The Serpents' Breath - June 29, the first skimmers and bikes for my Harlies

The Serpents' Breath - the corsair scourge

Most of these are still works in progress, but I thought I would finally post a few things here.

First up my are my initial new-gen Raider and Ravager.  The idea for them and my Kabal's name came from a pic of the Dark Elf boats in WFB's Invasion of Chrace, which appeared just a few months before the DE release last year.



I instantly thought of Norse raider boats and decided I would follow that theme.  This is the result so far, but note that the blue aethersails and dragon's head and neck will be changing to match the light olive green used on my warriors, wyches, scourges, etc.

I have to re-paint the dragon's eyes, they currently suck, and re-position the bow rider so she's leaning forward more.  I also need to add rust and chains, skulls, etc.

The green goop is poison, that's an element I'm using across my whole army, DE weapons dripping with green poison.  It's a mix of Woodland's Water Effects and Vallejo's flourescent green paint.

C&C welcome.

While I dig your concept, I'm really torn about the dragon heads. I think they look a little "forced," if that makes sense. I love you poison idea too. I think it's the flash, but it looks a little too bright.

Next is my Duke Sliscus, a Succubus and Archon, and Baron(ess) Sathonyx.  I wanted to continue the aethersail theme with the Baroness, as you'll see.

And for those of you who may have seen some of these on Warseer ages ago, yes, I am the world's slowest painter!  But, I have made progress since these pics were taken, I just don't have new pics yet.

And here's my first squad of Scourges, with slightly-cropped Gargoyle wings. I wanted to emulate the look of the old Chaos Daemon Prince with chains on his wings, which also fits with the whole chain-snares element with DE.



Haywire Blasters are Shredders with lengthened barrels and re-profiled fins around the muzzle.


Heat Lances are half Dissie and half Reaver lance. I knew about the over-hand grip on the real models, but opted for the simpler one here after looking at FW's new Corsairs with Heavy Weapons.






C&C welcome (I will post better pics when I get more familiar with my new camera).

Thanks very much.

Xelkireth has already pointed much of what I thought. The Dragon Heads are a good idea, but its just lacking something. Perhaps the neck is too long or the colours too dissimilar to the raider... I can’t place a finger on it. It just seems that they are separate models and don’t have good cohesion.
With regard to the poison, it’s certainly a good idea and one which I intend to implement on my Sybarite’s venom blade. At the moment it is looking too bright and more like acid. I’d experiment with green paint mixed with PVA glue (As the PVA will set clear with a green tinge)
Overall the raider is very well painted and striking so I can’t really knock that as I’m quite impressed. Your inspiration is solid and well thought of, despite lacking something in implementation, but overall it’s a very good piece of work.

The faces/souls in your Archons Cape are stunning! Did you sculpt them yourself? Reminds me of Lucius the eternals armour (Very cool)

I think I get you both, Xelkireth and Ariensis. There is "something" about the dragon's heads that I couldn't quite get to "click", but they are just my first ones. Besides, I'm not exactly in the same league as a few others around here.

I'm hoping that changing the colour will really change the overall look and feel of them. The pics don't really work too well, either, they do look fairly good on the table ... I think.

The poison is bright, I wanted it as bright and acidic as I could get to match my splinter weapons. It really pops on the tabletop.

Ariensis - the faces on the cape are part of the original model, it's Vlad von Carstein from WFB Vampire Counts.

Gobsmakked wrote:

Besides, I'm not exactly in the same league as a few others around here.

I'm not knocking you, amigo. We're in the same painting boat. I will probably be stripping the a few models repeatedly before I even get close to what I'd like. I'm really tempted to do all my own conversions and then ship them to get painted.

The raider is certainly impressive and I understand the difficulties of first time conversions (I'm dreading the comments when I post my project log!?) I'd look forward to seeing the revised dragon heads if you are going to change the colour. If you wanted the poisons to look more acidic then you’ve certainly achieved that effect as it was the first thing that came to mind.

Gobsmakked wrote:

the faces on the cape are part of the original model, it's Vlad von Carstein from WFB Vampire Counts.

Shows how much of the GW product range I know! It looks just right as an Archon though.

Xelkireth wrote:

I'm not knocking you, amigo. We're in the same painting boat.

Certainly! Were all friends here!

For conversions and posting, I cannot stress enough: POSTER TACK. Seriously. It saves a ton of money, headaches and time trying to get your pose, conversion idea, whatever down pat.

