Ravenborn

Fantastic! Really liking the flagellents, they’re such a great reminder of the Old World’s appeal; dark, gothic but with a cynical wink and nod at the ridiculousness of it all. Loving this army.

The first hag is coming along nicely. I base coated it blue grey, and it really changed how I looked at the colours. I decided not to use gold for the mask as I have on other models, but to instead go with “cold iron”, like the altar. I like it a lot; it’s less regal and vain, more dark and practical. The magenta cloth still adds some brightness, still in the cool tones. Only the flesh is warm. I considered going for pale blue, as if they were no longer entirely human, but decided it would be looking more undead than my goal. The contrast makes the model easier to read on the table too I want to place a small dot of plastic in the eye socket to paint magenta, so it gives the facemask more life. Not sure how to do that, but I’m open to suggestions. The hair will blend to white, like my other girls. The model is about 2/3 complete.

Thanks! No steps, just some photos of experimentation. I take photos of paints to remember which colours I used on a project, because I have a horrible memory.

Just a quick update. I put the Jalopy of Doom on hold to work on my priestesses. (...of Doom). I’ve never been excited about the hag models. Bigger hair is a fairly reliable way of depicting officers in Warhammer, but these girls just weren’t doing anything for me. I wanted them to be more mysterious, more creepy and even terrifying to the average Johann. I finally realized the best way fix this was to use the Melusai masks. It definitely set them apart from the rank n’ file welves. Then I replaced their knives with sickles. This gave them a druidic feel. All in all, I think they’re more interesting and unique. It also fits my fluff... the Temple of the Shattered Veil has rejected Khaine to worship Morathi directly, despite not knowing the full truth of his demise. The priestesses are slowly taking on the features of the Melusai, gaining scales and snake eyes. The masks allow them to deal with the other factions of Order, but each hopes to one day shed their humanity to gain the full power of becoming a Bloodwrack Medusa. I also repainted my Doooomfire Warlock leader. Got some conversion ideas for this group as well, but took me a while figure out the colours. Originally had pink manes, but it was too bright. Turquoise tones it down slightly. This is how they looked before:

The blue/gold combo is so strong that no one will notice if it’s “just” tabletop quality. Overall it’s wonderful to look at!

Thanks, I appreciate that I like working on fine details more than big structures. As far as machines go, this is kind of organic-looking with lots of interesting curves and angles, so it ended up being fun to do once I looked at the project as long of smaller shapes with high contrast... but I had a hard time picturing how it would turn out, what colours to use, etc. If I can’t get excited about what it could end up looking like, I know a project will be long, slow slog. Plus, I find vehicles with wierd angles need to be painted before assembly is completed, and that makes it harder for me to picture what styles and colour schemes will work best.

Honestly, I’ve been hesitant to start the altar for a couple of years. I love painting warriors and wizards and creatures... but machines, not so much. I rarely feel any real inspiration for colours or styles. Strangely enough though, last week I finally got struck with a bolt of inspiration and realized I’d better run with it immediately before I lost it. I’ve been painting my cold one knights and corsairs with dark blue-grey armour, and ended up applying that to my bolt thrower. I figured that might still work for the altar, along with magenta flames and runes to help tie it into my welves. So far, so good! In fact, I’m actually enjoying painting the sharp edges with high contrast, it’s fun to figure out lighting angles. I’m using mostly GW paints for the blue-grey, but decided to add a bit of Vallejo prussian blue to each step of stippling to add some colour saturation. I think some if the blades will be light grey NMM, so the blue helps with the contrast. The OSL for the runes and flames are fairly subtle, because I’m too scared of overdoing the effect and having to repaint everything. These are gaming models, so I’m trying to boost my productivity and complete these for table. I’d love to get this completed inthe next two weeks, minus the Avatar of Khaine, guardians and hag/slaughter queen. Doesn’t this look like something the Addams Family would drive? It’s the Jalopy of Dooooooom!!

Thanks! Good models always make painting easier.

I’ve always loved the Witch Elves... they were one of the units that really defined the dark elf personality and helped differentiate them from the high elves which were ubiquitous in fantasy, even back in the 80s. But a few things kept me from adding them to my delf army: 1. The price. 2. Low armour (glass cannon doesn’t suit my play style). 3. The price. 4. Liked the corsair models as well, and they cost less while having higher survivability. 5. Did I mention the price? $70 CDN was ridiculous, and still is. But now that they have a competitive list that’s also fun to play, it’s more worthwhile to make the plunge. I have to admit, I was getting tired of getting crushed because of the basic list available for the delves. I’m really bad for painting and repainting models, trying to figure out colour combinations. I’m never satisfied, always feeling like there is a “correct” combo that’s just out of my grasp. It’s terribly inefficient when it comes to finishing models, but... whatever. It’s my thing. So it took me a couple of years to reach a colour scheme that satisfied me with my original delves. I finally settled on dark purple and golden yellow, with dark blue armour and white hair. After all that work, I was finally happy, and started repainting all my stuff for a final time... ...but I was underwhelmed when I applied that scheme to my welf. It was ok...ish. The golden yellow really popped on my other models because the rest of the palette was so dark. The contrasting colours really worked. But when applied to a model that was 80% skin, the yellow was lost. So, time to experiment again. The pink hair was a model I was making for a Blood Bowl team a couple years ago. Liked the colour, but decided I wanted to keep the hair paler. More vibrant than my first model though; these murderers are defined by vanity and visciousness, so I wanted a little more colour than silver. So, I finally figured that out. This is where they currently stand:

