Druchii Paint Revamp - blog (Cav Hero + Army)

Discover the age-old techniques of painting...

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Siby
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Druchii Paint Revamp - blog (Cav Hero + Army)

Post by Siby »

Hi, this is my first post on the forum and seeing as how I just got the new army book, I've decided to re-do my Dark Elf army with a new scheme.

They really don't look menacing enough yet. Anyways, I got it together in my head and have done up a test mini. Here is my original paint scheme (in which I have around 4000pts painted :? ).


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It's painted a few years ago too, as is most of my army, so I really wanted to update to my (hopefully) better painting skills.

Here is the new darker look. I think the base is looking a lot more appropriate and hopefully so too the armour. It's not totally painted how I want, the flesh needs a little more work and such but this is the basic principle...


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Any comments? Does it seem like a marked improvement? Because with 4000pts to paint, I really want to make sure it's worth it :P

I'm in the process of doing a sample Black Guard and I'll post him up too as it is a far better mini (they really are a thing of beauty) and it might show more what it will be like.

I hope the pics are an alright size, let me know if not and I will try to work out how to display them smaller. Thanks. :)
Last edited by Siby on Thu Mar 21, 2013 4:25 pm, edited 6 times in total.
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Seralkith
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Post by Seralkith »

Did you just add a black wash over top? It's a little blotchy in places, the hands sepecially. Is there a base coat? I can't really tell, looks kind of like the paint was added to naked plastic.

If you want to rdo the entire mini I'd suggest you use diferent colour washes for different areas. Use a brown ink on the skin, instead of black, a navy on the blue. The black wash work nice for your armour though, as it is an improvement giving it more depth.
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Siby
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Post by Siby »

Seral: I re-primed it black. The flesh I really should have done a bit better but it was definately not over naked plastic. I gave that up many years ago.

I don't use black wash on the skin, if I use washes at all for skin I tend to use brown or sepia.

Anyway, a little tweaking, but I am keeping to the general premise. Here are some testers for some other units...

Black Guard: (not really satisfied with how he came out, not sure I had my ideas in check when I did him - he was only the second one I did). Hopefully he will look more like the others. I've included one with the old paint-job for comparrison.


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Here's what my new spearelves will look like, definately more pleased with this:

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And finally, my shade who I am most pleased with of all. I chopped up one exactly like the first picture (took off the head and arms) and replaced them with glade guard and corsair bits. Really pleased how he has turned out, so different to the original.


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....to this....


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Next up is finishing a small unit of those spearelves because they have rocked in the last few games I have played!
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Zakath the slaughterer
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Post by Zakath the slaughterer »

So far so good, mate :) I especially like the metals, the armour and skulls logos on the spear elves' shields are very impressive.

I also like your new bases way better than the old ones.

To improve your results, I'd advise you to highlight your models' clothes more. The Shade's cloak in the last picture is a good example, IMHO. It is Orkhide Green, right? Or Dark Angel Green if you're using the older pots..? If you had highlighted the higher areas more strongly with a lighter green and then possibly put a green Wash on, the results might look even better.

Highlighting clothes makes them look more alive and realistic
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Post by Notts »

i love your shade.

But the BG is definitely not up to your usual standard, as you concede yourself!
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Post by Rafapolit »

Siby, I think they are an improvement in scheme and "mood", but I think the previous version are better executed. The new ones seem a bit raw, but as I said, the color and mood I think are more appropriate.

I specially like the base of the first model shot. Can you share your technique or point to a place that has a tutorial on it? Thanks a lot.

Rafa.
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Siby
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Post by Siby »

Thanks for all the comments. :twisted:

Zakarth: you might be right that more highlighting is necessary. I'm trying to avoid the sort of bold highlighting some people use but maybe I could keep it going a bit further. The green on the cloak is actually a happy accident. I mixed half a pot of black with half a pot of bestial brown and somehow it came out green grey. I highlight it with catachan because that seems the natural lightening of it. Maybe I could do a further stage with catachan mixed with camo green.

Notts: Yeh, I don't know what's up with that but I'll make sure he's in the back ranks ;-). - oh and good to see a fellow beast here ;-)

Rafa: I'm hoping that I will get better and slicker with the execution but yeh, I'm really pleased with the colour combo.

In terms of the bases. To save messing around, I am putting a coat of watered down white (pva) glue over the green flock that was already there and then painting it black. I then just drybrush it with codex grey, then fortress grey, then a smidge of white. The edges of the base got hit by that by accident the first time but I thought hey, that looks kinda cool so I am letting the effect go down and over the edges too. Seems to give a really dark gravel look. I intend to put rocks under some of my shades too, to emphasize their scouting nature.

:)
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Siby
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Post by Siby »

Ok, big update, long overdue. I've done a lot of work, but not taken a lot of pics until just recently.



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My Manticore. Nothing special here, pretty much right how it comes. I left the manticore as it was painted before, just updating the rider and base to fit with my new scheme.





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The missing piece of my army that I have been waiting for for so long. Finally here and all painted up! I just need to play a few more battles to get him going now....





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Executioners. Only converting here was using the Spearmen spear tips in place of the original swords cos I got these guys on the cheap from Ebay and they came without.







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12 of my Black Guard. I have 20 but I very rarely field that many so this is just to be playable size. As you can see, I've only snowed one of their bases. I've been too scared to go ahead and do whole units until I am totally happy with the look of it.





