Mantic is doing a "Slow Grow" Challenge (if you play with the chunks you build then I call it an "Escalation League". The idea is to get a 2000 pt army painted by the end of July.
I know that deadlines provide a nice fire under my butt to get going with something - so I'm jumping in.
First an introduction (like the guys at Mantic did). Now I'm not new to the hobby, but I did come in a lot later than most people. I've been a table-top gamer pretty much my whole life. I can remember getting the white box (with brown stapled booklets) for Dungeons and Dragons, then having to go back to the city (it was a 2 hour drive from where we lived) to find dice for it. After college my gaming stopped for a bit, until I had a friend teach me Magic:The Gathering. That didn't last, but he later took me to Origins Game Fair (I think that was 1995 - I remember buying the 1st edition of RoboRally there - and it had the Origins Award Winner sticker on it) - and that had me hooked on conventions.
It was at conventions that I started seeing these big table top miniature battles. I had gotten some mini's for D&D, and at one point was working on a big dungeon diorama (that I never finished), but I had no idea there were games for all of these, or so many cool models. Back in 2001 I started my first WFB army and played it for over a decade.
Then I started seeing Mantic miniatures, got interested in Kings of War, and decided that I wanted to support them, so quit WFB to teach and play KoW. I became a Mantic Pathfinder in 2013, and have been teaching and playing Kings of War since then.
With the release of 4th edition, and the HUGE revision to the Trident Realm list, I decided to give the "Trident Realm of R'lyeh" a break (my army was all based around the 'ensnare' rule - so while I had all the models, I did not have any idea how to play them now). When they released the first pictures of the Xirkaali I wanted them - so I picked up the mega-special of everything when they were released, and got them before Christmas.
For a while I was playing games proxying the list using my old Confrontation metal miniatures, but eventually got tired (literally, the case of all that metal was HEAVY), so finally assembled the list I like so far. But as of Feb 19th 2026, not a single drop of paint has been applied to them, so I figured they would be perfect for this.
I sat down and worked out a schedule of chunks to paint every 6 weeks - always keeping a legal list.
So here is my schedule:
3/15/2026
Witch Hunter
- Lion
Chakrams Troop
Spearwardens Regiment
5/1/2026
Chakrams Troop
Spearwardens Regiment
Wildfangs Troop
Witch Cage
6/12/2026
Witch Hunter Shuugch
Spearwardens Regiment
Witch Cage
7/24/2026
Beastmaster
Wildfangs Troop
Lionsnarl Cavalry Regiment
Later
Gokluu
I may not stick to this exactly, as I find it sometimes easier to paint all of a certain model at the same time (so I may paint up all the chakrams at once, even though only half is due).
This ends up with my 2300 point list that I'm currently playing. I hope that this gets me over the hobby slump I have been in for a long time. There are a few things I've needed to do
- paint the Undead Armada fleet that I printed after Gencon last year in time for Origins. (maybe Adepticon)
- paint the Salamanders Champions company (half of which is now done) also for Origins (also maybe Adepticon)
- plus finish replacing the hills in my terrain sets (6 sets of 8, 2 sets are done)
- additional Champions terrain for the Adepticon tournament I'm running
- additional Armada terrain for the Adepticon tournament I'm running
- paint the new Xirkaali champions box for Origins (hope to get it at Adepticon)
I'm running Hoosier Storm 2026 the weekend of Feb 21st, so will need to get busy after that.
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And after that I got a lot of nothing done for two weeks. Because I had plenty of time. Until I looked at the calendar - and mistakenly thought I only had one more week (turns out I have two, writing this on the March 10th).
So instead of my plan, this is getting extended to be my first stage report as well.
Now I still have other stuff in the way. I have exactly two weeks to finish everything for Adepticon - 5 more days than the slow grow.
So I have to do in 2 weeks, in order of importance
- Champions tournament terrain
- Armada tournament terrain
- Undead Armada Learn to Play fleet - 3 ships
- Salamanders Champions Company
- Xirkaali Champions Company
- Slow grow stage 1 for Xirkaali
Champions has 6 players signed up, and my 3 Learn to Play sessions are sold out at 8 players each. I already have the mats and terrain for 8 players, so I just need to double check the scenarios to see if there is anything else I need (because I don't remember what I wrote up two months ago.
Armada has 13 players. Again I need to check the pack to see what I have. I only have 4 Armada mats (plus a plain water one) - but Mantic should be bringing more. I got my stuff for this from the storage unit this afternoon - and of course the 10 volcanos I made for last year are NOT in the scenario list this year.
Undead fleet - printed, assembled. Waiting as it has been for months. I'm a bit frustrated with these actually. First I'd like to see some pictures of what people have done with these new models. And I can't find any. Second, while you can print cards for the fleet - they don't even have the picture of the ship on them, just the colored guns surrounding a bit empty space. So I took pictures of my prints, and did a crappy cut/paste job to my cards for it, but I still have no idea how to paint these.