Alright, here we go... So I’ve been painting minis for over thirty years now, and I think I’m finally getting the hang of it. At the very least, it’s a hobby that helps me achieve some level of zen meditation, a way to block out the real world for a little while. Not that the real world’s terrible, or at least my little corner of it, but it’s always a nice break to escape to the realm of Sigmar for a fantasy recharge. I’ve loved GW’s versions of the dark elves since Trish and Aly Morrison broke off from GW to form Marauder Miniatures. They were a couple of the original GW sculptors, who also share the ignominy of sculpting the original Nagash. Well, everyone has at least one skeleton in their closet to hide... As I was saying, they made the first complete, fleshed-out line of delves, complete with some really characterful mastiffs. If anyone is familiar with the Dakka site, that’s where I picked my “Mastiff” moniker from, when I’d post my 40k projects. Anywho... I always have had a soft spot for the delves. Surprisingly, I’ve never picked up a single Drizz’t novel, nor read any Malus Darkblade. But I’ve always gravitated to bad guys with a sense of style (team Empire over Rebellion all the way!) and these guys had it in spades. Unfortunately, my painting productivity is best described as “glacial”, so completing the hundreds of figures required by a WH Fantasy army was itself a fantasy, so I stuck to 40k. Until AoS. I still held out for a while, not wanting to get involved until they had point values for armies. I kinda assumed they wanted to kick around the rules for a while before committing to figuring out relative costs. In any case, when they finally released the “proper” game with pts, I dug up my half-completed delf units to see what could be turned into an army. Congrats on reading this far, thanks! Here, have some photos of my Dark Elf army, which has been put on hold since the Daughters of Khaine finally gave me a fun and competitive army to play: Damn, GeeDub really made some amazing models for the delves. Really hoping they revisit them some day, I’d love to field corsairs and cold one knights again, and not just as allies. In my next post, I’ll start talking about my Daughters of Khaine and post WIPs, which is what the blog is intending to cover.

I have a pile of regular dark elves and plan on using them as allies to give me a reason to dust them off once in a while. Does anyone else do this? I’ve used the cold one knights a couple of times, but now that the hero can use his general ability it might be a bit more useful. Also, could someone please tell me the point value of the Celestar Ballista? I was thinking of using the rules for my old bolt throwers.

Any chance you could summarize?

Sisters of Slaughter... what are they good for? Just curious why people take SoS over another unit of witch elves. I paint more than I play, so I don’t have enough strategic experience to understand how to take advantage of their different abilities. Is their role different than Welves? Do you hold them back to counterattack behind the welves? Defensively, to hold objectives? My current 1,000pt list is Hagg Nar with 20 WE and 10 SoS, along with snakes n’ harpies n’ warlocks, lead by a medusa. Any advice appreciated!

Yeah, two wounds instead of two attacks might be a better way to go. Call it “poisoned arrows” and it fits the theme much better than a hail of arrows. Looking at the Kurnoth Hunters, a unit of three has six shots of -1 rend, d3 dmg. I don’t know what they cost, and I know direct comparisons aren’t advisable, but I’d like the melusai archers to be a better dedicated ranged unit that make enemies want to take cover. A potential max of eighteen wounds, vs our potential max of five.

Unfortunately, that only makes Bloodstalkers useful in larger games, because they require a 480pt “buff” to be viable. I’d like to see them get two attacks, even if it’s at reduced range. Similar to the Namarti Reavers. As they stand, 160pts is too much for a maximum of five wounds per shooting phase.

This is one of the reasons I think AoS was the right direction for Games Workshop to move in to. Smaller armies, and stretching the narrative in new directions has really given a boost to creativity I believe. Moving away from rank n’ file means each model can be unique, and have a greater dynamic options. I still miss many aspects of the old world and games... but after 30+ years of Warhammer Fantasy, I never expected to be actively excited about the possibilities again. Armies like yours really crystalize the possibilities for me.

Wow, that fits really well, with comparable size and detail.

This is absolutely wonderful! Such a great way to add colour and interest to a horde army. Really enjoyed reading the fluff. What are you using for the bodies of the basic troops? Look forward to seeing more.

Beautiful colour choices, it’s great to see something so unique, especially for an older army.

Great, thank you. I just reread the warscroll and it makes more sense now.

Ah, thanks! Guess that makes sense, since the Bloodwrack Medusa can’t hop off and do her own thing. So the Torrent of BLOOOOD and sword are always active on the Cauldron, correct?

Can someone explain how the Avatar works when it’s on the cauldron? Specifically, if I activate it, does it walk off the cauldron? Do I measure the walking distance from its starting point on the dais, or from the edge of the base? If I’m on turn three, can I move my cauldron, then move my Avatar off the cauldron, or has he already moved for the turn as part of the cauldron? I may be overcomplicating things, but it’s a bit of an oddball unit.

What are gemenids?

Fair enough. Thanks!