Age of Sigmar: Best of the Web, October 2018

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Warhammer Age of Sigmar - Best painted miniatures and best articles from October 2018.

It’s the last Tuesday of the month, and you know what that means! Actually you don’t, because this is the first time it’s happening - the inaugural ‘Best of the Web’. This is a digest of the amazing work of talented Warhammer Age of Sigmar hobbyists that you may have missed in October 2018, gathered together in one place via Twitter and Instagram. But first, let’s take a look at some of the unmissable Age of Sigmar news, commentary and content from around the web this month.



The Warhammer Age of Sigmar News & Content Digest

It’s been a relatively quiet month for Age of Sigmar news, but Warhammer Community has offered a few quality articles and snippets to tide us over until the next big release. We now know that there’ll be 5 new battleforce boxes for Age of Sigmar released in time for Christmas, but aside from Idoneth Deepkin we don’t know what factions these will include yet. Other articles on Warhammer Community that are well worth your time include Tyler Mengel’s step by step guide to painting the Black Coach, Roberto Cuevas Guerrero’s Venetian Nighthaunt showcase, and coverage of the warscrolls for the latest Warhammer Underworlds warbands that will allow you to field them in your standard games of Warhammer Age of Sigmar.

Moving on to some of the internet’s finest Age of Sigmar blogs, Mengel Miniatures has an insightful article on what ‘meta’ means and the extent to which you should worry about it, AoS Shorts pulls back the curtain on the Age of Sigmar scene in Japan, and The Realm Gate features some short but thought provoking personal reflection from Paul Wagner on hobby motivation.

Now feast your eyes on these beauties…

Don’t forget to follow and like all of the incredible hobbyists featured below to see more of their work!

Beasts of Chaos

The recent revamp of the Beasts of Chaos faction still feels fresh, and as you might expect it’s been followed by an outpouring of deliciously painted beasts. The work of Jon Davies (@jp_miniatures) is truly inspiring, and it’s impossible to capture just how amazing his Beasts of Chaos collection is with just the post shown here. Each of his models is unique and painted to perfection, so I urge you to explore his Instagram and Twitter accounts to see more.

Stephen Cranston (@jarofcranston) has also been busy painting lots of beastmen in a dizzying variety of pastel colours, and it seems like no two models are the same. Again, this post is just a small sample of his work - here some classic bestigor and pestigor models are made to feel fresh and new.

Vincent Venturella’s (@warhammerweekly) Beasts of Chaos force is small, but perfectly formed - and all the more impressive for the fact that it was speed painted! Not only is his work beautifully executed, but the atypical winter theme really stands out.

Orruks & Grots

It may have been Orktober for Warhammer 40,000 players this month, but their green-skinned cousins in Age of Sigmar have been going strong too. This incredible Moonclan Grots diorama created by Bishmeister (@Bishmeister1) for the Realms at War 2018 event is an incredible feat of top-heavy engineering and full of characterful details - and brilliantly painted of course! You’ll definitely want to check out all the different angles and zoom in on each image for this one.

I love the Ironjawz Gore-gruntaz models but for some reason I very rarely see them, which meant that these superb specimens painted by Ian Hannam (@Artoris88) were a real treat. There’s such great use of contrasting colours with the orange and blue, and the blending work on the skin is sublime.

PS Miniature’s (@ps_miniatures) execution of this Ironjawz Warchanter model stood out to me for being absolutely flawless in every detail. The blending is so subtle and smooth that this could almost be a 3D character render from a computer game. I can’t stop looking at it!

Stormcast Eternals

Stormcast Eternals are an evergreen army in terms of popularity, and October was no exception. Veillotron’s (@Veillotron_) beautifully painted collection of Stormcast heroes have a sense of brooding melancholy about them, in contrast to the bright and bombastic way this faction is often portrayed. Some subtle conversions and object source lighting work add to this wonderful effect.

It’s always great to see a fully painted army, and Jamie Ferguson’s (@Fergiehammer) Stormcast Eternals really stood out to me. In contrast to Veillotron’s work, this army has a very bright, optimistic, high fantasy feel to it that really struck a chord. I also love the attention to detail on the bases.

Nighthaunt

We’re now several months on from the release of the Soul Wars box set and Nighthaunt faction, and somehow people are still managing to find stunningly creative new ways of painting sheet-ghosts! This Knight of Shrouds painted by Anamnesis Studio (@Anamnesisstudio) is a work of art, and just goes to show that spectres don’t need to be confined to drab colours or eye-melting neon effects. The transitions between the various shades of blue are subtle and satisfying, and the model has one of the best ice bases I’ve ever seen.

Just to hammer home the breadth of creativity and skill on show when it comes to painting Nighthaunt miniatures, check out Tony Kirby’s (@CoreGamesEvents) entirely different take on the same model. Everything from the spectral green shroud to the rusted armour is superbly well done, but the execution of the glowing metal effect on the sword has to be the highlight - zoom in and take a look.

Some of the finest blending and highlighting work I’ve seen this month is to be found on Richard Gray’s (@daemonrich) Chainghasts. Again, the bright contrasting colours offer an attention-grabbing departure from what we typically expect for this army, and the non-metallic metal work is sheer perfection.

Warhammer Underworlds Warbands

In October we’ve seen a number of new warbands released for Warhammer Underworlds, and as you’d expect these have featured heavily on social media. These examples of the new Stormsire’s Cursebreakers by Trent ‘Big Deno’ (@sious69) and Van Zyl (@kveezee) are absolutely stunning and really bring the fantastical characteristics of these models to life.

It’s not just the new Nightvault warbands that have been out in force this month, with those originally released for Shadespire also putting in a good showing. Creative Twilight (@ctwilight) and Ivan Strijemsi (@ivan_strigemsi) both opted to paint Magore’s Fiends with bone-coloured armour plating, but both executed the concept very differently. These are great examples of how two different painters can put their own unique signature on the same idea.

Even More Glorious Miniatures

Oh, so you want more? Well then, check these babies out! Absolutely first-class work here from Simon (@ingrimmson), Zboj Madej (@zbojmadej), David Key (@davidgkey) and Sloane Dougherty (@sloane_paints).

Conversion of the Month

We kicked off this month’s Best of the Web with Jon Davies (@jp_miniatures) amazing Beasts of Chaos, and now we’re bookending it with his… well, with whatever this is! Isn’t it magnificent? I love this conversion because it’s a simple yet creative idea, executed perfectly, with a smart and inspired mix of parts from some very different kits. It’s also (as far as I’m aware) an entirely original creation that isn’t necessarily intended to directly represent anything in the Age of Sigmar lore - it’s an unknowable, gribbly nightmare! The fact that it’s also beautifully painted with restrained and thoughtful use of colour is the cherry on the cake.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this inaugural Best of the Web! This is just a very small sample of the amazing work being created and shared by talented hobbyists online, and I only wish I had the space (bandwidth?) to showcase more of them. Apologies to everyone I missed out - I hope to feature you here on the Realm of Plastic in the months ahead. Happy Halloween, and let’s see what new wonders November brings!

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