[PLOG] Catrine's Paledrake Asterism

Discover the age-old techniques of painting...

Moderators: Layne, xFallenx, cultofkhaine

Forum rules
Remember that picture file size should be no larger than 256KB.
For the full Painting and Modelling rules, visit [url]http://www.druchii.net/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=27440[/url]
User avatar
Catrine
Trainee Warrior
Posts: 29
Joined: Fri May 20, 2016 4:33 pm

[PLOG] Catrine's Paledrake Asterism

Post by Catrine »

Heya, I'm new to this little forum, and fairly new to collecting Dark Elves, only starting now that AoS is more settled really.

I have been doing miniature games for a while however, starting with 40k and Warhammer, plus some other miscellaneous stuff, though really I'm more of a painter than a general:

Image
Image

Image
Image

Image
Image
Image

Image

Basically I started 40k many years ago, with Tyranids, but I'm not a huge fan of how that game plays of late, then I jumped over to 8th edition WHFB with Ogres, on account of being fairly easy to convert up some more appropriate gender ratios, I would have started with Dark Elves then, but Ogres were cheaper in a game focused on large unit sizes.

Then AoS shook things up, it's maybe not the smoothest game in the world, and certainly not the most balanced, but I find it surprisingly fun and I love the way it makes some of the less popular units and models more than just shelf warmers.

---

Anyway, this is going to be something of a blog for my elves, or aelves, I guess, this first post is probably gonna be really heavy on the images, hopefully that's ok.

I used Bleakswords to test my scheme out:

Image
Image

My bases are normally a little plain, so I went with something a little more involved this time round with your classic corkboard and PVA lava-land.

A Dreadlord and Sorceress:

Image
Image

I normally aim for coherent schemes, especially for armies which have a lot of different model types or styles, in this case I'm doing up all the various monsters and creatures as pale albinos, like these Cold Ones:

Image
Image

The leader and warlord of my little army is the Red Marquesse, Carmine de Edessa, not a very elven name, granted, I have never followed the fluff all that closely, I wrote up some custom rules but generally she hits the table as a Dreadlord on Black Dragon or Malekith. I'm using the Carnosaur model because a) it's awesome and b) it matches the Cold Ones, sort of.

Image
Image
Image

The Carnosaur riding Dreadlord obviously comes from the Black Dragon kit, so of course I had the rest of that kit to work with too. Strictly speaking it would have been much better to have two Dreadlords on dragons rather than the Sorceress, but I feel that they'd just be constantly trying to one-up and/or stab one another in the back, so...

Image
Image
Image

I managed to snag a Bolt Thrower before it went OOP, for an old kit is not a bad sculpt, though this one is finecast so it is a little, ah, wobbly.

Image

My original intent was not to shoot for a more martial, disciplined looking army, but I could not resist the siren-song of the Witch Elves enormous 80s hair, the models are just too nice. Generally I'm not a fan of the whole battle-bikini look, but at least in this case they have the good grace to not get an armour save for it I suppose.

Image
Image

I've also painted another box of Bleakswords and Witch Elves, plus an Assassin, putting me at a round 100 wounds:

Image
Image

---

That's where I'm up to so far with things. Next up I will be working towards fielding the Order Serpentis formation in the Order Battletome (which seems mostly useless, but I am of a strong mind that adding more reptiles to things is always an improvement) and have started work on a Hydra to that end.

After that I want to focus on the Witch Elf side of things, certainly a Cauldron will be in the works at some point, and I'd like to try and get enough models done to use some of the Witch formations too, but we'll see about that, no doubt some new AoS Aelf stuff will come rolling down the pipeline at some point, and I'm very interested in seeing how that aesthetic turns out.

---

That's all I've got for now, I've more close-up pics and stuff if anyone really wants to see those, and I might do some army fluff posts if I get chance.
Til next time!
Last edited by Catrine on Fri May 20, 2016 5:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
Calisson
Corsair
Corsair
Posts: 8820
Joined: Fri Mar 14, 2008 10:00 pm
Location: Hag Graef

Re: [PLOG] Catrine's Paledrake Asterism

Post by Calisson »

Welcome Catrine to Druchii.net!
I was wondering how the first pics would lead to DE, until I reached the second half of your post.

