The face that launched a thousand ships...

Wouldn't you go mess up a crummy Imperial world if this lady told you to?

She is Asharah, the Archon of my Dark Eldar army.  She is also a special character figure from Raging Heroes (you can see the blog post on her here: http://wappellious.blogspot.com/2013/03/introducing-ashara-archon-of-fire-talons.html

These images show the Razorwing prior to the freehand.  I used a variety of filbert brushes, which helped me to paint all the surfaces and shading rapidly.  While its flat shape allows you to cover a lot of area quickly, the rounded edges almost act like an airbrush if handled correctly!

It works well on the more square and boxy space marine vehicles, but  that brush truly excels on organic shapes such as this.  Plus, it still has a chisel edge, which means that you can even do a fair amount of details with it!

I kept the ventral section a bit darker than the dorsal, which would be catching more light...

On to the freehand!  You have already seen this design on the Grotesues, a jetbike, and some Venoms.  It was even more of a challenge here, just by the sheer surface area that needed to be covered.  Keeping a variety and randomness to the patterns can be tricky, since we humans like to arrange things into nice, orderly objects.

Since vanity is definitely a part of the Dark Eldar, I wanted to include images of  the Archon on the key vehicles, just to let everyone know who is boss. :-)

The freehand begins with a darker orange, which establishes the basic parameters.  I made sure to feather out the edges at this stage.

Now you can see that I went progressively lighter and lighter with the patterns, almost creating patterns within patterns.

I also tried to reflect some of the freehand tattoos from the Wyches onto the fins and elevators.

Another view of Asharah...

And some of the other freehand bits you have seen on other vehicles such as the Blood Star...

And the flaming skull.  The next stage is to do some streaks of soot and get some scorch marks on this with the weathering powders.  But, I need to get some dullcoate spray first!

I also have to finish off the cyberwolf hero from Raging Heroes... stay tuned!

More deepest Africa from Fenryll

One more of the Fenryll ladies for you on this very late evening...

Off with his head!

More goodies from the Fenryll vault.  This time, a dragon slayer!

A tiny sword for such a big head... must be pretty sharp!  I can see such a difference in the way I do blood now from the way I did it back then (between 2005 and 2006).

Blood is way more fun these days with my recent techniques...

Ground control: A base for the Razorwing

As I work out the fluff for the Dark Eldar, I realized that I also needed to do the same for their opponents, the Knights of the Broken Blade.

As you have probably seen in previous posts, the Dark Eldar are after a Hippodrome on this Imperial world, which is being defended by that particular chapter of marines.  I had to figure out what it was that they were racing in that Hippodrome.  When I saw the Raging Heroes cyberwolves, then I knew... dire wolves!

The locals gather by the hundreds of thousands to watch these spectacles.  The marines take the largest and most powerful of these wolves and 'enhance' them with cybernetic parts.

The final battle takes place in the Hippodrome, similar to the battle for Manila during WWII... part of which took place in a baseball stadium.

So, to begin, I knew that I wanted the locals to have a more Romanesque feel, which meant one thing... mosaics!

I started the process by laying down some basic colors and patterns.

I didn't want to get too crazy with details at this stage, since the mosaic tile effect would not be very visible if there was a lot of blending.

I kept the basic colors as greyed down and neutral as possible, so that the final brighter colors would stand out more as individual tiles, without having to outline every single one!

I took some Reaper dark liner paints, and my liner brush, and set about making those tile patterns.  They tend to be pretty straight, but they will also follow curves, a bit like directional brush strokes.

Cracks were also added at this point.

You can see that some lighter (and brighter) colors were added on the shield design and the surrounding part of the patterns.  A few 'missing' tiles were designated by some very dark paint.

More of the interior design was brought to life by adding those brighter colors.  You can see the increasing contrasts in the wolf and the two figures beneath it.  I had looked for Roman Wolf Mosaics online, and had found an image that had an 'ancient' feel.  This was to contrast with the sleeker more modern Dark Eldar freehand...

With a few more bright tiles added, you get the impression that some of the tiles are catching more light than others, or are at a slightly different angle, etc.  It's a little like an impressionist painting, as you are working with dots of paint, for the most part!

I also added some clumps of grass and flock, for a bit of color and texture contrast.

Next up is the Hero on the Cyberwolf, kindly donated by Raging Heroes!

I am hoping to do another one of these designs on a Venom base, and a few more on the jetbike bases... stay tuned!!

Up and away! A Venom is ready to go!

You have seen the pieces and parts of this figure already... now it's time to see it all together!

Like the Periodic Table, lots of elements went into creating the entirety of this Venom.

Lots of freehand, OSL, basing, blood, and much more!

I have finally gotten into a comfort zone painting these guys... a point where constant experimentation becomes a more routine process.

It is always a relief to get to that stage!  Everything gets a bit easier then.

Identifying exactly what sort of icons and symbols I want is an agonizing process of rapid decision making, but once that is done, you can have lots of fun with it!

I have some top views of this which show the upper skin of the vehicle even more.

Stay tuned!!!

An elephant never forgets

We step into the way back machine once again with another set of miniatures from MSB Toys.  You already saw the Rhino man.  I painted these back in 2005, I think.  

As with the rhino, the textures on the skin were pretty rough, and difficult to paint.

I do know that seeing some of these 'critter-folk' got us thinking about that line of miniatures centered around a skirmish battle game.  There were going to be a number of creature races... bears, birds, cats, etc.  Seeing the rhino and elephant men definitely put the thought in my head :-)

It would certainly be really fun to sculpt some of these myself, although I would definitely go bigger scale.  Say something that would fit on a 75x50 mm base, along the lines of the new dragon ogres or bull centaurs.

I am not sure which armor/armament direction I would go.  I think the motif of the above elephant would be the most appropriate.  Perhaps even a truly massive elephant as the large creature.  Even bigger than the Mumakil from LOTR.

Who knows... maybe someday!!!

Pieces and parts... another Venom

OK!  Working on another Venom.  Just as I did with the Razorwing, I tried to paint this guy with as much stuff un assembled as possible.

It is certainly much easier to paint the cockpit and pilot this way!  Obviously the banner was not attached either.

What surprised me was how much easier it was to paint the crackling lava freehand with just the upper skin of the vehicle.  I will post those images later tonight.

Here are some views of the cockpit and the magnetized splinter cannon.

The gunner...

The base, made from backed sculpey...

And the whole thing together.  From this point on, it was mostly freehand and then assembly!