[PLOG] The Lost Colony

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Which demon should I use?

The dying tentacled demon
5
83%
The Reaper fire demon
1
17%
 
Total votes: 6

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Calisson
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Re: [PLOG] The Lost Colony

Post by Calisson »

Thanks for the pic.
Childish face with top model body and monster's limbs.
Attractive flesh, dangerous blue parts.

Perfect painting, a true masterpiece. Compliments. :P
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Rowena
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Re: [PLOG] The Lost Colony

Post by Rowena »

I haven't had much time for painting during holidays, but I have managed to finish one more harpy. Not as epic as the last one, but hopefully the blood will make up for it. Maybe.

Image

The pose is supposed to be trimphant, I imagine she has just dispatched a foe, his broken weapon at her feet and his blood on her claws. I have seen many conversions showing bloody action of the battle taking place, but some of them were perhaps too gory for my taste, so this is my compromise. No bodies, just blood. There wouldn't be enough space anyway.
And yes, I suppose she should be bloody all over, especially with how I imagine the harpies fight. But I was afraid I would ruin her and quite like her clean and graceful like this...

And my camera seems to hate the contrast between the colour of her body and her wings, but her wings have the same blue shading as those of her older sister.

She is also a real pain to remove from her movement tray, as the leg she is standing on is so thin. So far I hava managed not to break her, but I'm afraid I will have to come up with some safe way before I give her to my boyfriend to play with. Maybe some branch on the base, to act as a handle?
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Heartsbane
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Re: [PLOG] The Lost Colony

Post by Heartsbane »

Wow, I'm liking the harpies ever so much! Very nice highlighting on the skin tones and I love the otherworldly eyes, good work!
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Re: [PLOG] The Lost Colony

Post by Icon hack »

I absolutely love everything I've seen. Really great work, I look forward to seeing the rest as you get more of it done.
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Wishing everyone the very best, to the end of your days.
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Rowena
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Re: [PLOG] The Lost Colony

Post by Rowena »

Now that the holidays are over and I am home for good, I have finally some time for painting. I hope to have more to show soon, so stay tuned. :)

Today I bring you the third of my harpies.
(The photos are crap, but it seems to be the best I can do, my camera apparently hates the harpies)

Image

She is supposed to be preparing to leap off the column, because what else can I do with a pose like this? Also, the column is good for handling, because the harpies themselves are more fragile than I expected.

Image Image

I am still not sure if I'm completely happy with her, mostly due to her placement on the column. Originally she was supposed to be facing straight forward, but I have drilled holes for her pins wrong and she is looking slightly to one side. Also, when I see her on the movement tray with her two sisters, I think she could have been a little lower, to give the unit more different levels.
Well, there is nothing I can do about it now, anyway...

One more picture from the front, to show what I am talking about:

Image

Also, I know I should be painting the sorceress for competition and I am working on her as well, but we are playing on Friday and I hope to have the army more or less completed by then, to be able to take some pictures.
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Rowena
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Re: [PLOG] The Lost Colony

Post by Rowena »

I have finished the unit of harpies... sort of. There is one more to be photographed, but at the moment she is at the place we will play tomorrow, I don't really like transporting them too much.
(Yes, there have already been battles with the army, you can see reports here. I will take some action pictires when the army is finished, as now we play with some unpainted models and some empty bases.)

To ease the waiting, I can show you a unit filler that is taking place of one harpy until I figure out how to make five of them able to rank up.

Image

It's supposed to be a small shrine of Asuryan, built in some happier times and now abandoned and broken. The harpies seem to be attracted to places like this, nobody really knows why. ;)
It was originally planned as a base for one of the harpies, but I just couldn't find a way how to fit one there without losing the bowl, these bases are really small. I didn't want to give up the idea, though, so it ended up as a unit filler.
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Lion of flanders
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Re: [PLOG] The Lost Colony

Post by Lion of flanders »

You could try using a clear plastic flyer post cut at an angle, so it came out of the back of the stone pillar and angled upward. The foot of the harpy would then attach to it with the body mass of the harpy centered over the base so that the thing balances.

Or do the same thing with a bit of piano wire if you prefer wire to the clear plastic flyer stands....
That's silly! Playin with little statues, pretendin' they're fightin'! Why not just round up a bunch of real goblins and lettem' whack it out?
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Rowena
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Re: [PLOG] The Lost Colony

Post by Rowena »

Lion of flanders wrote:You could try using a clear plastic flyer post cut at an angle, so it came out of the back of the stone pillar and angled upward. The foot of the harpy would then attach to it with the body mass of the harpy centered over the base so that the thing balances.

