The Wailing Doom corsairs log - 11/09/2015 - Siticus the Resplendent completed!

I really like the Archon, his blades are positioned pretty nicely. I also really like the paint scheme

First off, I apologise for missing those Banshees. I really like the colour scheme for them and you've really gone all out on making better fluff for CWE allies than I've seen elsewhere. Very well executed.

Good work on Araj the Sentinel, too. The rumours going around about him are interesting. The whole fluff of the army is very original. I'm glad to see you updating this.

Thanks for the kind words, Lord_Alino and Cavash, and glad you like the fluff bits! Currently I am in the middle of painting a squad of Dark Elf witch elves as wyches. They are fantastic models and probably the best GW have put out - mold lines are close to nonexistant, the poses are amazing and all the girls look properly lithe, athletic and savage. Unfortunately I doubt they'll be finished anytime soon, as I have a bachelor's thesis to focus on now. So no promises abou the next update- when it comes to painting miniatures, I can't meet my deadlines at all

What in the what O.o I scrolled through your work.... That raider doh..... That's just.... wow. I represent the lollipop guild, and it is most pleased.

Good luck with the bachelor's. What're you studying? (And don't worry about it, I always use education as my excuse as to why I haven't painted much. )

The Witch Elves models have a lot of potential. I think they'll look great when done up for you cult.

That raider is beautiful x.x

Wow. Great painting! Love the archon and his retinue and that raider is fantastic. The fluffy bits just brimg them all the more to life. I doff my cap to you sir

@Cavash: Oh dear, you just had to ask... Prepare for a long post, because I just got struck by inspiration!

I am studying philosophy, and my bachelor's thesis is about imagination in fiction in the context of Karl Popper's three world theory (world one being the physical world, world two being the world of mental states, and world three being the world of knowledge). In short, it's about how we perceive texts and how all forms of mental knowledge are a reality on their own.

A great example to the idea is this very project log - all these characters are fictional, and yet entirely real, taken a life of their own in a sense, through gameplay earning their identity and continuing to do so. Today I went to the gaming store and saw that the model of Lady Baliarstil had her pistol hand snapped off - it was nowhere to be seen, and apparently it had broken off during an Apocalypse game last weekend after I had to take my leave early. Since it's a third company model, I couldn't just slap on another spare hand with a blast pistol from my DE bits - it would look out of place. After failing to find the bit, I had a different idea.

Why not give her an armoured gauntlet in the image of Khaine himself? A kabalite's arm that normally would be out of place on the model, was just the right size to instead pass off as a large, armoured, exquisite gauntlet. And so I set to work, using the bracer off the Witch Elves frame and the palm from the Raider crew's frame.

This is the result.








Now that's all well and done, but it simply doesn't do justice to my mental idea of the character to just go and change a part of it just because it was broken. There needs to be a proper justification, something that makes sense in the context of the character. I asked about the moment when the figure broke, and found out it was about the time when a Chaos player was placing his Daemon Prince on the ruin and accidentally pushed it, causing the light resin figures to tumble off. And so, from a simple physical act of one figure knocking off another, my imagination shapes it differently - it is the aftermath of the battle between said Daemon prince and the Archon - she did fall in that battle from the Nurgle Daemon Prince's psychic powers. Thus, the character changes, the story evolves and I have basically written an entire page for my thesis as an example!


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With a pleased smirk on her face, Lady Baliarstil rolled away the dead Space Wolf marine with her foot. Her faithful Daughters of Khaine cheered for their leader, their armour coated with the fresh blood of the slain marines. The coordinated assault on human ice world seemed to go perfectly - the space marine forces were taken by surprise, being too preoccupied with the massive amount of Craftworld wraith constructs relentlessly marching forward and tearing their front lines apart. Lady Baliarstil's corsairs had appeared from nowhere, striking from the sky right in the heart of the defenders. It seemed that the battle was nearly over.

She then heard a strange, distorted roar in the air. She looked north and her nostrils were assaulted with a mix of rot and motor oil long before she could see what was the murky shape that was fast approaching. The figure was humanoid, yes, but looked wrong - rusty pistons and armour plates jutting out of a sickly green flesh. It was a great, grotesque monstrosity - neither living, nor entirely mechanical. A messenger from the Grandfather of Pestilence was fast approaching.

As she ordered her Raider fleet to take it down, she felt that her breaths became shallower and soon she began gasping for air. Similar fate seemed to assail her companions - the Khaine-like warriors collapsed on the rooftop one after another, falling prey to the otherworldly plague that was taking over Lady Baliarstil's body as well. She felt a surge of despair - how could she possibly fight against something that devoured her from within? In a split second, her augmented body activated a failsafe - her torso rid itself from all her limbs and infected cells, shearing them off with coils of monowire, before being transported to the main battle cruiser, The Wailing Doom, in the incorporeal shape of a bright beam of light.

After the unpleasant, but necessary escape procedure, would follow her rebirth. Overseen by haemonculus' Siticus' servants, Lady Baliarstil's body was soon regenerated and she could walk once more. However, the disgrace of falling like a hapless insect lingered over her. There had to be a way for her to suffer this defeat and yet come out as a victor. An idea stuck her. She instructed an intricate armoured gauntlet to be constructed, and ordered a heat lance weapon to be placed within it. Until it was ready, nobody was allowed an audience with the Lady, not even her trusted Sentinel.

