Kings of War Slow Grow Challenge Episode 10: A Busy Finish Ahead

Hi everyone! We’ve got a shorter update for you this week. Things haven’t quite kicked back into gear for Ross yet, and Dan’s been busy with other things (life, eh?!), so we’ve only got updates from Alex and Tobias this time.

Let’s take a look at where they’re at.

Alex – The Reformed Perfectionist (Trident Realms)

AG: This week, I’ve made a start on the highlighting stage for my Naiads. After washing everything last week, I went back in with a light bronze drybrush on the armour to bring back some brightness.

Naiad Ensnarer (front)

Then I’ve been working on highlighting the skin. I first re-established the base colour (Army Painter Patagon Pine), and then moved on to adding a highlight layer (Army Painter Forest Faun).

Naiad Ensnarer (back)

Here I’d like to take a moment to mention how much I love the Army Painter Warpaints Fanatic range of paints. I really like how the colours are organised into families (“Flexible Triads”) – it gives you a clear guide for highlights and shades. As someone who tends to overthink things, I love the simplicity – as I mentioned in an earlier episode of this blog, when I’m at my painting desk, I want to spend my time painting, not agonising over loads of small colour decisions. It’s specially true when painting a whole army. That decision fatigue can really add up! Warpaints Fanatic take the guesswork and analysis paralysis out of colour selection.

Desaturated Cool Green Flexible Triad from The Army Painter

On reflection, I probably didn’t need to re-establish the base colour on the skin. It’s such a small part of the models anyway (they’re mostly armour!), I probably could have skipped that step and just gone straight to the highlights. I’ll bear that in mind going forward – especially as the Stage Two milestone is approaching and I need to get my skates on!

Tobias – The Hobby Dynamo (Xirkaali)

TW: This week I’ve painted up my two troops of Yan. I’ve modelled them as Chakrams (the ranged option), though I might have to run them as the basic Brotherhood of Yan when I play at 1000 points – not sure if I’ve got enough to points for the Chakrams!

Troop of Yan Chakrams

Anyway, I enjoyed building and painting these models. They were very quick and easy to do – the kit goes together like a dream, and the sculpts are nicely detailed but not so much that gets in the way of painting them.

Troop of Yan Chakrams

I chose the black for their robes as I thought it’d make a nice contrast to the orange of the Xirkaali armour in the rest of my force. I may well build some more Yan as Warrior Monks later in the challenge – if I do, I’m thinking of painting their robes orange. Lore-wise, my idea for that is that since the monks are more highly skilled, their Xirkaali overlords might allow them to wear the same colours, whereas the more lowly Yan warriors don’t get that privilege. Just a thought anyway – I like thinking up snippets of custom lore for my army as I go along, it makes the painting process more immersive for me.

Two Weeks Until the Next Milestone

So this week has been a quieter one, but the challenge is still moving forward.

Tobias is setting the pace admirably, while the rest of the team have been struggling a little to keep up. No shame in that – showing the real (and often disrupted!) process of building an army has always been part of what this challenge is about.

With the Stage Two milestone just around the corner, the next couple of updates should be fun ones – will Alex, Ross or Dan manage to hit the 1000 point milestone? We shall see!

As always, thanks for reading, and do keep sharing your own updates online, using the hashtag #kowslowgrow2026.

Happy hobbying!