Or do the same thing with a bit of piano wire if you prefer wire to the clear plastic flyer stands....


Thanks for the tip, I'll consider it.
As the unit is now, it's almost impossible to rank the harpies up, though, so at the moment I'm quite happy to have a filler that doesn't take up as much space as an actual harpy would.
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Rowena
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Re: [PLOG] The Lost Colony

Post by Rowena »

My dark elves were reunited again yesterday evening, so I can finally show you the newest harpy. :)

Her pose is inspired by this Gamezone eagle. I really like it, but she was quite difficult to attach to her base. The branch is a handle of sorts, the harpy herself is too fragile to be even touched and I already know that lifting just the base is more difficult than it sounds.

Image Image

And here is the whole finished unit:

Image

I have been explained that the harpies are skirmishers, which apparently means that they normally (when not fighting) need spaces between them. So I have made some "scenic gaps" to go between them, to keep the whole unit looking nice and neat as well as make it easier to keep the prescribed spacing.

Image

Here they are. Following the theme of the ruined pillars and the abandoned shrine, they have some more ruined scenery pieces on them. The bloody one goes next to the "triumphant" harpy.
The last gap is not finished yet, I was in a hurry to get the army on a table, but it will probably look somewhat similar to these.

More pictures on my blog and there's still more to come, so stay tuned. ;)
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Lion of flanders
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Re: [PLOG] The Lost Colony

Post by Lion of flanders »

OK. The new harpy is really cool with a very dynamic pose.

As a player, I really don't like "unit fillers". You may be OK in a unit of 50 goblins to have some fillers in there if they are unique and creative, like a big sleeping squig, a cart of mushrooms, etc.

However...in a unit of 5...and a skirmish unit at that...it is only OK for one reason: you ran out of time before the event and you made do with what you had.

Here's another idea: find some nice folded feathered wings and convert your fifth to be on the ground.
That's silly! Playin with little statues, pretendin' they're fightin'! Why not just round up a bunch of real goblins and lettem' whack it out?
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Rowena
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Re: [PLOG] The Lost Colony

Post by Rowena »

Lion of flanders wrote:OK. The new harpy is really cool with a very dynamic pose.

As a player, I really don't like "unit fillers". You may be OK in a unit of 50 goblins to have some fillers in there if they are unique and creative, like a big sleeping squig, a cart of mushrooms, etc.

However...in a unit of 5...and a skirmish unit at that...it is only OK for one reason: you ran out of time before the event and you made do with what you had.

Here's another idea: find some nice folded feathered wings and convert your fifth to be on the ground.


I understand and plan to make the fifth one, really. As soon as I figure out how to do it.
The idea with folded wings sounds very promising, I'll see what I can find. Thanks!
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Rowena
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Re: [PLOG] The Lost Colony

Post by Rowena »

I have one more idea that might help with the raking problem, but I'm not sure how well it would work.
I have thought of getting Dark Eldar Razorwing, painting them in the samw way as wings of the harpies and mixing them, to create an effect that the birds follow their demonic leaders. The birds could be smaller than the actual harpies and less brittle, because that is another problem with these conversions. My boyfriend is afraid to handle them and even I am starting to be less certain.

What do you think?
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Rowena
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Re: [PLOG] The Lost Colony

Post by Rowena »

Some more pictures from me, this time the only conversion not yet shown - the Shades.

They are definitely lunars, so they should be dressed as little as possible to fit with the Vestals. On the other hand, as scouts they will be expected to move through difficult terrain, sleep outside etc. and we (my boyfriend and me) wanted the models to reflect that as well. (Realism in Warhammer? Blasphemy!)

After long thinking, this is what we came up with:

Image

The base of the model is a Dark Eldar Mandrake, the only topless male elf model I currently know of. Weapons are from Dark Elf Corsairs (left over from building spearelves) with the left hand being from Glade Guard kit. The legs are from Empire militia and I think they look practical enough, just as we need. Their hips are quite wide, though, especially when combined with the impossibly thin Mandrakes. I actually had to greenstuff this one into a more realistic shape.
I have also tried to get rid of those strange tattoos and give him mouth, to look more normal. I'm still not sure to what extent I've succeeded, I guess I'll have to wait until he's painted.

