War Head x Saimaa 40K

Our commission painting service is hard at work all year around, and there's been some memorable gigs on the desks lately! We're now starting to book the last of 2025's commission slots and would be happy to discuss projects of any size and a theme. If you have a need for a painted force or a terrain set for any game system, but don't think you have the time or the skills to turn the vision into reality, send us a message and we'll see how we can help! Our service terms and portfolio are better described here on our commissions page.

Questions? Email us at contact@gowarhead.com!

We'd also like to mention we've teamed up with Saimaa Gaming in anticipation of their opening salvo - the Saimaa 40K 2025 tournament on September 27-28th! The event is about intense 40K in a cosy spa environment with a BBQ evening to top things off, what's not to like? War Head will serve as the protector of the Best Army Award, sending prizes and commendations to crown the most industrous hobbyist with. Check out the details and join in!

This vast Black Legion ensemble is the latest army commission fresh out of the War Head assembly line - these were prepped, built, based and painted entirely in-house for the customer to pick up as a ready-to-play collection. 

Summer Heat

While most of our personal projects have lately been all about the Horus Heresy, it's been a busy spring and early summer with all kinds of commission work. We're excited to show more of the results as Ropecon draws near, but here's a couple of older, completed gigs from our camera roll. The Aeldari are a part of a previously finished army build, whereas the Chaos Space Marine characters were painted to reinforce customer's own collection as centerpiece miniatures.

We'll see you all in Ropecon - get those Show of Force entries over the line!

Aeldari tanks are so ageless, always fun to paint up.

Eldrad was painted in a custom scheme to complement the palette of the army.

A scout walker, Autarch officers, psykers, a Wave Serpent transport and a towering Wraithknight stand ready to join the customer's existing force.

Wild Riding

The implacable Wraithlord

The latest in the completed commissions department is this detachment of Saim-Hann Craftworld Aeldari, assembled and painted for a playing customer. The compact army includes some signature Jetbike troops, some elite Aspect Warriors and a contingent of Wraith constructs led by a pair of Spiritseers. With these we tried out a restricted palette, building nearly every colour (including red) over Citadel Incubi Darkness, giving a deep, cold hue to contrast the flaming red primary colour of the force.

In the leaders and elites we flipped the scheme around to feature the red merely in the accents and based their palette mostly on blues and whites. The HQ shine in white robes, whereas Aspect Warriors have a dark "commando" look in their panoply. We feel it's important to maintain a cohesive look in the army, so same colours have been used throughout the detachment in different combinations. Basing has been kept ascetic according to the customer's wishes.

Wraithlord, Wave Serpent and the Guardian Support Weapon Platforms were also made with interchangeable weaponry, different options allowing differing battlefield roles during gameplay. The Jetbikes are also not glued to their flying stands to allow manual repositioning for display and gaming.

Outcrop Errands

Amidst army painting and No Retreat event preparations we took a brief venture into the world of scenery building, producing a scratch-built terrain set for our customer's casual Age of Sigmar and WH40K gaming. The specs and recipes were clear after the customer specified they had liked one of our older terrain sets and we could base the style and colours on that established design. This way we got to get to work right away!

As usual the terrain needs were for chunky blocks of line of sight blocking terrain, but they were not intended for competitive play, so we had a lot of freedom with the size and shape of the individual pieces. The client already had forests as well as scatter terrain accessories in their collection, so we put all our efforts in rock formations and crags of varying sizes. The one exception was the ancient pillar formations that could offer a narrative centerpiece for the board and technically count as ruins.

The used materials here were Finnfoam insulation sheets, tile grout combined with water and PVA glue, orchid soil chunks, weathering powders, Green Stuff World XXL tufts, and Tree Bush Foliage blended into a "moss paste" with PVA and thinned down AK Interactive and Vallejo acrylics.

