[PLOG] The Grim Host of Malys the Younger

[Malys the younger]

Hello all, thanks for checking out my minis. I've been painting on and off again for about 15 years and I've been collecting Dark Elves since around the Nemesis Crown summer event. I've finally started to get some paint on some Druchii and wanted to offer them up for critiques and criticism.

First up is Lokhhir Fellheart. I love the mini and currently use him to sub in for a dismounted Master.





First, please don't mind the stray cat hair that seemed to show up after I took the pic... This model is the first time I used wet blending to shade/highlight the inside of his cloak and also the first time I used a thinned out glaze to paint The Red Blades. I'm pretty happy with both effects so far. I don't feel like I've quite nailed the back of the sea dragon cloak though. I started with a base of Caliban Green, followed by a shade of Biel-tan Green, and the scales highlighted with Loren Forest. To me it just looks like it needs just a little more "pop".

Next is my Sorceress.





I started with a base coat of Regal Blue and again tried my hand at wet blending by using Midnight Blue to shade from the recesses up. It's a little more noticeable on her shoulders than it is on the front of her robe. I used Shadow Grey as a highlight.

I tried to go with a bone look for her staff body and stone for the head.


These warriors are the first unit I bought and painted. It's also the unit that I learned that trying to paint 25 minis in one go was insanely mind numbing.



This paint scheme is generally the one I used for the Sorceress, with the exception of the metal bits. I picked the command group out in gold. I first saw it featured in one of the last two army books, I can't remember which.
I have the standard modeled so that it look's as if its blowing in a cold, biting wind. I tried to wet blend over it to add depth some depth. As you can guess it wasn't photo worthy just yet. I used a transfer on one side of the banner and free handed a simple design on the other.
I'm pretty pleased with how the shields turned out; particularly the stone looking skulls. I'm sure they'd be ridiculously heavy in real life, but still awesome to look at lol.

I first read about these Dark Rider conversions online a few years ago. Since I had extra torsos laying around I decided to give them a try. I made a sad attempt at covering one of the cloaks with green stuff. I'll have to play around with it some more on a scrap mini to get used to it and making it do what I want.







I used Regal Blue for the body and Midnight Blue for the cloaks. It looks like two of the model's black wash pooled and dried funny on the horse face plates. I'll need to work on brush control next time and make sure its properly thinned out. I also need to figure out the best way to highlight black, especially when it comes to hair.

I still need to paint up shields for them. They will most likely be the old style warrior shield but with free handed designs on them.

The Reaper Bolt Thrower. I still have another to paint, this one acted as my "test model". I love how the crew turned out.





Finally (for now), is my current work in progress. Cold One Knights. This will be a unit of ten but only the first five Knights are painted so far.







The Dread Knight is my first attempt at using NMM. I love these models and wanted to use different techniques on them to make them stand apart from other models on the table. While I think I have the gist of the technique, the execution is shaky. I'd be interested in pointers if anyone has any.

The standard caused me some serious grief. While it's not that large compared to the Corsair standard, it is still the largest standard I've painted yet and I was under my self imposed stress to make it look presentable. I flipped through the army book (pg 71) for some inspiration and came up with the two color diagonal design. I wasn't confident in my free hand to paint something exotic on the standard so I used the transfer rune that would starkly contrast with my color scheme and a smaller white rune (barely visible behind his head) for a little more pop.

Again, thanks for looking and I hope to have more updates soon. Please feel free to provide any critiques or insight, it's the only way I'll get better!

[T.D.]

Very nice colour scheme.

It looks particularly good on the Knights

[direweasel]

Very sharp - I also like the Royal Blue. Good execution, and good basing too.

[Khaleth Blackheart]

Nice solid colour scheme
For the pop on the cloak a very light dry brush of warpstone green might help. Then a mix of that and white for the extreme highlights.
What colour are you gonna go on the cold ones?

[Malys the younger]

Thanks folks, that means a lot.

Khaleth: Good call. Next time I'm at the hobby shop I'll look it picking up a pot.

For the cold ones I'm torn between shades of green or shades of gray. Green would be as we see on most Cold Ones, which doesn't exactly scream "cold" to me and I didn't want to force it with blue, especially since my army is primarily blue. So, I'm thinking a something like Codex Gray to Fortress Gray with a Kommando Khaki to Bleached Bone under belly. I'd have to do a test run but something like that. Cool without being too cold, and a good midway between the knights and the snowy base.

