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Hi guys!

I'm so far from the world's greatest painter I can't even see the dust trail he leaves behind, but I wanted to share a few things with you guys anyway

First up is my Eldrad conversion. As soon as I saw the new plastic Farseer model, I knew I wanted to do this. Always wanted an Eldrad in my army, but really hate the way that all the finecast characters look exactly the same. It's a very simple conversion to do, and I think yields a great result.





It's the basic plastic Farseer body and right arm/staff. The head of the staff was removed and replaced with Eldrad's specific Staff of Ulthamar. Left hand was removed and replaced with Eldrad's, and a sword blade from the Wraithblade kit was swapped in. The blade is big, but I think it really works - I really like larger than life characters, and he has a really dynamic table presence - so much more than the standard two dimensional finecast model. A better sculptor and painter than me could certainly make it look better - but I think this is a great solution for anyone looking for something a bit different to field a character.

The other thing I wanted to share was my Wraithknight spirit stones. I really like the fluff behind these guys, that the soul of their dead twin is contained in these stones, and wanted each of my 'knights to have a unique gem. It's hard with my crappy phone to take decent photos of these - a proper camera is absolutely on the Christmas wishlist - I'm heartily sick of using crappy ones! So I'll take better photos one day, but hey - use what you got, eh?

First up -


This was done with a mix of gold and Carroburg Crimson. I put a blob of the Crimson on the gem and then dropped some gold into it - worked quite nicely. It has quite an interesting effect in the changing light.

Second -


Pretty straight forward. Just did some swirls and such with traditional colours before varnishing. Looks pretty cool from a distance, but doesn't look as nice up close as the other two do.

Lastly, my favourite -


Also, coincidentally, the most successful photo I think. This was done in a similar fashion to the red one, however this time I dipped the gold covered brush into the dark blue shade, then let the result sit on the gem. It has a really nice blue transparent effect to it in changing light - you can see a bit of that here. It looks quite dark from a distance but has some cool highlights as you look more closely.

I think this gives the models a bit of character and uniqueness, and I'm pretty happy with how they've turned out. They're not quite finished, but they look great already on the tabletop so I'm content so far

That's all! C&C welcome of course

Thanks Dakka,

- M

Anyone? /bump?

181 views and 0 comments is a record for me, I think...

Like the Eldrad conversion.

Looking great man!

Nice work, the base looks nice, works well.

I like the idea of changing the gem colour, but i think maybe some highlights/ shades to compliment the shape of the gems would really make them pop. A highlight along the bottom of the gem and a white dot at the top usually does the trick.

James littler wrote:
Nice work, the base looks nice, works well.

I like the idea of changing the gem colour, but i think maybe some highlights/ shades to compliment the shape of the gems would really make them pop. A highlight along the bottom of the gem and a white dot at the top usually does the trick.

Thanks

I'm not a fan of "faking" the specular highlights on the gems - I have given these a number of varnish coats, and they generate their own highlights dynamically, which I much prefer. Smaller gems I'll help this out a little bit with the technique you've mentioned, but these big ones have enough shape that the lighting does it all naturally.

I'm more interested in how you did the Wraithknight's faceplate. Great stuff.

majendie wrote:

James littler wrote:
Nice work, the base looks nice, works well.

I like the idea of changing the gem colour, but i think maybe some highlights/ shades to compliment the shape of the gems would really make them pop. A highlight along the bottom of the gem and a white dot at the top usually does the trick.

Thanks

I'm not a fan of "faking" the specular highlights on the gems - I have given these a number of varnish coats, and they generate their own highlights dynamically, which I much prefer. Smaller gems I'll help this out a little bit with the technique you've mentioned, but these big ones have enough shape that the lighting does it all naturally.

I completely agree with you on this, these gems look amazing! There's a different kind of depth to them that doesn't normally happen.

I love the effect on the face plate of the last Wraithknight, How did you do the starry effect?

Faceplate effect is something I learnt accidentally when I stuffed up some airbrushing. Using paint that is a little bit too thick means it gets a bit spattery. Some experimentation later I was able to predict and control the effect, and I love using it now. I pre-shade all my models and then colour with glazes/inks, so I did this in black and white first before colouring it. Then lots (about 10) layers of varnish over the top to give it some decent specularity. The top and bottom pictures are my second and third painted 'knights respectively, and consequently I think the faceplates are much better.