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Holy crap I'm back...

After a small emergency taking me outta the country at the end of last year I have returned in the new year... (Insert jokes about no one knowing I was away here.)

First off apologies to Giltsplitta and Wolfshadow, both have been waiting on things from me and I haven't sent them yet, but they'll be in the mail tomorrow!

Whalemusic, I'll be starting your Sanctus Command mini pretty soon too, sorry for the delay...

No worries, hope everything is ok. It was oddly quite, even for you

Welcome back Vent. I hope everything is okay as well. I for one have missed your amazing pics and witty posts and I look forward to a new year of sweet updates!

Wow, just found your blog right now, it's amazing...

The Mordheim warband is stunning, your Space Marines are really great, and the Imperial Wizard is awesome!!!

I'll be following your thread, for sure!!!

And now for something completely different...

I know I'm meant to be starting on my Shadow Sanctus Captain for Whalemusic, but I've changed that up and gone with a Dark Eldar Mandrake squad instead... Who knows what I'm thinking, but there ya go. Whalemusic, I'll get around to your guy. I promise ^_^



Anyway, here's a test miniature for my Dark Eldar Mandrake squad. I didn't like the brown of the robes on the GW ones, and as I like to use read quite heavily I thought it would be the way to go. I'm keeping the skin a very dark Charcoal and probably will keep Green as the Witch-fire and runes on him as well. Not sure what I'm going to do for the base yet. I'm thinking a snowy base might look interesting with the fire and lack of clothes... But we'll see.

The read was done with my airbrush. The red is from the Andrea Colors Red set. So it was the base followed by the last highlight. I think went with a little bit of Orgyn Flesh wash into the recesses. I'm still figuring out all the intricates with my airbrush, but it's working out well. I did the robes for all five mandrakes in the space of an hour which is pretty quick for me ^_^

Cool Vent! I think the red clothe, green rune combo could work out great. I look forward to seeing more!

And go for the white snowy base, I am a bit partial to snowy bases though.

No worries, should be interesting to see what you do with the 'drakes.

Looks like a promising beginning vent... looking forward to watching them develop!

Very nice!

Everybody is getting airbrushes. :-( I'm jelous.

Thanks guys ^_^

IceAngel wrote:And go for the white snowy base, I am a bit partial to snowy bases though.

I was actually looking at your trade marine when I made the decision to go with Snow

whalemusic360 wrote:No worries, should be interesting to see what you do with the 'drakes.

Thanks for understanding

Gitsplitta wrote:Looks like a promising beginning vent... looking forward to watching them develop!

Cheers. I'm a little nervous about doing the wytch-fire though... It'll be a trial by fire (Pun intended...)

wolfshadow wrote:Everybody is getting airbrushes. :-( I'm jelous.

The biggest bonus about an airbrush as I see it is the time you save. For applying Basecoats there is nothing better than it. Especially where what you're painting is a Space Marine who is predominantly one color it's going to be a huge time saver... ^_^

That and Zenithal higlighting effects and blending effects.

wolfshadow wrote:That and Zenithal higlighting effects and blending effects.

That's true... ^_^

First off please excuse the images. They were taken early evening without my lightbox or any lights. Just couldn't be assed getting it all out...



All the base colors are now on, minus the base. The biggest change since yesterday is the blue Wytch-fire instead of green. The green was ok. But it didn't quite have the impact I was looking for. Then I remembered Roleplayers Jump pack tutorial and the blue he used for that and figured I'd give it a go. I think it looks pretty good, especially in contrast to the red...

The flames have come out quite nicely on his hand. GW goes from dark base to light outer as that "looks better" but fire is hottest, and thus brightest the closer to the source, so I've gone the other way. It's not perfect, but it's the first time I've tried it...

I've started lightning up the hair by picking out a few strands here and there going up the grayscale.

The blade is all boltgun metal with a wash of black followed by a wash of Orgyn Flesh to give it a worn look.

Things to do:
- Highlight the body.
- Highlight touches of the robes.
- Highlight the sword, and apply blood effects.
- Do the base. Since I have gone blue the Base will definitly be Ice...

