Blackstone Fortress is the third in the new series of Warhammer Quest games, released in November 2018, and set in the 40k futuristic universe. A group of explorers delve into the labyrinth of a vast and ancient space station, to uncover its secrets while trying to survive and escape. This was my 2019 painting project, and was really fun to work through.
| Week One (22nd June 19) – the first group from the core box were the Spindle Drones, a relatively easy group to begin with. I went with the silver grey style although was initially tempted by a bronze look. I made such good progress in the first week that i also completed the Ur-Ghuls, and I am pleased with how these turned out, going with a translucent green/blue and a purple tinge to the hands and face. |
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| Week Two (29th June 19) – the Negavolt Cultists were a harder proposition with lots of details to pick out. I really like these models, and changed the colour of the wires mid way from green to yellow and orange as i felt the model needed a brightness boost. I always wanted to paint some 40k guards so Traitor Guards proved enjoyable to complete. There are effectively two sets of seven, and my initial ones have a tan theme, with a touch of aged red metal to the guns. |
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| Week Three (6th July 19) – the first hero i painted was the main explorer Janus Draik, the Rogue Trader. He is an excellent model, and I added a blue glow to his sword to match his cloak. Overall he has come out well. Pious Vorne is a missionary zealot who fights fire with fire, literally. His flame thrower is certainly bigger than anything the traitor guards carry. Another really enjoyable model to paint. |
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| Week Four (13th July 19) – this week will be the two heroes needed to undertake the first mission, Dahyak Grekh is a Kroot tracker and another great character this time with a long range weapon. |
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| The zealot priest Taddeus the Purifier is one of the harder models in the set to paint well as it is easy to overdo the details. I went with fairly standard cream robes offset with purple and red. It ended up better than expected to be honest. |
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| Espern Locarno is a mutant explorer, excelling when working as part of the team shielding your allies, or using his strange psychic powers. This is one of those surprise models which comes up much better when painted than it looks after being put together. |
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| Week Five (20th July 19) – the ratlings, Rein & Raus are renegade thieves who fight as a pair but uniquely operate separately from the other. Rein tracks down enemies with his scanner while Raus picks them off at range. These offer a different play dynamic and were fun to paint too. |
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| Weeks Six (27th July 19) – the Chaos Beastmen were easy enough to paint and have some nice action poses. I decided to go with red clothing to make them stand out from the guards, and appear more aggressive. |
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| Week Seven (3rd August 19) – the Chaos Warriors appeared to be a quicker paint job given all the black areas, but all the metal edging seemed to take much longer than expected. |
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| Week Eight (10th August 19) – the Imperial Robot UR-025 was one of my least favourite characters in the set, but possibly ended as one of my more successful paint jobs. I went for a darker than usual blue grey and added some light ageing and rust effects here and there. |
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| Week Nine (17th August 19) – i like this model, Amallyn Shadowguide the eldar ranger with flowing hooded cloak and noticeable weaponry. It painted up pretty well, and i went for standard colours as i liked the white armour look with the green cloak. |
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| Week Ten (24th August 19) – the Psykers and the last of the unique models. I wanted to make their skin a little darker looking so they stood out from the Chaos Warriors and Negavolt Cultists. |
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| Painting Expansions |
| Dreaded Ambull (September 2019) – was the first expansion, an amazing creature to track down within the fortress. I decided to give it a crab-like shell armour which is very different from the more colourful way it is presented by games workshop, but i am pleased with the texturing results and it is an iconic monster, which every dungeon crawl needs. |
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