It’s a clash of mighty machines and muscled monsters on Battle Report, a focus on realmstone on Weapons and Wargear, and an Aeldari-flavoured Painting Desk on Warhammer TV this week.
Battle Report
The new episode of Battle Report sees the Cities of Sigmar take on the Sons of Behemat, with no fewer than four mighty Cogforts in the army of the God-King. We caught up with Ed from the Warhammer TV team, who painted these mechanical marvels, to get some tips on building and painting the new kit.
Planning!
When the Cogforts first appeared on the horizon, and we decided that Battle Report would feature a fearsome quartet of cog-based beauties, I knew I had to get involved and get painting. Due to a new realmgate in the office opening and causing the gargants to appear earlier than expected, I had a single month to build and paint all four models, which posed an incredible challenge – how do you paint such large, detailed models to such a tight deadline? The answer is planning.
Building
Starting with sub-assemblies, I worked out that you could happily split the model into the turret top, the main body, the four legs, and the engineering bay at the back – all of which could be dry-fitted together without issue. With Super Fine Detail Cutters and Plastic Glue in hand, I got the build time per model down to about four hours, and found the process surprisingly relaxing. While there is a lot of plastic, the build was really straightforward, and there are so many details you can add to customise each one if you want them to feel really unique.
With every model, I made sure to keep dry-fitting the other finished parts as I went, so they would definitely all go together at the end, and it wouldn’t matter which legs or turret went with which body. A top tip for keeping track of the legs is to paint the underside of each foot red, green, yellow or blue to match the colour they are in the instructions. This means you can (when building multiple) make sure you build them without mixing up pieces. Also, make sure to use tape or putty to cover anywhere you want to use plastic glue later on, so that when you are done painting, you can peel it off and have exposed plastic surfaces that can bond together.
Painting
To get to grips with the painting, I thought about how to maximise visual impact while saving time on the details, which means leaning heavily on contrasting values (how bright or dark a paint is) and really pushing loads of dark colours into the recesses before drybrushing. I really like the warm Hammerhal Aqsha scheme and some of my favourite Contrast paints are spread across the brown and red offerings, so I got a spreadsheet open and started jotting down my thoughts. I find that with large models, knowing your recipe ahead of time means that you have a clear end point in mind that can give you mental goals to reach to stay motivated.
From the recipe list, you can see how I embraced the Wraithbone spray and used it as the base colour for nearly every non-metallic finish, meaning I saved a significant amount of time not having to basecoat every surface. Wherever I could, I tried to work with the same paint across several areas, so I saved the Screaming Skull drybrush across both the red and brown woods until they could be tackled at the same time.
For the metallics, I generally opted for either silver or variations of bronze, relying on how split up the different parts of the model were to give the impression of variety across the miniature while still only working with a few different paints. Plenty of washes and drybrushing give all the metallics their texture.
For the crew, I tried to carry over similar recipes from the rest of the model but changed up how, when and where each one was painted to provide a little extra variety.
Finished
Sticking everything together at the end was so incredibly satisfying, and while I was seeing stonework and wood in my dreams, it was such a blast getting the models painted. Now that I’ve finished these four, I’ve been thinking about how I could convert them for other armies…
Thanks, Ed! If you want some inspiration for Cogfort conversions, see what four intrepid Warhammer hobbyists did with the new kit.
Weapons and Wargear
Cogforts are powered by emberstone – one of the incarnations of the mysterious substance known as realmstone. Learn about the other types, how they're used to empower spells and build weapons, and the risks associated with their use in this week’s Weapons and Wargear.
Painting Desk
Even after painting all those Cogforts, Ed still found time to host the latest episode of Painting Desk. His guest when the show launches tomorrow is Golden Demon winner, miniatures designer and ex-’Eavy Metal painter Drew Paliès. Drew will be chatting about some of their personal projects over the years, including a diorama made to celebrate the 500th issue of White Dwarf, a Terminator Captain painted after the release of Warhammer 40,000: Leviathan, and a Biel-Tan grav-tank.
Warhammer Vault
White Dwarf 517 has been added to the Warhammer Vault. It’s focused on scenery and is packed with inspirational advice on how to make your tabletop come alive. There’s also a stunning T’au Empire army and all of your White Dwarf favourites.
The above new episodes and the back issue of White Dwarf are available right now as part of your Warhammer+ subscription.
They join an immense back catalogue of gaming shows, hobby guides, animations, and more, and your subscription also unlocks expanded features in the Warhammer 40,000 and Warhammer Age of Sigmar apps, access to years of lore books and magazines in the Warhammer Vault, and even a free miniature when you sign up for a whole year.
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