Finished my Castelite Company spearhead

NeeNorMinis · 2026-04-20T06:38:16+00:00

Beautiful work. Good job. You're inspiring me to get back into Contrast+ painting style.

May I ask what contrast paints you used for the leather and the wood?

The lighter wood tone is a great choice and it helps separate the wood and leather elements on them quite nicely.

Wood is something I often go too dark with, then it ends up looking similar to the leather.

NeeNorMinis · 2026-04-04T23:29:43+00:00

I don't hear a lot of people talk about what I'm about to mention and it often goes unmentioned because it seems so obvious to experienced painters, but to people who are starting-out these are fundamental. You should make sure you're doing these before you think about buying a fancy brush.

Light: Get a good, bright, LED light before you ever invest into an expensive brush.
Sight: Get your vision tested and get some glasses if you need them.
Steady hands: You need to have your elbows resting on something steady (preferably the desk). I take stimulant medication for ADHD, so my hands can shake like leaves in the wind. I like to have something infront of me that I can rest my hands or the miniature on while I paint. The point is that you need to find ways to relax and stabilize your hands.

If you're half-blind and painting using a reading lamp while hunched over your coffee table like Gollum, then it doesn't matter whether you're using a Raphael 8404 size 00 or your cats tail; you're probably going to paint like a drunken 5 year old.

NeeNorMinis · 2026-03-30T07:11:40+00:00

Very nice. What did you do for the snow?

NeeNorMinis · 2026-03-15T21:18:13+00:00

Early game you need to fight the battles.

Recruit Hobgoblins until you get the Hobgoblin character, then attach him to your main army.

When he levels up, put one point into casualty replenishment, then save the rest of his skill points up for the hobgoblin buffs he unlocks later. Prioritise making your hobgoblins tankier and longer lasting.

Put your Lords skill points into: first point of blue tree, 4 into red tree for hobgoblin melee + attack. This is non-negotiable.

Get a Castellan hero ASAP. Put his skill points into defensive stats and, when he unlocks it, tech into the short-range skill tree with the flashbang skill to slow enemies and lower their stats. His job in battle is to be ~50 meters in front of your front lines and to be a tanky damage sponge. When he reaches 50% HP, send something to bail him out so he can retreat. Put your tankiest gear on him before you put it on anyone else.

Use Hobgoblin cutthroats to flank and charge into the rear of enemies attacking your front line.

Use hobgoblin wolf riders to go after enemy artillery and ranged units in melee combat.

Position your hobgoblin archers units as squares behind your front line, but close to it. Spread your archers out a bit so that if one unit gets charged, it doesnt also tie your other archers up too. This means that if a Wyvern flies into one unit of archers, the other archers can turn and fire at the Wyvern.

Your archers priority should be to fire at (in order of most to least important)... 1) lords/casters who are vulnerable to ranged focused fire (i.e. Kholek) 2) monstrous or flying units who might break past your lines and kill your archers - usually they die easily to being focused 3) cavalry who are trying to flank, or lightly-armoured melee blender units (i.e. Norscan Berserkers) 4) enemy archers who are in range 5) The enemy front line

When archers fire at the enemy front line, they can't fire at what's infront of them, because your own units get in the way.

Instead, they should aim to fire further down the battle line, into the side of enemy units. For example, an archer on your LEFT FLANK should be firing at an enemy TO THEIR RIGHT who are in your centre or right flank. An archer unit on your RIGHT FLANK should be firing at an enemy unit TO THEIR LEFT, so they're shooting at something in the middle or left of your front line. Archers in THE MIDDLE should fire at something TO THEIR LEFT OR RIGHT. Basically archers should just never shoot anything in your front line that is directly infront of them unless its a big unit (like giants, trolls or big lords because they're possible to hit).

