New year of Twilight

 Hello everybody! We're now a week into the year, but since it's my first post in 2026, belated happy new year! I hope everyone's doing well and safely back into routine!

Today I’m bringing you what I’ve been working on over the Christmas break. I’ve been squeezing in hobby time here and there and finally finished off what I had left from the Rivers of Anyaral Kickstarter by World of Twilight. As always, they’re wonderfully original minis, and I’ve tried to push myself beyond my usual comfort zone and give them as much colour as possible. In this case, they nicely complement the ones from my previous post on the same theme.

Here they are, grouped together with no particular order. These are Lord Delison and a Riverfolk coracle:

Well, I guess that boat doesn't fit on land...

Shame I don't have a water mat or anything. This is the best I can provide:

Oh, what an untimely encounter...

These are (sorry, I'm just transcripting the labels) Atoran Burh and Koheb Pallirnai:

Right, a scuba diver and... Prince Valiant

More people of the riverside, fishermen (fisherlizards...?)

 

A riverfolk urchin and two identical minis of riverfolk Khalai (with fishing nets ands tiny pets)

These are a pair of mercenaries, going by the names of Dravu and Chey:

Missed opportunity to paint them as Bert and Ernie. I’m only realising this right now. Dammit

Next one an Alora handler, which is my second iteration of the set (I already painted one some time ago):

Dog walker of Twilight

Then a couple of critters labeled as Opahr pets and three Sprogs:

Furry and cute

Finally, juice thieves, I love so much these ones, they are telling a story by themselves:

They all running with stolen bottles

This is it, with these I declare the KS finished. I hope my pal likes them! I know I say this every time I talk about them, but these minis are just so original, a real breath of fresh air among other, more “serious” or darker projects.

In any case, I hereby declare 2026 officially underway: we’re off and running, no turning back now! Here’s hoping the year brings nothing but the best for all of us!

Cheers!! 

The river of Twilight

 New installment of the World of Twilight project! I'll be making a few (totally non-periodical!) posts comprising the minis from the Rivers of Anyaral kickstarter campaign, which my mate took part in and asked me to paint for him. The common theme for these minis is life around the rivers of the Fubarnii Empire — folks who dwell by the banks, marshes and lagoons, basically all those living close to the water. The Riverfolk.

For this first batch I’ve picked a couple of big monsters and a few smaller figures, just to keep things varied.

I started with a total favourite of mine, the River Akitiin, a gorgeous model made of four pieces:

I apparently need a water-themed mat

It's a pretty awesome monster and quite large! For a reference, in the pic above I used a A4 as the mat. It's the larger and water version of the land Akitiin you got to see here.

The other big creature I’ve painted is the Torala. I stepped a bit out of my comfort zone with this one and went for a gradient in the purple range. I originally planned to add some coloured spots on its back, but in the end I really liked how the gradient turned out, and I felt that adding a second accent colour would just mess up the vibe.

50 shades of purple

I really hope it's a herbivore. Anyway, purple hippo looks scary and it's a big beast (that's a 60mm base!!)

The rest of the fellas today are called the Guardians of the River, a nice mix of both infantry and cavalry minis which I'd say provide security along the merchant routes (honestly, I haven't read their background yet, I'm just judging by their name).

Charming characters

The ferrymen (ferrylizards? ferryfubarnii? Hmmm...)

Colourful cavalry

 It’s always brilliant fun coming back to this project. It lets me loosen up and have a go at new colours or techniques I wouldn’t normally try on other minis. To be honest, I reckon I should pinch a few of the ideas and colour combos I’m learning here and sneak them into other projects (Orks, hello?).

Anyway, that’s a tale for another day. For now, this is what I’ve got. I think I’ll switch back to some terrain work before picking this up again... That mining town isn’t going to build itself, is it? 

Unleashing the Kedashi

 The name of today's post is just the corresponding KS campaign in the World of Twilight setting. With this batch I can say I've finished the whole content I was commissioned for by my friend. I had divided it into manageable parts (which can be seen here, also here and, oh, here too). I've told before, but my main and essentially only direction was to paint them bright, alien, totally unnatural, as if they were from an Avatar movie. Along the years I've been trying to stick to that, using the most vibrant schemes I can produce, always tending to primary colours and psychedelia.