Here's the start of my second and third squads of Scourges, this time with the official GW models. I absolutely love the batwings and am anxiously awaiting more sets as a result of trading away all my birdwing sets. Canada Post is still on strike, however, so I'm just doing as much as I can without the wings while I wait.

I wanted to have some look like they were perching on things, watching and waiting to pounce. I experimented with mixing the leg pairings and they work quite well even though the feet are bit mis-matched in some cases. They still don't look out of place, and I have done it with Wyches and Warriors too so I am not at all worried.

I ended up with three perched poses and three corresponding standing poses. These are beautiful models with lots of potential for customisation.

I'm going to have to get a squad of Scourges to run along with my converted ones, they look awesome! Your converted ones are cool too (I'm a sucker for the Gargoyle wings as well ) digging the hooks and trophies. I hadn't thought of mixing up the leg pairs to get those sort of 'dancer' like poses (such as the last pic)...thats an idea I'm borrowing!

Loving the theme mate, and the poison looks great! Looking forward to what comes next

Updates finally (Sept. 05) with some pics - Part I, the bulk of my current army:

First, the 1500 pt army I recently used at Astronomi-con Vancouver.



My first Razorwing, with magnetized missiles. I'm not totally satisfied with the paint job, but have plenty of other, higher priorities for now.





My two new Venoms, one with standard pax and the other with customized Kabalite Warriors.





My two Succubi (pics a bit blurry, apologies). Still a bit of finishing to go paint-wise, but I'm pleased so far. One has twin Venom blades and the other HG's. The VB-equipped one was my first attempt to create something like Bushido's "nefarious" wyche model from Warseer (click here).



Pain tokens, idea based on Garfy's. Pyramid dice with all numbers painted over except for 1-2-3 on separate sides. The dice sit loosely in a blob of GS which also has skulls and skeleton bits stuffed into it.



DE objectives from spare bitz.

Update part II - some WIP projects:

Some Grotesques inspired by Venkh and The Strange Dude, these really convert into excellent models. The DL-equipped one is the front gunner for my Haemie Ravager. The other five are my first squad, with a liquifier model and an Aberration with Scissorhand.



Some Beastmasters.



And two vehicles, a Reaper (on the right in both pics) and a Haemie Ravager (on the left). The Reaper has had the front quarters of the hull changed slightly to match the profile of the rear quarters and the side rails cut back at the front. I have fitted the modified front armour, but need to re-do the scalloped pieces on the bow ridge, they are too thin. Hint - never use black plasticard, it melts too easily with plastic cement glue and makes a horrible mess on everything.

The Haemie Ravager has a twin-finned rudder and cut-outs on each side of it's hull for the planned vehicle upgrades (think side-wheeler).

Really digging the Baron(ess) conversion.

Evil Space Elves wrote:

Really digging the Baron(ess) conversion.

Thanks. I really have to paint her and the rest of my Hellions one of these days. they have been built for over six months now. Ditto my many Reavers.

The beastmaster conversions look good, I like the double whip idea.

I may follow suit, although I was initially deterred by them not having an additional weapon.

Alrighty then.

My thoughts.

I think the biggest problem is the army is basically one color, and that color is a blue-grey. The blue color for the armor is not a very bright or eye catching color and with the grey body suit almost everything just disappears.

Now whether or not this is intentional, because I don't read minds, is the green color is extremely bright, and therefore it stands out like a beacon when the army or individual models are viewed.

As I read the thread, you wanted the green poison to stand out and I certainly think you have done that.

The dragon heads don't look right because we expect the tip of the skimmer to come to a point or tip. The dragons mouths are open and it throws off what we expect. To really make those work the way our eyes and perceptions think it should is you need a long neck so the base of the neck that is curling back give the impression of a point and then the gaping maw of the dragon ( brilliant idea there!) becomes a detail instead of the focus.

Initially I had a hard time seeing what was going on, bt the army shot really helped me to see what I was trying to figure out. While it may be there, I'm having a hard time seeing any shading. I see the blue detail in the cracks, but I think because it is a lighter or appears lighter, it makes the panels of the vehicles look very flat.

The fix, if you are so inclined, is to add a darker blue where your shade color is on the panels and on the armor. Some black added to the grey body suits would help add some definition.

