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Borgnine

Master Necromancer
True Blood
Jun 15, 2013
2,036
Pruszkow, Poland
@Round Reaper Thanks! I really like your collection too! As for the embroidered cloak - I really recommend doing them like that, it looks good and it's actually easier, as one doesn't have to worry about smooth blending of the colours ;) I'm happy to see my dragon is here to inspire other ones - and I look forward to seeing your take on the big lizard :)

@Shadespyre Big thanks! That comment really made my day :)

@Adam_Barrow Pity that in the past I dismissed plenty Abbyssal Terror on ebay and similar, not needing them. And now they seem to be much more rare! :frown: I got outbidded recently, but I have my eye on another one already ;)

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Fortunately I got my motivation back with double force! Unfortunately I couldn't find enough free time recently to make some use of it! :frown: Still, I managed to finish the ghost swarm of the Coven Throne and that was probably the worst part... I struggled a bit how to make metal and matte parts look different without clashing too much. In the end I painted ghost parts white and metal parts bright silver - and then glazed over it all with green and blue. The difference is there, but it's subtle, just like I needed it ;) I added some white freehands on the ghost skeleton's clothes - those are the same models as black knights, they should have the same ornamentation as my knights. It's easy to miss if one doesn't know they're there, but that looks good on ghosts.

bjBIq5N.jpg


In the meantime I am struggling to get a right shade on those bone railings on the carriage.
 
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Farmer7574

Vampire Count
True Blood
Dec 10, 2013
1,587
England
@Borgnine Nicely executed all round. I like the minor difference between the spirit areas and the weapons, and the use of green AND blue as ethereal colours has made a really eye-catching swarm of spirits. That freehand pattern adds some nice focal points to the massive ethereal area too, and I really like the OSL on the base - did you take the glaze approach to this? It looks pretty tidy & realistic.

Great work mate.
 

Adam_Barrow

Sleepless Knight
True Blood
Dec 25, 2010
3,068
Nashville, TN
You even hit the Wraith cloaks. That looks awesome, man! I think your Ethereal stuff is gunna look great spread around the army (Exibit A: your BSB).

If the carriage is giving you fits, I painted mine metal. Maybe a chance to show off your armor corrosion technique on this model?
 
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Borgnine

Master Necromancer
True Blood
Jun 15, 2013
2,036
Pruszkow, Poland
@robtion Thanks! Making those photos was difficult and I wasn't entirely content with them, so it's nice that you like them ;)

@Farmer7574 My ghosts are blue on skin/bones and green everywhere else since my first undead miniature painted, but only here I managed to really bring it out ;) As for the OSL, I use two methods.
One is to start glazing a large are with Biel Tan Green and then while adding white to the mixture, glazing ever smaller area - at the source paint is much thicker and one gets a nice light gradient out of it. This works on flat areas.
Thinner stuff like the fence I paint with white streaks before glazing - adding white where light hits the most - and then glazing it with Biel Tan Green, which blends the white a bit with the rest and also creating a gradient.

@Adam_Barrow Thanks! But it seems I am running out of etherals in my army, as I'd rather mount my Mortis Engines on something more substantial, one that's easier to paint and doesn't need OSL ;) We'll see how it'll turn out though. Also, thanks for the tip about the carriage, but it was done by the time you wrote that comment ;) It makes sense to be bone and fits my color scheme a bit better. Also, this is a vampiric model, verdigris goes on wights their war statues.
I made up a lot of internal rules about my own army, sometimes it makes artistic decisions a bit restricted xD

-------------------------------------------------

I got sick last two days - that meant not going to work and having lots of time to paint - and that made it possible to finish the carriage (well, almost) before going on a trip this weekend ;) Besides spirits themselves and other special effects, this model is a one big excercise in following the red-black-white scheme for my vampires - and everything has to follow it. Even the materials that make up the carriage and pillows too - it was a bit demanding, but also fun and came out nicely.

Curtains are not there because they'll be painted together with the girls.

wurfKsc.jpg


And a WIP of the Scrying Pool - I wanted to paint an image there, because that seemed like a cool idea. Unfortunately I was rushing it a bit and in the end it turned out rather flat and the image is barely recognizable. I think I need to work slowly on it while painting girls. Still, a closeup of my first take on the topic:

sJIbpKy.jpg


While painting girls I will also work on a surprise project that I found on ebay and which fits the current competition nicely ;)
 
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Theerteen

Cheerful Cranium
True Blood
Aug 20, 2012
1,503
Germany
I'm not getting bored telling how I always walk the line between "I friggin hate you" and how much I admire your stuff. That's so awesome...
 

