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So, I decided to use the same technique on the Ripper wings as I did on my vehicles' sails. That way these "Razorwing Flocks" will help tie the Beastmaster squad in with the rest of the army. These took so long because I kept accidentally breaking wings and legs off! Ended up doing a lot more pinning than I wanted to, but I think the end result was worth the trouble.

I changed the arrangement of the Rippers from the in progress pictures, looks better from more angles. I'm going to paint one more of these swarms and then it's on to the Beastmasters themselves to finish up the unit.

If I hadn't seen it I wouldn't have thought it'd have worked, but it totally does - nice work mate

Those are fantastic Jon.... wow...

Gitsplitta wrote:Those are fantastic Jon.... wow...

What he said. Love the rippers man; great work. Would probably fit in really well with the rest of the army too! Look forward to the finished beast-packs man, beautiful job as ever.

Wow, I love how the Rippers remind of the Raiders sails...

Epic !

Amazing, The carapace is just stunning!

The rippers are looking great. I wasn't fully sold on the idea before, but I am now. Can't wait to see the full pack.

So, I spent a couple hours last night and tonight trying out different combinations of parts for the Beastmasters. I've seen various people use the Reaver "faceplate" heads but I wanted something a bit more feral in appearance. I tried shaving down various heads and skulls to use as helmets or masks, which I think was a really cool concept. But, the scale always seemed a bit off and so the skulls looked a little goofy.

Here's my latest concept which I'm liking so far. The Dark Elf Warrior head gives the model an appropriately brutish look, bringing to mind an executioners mask. I also shaved down the Clawed-fiend skull from the Venom to add a bit of bone to tie in with the rest of the Beast Pack.

That looks amazing! The use of the clawed fiend skull is amazing, can't wait to see him finished!

I really like the concept and pose, I'm just not too sure if the heads a little out of proportion... Could just be the picture as its displayed on my phone though...

Other potentials could be kroot, and the (i think its a) kroot skull from the raider 'spikes', wdyt?

As always, keep up the awesome work

Great pose! There's a great sense of motion which totally works with that character. The beastial shoulder pad really fits as well, nice catch.

The head on the other hand seems to be of a wrong scale, as though the head is too broad for a Space Elf. Have you thought of possibly using the Scourge's bare head? Adding Krott spikes or one of the many Dark Eldar hair extensions would go a long way to tie everything in yet sticking to similar features.

Regardless of critique, I'm sure you'll amaze us.

Your models are absolutely gorgeous, especially the wings on the Scourges. I was considering getting a DE army after my Daemons but I've had so many ideas for painting by reading through this thread. Definitely stealing the naturalistic wings (and having them all feathered).

Can I ask however, how did you do the beautiful hair on your Dark Eldar? It sort of looks like Astronomicon, Asurmen, Skull to me, but I'd love some tips .

Feth! I typed up a fairly long post and the Dakka Ork decided to eat it ! Actually, I clicked submit, got the Dakka Dakka maintenance page and accidentally closed the window instead of clicking Back ! Well I've go to go get dinner so this will be brief this time around .

Your comments helped me decide to change the head. I had concerns that the head was a bit big and since you guys saw it too it wasn't just me! I think that having the Beastmasters all with bald heads, tatoos, whips and the Clawed Fiend skulls should be enough to distinguish them from the Hellions.



Also started on the second Winged Ripper swarm. Only two on this base so I can be a cheapass gamer and have the option to field 4 bases out of a single 3 Ripper x 3 base Forgeworld order.



@LadyCassandra: Glad to hear you got some usable ideas out of the thread! The hair is Skull White and Vallejo Electric Blue. You need surprisingly little blue.

Can't believe I've not seen this thread. Tagging it for reference to great painting techniques. The army is absolutely stunning. Great color choice and consistency throughout the entire army. Will be coming back to this thread when I have more time to really digest all the details. Thanks for posting.

The new head works a lot better. As you said so eloquently yourself:

Beastmasters all with bald heads, tatoos, whips and the Clawed Fiend skulls should be enough to distinguish them from the Hellions

The bald head will indeed make for a better canvas for some tattoos which, based on your painting skills, will surely be awesome.

Looking forward to seeing the end result.

Time for your daily dose of Dark Eldar:

The second Beastmaster conversion, but the first to be painted. I think I painted him first because I was more confident that the first guy would look good. If that makes any sense. I painted one model to completion (sans Skyboard) first because I wanted to make sure that the concept worked before working on the others. I'm really pleased with the pose and overall look of the model with him getting ready to lash out at a beast. The empty hand was actually the hardest bit of the conversion as I had to scrape away the splinter pistol from the original Helliarch arm.







@Sarigar: Feel free to post if you come up with any questions while looking through the thread. Thanks for the complements!

@Dark_Gear: Sort of cheated on the tattoos for this guy since the head had them pre-sculpted!

Your army is just stunning! The beast master is looking great so far, I'm really liking the facial tattoo.

Hrmm, the bronze and the brown seem a little too similar to each other, especially when they're placed right next to each other, such as the brown glove holding the whip. That's pretty much the only thing that's nagging me, otherwise, great paintjob!

Looking really good, the beasts especially, love the use of all the different parts, waiting for more goodies

Loving the Beastmaster! (glad you changed the head)

I think Lady Cassandra hit the nail on the head, though. I think the whip needs to be brighter so it doesn't get lost. It looks kinda meh on an otherwise super-awesome paint job.

The beastmaster looks ace, nice detail with the face tattoos.

Keep it up

This is a great looking army, lot's of really good ideas to loot and modify!

The painted beastmaster looks really savage and on edge. I dig it!

Quick update today.

Changed the whip handle to silver to help visually separate the whip from the hand.



Started the basecoat on the other two guys.

Yep, that did it Fantastico!

Yup, that works to break it up. Do like their almost swarthy skin tones and all that brown leather. Makes them look really outdoorsy .

They look really great, and should go well with the beast pack, too. The skull on the shoulder is especially nice

The rippers look great, as do the beastmasters. The paint scheme is excellent. I like your decition to change the handle to silver, it definitely finishes the model perfectly (sans the skyboard )

very inspirational

Thanks for all the complements again! I've got a tournament coming up in a bit less than three weeks and still have a bunch of stuff to paint to get ready for it. It crept up on me faster than I expected! I'm pretty sure that there's enough time for me to finish but I'm going to use most of my free time to make sure I do ! That means that there's going to be a bit of a lull in the blog until then, but look forward to lots more painted mini's in a few weeks! That being said, I'll try to put some progress photos up during the weekend.

Remaining models:

3 Skyboards for Beastmasters
1/2 of a Ravager
1 Venom
5 Trueborn, 2 with Dark Lances

Working on the Ravager first.