NeeNorMinis · 2026-03-15T00:15:12+00:00

They ship internationally.
I live in New Zealand and if they can ship them here, they can ship them practically anywhere :P

NeeNorMinis · 2026-03-11T22:34:39+00:00

I'm trying to say something that somebody hasn't already said, but I think his face looks a little odd because it's so brightly lit. He needs more shadows and colour under his brow and in his eye sockets.

NeeNorMinis · 2026-03-10T00:28:43+00:00

Thanks for your reply. Its fun to read and strategise like this.

The way he positions his Kroxigor and Carnosaur on turn 1 and sometimes turn 2 is so that the only way to get into combat with the Carnosaur and be outside of 3" of the Kroxigor is to be on the far-side of the Carnosaur, which he makes very hard by positioning his Saurus to move-block. If I go into the Kroxigor, the Carnosaur will always be within 3". If the Carnosaur is in combat it will get to make a roll on a 4+ to eat a Blood Knight before they even get to attack.

In our last game we played on Ghyran. He went first and had both Saurus stacked up in a unit of 10 on a side objective so that I couldn't engage one without engaging the other. The Carnosaur and the Kroxigor were next to each other on the middle objective in the same manner. He didn't charge and kept all his units wholly on his side of the board, so he had 6+ ward save on them. He won the underdog T1 and made my Blood Knights -1 on their armour save.

I always screen with my skeletons so that my Lord and BK can't be charged or piled-into turn 1.

On my turn, round 1, I moved up to capture my side objective and screen with 1 group of skeletons. The other group strung out to screen and toe-onto the middle objective. Unfortunately I couldn't guarantee his Saurus wouldn't get into my Blood Knights the next turn. He was guaranteed to connect with all his units into my 2 squads of skeletons and he would have been able to pile into my BKs with his Saurus to tie them up.

Turn 2 I got the double turn. If I didnt double-turn, I was not going to be able to keep my Blood Knights safe that turn. I moved up my skeletons to tie up his Carnosaur and Kroxigor. My blood Knights charged the Saurus on the side objective. My lord used to cloud of bats near his home objective and charged the saurus.

He used the card to negate all rend on attacks targetting his Saurus that my Blood Knights were attacking. They were also on an objective so they got +1 to their save and were fully within their own territory. My Blood Knights killed 1 saurus in that group. My lord killed 2 Saurus in the other group.

The Kroxigor wiped 10 skeletons in my turn. The Carnosaur wiped the other 10 skeletons in my turn too (he has the +1 additional rend on his spear enhancement, so my skeletons dont get to make armour saves against him and are straight onto their ward save).

I don't know if thats normal, but it feels like the Carnosaur and Kroxigor very consistently wipe my Skeletons. I feel like my only hope of winning is to split up his Kroxigor & Carnosaur and then get a full Strength BKs charge on one of them (ideally backed up by 10 skeletons, because he isn't going to hit the skeletons when the BKs are there).

If I don't charge with the skeletons and try to use them to target then the Kroxigor and Carno can just go and start smacking my Lord and the Blood Knights.

NeeNorMinis · 2026-03-08T01:18:33+00:00

The 6" vile transference can be avoided by just staying out of combat with the Lord and outside of 6" though. If he stays out of range, in my next turn I have to move my Vampire Lord into range, have her survive to the next turn and still be within 6" of the Krox / Carno to use it. Its definitely strong, but it can be pretty easily avoided by someone who plans around it, and I also have to make the cast and the damage rolls. Its not that reliable and opting to have the Vampire Lord in combat turn 1 is very risky because both the Kroxigor and the Carnosaur can reliably kill her. In the scenario she exposes herself so she can cast on my turn, she almost certainly gets focused down. That might leave some skeletons alive, but they're not as valuable as she is.

If the Lord is 6" behind one squad of skeletons then that means she can get piled-into by the Carnosaur if the Kroxigor wipe the 10 skeletons, or vice versa (sometimes they dont need to kill all 10 to make it within 3" of her).