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My newer Dark Riders. I've seen a lot of kitbashes from Glade Riders and most people seem to use the Dark Elf torsos but I really don't like the look of that. I prefer them to be almost more like shades on horses for my army. Plus this way, you get the crossbows and the spears.





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My shades ended up having quite a bit of minor modifications as I really don't like the old minis (and there were too many duplicates) so there was some head swapping and reposing and weapon switching going on. I put them on rocks too as I think of them scouting ahead and looking down on the enemy.




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I didn't want to convert up one of my witch elf models to make my Death Hag BSB so I turned to the daemonette box which I bought to bolster my harpies. I took the most elfy parts I could find and painstakingly filed bits off (most difficultly the banner detail), did a little greenstuffing round the back and slapped some corsair bits on. I dithered for ages about the spike hand which was gonna be a big problem till I decided it was just a special gloved weapon that she uses to spike people whilst still holding the banner. Made sense seeing as they have 2 hand weapons. ;)


Thanks for looking. More to come soon. :)
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Siby
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Post by Siby »

Ok, more stuff. This is it for now...

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5 of my old Dark Riders. Really don't like these guys so much anymore, but I did the best I could. I have 5 more to go, which'll pretty much look the same. That'll give me a potential 3 units of 5, which is probably as many as I should ever use :-P.




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My two reapers. I was going to paint them both red but then someone round here suggested that I should do one of them different.... so I did. I did some very minor editing to one of the crews to try and give a lil variation.






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My handbow using corsairs. These guys have come in really handy in low points level battles where they can hold off a flank and protect reapers. Trying to decide whether it is worth getting some handweapon ones too... we'll see.






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My newest Sorceress. The wood elf mages are so much better than the Dark Elf ones, I just had to use one. I think she fits in pretty well. My other sorceress is the DoW mounted character, forget the name. Need to get her painted up too.
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Siby
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Post by Siby »

I'm guessing this isn't all that interesting, but for the record, just completed my remounted cold one knights. The new cold ones are so nice I had to switch them out but I love the old knights so I'm just going to save the new knights for characters and conversions.


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And also my prototype harpy, wings based on an idea I saw on this very forum. Still in need of painting, obviously...


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Post by Sonofhades »

Hey siby, really like the harpy conversions, have you actually scratchbuilt those wings yourself, kudos. And i really like the battle standard nice use of parts especially like the corsair weapon and banner itself looks awesome for a witchelf BSB.
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Siby
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Post by Siby »

Thanks SoH. :)

Yup, I used the paper clip and masking tape idea which I found in a thread on here a few months back. It really is simple, just a bit fiddly, but I'm definitely liking the results. Sorry for the lack of link to the person I got it from but I really can't remember who it was and it was a while ago.
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Post by Kurl-soulrender »

I really like the shade pointing his modyfied sword forward, he looks awesome. :D Think i'll might steal your idear for my next shade unit.

As for your Witch elf BSB... well, it does not look like an elf imo, and the model, it does only have one boob? Right? And then i have this weird hatred against claws on hapies too. But, still, nice army mate.
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Siby
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Post by Siby »

You're not the only one that doesn't like the clawed harpy thing. I don't mind it myself, but there's some people round here who have said the same. Not entirely sure how I'd rectify the situation either, but I'll think on it.

As to the BSB, I like to think the armour is restricting her left one :P . I tried to pick the body that it least looked bad on, but it is still slightly noticable.
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Post by Siby »

Long time no post, but here is my recently painted up Dreadlord. He is lacking the shield cos I haven't painted that up yet, but it's something at least...

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Post by Assani »

Nice looking army mate, ur dread looks really cool!

Cheers :D
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With hatred ...
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Post by With hatred ... »

Nice hydra! Did you do the base yourself, if so how did you go about it?
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Post by Saori_nightstar »

Agree with the above - very nice hydra and would also like a run down on the process :D
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Post by Subutai »

You seem to have a knack for painting monstrous beasties...that hydra and those cold ones are fantastic!
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Siby
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Post by Siby »

With hatred ... wrote:Nice hydra! Did you do the base yourself, if so how did you go about it?


Thanks for the kind words, most encouraging.

As to the base, yup, I am using the old bark chip method. The stuff you get from garden centres to mulch your flower beds. I just break them up to sizes as needed and slap on a few layers of grey to white and they actually don't turn out so bad.

I pinned the hydra down through the chips and into the base too, only on two legs as I remember but thus far he has held up. Pinning is the best thing I ever discovered for taking the nightmare out of assembling these huge and/or fiddly metal minis...
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With hatred ...
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Post by With hatred ... »

Thanks for that, they do look great. I'm going to remember that one for later.
Cheers.
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Post by Tyrannus deathbringer »

Great work, Siby :)
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Siby
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Post by Siby »

Bit of an update. Thought it was about time I made a non-sorceress pegasus. Had the bits and the idea for probably a good couple of years... but you know how it is...

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Also, I don't think I posted this here yet, most of my repainted army together!

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(Here's what they used to look like...)

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Siby
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Post by Siby »

Finally got around to my cauldron!

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Post by Thenick18 »

Nice work sir, I too am in the process of re-painting my Druchii, and it is really refreshing seeing someone else doing the same thing. It actually just inspired me to keep pressing on, the repaint of my corsairs has come to a lull, but I will continue because once the whole is done, it truly looks like an army.
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