Testing...testing

So I've spent the last couple of weeks testing things on the painting front just to get a feel for what I like in terms of colours and whether the images in my head actually looks as good as I thought when done for real. As the Hobby Fiend can attest I have a vivid and twisted imagination, so it's always good to have a go on one model before committing to a whole unit.

The first unit that I've been working on is my Witch Elves. I think these are great models and were a lot of fun to paint. As you can see I've tried to continue the same scheme that I used for the sorceress. I've gone with the Bone/Yellow for the majority of the metallics with Purple as the main colour and Turquoise as the spot colour. I had a really hard time
trying to work out where the Turquoise would sit on the models, however I think it works well, but it does tend to mean that the purple is very hard to notice, particularly from the front.

These girls are about 90% done as I haven't put a wash through their hair after the clean up. One thing I am wondering is what are people's formulas for shading and highlighting black? At this stage any flat areas I've left the undercoat, however it seems I should do more. For the hair I've just gone with Adeptus Battle Grey and then washed it with Badab Black.

I'm also considering going an extra lighter highlight on the skin as these Witches look like they're spent some time in the solarium, which I'm don't mind so much, I would love to hear people's opinion though.


I've also been working on my Executioners (well one at least) and I was pleasantly surprised at how quickly I painted him, (I think an 90mins or so) but then I realised how little there is to paint on him with multiple layers. Anyway it gives me hope that this is a unit that I'll be able to get done pretty quickly which is always nice. I think these models are great and will look fantastic once they're finished and ranked up together. I've also managed to put together a unit filler, because I have 20 from 2 boxes and need 21 for my list so I didn't want to fork out $70 for the sake of one model. Anyway when it's done I'll post that too.

So continuing on the theme for the whole army I've tried for a main colour of Purple with Bone replacing most of the metallics and Turquoise as the highlight colour. I should mention that all the metallics I'm doing in the army are simply Chainmail with a Black wash.

Anyway that's it for me, as always feedback is appreciated and I look forward to seeing you guys at Convic!

Welcome Back...to the Dark Side!

 

 

 

So I've finally gotten around to posting again at the request of my many fans (I'm looking at you Hobby Fiend!) As many who listen to the Dwellers Below would know, I have started my Dark Elf army in preparation for Castle Assault in November. I originally wanted to keep it a secret in order to build excitement for the reveal, however I have since come to realise that nobody really gives a shit so I'll hopefully be posted my progress on here regularly.

 

As things stand I have assembled and started the basing on 5 Cold One Knights, 21 Executioners, 30 Witch Elves and 10 Corsairs and 5 Warlocks. I've also painted a few models from each unit. I lost a lot of momentum around May and so things really slowed down, I was also changing my style by only assembling and painting a few models at a time. I have since realised that this is a stupid idea, as I would finish painting a few models and then would need to spend a long time putting stuff together again. Consequently I've decided to assemble everything I have for a couple of reasons; 1 I can still paint a couple models from each unit to keep me fresh, and 2 I can actually start to get a few practice games in before October.

So I guess a Blog Post isn't a Blog Post without any pictures what I've included here are the pictures of my Supreme Sorceress. She demonstrates what will be my colour scheme for the whole army, Yellow/Bone for the weapon hilts etc, Purple as the main colour and Hawk Turquoise as the "Spot" or "detail" colour.  As always, feedback is appreciated.

It is my goal to update at least fortnightly with my progress!

Here comes the Cavalry!

Just a quick update! World Series is fast approaching and after spending the day battling Bali belly I'm happy to say that my first 4 Silver helms are done, with only the horses to go on the next 4! As u read last time I wasn't too happy with how they were coming together, but I have to say, true to the wisdom of the Hobby Fiend now that they are done they do look better than expected. I still think individually they aren't my best work, but combined in the unit the colours are really striking and the WL heads really add another dimension.

In other news I'm not sure I'll get the prince and BSB done by Saturday as I really don't want to rush them, but I'll definitely keep posting updates on them and they'll also be able to be seen on the tourney scene next year.

