[PLOG] Raiders from the Black Ark

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Skipjh
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[PLOG] Raiders from the Black Ark

Post by Skipjh »

Hi all
I started playing WFB again last year, after about 15 years out of the hobby. I spent a lot of time collecting and prepping models, and playing games to learn the rules and start to work out how the Dark Elves (my first WFB army almost 20 years ago) play.
The DNet Invasion and my plan to attend my first tournament at the end of Feb was the perfect combination to get me properly started on painting, and to PLOG in the hope that I will keep my progress up. The tourney is 2400pts, but real life commitments are such that I have no hope of getting an army painted, but I will commit to 1500pts for the Invasion and hopefully my progress will mean that I have at least a few units ready for the tourney.
So the 1500pts, which is the start of a typical internet avoidance list:

Supreme Sorceress on dark steed
Noble BSB on dark steed
Noble on Pegasus
5 Dark Riders with Muso
5 Dark Riders with Muso
10 Dark Riders with FC
5 Shades
2 RBT
5 Warlocks

Photos of the first models to follow.
Last edited by Skipjh on Fri Aug 28, 2015 12:47 am, edited 2 times in total.
Skipjh
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Re: [PLOG] Raiders from the Black Ark

Post by Skipjh »

so first off I decided to do 5 dark riders, to make sure I was happy with the paint scheme, both in terms of the look and the speed of painting.

I am not a fan of the new horses for dark riders, so have done them all using the time honoured glade rider conversions, which I first saw on this website. I managed to get lots of glade guard horses second hand on the cheap, so after cleaning up the plastic mould lines and magnetising the bases, I built movement trays using the GW plastic trays with a thin sheet of metal from the local hardware store, and some milliput to give me more of a lip to texture the base.

They are mainly built from glade guard and old plastic DE warrior bits. I used the old banner pole as their spears, to differentiate them a little from the the DE spearmen.
Here are some shots prior to undercoating:
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Image

And here is the first unit painted up. Very simple colour scheme with edge highlighting of all the black, and just a basecoat and wash on the wood / metal. Not going to win any prizes, but I think looks good, importantly for me it is quick, and leaves me room on the shield to do freehand or an icon at a leter date.
Image
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The other unit I (re)painted was an old repeater bolt thrower. I built a custom 50mm base for these using thick plastic sheet, sheet metal and milliput, so with two magnetised crew the whole thing is a 50mm base and is easy to transport.
Image
Image

I cheated a little with these two units actually done in January... next up is Warlocks.
Skipjh
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Re: [PLOG] Raiders from the Black Ark (pic heavy)

Post by Skipjh »

Finally, I have completed a unit of 5 warlocks. Eventually they will be part of a bus of 10, so when assembling them I made sure they would rank up. I am not a fan of the GW warlock models at all, and initially didn't run them when I picked up the dark elves again. It wasn't until I saw a Dark Eldar mandrake conversion here on Dnet that I started running them, and started converting some. I pretty quickly realised why everyone had been saying they were so good in game!
Before undercoat
Image
Prototype WIP

The finished unit of 5
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Again they are mainly edge highlighted, with a couple of small areas washed (including the skin, which I think came out well). The flames, tattoos and brands were a lot of fun to paint. The glowing effect isn't as stark as I had hoped (I think the basecoat green wasn't dark enough) but overall I am pretty happy.

I have basecoated the second repeater bolt thrower and have lots more cav to paint, but I am a bit sick of edge highlighting so think I might have a crack at a character next.
Would love to hear any comments or feedback - I have gotten so much from looking at other peoples models on this forum, so would welcome any thougths from those of you who have provided so much inspiration to me in the last year as I have gotten back into the hobby!
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Re: [PLOG] Raiders from the Black Ark (pic heavy)

Post by Booah »

What a great start, I'm still not convinced by the stock models but your mandrake conversions looks great, as do the dark riders. I really like the basing as well. You have clearly found a solid way of getting an army painted and ready to field quickly but it doesn't look rushed or lose any quality at all.
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Re: [PLOG] Raiders from the Black Ark (pic heavy)

Post by Amboadine »

Great conversions there. Looking very nice.
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Re: [PLOG] Raiders from the Black Ark (pic heavy)

Post by T.D. »

Fantastic conversion.