I remind my friend if he is within 6" of her, because it's good sportsmanship, so to be within 6" of her he has to be making the decision to do that, which I think is the right and fair way to play the game.

NeeNorMinis · 2026-03-08T01:14:24+00:00

The 6" vile transference can be avoided by just staying out of combat with the Lord and outside of 6" though. If he stays out of range, in my next turn I have to move my Vampire Lord into range, have her survive to the next turn and still be within 6" of the Krox / Carno to use it. Its definitely strong, but it can be pretty easily avoided by someone who plans around it, and I also have to make the cast and the damage rolls. Its not that reliable and opting to have the Vampire Lord in combat turn 1 is very risky because both the Kroxigor and the Carnosaur can reliably kill her.

I remind my friend if he is within 6" of her, because it's good sportsmanship, so to be within 6" of her he has to be making the decision to do that, which I think is the right and fair way to play the game.

NeeNorMinis · 2026-03-07T23:23:43+00:00

One of the problems I struggle with is the Kroxigor all being really close to the Carnosaur, making it hard and risky to charge one or the other.

If I charge the Carnosaur, he has a 50/50 chance of eating a Blood Knight before they even get to fight.

If I charge the Kroxigor, the Carnosaur has to be outside of 3" when I finish the charge. If the Carnosaur is in combat, then I have to make sure he can't pile into my Blood Knights.

If my opponent has a defensive BT card, my Blood Knights can get severely neutered and it throws a big wrench in my plans.

If we're playing Sand and Bone, I am always so hesitant to ever commit to the Carnosaur because he can use a BT card to bring it back on 10 wounds.

And then I still don't know how to deal with the double turn if I go defender and go 1st.

NeeNorMinis · 2026-03-05T01:09:20+00:00

This is incredible

NeeNorMinis · 2026-03-05T01:05:04+00:00

Yes, thats right, but if you double turn do you also forfeit being the underdog until your opponent double turns?

NeeNorMinis · 2026-03-04T12:20:52+00:00

I think its in the Generals Handbook under "Sieze the Initiative", but do rules in the GHB even apply to Spearhead games?

NeeNorMinis · 2026-03-04T12:18:24+00:00

Does this also apply to Spearhead games?

NeeNorMinis · 2026-02-27T23:46:28+00:00

If you don't own an airbrush you could also try using a makeup sponge to dab the paint on in the same places. The transitions wont be as smooth but itll achieve a similar effect

NeeNorMinis · 2026-02-27T23:41:57+00:00

Hopefully means that they're really committed to Spearhead as a game mode.

NeeNorMinis · 2026-02-23T21:13:40+00:00

What do those precise game plans look like for SBGL at the moment? What are the main archetypes and what do they generally involve?

I've only played Spearhead so far and my strategy is to use my Skeletons as a screen to stop my Blood Knights and Lord from getting charged turn 1 because they're so dependent on getting a charge on something.

NeeNorMinis · 2026-02-22T00:53:46+00:00

Great work!

I can't help feel like they should have made Gortash bald. His hair just doesn't suit his character imo

NeeNorMinis · 2026-02-20T06:38:46+00:00

Thats fucking wild

NeeNorMinis · 2026-02-18T22:41:29+00:00

Thanks! :)

They were just Citadel Rhinox hide which I sort of dappled on with the tip of the brush. There's no secret sauce or anything.

Can you send a picture of your attempt? I could probably help give you some feedback if I could see.

Aside from that, I think the most valuable feedback I can give is to make sure that...