Today was not an exception, why should it?

I don't think I have any special, conscious process when I face projects like this. I only try to be efficient in the same way everyone is when mass painting stuff. I choose the main colour for a few minis, as you see above. I try to paint different sculpts in the same colour, so you have more variety in the end. Then I do the same with secondary colours. I choose one and apply it over different main colours, trying to get as many final patterns as possible.

I hope the pic explains it better than me!

This time I tried an experiment. I painted the skin of this guy in warm colours, from light yellow to dark red, and the I made irregular black spots over it.

World's ugliest giraffe

Or maybe weirdest chameleon ever. Something in between, I guess

When you get this kind of mix, you end up with this colourful lot:

You also end up with a propension to epilepsy, but that's another story

When finished, they look like this:

It's tricky to find the golden angle for these

Yet they are fantastic minis

 

Trebarnii Forestguard

Look at them at your own risk

Trebarnii Goaders

You should see their cattle

Trebarnii Howlers. Glorious mohawks

Slayers of Twilight

Howler Bristleback and two Seldoath

I should have dared to paint brighter schemes for these two

Skerrats. I've painted a bunch of them along the years

Hunting Akitiin. The only ones I've painted the same, to match the other minis in the same KS

Well, that's all, kind of a little swarm of minis. Have a look at all of them:

Too much visual information for just one picture!

The sense of closure when you finish a project such as a KS or stuff of the like is amazing, it feels really good. But there's no time for self indulgence! There are still a lot of minis to paint and the Mountain of Shame claims for work!

More stuff coming soon!

Twilight of the Summer

 Making up titles for these posts is becoming increasingly challenging. More World of Twilight today!

These belong to The Kedashi Swarms KS campaign, which I have been into for some time. I had to split it into small batches and now here you have some more lysergic lizards! (Hmmm, note to self, I have to reuse that catchphrase as a title in some future post...)

These are the Abrok, some fearsome creatures indeed. Quite strangely, when I first saw their terror bird looking, I immediately got a Tzeentch vibe, and I could not get away with that idea. As much as I tried to envision any other thing, the Lord of Change kept on whispering on my ear, and I knew that it was pointless to resist. I went for a deep blue palette turning into purple and eventually to red. I used both red and the yellow dots to set my path apart from a pure Tzeentchian approach, but I guess you could use them for that setting if you really needed to do so...

Can you hear them? Listen: Chhhnge! Chhhnge!

The thing is that you can take all the terror away just by sculpting these beauties, the tiny offspring of the Abrok. Now you could not fear such a cute family, could you?

It looks like that tiny Akitii is about to become breakfast!

Next thing is this "Garkrid Infestation" pack. As usual, I didn't want to visit the official World of Twilight web before for any reference, as I don't want to get my own vision conditioned by other people's art. So, for my own interpretation of the sculpts, I soon thought of them as kind of larvae sprouting out of their cocoons. Using this palette, with fleshy and purple subtle washes, I wanted to emphasise that aspect and make that carapace to look soft and squishy:

You should be saying eeew with disgust right now

The Naralon Critters pack is quite an eclectic one, as none of them look any similar to other. They are just dwellers of the forest, so you can populate your board. I tried different colours, but for that Zazu-like bird, which I painted just at the same time that the Abrok above (but man, I do like the pattern!)

Three critters get into a forest...

The Howler on the left on the next pic is quite the very first exception I think I've done in all these years, as it's the first time I'm using brown (or any other earthy, 'natural' colour) for any creature in this project. But once again, it was once of those things you just see when you have the mini in your hands for the first time.

Looking definitely strange in a colour that actually exists in nature

The last one is the Swarmcaller, the fella who can summon the creatures of the forest to do their bidding. I'm afraid the pic below has burnt the colours, I swear the cloth wings have quite more variety of tones.

Least impressive swarm ever

This is it for today. Let me finish with a group shot:

About time to use that board. Now I need a backdrop

I still have some minis from this campaign pending, so be ready to expect more!

Diverse creatures of Twilight

Picking up names for these World of Twilight posts is getting increasingly difficult. But as dull as it may be, I have to say it's an accurate title. Today's bunch lacks much coherence, but at least it has the usual colour oversaturation!