Really like the way the blue and red work together, especially on the exposed thighs. I agree with the way you've done the flames. Still looks good and is more logical.

Gitsplitta wrote:Really like the way the blue and red work together, especially on the exposed thighs. I agree with the way you've done the flames. Still looks good and is more logical.

Thanks Gitsplitta. The thighs are actually a pain in the ass. The grooves for colors are a lot less defined... Glad the flames look ok to someone else, sometimes it's hard to be critical of your own work...

Have no fears there, the flames are hot (yeah, I went there). The sword needs something to pop, it blends in with the arm a bit much. Thinking of any osl on this one?

Great mandrakes, but you are forgetting one downside to the airbrush, which is having to buy replacement parts.

You dont buy new brushes every once in awhile?

Lookin good! Very nice choice of blues on the flames, especially around the hand!

Thanks for the comments guys



Completed Test Miniature for the Mandrake. The photos are a little dark, but they're viewable. Not really much new today, just more additions to already done stuff.

- Added some white to ice blue and touched up the inside blues...
- Highlighted the Skin with some lighter Gray. I decided to not highlight the skin again because I want the skin to be quite dark, as if it's just a husk for the energy within... Also makes the blue stand out ^_^
- The head needed some kind of color and the single colored eye wasn't quite enough. I wasn't quite sure what to do, but then I saw Major Tom's OSL for his Space Hulk terminators and figured I'd do that, but knowing I couldn't use an airbrush to do it so I tried to do it without. It came out somewhere down the middle. Not in the super great category, nor is it shocking... But again, it's the first time I've tried it without an airbrush... So practice will help me improve.
- Basic Snow base but I think the choice of Black and White helps the colors really take off more...

Very nice! That's all I've got to say about that.
:-)

Wow... He looks evil. Nice work!

I especially like the runes and flame.

Very cool Vent, the contrast of red and blue is great.

Love the blue fire...not so much for the furry snow though.

The mandrake looks great. He really glows. Just radiates menace.

Great stuff.

On another note referring to the airbrush parts; yes I buy new brushes as needed, but most of the time the replacement parts on my airbrush are out of stock, and parts break due to metal fatigue often at the most inoppourtune time.

Thanks guys, I appreciate you taking the time ^_^

wyomingfox wrote:Love the blue fire...not so much for the furry snow though.

Ha! I know, right? Truth be told the first layer of "snow" got stained with some red and I had to add another layer. Hopefully it'll settle a bit more over time. Still you only ever see it in an enlarged macro shot... Or if you put your face within a couple of inches ^_^

The mandrake is looking good, I would think about different base color to the sand though. The dark gray is too close to the skin color and the fig is a bit lost on the base. The snow helps a bit but the feet are completely lost against the base. The cloth and the flames are really great.

Metsuri wrote:The mandrake is looking good, I would think about different base color to the sand though. The dark gray is too close to the skin color and the fig is a bit lost on the base. The snow helps a bit but the feet are completely lost against the base. The cloth and the flames are really great.

Hmmm I was more worried about adding another color into the mix with the Blue and the Red. What color would you suggest? Rebasing is relatively easy... So it wouldn't be a huge job... Just annoying...

Nice mandrake... The red is a nice contrast to the otherwise cold colours...

Yggdrasil wrote:Nice mandrake... The red is a nice contrast to the otherwise cold colours...

Thanks Yggdrasil.

I've nearly finished the other four of Mandrakes, just gotta do the OSL, weapons, bones and bases... What I'm wondering about is whether I should have OSL coming from the mouths of the two with the mouths open and eyes covered by hair? I'm trying to give the impression of warp energy bursting out of them so I figure the mouth thing might be the way to go... Anyone have an opinion?

In other, more disturbingly happy news, my mandrake got a shout out from Ron over at FTW in his top ten list... I really like the Tuesday top ten, and some of the minis he shows is phenomenal. I'm not sure mine is up to those standards, but it's always nice to be noticed ^_^