Nice, coherent scheme for your Aelves.
Obviously a faction living in a hot realm...
Winds never stop blowing, Oceans are borderless. Get a ship and a crew, so the World will be ours! Today the World, tomorrow Nagg! {--|oBrotherhood of the Coast!o|--}
User avatar
Amboadine
Miscast into the Warp
Miscast into the Warp
Posts: 3510
Joined: Mon Nov 19, 2007 11:07 am
Location: Investigating Mantica

Re: [PLOG] Catrine's Paledrake Asterism

Post by Amboadine »

Welcome.

Great first post full of some lovely looking models.
User avatar
Shadowspite
Bronze Khaine Winner
Posts: 1413
Joined: Sun Jun 16, 2002 5:32 pm
Location: The black ark Arhathalau

Re: [PLOG] Catrine's Paledrake Asterism

Post by Shadowspite »

Welcome! Those are some stunning Dark (A)elves. I'm not usually a fan of drow paint schemes, but as aelves of Aqshy (I assume?) it works really well. The lava bases are extremely well done. And the albino dragon is wonderful.

When you get round to doing a Cauldron, might I suggest painting the 'blood' in the cauldron itself as lava? I think that would help tie it in to the rest of your army.
"Sometimes, Brother... I dream that I am sane." - Uros the Faceless

Some of my minis - now on Imgur rather than Photosuckit.
User avatar
Catrine
Trainee Warrior
Posts: 29
Joined: Fri May 20, 2016 4:33 pm

Re: [PLOG] Catrine's Paledrake Asterism

Post by Catrine »

As it happens the drow thing was actually a total accident, someone pointed it out to me recently and I was all, damn...
The place I play has a bunch of lava boards, and I wanted to do more exciting bases so it seemed a good fit, then I figured dark skin would match well and was something I hadn't painted before. And, cos I wasn't originally planning on using Witch Elves, I just did the little bits of hair on the warriors in white as a natural contrast and, well, drow happened, my bad!

For the cauldron I will try lava, but I kinda want to have the Death Hag bathing in it maybe? An activity for which lava is generally ill-suited. I know I don't like the wheels on the cauldron though, I'm planning on tying to have it carried by slaves instead if I can find suitable models.
User avatar
Sabious
Executioner
Posts: 196
Joined: Fri Oct 02, 2015 10:12 am

Re: [PLOG] Catrine's Paledrake Asterism

Post by Sabious »

Welcome and thank you for sharing! :)

I love the drow thing and only applaud how well it turned out. I went for a much lighter grey shade, fearing the dark dark skin. Well done! I think your albino hide is greatlooking and the army shot is beautiful. You've been busy! Very inspiring!
User avatar
Phox532
Executioner
Posts: 173
Joined: Wed Sep 09, 2015 4:11 am
Location: Hohhot, China

Re: [PLOG] Catrine's Paledrake Asterism

Post by Phox532 »

I am super jealous of your white Cold-Ones. When I first tried to paint mine, I went for this look and totally just messed it up. Yours look amazing. I also love the Cranosaur conversion.
Phox Jorkarzul
User avatar
Errdrigar
Highborn
Posts: 731
Joined: Sat Jul 12, 2003 12:25 pm
Location: Poland

Re: [PLOG] Catrine's Paledrake Asterism

Post by Errdrigar »

Really nice force you have there. Same as Phox532 I'm also a fan of what you have done with Carnosaur. It's very Druchii-like. I've been thinking about something like this for a long time and I had foolishly hoped that GW will add Carnosaurs to Dark Elven army books someday.
User avatar
Saintofm
Malekith's Best Friend
Posts: 1755
Joined: Sat Mar 19, 2011 2:28 am
Location: California

Re: [PLOG] Catrine's Paledrake Asterism

Post by Saintofm »

[2 minutes of me doing a fanboy squee latter at seeing all the Drow and the beleivably white paintjob on the dragon later]

WOW, just wow. I thought the eldar fighter looked pretty good. The dark coloration of on the white almost looked like the kind of smudging you get from being in a really bad battle, like residue from cannons and what not.