And I say if you are so inclined because I see how much work you have accomplished and I am loathe to offer a critique with so very much already done. I am very impressed with the sheer amount of painted models you have gotten done, as I look at at my own cases with my DE inside screaming for some attention.

So please don't take my observations as overly critical, its not really. Its there to help you improve or to get a better idea as to what others see. If I didn't care I wouldn't bother to reply, and I do try to reply to every project log. You have taken the time to share with us, so the least I can do is comment.

The hellions are nice. I happen to like the double whip, its interesting and adds to the units as a whole.

The grots are looking really good, pretty much along the same thoughts I had. I'm glad my idea has been translated into reality and that it looks as good as I thought it would.

The double rudder is brilliant. Expect to see that idea stolen ( its the DE way )

I'm looking forward to seeing the Haemi raider.

Thank you very much GAR, I really do appreciate the considered and constructive feedback.

Yes, I have been putting of fixes and changes because I am so slow and because I have so many other shiny DE toys awaiting my grubby paws' attention. I am 95% certain that the blue on the sails and the dragon heads on the boats will be getting changed to a dark olive green-ish to better match the figures' body suits, and those same bodysuits will get a wash and some highlighting at some point.

The dragon heads are not ideal, they are a bit too large to blend in properly overall but there was a very limited selected (although I did just receive the new Storm of Magic Black Dragon heads ). There were no necks long enough without my delving into major modelling surgery and I didn't feel up to that task.

The armour on the figs is just Boltgun with a wash of thinned down Reaper Gunmetal blue. It looks good, but I'm not sure it works as well as the blend of those same two colours that I did on the Razorwing. Still mulling that potential change as I simply cannot do regular highlighting on armour edges very well at all and the wash at least gave me some contrast.

I also need to stop taking such close up pics that show every little fleck of paint and brushstroke and other stuff that the naked eye doesn't see from a normal viewing distance.

Cheers.

Finished my first squad of Grotesques converted from Skaven Rat Ogres. Bitz for another squad in the mail. I'm very happy with how these turned out.

Complete squad.


Aberration with Scissorhands, and bow gunner for Haemie Ravager that's still WIP.


Liquifier gun and Ichor Injector (counts as regular CCW).


Regular grotesques with CCW's, including what to do with the Rat Ogre tails that you cut off.


C&C welcome. Cheers.

Good stuff, suitably disturbing!

I'm quoting Austn Powers here

"YEAH BABY YEAH!"

The dark skin is sooo perfect. I am really digging it.

More please

GAR wrote:

The dark skin is sooo perfect. I am really digging it.

More please

Thanks GAR, it's Snakebite Leather washed liberally with Leviathan Purple, and then lightly highlighted with Dark Flesh. There will be more Grotesques, but they are stuck in the postal webway at the moment.

On to my kitbash of the Forge World Reaper, which I have finished building and now primed. Even though the rules for it as they currently stand suck, I still wanted to build one. The primary weapon is magnetised, so I can later substitute in the Tantalus' big gun, or a Void Lance, or something else.

For comparison, the real deal is here:
http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/Warhammer-40000/Dark_Eldar/DARK_ELDAR_REAPER.html

And here is mine (looks way better primed):






Bladevanes added to rear hull


Cockpit detail and Storm Vortex generator, which is just a Shadow Weaver from a CWE Support Weapon.


Weapons console


Storm Vortex Projector weapon


How to build the Reaper was relatively straightforward:
- add some armour plate at the bow,
- make the weapon out of plasti-tube and a CWE missile launcher plus half of a rudder,
- make the sail out of thin plasticard after first combining several basic sails as the framework,
- lay down the Shadow Weavver as the Vortex's gubbinz,
- make a weapons console for the pilot,
- and add the bladevanes at the back.

I also re-profiled the front quarters of the hull slightly to match the rear quarters, and also the side railings towards the front just to differentiate it a bit. And I figured that a weapon of this size and power would need some extra cooling and ventilation, so I gs-stamped some vents on a CWE Falcon and stuck them on. Not sure they came out clear enough, will wait and see after they are painted.

C&C welcome. Cheers.

It looks really promising, but as you say, it's hard to say before primer, if transitions to blades etc look good or not.

The conversion over all, looks great!

Damn fine work my friend. Two thumbs up on the conversion. Sail=awesome.

Conversion is great and as Evil says, the sail is awesome. Would really like to see you come up with some alternative, original designs.