Dark Elves ; Presentation Tray Part 1

Lately i got a bit burnt out from painting (after less than 10 witches, its a bit frightening), so i did other things, like playing XCom and Dota 2. That get old fast so i started another part of the project to ignite a new spark ; my presentation tray.

My goal is pretty simple ; either the Dark elves are about to invade a very quiet little city in the middle of nowhere, or they just left it ablaze, not sure yet.

First thing first, placing the different building ;

I wanted some kind of city on a cliff, so went for a 3 level city, containing 4 building ;
a windmill
2 hourse
a forge

I never really managed to get much done with styrofoam, so i did some quick test on how i wanted to do the cliff

Basically big rocks. I'll add small one to fill in the hole, but that's about it. doesnt look like much, but once a bit more is done, it's starting to take shape!

I'm still undecided if i want to keep the tray ,as its very big, so it's stalling for now, but i'm hoping to finish at least building it in the next 2 weeks.

Dark Elves : Cauldron of Blood WIP

Spent roughly 10 hours on the model so far, and i can say its about 60% done. My airbrush's needle finally gave up on me, so i got a major setback to finish the rest.

I tried to use as much of the current army color as possible, without adding a new one. So far? So good. As you will see, the color i used on my NMM (can it be even called NMM anynore) is... um... i don't know, i think the blue and the white are a bit too contrasting on large surface. But still, i'm happy with the result, its all that count!

Dark elf : Witches #2 finished!

Today is a good day. I'm realizing that i really like painting that kind of NMM and end up spending hours without even realizing it. It's always fun when that happens.

So today i finished my second Witches, and i'm once again thrilled with the final result.

Exact same look as #1

Dark Elf ; First Witch done !

Last night i painted until very, very, very late, and managed to finish my first witches. I have to say, i'm pretty happy with the result. At first i wasnt sold on the NMM, but after adding some edge highlight on the weapon, it really helps pop the blue out of the weapon.

The Metal Bra came out pretty nice too. It doesn't really look that much like metal, so it might not annoy painting judge too much.

Sorry for the blue tint, i can't get that out of the picture without changing too much the color

Dark Elf ; NMM Part 2

That test was just a tease for myself, i HAD to try it on a model, and i did.

I have to admit, from afar, i wasn't sure, but its very quickly growing on me. On this next model,  i did the shoulder pad, the weapon and her crown. the crown is very lightly highlighted, still undecided if i want to go lighter or not.

Dark Elf ; NMM Part 1

Today, i finally had enough time to sit and try the color i wanted to use for my NMM. I wanted to try a "cold" NMM, going for dark blue up to white. The effect is imho not so bad, for my first attempt at that type of NMM.

First attempt. its not 100% perfect, but if i could pull that quality for my 35 witches, i'd be happy.

Weapon test #1. Obviously, its not perfect ; the transition is just average, and the white line dividing the two is pretty wavy. But from a safe distance (say, a feet), it looks perfect. Especially when you consider i'll be painting all my witches metal that way (Weapon, crown, and yes, Bra and Panties).

.... wait, bra and panties?

Yes, bra and panties. Sound weird to paint them that way, but seriously, those witches are some weird pissed off girls, so it would just barely surprise me if they had their private parts locked in metal panties.

Part that will be NMM painted are basecoated, and a quick cut'n'paste job ;

Dark Elf ; color testing

Past few days, i worked on my Dark Elves. Mainly what i did is lay out the different color on the model, to give me an idea of where i'm going with this, since, well, yeah, i have nothing really planned right now.

First thing first, i didn't work on the skintone. I'm still about 4 highlight from ready to call it finished.

Lets look at the model ;

Dark Elf ; Skintone and colors

Past few days, i started painting my first block of 10 witches. And i need to stop right here to state two things ;

First, i hate the fact they are all jumping with one leg in the air. Especially since there's only 5 possible pose. That means that on my 35 units, there'll be 7 of each pose. Gonna be painful to find a way to make them all different.

Second, In the white dwarf, it seems simple enough to paint them while completely assembled. In real life, its a whole different story. Their 80s hair style is a PITA to deal with when it comes to pain their back, and i can't imagine how paintful it will be to paint their hair anything but white.

Now that this is out of the system, lets talk about the skintone i'll be using.

Dark Elves ; A list

A pretty long time ago, i started playing Ogres Kingdoms. It was back in 7^th ed, when they were so bad and so hard to play, that it was near impossible for someone new to win consistently with them. After many, many loss, I decided to start a new army to learn how to win, and that army was the Dark Elves.

I really loved the army, but never got around to actually paint the whole thing to a high standard. I did paing some models, like crossbow man, Cold One Knights, a f ew characters and the Cauldron of Blood, but that was about it. The new Ogres book was released, and I simply forgot about the Dark Elves, only to play them once in awhile when my Ogres were tired. Then, when my ogres were finished, I moved onto my Dark Eldars (which I never finished), then my Nurgle Carnival, then my Grey Knights, then…

Dark Elf ; a new beginning

With the new book just around the corner, its time to start thinking about which way to go with my Dark Elf, because yes, i want to start them again. When i stopped playing them, i had about 10 Cold One painted, a Cauldron of blood, a handful of corsairs, and a sorceress. Every one of them is on the shelves, and i'm starting fresh.

