If you’re looking for some ideas for your Armies on Parade board, an elite army like Jason’s is a great way to show off your painting and conversion skills – check them out below:
Grey Knights, by Jason Lee
Jason Lee’s fantastic work will be familiar to long-time readers of White Dwarf, but despite turning out beautiful armies and wonderful models on a regular basis, this was Jason’s first time tackling Armies on Parade.
“Many of my friends who paint and play love a good challenge. Armies on Parade offered me a friendly but competitive way to push my hobby goals,” says Jason. “The key is to balance quality with quantity. This can be a difficult task but I find that this is made much easier with the support and friendly rivalry.”
Jason chose Grey Knights for his Armies on Parade entry, a force he’d wanted to collect for a while though never quite finding the time amongst his other projects. “The Grey Knights have some beautiful models and they have been a faction I’ve wanted to do for a long time,” says Jason. “ I thought an elite force like the Grey Knights would fit perfectly on a single Realm of Battle tile for the challenge.”
The army’s Stormraven, as battered and weathered as the rest of the army.
“I wanted to make the army look really gritty,” says Jason. “Like they have taken a beating fighting Daemons even other Space Marines just can’t deal with. I achieved this by adding lots of battle damage and dirt across the entire army.”
Jason’s converted Castellan Crowe. “I try to personalise all my models, either with conversions or paint schemes,” says Jason.
A Grey Knight Terminator Librarian accompanied by a squad of Paladins and one of the army’s two Land Raiders.
Jason painted the entire force in a similar fashion. “I start with a basecoat of Leadbelcher,” says Jason. “I then use a technique called zenithal highlighting (using an airbrush to highlight the raised or upper areas of a model, simulating the effect of falling light. – Ed) to highlight with Runefang Steel and Stormhost Silver. I then basecoat the rest of the model, then wash the entire thing with thinned-down Agrax Earthshade. I then build the colours back up with thin layers of lighter colours, or by adding white, and finish each model with edge highlighting.”
A Culexus Assassin and Vindicare Assassin. Jason painted Assassins from all four of the Assassin Temples, and he’s torn between the four Assassins, Castellan Crowe and the Purifiers as to which are his favourite models in the entire army. Behind the Assassins, you can see the kneeling Purifiers, who are typically found fighting alongside Castellan Crowe, in his role as Castellan Champion of the Grey Knight’s Purifier order.
Jason’s Dreadknight, a signature unit for the Grey Knights, which he has converted. “The Dreadknight conversion is simpler than it looks,” says Jason. “It’s a spare Blood Angel Librarian Dreadnought front which has been cut and fitted over the pilot. There were a few small gaps, which I filled with plasticard and Green Stuff.”
Miniatures First
Jason’s Armies on Parade entry is focused on the models, using the features of the tile itself and a few carefully-chosen pieces of terrain to support them. Jason airbrushed hot, fiery colours into the skull pits, going from red to yellow, and finishing with white. Against the dark colours of the rest of the tile, it’s a particularly striking choice. It shows you don’t need to build an elaborate board for Armies on Parade. After all, it’s about collecting an army – how you present it is up to you!
This article was first published in the November 2016 issue of White Dwarf Magazine. Subscribe to get more brand new hobby content like this each and every month.