Salamanders - this is going well actually. I printed everything out, and then my friend Felix borrowed a bunch of my demo Salamanders for Hoosier Storm, so I got the Kaisenor Lancers and Z'akke painted up for him. I've rebased the 4 models I did from a regiment to a troop, and have the base coat on the other two units.
Undead fleet - printed, assembled. Waiting as it has been for months. I'm a bit frustrated with these actually. First I'd like to see some pictures of what people have done with these new models. And I can't find any. Second, while you can print cards for the fleet - they don't even have the picture of the ship on them, just the colored guns surrounding a bit empty space. So I took pictures of my prints, and did a crappy cut/paste job to my cards for it, but I still have no idea how to paint these.
Salamanders - this is going well actually. I printed everything out, and then my friend Felix borrowed a bunch of my demo Salamanders for Hoosier Storm, so I got the Kaisenor Lancers and Z'akke painted up for him. I've rebased the 4 models I did from a regiment to a troop, and have the base coat on the other two units.
So the Xirkaali Champions box. It is supposed to come out next week (so I've heard). I'm really hoping they have them at Adepticon. However I bought the mega set, which included Xorxoi - and I have all the other models. My stage 1 has a regiment of spearwardens and a troop of chakrams - Looking at the pictures, it appears to be a troop of spearwardens, a troop of yan warriors, and a troop of wildfangs (which is in my stage 2 set). So painting these up would do my stage 1 requirement except for the witch hunter. My hope is that they have the set at Adepticon (or my FLGS before) - then I can just take the cards from it and my models and I'm done. I'll still have to do some for it explicitly (it does look like champions uses brotherhood of yan instead of chakrams). But 2 birds with the one stone or so.
I recently saw an interesting post that talked about inspiration - and this was saying that you get dopamine out of making movement/progress - so to get inspiration you need to get started.
So I've actually gotten a troop of chakrams done (except for the basing). I liked the orange scheme Mantic uses for them - makes me think of Shaolin monks. I didn't do white on their loin cloths though. And the rest of the models are primed / converted. (almost)
I recently saw an interesting post that talked about inspiration - and this was saying that you get dopamine out of making movement/progress - so to get inspiration you need to get started.
So I've actually gotten a troop of chakrams done (except for the basing). I liked the orange scheme Mantic uses for them - makes me think of Shaolin monks. I didn't do white on their loin cloths though. And the rest of the models are primed / converted. (almost)
A few months ago, I remember Ronnie saying that they planned to put alternate dog heads in the vault for the Xirkaali warriors. But am very impatient when it comes to my toys, and they have had 3 vault releases since the army dropped, and no heads. So I found some and swapped out half the 'standard' heads.
I found these on MyMiniFactory by Duncan Shadow:
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| Rottweiller |
Beagle head stls
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| Beagle |
Doberman head stls
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| Doberman |
German Shephard head stls
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| German Shephard |
I just printed them out and they fit great! Gives a lot more variety. I still have armored heads on half the models, though part of me wants to replace all of them.
Of course 2 days AFTER I wrote that up, Mantic released their Xirkaali dog heads. More breeds, but only two variations for each - with helmet or not.
I have printed out several of these without the helmets - and taken all the helmeted heads off and replaced them without helmets. The idea of a 7 foot tall Chihuahua is pretty scary though.
I will give Mantic props - they have now released stls for all three of the named characters in the list - Lieh Lung was in the March vault pack, then Khulan Kaiju-slayer and Baidar Witch-eater were then released to the vault (though you have to pay for them). This means that every unit in the list has a Mantic model for it. Well almost.
Just looking at the list it appears everything is there, but the Witch Hunter has the option to be mounted on a lion. Of course I have one (sometimes two) in my list. One way is to simply use one of the Lionsnarl Cavalry lions for this. (I have pictures of these, but need to write them up). One problem with this idea is simply the cost - the unit is $75 for 3 models. That is $25 EACH. In addition, even though the are large cavalry, the regiment is still only 3 models. They are a little long for 50mm bases - but only 3 on a large cavalry regiment base (150 x 100) does NOT look full. If they were just on 50mm bases instead and 6 to a regiment then I could take one, but only having 2 just won't work for me. And spending that much more to get the lions isn't going to happen. (This is also why I don't think you will EVER see the version of these with short bows (especially at $75 and 270 points per unit, plus going down to only 9 shots).
So back to myminifactory - it took a bit of searching (I found some i didn't like - most Foo Lions (or Foo Dogs) (Rui Shi) are the classic guardian pose - not really for riders.
Mini Monster Mayhem has these:
Pose 1
Pose 2
When I first printed these, I did not print the bases with them. So I liked pose 1 - however I then was working on this update and looked at the pictures, and really liked pose 2 - but it needs the base - so I printed out the bases. Of course the pictures I have are of pose 1 without the base.