Still love them, but the new model looks so much more dynamics....

First thing first, like i did with my Daemons, is to think about what i want to do with this army, what theme i want to use, what color i want to go for, and so on. Basically, the aesthetic above all else. For some reason, i have alot of trouble thinking about a presentation tray that would really interest me. For my ogres, my not-yet-started Vampire and my Daemons, its was quite simple ; a simple tray, add a few building, and voila! But for dark elves, its hard just to pop a few building and call it done. To me, they are stuck on their island, fighting the High elves and no-one else. So that pretty much rules out Snow and sand.

DArk Elves Rumors ; Rules!

it keeps coming!

The sisters of slaughter are rares: enemies is base contact with them lose rank bonuses.

Hydras are specials can upgrade to get a strength 4 breath attack, no regen but can regrow heads (recover lost wounds) just like the slann can with his discipline.

The kraken thing has a special ability that triggers when all 5 of its attacks hits ( gets an extra attack that inflicts additional hits) has a scaly skin save and causes terror. Enemy models in base contact must re roll successful leadership tests. Both use the monster and handler rules.

They have 2 signature spells just like high magic. One of the spells goes off on a 8+ and grants a unit +1 strength and then you gain D3 power dice but if you gain 3 power dice this way the wizard suffers a wound with no saves allowed.

The army has always strikes first.

Murderous Prowless: models with this rule re roll 1s when rolling to wound.

Wizards casting Dark Magic add plus 1 to their casting attempts.

Dark Elf ; Pictures!

UPDATE : NEW PICTURES!

Pictures are up, and i'm not too happy.

 Wyches

 Altar

 Wyches.. seriously, wtf?

 Wyches #2

 Altar? i love my old better.

 Warrior, i guess... not much change.

 Again warrior. A mixt of old warrior and Cold One's ?

 Wyches? Wardancer? I don't know anymore

 Again, wtf? the head is very ugly imho...

Wyches.

Dark Elf Rumor, time to get excited?

Dark elf been my second army ever in Fantasy, as i was tired of loosing with my Ogre Kingdoms (back in 7th, it was a pain). So when i saw rumor of the new army book around the corner, i got mixed feeling ; excited because the book will finally get updated, and annoyed because my metal Witch elves, Executionner, Black Guard and even the Hydra will get a plastic version. That's alot of model, and, as usual, GW will make sure my old model feel so bad, i'll need to replace them (and only use them in very rare occasion that i'll play huge game).

The only rumors i found so far are about the look of the new models. Everything sound awesome (better than WoC's cthulu type of beast i hope).

Grey Knights - Techmarine WIP #2

Slowly, very slowly, my Techmarine is taking shape. I'm very happy with the result so far, i think the skintone really pop on the red armor, and the black metal look pretty awesome with so much white edge.

Grey Knights - Techmarine WIP #1

In our monthly challenge, september is all about one of the most "boring" part of the FOC, the elite slot. Since my goal is to have some sort of Adeptus Mechanicus Inquisition at some point in the future, i figured the best elite slot to paint would be a techmarine.... and lets face it, the model is pretty nice.

So i started working on a very standard red techmarine, hoping to have him fit with the army in some very weird ways ;

My Grey Knights are a very light blue armor, with red weapon. My inquisition will be the other way around ; red armor and light blue weapons, most likely going for some OSL effect. OSL didnt feel right on the GK, but it does with the Adeptus Mechanicus...

Painting Commission #01

Well, took me awhile to get back to painting, thanks to a new house, and a camera i couldnt find.

In the meantime, i managed to get myself a commission, that i'm really just doing for fun. And depending on the success, i might consider expanding my service. Basically what i got to do is paint 2 spacemarines ;

A librarian, Games-Workshop scheme paintjob
Some blood angel with a special gun and a jumpack (i think? Sorry, i don't know much about space marines in general). This one has to fit with the 30 or so others the client already had painted.

Please keep in mind i'm charging 20$ to paint both, and i even went as far as magnetize the librarian's left hand, So while its a detailed job, it's more of a high standard to me than the-best-i-could-produce-at-this-time type of job.

Grey Knights - Terminator done!

What a busy past weeks this been. I'm currently writing you from my new home's man-cave, my little piece of heaven where all my warhammer stuff is sitting. Sadly, i didn't unbox the camera yet, so for now, its gonna be good 'ol Samsung S4 pictures.

I still managed to finish my 5 terminator for the Painting challenge, but obviously didn't manage to put as much time on it that i would of.

I,m a bit tired, so here's the picture ;

First, a family picture... the family is getting much bigger months by months...

So there you go... Next month? Techmarine painted..... RED!! Techmarine and my Inquisition will be painted red, with much, much battle damage to represent their "less holiness".

