So, I thought I'd share with you all my progress as I collect and paint up a druchii raiding force. So far all I've got painted is a dragon. Not the most practical start, but I painted him for a roleplay game I run and he inspired me to start collecting dark elves. I've magnetized the saddle, so will in time have a choice of which character rides which monster. You know, once I've painted a rider...

Anyhow, enough waffle, here's some pictures:

lovely!

And a little further progress, a unit with my first ever unit filler:



And the filler itself:



In other news, I now own a tripod for my camera, can you tell?

Very very nice

Great stuff. do keep at it! Very cool idea with the boat.

Are those magnetic bases or something, they look different?

Glad you like them!

The bases for them are plasticard with a layer of miliput shaped over the top. That's the only way I could think of to have the contour change throughout the unit, starting from just below sea level on the back right corner (where the boat is), rising up to the highest point on the front left. Oh, and they are magnetic too.

wow that filler is awesome.

I agree with the filler being awesome! Also a nice choice of colour, everything seems to fit so well together and the cloaks look very slimy & reptilian like... wich they actually should .

Nice! I have a very similar WIP unit filler, the first row for my corsairs is a gunwale with two of them leaping over the side/shimmying down a rope. I like yours even better.

really nice filler...looking forward to see more!

The black dragon is amazing, and the unit filler is awesome! Did you make the boat yourself?

Thanks for the kind words all, knowing I have an appreciative audience is very motivational!

The boat is based on a viking longship model, if you Google for "DRAKKAR OSEBURG DRAGON SHIP SMER 904 PLASTIC KIT 1:180" you should find it. I had to trim the shields of the sides and added a serpent from the corsair standard as the figurehead, but the rues either side of the prow are part of the original sculpt and I think fit in very well. The good news is I still have the other 2 thirds of the ship for another filler/ scenic movement tray.

One problem I've found with dark elves is transporting them, unlike my dwarfs they don't all fit neatly into the compartments in my various foam trays, especially the Pegasus and dark riders. To solve this I've glued a layer of magnetic material to the bottom of my case. Now it's dry I need to test if the magnets hold well enough. Wish me luck...

Why not pick up some insulation foam and cut out your own custom shaped spots for them in your case? That way you can give all your elves a nice safe place to live while your transport them. Magnets probably are not going to work out entirely well for you if my knowledge of sudden unexpected bumps between home and a game store is correct.

Haha, the magnets seem to work!

A sheet from the backing material from a magnetic whiteboard is now firmly affixed to the bottom (inside) of my KR case. Doesn't take up a noticable amount of room if I use the foam trays, but also means I can stand my magnatised models on it and they stay pretty solidly. Of course that's helped by having movement trays with a rare earth magnet embeded in them for each base, matching to the base above, so my unit of corsairs has 9 stacks of 2 magnets holding it in place, and the whole unit is plastic.

It wouldn't work for metal figures, but for plastics it works enough that I'll try transporting my army to the store with it later this week. Only the corsairs are painted atm, so not too much at risk here, and I'd rather find out how fragile things are before I invest hours painting them

Oh, and if the magnets don't prove sufficient for the job, then Anthalt's suggestion offers a plan B which can be used in addition.

Love that unit filler! What's coming next?

Haha! Having tried it for a day at work followed by a visit to my local GW, the magnetization for transport works like a charm. Keeps my models safe in transit and means I can start deployment within seconds of walking in to the store

@ hatred, next up is the first of my units of harpies. In order to start gaming I've had to do all my assembly, which has left me feeling like little progress is being made. I figure the harpies will look good with little time invested, allowing me to regain a feeling of momentum.

Great stuff, keep us posted.

Well, as promised, here are my harpies. I still need to get some greenery for their base, but other than that they're finished. As to them being a 'quick win' for getting stuff painted, that turned out to be only half right...





Not quite sure what's next, either dark riders or my sorceress, depending on if I'm in the mood to play with green stuff when next I sit down for some hobby time.

very nice! i use similar models myself, and i really like your interpretation. well done!

whoaaa..really cool..I thought about this , exactly the same kitbash but swapping ghoul head for daemonette one

Youre very gifted at making those dynamic poses! Also do you field those harpies like that most of the time or are you primarily a modeller?

Love Love Love your harpies!

Thank-you all for the kind words!

I suspect the dynamic poses are at least in part the result of years of painting dwarfs where I couldn't relly cater to this urge.

@ Lord Azoth; I thought of using the daemonette heads, but they almost all have the hair blowing out to the side, which wouldn't really work with the swooping movement of the harpies.

@ DarkGul; This is very much a gaming army. The front 3 harpies do actually rank up, should I need to for combat, and I find the formation works well in most cases; the gap in the centre back helps minimise damage from templates and if I want them wider it's easy enough to pop the back two off the tray. Fortunately magnetising everything so it sticks to the sheet metal I glued into the bottom of my figure case makes transport a doddle.

Next up, my sorceress and dark pegasus, as I fancy doing a spot of character level painting. I've next week off work so should get plenty of painting done...

Hey Heartsbane,

The army is obviously looking fantastic. Having seen it all in the flesh I can tell everyone that there is plenty more fantastic modelling to come (shades). It's also a really fun army to play against. As I said to you last night I've written a battle report / story about our Druchii on Druchii battle last week. I've linked this thread to the report on warseer, as I think more people should see your models! I hope you don't mind. You can also find the report here if you'd like a look (you are in my fourth report):

http://www.warseer.com/forums/showthrea ... ost6510909

I've just signed up here so I might post my reports on one of the forums here too. I realise this is semi-shameless plugging for my thread, so sorry for this, and I'll happily remove it if you want! I thought you might be interested though, and I'd love some critique, and maybe a report from Heartsbane's POV?!?!

Cheers man, looking forward to seeing the results of you week of painting!

Kor'Vesh

The army is looking great so far.

I love your take on harpies - the "hands instead of feet, monkey style" is quite disturbing - in a good way (although I would have preferred some sort of bird claws myself).
The colour scheme of the harpies is just lovely.
Would have been fun to see them on a shoreline movement tray with lots of water splashes though...

Keep up the good work - you are an inspiration.