Ravenborn

Kinda’ a ****** year, involving layoffs and other shenanigans, but I’ve been getting back to painting… Well, repainting. I wasn’t happy with the Ulfengard, so I replaced the swords, heads, and paint. They looked a bit cartoony, and I wanted them to fit in more with the Cursed City look; gritty, practical soldiers with more historical, proportional looking helmets and weapons.

Still WIP. I painted a vampire knight to see what colours worked, and FINALLY settled on dark turquoise and crimson. All metals will use metal paints with washes to age them. The standard Ulfenguard will be reversed: dark turquoise livery, with red sheilds.

Really like the hunched-over poses. What are the bodies from?

Ugh. Got laid off from my job a couple weeks ago, so painting’s a bit less of a priority these days. 😡 Work continues on the dragon though, pretty much finished one side and started the other. I also just about finished ten skellies. In the end I went green for the cloth, wanted something that looked a bit dirty, not so bright. I’m already rethinking my decision lol. I’ve decided to use actual metals instead of NMM for a change, to speed up the process a bit. I bought about ten GW metals, including bronzes, irons and coppers. I’m hoping the copper looks good with the green for the elites. Here’s a WIP: I love painting cloth when it has sharp folds and draping.

Thanks for the feedback. I knew it was a long shot, looks like they’ll stay on the shelf.

@NauticalSoup Your previous advice was fantastic, so I have a new question for you; You said the ballistae are “meh”. What do you think about the other CoS artillery, such as the helblaster or helstorm? Would choosing either of them be better than the ballistae? I think my main goal for them would be to target heroes and monsters.

That’s great! Love the blue, and the lamppost and cobblestones make a great base.

Squirrel! Got distracted again by the deadboyz. I always seem to end up with purple these days. Love to hear what you think works better... red or purple? I like red, but most of the undead armies I've seen follow use a red scheme, so I want to try a few things before commiting. The regular deathrattle skellies won't have as much copper, I wanted the Grave Guard to be easily identifiable.

Much appreciated, thanks!

I’m just hopping back into playing after an extended break… something about a pandemic… where can I find the most up-to-date point values for armies? I bought the last Generals’ Handbook that had updated PVs, but I can’t remember if an errata was issued after that. Thanks!

Great point! I didn’t think to compare those. Thanks!

Thanks again! What do you mean by “brackets”? I’m not familiar with that term in gaming.

Thank you, thank you, thank you! This is amazingly helpful. I’m completely aware I’m hamstringing myself by sticking to dark elves, but I’ve wanted an delf army for over 30 years now Your notes will help me finish a 1,000 test list with tempered expectations. I’ll definitely consider the Phoenix Guard rules for the BG, given that these are for friendly games anyways. Is a hydra preferable to the Kharybdis? Its ranged attack seems like a better choice.

Question for experts here: what city should I use for my all Dark Elf army? I have the Morathi book, and was intending on using one of the lists from that, but I don’t know if that’s still valid. Here’s what I’d like to field, based on what I’ve painted: Black Dragon with dreadlord Fleetmaster Assassin Sorceress Celestial Hurricanum 20 corsairs 20 Darkshards 20 Black guard 10 Drakespawn knights Chariot (haven’t decided which) 2 celesta ballistae Kharybdis Also have lotsa DoK. This has been a passion project for me for a few years; all the models will be Delves, including the ballistae and Hurricanum. I’ve only got one game of AoS3 in, so I really don’t know what might work. It’s not for tournaments, just fun. Any advice would be appreciated, but I’m especially looking for suggestions on which city to start with. Thanks!

Bit more progress. The gold helps tie the rider and mount together better. And painting each scale gets tedious, taking breaks to paint other parts, or even other models, helps prevent me from getting sick of the model.

Decided to take another crack at the Grave Guard. The first attempt was too blue, too colourful. Went with black and white for the armour, much happier. Not entirely sold on the blade, want a cool colour to balance the bronze.

Love it

Decided to move from turquoise to blue with a hint of purple. The turquoise felt a bit too cartoony, more suitable for Warcraft.

Thanks for the feedback, I do appreciate it! Taking a break from painting, my hands have been pretty shaky the last week. Not sure if it’s an infection from my surgery, but going to my family doctor to talk about it tomorrow. Enough whining… I got the piece I was waiting for, so I’m working on my zombie dragon again. He’ll be landing on a destroyed “charnel throne” base. Since this dragon model is smaller than the actual zombie dragon, which sits on a huge circular base (130mm diameter instead of the 105mm x 70mm bases used by the Stormdrake and dark elf dragon), I wanted to bulk up the model with a structure to fill the space. The lowered wings will hide some of that structure, otherwise that structure could overpower the dragon. I have two thoughts for the vampire lord; either mounted, or standing under the dragon. Once I get the dragon built, I’ll make that decision. I’m using sprues to fill in gaps on the toes and legs as I cut and reposition them to give a solid connection to the structure.

Been trying to sort out colours for the dragon. It’s a bit brighter than my original plan, which was black top, white belly, and either gold or magenta dividing dorsal line. But, I know I’m also doing an undead dragon after this, so I decided to go for more colour. I’m trying to retain some black on the underside of each scale, and each muscle bulge, to really push the contrast. I’m also adding purple to the shadows for depth of colour. Interestingly, the result is the rider’s blue armour and purple cloak looks desaturated by contrast. The belly and undercarriage may stay light blue, but not quite sure. Light brown would be less cartoonish, but not sure. What do you think? Edit to add example of cold/warm undercarriage:

Ugh. Had surgery last week, getting a deviated septum fixed. Two weeks of blood, snot and pain, none of which is conducive to painting. Tried to get some work done, but my hands are pretty shaky.

What a great idea! I really like the ocean theme to give Nurgle a unique new twist.

Another suggestion; get Pinterest. I’ve got tons of folders of minis for inspiration. It’s fantastic when you need to get motivated to paint, or are looking for new ideas.

Lots of good advice here, I’ll try not to repeat what’s been said Work in other media. Sketch, try watercolours, oils, pencil crayons, lego, macaroni… find different ways to be creative. It’ll knock you out of routines and habits, and force you to look at design in a completely different way. Breakthroughs often come when you’re out of your comfort zone. This can also give you a break from repetitive painting tasks. It’ll also free you up to make mistakes that you might not want to risk on a $70 model. Try crazy colour combos with pencil crayons or play dough, whatever, and your mind can start going down roads you’d never considered. In another life I worked as an illustrator, before computers were an option. Some of my designs were used for silkscreening, so I had to learn to stipple (tiny dots to create texture or gradients), and I had to use India ink and a fine brush for line work. Those gave me different skills to apply to my minis. Learning to draw or paint effectively in 2D pays dividends when you switch to 3D. Learn how to give shapes volume through pencil shading on a sketch pad. I still do this sometimes on complex shapes. Train your brain to see how different textures reflect or refract light. On that note, study renaissance paintings. The masters had to mix their own paints, worked in drafts or sweltering locations, reused canvases two, three, ten times… but created literal masterpieces. NMM? They mastered it. OSL? They mastered it. It wasn’t technology that gave them an advantage; it was copying the work of their masters and peers, repetition, education, observation, and passion. As I said, if you can give a cloak depth and texture in 2D, think how much your 3D work will improve.

Maybe a mechanical bull? It’s got the right build and hooves.