Nazgob, Orc Shaman

It's a classic sculpt, isn't it? Such a good one, and great to paint. It carriest the same weakness as all old sculpts which is the feet are horrid, so I've buried mine in lovely flowers.

Not a complicated paint for this. Same skintone as my Orc army with a little extra because he's a character model, and they deserve a little more effort.

• Skin. Dark Sea Blue. Moot Green. Greenish White, Ice Yellow and a little Sunny Skintone.
• Robes. Magenta. Ochre. Greenish White.
• Metal. Dark Sea Blue. Black. Greenish White. Moot Green. Magenta. 

 Most of my attention on this one went into the sword if I'm honest. While the magical bone staff is iconic, I wanted to play with adding more colour into my NMM but still retaining a shiny feel. This one has colour from the environment reflecting in the blade. The angles were quite gentle and I wanted to add more depth to them. While you can see the final version in the shots above, below is where I started and refined my way to.

 

Detective Apone, Robo Cop

He wasn't originally going to be a chrome dome you know, but I looked at the paints on the palette and thought "why not?" and here we are. With hindsight I'd probably swap the shirt and trouser colours round, rather than placing the similar colours of the chrome, shirt and badge next to each other, but when the mood takes you to paint a piece you have to go with it.

Again, I wanted to play with one idea - and here it's the NMM. Pusing myself to be more comfortable going quickly, not overthinking it, and achieving the desired effect without a whole evening of going back and forth. 

The base is an old one I painted a decade ago, and part of a larger set for a very long-term project I'm slowly building. Curiously, out of 80+ models I've set aside for this, this is the first one holding a weapon.

 

Pig Orc Shaman

Over on Mastodon, Berit ran a small challenge for #FediPaint to complete a figure with the Zorn palette. It's been a while since I did anything with a Zorn scheme, and felt this was a nice time to jump back in! Behold the Pig Orc Shaman, or the Boarcerer as my friend named him.

For anyone unfamiliar with the #Zorn palette it's ivory black, white, yellow ochre and cadmium red. This article (https://www.jacksonsart.com/blog/2021/02/02/colour-mixing-exploring-the-zorn-palette/) is a great illustration of the breadth of tones you can find in just these four paints. I don't have a perfect match to those, so forgive my substitutions. You can see me trying to find some skintones in the early mixes here. The palette won't stay this neat throughout the project though!

I have ten of these fabulous models in total and jumping straight into the shaman felt wrong, so I started with a couple of skintones on a foot soldier. He was also my test for quick steel on the helmet but gave me a good idea of whether it would work on the character.

So that's the shaman finished, and I'll continue with the other members of the warband in the same palette over the next week or so. Yes, I should be working on one of my army projects I commited to earlier this year but that's how just things are right now so onward!

Sir Rex Raffles

REx is *the* dwarf I've wanted to paint for decades, but felt the eBay prices were too steep to justify a purchase. I painted King Diamond for a friend last Christmas (https://www.nerodine.com/2025/12/king-diamond-imperial-dwarf-commander.html) and as an unexpected thank-you, he kindly gifted me Rex when we met up earlier this year.

This chap can trace his colour lineage back to Wayne England's beautiful Imperial Dwarfs in White Dwarf 135. I would recommend reading this article from the excellent Realm of Chaos blog rather than me rehashing what they've already said so well. You can see the blue and cream as a theme in my dwarfs across various model ranges (https://www.nerodine.com/search/label/dwarfs) and it's no coincidence, as the scheme struck me as impactful and somehow just right for these little fellows.

I don't like painting the chainmail on these older sculpts, so it's rather perfunctory but I tried pushing my NMM on the helm itself as the main attraction and feel the majority works well. The angry squirrel dog monster atop the helm is a mixed bag, but it's fine. Trying to be more precise on my mark marking for the tiny helm was sufficient reward on this piece.

• Cloth. Magic Blue is at the heart of the colour scheme. Highlighted with Ice Yellow or simply white, and shaded with Magenta to make it more interesting.
• Wood. Armour Brown as the main colour, then really whatever else was on the palette to make it lighter or darker in places. It's really about creating texture, then positioning the shield so the longer stripes follow the arm rather than cross them. Very happy with the result.
• Gold. Armour Brown, Yellow Ochre and then Ice Yellow or white. There's a little orange in there in places just for colour interest so it wasn't a straight gradient of yellow.
• Steel. Neutral grays with a little green to reflect the environment in the lower areas.

There were at least four models with a similar pose; two with helms, two with crowns, but this fellow just stuck in my affections and I'm honestly delighted he's now painted and in my army.

Prophet of Set

"You can't have your Thulsa Doom until you finish your Throm. So contemplate that on the tree of woe."

A fun sculpt from Dragon Bait (https://www.dragon-bait-minis.com/shop/miniatures/sculptors/brother-vinni/ts2-prophet-of-set-version-ii/), although I picked mine up from Fenris Games in the UK but he doesn't appear to be selling it any more.

• Skintones. I wanted to do something different and bring it closer to a pale snakeskin, so it's Phthalocyanine Green with Dwarf Flesh and Ice Yellow in the highlights to give an ill feel and accentuate the darker areas under the cheeks and brow.
• Base. The same as Throm to tie them together, so Phthalocyanine Green and Dioxazine Purple at the darkest, through to just the green, and finally Greenish White.
• Cloak and loincloth. Dioxazine Purple, Quinacridone Magenta and Dwarf Skin.
• Gold. Armour Brown as a base, then English Uniform, Yellow Oxide, Medium Orange and Ice Yellow. Trying to pay a bit more attention to the shape and shadows for once.
• Steel. It's just a simple gradient in neutral grays with a bit of the English Uniform and Dioxazine Purpleadded in light and dark areas for variation.

My interest in painting the back of the model was pretty low, so it received the most perfunctory painting and then I moved on. So onto the next!