Finally, we’ve got the leader of the Amazons that you’ve not doubt all been waiting to see! While I’ll admit I’m still trying to track down more of the Leaders because it’s hard to find them in stock domestically (Yolcameh, Xicoa, and Pehua are the non-legend models I’m still trying to get, to be fair), I really think she’s one of the more fun models here.

Also, a PSA: properly cleaning brushes helps a lot. ALL of my brushes ended up getting improperly cleaned when I did so last night, so I was fighting awful splaying all throughout this painting process. They’re definitely getting a good cleaning tonight.

Painting Cauyacatl

First off, a bit of character background – Cauyacatl joined the Amazons as an adult, so I felt like she definitely needed to have a more sun-burned appearance, plus this was a perfect chance to practice painting freckles. Started with crimson mixed with a dark fleshtone, then highlighted up to Sunny Skin. Then, I attempted to add some freckles using a thin glaze of darker brown paint mixed with my beige-red midtone – they’re incredibly subtle and don’t show up that well, unfortunately.

The “heavy dagger” was painted using a standard NMM process, though I went with a significantly more exaggerated and simple style than I usually do, just doing opposing gradients on either side of the blade.

Leathers were done using light browns, with ivory added to bring up the highlights.

I’m sure everyone’s tired of me indicating that I’m painting “the usual gold NMM”, but guess what – the usual gold NMM was used here!

Cauyacatl’s leadership style

As a Leader, Cauyacatl is a classic combat piece who can also lead the rest of her crew. She comes with the standard Leader package of Authority (with a slightly smaller range than the other Amazon Leaders, perhaps reflecting her origins outside of her adopted people?), Order, and Rallying Cry, which helps to take advantage of her fairly decent health pool and high morale. She’s one of the slower Amazon Leaders, as well, though she still has the Ranger skill to help her move through terrain.

Combat-wise, she comes with a heavy dagger (that is pretty clearly a sword) and throwing spear – her left arm is a little higher in strength, but her real danger comes from the spear. She’s got the Double Charge trait, which lets her toss out a ranged attack while charging an opponent: while it only works within short range, her Ranger trait means she can run through most sorts of terrain to make this sort of attack.

Importantly, she also can impart the Double Charge trait to all Atl-atl that are in her crew – this makes her quite the fun hit-and-run leader.

Hobby Progress

We’re officially in the home stretch here with 7 demo crews painted. I’m likely going to take a break for a bit to clean brushes, reset my painting area, and maybe work on some terrain.