The K'daai Fireborn were the second of the two additions courtesy of Salute 2012. They were much better cast than the Iron Daemon and went together very well. Unfortunately, they were afflicted with some truly atrocious flash and, between the elaborate armour and the flames, I'm not sure I managed to get rid of all of it.
I didn't use Quickshade on these because I didn't think it would work well for the flames. I ended up undercoating it white before adding a coat of old Games Workshop bad moon yellow and adding successive washes and highlights getting progressively darker towards the tip, before giving a final highlight of almost pure white.
I am indebted to this website for the technique. I didn't follow the step-by-step exactly, but it did give me some very good guidance.
After all that work on the flames, the armour was relatively straight-forward, just a base coat of boltgun metal, a black ink wash some highlighting and some brass details around the edges.
The last two models I decided to paint the old fashioned way were the two Sorcerer Prophets on Great Taurus and Lammasu. As the focal point of the army, I thought they deserved extra care and attention.
The Great Taurus rider was originally a Chaos Dwarf Lord, but with that option excised from the army list he now counts as a Sorcerer Prophets. I'll admit that his massive hat is faintly ridiculous, but fashion for the great and good in society has often tended toward the ridiculous. One way of demonstrating wealth and status was to wear stupidly impractical clothing that proved you couldn't possibly be doing any manual work. Plus he probably executes anyone that laughs at his head gear.
I wanted to keep to the general colour scheme of the army, but to make it more elaborate. Consequently, I spent more time shading and highlighting the decoration and tried to make the skull on the top of the hat look like it was made of stone. As Chaos Dwarf Sorcerers are supposed to slowly petrify over time, I used the same trick on his feet. I painted both areas in Vallejo Neutral grey, with some simple highlights, but mixed in some silver grey and painted on lines to simulate cracks.
The Great Taurus is one of my favourite Warhammer monsters, and a rare example of a Warhammer monster sculpted by Alan Perry (check?). The bulging muscle tone and wide eyes suggest tension and give an aggressive look. I also like the spread wings that are joined all the way along the body.
I stuck to the classic red colour scheme for the skin, but decided to use brass for the hooves and horns. Brass horns, claws and talons are a common trope in Greek mythology and in some versions of the story, the Minotaur is described as having brass horns, so it seemed appropriate here. I was very pleased with the look, which contrasts nicely with the red skin. Finally, I painted yellow inside the mouth to imply heat.
The Lammasu rider, in contrast to the Great Taurus, was always supposed to be a Sorcerer and has a much more traditional look. I decided to use the army colour of Privateer Press Sanguine base for his robes, but I took a bit of licence to paint the area around his chest in boltgun metal. I don't think he was supposed to be wearing a breast plate, but as the modern Sorcerer Prophets are supposed to wear Blackshard armour I thought it was appropriate.
The Lammasu's colour scheme presented me with a dilemma. I am not fond of the blue used on Games Workshop's recent re-release, which would, in any case, clash with the rest of the army. I considered using Sanguine base, but thought that would be too similar to the Great Taurus and would not provide a good contrast with the Sorcerer Prophet. In the end I decided to go with black, but I didn't to go too dark so I started with a base of Vallejo German grey (which is their darkest grey, only slightly off black) and highlighted by mixing in basalt grey which has a slight touch of blue, To keep with the army theme, I painted the beard and hair in Sanguine base.
So that's the army done, after only 17 years. Forcing myself to stick to one project and making use of Quickshade really paid off here and, once I finally got started, I finished this army far more quickly than any of its predecessors. I am thinking of adding one or two elements, a few more K'Dai would be nice, a Magma cannon as its the only war machine I don't have and, with its short range, would benefit from being towed by the Iron Daemon. I also have 16 hobgoblin bowmen sitting around unused. There aren't enough of them to form a unit under the new rules, but if I can find four more, it would be nice to bring back the last of the original army line up.
Coming Soon: the army in action.
No comments:
Post a Comment