The forces of Grand Cathay are available to order, meaning armies should be popping up all over the place soon, ready to test their mettle on the battlefields of the Old World. Painters from the wider community shared some of their work with us last week, and now it’s the turn of the Warhammer Community staff.
Laura – Jade Sentinel and Warriors
From a colour perspective, jade is a surprisingly varied material. One can find very vibrant luminous greens, sea blue-greens, all the way through to very pale grey-greens. I imagined this Sentinel standing watch over a forbidden place – perhaps a tomb to a Shugengan Lord, or even a particularly influential former Magistrate.
Pale Grey seemed the appropriate colour for a more spectral appearance. I basecoated the model with Wraithbone, then added several extremely watered-down layers of Agrax Earthshade, Coelia Greenshade, and Biel-Tan Green, along with some Wraithbone dry brushing throughout to keep the details sharp. I repeated this in uneven patches across the model to create a subtle gradient, and allow the different shades to dominate specific areas.
I also tried out a test scheme on some Jade Warriors – I wanted something similarly monochromatic, but contrasting heavily with the ghostly giant. I swapped out their plumes for the peacock-esque feathers from the Imperial Nobility Blood Bowl team to make more of a statement piece of the singular colour. I’m very excited to keep playing with this scheme on more Cathayan warriors!
Joel – Shugengan Lord, Jade Warriors, and Jade Lancers
Knowing I was going to have to paint a lot of models for an army (which isn’t my strong suit), I decided to develop a colour scheme that was going to be simple to batch out. I took inspiration from old Chinese paintings for my units.
To first make the models look like paper, I used Wraithbone spray with a diluted Seraphim Sepia wash all over them. After that I used various thinned down shade colours across different materials. The last thing I did was “outline” them, essentially edge highlighting them with a very dark brown to give the illusion that they were drawn. I think the style is pretty unique and it doesn’t take long to paint up whole units.
Luke – Gate Masters of the Celestial Cities
Whatever I paint takes ages, and that’s without even factoring in the heat, so I went modest with my project and picked up the Gate Masters of the Celestial Cities. I researched a lot of art depicting soldiers through the history of China and discovered that they have basically outfitted themselves in every colour under the sun, so I was able to go weapons free on my schemes.
I chose a royal blue and a regal purple for my miniatures – the latter inspired by the colour scheme of Miao Ying. Varying the use of a single colour across each miniature was a fun exercise, especially with all the layers to the Grand Cathay armour. I had an unfortunate accident with the banner on the mounted Gate Master, so excuse the wonky repair. The transfer was also a challenge, as I've never worked with one so large, and I got a fair amount of silvering under it. If I did it again I’d take more care – don’t rush it, and maybe not try and do it in a tiny, overly warm office in the middle of summer.
Chris – Granite Sentinel and Jade Warrior Champion
Hailing from Aberdeen, which is known as the Granite City, as soon as I saw a Granite Sentinel listed in the Arcane Journal, I knew immediately that was what I would challenge myself to achieve.
The paint scheme was pretty simple: an undercoat of Chaos Black spray hit with smaller, top-down sprays of Grey Seer and White Scar, then lots of drybrushing and stippling.
For the base, I used some air-dry clay to create a lava-like texture and Aethermatic Blue Contrast paint was used to fill in the recesses and paint the gems, which I covered with a layer of Ardcoat to give a glassy finish.
For the Jade Warrior Champion, I wanted to keep it simple – Contrast paints, metallics, and Nuln Oil – but the base had to be pure nostalgia, with artificial grass made from torn-up Verdia Veldt Tufts and a Warboss Green rim.
James – Warpstone Sentinel
As a Skaven enthusiast, my whiskers immediately started twitching when I saw the Warpstone Sentinel in the Arcane Journal.
I wanted a simple way to paint it that gave a very varied look to the stone, so I used multiple Contrast paints, layered over each other to exaggerate their effect. First I undercoated with Wraithbone, then I added an all-over coat of Apothecary White, followed by an all-over coat of Warp Lightning. The base is just a salt flat made of Mordant Earth and some grey, to give a contrast to the model. I’ll probably make a new base once I expand my Grand Cathay army and decide where in the Old World they’re campaigning!
Michael – Cathayan Sentinel
I imagined this Sentinel as a guardian of a long-forgotten glade or forest path, a hidden route to a fortress or temple. I undercoated with Death Guard Green and applied a less thorough coat of Wraithbone. An all-over wash of thinned Skeleton Horde aged and coloured the stone, and I applied thinned Gutrippa Flesh to recesses to suggest small amounts of moss. I drybrushed with Wraithbone to hide my sins, then applied Warp Lightning to the gems for some nice contrast.
The summer heat might have put a slight dampener on productivity, but the team are still chipping away at their Grand Cathay projects – Laura and Joel especially are looking to expand their forces in the coming months, so be sure to check back for more inspiring painting later in the year.
