2024 in review - Part 1, Tomb Kings and Chaos

As we enter the dog days of 2024 I am always reminded of the TS Eliot verse I had to learn for A level English Lit in the previous century...

"The burnt-out ends of smoky days.

And now a gusty shower wraps

The grimy scraps

Of withered leaves about your feet"

This is probably not relevant if you are reading this in San Francsco or Sydney but is spot on for the

UK.

Anyway it is time to do the review of the year in painting. This year has been another full one for myself as firstcommissionpainting with many of the staples such as MCP, Infinity and 40k being overtaken by some of the newer kids on the block such as most obviously 'The Old World' but also Moonstone and perhaps a little less new Shatterpoint.

The Old World - feels like it has never been away at this point and I have had Bretonnians, Tomb Kings, Empire, Bretonnians, Chaos,Ogres, Goblins and more Bretonnians pass through this year. Many of the minis have been hiding away in cupboards and garages waiting to live again and this has resulted in some oop stuff being given a new day in the sun. I would start with Bretonnians but there have been so many that they have their own blog here https://www.firstcommissionpainting.co.uk/blog-old So instead I'll start with the real cool kids of the launch, the Tomb Kings.

TKs

Whenever I am asked about painting Tomb Kings I always recommend that customers paint up the line infantry guys themselves as to be honest it isnt worth them paying £10 a figure for me to paint. The difference will not be worth it and even a brand newbie cant go far wrong with skeletons. As a result I generally get the single figures and the big bits which is what we have here.

Yep they dont get much bigger than this, Necrolith on a bone dragon! Also coincidentally the unit most likely to break during play. Official.

Crazy impressive centrepiece of a model - no idea if it is playable or useful in game though. The spell casting effect is clever and should appear more often on other wizards instead of nondescript wispy smoke.

Also big and impressive the Sphinxy model whose picture appears at the head of the post and again here. Is there a better colour combo than blues and gold? No there is not.

Classic Bone Giant construct but this was in resin I think. I remember doing bone giants in metal years ago and they were simultaneously offensive weapons by heft and liable to fall apart if looked at in the wrong way.

Moving downscale I also painted up some Sepulchral Stalkers who always remind me of my favourite joke.

Snake walks into a bar. Barman says "How did you do that?"

With all my Tomb KIngs I am a stickler for weapons being bronze not iron, I realise it is a pointless distinction to make but as a former archaeologist it feels right. I know about Tutankhamen's iron dagger from meteoric iron but even so.

This little group I think were in resin so might have been Forgeworld, maybe. Nice command group with solid poses.

Pharoah Shoutythehek the III

and his son Shoutythehek IV

This is a tomb swarm which did have a nice satin finish to the beetles but which has not come through in the photo.

This is I really dont know what this is, presumably a necromancer made out of scarab beetles or alternatively Scarab beetles made out of a necromancer. Either way the satin on the beetles shaows up here as it did not in the previous picture!

Lastly but not leastly the Screaming Skull catapult. Another one I remember in metal. Went with a 'spooky' green glow here to liven up what is essentially bones. As usual there is none of the new fangled iron shenanigans here!

And that's all folks for Tomb Kings. A pity no big Indiana Jones Altar thing has come to me as yet but maybe in 2025!

Chaos

The Chaos original box of "Slaves to the Darkness" for AOS provided my Chaos feed in 2024 and what a box it was casting the current offering into the abyss. As well as Chaos warriors mounted and unmounted there was a chariot, a sorceror on a maticore and a huge war altar. As can be seen the war altar is huge and had some build variations. I believe it is not a listed unit in TOW but can be proxied as a chariot.

The chariot itself came with two options as well but I cant remember what the other option was I'm afraid. Still the trad chariot looks pretty cool.

Continuing the theme the Manticore could be built with warrior or sorceror atop. Customer wanted Sorceror which is what you see here.

Chaos Knights were a balst from the past. I had painted quite a lot in the past, but these were to be classic undivided as were the warriors to keep in theme with the whole box. Painting black is not difficult with an airbrush and I use either vmc field blue or mirage blue as the main highlight before white as can be seen on the shields and armour.

Brass was the metallic here using ak burnt tin and brass.

In a different job these Dragon Ogres were a nice change with reds and oil washes in evidence. Because there were only three of them and i enjoyed them so much i did a bit more on their ample bases as well.

Finally and tbh not from this year but deserving a showing I did these Khornate warriors. Judging from the round bases these must have also been for AOS but obviously as with the Slaves to Darness are just as good (or evil) in ToW.

I think I will conclude Part 1 here as I am only half way through ToW stuff painted this year, never mind the rest of the stuff.

Next part Ogres and Empire!