Glue, Gaps and Orange Armour: Prepping for My First 1,000-Point Game

With my first 1,000-point game locked in for this Saturday against my friend's rapidly expanding Flesh-eater Courts, it was time to get my Stormcast reinforcements table-ready.

Today, that meant finally sitting down to paint my very first Reclusian.

Two new Stormcast Eternals boxes on a wooden desk in the sun: Reclusians and Vanquishers. — My new purchases, still in their boxes.

Getting to this point, however, was a humbling reminder of my own beginner status.

When I sat down to build these new units, I spent longer than I care to admit trying to brute-force them together. I kept failing to close the seams, getting frustrated, and completely failing to understand why they wouldn't snap into place. It turns out the Skaven vs. Stormcast Ultimate Starter Kit had completely spoiled me. Because that entire box was push-fit, I just assumed the standalone kits would be the same.

They are not.

My new purchases, the Reclusians, Vanquishers and Lord-Terminos, all need plastic glue. It was a painful realisation, especially as I'd listed glue in my own beginner's tools guide but never actually needed it. Building glued models was significantly harder than I expected, and while I got all ten Vanquishers assembled, two of them have embarrassingly large gaps. It's a steep learning curve, but they're built.

The Vanquishers are built, gaps and all, and waiting their turn for paint.

A Lord-Terminos sprue on a cutting mat, with a tube of plastic glue, clippers, a hobby tool, the instruction sheet, two bases and the box behind.

A Reclusian half-built on a cutting mat, next to its instruction booklet, clippers and a tube of plastic glue.

Two Reclusians, built and unpainted in grey plastic, standing on a cutting mat.

A Vanquisher being built on a cutting mat, with the Vanquishers box, a sprue and hobby tools around it.

A half-built Vanquisher lying on a cutting mat next to a paintbrush, with two sprues and the Vanquishers box behind.

A built Vanquisher with a long sword, held up between finger and thumb over a cutting mat.

Ten Vanquishers, built and unpainted in grey plastic, standing together on a white table.

A closer look at the ten built Vanquishers, two of them holding banners, on a white table.

Actually getting paint on the models was a much better experience. I invested in a starter Speedpaint Marker kit, and it was genuinely a revelation. Having slightly shaky hands makes brush control a massive challenge for me, but the markers saved me a huge amount of time, minimised my mistakes, and made clean-up virtually non-existent.

Four Stormcast models freshly sprayed white on top of a cardboard box, outside against a brick wall. — Primed outdoors with White Scar.

A primed Reclusian standing on its Vanquishers box lid, with a can of White Scar spray behind it.

The primed Reclusian on a cutting mat, with a Speedpaint Marker starter set behind it. — Ready for the Speedpaint Markers.

The Reclusian part-painted: orange started on one side, the rest still white.

The Reclusian with its orange armour and blue cloak painted, seen from the back.

The Reclusian from the front, with orange armour and a blue cloak, standing on a cutting mat.

The finished Reclusian: bright orange armour, a blue cloak and a big axe, on a white base.

The finished Reclusian in bright sunlight on a cutting mat, its orange armour and blue cloak casting a long shadow.

It took me well over an hour to finish this single Reclusian, and while the base is still sitting in bare White Scar primer, seeing the fully coloured model come together was incredibly satisfying. I know the speed and precision will come with practice.

I did make one major miscalculation, though. I trusted the paint labels a bit too much. It turns out "Zealot Yellow" is actually extremely orange.

Oh well. The gaps are glued, the primer is covered, and my Stormcast Eternals are now proudly orange. Saturday is approaching fast, and these orange Zealots are going to wipe out that Flesh-eater horde. I actually quite like the new colour scheme.