The Plog of Jericho

[Solun Decius]

Whoa, that's some scary stuff. Very well done and characterful models, both of them.

[Satan]

Whoa, that's some scary stuff. Very well done and characterful models, both of them.

Thanks!

I originally intended to update much, much sooner, but I got sidetracked by the need to finish a couple of minis for the upcoming Gothcon tournament next week. I'd totally forgotten how long it takes to paint wood elves, and I've only got two riders to show for my efforts so far! Luckily I also did the groundworks on another 5 WE models so I think I'll finish those as well before moving on to the toad dragon again.

These two will feature as nobles on great eagles in the tournament next week. They're a kitbash from DE Scourges and Hellions with some GG parts thrown in:

[Satan]

Pics taken with the iphone, which sadly doesn't have that good a macro-function, but it does the trick in most cases:

[Daniel36]

Dude, that is the sickest Warhawk Rider conversion that I have EVER seen. Almost makes me inspired enough to finally do mine... I say almost because I am far too lazy and anxious to get to work with the new Empire stuff, but still. Nice paintjob too. Looks like your colour scheme very closely resembles my own. I love what you did with the shield by the way.

I notice that you are going to use them as Great Eagles... I was thinking of doing the same (as Warhawks kind of... mehhh) but I am a little scared that they are too small to work as Great Eagles... On the other hand... One Great Eagle to another, size may differ anyways... Right? And are Great Eagles really all that much bigger normally than Warhawks?

[Satan]

Dude, that is the sickest Warhawk Rider conversion that I have EVER seen. Almost makes me inspired enough to finally do mine... I say almost because I am far too lazy and anxious to get to work with the new Empire stuff, but still. Nice paintjob too. Looks like your colour scheme very closely resembles my own. I love what you did with the shield by the way.

I notice that you are going to use them as Great Eagles... I was thinking of doing the same (as Warhawks kind of... mehhh) but I am a little scared that they are too small to work as Great Eagles... On the other hand... One Great Eagle to another, size may differ anyways... Right? And are Great Eagles really all that much bigger normally than Warhawks?

Thank you! I really dig the new DE models and I hope to paint some up as wood elf "knights" and waywatchers as well in the future.

Regarding the shield I was pressed for time so it is a sort of a rush job, but I'd previously used the "golden circles" on all sorts of banners throughout the army so I figured I'd simply stick with it. Not optimal, but it'll have to do as he's supposed to be wearing "heavy" armour. That's what the armour studs are for.

I can't recall if the newest great eagle models are much bigger than the warhawks, but the old ones, which GW still sells and encourages you to use as eagles - definitively aren't. They're smaller. I heard that great eagles nowadays are shipped with 50mm bases, whereas they used to be supplied with 40mm bases back in the day. If true, I think it will really affect their usefulness, as a T4 on a 50mm-base isn't all that great for running circles around enemy units IMO.

At the time of release, the warhawks were actually bigger than those great eagles available at the time IIRC, which were supplied with 40mm bases. Now, should GW consider releasing a new PLASTIC great eagle then I'd bother to pick one up.

[aku-chan]

That one with the guy hanging off his eagle is amazing.

[Satan]

Hey team, been a couple of very busy weeks (work) and I can't believe it's monday tomorrow again.

Ended up 28th out of 60 at Gothcon, so not too bad. The top scoring lists were both mobile WE lists though, so I either can't have been doing it right or maybe I went off in the wrong direction with a high comp (soft) list.

Give.new.army.book.now.

Anyway, I got this to bring home with me:



So I'm happy!

Been working on the remaining hawk rider and others.

Undercoating the toad dragon in brown is taking forever too... Hope to have the WE finished this week and then get painting the body of the toadie in the main colour after that.

[Satan]

And here are the commanders of the evil beardz:



Darn FW for letting me down again with some annoying flash on the Sorcerer. Had to partially re-sculpt the upper lip, carve out a fang and then add some teeth with blops of green stuff. Apart from that these miniatures are really sweet and insanely detailed, though I opted out of the headdress on the sorcerer.

So that's 3 sorcerers/hellsmiths in total and 3 Castellans (BSB). I think I'm covered on that front.

And as everyone knows, you can't have too many toads:

[leonmallett]

Like those Eagle riders a lot. Very nice work.

[Satan]

Thanks Leon!

Haven't finished any painting since the last time, too much work, but been building a few Chaos Dwarves, including this Magma Cannon:



And converted a fireglaive champion from some character leftovers:



Back to work on those WE and the toad dragon now...

[bluewolf74727]

nice jod all round nice to see gothcon liked your painting now you need to crack on and do some more so we can look at all the prity pictures

[Satan]

Been hammering away at the wood elves. Just the metals to go now, so next time you'll see them they'll be all done!

God I dislike painting metals from scratch... don't you ever find that metallics is mostly something you just "have to" do in order to finish a miniature? Of course, I enjoy painting weird metallics, like metallic blue or a heavily armoured chaos warrior where you can experiment with gore and whatnot dripping off of him, but generally I find that painting metals consists of pretty much:

Boltgun basecoat
Chainmail highlight
Maybe a wash somewhere
Edge highlight mithril silver

I think the process pretty much the same even if you end up using a brass basecoat.

Unable to keep my greedy mittens off them, here's a test miniature for the Chaos Dwarves, shot at 9 pm, just before dipping...