Cooper and the Gang

These Malifaux miniatures from the Lord Cooper Core Box were painted for a customer who'd also ordered a wild T-Rex 3D print to go with the gang! After some light conversion work and assembly effort we had a characterful crew to brush an earthy colour scheme on - the main inspiration was our Halloween Giants and their muted, medieval palette. The dinosaur had a lengthy tongue added to depict its in-game flail attacks - we used a 40K Tyranid tail shaped and bent into appropriate shape to achieve the effect. The basing follows the principle of a traditional forest floor with slightly mossy boulders.

Dwell in Darkness

These Blackstone Fortress Villains from the base set, Dreaded Ambull and Traitor Command expansions were painted for our customers existing collection, and matched to the overall vibe and basing style of the previously painted heroes. The palette here is a rather straightforward Chaos Renegade scheme with feral and militaristic details and warm color tones. These were then complemented with the cold hues in some of the creatures as well as the basing features.

The fearsome Ambull and vigilant Spindle Drones.

Arco-Flagellants and Rogue Psykers.

Armed Renegade Rabble with a Traitor Commissar.

And finally some imposing Heretic Astartes!

Cursed Citizens

The Cursed City and its stormy release attracted a lot of attention some time ago and it sure is an impressive set - would be hard to find a board game with better miniatures. It's great to get games that have a strong thematic content, as this usually also translates to strong miniature designs. For example these minis could have been painted with many very different palettes all fitting to the atmosphere of a cold climate, northern fantasy town with a few issues with undead uprisings! 

I kind of wish Age of Sigmar universe had a bit more uniform feel to it when it comes to design and the recent releases have actually been following this principle a lot better. If only the Age of Sigmar universe would have been introduced with aesthetics such as the new Flesh-eater Courts, the modern Stormcast Eternals, Kruleboyz and Vampires... Could have captured a few old hearts right from the beginning! 

These fantasy figures were painted for a customer as a part of a bigger commission and we got to tackle the Cursed City for the first time. Great project to work on and the individual nature of the heroes in particular made them a very pleasant subject. We went for quite a fresh look with some stained off-white clothing and brighter colours, still retaining the gritty details in rusted metals and vivid verdigris features. The bases were toned down to create an earthy milieu.

Christmas Consolidation

To finish the great hobby year of 2023 we've put our heads down and charged through a spree of commission painting - several previously completed detachments have now received freshly-painted reinforcements in the form of elite infantry and monstrous war machines! We've got a lot to document from our personal schemes as well and hope to update some of the workshop results here before the Christmas vacations. It's been a great year!

Before the season draws to a close, we'll be having one more event in a Horus Heresy Xmas Bash between a few valiant participants. The "Friendly Fire" type event includes a couple of relaxed games with full-size army lists as well as a technique demo for using oil colours as a part of army painting process. Stay tuned to the coverage late next week!

War Head XMAS Friendy Fire: Horus Heresy 9.12.2023

These Chaos Knight War Dogs and Death Korps of Krieg are some of the recently finished reinforcements. Always nice to expand on a previous commission, meaning the client has been happy with the earlier projects!

Knights of the Sound Table

This time on the War Head commission front we take a look at a Slaaneshi Renegade Knight host, produced in the immortal example of the Emperor's Children (and the heretic Noise Marines in particular). The usual pink armour colour is complemented by royal gold, stylish black and sumptuous marble surfaces, combined with customer-specified Martian basing. The full Chaos Knight force is already an imposing sight fully assembled, and we look forward to providing their ranks with fresh, violent reinforcements!

+ Slaaneshi Knights Gallery +

Snotting Hill FC

The latest in the completed section of our commission workbench is a Blood Bowl Snotling team supported by some big guys and a few wild star players, who are certain to do their best for their lucrative gold coin salaries! The team was given a vivid colour scheme according to customer specifications and finished with thematic basing and some freehand player numbers. The Snotling players themselves are tiny, but the sculpts include lots of cool and humouristic details we were happy to pick out. Good luck on the pitch and prepare for those KO's!