Mantic Games’ miniatures are affordable and quick to build, making putting a fantasy army together easy. Once you’ve built your units you’ll want to get them painted and ready for the tabletop so Total Wargamer has put together an easy painting guide for Mantic’s new range of Dwarfs.
This guide will demonstrate how to get your rank and file Dwarfs ready for battle in 5 easy steps, most of which just take a minute or two and involve minimal painting skill. This guide is also suitable for painting characters but you may wish to add extra detail during the basecoating stage.
Materials used in this guide:
Army Painter Paint Set with Matt Black Primer
Army Painter Quickshade Dip – Strong Tone
Army Painter Anti-Shine Matt Varnish
Step 1: Undercoat
Easy one this, using the matt black undercoat spray from the paint set, apply a even undercoat using sweeping motions across the model or models. Note: Remember to shake the can for at least a minute.
Step 2: Basecoat
Using the paints in the Army Painter Paint Set, paint the model using flat colours, i.e. using no shading or highlights. For our dwarf we used gold for the armour, silver for the hammer and chain mail, red for the cloth, brown for the leather, flesh for the face and finally brown, darkened with a small amount of black, for the beard to make it make it stand out more.
The only real detail that was added was the eyes (not terribly well however as they are not my forte).
Step 3: Quickshade Dip
In this step we aim to get all the effects that would normally be achieved through highlighting and washing in one simple step.
Quickshade dip is a pigmented varnish so in this step you are adding shading and protecting your model at the same time. As this is a varnish it must be used after you have completely finished painting your model.
We are using “Strong Tone” Quickshade dip on our dwarf, “Soft Tone” & “Dark Tone” are also available, strong is the medium tone dip.
When using Quickshade dip you should dip your model using a pair of pliers and shake it off 5-6 times and then leave for 24 hours (this is why this is an easy painting guide rather than a quick painting guide 
).
You can also paint Quickshde on, you will need to be quite liberal with the amount used, also brushes will need to be cleaned thoroughly with washing up liquid when you have finished.
Step 4: Basing & Anti-shine Varnish
To base our dwarf we first painted the base brown and then added some sand to the base using super glue. We finished off by applying PVA to those areas of the base not covered in sand and giving the base a dip in a tub of static grass.
Quickshade dip produces a gloss finish, which most gamers are not too keen on, so to achieve a matt finish we give our model a coat of anti-shine matt varnish. As with the undercoat you should apply a even coat by using sweeping motions across the model or models, once again remembering to shake the can for at least a minute before you start.
Warhammer Bloodletters of Khorne review: A retrospective
Although the other major gods would have their share of worshippers, it would surely be towards Khorne that most would lay their benefactions. The god of anger probably wouldn’t have much to do with the London rush hour himself though, it’d probably give him a headache. Far better to entrust the task to some minor minions, such as the bloodletters.
Yes, all that introduction was basically in order to submit a slightly better word count than: “here is a review of the bloodletters”, but to be honest who couldn’t imagine the lesser daemons of Khorne running amok in an underground station slaying all and sundry? Think: “An American Werewolf in London”.
The current line of miniatures are the latest in a line of style changes, the original Alan Perry designs from 1989 being more arched, and lithe looking. Released in 2008, the reviewed iteration have been with us for a couple of years now and, with the new daemon wave hitting stores in August, it’s worth taking another look at these miniatures.
The basic cardboard box contains three sprues that make up a basic 10-man (-daemon ?) squad, with two sprues for basic troop building plus a command sprue. Unlike the better GW kits, there is a paucity of extras, though things such as the spare khorne iconography can be useful for your other chaos models or themed scenery, there is also a spare head (mine will be going on a daemon hunters base) and that’s about it, disappointingly (apart from a couple of spare arms). The box also comes with both 25mm square and round bases so you can use the models in either 40K or WFB, though as you’ll see in an article coming soon, basing needn’t mean limiting yourself to just one system.
Bloodletters Sprue 1
Bloodletters Sprue 2
Bloodletters Sprue 3
The mould lines, though not very pronounced, are visible on almost all of the components. In some places it’s right on the detailed areas, such as the ridged hand grips of the hellblades, so a delicate hand is required to remove them. Despite that the casting quality is generally high, with the sharpness of the details being represented.
Speaking of that detail, some areas fare better than others. The taut muscle and sinew are present but the armoured parts could have been better realised, with something other than spots to define them. On the whole, the detail is done well where it counts, especially the heads.
The limbs work in a very fixed manner when used out-of-the-box, they fit into angled grooves rather than using ball joints. The hobby saw will be needed if you want to vary limb positions; you could also increase the dynamism of the poses, as a few of them are quite static for blood-crazed daemons.
One concern I had was the rankability of the models, as they are carrying some huge weapons. I found that although they would happily stand side by side, a bit of attention was required when adding extra ranks to make sure that they didn’t interfere with each other (interfering with each other being more of a Slaanesh thing).
Completed Bloodletters of Khorne Unit
On a more personal level though, the feel of these models seems just right, the models being suitably menacing and demonic. I also like the way that you glue the head on by threading the tongue through the mouth. And a bit of minor jiggery-pokery can get them leaping at your foe in a more effective manner.
Are they the best models ever made? definitely not; but they’re not far from being a good kit. All in all they are fine foot soldiers in the armies of Khorne.
Feelin’ khorney: 7/10
Buy the Bloodletters of Khorne boxed set from Total Wargamer: Bloodletters of Khorne