I almost completed my first two units, all I have to do about the dark riders is neaten up the base edges, and I need to paint two more crossbow blokes (I didn't have enough shields back when I painted the other eight). Colours are a bit darker than they are in "real life".

Dark Riders:







Crossbows:






The painting is quick and easy. Spent a bit more time on basing to get away with fast painting.

The idea of this army was to try out (and heavily abuse) Citadel Foundation paints and the new Citadel Washes. Almost everything is painted with foundation paints, or a mix including foundation paints, washed once, and highlighted again with the same colour as the base layer. Few exceptions here and there, but that's basicly it.

As for the small white details, I'm a big fan of putting something bright into your model to make it look less boring. For example, the white lining on the legs of the dark riders and the white runes on the shields of the xbows make the models look less boring, and in combination with the bright basing + yellow grass it makes the models "pop" (sort of).


If anyone would like I could do a turtourial on how I do my basing. C&C is appreciated!

nice poses very dynamic

imho the horses are looking too heavy as for a light and fast cav

I have updated the first post. Thanks for reading my blog.

Update, kind of ^^

Pics of the CoKs + master on dark steed, for my 500 pts tourney force.


Knights, had one pair of legs missing, so I bought the metal dreadlord as champion. It's a nice model and I wanted to paint it anyways




My master on dark steed. I had a 100 point limit to work with, so he got a dark steed, lance and heavy armor. I didn't want him to look too fragile inbetween the dark riders, so I took a nice large steed for him. The legs on the steed were a bit larger than I expected them to be. It doesn't really matter either since it's a "one use only" model (just for this tourney). My friends nicknamed him to Mr. Chunkylegs

And again, C&C is appreciated.

Wow, I have the feeling I'm talking to myself.


Anyways, small update, painted up a test harpy (about 20 minutes work), Here's a quick picture:



And again, C&C is appreciated.

So, 200ish views, and not a single one could be arsed to post a reply? -.^ Maybe I should stop this blog, since no one cares about it anyways...

Don't fret Sarcon, we care... honestly. Are you using bits of cork for your rocks because they are looking awesome.

I really like your models. The painting, while not massively detailed, is consistently neat and attractive, which, combined with the nice conversions and superb basework (kudos, I can never be bothered), gives a uniform look.

Bonus points for the metal on the dark riders' spears and the runes on the crossbowmen's shields. The effect of using warrior heads for the knights is very interesting too. I never liked those plastic knights' heads.

Keep it coming.

Love the idea of CoK champion! That model is wicked.

You have some funkey skills in converting this and that.
Good job - I vote more pics, to keep me motivated

//Kheel

Wow, using Mannfred's Nightmare as a base for a Dark Steed was an original yet bulky idea. I like it a lot however along with all of your other stuff. Looks like a nice table-top standard army.

like a lot the dark eagle, good work mate

Your master looks great! Good idea to use mannfred's horse.

And your "harpy" is much better than the GW models tbh.

Keep it up!

hmmm, hmmmm - don't know , really eagles, harpies... like the idea of dark eagles unit, and i know its fits whit the story. but eagles as harpies - just don't fit imho.
Like the base and painting, just the whole idea... well its just imho.
i ordered 10 pairs of wings from reaper, got the new demmonetes models, and gonna start working on it. or meybe a harpy from we driads??
hmmmm

Can't expect replies in minutes on this site lately, not as busy as it once was.

I think your models are looking good, fond of the hero conversions. Hope to see some more finished paintjobs!

I'd like to know how you did your bases. My painting is fairly poor, and good bases make average models look good!

Love your use of the eagle, the harpies suck.

And don't worry about the no replies, this site kind of has an attitude which says each post must be very well thought out etc, and is quite zealously modded. all fine and dandy for discussions, but when someone is posting an army blog, often all you want to say is "nice, good job mate", but that is discouraged really.

Ah, I was getting kind of demotivated from getting no replies at all in a timeframe of more that 24 hours, while trying to upload as many shots as seem interesting to me. But I see what all you guys mean and I apologise for being impatient. I'll finish the harpies tonight (unit of 5), and maybe start on the CoKs. My deadline is november 8th for my 500 pts army, but I will expand it to 1,000/2,000+ points eventualy.

