Friday, January 10, 2014

More Test Models: Storm Guardian and Dire Avenger

I have mentioned in earlier posts that I really need to just paint one miniature in a squad to completion before I feel good doing all the models. A lot of this is because I am constantly jumping around with ideas, and if I try to realize it over a number of models, I will change mid stream, and end up with three that are suddenly the "wrong" color. Other times, like I will talk about below, what I am doing is close, but will take a little tweaking. So that even though there is a slight difference on one guy, amidst his squad, you can't really tell. This happened with both of these test miniatures.

Storm Guardian
I make pretty judicious use of Guardians in my army. I like Warlock/Spiritseer powers, and with just a little mojo a cheap unit can become kind of a pain to deal with. I plan to run a full squad of twenty, ten of which are all ready posted on this blog, so I wanted to add some diversity to the unit. In addition...I pretty much friggin' love Eldar corsairs. So with a little mix-and-match from the Wych kit, I have a piratical feeling guardian in a dynamic pose. What I do not have is an Alaitoc camo scheme I like with the new GW paints. This guy came out far too gray for my liking. I am grateful he was a test, as I can alter the highlights a little, and among his nineteen companions, his grayness will get lost unless viewing him up close. Also I did my bone build from a Zandari Dust base, and I am not wild about it either. There is a more yellow quality to this wraithbone vs. my other wraithbone, though in general I need to punch up the whole bone color a lot more.

Dire Avenger
The verdict isn't in for this guy with me yet. On his own, he isn't really setting anything off. That being said, I think as a squad, with the dark armor, and the heavily contrasting bright colors, they will be quite striking. Yet again, the rest of the squad will get a few tweaks, and this guy will be a bit of the odd man out. First off, I am going to tone the gems down a little. I want them to be bright orange, but I need to transition into the color instead of jump. I think I will try a reddish brown as a base and go from there. Second, his armor is really dark. That Drakenhoff Nightshade dries darker then Nuln Oil. I need to just shade with the wash, not bathe the model, or thin it down a little. This guy has a Macragge Blue base, but it is lost in how dark that wash ended up drying.

Thanks for reading,
T

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