[PLOG] - Reapers of the Dawn

[Scythe]

This is definitely a first for me, but I thought it would be fun and helpful to hear some critiques of what I've managed to put together since getting back into Warhammer just this past year (after about a 13 year break!)

As you'll see, I'd consider myself an amateur painter, but I'm definitely having fun getting back into it and have picked up a few helpful techniques in recent months. I must also apologize for the quality of the photos - they're from my IPhone. I did my best to edit them for max clarity, but I'll be looking to improve my photo setup in the not too distant future.

I definitely struggled for a while to decide on a colour scheme, but in the end went with blue, metallic purple, silver, and black. Yellow is sprinkled in in a few places for boosted contrast.

[Scythe]

A few more...

[Scythe]

Dreadlord/Master on dark pegasus. The rider is from the black dragon kit, with a corsair head. I used the dark pegasus from an old Morathi model. This also marks my first attempt at glowy lighting on the shield runes and the pegasus' eyes. Any tips on pulling that off convincingly?

[Scythe]

This one's a pretty weird combination of stuff, but I had a bunch of parts and thought it would be fun to see what I could come up with for a sorceress on a dark steed. Kind of a "creativity out of necessity" thing. It's obviously a work in progress .

The sorceress' body is from the black dragon kit, as well as the book in her left hand. The staff is a mash of stuff from the warrior/corsair kits. Her head is from the last-gen warrior kit as well. I wasn't sure how "sorceress" it would turn out, so I made some hair using a corsair head and some green stuff.

The only thing I did with the steed was to slap on a head from an old chaos knights kit, with some crude horns sculpted onto it.

[Scythe]

Last one for now - lord/hero on cold one. Banner on the back still needs painting.

[Melle]

nice plog start.
a few comments

corsairs:
loving the cloaks on both. right is better agreed, but i think maybe the out line yellow a tad to sharp. only thing i like better on the left one. though both look good.

pegasus: lovely model. glow on eyes look good .
not sure on the shield, though.


overall it all looks good, keep it up

[Lord_azoth]

love your glowing effect, would you mind explaining how did you do it?

[Scythe]

Melle - thanks! When I painted the first corsair I had the idea that I wanted to save time by just base coating/washing/drybrushing. But I liked the look of the individually painted/highlighted scales so much more that I decided the extra time was worth it.

As for the yellow lines - I totally see your point. However... I've grown somewhat fond of them, despite their not being very realistic looking. It actually helped inspire name of the army, as I felt like it gave the cloaks a sort of weird yellowy light hitting them at a harsh angle, sort of like at dawn or sunset. But perhaps I have taken it too far - on the last three I painted I think the lines are even thicker! Once I have a bunch done I'll post some pics of the unit with all of them together, to see if the effect I'm thinking of is actually happening.

As for the glowy shield... I figured he would be carrying a magic shield much of the time, so rationalized it to myself

As you can tell, I am prone to sacrificing realism for whimsy. But if we can't do that in Warhammer Fantasy, where can we?

Lord_azoth - with pleasure!

For the glowing effect, I used the GW teclis blue and white scar paints, starting with the blue and working up through a mix of the two up to pure white. I watered them down HEAVILY. Like, until they were probably the consistency of skim milk or maybe more watery than that. Starting with the straight blue, I applied the watered down paint in smaller and smaller areas, letting each one dry - which took a while - before going to the next, smaller area with a lighter in colour. Most of the layers needed a few coats with the same colour - particularly the darkest ones - as the paint is so transparent when it's that thin. When I got to straight white, the final highlight, I didn't bother watering the paint any more than normal.

[Datalink7]

Looking great. Yellow might not be my first choice, but your technique/painting skills are good. Look forward to seeing more.

[Lord_azoth]

thanks for the recipe mate!

[anthalont]

Very nice army, I like the color scheme
Seems you really pimped that corsair cloak with a few more touches, looks great!;)
The glow effect looks ace, I like your dreadlord much

Looking forward for more!

[Scythe]

Howdy! With the holidays on top of everything else, there hasn't been much opportunity to paint. Nonetheless, I wanted to share some works in progress!

First up, painted up enough corsairs for a front rank. I will do something more with the standard eventually, but haven't decided quite what yet. There will be a small unit flller in the 3rd/4th rank (that's what that green base represents right now), and I need to add some snow to a couple bases still. I'm pretty happy with how they're turning out.




A view of the cloaks. Fourth from the left will be redone to match the others, eventually:



BSB on dark steed WIP, still needs a bit of green stuff-ing.