I like the blond on the ogres, and the lone tyrant just oozes intimidation with both the skull on his gut plate and that anime large ax he has.

The bleak swords are perfect, and you could probably do a class/forum thread alone on how to make the lava effect for the basses on this site or others.

Love the Vampire Counts Fem Vamp+Druchii fem head kit bash. Fits the army well.

The Almino reptiles look perfect, almost real life flesh and blood creatures.
Who needs sanity? I have a Hydra
User avatar
Catrine
Trainee Warrior
Posts: 29
Joined: Fri May 20, 2016 4:33 pm

Re: [PLOG] Catrine's Paledrake Asterism

Post by Catrine »

Thank you very much!

The Ogre Tyrant was actually originally a Bruiser BSB; with the over-sized weapon envisioned as something more inspiring to the Ogres than a posh flag, but now she tends to serve as a Tyrant in AoS, though I am tempted to pick up one of the Maw-Krusha kits and make some sort of Overtyrant to ride it. A dragon which punches things to death seems innately Ogre-y.

I haven't done any hobby work over the weekend cos I was actually down at Warhammer World, which has changed a lot since I was last there ~12 years ago! There was a big Bloodbowl tournament on at the same time and I cannot wait for that re-release.
Whilst there I picked up another box of Cold One Knights and a Cold One Chariot, the Chariot in particular seems rife for conversion potential, I'm planning on using the unused components to scratch up some character models.

I'll try and remember to do some tutorials for the bases and the monsters if anyone is interested, I'm planning on heading back to WW in July (to play AoS this time, instead of 40k) and want to get the army up to a 'complete' state, so I've got lots of painting to do!
User avatar
Phox532
Executioner
Posts: 173
Joined: Wed Sep 09, 2015 4:11 am
Location: Hohhot, China

Re: [PLOG] Catrine's Paledrake Asterism

Post by Phox532 »

@Cathrine I love that Carnosaur conversion. I know that I said it before. But yea its Awesome. I really want to steal it for my army.
Phox Jorkarzul
User avatar
Malys the younger
Beastmaster
Posts: 301
Joined: Fri Jun 29, 2007 2:25 pm
Location: Fayetteville, NC

Re: [PLOG] Catrine's Paledrake Asterism

Post by Malys the younger »

Phox532 wrote:@Cathrine I love that Carnosaur conversion

Second this! The color scheme on the cold ones is fantastic. I love the blue warpaint on the witch elves, very nice. Looking forward to seeing more!
Image

Image

The Grim Host of Malys the Younger: http://druchii.net/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=75760

Overall W/D/L: 5/0/3
vs Empire: 1/0/0
vs Wood Elves: 2/0/2
vs Beastmen: 2/0/0
vs Vampire Counts: 0/0/1
User avatar
cultofkhaine
Chief Cultist
Chief Cultist
Posts: 1993
Joined: Sat Sep 27, 2008 6:45 am
Location: Being tempted by the Cult of Pleasure!
Contact:

Re: [PLOG] Catrine's Paledrake Asterism

Post by cultofkhaine »

Welcome to the forum Catrine - it's great to see an AoS Aelf army posted!

That is a very unique army you have there, as others have commented I really like the bases. The dark skin also works surprisingly well with the red armour colour you have chosen.

I look forward to seeing more of the army.
User avatar
Catrine
Trainee Warrior
Posts: 29
Joined: Fri May 20, 2016 4:33 pm

Re: [PLOG] Catrine's Paledrake Asterism

Post by Catrine »

Remove one head,another takes its place, Hail Hydra, etc. etc.

Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image

I remember not being a huge fan of this model when it came out, but on measure I think it is mostly just a victim of the studio paint scheme, and the angle they normally use for photos of it is probably it's worst side too. I'm still not massively keen on how every head is different, and the lack of mouth interior detail is a little strange, but it has a great, off-kilter sense of motion to it which works well.