When the right moment finally came, she donned the gauntlet and her usual battle garb, then organized a gathering in the great halls of the cruiser. With a lavish display of wealth and arrogance, Lady Baliarstil presented herself to her corsairs once more. She raised her gauntlet and summoned the leader of the Raider fleet that had failed to save her. Mercilessly, she thrust her armoured hand in the pilot's chest, tore out his heart, then incinerated it in her palm. She announced that just as death at the hands of the gods of Chaos was no end to the mighty Khaine, so it was nothing to her either. It was a clear display to all who had doubts - just as blood of eldar dripped from the hands of their god of war, so was it now dripping from the fiery gauntlet of his self-proclaimed champion.




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The great irony is that once I had finished with painting the armoured gauntlet, I actually found the missing hand! It seems that it is truly as they say - where the Grandfather of Pestilence is doing his dirty deeds, the Great Deceiver is not far away to twist the fates to his own will. Perhaps it's for the better - I actually like the model a more now. The Archon looks even more arrogant than before, a truly impressive feat! Not to mention adding a good example for my thesis - I think I have quite clearly demonstrated the interaction between the theoretical three worlds and how a simple physical fact had irreversibly changed a fictional character.

Quite the odd project log update, wouldn't you agree? :DAlso, thanks for the kind words, everyone! I really appreciate it!

I like this model, looks really nice. No conversion I've seen looks as awesome as that one. I like how imposing she looks. Just walking into battle with her arm held high just saying, "Come at me bro!

I love it! All great stuff, but how did you do the effect on the Razorwing? I really like it and think that if you used a lighter blue and maybe some Skull white it would be the best way to do a frosty effect.

It's been years since I painted the Razorwing, so I can't precisely recall what I did anymore. What's certain is that I used drybrush on the entire model, with some bolts of lightning freehanded on the wings and coated with gloss varnish.

What are you planning to do next Siticus? You haven't done anything in awhile.

Well, right now I'm on a hiatus for my Dark Eldar for several reasons. Our codex update should be out sometime soon, so no point in over-commiting to paint models I might not use that often, and whenever I am in a mood to play, I go with Eldar these days - my wraith army is simply more durable and better suited to take on all comers than the fragile and rather dated Dark Eldar, who, since I don't have Ravagers and Venoms to spam, just don't work as well. I also have picked up a bit of a queue of commissions, and I'm also planning on starting to play Infinity. Then there's also going back to university for a master's degree.

I have plenty of unpainted Dark Eldar to go - who knows, a bolt of inspiration might strike me to grab a half-done project and finish it! But until then, I will diversify a bit with commissions, paint more than just Eldar of various shades.

I see... That's alot of stuff to do. There's no sense in trying to craim Dark Eldar in too.

I'm a fan of the Mountain Breaker, great conversion and paint job, is the burst of flame a pre-bought kit or modeled?

Thank you for the compliments! The burst of flame is a rather simple greenstuff sculpt done over a small bit of the plastic spears leftover from the Raider kit.

I love what you have got going on here! So much character in your army.

The Doom's Edge is probably the finest example of a converted up Archon's ride I have yet to witness. The paint scheme is amazing too. I like the look of your Scourges, very unusual colour combo that works so well.


Looking forward to seeing more

Cheers

The Yak

Arise, dead project log, arise!

Finally got some DE stuff done, most of it is on a basic tabletop level to be playable at a local tournament. I have a bad feeling those models will stay like that for a long, long time, but such is the busy life!



Now, one model stands out - I wonder who could it be? Who else but Siticus the Resplendent himself? I am very satisfied with the way he turned out and I will take more pictures of the model after the tournament is over and I get some sleep!

Dude... that Archon is UNREAL. Killer work all round... but seriously give us some freaking closeups!

The moment had come. The craftworlders, so eager to see their enemies brought to ruin, so thirsty for their blood, had signed a pact. The Ascendants would lead the strike through several key Webway nodes, sowing terror in the enemy lines. And the Dark Kin would gorge upon the banquet of horror as the Wraithguard's hellish weapons would reap the souls of all who were unfortunate enough to stand in their way.

For such an occasion, Siticus knew he had to make an appearance. Clad from head to toe in gold-plated wraithbone armour, he already could see it all unfolding - he would stand on the highest building and act as a conductor to the splendid orchestra of terror he had so laborously built over the years. The kroot batches had gone to an evolutionary dead end and now sought only to grow in size and strength as their simple, practical minds sought to attach larger and larger weaponry to their limbs. Truly, if there was any, it was Siticus' only regret that he had to stoop down to looking at an army of sychopants to hope to create even just a few worthy servants to outfit him.

Those were thoughts for another time. Now, the delight of seeing his plans bearing fruit...







Finally this guy is done! It's been so long since I came up with the idea of the pose for the model and got it together, then a good time more until I could paint it. I am really satisfied with how he turned out. I tried out a few new techniques, most notable of them being the loaded brush blending.

Wooh!

Awesome Archon, really like how you've incorporated the 'new' Archon model.  One of the few good poses I've seen done with it, actually.

The Wraithguard Loincloth and Cape create a nice sense of movement in what is an undeniably static stance.  The freehand is elegant and provides a sense of decorum to the model.
The OSL in his eyes and (I think) in his Soul-Stone/ Drug-Injector look awesome.
The hairless Scourge Helmet looks surprisingly badass, though that may just be a sideproduct of the piece's brilliant overall composition

I can only assume that the prominent left hand is not from the Dark Eldar Lineup?


The fluff was a pleasure to read through.

(Also, necromantic bump. Because Project logs can always use those.)

And this is precisely why I am absolutely fine with thread necromancy for project logs I hadn't spotted this before and it's phenomenal

I've always thought that the Archon model has tons of potential, but is marred by the silly posing of the arms. Take them away and you can do great things