No, it's not a Norwegian prog metal band, it's a space dwarf. Specifically the Highlander special edition version from Ontos Games (https://ontosgames.co.uk/). I picked this up at Salute 2025 which had a Scottish theme, from bagpipes on the door, to a Highlander with sword as the show model. When I saw this on the Ontos stand, I knew it would be a fun project.
But how to paint it? My memory of old Warhammer Squats was red and yellow, so that would suffice. These aren't Squats though, so I took a few liberaties with a scheme, went with yellow power armour, red fabrics and the tartan hat and kilt. Ah, tartan ...
... tartan is Not Fun to paint in this scale. Sure, I made my life difficult by choosing a tartan with intricacy instead of maybe a simpler check pattern, but what's the fun otherwise? The final version is the third attempt, and very much "it'll do" at this point. Trying to recreate the intricacy of the pattern is HARD, and freehand of any variety isn't my cup of tea, but it's worthwhile to try these things and improve my brush control.
I have a few quibbles with the model. The first is the print quality. It's okay, and I know it was a show special, but I would have been much happier with a model without the whorls and striations. Second issue is the pose itself, specifically the weapons being tilted forward, whereas tilted slightly backward would have been better. Third is accessibility; as while the detail is great, getting the brush in places was a pain - a common challenge on digital sculpts. But it's not the end of the world and turned out fine anyway. I'd definitely consider other models in the range, as they're fun sculpts and I'd imagine the standard range doesn't suffer the same challenges.
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