[Malys the younger]

It's been awhile since I've had a chance to update this but Im currently 9 time zones away from my paint station so the progress is going slow...

After seeing some great conversions on the forum I decided to go online and do some boredom shopping. I picked up a Chaos Sorcerer and some Dark Eldar Kabalite legs to start making a Malekith on foot. Unfortunately, all the other bitz I'd like to use from the Black Dragon kit are sold out on the sites I checked. I also picked up 5 Wood Elf Eternal Guard bodies, 5 Kabalite heads, and 5 Corsair swords/hand bows to start a unit of Shades. $20 for a unit isn't too bad.

When I get home in a few months I'll start assembling the models and posting more updates.

[Malys the younger]

Here is my sorceress I entered for the January 2016 painting challenge. I painted her up in one sitting. I attempted NMM gold for the first time as well as using object source lighting for the first time in this army. I am happy with the OSL but Im not 100% on the NMM. For the OSL I wanted to use the palm as the source rather than go for the "look, my hand is blue!" effect. So given the curl of the finger I opted to highlight the fingertips rather than the whole hand. If anyone has any critiques or criticisms I'm all ears.

As for the paint scheme:
Skin
Kislev Flesh, Reikland Flesh Shade, Pallid Wych Flesh

Cloth
Regal Blue, Shadow Gray, Drakenoff Night Shade, Shadow Gray

Hair*
Abbadon Black, Eshin Gray, Drakenoff Night Shade
* This definitely reminded me why I can't get motivated to paint my Witch Elves and Hellebron models...

Gold
Abaddon Black, Snakebite Leather, Regal Blue (1:1:1)
Snake Bite Leather, Regal Blue (1:1)
Pure Snake Bite Leather
Snake Bite Leather, Bleached Bone (1:1)
Pure Bleached Bone
Pure Ceramite White

OSL effect:
Ice Blue, mixed and highlighted up to pure Ceramite White

I've tweaked all of these photos on photo bucket but for some reason the rear photo will save changes but not display them on here...

[Malys the younger]

These are my first 10 of a 21 Blackguard unit. Unfortunately my basing materials are boxed up because I'm putting hardwood in my game room so that step will occur when I get back from my trip. As far as painting goes though I feel these guys are done. As I mentioned earlier in another post, I opted to paint these guys in a way that would blend with my army rather than just slapping black paint all over them. Freehand painting standards is not something I'm good at yet so I took the easy way out. If anyone has any advice on that I'm all ears.

Primed with Army Color Gun Metal.
Flesh: Kislev flesh, Reikland Fleshshade, highlighted with Kislev Flesh. I added a final highlight of Pallid Wych Flesh to the Tower Master.
Hair: Abbadon Black, highlighted with Eshin Gray.
Cloth: Regal Blue/Kantor Blue (Regal Blue finally gave out half way through), highlighted with Shadow Gray, washed with Drakonhof Nightshade, edge highlighted with Shadow Gray.
Gold: Game Color Glorious Gold, Agrax Earthshade, highlighted with 50/50 Glorious Gold/Mithril Silver.
Metal: Washed with Nuln Oil, highlighted with Leadbelcher and final highlight with Mithral Silver.
Wood: Scorched Brown, washed with Agrax Earthshade.





I plan on fielding these in a 7x3 formation.

[Amboadine]

That is a nice looking colour scheme. Skin tones are nicely done too.

Maybe a little colour to bring out the plumes is my only advice.

[Malys the younger]

Thanks!

As far as the plumes I wasn't sure what would work best. I didn't want to put in Kantor Blue highlights and overdo that effect and I also didn't want to lose the black with too much gray highlighting. Maybe pick out a few individual strands with a red or something?

[Darkprincess]

I love the Cold One Knights and the Black Guard units. I like the silver and gold scheme on the armour. That's similar to the kind of scheme I use on my Druchii. In particular, I think your BG look amazing, with really terrific detail and highlighting on the armour and cloaks. I also like your sorceress - that's a very good attempt at NMM (a technique that I have never managed to master, despite much effort) and the light sourcing on her hand is a nice touch as well.

If I may be permitted to make one slight observation though, I feel that the paint on her skin appears to be a tad on the thick side, particularly evident in the back view. Perhaps thinning the paint just a touch would result in a smoother finish (I'm not the best person to comment on this sort of thing though as I also have a tendency not to thin my paints quite as much as perhaps I should. Other than that, I really like your army, and shall be watching this thread closely for inspiration.

