[PLOG] Urithani'men Mourkhuyl'kyndar Arhathalau

[Shadowspite]

(Lit. "The Soldier-Crew of the Black Ark Shadow of Spite")

Since I have a couple of months before I return to France and no other major jobs to do in the meanwhile, I hope to get some of my far-too-many unpainted Dark Elves finished. I will also be buying the occasional new model to complement what I've got and make it more suitable as an AoS collection. Or more like three AoS collections - one for each of the main subfactions currently well-represented in my DE army: Scourge Corsairs, Daughters of Khaine and Darkling Covens.

I have a lot of Corsairs, though not all of them are painted. And I have a converted Fleetmaster to lead them. Obviously, I need some Scourgerunners and at least one Kharibdyss to accompany them.

I have a lot of Witch Elves, too. But in AoS they are pretty useless without a Cauldron, so I'll need one of those. That will also give me a Medusa on foot... err... on snake tail... you know what I mean! And a Death Hag on foot. I should maybe pick up some Warlocks at some point. I'm not crazy about the GW ones, so I might convert something. That's way down the list of priorities, though, as I already have plenty of Dark Rider cavalry.

The third part of my current army consists of a bunch of Sorceresses (on foot, on horseback and on palanquins - no idea what to count them as ruleswise) and a stupid number of Darkshards. I seriously don't need to buy any more Darkshards ever. I'd like to add some of the plastic Black Guard to provide some melee hitting power to what's otherwise a pure ranged Darkling Covens force.

All three collections will keep the existing army's violet and crimson colour scheme, including the red-lacquered-effect armour, since I really like it. Some of my older models (mostly corsairs) still need to be repainted to fit in with this scheme, though.

OK, so what am I going to do first? Well, as this month's Painting Challenge is big monsters, I'd better get started on my shiny new Kharibdyss...



Lovely as this kit is, there were a lot of gaps to fill with Liquid Green Stuff, as you can see. The Beastmasters were stuck in place temporarily with UHU tac just to get the positioning of the rocks on the base right. There's no way I'm going to try and paint them in situ.

You might notice the female Beastmaster's had her right arm swapped for a Witch Elf dagger arm. I love the look of this kit overall, but dual-wielding whips just seems a little bit over-the-top-silly to me. If I decide to buy a second Kharibdyss, I might do some more minor alterations to keep them looking distinct from each other.

And now that the rain has stopped, I can go outside and undercoat this beast.

[Saintofm]

Nice. Cannot wait to see the finished product

[cultofkhaine]

Cool - looking forward to seeing this beast painted!

What colours do you have in mind?

[Shadowspite]

Today I got the skin, spines and mandibles mostly finished and just started putting the basecoat on the scales.



The skin is Vallejo Blue-Violet drybrushed with progressively lighter mixes of Blue-Violet and White, with a final drybrush of GW Praxeti White on the mandibles and the tips of the spines. I painted a mix of old GW Purple Ink and Lahmian Medium into the deepest recesses (including the 'scars' and inside the mouths). I might put a coat of gloss varnish over the skin later, to give it a wet, slimy appearance. I'm happy with the overall colour (it looks a bit lighter in reality than it does in the photo), but there are still some places where it needs tidying up (as is often the case with drybrushing).

About 75% of the scaled areas are basecoated so far, using Vallejo Dark Red (which is surprisingly thin/translucent for a Vallejo paint and in some places will need a second coat). I plan to drybrush the scales with Vallejo Flat Red and then wash with GW Nuln Oil. I'm going for a very dark crimson colour.

Anyway, that's as far as I got before my back started aching abominably. I think I need to adjust my painting chair! I must admit, I'm not a fan of painting big monsters. This and my Manticore are the only two I own (and the Manticore seems tiny compared to this monstrosity). The Kharibdyss is a really cool-looking model, but it is an absolute cow to paint! If I ever get a second one, I will definitely paint the secondary heads separately before attaching them. Probably the tail too - painting the 'inside' of that big fan/fin thing is almost impossible.

I'm leaving the Beastmasters until last, because I know I'll enjoy painting them a lot more than their pet. They are my reward to myself for getting the Kharibdyss itself finished.

I reckon I can get the scales finished tomorrow, along with the areas where the skin and scale colours will blend together (some of which are going to be a real pain to get at). Then another day to paint the details (teeth, claws, eyes, slime). Then there's the rocks and base (I'm still not sure what colours to use on the rocks). And the Beastmasters. Should be all done by the end of the week.

[Saintofm]

Love the paint job. It.makes it stand out.

[Shadowspite]

Love the paint job. It.makes it stand out.