I did have some thoughts as to why Mantic hasn't put this last model out as an stl. One issue is if they do the lion, it will kill all sales of their remaining resin boxes (simply due to the price). They could make the rider body and lion one piece, but people would still print and use the extra parts from the warrior sprues to make the unit. So instead just do the witch hunter that fits the lions without the actual lion (at least until the Lionsnarl Cavalry comes put in the vault (once the resin stock is depleted)).
It actually is very easy to put the witch hunter model on the lion - basically just snip off the loincloth, then use a heat gun (or very hot water) to soften the resin to get the legs to fit better.
Just looking at the list it appears everything is there, but the Witch Hunter has the option to be mounted on a lion. Of course I have one (sometimes two) in my list. One way is to simply use one of the Lionsnarl Cavalry lions for this. (I have pictures of these, but need to write them up). One problem with this idea is simply the cost - the unit is $75 for 3 models. That is $25 EACH. In addition, even though the are large cavalry, the regiment is still only 3 models. They are a little long for 50mm bases - but only 3 on a large cavalry regiment base (150 x 100) does NOT look full. If they were just on 50mm bases instead and 6 to a regiment then I could take one, but only having 2 just won't work for me. And spending that much more to get the lions isn't going to happen. (This is also why I don't think you will EVER see the version of these with short bows (especially at $75 and 270 points per unit, plus going down to only 9 shots).
So back to myminifactory - it took a bit of searching (I found some i didn't like - most Foo Lions (or Foo Dogs) (Rui Shi) are the classic guardian pose - not really for riders.
Mini Monster Mayhem has these:
Pose 1
When I first printed these, I did not print the bases with them. So I liked pose 1 - however I then was working on this update and looked at the pictures, and really liked pose 2 - but it needs the base - so I printed out the bases. Of course the pictures I have are of pose 1 without the base.
I did have some thoughts as to why Mantic hasn't put this last model out as an stl. One issue is if they do the lion, it will kill all sales of their remaining resin boxes (simply due to the price). They could make the rider body and lion one piece, but people would still print and use the extra parts from the warrior sprues to make the unit. So instead just do the witch hunter that fits the lions without the actual lion (at least until the Lionsnarl Cavalry comes put in the vault (once the resin stock is depleted)).
It actually is very easy to put the witch hunter model on the lion - basically just snip off the loincloth, then use a heat gun (or very hot water) to soften the resin to get the legs to fit better.
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| Rough fit of witch hunter on lionsnarl cavalry. I'm actually not a huge fan of these models - and the armor here doesn't really fit that he is only De 4+. |
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| On pose 1 (before I softened the legs to repose them (I've been using this on Friday nights) |
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| Primed witch hunger on pose 2 with base |
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| A little speed paint silver on the mace already. |
The other conversion I want to do is to add banners to the spear wardens. I've build 4 units, each of which uses the same shield and spear (though some of these are more like halberds - they are actually too long). I want to put the same design as is on the shield for each unit on the banner.
I found these on thingiverse - Generic Wargaming Banners and am going to give them a try. I don't know if I want to cut the spear off the banner bearer and attach the pole, or remove the pole and attach the banner to the spear. I printed these out as it - and they are tiny! So I blew them up 200% (i.e. doubled the size), and they work, though I've found the pole to be a bit fragile (broken 3 of them, one after I had painted it :-( .
I found these on thingiverse - Generic Wargaming Banners and am going to give them a try. I don't know if I want to cut the spear off the banner bearer and attach the pole, or remove the pole and attach the banner to the spear. I printed these out as it - and they are tiny! So I blew them up 200% (i.e. doubled the size), and they work, though I've found the pole to be a bit fragile (broken 3 of them, one after I had painted it :-( .
I managed to finish the first month plan just in time - added the static grass to the bases on Friday morning and pasted the pics to Facebook. Here are the detailed pics.
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| 495 points |
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| Witcher Hunter mounted on Lion |
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| Chakrams Troop |
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| SpearWardens Regiment |
I really like the heads. My favorite is probably the beagle (behind the standard) - but that troop is the one I'm using for the Champions company (until I can get the box and paint up new models for it).
Not only that, but EVERYTHING on my list is done - terrain for Armada (whirlpools), Champions (Portals). The undead fleet paint on the bases is drying as I write this Sunday night (I'll put the final gloss varnish on the bases tomorrow (water is shiny after all). The X'akke (Salamanders) champions company is done, the Xirxoi (Xirkaali) champions company (some a troop of spearwardens and troop of chakrams from the slow grow) (still not sure but hoping I can pick up the company box at Adepticon). And of course the first stage of the slow grow.
So now to start on the second stage after I get back from Adepticon. However I won't be able to keep the schedule they have set, because I just signed up for a 2400 pt tournament in the middle of may - so I'll have to accelerate all my painting!
So now to start on the second stage after I get back from Adepticon. However I won't be able to keep the schedule they have set, because I just signed up for a 2400 pt tournament in the middle of may - so I'll have to accelerate all my painting!
Because it is all fun and games . . .
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