With the Doom and Suffering expansion complete I moved swiftly onto the next box, the slavic themed Despair and Abhorrence. As with the previous box I started by cleaning up the mould lines as best I could before priming them with Colour Forge Standard Grey.  I left the models to cure overnight before giving them an all over coat of AK Interactive Ultra Matt varnish. And after letting that properly cure I painted the skin of the Town Heroes, the Fisherman and Portal Mage, with Two Thin Coats Dwarven Skin. I then gave each model a zenithal highlight with Liquitex Titanium White acrylic ink through my airbrush. 

Vodyanoy

The Vodyanoy are water spirits that when angered drown animals and break dams. It is also believed that they’re ruled by some sort of Vodyanoy king or tsar.  There are even female Vodyanoy called Vodyanitsa. Honestly you could have had an entire game based on the Vodyanoy and their variations and culture. 

For my own fish man I started by painting the skin with Army Painter Speedpaint Malignant Green, wet blending some Army Painter Speedpaint Desolate Brown into the scars and scales. To make the boils stand out a little more I painted them with a dot of Pallid Wych Flesh. For the teeth, I painted them with Skeleton Horde, a nice dirty yellow colour. And for the hair I painted that with Black Templar. 

That was most of the model done, all I had left to do was to paint the cups with Army Painter Speedpaint Broadsword Silver. The straps that lash said cups are a bit too small for high flow paint like Contrast or Speedpaint so instead I picked them out with Skrag Brown. To add a bit of visual interest to the cup in their hand I dabbed in a hefty amount of Nurgle’s Rot. 

For the base I slathered on Vallejo Thick Brown Mud texture paste as I figured that the Vodyanoy would be wallowing around in some thick mud. To bring out the texture further I then gave it a wash with Army Painter Strong Tone and drybrushed the base with Tyrant Skull. For a bit of flourish I then stuck down an Army Painter Swamp tuft. And to really sell the wetlands look to the base I dabbed on a few drops of AK Interactive Puddles.

Baba Yaga

The Baba Yaga is a hilarious character; an old woman that flies around in a mortar, swinging a pestle and lives in a hut that stands on chicken legs. 

For the model itself I started by giving the skin a coat of Guilliman Flesh, over the grey base coat it produced a washed out and drab skin perfect for a wizen old spirit. For the pestle and mortar I gave them a coat of Army Painter Speedpaint Broadsword Silver. And just for fun put a bit of Blood for the Blood God technical paint in the mortar, similar to how I put some Nurgle’s Rot into the Vodyanoy’s little cup. And like the Wode I used Greenstuff World Liquid Pigments Rust to make the mortar look more old and worn. The wraps and some of the rags I painted with Snakebite Leather, other rags I picked out with Garaghak’s Sewer. The sash around their waist I painted with Black Templar. As the Baba Yaga is a Purple (Arcane) type monster I painted their clothing with Army Painter Speedpaint Purple Swarm. 

I didn’t realise until near the end that they have some severed hands tied to the back of their belt. As this was the last thing to do before the base I unfortunately didn’t want to spend too much time on it so I simply painted them with a coat of Army Painter Speedpaint Malignant Green. 

Despite the Baba Yaga being a creature from Slavic folklore I decided to do the base in a more desert theme. Mostly for variety to be honest, all the bases I had done thus far had been a mud base of some kind. I started by coating the base in Armageddon Dune texture paint, and once that was dry I gave it a wash with Seraphim Sepia before a drybrush of Tyrant Skull. I Finished things off by sticking down an Army Painter Burnt tuft. 

Fisherman

Moving onto the Town Heroes in Despair and Abhorrence, and starting with the Fisherman I began with the octopus on their shoulder. I should probably plan my miniatures a little before because as soon as I picked up the model I knew I wanted to paint the octopus yellow, and yellow contrast paint does not go particularly well over a grey base coat. To alleviate this somewhat I first gave the octopus a coat of thinned Army Painter Speedpaint Familiar Pink so that the subsequent yellow I use doesn’t turn out looking too green. I then painted the octopus with Iyanden Yellow. I chose this over Imperial Fist as the former has more orange-red tones. I then dotted Thousand Sons Blue all over the octopus, reminiscent of a Blue-Ringed Octopus, one of the most venomous animals in the oceans. I finished them off by painting their beady eyes with Black Templar. 

With the most important part of the model done I could then turn my attention elsewhere, starting by giving the Fisherman’s skin a wash of Reikland Fleshshade and painting his beard and hair with Basilicanum Grey. 

From there I painted his shirt with Skeleton Horde and gloves with Gore Grunta Fur. I painted the trousers with Garaghak’s Sewer as I wanted them to look a bit like waterproof waders. The boots and any piping I painted with Black Templar to give them the impression of rubber. Any leather wraps I then painted with Snakebite Leather. The shafts of the harpoons and the harpoon gun I painted with Wyldwood. The heads of the harpoons and the working parts of the gun I then painted with Army Painter Speedpaint Broadsword Silver.

The base was then done in the same way that I did for the Vodyanoy.

Portal Mage

The Portal Mage is one of the more interesting models in Village Attacks and I think for that reason I had some real trouble getting started on the model. I knew I wanted the portal and cloak to be purple but I had some straight up painter’s block for the clothes. I gave the skin a coat of Reikland Fleshshade while I mulled it over.

I eventually settled on Skeleton Horde for the top and Army Painter Speedpaint Royal Robes for the trousers. The leather pouches and belt I painted with the usual Gore Grunta Fur. These are fairly muted colours that wouldn’t clash too much with the purple I was going to do later down the line. 

As mentioned, and as you can see from the picture, the cloak and portal are purple. The former I painted with Army Painter Speedpaint Purple Swarm. And for the latter I first drybrushed the portal with Army Painter Matt White. The zenithal highlight had done a lot of the leg work but the drybrush really helped to further bring out the texture and provide more variety in tones. I then took advantage of this variety by carefully spraying Vallejo Game Ink Violet through the airbrush onto the portal. As this is a transparent colour it turned out much brighter over the whiter areas and much more muted over the grey areas. I also let a small amount of it get onto the Portal Mage herself as a cheeky OSL effect. 

Lastly, I did the base in the same way that I did for the Baba Yaga. Although in truth it would be more accurate to say that I did the Baba Yaga’s base in the same way as the Portal Mage as I envisioned the portal in a desert for some reason, so I technically did their base first and then followed suit on the Baba Yaga. I wanted to do some OSL on the base around the portal but the Violet Ink would be a bit too intense so I instead used Scale75 Instant Colours Acrane Purple which is still transparent but much less saturated.