Monday 13 March 2017

Dainna the huntress.

Throughout the realms there are countless kingdoms.
Many are but ruins of their ancient glory, their power only just returning after
a thousand years under the heel of chaos.
Most are little more than dust and memory.

Yet there are a few that still stand strong....
Deep within the realm of beasts there stands Themyskyr, City of the hunters.
For countless centuries it has shone in gold and silver, Like a crown
Atop the very mountains of the far lands.

From this land Dainna has been sent, for a city as ancient as Themyskyr remembers much,
And whispers of things long since thought forgotten have reached it's gates.
Dainna is the huntress of the bronze tower, Chief warrior and champion of the city.
She is charged by the council of the city with the Destruction of all monsters and invaders that would see Themyskyr toppled,
And it is a task in which she has never faltered.
Her victories in war and the hunt are beyond count.
None has stood before her spear and lived, Be they warrior or beast.

Now she hunts a new quarry,
For the rumours say the ancient Mystarikum has revealed itself.
This has caused unrest in the chambers of Themyskyr.
No where else are the powers of the ancient cities as well remembered,
and no where else is the power and danger of the lost Mystarikum truly known.

Dainna will do what she has always done.She will hunt her prey, she will strike, and she will be victorious..
 for Themyskyr.









This was a really fun miniature to work on.Dainna is built from a sister of silence body with Perry foot knights head ,spear arm and pauldrons, with a bretonnian knights shield.

The perry arms and heads really scale with the slighter figure of the sister body and match up fairly well stylistically, giving a more grounded fantasy look to what could have been an overly baroque figure.

Painting wish I copied my usual rusted armour look, building from boltgun metal, agrax wash and brown ink, then a layer of rust, boltgun drybrush and chainmail edging.
I try to avoid being overly sharp with my highlighting in general but since i wanted this to look like a well worn and battle marked suit of armour I decided to go all on and add chips, worn edges and rust pockets over the whole suit.



Thursday 2 March 2017

A being of power and unspeakable terror....



In all the realms there is only one being so terrible...

Only one creature with such power...

Only one who can bring such ruination with its every step....

None can challenge it...

None has ever fought it and lived...

No one shall escape its ruin, and the realms with be torn asunder by its very will....


SLOP HAS COME, AND HE SHALL SEE THE WORLD BURN.



Okay, Maybe I'm being a bit dramatic.
But i really love this mini, It just seems to ooze character and hints at so many weird and wonderful possibilities.As a sculpt it's charmingly simple, a real joy to paint, but managed to convey a real Bosch style weirdness that has often felt lacking from Age of Sigmar since the start.

My reason for painting it was mostly for fun as i love the model, But i also wanted to see if I could get across a dark and atmospheric style using a brighter and colder palette than I've been relying on to this point.
I also decided to give base experimentation a try.I love the way John Blanche bases his models, the ground less of a diorama and more an atmospheric nondescript setting for the miniature.

You migth also notice that this model is photographed much better than anything else to date despite being bloody tiny! Well I'm still using the same old smart phone to get my models from desk to computer, But i have been messing around with lighting a bit and came up with a happy medium between dark as hell and yellower than an imperial fist on the surface of the sun.

Burik the moon guard, watchman of Marshes end & Huund.




Marshes end is a quiet place.
Built atop the jutting spires of a sunken city of marble and copper, It rests on the
horizon like a crown of broken jetties and rotten wood houses.

To the south lies the great marsh, vast and featureless save for a few places where dark and terrible things still dwell, and around this sits the black wood, a forest of such depth that some say daylight has never touched its floor, and the ice and mist have become cruel....

To the north, the nameless sea.Calm and mist covered, it stretches to the grey horizon.
No one comes to marshes end save for those who seek the silence of the end of the world or the occasional restless revenant, risen from the cold mire.

Or rather, that's how it used to be.
As news of the Mystarikum has spread across the realms, So marshes end has found itself visited by many strangers, some mighty, some insidious....

It is Burik and his trusty guard dog Huund who had for many years kept the towns borders safe, watched the marshes mists for signs of foul spirits and patrolled to the edge of the blackwood
when news of nameless horrors spread.

Now Burik has taken up with the dawn knight, and has declared himself the Moonguard.
Where the dawn knight rests, Burik watches over him, acts as squire and for his part helps him in combat.

Accompanying him is Huund, Guard dog of the long since banished mayor of marshes end.A loyal and battle scarred beast, Huund has become a companion of all in the dawn knights company,
None more so than the wizard Therin, whom he takes great joy in
guarding, If only for the heat the wizard can conjure on cold nights.


Burik is built from a Bretonian man at arms body and bill, With a perry war of the roses head, skeleton shield and (dark?) Eldar back banner.
I wanted him to look like he has built or cobbled together his guards kit from what local supplies were available in a run down fishing town, so a shield with faded heraldry and a rain stained banner with his own simple design on seemed like a fun way to put this across.
Added to this is a healthy layer of rust and grime and i think the effect comes through.
Since he's the third model for the warband he has the job of really cementing the style I want to get across, and it took me a while to decide how he should be painted. In the end i decided that while Therin was dark and brooding and the dawn knight was shining and bright, the real humans of this band should be somewhere in-between, A grimy grey bunch of dour soldiers and militia so i went with a fairly subdued colour palette, Mostly greys and browns with reds whites and a faded turquise to break up the monochrome nature of the robes.

For Huund I simple covered up the various cybernetic implants of the cyber mastiff that came with the game day enforcer model before painting. He was built up from a almost black brown to a middle brown, then detailed with purple bruising and red scars to give him a bit more of a battle hardened look.
He might not find his way into the warband as a starting member, But once I have the points he'll be acting as a gryph hound in game terms.