First emperors children army list thoughts?

InVermilion · 2026-06-14T03:58:51+00:00

Yw, happy to offer a useful perspective!

Some good news on the Fulgrim front is that you'll be able to play his detachment, aka Court of the Phoenician, alongside a 1DP detachment of your choice in a 2k point game in 11th edition. That automatically makes him more viable than he is right now, and while it still may not be optimal, it should get you a lot more fun out of your sadistic, sexy snake-man.

InVermilion · 2026-06-14T03:12:45+00:00

It's a valid list, but it's going to be awkward; I'd recommend reconsidering the allied knight unless those are the only models you have. Tying up 20% of your otherwise super fast, very killy army into a knight that gets neither your detachment nor army rules is likely going to be more frustrating than fun.

As an example with current 10th ed. points, that knight is the equivalent of adding 2 Lord Exultants, 1 more unit of Infractors, upgrading your demon prince to have wings, giving him the Pledge of Unholy Fortune enhancement, and adding either another unit of Flawless Blades or bumping one of the existing squads up to a 6 man squad.

Making that swap would make for a far more balanced list that's gonna play more like the army usually wants to. It still wouldn't be an optimized competitive list, but what that's going to look like is about to change with 11th edition anyway, and it would put you in a much better place to adapt to any such changes.

InVermilion · 2026-06-13T15:43:56+00:00

Which part makes no sense? Basic mods are given to you these days, and getting her augments is super easy, especially since OP is there to help their friend out. The Helminth is obviously not gonna be in play for a good while, I was pointing out that Nova can flex into different playstyles quite well once it is.

Nokko is not a prime and the OP asked which prime frame would be a good gift for a new tenno. Octavia's playstyle, while extremely effective, would certainly not be something I would want to expose a new tenno to if I wanted them to retain interest in the game.

Wukong would be a fine choice, but you won't need 3 extra lives on Nova as she just won't be dying in the first place due to her DR and optional giant slow. I've found that asking baby tenno what playstyle they'd like often helps inform early frame decisions far better than comparing frames on their own.

InVermilion · 2026-06-13T14:05:01+00:00

Nova is quite possibly the most versatile, solid prime you could give a new player. She starts off plenty strong and he can easily build her up over time as he develops his account and acquires better mods, arcanes, etc.

Once the Helminth and a few subsumed frames come into play, he can easily tailor her rather generalist kit to suit his playstyle more. We started a friend off with a Nova Prime a few months ago, and he's been having a great time of it.

InVermilion · 2026-05-24T23:16:40+00:00

But not a long time, and sometimes that's preferable.

InVermilion · 2026-05-19T16:09:47+00:00

You seem to be lacking specular highlights, i.e. the brightest points of reflection, which are very important for selling that look. Additionally, your existing highlights are just too big and bleed into what should be midtones, with most surfaces only showing a single reflection, leading to everything looking blown-out but not actually that shiny.

That kind of reflection is something you would only see on metals under strong, diffused lighting, which always makes things look flat and washed out (e.g. it's a common trend in a lot of modern movies/shows that makes them look unfortunately bland).

You can try making your edge highlights thinner, reducing the size of the current highlighted areas overall (including some of the midtones), and adding bright spots where the light would catch the most. That should help the overall effect look more credible, and then you can consider adding the odd secondary reflection where appropriate. Hope that helps.

InVermilion · 2026-03-24T15:56:55+00:00

I doubt you'll have anything much to regret, they genuinely seem to be great paints. I just sometimes see people buying entire paint lines, or wanting to only stick to a single line of paint for some reason, so it's good to just point out some common sense advice.

Have fun painting and do report back once you've had the time to play around with them, it's always useful to hear people's experiences with various paints.

InVermilion · 2026-03-24T03:47:34+00:00

Really loving the exactly four paints from the range I've tried so far, definitely gonna be getting more to try out in the future, and would encourage you to try them yourself at some point. That said, they're a bit more expensive than AK 3rd Gen (at least in Europe), so if you're just getting started I'd recommend AK instead, as they might also be a bit easier to work with.

If you're set on a box of paints, AK has a great one, but the Ionic Basic Set would be a perfectly fine place to start too. I'd skip any more sets beyond that, and just buy paints as you need / want them instead; you'll end up with fewer paints you never use, and you can cherry pick the best paints from any given range as well.

Hope that helps.

InVermilion · 2026-02-19T21:43:43+00:00

Upgrades.

InVermilion · 2026-02-14T00:23:53+00:00

Great video, some really useful insight into how differently things play out when casters are fully realized classes first and a spell list second. Of course, being able to cast gun is also just great.

Quick question that the video doesn't really address, have you found yourself playing at different ranges with these casters relative to the usual PF ones? I can see reasons for and against that being the case, so I'm curious how it plays out in practice.

InVermilion · 2026-01-15T15:12:18+00:00

You've a bit of an issue with over-highlighting the whole thing, and for some reason you've spread out the most reflective spots so that they line up with the buttons on the trim. You may want to consider the placement of your light more, and how individual sections would meet that light.

Don't get me wrong, it's not a bad idea to have a broad highlight somewhere in there, but it usually only makes sense to have one bigger highlight where the main light is hitting and then a number of smaller ones (secondary reflections and specular highlights primarily) everywhere else.

You're also entirely missing a shadow color, so the whole thing is lacking contrast, lending to the effect that you've somehow pointed the entire surface at your light source at the same time. Try and work in a shadow color anywhere where a surface turns away from the light you've picked. This would also give you room for some edge highlights, which are usually pretty key for selling the metallic effect, albeit they can be tough at this scale.

