New book releases usually mean new model releases, and this week is no exception. The Nighthaunt receive a dose of alchemical assistance from the Lord Vitriolic, while High Falconer Felgryn swoops in to aid the suffering serfs of the Flesh-Eater Courts. Before we carry on, our thanks to Games Workshop for providing us with review copies of both of these models.

Lord Vitriolic

I was under the impression that Nighthaunt were supposed to be suffering from ironic punishments based on their mortal sins. Snake-oil merchants and frauds in life, the Lords Vitriolic are cursed to a compulsive urge to alchemise in service of Nagash’s spectral hordes. Quite frankly, that doesn’t sound too bad as punishments go, and this guy seems to be having an absolutely wonderful time mixing tinctures and tonics. It’s a great pose, and it’s really great to see how much Nighthaunt models have developed since the Soul Wars box.

The Build

One small sprue with a 40mm base, this guy went together quite easily. The potion rack builds as a separate piece, so if you want to paint this to display standard you’ll be able to leave it off and finish it separately. The mounting points are sturdy enough that a drop of superglue will keep it attached post-painting.

The smoke trail from the poison bottle the Lord Vitriolic is swinging cleverly forms a second mounting point to the base, meaning that the model once finished feels very sturdy. I did have one slight issue connecting his sickle forearm into the robe piece, it’s a small contact point and doesn’t have very solid retention so I ended up having to try a couple of times and leave it to dry properly.

Painting

This guy mostly paints up how you’d expect for a Nighthaunt model, i.e. quite fast. I used the same scheme as my existing Nighthaunt army, with a few changes such as actually doing some highlighting on the robes, and changing the skin tone for more interest.

The potion rack is pretty fiddly, so I think I would suggest leaving it off to paint – I didn’t and I got very frustrated having to go around to the exposed bottles on the back of the model, although access isn’t really an issue.

Smoke plumes can often be challenging to paint, but in this case it’s more a liquid that’s evaporating. I went for painting the whole thing orange, before drybrushing up through lighter oranges and finally white, covering the liquid portions less and less as I got lighter.

Thanks to some fastidious photo-taking, in the coming weeks we’ll have some How To Paint Everything content on this guy!

High Falconer Felgryn

It’s a double feature of little guys who are absolutely dripping with thematic faction detail. High Falconer Felgryn is the Summerking’s falconer, as his name suggests, although his delusions do mean that what he thinks of as his loyal charge, named Grype, is actually just a bunch of different bats. He’s also a kind of Robin Hood character among the Flesh-Eater Courts’ serfs, inspiring folk tales of heroism amongst his admirers. Felgryn is another really characterful pose, and I love his bats and how cute they are in comparison to the horrible ghoul. If anything, I might describe him as a bit of a noisy sculpt, there’s just so much detail crammed in. Luckily it all kind of haloes Felgryn’s central pose, drawing focus to the right point of the model.

The Build

This kit is a single sprue, this time with 32mm and 28mm bases. Felgryn and Grype both went together with very little problem, although there isn’t really a huge opportunity for subassemblies if that’s your bag. Detail painters may want to leave Grype off of its base to facilitate access to the underside of its quite closed wing pose, but I managed alright with it glued down for an army scheme.

Norman: I wish this dude didn’t overhang his base so much. I knocked him over a few times while painting and I imagine it’ll happen more on the table.

Painting

I chose to paint High Falconer Felgryn to match my Morgaunt scheme, which you can find in detail in this HTPE article. My scheme is covered there, but if you’d rather do something different with your chittering hordes then you’ll also find a ton of other amazing guides from some of our great painters.

The pose on this model is nice and open (Grype’s wings aside) and I found myself enjoying it a lot. There was definitely a long stretch in the middle where half-finished sections really helped add to the idea that this is quite a busy sculpt, but it came together in the end and I’m pretty happy with him. Colour choices for his complement of clothing were a bit tough, given that ghouls normally get by with just a loincloth. In the end I opted for black and red to tie into the bats, which is also mirrored on some of my larger Morbheg Knights. Maybe he’s harvested some disgusting leather from a fallen mount?

Norman: One of my biggest pet peeves with models is when you can’t easily discern what a material is supposed to be. unfortunately this model runs into that issue with his falconer’s glove and the weird roost spine thing when you’re just looking at primer. The sculpt itself is rather forgiving once you get paint down but it lead to some decision paralysis on my end when I was painting him.

Final Thoughts

Both of these sculpts are dripping with character – literally in the case of the Lord Vitriolic. Painting both of them at the same time is a real lesson in how locked-in the strong aesthetic identities of Warhammers’ factions are. I’m particularly impressed with the Lord Vitriolic and how, despite being a new type of guy with potions and bonus arms, he slots effortlessly into the already large Nighthaunt range. High Falconer Felgryn continues to add to the Flesh-Eater Courts’ royal hunting party kind of vibe, and that feels like an endless well of inspiration for GW sculptors to draw from in future years. FEC jester hero when?

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