Yeah, I was going for a bit of an illithid look with that purple:



The Kharibdyss really looks like an alien creature from another world, in a way that nothing else in the WHFB or AoS settings really does, not even daemons. I want to emphasise that feel with the colour scheme. It's essentially just the basic army colour scheme, except that the Kharibdyss' violet is much lighter and the crimson will be much darker, compared to the rest of the army.

If I do get a second one, I'd like to give some of its heads tongues with secondary jaws like Giger's Alien:

[cultofkhaine]

Nice choice of colour - looking good!

[Shadowspite]

Getting there...



The scales were drybrushed with Vallejo Flat Red (which is a sort of pinky red) over the Dark Red basecoat, then drybrushed again with a mix of roughly equal parts Flat Red, Magenta and White. Then washed with copious amounts of GW Nuln Oil. Now this is the first time I've used one of GW's 'Shade' range, and I'm actually very impressed. They flow really well and have a much lower pigment density than their old inks (which I always had to thin down at least 1:1 with water). In a sense, its excellence as a wash worked against it a little here, where I was effectively trying to use it as both a wash (to shade between the scales) and as a glaze (to darken the scales from pinky-red to a deep crimson). Some areas needed two applications of the Nuln oil to get it looking right. But still, these GW Shades are amazing.

I covered most of the base with GW Stirland Mud (first time I've tried one of GW's texture paints, incidentally - could have done with a bit more grit in it, to be honest) and drybrushed it with GW Verminlord Hide (a very orangey brown). The rocks (the real ones, the cork ones and the plastic ones the Kharibdyss is crawling over) were base coated with Vallejo Mahogany Brown (which is actually somewhat similar to Verminlord Hide in hue), then drybrushed with progressively lighter mixes of Mahogany Brown, Vallejo Bloody Red and GW Bad Moon Yellow (a truly ancient pot that somehow has not dried out even though I must have bought it 20 years ago), with a final drybrush of GW Dwarf Flesh (which has rather helpfully thickened to roughly the consistency of GW's 'Dry' paints over the past decade). Then I painted some GW Agrax Earthshade into the cracks and crevices and around the bases of the rocks to give the effect of shadow beneath them.

The base will eventually get some clumps of scrubby yellowish grass added, and maybe some thorny vines, but that will come after the Beastmasters are painted and glued in place.

Still to do:

1 - Blend in the transition between the purplish skin and crimson scales.
2 - Neaten up some of the highlights on the purple areas, particularly the mandibles and spines.
3 - Paint the small details (teeth, claws, slime, etc.)
4 - Paint the Beastmasters.
5 - Stick the Beastmasters in place.
6 - Finish the base with grass, vines, etc.

[Malys the younger]

Looking good! I'll try to WIP pics up of mine today. I think the beast itself is done, I just started working on the handlers.

[Vulcan]

You might have done better with Gryphonne Sienna wash. It's a vaguely reddish brown.

[Shadowspite]

You might have done better with Gryphonne Sienna wash. It's a vaguely reddish brown.

For what? The scales or the rocks?

[Vulcan]

Sorry, should have been more specific. The scales.

[Shadowspite]

OK, well I wanted a crimson (purplish red) look, not an orangey-browny red. So I'm not sure a sepia wash would have worked. If I'd wanted a lighter shade, I'd have used Carroburg Crimson, but I think Nuln Oil worked out OK. Like I said, I just needed a couple of coats in some places, and that was only because I'd over-highlighted previously (assuming Nuln Oil would be a bit darker than it turned out to be).

Anyway, I got the Kharibdyss itself basically finished today.







First, I neatened up the highlighting on the tips of the spines, teeth, mandibles etc. with Vallejo White thinned with a little water. The Praxeti White drybrushing worked OK for most of the model, but was a bit too rough in places. I felt these focal points needed to look a bit smoother. I also picked out the teeth.

I was originally going to properly blend in the scale and skin colours, but with so many places it was almost impossible to get the brush into, I decided to try just painting some GW Carroburg Crimson onto the skin at the edges of the scaled areas. It worked! Much easier than blending and, while I probably wouldn't use this technique in a painting competition, I'm really only going for tabletop quality here and the effect is perfectly acceptable for that IMO.

The claws were painted with a really old Humbrol gloss black, then highlighted with Vallejo Shadow Grey and GW Space Wolves Grey (another pot from the mid 1990s that has mysteriously remained in perfect condition).

The droplets of drool/slime were painted with Vallejo Falcon Turquoise, then highlighted as if they were gems (i.e. lighter towards the bottom with a tiny spot of pure white near the top), using progressive mixes of Falcon Turquoise and GW Space Wolves Grey.

The tongue was blended from Vallejo Hexed Lichen at the back through Falcon Turquiose to almost pure Space Wolves Grey at the front.