They all belong to The Kedashi Swarms KS campaign, and my main reference keeps on being the Avatar-like inspiration I've been trying to bring to the project all these years.

So, without further ado, here you have some more friendly (or maybe not that much) critters of Anyaral.

First of all, the Kiterak:

She has kind of a meme face

And certainly kind of a meme pose

The sculpt is quite daring, but it was a total pleasure to paint. Now, on the same blue and red theme, but way darker...

Angry oversized alien hairless rat The Kelahn

I only realised the Spiderman colours pattern when it was too late

There are some proper mammals too. Here you have a Skerrat:

Mama Skerrat and her tiny kiddos

Infinitely fluffy

 

I have some issues with painting fur in this kind of cold palette, as it looks really couterintuitive to me, but I guess it's cool to get out of any comfort area.

 

Now some smaller fellas:

A Frenu swarm with a Trebarnii brute

I guess I should have taken a pic alongside the Kiterak above. Too late

Finally, some eggs and hatchlings!

Imagine the omelete you could make out of these

Well, only if you don't take into consideration the kind of creatures inside

They all are Akitiin species (which I have learned too late again), so in fact I should have painted them all alongside the adult I painted back in January. Least I could do is bringing them all together for a nice family pic:

Soo tender

 This is it for today. I know it's quite a short, quick post, but I've used this batch as a palette cleanser before I get on new stuff. I still have many minis pending from this KS, so you can expect some more posts in the (hopefully) near future!

The Gaudí Experience

 Second take on the same theme. Only the most veterans will remember that I've already visited the works of Antoni Gaudí regarding the World of Twilight project.

Yet here I go again! A new attempt! It's not an obsession until I repeat the same theme at least once more!

So just to see what I'm talking about, please keep this pic in mind:

A salamander who peacefully dwells in Barcelona

 When I saw the mini you are about to see, the Ruhnko, I simply couldn't resist, I had to try it again, I felt like I had finally found the perfect model within the World of Twilight ranges to do this. So under the 'try better, fail better' philosophy, I commited myself to do it again!

Did I get closer this time?

Cousin!!

 There is no profound rationale behind this, nor I pretend to do high art (whatever that term even means!), I simply thought it could be a different, nice thing to try on one of these gorgeous lizards, something to break with previous installments of the project and bring new patterns to my work.

So I tried this second one, changing colours

Well, once I've started with such a pretentious approach, how will I keep your attention?

Let's try a f%&#ing dragon.

You see, this model, the Grimblar, is absolutely awesome, both in design and the pose. Yet it has its own challenges:

How will I get to paint the belly or the base once I've glued the pieces?

I reached the conclusion that I wouldn't be able to do such a thing, so I had to make a decision:

I made them first and then glued both halves

Little green stuff was needed, the pieces fit very well in general terms

I have to admit this was a first for me, but it was an interesting thing to do. I don't think I could have painted the beast the same way once assembled.

I went on blue (slightly turquoise) in a kind of Avatar-like move. No, not the Airbender guys. The James Cameron movies and stuff, you know. Yup, I get inspiration from the works of European Art Noveau, and then I hit a Hollywood blockbuster, all in the same post, that's the way this blog works. Sorry, pals, if you looked for coherence you should look other sites.

I have nothing to do with the Spinosaurus, I'm telling you

Once I had chosen blue as the main colour, I knew I wanthed bright, warm yellow/orange for the crest. I didn't want many more colours on the mini, so the eye wouldn't be distracted from the focus point, so that's why I added some white on the back, hoping it was neutral enough.

Octopus eyes were another first for me

I'm realising just now that I have to fix that blue on the edge of the base

Now let's go for something totally different (as if you had seen just the same kind of stuff so far).

But I mean 'different'

The great Akitiin is quite a different design from other monsters in the Anyaral setting, and quite a beast to behold!

Somehow 'hairy giant spiky worm' didn't work well as a catchy name

I have some more smaller Akitiini pending, but those will have to wait for another day. For now just have a look at the unexpected bestiary, with a mini for size reference:

I can no longer tell if I'm seeing monsters of the Warp or just regular animals

I have quite a large batch of World of Twilight minis ahead, but I'll try to work on some other stuff as well. Stay tuned for my next unexpected post!