The end...or the beginning? Most probably the middle

So it's end of October and so I guess that means that I fail. As I write this I am 100% done with the Spears and the Archers (except for basing) but am only about 80% through the Silver Helms and haven't started on the characters yet. I'll be honest I'm quite happy with my achievement thus far, and personally I've always been aiming for World Series rather than October as such, and to be honest I'm confident I'll still get there. I've learnt a lot over this month and it has definitely given me some confidence on how much I can get done if I set my mind and calendar to it.

I have to admit I am disappointed with the quality of work I've done thus far. I'm really pleased with my archers and reasonably satisfied with my spears but must admit I'm pretty disappointed with my Silver Helms. They just don't seem to be coming together for me. I'm not very good about knowing where to place the highlights and have to admit the lack of clear definition between areas on the models has made it really hard for me to create a neat and clean finish on the minis. Hopefully once I finish the steeds and add the details such as rubies they will look a little better, but no matter how many layers etc I do on the metallics they just seem to come up uneven and messy. Ah well I'll keep going doing the best I can. So I've got a couple weeks to go and hopefully when you are at World Series you can all judge for yourself.

Of course I'm going to keep posting as often as I can.

I'm still here!

So I must admit I've been a little sloppy with my updates, that is not, however because I haven't been making progress. In fact I think I've made quite a bit. As I write this I have completely finished my Spears (apart from the basing and attaching shields) and am about 77.58% through my Silver Helms.
Although neither units look as good as I'd hoped I still think they look ok.

What I realised while painting all of these old kits is that the minis are very unforgiving when it comes to painting. Their details aren't great and there are a lot of ridges and inconsistencies in the sculpts. There is also a lot of areas that seem to blend into each other so there is actually no definition between areas like cloaks and pants. As a result I think that one needs to be an exceptional painter to make them look really good. Because the sculpts on newer kits are so good and so well defined techniques like drybrushing and washes work really well, which helps a mediocre painter like me. This is however only a theory of mine and I'm interested to hear if anyone else finds this with the older minis.

The other thing I struggled with was getting depth into the metallic armour colour I used. I've both drybrushed different layers and used the spray and wash techniques (which I've used for Duelling Paintbrushes) and in either case I've found it hard to get great depth in the metal colours.

I also have to apologise because I've gotten so caught up in my painting that I never actually took work in progress photos for the minis, I do have some finished products here (minus the shoulder pads which arrived post these photos, and I'm too tired to take more) Hopefully I can update you guys again tomorrow.

Slow and steady...

Come at me bro/Dark Elves

So FINALLY I have finished my 15 Archers!!!!! Well...99.67% of the way. I still need to do bases and put the Transfer on the banner, but I'm doing that for the whole force at once.

I have to admit they took A LOT longer than I expected. I think there were a couple of factors that contributed to this;
1. Primarily I underestimated how much work they actually needed. I made a commitment to myself before taking this challenge that I wanted these models (the whole 1000) to be the best I'd produced yet, as such I modelled a lot more details on than I normally would and decided that I would paint all of the details. This is something I often don't do to save time and also because previously I didn't have the confidence in my ability to pick out details etc without ruining other parts of the mini that I'd already completed.
2. I lost a lot of time through work, bad news, and unexpected visits. I think overall I would've lost at least a week's worth of painting hours.

Overall however I'm really happy with how they turned out, and have definitely think they are amongst the best units I've produced, and certainly are the best Archers I have.

I decided not to go the extra highlight of Red just yet as I liked the contrast at the moment. That may change as the I complete more units. So I guess the next step is to start on the Spears. As I've said before I think these guys will be a lot quicker as 87.65% of the model is covered in armour which I've sprayed and washed already, so hopefully a week from now they're done too.

Now for my closeups!

I became a little attached to this guy, ended up being my favourite

Progress!

So what an experience it has been so far in DPIII! At the end of the day, regardless of whether I'm successful or not I have definitely had some fun so far! I promised earlier on that I would share my list for World Series once Hobby Fiend and I had had a chance to balance them. This hasn't occurred yet, but I thought I'd share the primary list, and also what I'm hoping to expand it too.