And my most recent purchase, Doomfire Warlocks. I've decided to magnetize the bodies so that I can swap them out for Dark Riders just by swapping the torsos. Not sure how often I'll need to do that, but the versatility/savings appealed to me.





Drilling into those warlock torsos was a pain, and will need some putty work to tidy up, but other than that it was a simple process!

Hope to have some painted up in the coming weeks!

[Rowena]

That's really a great idea!

[xFallenx]

^ that. I can't wait to see the paint job.

[Sevekai]

Your Corsair cloaks are awesome! Love them!

[Scythe]

Thanks guys!

I basically used the same method on the scales (minus a few steps, and with a less polished execution) as ThePaintingClinic on Youtube, though I'm using GW paints and he uses Vallejo. Man, I've learned a lot from that guy - essential subscription if you enjoy painting and dark elves. Here's the video on corsair cloaks, if you haven't seen it already: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzadajYfkIQ

I also stole the idea to magnetize the DR/Warlocks from him. What a gentleman!

[xFallenx]

He's my inspiration to painting as well, though I have to admit that I haven't had the time to watch his newest vid's.

[Scythe]

Progress continues to be slow and unpredictable! It's also my nature to jump from one thing to another, starting lots of new projects before finishing old ones. The humanity!

Just a couple quick shots of some things I've been up to:

1. Corsair unit filler in progress


2. Painted up the converted Sorceress on Dark Steed


My wife's got a nice SLR camera, but I'll save the nice photos (and the effort...) until there are more finished units to share.

Cheers!

[Scythe]

A couple of updates! I finally got around to (almost) finishing up my unit of "convertible" warlocks. Dark rider variants are coming soon...

I wanted the warlocks to look really unnatural - like their magic and curse had left visible marks on their skin and eyes. I feel like the bright blue and severe contrast on the skin mostly achieves that effect. I decided in the end on the purple hair because the colour felt "Slaanesh" to me. Besides, I tried white/gray but it didn't look right next to the blue skin.







And - just for fun, a kitbashed dreadlord who will become my army general, Ecator - Scythe of the Dawn:





Simple conversion - slapped the Cairn Wraith's scythe onto the fleetmaster (with an extra leg from one of the scourgerunner crew, and a head from the COC crew). The hands/arms holding the scythe are corsair bits.

On that note... got a chariot! Probably will be painting that next. Way more fun than batch painting core models!

[Amboadine]

Those warlocks are definitely on the unnatural side. Pretty nice though, good choice of colour.
Nice conversion too, although the scythe looks a little strangely shaped in the middle or is that the intention?

[Underway]

LOVE the fleetmaster. Simple conversion of the leg with a nice job of the green stuff. I really want to model mine in a "Crossing of the Delaware" pose, especially as my druchii are modeled standing on ice. It fits. I'm going to completely steal your idea here....

[Scythe]

Amboadine - thanks! Yes, especially in a picture quality that accentuates the contrast, the warlocks look quite unnatural! In person it's a touch less jarring. I feel though like my painting has drifted more towards a high contrast, not-so-realistic style anyway, so might as well play to that I guess!

As for the fleetmaster's scythe - I think I see what you mean by the middle part of the scythe. I'm looking at it now in person and it doesn't seem as strange. The scythe itself is curved quite a bit so it was delicate work trying to pin it into place while retaining a natural curve. Perhaps when painted up it will look more natural.

Underway - thanks so much! Yeah I toyed with the idea of leaving the sword leg on, but in the end didn't go with it. If I assemble a scourgerunner one of the crew can have the sword leg!

[Scythe]

I should also mention re: the warlock skin tones - I did decide to go with that colour after viewing Enkiel's Plog and how he did them (much more technically proficiently I might add!). Great to find inspiration here!

Page 2 of his Plog are his 'locks: viewtopic.php?f=9&t=72996&start=25

[Enkiel]

I should also mention re: the warlock skin tones - I did decide to go with that colour after viewing Enkiel's Plog and how he did them (much more technically proficiently I might add!). Great to find inspiration here!

Page 2 of his Plog are his 'locks: http://druchii.net/phpBB3/viewtopic.php ... 6&start=25

so THAT'S why they looked familiar!

great job, i think the extra white with the dark shadow really add alot to the surreal look of the rider.

[Scythe]

And now for something completely different...

What to do with those myriad extra bits leftover after building a COC?





Makeshift RBT conversion! Got the idea after seeing something similar on eBay.

Can't tell if it's cool, overdone, or some combination thereof. Thoughts?