[Malys the younger]

Thanks for looking and the comments. I try to thin my paints on a wet pallet using a 2 or 3:1 paint to water ratio. I think part of it might be the stark contrast between highlighted portions and the shaded areas and perhaps the lighting filter on the last photo you mentioned. I'll certainly continue to refine my technique though! Thanks again!

[Sabious]

Solid unit of black guards right there. Well executed!

[Malys the younger]

Dark Shards for May.




Now for June, here is my Kharibdyss. This was actually the second monster I painted this month. The model kind of intimidated me anyway and I knew that I wanted to use it as the first project for my airbrush so that didn't help. If it wasn't for this challenge there's no telling when I may have gotten around to painting it. I found a "dead fish" looking scheme online that I wanted to emulate. I figured that this was the best opportunity to paint something that doesn't necessarily look like everything else on the table and to make it really stand out. Someone on this forum (I'm thinking maybe SaintofM a while back) was talking about bioluminescence and I thought that would be an interesting idea for the kharibdyss, particularly its tentacles, so I tried some object source lighting inside each of them. I can imagine this guy hanging out in some deep murky cave with its tentacles poised to strike as curious prey. I think the OSL look on the back of the tentacle looks a little harsh, I think I would have been better off glazing it instead. I added some plexiglass pieces to the base to see if they would look like small frozen puddles.







Primed white
Belly: Airbrushed Reaper Master Series Misty Grey, Nuln Oil, Dry brushed Dawnstone, Administratum Grey, Reaper MSP White
Scales: Airbrushed Reaper MSP Black, Spray highlight with Reaper Clotted Red, Nuln Oil, Dry brushed with Clotted Red
Spines/Fins: Clotted Red, Nuln Oil, Dry brushed Troll Slayer Orange, Fire Dragon Bright, Flash Gitz Yellow
Claws: Karak Stone, Agrax Earthshade, highlight Karak Stone
Tongue: Khorne Red, Nuln Oil, highlight Khorne Red
Tentacle lighting: Ice blue, 50/50 Ice Blue/White, White wash

The elves are the same as the rest of my army other than the vests:
Vests: Caliban Green, Loren Green, Athonian Camoshade, Highlight Loren Green, Highlight Warboss Green.

[T.D.]

Sweet Army

[Ilmaestro]

Really digging the muted colours on the Kharibdyss there! And I really like the frozen puddle on the base, it's a nice touch

[Malys the younger]

@T.D & Ilmaestro, thanks! The monthly painting challenge has really gotten me motivated to get my army painted.

[Malys the younger]

My Shades follow the same scheme as the rest of my army except for the cloaks. The mantles were painted Abaddon Black, shaded with Nuln Oil, and highlighted with Eshen Grey. The cloak itself was painted Eshen Grey, shaded with Nuln Oil, and highlighted with Eshen Grey and Dawnstone Grey. These models were the first time I got to use the Soul Stone Blue technical paint and I'm generally happy with the effect. The Pallid Wych Flesh skin looks much starker in these photos than it does in regular light.




Additionally, I had some extra snow mix left over so I decided to tune up an old terrain piece I made years ago. I added the snow and filled in the rune with Khorne Red, picked out corners with 50/50 Khorne Red/Model Color White, then a final highlight with pure white. Afterwards I filled it in with Blood for the Blood God to tone it all down.




As always I look forward to your feedback.

[Shadowspite]

Nice work. You should really tidy up the edges of the models' bases, though.

[Malys the younger]

I know, the camera really catches the flaws the eye misses, like that I forgot to add static grass I added some grass last night and I'll touch up the bases/rub spots when I get home from work. Thanks for looking!

[Amboadine]

Very nice work, static grass will be a nice finishing touch.
Will you be reposting pictures?

[Malys the younger]

Since you asked I will; I'll try to get them up tonight.

[squirrelloid]

One of the RXB soldiers with a sword looks like he's about to play his RXB like a violin. That's actually kind of cool, and a whole unit playing with that kind of look could be awesome.

[Shadowspite]

Play her rxb like a violin, I think you'll find.

[Malys the younger]

One of the RXB soldiers with a sword looks like he's about to play his RXB like a violin. That's actually kind of cool, and a whole unit playing with that kind of look could be awesome.

Ha! I didn't notice before but now I'll never look at her the same way!