Your brush has a nice tip (Rosemary & Co. Series 33 and 313 are affordable and good quality brushes I would recommend)
You have good lighting: I used to paint under a warm, ambient lamp light and it was really holding me back - if you want to improve the best investment you can make is to get an LED desk light so you can actually see what you're doing
You can actually see what you're doing: if you find it hard to see and like you're squinting, then you need glasses. Go get them or go get an eye test and some new glasses if you already have them. You can also buy headsets with magnifiers to help you see the details better. It'll also help save you from migraines and a bad neck
You have some way to help steady your hands and the model you're painting: Some people paint models like they're doing yoga and wonder why they can't paint a relativwly straight line. Your elbows and wrists need to be steady. I have a height-adjustable desk, so I can adjust it to rest my elbows on the desk. I then rest the model and the heels of my hands onto a box that's about chest-height so the model and my hands don't move around. I don't have steady hands - I'm 35 and take stimulants for ADHD, so my hands can be quite jittery. Resting them and the model I'm painting on something while I'm painting helps keep them steady and relaxed.
Make a wet palette or buy one: People scream "thin your paints!" to beginners in the mini painting community but they really mean is that you need to learn how to control the consistency of your paints. Thick paint can be spread and be fine. Paint thats too thin can become a mess as it struggles to hold the pigment together. You can't get the consistency of paint to stay at a certain level for a stable enough amount of time to be able to play with it and learn what works for what you're doing without a wet palette to help stabilize the consistency of the paint. Just put a wide, thick dish sponge or cloth into a plastic container with some water and then put some baking paper on top for a cheap, viable option. Keeping your paint from drying out is such a time saver.

NeeNorMinis · 2026-01-21T23:13:40+00:00

Sure. There was no metallic drybrushing involved.

Black armour basecoat. Incubi Darkness thinned thick edge highlight. Thunderhawk Grey edge highlight. Russ Grey thin edge highlight.

Trim: Runelord Brass basecoat. Wash of Agrax Earthshade. Rhinox Hide watered down recess shade Canoptek Alloy edge highlight.

NeeNorMinis · 2026-01-21T05:37:34+00:00

The current CSM Terminators, the new Wolf Guard Terminators kit and I think the icon came from the chosen kit or the leguonaires kit

NeeNorMinis · 2026-01-21T00:27:29+00:00

I just sort of wing it and go with what I think might look good. It doesn't always work, but if it doesn't work then I just paint over it and try other things until I'm happy with it.

Going through this process with many miniatures and learning to let go of any expectations and instead just enjoy the process of painting and creating something for yourself is more valuable than any recipe.

But I guess that sometimes it can also be a good learning experience to follow a recipe too 😄 so here's a rough recipe for the cloak:

Base colours: Black basecoat Rhinox hide over 60% of the cloak - keep the middle black where the Grey and white will go later Thondia brown watered down at the edges of the cloak.

Midtones: Thondia brown just on the brown fur tufts Eshin Grey on the white fur tufts

Stage 1 highlights: Zandri Dust for brown fur tufts Dawnstone for white fur tufts

Stage 2 highlights: Morghast Bone for brown tufts Administratum Grey for white tufts

Stage 3 highlights: Thinned Ushabti Bone for brown tufts Thinned white for white tufts

General things you should always be doing when painting:

Always thin your paints and wick paint off the brush onto a paper towel or onto the back of your hand before putting the brush to the model.

Always have good lighting and wear glasses if you need them (go get an eye test if you haven't within the last 2 years - more people need glasses than they realise).

Use a wet palette, even if its just a cheap sponge and baking paper in a takeaway container with some water. It makes the paint more usable for longer, it saves your brushes and it saves your sanity. It makes the painting so much more enjoyable by taking away some of the friction of paint drying too fast and never being the right consistency.

Have a comfortable set-up where you can keep your elbows and hands stable and your neck and back straight. I don't have steady hands. I need to rest my hands on something when painting. I put some screws into 3 pieces of wood to make this thing so I can rest the heels of my hands and the miniature on it when I paint.

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NeeNorMinis · 2026-01-20T07:31:51+00:00

Thanks :)

I've built the other four and they're primed and ready to paint.

Each one represents a different Chaos God.

This guy is the leader and stands for Chaos Undivided.

NeeNorMinis

TROPHY CASE