Grey Knights - Librarian Based!

Today i picked up my Librarian from the local store, where i entered it in a painting competition. I obviously didn't win (do not think that many people like light blue Grey Knights). Still, i placed 3rd, and got one of the best comment i could get ; my model isnt really impressive from afar, but is very impressive up close, which means that the time i spent on detail, the NMM and everything else, looks good. It's always a plus to get positive comments (as much as its good to get bad comment as well!).

So i took the time to get some picture of my librarian on his brand new base, which i have to say i'm pretty happy with. It's quite simple, but a whole bag of stuuf i never attempted before like baked clay, and an over use of different wash to darken a color we don't even see once finished.

Still unnamed, like the rest of my army.

Pretty much like he was before

Feels like his color is even more "light blue" than before with that dark base.... Doesn't matter, i love it.

The idea behind this base is to make it look there's some toxic waste running between broken floor... the hint of yellow and green definately make it look toxic (it's even glossy! Everyone know toxic stuff is glossy, right?)

Grey Knights - Draigo's almost finished!

Well, i had alot of time to paint lately (oddly enough), so i managed to almost finish my Draigo, and i am very close to be able to finish my 5 paladin utility unit as well.

First, here's how bad my table look right now ;

For some reason, this is how my table ends... everytime.

Grey Knight - Draigo!

Been awhile since i worked on my Grey Knights (well, nothing since finishing my Librarian).

I lost a bit of motivation to paint (Thank to steam and their summer sale), so progress on my army been pretty slow.

August is a troop choice to paint, so my hope is to paint 5 new Paladin + the current one. Until i go and grab those new paladins, i figured i could try and finish Draigo before moving on something else.

Sorry about the blurry picture

Grey Knight - Librarian Finished

Wow, that one went quickly. Didn't really want to drag him on forever, so i spent a few more couple hours to finish him. I'm happy with two thing about him ;

1- He was quick to paint. I got the model wednesday after all. Ok, i did paint roughly 12-15 hours in 3 days, but still.
2- I stuck with my limited palette. Didn't add a single color to what i was already using, even on the flesh.

Bazinga! Ok, i already feel bad about saying bazinga....

Grey Knight - Librarian WIP

Well, i have to say, i'm very proud of myself.

I got myself into a paiting competition, where we need to pain, for example, a HQ in july. I bought the librarian Wednesday after work, and i have to say that i'm very, very happy how close he is to be completed, and even happier about the quality i pulled so far.

Grey Knight - Dreadnought count-as nearly finished

Had a few hours that i couldnt sleep last night so i figured i may as well work some more on my Dreadnoughts. I decided to tackle the Autocannon, and see how i could do with the airbrush. I also decided that before i lose their head, i was better off painting it and glueing it.

So here goes, a first picture of the whole thing as it stands ;

Obviously, i'm still far, far from done, but the weapons almost give it a feeling of complete-ness. I could play him as is and not feel bad about it. But the body still has at least 4-5 hours left before i can call it done.

Once i was done with the airbrush, it just looked cheap, so i figured some edge highlight would really make it pop... and i think it worked. I might add some black lining here and there to break the airbrush paint a bit, but its pretty much 90% done.

Next up, a small update on my Daemon Prince

Nurgle Daemon Prince WIP #1

So after a pretty long Daemon hiatus, i decided to start again on my Daemon Prince for the next tournament in august. I have plans for 3 project until then + moving to a new house. Will i be able to complete it all? probably not, but at least, it's keeping me motivated for now...

My Daemon Prince will replace my GUO for most of my Fantasy game, since i think the GUO is way too easy of a target for opponent cannon.

Obviously, he'll be carnival-ized too, but for now, i'm just bulking him up a bit.

I could probably talk about my inspiration for him. When i re-watched Lord of the rings a few months ago, i found that General which i though would be a great Nurgle model, so i started thinking about a DP looking like him a bit...  Obviously, that General was Gothmog.

Ain't he lovely?

Best and Worst army in Warhammer , version 2013

A while ago (January 2012), i posted what i believed was the race ranking in the warhammer fantasy universe. Obviously, since then, a lot of book were release, so much changed.

A link to the last post ;

http://enkiel.blogspot.ca/2012/01/best-and-worst-army-in-warhammer.html

And now, the review ;

Grey Knights - DreadKnight almost finished

The DreadKnight is a very interesting model, and i'm pretty pleased with how he came out so far. He really feels like a giant Terminator, which is what i was aiming for.

Tonight i completed most of the gold and added a few highlight to the black, which i'm not 100% happy about yet....

I have no clue how to magnetize the sword yet, so for now, he's just staying unglued.

I also went a few extra miles to give the sword hilt a bit more blending, and i think it worked pretty nicely.

Obviously, its not perfect yet, but i think i'm really getting there.

Later this week, i'm hoping to finish the detail on the Terminator so i can attach everything together and move on to the next ; the two contemptor.