Mike Newman Speaks...

Chaos Dwarfs

Part 5 - The UK Masters and K'daai Destroyer

This week, as its relevant to the time of year I though I would talk a little about the UK Masters.

For those that don't know, every year the top 16 individually ranked tournament players in the country (as ranked by www.rankingshq.com) are invited to attend the UK Masters tournament.

An invite to attend the event is an achievement in itself, with over 900 players competing in tournaments in the UK this past year!

Each tournament is assigned a quantity of rankings points based upon its size (both players and rounds) - with the maximum score being 100 - and you earn a set amount of points depending on how well you do. With your best four tournament scores being counted towards the rankings.

This year you need over 367 out of a possible 400 to make it into the Masters - an average of a top 5 finish at four 60 player 2 day events (the minimum for an event to be worth 100 points).

I started playing Warhammer again at an event on the 16th of October 2011 - and coming into this year I made the decision to set the goal of achieving a place in this years Masters event - not an easy task, as a lot of very good players were going to miss out, and at that point I had very little experience of 8th edition!

But I am very pleased to announce I just slipped in - finishing the year in 16th place! Which obviously I was very pleased about, even if it was a bit anxious waiting for the final placings to be announced. I'll report back on how I, and the Chaos Dwarfs, did early next year.

And finally, as this will be my last blog post, most likely until the new year, I thought we'd leave on a high, and show off my K'daai Destroyer. One of the biggest threats in the Chaos Dwarf army list, and probably one of the most talked about monsters in the Warhammer scene.

With no official models I chose to use Krull from the Banelegions Range (click the images to enlarge)

Most of the red skin colouring was airbrushed on. Using the airbrush to create simple shades and highlights is a great way of  both speeding up painting large monsters, and getting the smooth blends that large areas of flesh require.

From there I used mainly a collection of glazes and washes - thin layers of translucent paint - to create a rich depth of colour. I shaded the skin with both purples and browns, and carried these colours over when shading other areas such as the gold and brown leather - keeping the shading consistent is a good way to tie the different areas of colour together and give the model an more realistic, unified look.

I added an extra layer of highlight to the K'daai's facial features - this is a trick we use often when painting models. Faces are always a focal point, and the area the viewers eye is naturally drawn to, so giving them an extra layer of highlight really makes the model pop!

So until next time, Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year