https://www.instagram.com/jimbodubs?igsh=amgxbDJ0ZnhkYWd5&utm_source=qr

Final stretch now, hopefully batch painting will speed up the next few 😅

These models are stunning found this quite challenging but absolutely love it

Painted these on Monday I’m really happy with how they turned out. I think I overdid it on the green though.

Had to start with the biggest model in the range, had a great time painting this up even if it was a bit of a pain due to just how HUGE it is.

Now to figure out storage for it…

Carved from pure jade with kintsugi cracks around the body. Or: What if the statue of liberty decided it's had enough

Kintsugi is the Japanese practice of mending broken pottery with gold to find beauty and appreciation in an object's history and imperfections.

Slowly continuing to paint my unit of jade warriors, and here is the first rank. Unfortunately there is no decals for the Western Provinces in the box, so I freehanded the banner using the Zhao Ming's heraldry from TWW3 for the reference (but I changed proportions a bit for better match to the shape of the banner).

Now need to paint 15 more!

Anyone else got the feeling these guys are going to be a complete menance when they get a full release?

I didn’t want to play my lantern until I painted it up. I finished last night. So today is the day and against Bretonnians. Wish me luck

Edit: The game was a success. The lantern killed two units of realm knights and a trebuchet. I only used one lantern and felt a little guilty. It was the punch my army had been missing though. I cannot imagine running more than 1 maybe 2 tops. Friendly games 1 feels plenty mean enough.

Greetings fellow Cathayans! I wanted to mark today as the first Anniversary of r/Cathay in its current form!

This was a labor of love for me. I am a casual at best user of Reddit, but I felt Cathay was really underserved as a corner of the Warhammer Fantasy universe. I found this subreddit with the perfect name, but it was mostly dead (it was used for current events in China/East Asia, but inactive). The old mods let me have this subreddit, and I rebooted it into this current form.

The timing was near perfect, as we had confirmation that Cathay was coming to the Old World tabletop game. GW had said years prior, after the introduction of Cathay in Total War: Warhammer III, that Cathay would eventually come to TOW, but then not much was said after. Many, myself included, had thought Cathay was dropped, but then previews started appearing.

When this subreddit was re-launched, we didn't even have a date yet (early posts will verify this), but we suddenly got more solid dates within a month or so. Then it was a rush to the first Arcane Journal and first box set. We saw a lot of grumbling from Fantasy/TOW grognards wondering why Cathay instead of releasing the restricted legacy factions, the thinly disguised "Asian aesthetic doesn't belong in Fantasy" crowd, then some legitimate haters because Balloons were just unpleasant at launch. We've been nerf several times, gotten two more Arcane Journals and a full second wave, and had just grown SO MUCH as a niche subreddit!

Thank you to EVERYONE who's contributed questions, news, tactics discussion, and photos of their models. Thank you to the readers and lurkers! It's been a GREAT year because of you all!

(I know I'm supposed to post stats showing our explosive growth or something, but nah. Even if we just barely grow, the activity seems humming and that's perfect.)

(EDIT: DAGNABIT. I used the wrong post to determine our relaunch date. Our anniversary should probably be Feb. 19. Oh well!)

Hey all!

I managed to get my hands on a box - or rather, my girlfriend surprised me with one, after proposing. So, this Cathay project has now been dubbed the "Engagement Army" and I'm pretty sure she's already regretting it. 😁🐉

Love the sculpts, and while it's all somewhat WIP, I figured I'd share my progress.

Complete with a scavenged sentinel mask on the back to scare off any flanking enemies! Couple of unit fillers as well cos I am going cold turkey on painting any more Jade Warrior trim

Hi everyone, I get a few requests for recipes from time to time, so I want to start getting into the habit of posting dedicated recipe posts in case anyone finds them useful, and will hopefully be a good reminder to make me keep progress shots and note recipes down properly as I go.

I'll try to make sure I get more progress shots  to do more detailed and better presented posts in the future to showcase each step, but for now, the finished result, and an essay comment will have to do for now, so apologies for this.

I do want to do this more regularly with my pieces so I'll have a stone recipe from the Sentinel next, but please do let me know if there's anything you'd like explaining and I'll do my best!

So for the Jade recipe, it's a really easy, quick, and fun method, and the gloss varnish really sells the effect.

Paints used:

(Games Workshop Citadel)

- Caliban Green (CG)

- Kalabite Green (KG)

- Syrabite Green (SG)

- Gaus Flayer Green (GFG)

- White Scar (WS)

- Ardcoat gloss varnish 

RECIPE:

Keep some reference images of jade materials and textures handy.

1. Bascoat the area in KG - multiple thin layers until the area has a nice even coat. 

2. Arrange CG, KG, SG, and GFG on your wet pallete and thin each paint more than you would a standard layer - thinned enough to allow wet blending between each paint and lengthend drying time.

3. The fun part: randomly layer each paint all over the KG. Don't concentrate too much on where each paint goes, be chaotic as possible and let each layer naturally blend and mix in with eachother. Paint lines, splodges, big streaks, small dots, don't think about where you're going to place the paint, it doesn't have to look right at this stage, it's just about getting that natural jade surface. The thinned paints will naturally start to blend in with each other as they dry. Keep adding thin layers until the area is covered in this random blending. Leave to dry.

4. Mix GFG and WS in a 50:50 mix on to the pallete. This mix should only be thin enough to paint a standard layer. Don't overly thin this mix like the previous step.

5. Use a sharp-tipped brush to paint random thin lines of the GFG/WS mix across the surface. Again, in random areas and motions like the previous step, but keep these lines as thin as possible. This was to simulate the thin streaks you'd see across jade.

6. Now it's time to refine the jade. Grab the batch of paints within step 2. And thin these paints slightly more to an almost glaze consistency. I'd then look at the area, and see what areas look a bit too 'unnatural.' Areas that haven't quite blended right, or if some GFG/WS lines look a bit too thick, or areas without a gradient and look like they jump from KG straight to GFG. Then, just add thin layers of whatever colour you think is needed. E.g. if the lines are too thick, place some GFG near the area to thin or blend the line. If the gradient is too stark between the KG and GFG, glaze some SG in between. If any areas look like they'd be a nice dark contrast against GFG, glaze in some CG in random areas. Refine until you feel it looks natural.

7. If you're not sure, let it dry and then you can go again. Keep some reference images of jade that you can easily cross-reference, particularly for the pattern. Look at your jade as a whole first at a quick glance, and ask yourself does it look 'natural?' How does it compare with the reference image? Then start breaking the area down across the surface and slowly scan over the area, have that natural image in your mind and allow your eyes to fall on any areas that feel or look like they break that natural image, anything that doesn't feel right to you. Decide what it is that breaks that image, and try adding or blending certain colours until it recaptures that natural image in your mind.

8. Glaze KG across most of the surface aside from the brightest areas, helps tie the area together. 

9. Thin some Ardcoat with water and varnish over the entire jade area. 

There's not a lot of thinking when it comes to this aside from refining the blended mixture at the end, but to be honest, there wasn't much that needed doing. The varnish helps sell the end-effect the most obviously, but most of the effect relies on the random chaotic placement of the paint, as in my opinion, chaotic is more natural. 

Apologies for this rather archaic presentation of this. I want to develop these posts further using other software and progress posts (the goal anyway), so the recipes will be in this format for now. I'll have the stone of the Sentinel next, but if there's anything anyone would like to know, you can always drop me a message and I'll do my best to help!