@ Grimma - Yes, I use bits of cork for my bases. You can get a big plate of cork here at a household store, meant to be used as an isolation plate between the hot pan and the table (no idea what it's called in English), and just break bits and pieces off, cut them at an angle you like, or don't cut them at all, and then just pin your model on. Easy as that!
Apart from cork, I also use a cheap clay that dries up hard when exposed to air. I think I bought it at a toy store. It's called "Das klei", but anything else would work too.

@ Angel of Algebra - Thanks for liking the army so far. You're right about the new knight heads - I wasn't too fond of them either. I wanted to use corsair heads, but their necks were gabs and the hair just blew into the wrong direction. Then I thought of using regular warrior heads. They really capture the Druchii feel in my opinion, so why not? The only thing that's a bit odd is that they have really short necks now, but no one sees that. It's just a gaming army.
About the spear tips on the dark riders, I've been painting Chaos Space marines before this army. I really like the evilish crude jagged look on metals. Makes them look real menacing.

@ Kheel, I will post more, don't worry about that. Thanks for the compliment!

@ Aspiring Executioner - I always loved the Mannfred model. The original idea was to turn the jagged clothing of the horse into sea dragon cloak, but I failed miserably at sculpting those tiny scales!
I have a new conversion idea coming up aswel. I wanted to use the steed from the Blood Knight champion (if his legs aren't as massive as those of Mr Chunkylegs... erm, Mannfred).

@ Lord_Azoth & LordSaradain- I wasn't too sure about picking eagles for Harpies at first, but decided to just go for it. I'm glad you guys like them!

@ Bagu82 - It's about 66% yay, and 33% nay to the eagle-harpies. Some people like them, other people don't. All I can do is live with it!

@ fr0 - I'm impatient, I know. Glad so many people like my hero, even though his legs are so much out of proportion, and glas you like the harpies. I'll keep this thread updated!

@ Notts - I'll do a guide on how-to-do easy cork bases. It's easier than it looks!


Last, but not least, I would like to thank for all the replies

Hehe nice to see a grim looking evil. Those damn Asur/Asrai can't have everything go their way. Red eyes can make anything evil.

Sorry guys, update's gonna be tomorrow. I had not yet realised prison break would be on TV tonight (I love prisonbreak), so I kind of watched the telly all evening... (Yes, I'm guilty! )

Sarcon, can you also tell me what parts you used for your dark riders? Thanks!

Lookin' good dude.
Are your eagles going to be able to rank up at all, and are they the right size bases? Not that I'd care if I were to play you, but some people get fussy about that kind of stuff.

@ Notts - List of parts I used:

Cold one knight legs, and here and there a tiny piece of lance (pointy stabby guy next to the musician)

High Elf plastic Chariot horses

I used a corsairs horn for the musicians, but anything else would work too

all xbows, spears, torsos, heads, arms and other bits come mostly from the warriors sprue

The spears mounted on the back of the warriors are basicly two parts of the spear with the hand cut out inbetween. If you have any more questions about the dark riders feel free to ask.

RipperMcGuirls - Thanks for the compliment! The eagles can rank up sideways if placed in the correct order, but I'm just making 5 empety scenic bases to replace them with in case of combat. It will prevent chipping aswel. I'l post a WIP of making these bases to show you guys how I make them in the first place.

I'm about to have dinner now. I'll make a few pictures of my harpies after that. Thanks for all your replies and views! It really motivates me to keep going with this army.

how did you make the base for the crossbowmen, or is that the GW one? Anyways, excellent work.

Rebmonk - I'll do a tourturial about my bases soon. I make them myself, using cork, clay, sand and gravel. Thanks for the compliment!


Anyways, time for an update - the promised pics of my harpies!. Was quite hard to get the lighting + focus right. I hate that about dark models. Anyways, on to the pics!



This was the only photo that didnt turn out crappy. There's a piece of wing missing on the right, and overlapping space on the left, but I hope you get the idea!

Nice!

Did you do the red eyes on all the models? They looked so sinister in the first picture, but I cant see any red in this photo.

Would be cool if you showed them next to some other models for scale.

But those models as harpies are great.

Just make sure to get your master painted, I want to see more pics of it!