"Not So Secret Weapon" - Trebuchet

Roses are red,

ale's drunk in litres

trebuchets fire rocks over 300 metres. 

- Adapted from internet memes

Hello fellow Caesurians! Welcome back to our weekly post on The Art of Caesura!

We've been looking at a bunch of the survivors from Zombicide: Green Horde over the past few weeks. We've had: Rolf, the barbarian; Berin, the Dwarf; Seli, the elf; and Johannes the engineer. 

Today we're going to look at their best friend: The Trebuchet.

In the game, the trebuchet is epic. It can kill up to 6 guys with ONE SHOT!! It is also capable of killing a few fatties or one abomination (which are the scariest zombies, that can kill your dudes with one hit!). If, however, you fire it in a spot that contains one of your survivors, any misses automatically hit your guy! See Rolf. RIP. 

When I first saw this miniature I noticed that it is so highly textured, that it would lend itself really well to being painted with Contrast Paints. I decided to set myself a speed painting challenge and try to paint the whole miniature in one hour! To attempt to accomplish this challenge, I knew I would need to use a relatively large brush to speed things along. I used a No. 5 for the whole model. This would be a great test of brush control! 

From a Wrathbone undercoat, I started with the lightest Contrast Paint that I would be using: Skeleton Horde. This was perfect for all the rope ties.

Starting with the lightest colour, I could be relatively messy, all mistakes would be hidden with the next colour: Wyldwood. With the Wyldwood dry, I gave a light drybrush of Skrag Brown. 

Next came Leadbelcher shaded with Nuln Oil for all the metal bits and then re-drybrushed with Runefang Steel. This step took a bit of time, because I now needed to be quite deliberate so as not to get the metal colour on the areas I had already painted. 

The final detail was the payload - the stones that it is firing. I quickly (but carefully) accomplished this with Space Wolves Grey - trying not to get it on the Skeleton Horde netting enclosing the rocks. 

This was a really fun challenge. I don't usually paint to any specific timeline, so challenging myself to paint quickly with a large brush really helped me focus on my brush control.

Anyway, did I manage to succeed? Did I complete the model in an hour...?

Not quite! All in all I spent 1hour and 41 minutes (but that did include Nuln Oil drying time and 2 layers of varnish). I'm still happy with that output as it is quite a big miniature.

And, if I do say so myself, I think the result is pretty good for under 2 hours. It definitely looks awesome on the game board splattering zombie orcs!

Thanks for popping by! We've spent a few weeks on the "good guys", I think it will soon be time for some of the baddies...

Stay safe, stay healthy and stay kind! See you next Friday on The Art of Caesura!

Reading: How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity and the Hidden Power of Character - Paul Tough

Watching: Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Season 1

Next Week: 

A pause for painting...