Both the drool/slime and the tongue will get a coat of gloss varnish eventually, but I'm still undecided whether to give the skin a coat. I think that might be too much shiny.

The Drukh-Eltharin runes on the rocks were painted with GW Blood For The Blood God, a really small brush and a great deal of muttered cursing. Then even more cursing when I realised they don't show up very well in the photos!

Tomorrow: the Beastmasters!

[cultofkhaine]

Nice work - I like the colour scheme you have chosen.

[Shadowspite]

Just a quickie today. The beastmasters are not finished yet, but here's how they look so far:



I'm not sure whether I will have time to do any painting tomorrow, as I have several other things that need my urgent attention (including doing my small part to stop a bunch of political grifters and xenophobic nutcases from dragging us out of the EU... )

Still on-course for finishing this beastie before the weekend, though.

[Vulcan]

Can't argue with the results on the K-beast. Looks great!

[Amboadine]

Nice beastmasters there. I like the base.

[Shadowspite]

Nice beastmasters there. I like the base.

Yeah, I painted the female's base first, since I knew the drybrushing would get on her boots. The obsidian bits look a bit odd in the photo due to reflections from the gloss black paint, unfortunately. I need to experiment a bit with lighting these photos better.

[Shadowspite]

(including doing my small part to stop a bunch of political grifters and xenophobic nutcases from dragging us out of the EU... )

Ok, so... that did not go well.

I woke up this morning to find my country has voted to leave the EU. For reasons I won't bore you with, this is likely to seriously disrupt my life for a while. As in, potentially having to hurriedly sell a house, perhaps try to get French citizenship, seriously reconsider my finances. Fun stuff like that. As some of you know already, I spend a significant chunk of each year in France and the rest of the time in the UK. I have absolutely no idea whether that is still going to be possible.

It's also a distinct possibility that the UK is going to become a much less pleasant place to live. I won't get into the details of the political and economic ramifications of Brexit, but I feel like my life has been turned upside down this morning.

And to top it all off, Nigel [Expletive] Farage is crowing about "independence without a shot being fired", which is a particularly disgusting thing to say mere days after Jo Cox's murder. There is talk of him getting a Cabinet position under Boris "Britain's Donald Trump" Johnson.

So, all in all, I am not exactly feeling inspired to paint anything right now, and my familial tremor makes it a frustrating waste of time to try to paint unless I'm feeling relaxed anyway. Hopefully I'll feel better later on today (I need to have some serious discussions with family). But I'm still at the wall-punching stage at the moment.

It was a real effort to prevent this post from just being a tirade of incoherent swearing, to be honest.

Anyway, sorry for the delay.

[Amboadine]

Waking up to the same news and feeling pretty much the same way, I can sympathise. Could be fairly significant ramifications for the company I work for. Plus the way my daughter and her friends reacted to the news was that of sheer disappointment, I believe it was said to be around 74% of the under 24s voted to remain. A shame for them that the elder generation has voted against the wishes of the generation that will need to sort out the mess.

Anyway as a note with Mod hat on; if anyone wants to discuss the politics then let's take it to the 'Community chat' forum and keep it civil please.

[Shadowspite]

No photos today, but the beastmasters are done now apart from tidying up and highlighting the black parts (boots, gloves, jacket trim and the female's whip). Then all I have to do is stick them on the base and add some grass tufts.

One thing I have noticed since I started painting again. I bought new brushes, since all my old ones are really only fit for rough work now (texture paint, drybrushing, liquid greenstuff, etc.) and there is a huge difference in how the Citadel and Army Painter brushes are lasting. My Citadel small base brush has already started to bend noticeably at the tip and lose its point, despite hardly being used. In contrast, my Army Painter standard and small detail brushes are both still as good as new, despite having been used a lot more. Even the Army Painter drybrush is still in pretty good condition.

[Shadowspite]

The beastmasters are finished. I'm having to rely on artificial light, so these photos are a bit rubbish. Hopefully there will be enough natural light tomorrow to get some decent photos of the whole thing put together.

[cultofkhaine]

Nice work they look great!

I like the little blue bottles

[Shadowspite]

Thanks! I painted the bottles basically the same way I paint gemstones, using the same paints as the slime/drool on the Kharibdyss itself. I like to think this turquoise-coloured stuff is a deadly venom that the Kharibdyss naturally secretes from its mandibles and which the beastmasters harvest to coat their own weapons and to sell. The beastmasters' dagger and spear blade are tinted slightly blue to suggest some of this venom has been wiped onto the blades.

Here's a slightly better photo taken in natural daylight:

[Shadowspite]

The whole thing is finished!



More photos here: LINK