I can see why the studio went with the red frills; with no rider or harness there's not a lot of scope for adding spot colour, but I've used lava for that to a degree, and done the mouths and eyes a little pinker than usual.
It's not stuck down to the base yet, for transport reasons, I was hoping it might stand well enough by itself but it is a little unsteady and probably needs a magnet in there somewhere, I'll work something out.
User avatar
Calisson
Corsair
Corsair
Posts: 8820
Joined: Fri Mar 14, 2008 10:00 pm
Location: Hag Graef

Re: [PLOG] Catrine's Paledrake Asterism

Post by Calisson »

Superb! Amazing lava effects!
A true masterpiece.

If I may, I only regret that the lines of separation between the pieces of the model remain apparent.
Winds never stop blowing, Oceans are borderless. Get a ship and a crew, so the World will be ours! Today the World, tomorrow Nagg! {--|oBrotherhood of the Coast!o|--}
User avatar
Amboadine
Miscast into the Warp
Miscast into the Warp
Posts: 3510
Joined: Mon Nov 19, 2007 11:07 am
Location: Investigating Mantica

Re: [PLOG] Catrine's Paledrake Asterism

Post by Amboadine »

That is a nice looking Hydra. Lovely work on the lava effects.
User avatar
Saintofm
Malekith's Best Friend
Posts: 1755
Joined: Sat Mar 19, 2011 2:28 am
Location: California

Re: [PLOG] Catrine's Paledrake Asterism

Post by Saintofm »

Image
Who needs sanity? I have a Hydra
User avatar
Lord Drakon
Malekith's Best Friend
Posts: 1028
Joined: Tue Jun 04, 2013 4:25 pm
Location: Delft

Re: [PLOG] Catrine's Paledrake Asterism

Post by Lord Drakon »

Amazing work on that Hydra!
User avatar
Shadowspite
Bronze Khaine Winner
Posts: 1413
Joined: Sun Jun 16, 2002 5:32 pm
Location: The black ark Arhathalau

Re: [PLOG] Catrine's Paledrake Asterism

Post by Shadowspite »

Very nice painting and lava effects on the Hydra, but I have to agree with Calisson. Big monsters really benefit from having the gaps between the pieces filled. Reluctant as I usually am to recommend GW modelling supplies, their Liquid Green Stuff actually works really well for this.
"Sometimes, Brother... I dream that I am sane." - Uros the Faceless

Some of my minis - now on Imgur rather than Photosuckit.
User avatar
Darkprincess
Chosen Babe of Slaanesh
Posts: 2625
Joined: Fri Dec 19, 2003 10:20 pm
Location: Wales

Re: [PLOG] Catrine's Paledrake Asterism

Post by Darkprincess »

Absolutely stunning paint jobs on these models. I'm very, very impressed! Nice Drow-style theming on the witch elves too, and I really love the Dread Fleet pic - I really like that game and the models that came with it are really amazing.
The Dark Princess
High Priestess of the Cult Of Pleasure


Give yourself over to absolute pleasure
Swim the warm waters of sins of the flesh
Erotic nighmares beyond any measure
And sensual daydreams to treasure forever
User avatar
Sabious
Executioner
Posts: 196
Joined: Fri Oct 02, 2015 10:12 am

Re: [PLOG] Catrine's Paledrake Asterism

Post by Sabious »

A beautiful model with proper basing. Can almost see the steam rise from it's body.
User avatar
Catrine
Trainee Warrior
Posts: 29
Joined: Fri May 20, 2016 4:33 pm

Re: [PLOG] Catrine's Paledrake Asterism

Post by Catrine »

Shadowspite wrote:Very nice painting and lava effects on the Hydra, but I have to agree with Calisson. Big monsters really benefit from having the gaps between the pieces filled. Reluctant as I usually am to recommend GW modelling supplies, their Liquid Green Stuff actually works really well for this.