We also had long debated whether we want to use crossbows or normal bows like our ancestors and decided on the former mainly for conversion purposes. The fluff justification is simple: Dark elves are our neighbours and contact between us was inevitable. At first we thought we could be allies and enjoyed slandering Ulthuan together, but as soon as we got to some other topics ("You did what?! Chaos is NOT a toy, you crazy idiots!") a fight broke out. And we just really liked the captured crossbows... :)
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Lord Drakon
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Re: [PLOG] The Lost Colony

Post by Lord Drakon »

Love the shades, totally fit in your army style :)
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Zlatan
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Re: [PLOG] The Lost Colony

Post by Zlatan »

The conversions are great. I like the mandrake conversion especially.
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Rowena
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Re: [PLOG] The Lost Colony

Post by Rowena »

Thank you for the compliments. My school has been keeping my very busy lately, but soon I will have more shades to show (and hopefully some more models soon after that)
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Rowena
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Re: [PLOG] The Lost Colony

Post by Rowena »

I have just realised I actually have some pictures of a painted Shade I can share. More to come (hopefully), but meanwhile...

Image

I have decided that bright blue wouldn't be very stealthy, so his trousers are greyish, with enough blue to still fit the army colour scheme. His sword has the same slight blue tinge as those of the vestals and I'll probably carry it across the whole army.

Another view:
Image
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Rowena
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Re: [PLOG] The Lost Colony

Post by Rowena »

The promised update is here!
After a long time, the unit of Shades is fimally finished and photographed. :)

Image

I really like the Mandrakes, but they are all rather the same, which is not exactly what I want in a group of lunar scouts, so I have tried to differentiate them at least a bit. The different heights of boots I got in the Empire Militia legs helped, but just to be sure, I have included a few different conversions as well:

Image

The female Shade uses an Amazon torso I got from Battlefield Berlin and head from the Sisters of Avelorn box. I also had to modify the legs a bit to get rid of the "male part"
And yes, she is not any more clothed than her male companions. Lunars really don't care and both myself and my boyfriend are adults.


Image Image

The last shade was the most challenging of the bunch and the main reason this update took as long as it took.

Image

I wanted a kneeling one, but didn't really feel up to sculpting a new pair of legs or cutting and repositioning the Empire ones. I have seem the latter done quite a few times with Glade Guard, but I was worried of too difficult conversion and too much sculpting. Funny how it turned up in the end, but anyway.
His legs were originally from Wargames Factory Persian infantry (I don't know anything else than this label, I got them from ebay where they popped up in "wood elf bit" search, strangely). At first I had intended to use them as they were, but soon the skirt begun to bug me, it just didn't go well with the Empire Militia trousers. So in the end I cut the skirt off and resculpted the whole lower part of legs - my first real shot at sculpting and I have to say not really successfull.
Here is a WIP pic, to show what it looked like originally and what I did:

Image

And last of all, the scenic gaps.
Just like the harpies, these guys are skirmishers and need spaces between them. And just like with the harpies, I have decided to have some fun with these. There are two blank ones (just because the unit was starting to look too crowded in some places), a campfire (a useful thing to have when scouting in the wilderness most of the time), a quiver for more bolts (originally from Empire archers I think?) and of course the hunting dog.

Image

Still more to come, so stay tuned. :)
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anthalont
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Re: [PLOG] The Lost Colony

Post by anthalont »

Brilliant!

I am curious what will be next,

Great work! :)
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Rowena
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Re: [PLOG] The Lost Colony

Post by Rowena »

anthalont: Thanks for the compliments, I am very glad you like them. :)

Just a little thing going back to the harpies.
The fact that there were only four actual harpies has been bugging me ever since "finishing" the unit. I still like the unit filler, but four pairs of dark wings just don't make a unit of five.
The problems with ranking up are still there and I still haven't been able to find a way to fit another real harpy in there, but I have tried another approach.

Image

I have purchased a Dark Eldar Razorwing flock and made one new unit filler and one scenic gap to add another pair of wings to the unit.

Image Image

The new filler is meant to represent a ruined statue, to go with the columns I already have. I made a mold from a Lothern Sea Guard I had lying at home, but I am not really happy with the level of detail plaster can take. Anyway, it doesn't take much space and can add more variety to the unit.

Image

The gap is really simple, just a spear (a Wood Elf one I had in my bits box) with the Razorwing glued to it to create the illusion of flight.
It can also go next to the original unit filler and I still have to decide which look I prefer. Or if it helps at all, as I'm still not completely convinced.