Mandrakes > Warlocks :D
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Re: [PLOG] Raiders from the Black Ark (pic heavy)

Post by Rowena »

The mandrakes are really awesome models, I still don't understand why GW just didn't reuse the sculpts for their official warlocks. Because this is what they are really supposed to look like! And I like your paintjob too, the green and red are very striking.
The dark riders are also great, another time-tested conversion that I like better than the original models. I really like how you use the evil and demonic looking "rabbit" horses for warlocks and normal horses for dark riders.
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Skipjh
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Re: [PLOG] Raiders from the Black Ark

Post by Skipjh »

well its been roughly six months since my last post. Despite the kind words of those who posted in this thread, and my cunning plan to use the Dnet invasion as motivation, I fell into a massive hobby funk shortly after my last post.
I was really unimpressed by the End Times, then further de-motivated by the rising uncertainty around the new edition, so stopped painting for a couple of months. Then I read about the Regiments of Renown ruleset on a Tale of Four Gamers blog, and decided to run it at my local games night (the thread with the rules pack is here for those who are interested http://www.westgamer.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=29853
I figured I needed a 'regiment' to be ringer in case there was an odd number, so took the two character models I had painted (who are normally an assassin and a Noble on foot in 8th ed.) and decided to finish one exe, one witch elf, one crossbowman and two corsairs, to test out my army colour scheme on some infantry. So this was the result:
WIP - of the leader and dogs of war - still to finish the assassins base and re-varnish:
20150418_092321-1.jpg


WIP of the rest of the warband:
20150418_092236-1.jpg


finished:
P1060224.jpg
Skipjh
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Re: [PLOG] Raiders from the Black Ark

Post by Skipjh »

some close ups
P1060152.jpg

P1060159.jpg

P1060165.jpg
Skipjh
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Re: [PLOG] Raiders from the Black Ark

Post by Skipjh »

P1060221.jpg


I really enjoyed painting the warband, got great feedback from everyone on the night (although they sat next to the scoring laptop all night, as the ringers weren't needed).

I realised that I had hit the painting wall because I was sick of edge highlighting models that didn't really inspire me. Although I liked the conversions that I had done for the warlocks and DRs, it was the awesome exe, witch elf and black guard models that I loved. this got me inspired to paint some more (albeit at my standard, glacial pace!)
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Re: [PLOG] Raiders from the Black Ark

Post by Skipjh »

So I got cracking with painting models that I liked. First up were the executioners, probably still my favourite warhammer infantry models.
While they look great, assembling them so that the swords will stay on and the models will stay on the movement tray is a pain:
20140322_163109.jpg

20140322_163127.jpg

P1050305.jpg
Skipjh
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Re: [PLOG] Raiders from the Black Ark

Post by Skipjh »

basecoat done:
P1060046.jpg


first models finished:
Attachments
P1050923.jpg
Skipjh
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Re: [PLOG] Raiders from the Black Ark

Post by Skipjh »

after getting fourteen exes done, finishing the second DR unit and a 2nd RBT, as well as a ton of movement trays, I rewarded myself with some characters:
this guy, based on the fantastic hero on cold one model, with vargheist wings:
P1050901.jpg

P1060217.jpg

P1060208.jpg
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Re: [PLOG] Raiders from the Black Ark

Post by Skipjh »

P1060186.jpg

and this guy, based on malus darkblade on foot:
P1060114.jpg

P1060115.jpg
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Re: [PLOG] Raiders from the Black Ark

Post by Amboadine »

Nice conversion there.
Skipjh
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Re: [PLOG] Raiders from the Black Ark

Post by Skipjh »

close up of the banner:
P1060171.jpg

P1060183.jpg

I also base coated all the witch elves, did the highlights on the front rank of the witch elves and finished one side of the exe and withc elf standards (leaving the other side blank for freehand at a later date). I put some transfers on the dark rider shield to lighten them up a bit, quickly finished 5 shades and I had a 1600 pt painted force.
This was just in time for a local 8th tourney called Arcane Destruction. This tourney is a bit different, where every player gets an additional 'free' level 3 wizard that has common (not race specific) stats and can't join units. I gave mine a flying carpet, so needed to convert and paint up a suitable model in the week before the tourney:
P1060119.jpg
Skipjh
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Re: [PLOG] Raiders from the Black Ark

Post by Skipjh »

so here was the full tourney force:
P1060090.jpg

P1060091.jpg

P1060092.jpg
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Re: [PLOG] Raiders from the Black Ark

Post by Skipjh »

P1060109.jpg

P1060097.jpg
Attachments
P1060099.jpg
Skipjh
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Re: [PLOG] Raiders from the Black Ark

Post by Skipjh »

P1060095.jpg


So I was pretty happy with the force going into my second ever tourney.

I had a blast with four games against great opponents. My list was probably one of the harder lists there, so I ended up tieing for first on generalship points and coming fourth overall. More importantly I came fifth on painting votes, which I was really pleased with given that all the armies above me bar one had display boards. It was a great day and really fired me up to keep going with this army, either in 9th age or Kings of War (which I am really enjoying).

I still need to finish the Witch Elves, finish the Exe champ and two of his mates, and do 5 more Black Guard and I will have a unit of twenty of each... then I will go back and have a crack at free hand on the blank side fo the WE and exe standards. I'm off on holidays for almost a month, so there won't be any updates for a little while - but hopefully I post again before another six months are up!

As always, I would love to receive any comments, criticisms or suggestions, so please post your thougths. And for the other posters on Dnet with their PLOGs - please keep up all the inspirational work.
Cheers!
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Re: [PLOG] Raiders from the Black Ark

Post by Amboadine »

Nice army in full. Congratulations on your placing as well.
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