DAARK RISING

 

The Khornate champion swung at Kaleb with his axe, it was clumsy and predictable, Kaleb easily dodged the blow and brought Dreadaxe down on the champions head where his axe bit deep and drank the soul of the champion. The fight had been short as Kaleb suckered the champion in pretending not to notice his loud approach, even a beastman would have heard his heavy footsteps, and they're not the brightest creature in the region.

As Dreadaxe finished sucking out the soul, Kaleb felt the call of his master Malal, he moved swiftly to a more secure area, were he could perform the ritual to summon his master without fear of a surprise attack. He set down and performed the ritual as he had done so many times before, and soon his master appeared before him.

"You have done well Kaleb, dispatching so many twisted souls for me, since entering the Northern Wastes."

"There are many more to be dispatched though, and their numbers seem to be increasing."

"Aye the allure of the ruinous powers is strong, and can corrupt the hearts of men easily, but I have a new task for you."

"Where do you want to send me now ? Lustria ?"

" No, somewhere a lot further than that, Falcos VI"

" Is that an Empire outpost ?"

" No it's a world in the Eastern Fringes of Space"

" What !"

"Kaleb, there is so much that your little mind does not know or understand, just know that this is my bidding and you need to do as you are told."

" And how do I get to this OTHER WORLD FLY ?"

" Tomorrow you will head deeper into the wastes and will find a portal, this will transport you to your destination, once there I will contact you again and give you more instructions."

" Which of the powers am I hunting this time ?"

" The Prince of Pleasure, but you will need some new equipment, to complete this mission."

A blue light formed into a bubble, and then dissipated, leaving a large pile of equipment.

" I have a new set of Chaos armour that will make it easier to blend in on this world, I have also replaced your broken shield with a Plasma Pistol, and as a transport you have a bike."

" I hope this pistol is more reliable than the Empire ones, but I'd rather have a horse than that thing !Don't they use horses where your sending me ?"

"They do but the bike is faster, but as you wish, a new steed will be with you by Morning, I suggest you get adjusted to your new armour, as it might be a bit of a shock ! 

Malal bellowed a laugh.

Above is just a short story to give a reason on why Kaleb Daark would be in the 40K universe, and why would I do that, well I thought it would be fun to have him in some 40K games, and as such created a model for him. It took a while to find the relevant parts to make him from, the horse came from the old Archahon model, the backpack was from Doomrider, some plastic chaos pieces, and the head was from a space marine veteran sergeant. then some details were added with greenstuff, like the long half of his hair, Dreadaxe, and some other little details.

Kept the colours similar to the original art, so mostly black and white, I liked the cracked earth base that came with the horse, as it looked like the earth was corrupting against his presence and added in a molten lava effect. That's all for this post, so until next time stay safe and have fun !

Cheers Dave

NOW YOU SEE ME

 In the first Dark Eldar codex Mandrakes had Chameleon abilities and could easily blend into the background, by codex two they had changed quite a bit, here's what they say now :

A Mandrake is a foul humanoid creature who was once one of the Drukhari of Commorragh that lurk within the darkest corners of the Webway's labyrinthine confines. Its name is a translation into Imperial Low Gothic of a word in the Aeldari Lexicon.

The Mandrakes can be found in Aelindrach, a region of Commorragh. Literally fallen into shadow, it is one of the several districts of Commorragh that exists in more than one dimension at once. In Aelindrach, shadows thicken and writhe as living things, flowing into one another and attempting to capture those that venture into the district.

It is in Aelindrach that Mandrakes and Shaderavens make their lairs. Rumour has it that somewhere in Aelindrach lies a portal to a world where shade-daemons exist who can freeze the soul with but a touch.

This vile breed of their species is secretly feared even by other Drukhari, for a Mandrake can pull itself into any region of space-time through another being's shadow, emerging with a sibilant hiss to sink its frigid claws and teeth into flesh.

Their ebony skins writhe with blasphemous runes and their faces shift and flow, one moment a featureless mask, the next parting to reveal a maw filled with sharpened teeth. Mandrakes exist both in realspace and a cursed shadow world that may be a part of the Immaterium. To fight them is to combat a living shadow.

In my original tournament army I had a unit of 5, as the look and rules changed a lot, the original models are now in my Bloodbrides unit, and the bases have been utilised in my Reaver squads. So now I have 5 new models made from Empire flagellants as the basis  and a lot of green stuff to make these. The first 3 all have Balefire at the ready.

The other 2 I went for them holding their weapons two handed, to add some variation, I've also not done sigils all over on some to give the impression of them lighting up at varying times.

With this unit now complete, I only have a vehicle for the Kabal, and Beatmasters and beasts for the Wyches left to do, bar the beasts, I have a good chance of finishing these before the new year, which was my target goal. That's all for this post, so until next time stay safe and have fun !

Cheers Dave

LEVEL UP

Recently on Brian's blog ( if you like D&D, Blood Bowl and Sci-Fi check out his blog doubledowndice ) he asked if I'd show how I would teach someone to paint, now as many of you know I'm always happy to answer questions, now when I teach I always try and tailor it to the individual, so for this instance I'm going with someone who can do neat base layers, and knows what a wash is, but would like to know more. This is currently how I approach all my gaming figures.

