Retinue Table: D6 Dark Elves

These 6 Elves have taken an age to complete. I can't even remember how long ago the double axe wielding conversion happened, and the same model has been constantly sitting near the front of the painting queue, but something more interesting always jumped in front. But completed they are (after some 1 hour speed painting) and another option from the Lost and the Damned retinue table is completed; ta-da:

So you may recognise the Jes Goodwin wardancers from my speed painting posts, but there's four new elves to make up the six;  I've added two of the lovely witch elves with their wonderful poses and two High Elves whom I've painted to look dark.

The two witch elves:

I've gone for a blue and pink colour scheme over a grey/purple skin tone, with some black to frame and balance these strong colours. The rust on the blades helps unify the disparate elf models (as does the basing obviously). These were a joy to paint and I am now hankering for more.. and perhaps a Dark Elf Ally contingent :)

The other two elves are a bit more unusual, both in terms of the choice of models and the way in which they were painted:

The model on the left was an experimental paint job. For the cape I used a pearlescent medium to create some glazes which gave it a very metallic sheen. I used mostly purples and blues glazes to exaggerate the pearl effect and I'm quite happy with it, but more experiments to follow. I also experimented with applying some mud to the bottom of the cape.

The character on the right is a High Elf model that has undergone a weapon swap (plastic Chaos Warrior axes). Years ago he was going to be a vampire, but he became more useful as a dark elf for this particular project. In terms of painting I restricted myself to a dark palette, using only black, grey and blue for the entire model (and of course some rust):

 And finally the two Jes Goodwin wardancers that I've blogged about before but are here for completion of the D6 Dark Elves:

Many thanks for reading. Up next I've got a tutorial on my skin painting technique that a few people have asked after..

Retinue Table: D4 Centaurs

The original aim of this blog was to help motivate me to complete a project which I've wanted to do for many years, namely create models to represent every option listed in the Lost and the Damned Retinue table.

I want to be able to create my own Chaos Champions as normal (rolling up attributes etc) and then converting a model to represent him; and then be able to immediately have his rolled up retinue join him in his warband.

Well this project has taken a bit of a backseat recently, although you can see what I have currently finished on the list to the right of this post. So it is with some joy that I can add to the completed to do list with the completion of a final centaur to add to the three that I had finished a while ago:

Here's the four of them together:

And here you can see how I was inspired by Tim Prow's Centaurs which were showcased in a White Dwarf of which I cannot recall the issue :

A Plague Marine (on a square base)

I'm slowly being seduced by Rogue Trader and 40k, having been a fantasy lad ever since I first walked into GW York on a school trip in the 80's. But I can't quite go all round based yet, so I kept with the square 25mm base and even added a shield to keep the fantasy vibe on the model. Of course the Lost and the Damned blends Fantasy and 40k somewhat with the options of technological weapons etc, so for now I'm comfortable in this Plague Marine posing as a Chaos Warrior of Nurgle with a bolter and shield:

So this model was also painted for a painting challenge over at The Warhammer Forum entitled "Dirty and Grimy" and I was the joint winner, woop! Very happy.

The difficulty with the painting for me was to choose a good base colour to show up the dirt and grime that I wanted to add on top, hence the off-white armour. To add some contrast I decided to go for bright pink hands to give a focus and likewise with the choice of the strong blue coloured goggles. 

To create the dirt/grime aspect I applied a range of very thin and pale washes over the fully highlighted armour. This also included small splatters of ink in localised areas. I carefully applied dry red oxide pigment to the areas of rust using a very small detail brush - the trick is to make the dirt/grime look real and not make the model too messy.

The image on the shield is a direct copy of an illustration from a Fighting Fantasy book (can't recall now which one) and I deliberately chose some bright colours again to make it stand out.

The only thing I would have changed in hindsight are all the cables exiting from his chest (which I painted to look like intestines) which I think would have looked better with a greater contrast to the model's armour colour.

Overall I'm really happy with how the Plague Marine turned out and it's given me a few ideas for some round based, Rogue Trader fun....

WIP - Dragon Ogre Shaggoth of Nurgle

Having languished for many months as an almost finished conversion, I've worked a few more hours on this tonight to get to... almost finished! Tonight I added the ballbearing and chain to create the flail and filled a few extra gaps. I now only need to greenstuff some talons onto the carrion crow and to sculpt wood onto the shaft of the flail to realise my intentions..:

So what were my intentions? Well I was heavily inspired by Ivan Bartleets Dragon Ogre Shaggoth of Nurgle which was of course featured in the Lost and the Damned book. You can see his work below. 

I've obviously used the more modern Shaggoth model (which is an incredible sculpt) and made some Nurglification adjustments by adding a bead into the center of the greenstuffed head to make a cyclops like plaguebearer head. Adding a Nurgling playing with the Shaggoth's intestines is an idea I've been wanting to create for a while and I'll just add some extra modelling in there to make it look less empty.

Will finish it this weekend and will make a start on applying some paint too, watch this space....