...just how the end result turns out you and me both will find out tomorrow when it's dried...

[Brother Muninn]

I know it's been said, but that parasailing Warhawk rider is excellent, and congratulations on the well deserved win at Gothcon.

I really like the Chaos Dwarves minis to begin with, so I'm excited to see how well yours turn out. Consider me subbed.

~Muninn

[Satan]

I know it's been said, but that parasailing Warhawk rider is excellent, and congratulations on the well deserved win at Gothcon.

I really like the Chaos Dwarves minis to begin with, so I'm excited to see how well yours turn out. Consider me subbed.

~Muninn

Thank you! I'm in the finishing stages of another 2 warhawk riders - but I wish GW would hurry up and release a plastic Great Eagle kit! I've been using my warhawks as great eagles, for tactical purposes if nothing else, and wouldn't want to buy yet ANOTHER metal bird. I've also heard it said that new eagles are on 50mm-bases, which IMO might have an impact on their usefulness in the game.

Here's how the little beardy one turned out post-dipping (remember - he's not been matte-varnished yet!), not a huge difference, but nice enough. I think the future ones will be a little bit brighter though. The shoulder pads and torso armour were originally painted in a bronze colour which seems to have been washed out somewhat by the dip. But I think it goes well enough with the artwork of them in the book. The question is whether to paint them all with the same armour colours or wether to vary them? I think I'll vary the helmets between bronze and plain metal TBH. I used the Army Painter Strong tone.

There will also be an increased level of contrast as they'll have snow basing on them. I think I'll apply the snow basing prior to varnishing. Anyone with any experience of that?

Oh, and points to anyone who can guess which runes I painted on his shield and why! (In two minds about whether I should apply another highlight to them and add som arrows).

[mrtn]

Nice stunty.

[Karak Norn Clansman]

Good colour scheme on the Chaos Dwarf and nice painting on the Wood Elves! Glancing on the futhark, I think you've written "FL" on the shield. I was half expecting "FU".

What does FL stand for? Fire Legion? Flaming Longbeards? Father's Lies? Freaking Legion? Face Lost (in effect ashamed, fallen from grace)? Fried Losers? Fateful Legend?

[mdiscala]

Great shield on that eagle rider.

[juicytomatoes]

I go away for a while and what do you go and do? Bring back a nice big trophy... *grumble grumble*

Seriously, congrats on getting that huge cup. And those warhawk riders are just EXCELLENT! I especially like the one with the elf sliding on the underbelly of the hawk. Very exciting composition.

[Satan]

Nice stunty.

Thanks! Keep on stuntin'!

Good colour scheme on the Chaos Dwarf and nice painting on the Wood Elves! Glancing on the futhark, I think you've written "FL" on the shield. I was half expecting "FU".

What does FL stand for? Fire Legion? Flaming Longbeards? Father's Lies? Freaking Legion? Face Lost (in effect ashamed, fallen from grace)? Fried Losers? Fateful Legend?

Those are all perfect suggestions! Though in the end I opted for my own initials, but "Face Lost" is actually pretty great! Might be I'll go with that as a theme now, thanks to you! It's also suitable, because we often use words to the effect of "losing face" when talking about someone's personal public disgrace up here in the north.

Great shield on that eagle rider.

Thanks! It's just random lines of gold. I've done the same thing on the others and TBH didn't quite know what to make of it. It was looking pretty grim at one point... but in the end it turned out pretty OK I think.

I go away for a while and what do you go and do? Bring back a nice big trophy... *grumble grumble*

Seriously, congrats on getting that huge cup. And those warhawk riders are just EXCELLENT! I especially like the one with the elf sliding on the underbelly of the hawk. Very exciting composition.

Thanks! Prolly won't be any more trophies now until I either finish the CD (and if people turn out to be willing to hand over trophies to "dipped" armies), opt for 40k (you've sen my daemons haven't you?) or GW decide to release a new WE army book, making them a feasible option for me again. ;-)

Oh, and you'll love this then - I finished the remaining 2 warhawk riders and am now in possession of a unit of 4. Having once used them as great eagles they've now metamorphed into their original intended state. Now we only pray for GW to release plastic eagles... BTW, can anyone confirm that new great eagles do indeed come with 50mm bases?





Not entirely pleased with the pose on this one, but it was the only one possible. Couldn't get it to work around the neck or hanging off the tail. The "chain" was also way too short to leave her standing on the back of the bird.





Group shot:





Also finished up a couple of glade guards I'd had standing around undercoated for YEARS:

[Satan]

Also bought this gal when she came out (nigh on a year ago, no?) as I instantly saw the potential for a floating wood elf mage in her. Could've done more with a pattern on the hem of her skirt, but I didn't dare to "wing it" so to speak.





If I can find a suitable effect for her hand I'll probably add some green speel effect to it in the future.

Now this here's one of my all-time favourite miniature poses ever. I love how menacing he is, with a simple, subtle yet confident stance. And the wind blowing in his hair just makes him look like something out of the mono-myth.

I painted his cloak to match the scales on my dragon so I could make him pass as an elven dragon slayer/walker/rider-thingie. I figure he'll see action as a noble or alter noble on foot when the new book turns up.





That's all for today folks! Now I'll get back to Tamurkhan and the toad dragon. He's been standing around with his brown undercoat for a month now...