STEP 1 base layer, I approach all my models as layers, so any skin would be the base layer, as it's the lowest point on a model

A) first I lay down a layer of the darker shade of skin tone I'm going to use, in this instance it was GW Kislev Flesh

B) Next I gave a even coverage of GW Reikland Fleshade as a wash.

C) At this point I do the eyes, why ? as they are recessed and you clip the cheekbones with the paint, it can be rectified in later steps, so first is the white, then dots of black for the eyes.

D) now I go back in with the base flesh colour, leaving areas of the fleshwash showing to give shade.

E) Finally I add a lighter shade of flesh tone, as a highlight, now unlike some tutorials, I don't say highlight all the flesh, only where the light w3ould hit if shinning directly above the model, this will add more shadow to the model, and a sense of realism.

STEP 2 Clothing, is the next level, now on this model I wanted black undersuit, now if I want a pure black look I won't highlight it, as higlighting can often look chalky on black.

STEP 3 Armour is the next layer as it sits on top of the clothing.

A) first I did a layer of GW Mournfang Brown as the base layer to the armour.

B) The next layer I left an edge of the previous layer showing between any ridges and armour plates of GW XV-88, any areas that would be in shadow I left bigger gaps.

C) Finally I highlighted all the armour with GW Ushabti Bone leaving areas of both the previous two layers showing, and larger in areas that would be in shadow.

STEP 4 Details, there are many little details that may be on your model that need to be picked out.

A) The lips, this was just a single colour following the shape of the lips to make them look like they have lipstick on.

B) Pipes, this model has lots of pipes on it delivering the Wych drugs, I used Vallejo Livery Green as a base, then used a green glaze to add some subtle shading.

STEP 5 Weapons, on this model the weapon is easy to get to, and was done last, on other models you may need to do this earlier.

A) over the base layer of black I applied a layer of GW Caliban green, leaving black showing in all the creases, with larger areas on the underside as it would be in shadow.

B) a thick highlighting of Vallejo Scurf Green was then added over the top half, and a thin highlight on the underside.

C) A fine highlight of Vallejo Jade Green was then added to the top half of the weapon only.

Now obviously when approaching a model you need to asses where you need to do these steps, as I mentioned above, sometimes you may need to do the weapon earlier as it could have cloth over it, hope you find this useful.

Until next time stay safe and have fun !

Cheers Dave

BRING YOUR DAUGHTERS TO THE SLAUGHTER

 Today I have the last models of the Wych Cult I needed to finish The Daughters of the Veil, these are Hekatrix Bloodbrides that are sworn to protect their Succubus(leader)  there is only 4 of them as they will be riding on a Venom, which carries 5. The first two models came with the Venom model and are normally crew models you can show hanging off the sides of the vehicle, after a bit of a conversion to make them look more like my other Bloodbrides, these models suited.

Next I converted a Kabalite warrior that was part of the crew for a raider, into a Hydra gauntlets wielding Wych.

This last model was a scratch build to make the Syren (squad leader) for the unit, I really wanted a pose that defies gravity, she is supported by the whip alone.

I still have the Beastmasters and beasts to do but they are a sub cult, not pure Wyches, so another section now finished, that's all for this post, so until next time stay safe and have fun !

Cheers Dave

FINNISH WITH A FURRY FACE

 As November draws to a close I have one last Movember post, when I received the Bespin Gambit box set for my Birthday in October, I realised I would have plenty of entries for this years challenge, as I've already shown the Ugnaughts, here now is the Bespin Guard that also came in the set. All six models are supplied the same, so I decided early on I would do multiple skin tones, to add variation, and would be totally fitting to the guards in the movie. I also changed the full beard to a goatee on three of them and then did these in multiple skin tones as well. 

For anyone who doesn't know these appeared in the movie "The Empire Strikes Back" and were on the cloud city Bespin, they were the local law enforcement, and under Lando's direction rose up against the Empire with the help of Lobot, to free Leia, Chewbacca and C3PO.

Below is the reference picture I based the uniform on.

This now concludes my entries for Movember for another year, and not a bad number for this year. In other news this is my 400 th post, never thought I'd get to this high a number !LOL so until next time stay safe and have fun !

Cheers Dave

WINTER IS COMING

 When I do painted models for customers, I don't show them very often, as how many times can you show the same piece before it get's boring ! LOL Today's piece is a custom piece, so wanted to show it. The customer is playing Frostgrave, so wanted some deep snow drifts on a set of ruined walls, he sent me some reference pictures to have an idea what he was looking for. The walls and snow drifts were made from foam core, and I also used some greenstuff to be able to put footprints in.

I really enjoyed building and painting this, as it was an interesting challenge. That's all for this post so until next time stay safe and have fun !

Cheers Dave

GOATEE

 Some more models for Movember today, these are Beastmen. When I was looking for models for my mutant unit, I had run out of suitable models from GorkaMorka and Necromunda, and was wondering what I could use, and then thought Beastmen are a form of Mutation, a stable one but still a mutation, so I got the warband from Mordheim, as they seemed to be big on looting. The first picture are the four with face hair.

These next four have no face hair, I separated the two to make it easier for Roger when he does his round up.

All the models had conversions done to give them firearms rather than hand weapons, with the completion of these I've got 10 more mutants to do, and then this army is finished.

That's all for this post, so until next time stay safe and have fun !

Cheers Dave