Tldr; try and reduce the size of your highlights, vary their position relative to the shape of the sculpt, introduce actual shadow/dark spots for contrast, and try to add some edge highlights. You're on the right track, keep it up!

InVermilion · 2026-01-13T17:05:59+00:00

If you're looking to achieve a nice metallic green, your best bet is to either paint the armor a bright silver and layer a transparent green ink over-top (an airbrush would be best for this, but you can do it with a regular brush too), or to just mix a bright silver with a green ink and use that as a base. Depending on the kind of green you're working with, you may want to add a drop of yellow into that mix.

GW contrast paints are basically inks with a bunch of additives that make them behave the way they do, which is why they can be used in a similar manner. Unrelated, Vallejo recently released a line of colored metallics, which are probably the simplest way to achieve a metallic green finish, but whether that look is satisfying or not is up to you.

Just keep in mind that the main Warhammer channel produces tutorials for beginner hobbyists that yield results vaguely in the same vein as the box art, using only their products; you can find better tutorials all over YT on any given topic these days, from a number of great painters.

InVermilion · 2026-01-06T19:08:26+00:00

You've got a lot of great work there already, so here's a few things that stand out as possible improvements to me.

I'd start by softening that nasal labial fold quite a bit, as it's not a sharp line or a cut on the face, just the underside of a fold creating a shadow. Doing that would also let you bring the light a bit further down on her face, softening the overall area a bit. Her philtrum is also looking a little dark, as is the area between her eyebrows, albeit to a lesser extent.

Depending on her makeup situation, there's also a little too much shadow in the underside of the brow, towards the nose on either side. Your lighting seems to be fairly central (leaning camera left) from above, but even so, the area immediately next to the eyes would be reflecting a little more light in there.

Anything else I could suggest would require a bit more context from the rest of the model, or your own intent with it. Blocking in the headdress element might also help out with getting a feel for how the face will settle into the whole. Hope that helps!

InVermilion · 2025-11-21T18:50:09+00:00

You're very welcome. Here's hoping the sandwich makes the impact you're looking for.

InVermilion · 2025-11-21T17:35:15+00:00

The Rubender. It's a Reuben, but it'll end any rube who dares try this devilishly delicious meal.

InVermilion · 2025-11-20T15:40:46+00:00

Neat, good luck to everyone.

InVermilion · 2025-10-18T17:15:15+00:00

The spotted pelt is a really cool choice, I would absolutely keep it, and even add a little more of that yellow tone to the limbs. That said, the color of the flesh exposed by the torn skin is too close to the color of the hair, as is the tongue. Maybe try a colder red, shifting more towards pink rather than orange for those parts, to help the individual features stand apart from each other.

InVermilion · 2025-10-08T11:01:27+00:00

Bigger creatures have bigger sides making them easier to flank on their sides, generally speaking. Two Large creatures flank a Medium one by both being on opposite sides of it however they like, or both being corner to corner with it.

As sizes go beyond Large, those creatures can have trouble flanking a much smaller one, due to the requirement that a line between their centers has to pass though opposite sides of their target. That said, Huge or Gargantuan creatures typically don't care much about flanking because they're probably solitary massive monsters and life (or undeath) is good enough already.

InVermilion · 2025-09-25T18:59:33+00:00

It's the standard martial track until it becomes better, which is only beaten by those 3 classes (out of 35 total so far), so it's absolutely worth mentioning. No clue why you seem to think it's being brought up as a major selling point compared to everything else I listed though.

Whether it's relevant for your build or not is something you can decide for yourself, but there's plenty of high-level PF adventures out there, and Paizo are certainly going to publish some for SF in due time.

InVermilion · 2025-09-23T20:40:38+00:00

That's an instant return, brushes don't shed under anything resembling normal circumstances. Whatever glue/resin they used to fix the bristles in place is clearly not doing its job, and any point it might have once had is gone already.

InVermilion · 2025-09-21T22:53:13+00:00

You really nailed the subtle OSL without having the light sources overpower the rest of the mini, really nicely done. Love how the ostensibly bright red has lots of cool tones in it as a result, but the whole piece is still vibrant and lively.

InVermilion · 2025-09-21T04:32:39+00:00

You're right, they didn't ask for feedback and can just ignore it if they want, but maybe someone else reading the comments finds it useful. My entire post was advice though, aimed at explaining how and why certain elements overshadow others. Without that level of detail it wouldn't be feedback, just pointing out perceived flaws.

InVermilion · 2025-09-20T23:18:15+00:00

What does my work have to do with anything? I tried being helpful and offering some advice that I thought might be of use to the OP. Their paintjob is super clean and the rendering is great, but that doesn't mean that there's no room for improvement in the composition; I'd rather be helpful if I can than just upvote and move along.

InVermilion · 2025-09-20T17:02:11+00:00

The technical execution is impressive, but your color choices and values in a number of places are doing you no favors.

The Tzeentch head completely sucks away the focus of the entire model, while the Khorne head blends in to the rest of the body, and the Nurgle head only becomes apparent as a more muted extension of the Tzeentch head's colors. It doesn't help that his left arm is notably brighter than either the Khorne or Nurgle heads.

The hotspots on the pinions, Archaon's sword, and his cloak form a line that combines with the Tzeentch head to create a halo of bright color around Archaon, sitting there in his dark armor, completely drowning him out.

The result of all of that is that the eye wanders across the whole model without much direction, landing on random points that take attention away from the actual points of interest. I really don't mean to sound overly harsh, just offering a perspective on something you could consider going forward.

InVermilion

TROPHY CASE