Mm, part of the problem there is I am painting in sub-assemblies, it's tricky to cover or mask the joins after painting, I'll see what I can do though, I have heard good things about liquid green stuff. That central seam is both very obvious and very annoying, I'm sure those parts were flush when I glued them!
User avatar
Heartsbane
Executioner
Posts: 188
Joined: Sun Jul 29, 2012 6:58 pm
Location: Cambridge, UK

Re: [PLOG] Catrine's Paledrake Asterism

Post by Heartsbane »

Very nice looking force, and I particularly like the basing and overall colour palatte! Bravo!
User avatar
Catrine
Trainee Warrior
Posts: 29
Joined: Fri May 20, 2016 4:33 pm

Re: [PLOG] Catrine's Paledrake Asterism

Post by Catrine »

Thanks very much!
The Hydra had its inaugural game yesterday, in which it was jumped on by two Arachnorok spider and slain, but it not in vain as it provided suitable wriggly bait for the rest of the army to counter-charge and stab some goblins.

Meanwhile I have been working on some more painting, as vaguely promised here is a mini-tutorial on how I've been painting my various albino reptiles. I'm not the world's best photographer, so some of these stage-by-stage shots are a little, ah, lacking.

It's also worth noting that I don't get all that much time to paint really, so all of my paint schemes are deliberately very simple and very easy to replicate if I have to take a break for a while, don't go expecting any fancy techniques or anything!

---

1. Alright, start with a white primer. You could probably use black or grey to equal or better effect, depends how long you're willing to take smoothing out the base coat.

Image

2. Next the base layer, use a pale grey, I'm using Citadel Celestra Grey (which may well have a different name by now). No need for any particular neatness at this stage, just slap it all over.

Image

3. Do a 50/50 mix of Celestra Grey and Bleached/Ushabti Bone, apply this over any heavily scaled or armoured areas, pretty much wherever you see prominent scales or knobbly bits.

Image

4. I'm not normally a fan of heavy washes, but when it comes to highly detailed scales and ridges like these they really do work wonders. Wash the whole thing in Agrax Earthshade, keep an eye on it as it settles to avoid any obvious pooling, just sluice away excess with a damp, clean brush.

Image

5. Mix a bit of Celestra Grey with Genestealer Purple, something like 60/40 towards the purple. This is to add a smidgen of contrast, so apply it around any areas that you want to stand out, I like to do it around the eyes and mouth, the fingers/claws, and groin/underbelly, and on any obvious fat deposits, places where you might imagine blood flowing near the surface. Don't overdo it though, else it'll wind up like it's wearing eyeshadow, but you can fix any overzealous purpling in the next step.

Image

6. Drybrush the fleshy, non/lightly-scaled areas with Celestra Grey.

Image

7. Drybrush the heavily scaled surfaces with the same 50/50 mix of grey and bone.

Image

8. Finally the highlighting, really the only rigorous stage in the whole process. Mix some 50/50 Celestra Grey and White, focus on the larger, upward facing scales, the lateral spiky scales, eye-ridges and other prominent facial features, defined muscles, you know, it's a highlight, it goes where the light goes really. The overall scheme is pale, so you don't need to highlight every scale necessarily, just aim to hit the contours of the model, particularly on the thighs and shoulders.

Image

After that you can add detail of your choice, stripes would probably be a good idea for adding contrast, I'm wavering on adding some or not myself. Blood spatter might also look pretty good on the white scales.

It's quite a simple method overall; I did seven cold ones at the same time! (Note: this is probably not advisable...)

Image

---

So, uh, that's that, I hope someone at least finds it useful. It'd be easier enough to experiment with the colours and mixes a bit to get different results; shading with tan colours after the wash layer, for example, would probably get you some neat looking 'desert' raptors, or something.

Til next time!
User avatar
Amboadine
Miscast into the Warp
Miscast into the Warp
Posts: 3510
Joined: Mon Nov 19, 2007 11:07 am
Location: Investigating Mantica

Re: [PLOG] Catrine's Paledrake Asterism

Post by Amboadine »

Nice little tutorial. Thanks.
Post Reply