Valhallan Ice Warriors
In
this post I will be painting five Valhallan Ice Warriors, representing half of
the ten-man squad from Part 1 of this series.
In this post I will be discussing my painting inspiration for the Ice
Warriors, and the paints I used for the miniatures.
Primed Miniatures
My
painting inspiration for the Valhallan Ice Warriors came from the Soviet winter
combat uniforms of World War 2; the Soviet winter uniforms were khaki in colour
and had red collar patches. For these miniatures, I wanted to capture the contrast
created between the red collar patches and khaki colour of the uniforms. Before I start painting, I like to create backstories
for the miniatures; I find this helpful in the painting process, especially
when it comes to selecting colour patterns for the miniatures. For this squad of Valhallan Ice Warriors, I
envisioned the clothing and equipment carried by the soldiers as a combination
of standard military issued items and personal gear (equipment purchased by the
soldiers themselves, surplus from other units, gear looted from the
battlefield, etc.).
Painting Stage 1
Painting Stage 2
Painting Stage 3
Painting Stage 4
Standard
Issued: The standard issue gear and clothing are the heavy
winter coats, gloves, boot leggings, boots, caps and lasguns. For the standard issued items, I wanted to
give these a uniformed look; thus, I painted these in a consistent colour
scheme (khaki for the jackets; black for the boots; brown for the boot leggings
and gloves, etc.).
Completed Miniatures (front)
Completed Miniatures (back)
Personal
Gear: The personal gear are the articles of clothing and gear
the Ice Warriors provided themselves; these include such items as pants, shoulder
strap bags, canteens and ammo pouches. A
variety of colours and patterns were used to paint these items, reflecting the
variety of sources the Ice Warriors obtained these items from.
Camouflage: There are two camouflage patterns found on
some of the personal gear (pants, shoulder strap bags, etc.) carried by the Ice
Warriors: a four-colour woodland camo pattern and a three-colour urban camo pattern. The four-colour woodland camo pattern is
inspired by the camouflage used by the U.S. Army in the 1980s. The woodland camouflage is made up of the
following Reaper paints: 9177 Camouflage Green (base colour), 9122 Terrain
Khaki, 9161 Shield Brown and 29843 Solid Black. Whereas, the urban camouflage
is made up of the following Reaper paints: 29834 Field Grey (base colour), 29843
Solid Black and 9039 Pure White.
In the
next post in this series I will be painting the five remaining Valhallan Ice
Warrior miniatures and will be exploring the Valhallan Ice Warriors in 40K fiction.
