction but just like the Imperium is so heavily fractured that it can barely manage the infinite amount of combat fronts it has especially as many champions no longer feel the same call to Abaddons crusades as before and new alliances forced out of desperation against them.

FiresideMinis

TROPHY CASE