So here's the 1,500 as it stands;

Prince: Ogre Blade; Dragonhelm; Dawnstone; Potion of Foolhardiness; Elven Steed (Ithilmar barding); heavy armour; shield. 256

Noble: Sword of Might; Enchanted Shield; Golden Crown of Atrazar; heavy armour; Battle Standard. 134

Mage: Dispel Scroll; Level 2 Wizard, High Magic. 145

20 Spearmen: Sentinel; musician; standard bearer. 210

15 Archers: musician; standard bearer. 170

8 Silver Helms: High Helm; musician; standard bearer; shields. 214

15 White Lions of Chrace: Guardian; musician; standard bearer. 225

Eagle Claw Bolt Thrower 70
Eagle Claw Bolt Thrower 70

1,494 points

And here is where I want to get it to;

Prince: Giant Blade; Dragonhelm; Dawnstone; Elven Steed (Ithilmar barding); heavy armour; shield. 271
Archmage: Book of Hoeth; Talisman of Endurance; Ironcurse Icon; Level 4 Wizard. 310

Noble: Star Lance; Enchanted Shield; The Other Trickster's Shard; Elven Steed (Ithilmar barding); Dragon armour; Battle Standard. 170
Mage: Khaine's Ring of Fury; Level 2 Wizard. 145

8 Silver Helms: High Helm; musician; standard bearer; shields. 214
30 Spearmen: musician; standard bearer. 290
5 Ellyrian Reavers: musician. 90

20 White Lions of Chrace: Guardian; musician; standard bearer (Banner of the World Dragon). 340

Frostheart Phoenix 240
Eagle Claw Bolt Thrower 70
Eagle Claw Bolt Thrower 70
Eagle Claw Bolt Thrower 70
Eagle Claw Bolt Thrower 70
1 Great Eagle 50

2,400 points

Of course I have a lot of this stuff ready to go, but if I continue to enjoy the new colour scheme and consistent painting this much then I'll probably end up fill out the whole list.

So anyway the last week or so I've been working almost exclusively on Archers. It's been a difficult week, as due to circumstances out of my control I've lost at least half my planned painting time. My original plan was to have them finished last weekend, which didn't happen, however I'm confident that by the end of Sunday this week I'll have finished the Archers and made a good start on the Spears. I'm not too concerned given that I think that the Archers will definitely be the most time consuming of the units due to big areas of colour and in particular white.

My plan for the Archers was to do the red completely, as this was the biggest part of the model. Hobby Fiend gave me a really good 3 stage technique for the Red, which was Memphiston Red Base, Devlan Mud Wash, Mephiston Red or Evil Suns Scarlet Highlight. I changed it just a little as I thought it was a big jump from one to the other, so my 2nd paint layer I went with a 50/50 Mephiston Evil Suns mix. I'm not sure that this has ended up a little dull, but there is scope for more highlighting, I'd love to hear thoughts.

Mephiston with a wash

Washed and Layered with the mix
plus some other base coats

After I did the red I went about complete all the other basecoats on the model. I'm not sure if it's the right way to go about things, but I find it useful because it gives me the chance to clean up any mistakes I make along the way. It's served me pretty well so far. I've also finished the White on one mini as a test, I normally do a base, wash and then 2 layers, but I tired to just go white over the base here (I think the base is Ulthuan Grey, not sure though) and I'm quite pleased with the result. Again I would like thoughts. I like bold colours like that, as long as the contrast isn't too great, as I think a cartoon type colour style can really pop on the table top.

You can see in these pictures a little clearer that I've also completed the hair. I'm planning to do the white on all the rest of the unit last, as I think a neat and bold white is really striking and also because it's really hard to patch white if your brush slips while doing other colours!

Finally I've made some progress on the Spears as well. I've managed to spray them with chainmail and wash them with Badab. These guys I anticipate being much quicker to complete as most of them is already done from the spray.





Guess it's time to get back to painting now. Hopefully now that this crazy work week is nearly done I'll be able to keep you all up to date a little better.

As always feedback is appreciated.