Protist's works progressive

Protist

Member
Well, I've not painting much this last year or so, in fact barely at all for many reasons. But I've been collecting here and there and put together a lil' DE force for fun. Here's the state of the first unit under the brush so far Menghil's (nearly) Manflayers:
menghil-flayers1.jpg

menghil-flayers2.jpg


Not my best work ever, I'll be honest, but I really couldn't spare much time on them and they're canon fodder in the end :shock:

Still some basing work to finish, a few details to pick out and some tidying up to do.
 

Aiteal

Member
Those are fantastic Protist :) Colourful without sliding into cartoony.
Can I ask what paint range that turquoise is from?
 

Protist

Member
Thanks guys
I was a little dubious as I got started that using a turquoise/orange combo could get too 'cartoony', but I kept it going anyway cos I'm stubborn and its striking!

The turquoise is from the Vallejo Model Colour range. I always mix paints though, but I can never remember after I've done it. Likely candidates used at different stages are ice blue (old GW paint range), VMC pale sand, Vallejo Game Colour dark blue, probably some VGC black, and various mediums for washing and tinting... but yeah, I like to bring a little more than colour triads to the table ;)

Don't be afraid of enamel! You always see people taking these textures to crazy levels, but for gaming type work just have some fun with it. Use a slightly darker shading and slightly stronger highlighting edge with some obvious light spots and it looks serviceable at least. Doesn't seem to work so well on chainmail but hey, who cares, its colourful!
 

Aiteal

Member
I think it looks great on the chainmail, if anything it gives a more coherent look, tying the pieces together much better than the usual silver would have done imho.
 

Protist

Member
First up a big thanks to all the positive comments given - much appreciated :)

I've been busy painting every spare moment I have since I got the brush bug back after a long 'time-out' as mentioned in my first post. I've soldiered through the large units and, since they arrived recently, I thought I'd treat myself to the more individualistic elements of the force.

Still not actually finished anything yet, but that's how I like to work - all the final touches get done together so it all hangs together better... or I'm just frivolous and vapid jumping from one unit/model to the next - you decide :?

Another warriors unit - this time with black chainmail - ooh how evil!
black_mail.jpg

I really need to sort out more shields, but can't come up with anything decent. This unit are short of 5. The rest of the army is short about 20!

The general and his retinue of cold one riders. There's a minor conversion for the banner bearer - but being all black she's kinda hard to see.
wip_c_ones.jpg


The first few stages of the rather fishy looking dragon. I need to figure out a decent sorceror/ess rider but might have a conversion idea:
wip_fish.jpg


And some chaos warriors who just tag along with the army for the killing part. They're mates with the general after he bested them all in a drinking game involving peach schnapps, marbles and a halfling's underpants...
chaos-warriors_1a.jpg


A rather rubbish picture of all the units so far, bar some witch elves and two more bolt throwers+crew. Those are being cleaned up for priming still.
wip_d_e.jpg


Now, if I could only find my tripod I would get some better/sharper/brighter pictures for the showroom, as they get completed :cry:
 
Looking really nice there.

I'm loving those muted tones and its a great combination for Dark Elves. Nice to see something other than purple - heh.

That's a really interesting dragon too... where did it come from?
 

Protist

Member
Thanks!

Bluey - its a Ral Partha 'Sea Dragon' from cc1987 I think, but without the wings. I filled the lug-holes over, just behind the shoulders, and re-scultped the flaps to a distinctly average standard! Took me ages to track one down (in America) and the next day found a UK site that is selling them :cry:
 

axiom

Member
Protist":18gdgpoz said:
Thanks!

Bluey - its a Ral Partha 'Sea Dragon' from cc1987 I think, but without the wings. I filled the lug-holes over, just behind the shoulders, and re-scultped the flaps to a distinctly average standard! Took me ages to track one down (in America) and the next day found a UK site that is selling them :cry:

And the UK site is...? ;)

Lovely work on the army so far. The colour combination is gorgeous!
 

Aiteal

Member
Beautiful stuff, the cold ones are great, the first green cold one, two from the left, can you share the colours you used for that?
It looks fantastic.
 

Protist

Member
axiom":hjuif0h0 said:
And the UK site is...? ;)
I can't remember :lol:
Chico mentioned it somewhere as a place he buys from so I checked it out to see their stock and was both chuffed and gutted to find some of the old Ral Partha stuff in their listings! I'll have to look around a bit more to see if I can find his post.

Aiteal":hjuif0h0 said:
Beautiful stuff, the cold ones are great, the first green cold one, two from the left, can you share the colours you used for that?
It looks fantastic.
Weeeelllll, I'm crap for structured painting methods I'm afraid. What I remember then - GW Orkhide Shade basecoat for sure. Then I definitely added VMC Emerald Green for the main midtone. After that layers and juices get a bit blurry for highlights. Could have been some GW Camo Green, maybe VMC Pale Sand, and perhaps... something with more yellow in - sorry I really don't remember but that's the sort of thought process I go through til I hit the right note!

I definitely added striped areas of scales using a GW Camo Green based set of colours once the rest was finished. This would again be highlighted with a touch more yellow to build contrast. I also think I gave the whole lizard a wash with Asurmen Blue since I have some knocking around - not my usual resort though!
 

Protist

Member
Righty then, been out of the habit of photo-ing updates, with work being a slog... its the commute that's killin' me :cry:

I got my camera out and thought it'd be funny to show the appalling lack of paint-hygiene and sanity improving tidying that has occured on the workbench:
oh-dear.jpg

Holy **** can I actually work in this mess :shock:

dark-elf-army.jpg

aahhhh, that's better. I can now actually see that if I work on the bases and the second bolt thrower + crew I could actually take a good sized army to the gaming table and it'd look pretty sweet.

dark-elf-unit-1.jpg

These guys are near as damn it done. Need to finish their leather gloves/boots/belts but that's minor; more major is to finish up all the remaining shields (4 or 5 I think to go) and decide what to do with weaponry (which extends to the entire army at the moment)

c27-hydra.jpg

This monster arrived recently and, of course, got painted asap. More work on the eyes and job's a good'un

dark-elf-cold-one-banner.jpg

I've also started working up the banner for the cold one riders. She may be an army standard if I fancy it - its easily big enough! Not sure what to add but it needs something extra - any ideas?

tom-meier-red-dragon-1.jpg

And finally picked up a tailless (is that the right spelling?) red dragon by Mr Meier for the grand sum of £4. Win!
Now I have to make a new tail. Not so bad because I think mine might actually look a little better (but that's HERESY dammit!)
 
Damn fine brush work there!

I really like the banner work & your basing technique looks quite realistic.....haven't seen grass done that good before!

I especially like the chaos warriors from the bottom left hand corner, great colour choice. That's the place that always stumps me with chaos dudes.

Looking forward to seeing more.
 

Subedai

Member
Great looking army, very sinister with its combination of subdued colours. The demonic banner emblem repeated on the shields is excellent. Also really like the markings on the hydra, I must try something similar for my reptilians.
 
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