Image

As for the fluff, I imagine these birds just follow the harpies into battle, as if they were their flock. They seem to see the harpies as bigger and stronger members of their own species, but otherwise not much is known.
Why is that and what they have in common? Another mystery to be revealed when I get to writing the origin story of the harpies. ;)

What do you think? Does the unit look better with the birds, or is it not really much of a change?
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Calisson
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Re: [PLOG] The Lost Colony

Post by Calisson »

Very nice models, as usual.

The problem is to represent a unit for gaming purpose.
It is supposed to show five harpies.
A razorwing is much better to "count as" a harpie than a block of stone.
Unfortunately, there's the second razorwing, in the unit filler, which does not "count as" and could be misleading.
I'd suggest to use the two razorwings, and to remove both razorwings as the first casualty (you will need to remove a unit filler at the same time as the model).
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Rowena
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Re: [PLOG] The Lost Colony

Post by Rowena »

Calisson wrote:Very nice models, as usual.

The problem is to represent a unit for gaming purpose.
It is supposed to show five harpies.
A razorwing is much better to "count as" a harpie than a block of stone.
Unfortunately, there's the second razorwing, in the unit filler, which does not "count as" and could be misleading.
I'd suggest to use the two razorwings, and to remove both razorwings as the first casualty (you will need to remove a unit filler at the same time as the model).


Hm... I see your point. I though that maybe as the birds were smaller, two razorwings would be better than just one, but I understand that it could be misleading.
The second razorwing on the gap was made to go with the block of stone, because I wanted to leave that one as it was(then there would be just one bird in one filler). The second filler was made half as an afterthought and half to use instead of one more model, as my boyfriend needed six harpies for one game.

I'm leaning toward what you say as well and yes, I remove the gaps with models, if only to correctly represent the width of the unit (they are not real unit fillers, they are just spaces between skirmishers that get removed when they get in close combat)

Thanks for commenting and I hope what I have just written makes sense.
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Artfactial
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Re: [PLOG] The Lost Colony

Post by Artfactial »

I love the crows, they really add to the feeling of a flying flock of birds.
Wonderfuly vulpish sculpts, those harpies.:)
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Rowena
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Re: [PLOG] The Lost Colony

Post by Rowena »

The first unit started and the last one completed (but also the largest one in the army), the spearelves are finally done.

Image

Image

As I have already said, I am not really happy with their shields, the way I cheated is just too obvious. This remains on my to-do-someday-in-the-future list together with the standard. The Corsair flag is just so epic that it definitely needs some nice freehand and I am still gathering courage to attempt it.

And here are the remaining command models (as I have already shown the musician on his own):

The standard bearer (for now):

Image Image

The champion:

Image

The champion has a corsair helmet with a nail decoration glued to it, to make him look distinctive. He also has a Phoenix Guard breastplate with Sun-like pattern on it, but unfortunately that is almost completely hidden behind his shield.
And why doesn't he have a sword? I'm thinking of maybe getting a different commander for the spearelves in the future and I wanted to leave the possibility of using this model as the second in command open.
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Rowena
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Re: [PLOG] The Lost Colony

Post by Rowena »

You probably already know this model from the painting competition, but just for the sake of completeness... here the current general of our ourmy (outside of fluff, anyway), our sorceress.
She is a lovely model (thief of hearts by Darksword) and I have tried to do her justice.

Image Image Image

She is (obviously) a lunar priestess, so I have given her a moon headband and staff decorations to reflect that. I have also added the stone on top of her staff.

Everything is very simple so far, but it wouldn't be me no to complicate matters for myself.
I noticed some people are converting their mages to fit the school of magic they are going to use and asked my boyfriend of he wanted me to do that as well. He didn't think he would stick just to one, we got talking, got this crazy idea and... well, from that moment we were pretty much doomed.
There is quite a lot of space on her base, so we have decided to make a little marker for each of the magic schools we had (at that time we still didn't know we Dark elves would get access to all of them soon). I still haven't finished them all, but here are the ones I have so farwith the individual spells to be represented chosen by my boyfriend:

Image
Shadow, Penumbral Pendulum

Image
Metal, Gehenna's Golden Hounds

Image
Life, Shield of Thorns

Image
Fire, Cascading Fire Cloak

Image
Dark, Bladewind

I have been experimenting with crystalic resin, so the Shadow, Dark and Fire markers are made from that. The branches are from WE dryad kit and the golden dog is from a model train shop. They're far from perfect (especially the dog will most probably be replaced as soon as I find a better one), but they're usable.
Now only to get the rest of them done... :)
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