Farmer7574

Vampire Count
True Blood
Dec 10, 2013
1,587
England
@Borgnine Those sick days are really paying off! Obviously your boss isn't on CN :)

That scrying pool is a touch of genius there, the vision in the bowl is fantastic - first time I've seen that. That's a really nice duo of stone colours you've done too, the red marble and black cobbles go hand in hand together. Even those cushions at the back are a piece of art :bowdown:

Going back to you OSL - I think the areas around the lanterns at the back and the flames on the carriage could really benefit from this, just a small tinge of the light's colour could add a lot. That said, it looks great as it is already and I'd personally probably not bother with it (since when you go down that route, you might end up having to do OSL on everything in the vicinity to make it look right).

Your ethereals - How did you get that effect? It appears to be washes over a white basecoat, then a white highlight or is there more than meets the eye here?

Superb stuff, keep it up!
 

Sessioni

Black Knight
Dec 29, 2014
300
Very, very well painted indeed. I would say that you shouldn't change the pool's picture unless I knew you have what it takes to top that. The picture is very nice and creepy as it is. Needless to say, everything else is also executed perfectly. Keep it up buddy, your talent inspires us all.
 
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Shadespyre

Vampire Count
Aug 11, 2012
1,023
Surely this is your best yet? The cushions are great, the red marble is just perfect and the scrying bowl is.... I'm speechless. When you put this together with the spirit horde it might just break my mind! :smash:

Amidst all that, there's the simple idea of the big sword lent against the back there, waiting to be used. That's one thing I can copy successfully! :)
 

Borgnine

Master Necromancer
True Blood
Jun 15, 2013
2,036
Pruszkow, Poland
@Theerteen Love or hate, at least your emotions aren't lukewarm ;) Thanks!

@Farmer7574 I also never seen that, which seemed strange, it seems obvious after reading the description in the book. Then I found it's somehow difficult to do it right, so maybe that's the reason ;) And I will be doing full OSL later, no worries - I just want to do it after I have all the girls on it.

@Sessioni Big thanks! I remade the scrying pool, see below if it's better ;)

@Shadespyre Thanks! I always wondered how those girls are supposed to fight if there's only one knife for them - and adding a dark elf sword was simple enough to remedy that ;)

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Two things to show today :) Second one goes into the next post for easier indexing.

First, I remade the scrying pool. Earlier one was done quickly and without big preparation - and end result was rather flat. After that I designed the image on paper and spent two evenings working on it, instead of 1 hour. Painting the image itself was easy enough, but making the image clear AND adding shading+highlights on the surface was much more difficult. I couldn't get both strong enough at the same time, but this will work too.

ePotaHW.jpg


And the old one for a quick comparison

sJIbpKy.jpg
 

Borgnine

Master Necromancer
True Blood
Jun 15, 2013
2,036
Pruszkow, Poland
And a second thing today - a surprise I talked about earlier - rather heavily converted Carrions ;)

I was scrolling through ebay some day and I noticed some guy selling three carrions. Then I remembered an artwork I saw long time ago, which I wanted to recreate at some point. Those birdies were perfect for that, so I bought them and worked on them this last 1,5 week. I added those skull-like heads, some needle teeth and messed around their bellies a bit - and I think they turned out sufficiently creepy ;) At this point it's all green and silver, but after painting all the features should be clearer.

A shot of all of them:

wQCEs1S.jpg


and some closeups:

IdTCkjj.jpg


Waiting for all the GS to cure, I was doing some small progress on my Necrarch vampire and the dragon. And speaking of Necrarchs, I finally bought an Abyssal Terror ;) 'Till next time!
 
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Farmer7574

Vampire Count
True Blood
Dec 10, 2013
1,587
England
@Borgnine Great job on those carrion conversions, they're an excellent adaption of the artwork and a great example of a VC-themed TK unit.

Your original work on the scrying pool was pretty darn good but the new version tops that. I can imagine painting a vision in a pool would be quite tricky as you're only able to paint on the surface but want to make it appear as though the image is inside the pool. Your later version comes across nicely and has more depth than it's predecessor. :)

Top stuff, keep it comin!
 

edwardvlad

Zombie
Jan 23, 2017
25
Italy
Good sculpting man! It's such a good concept, i may steal It xD

Do you happening to know where those models are from? They look nice. Can't wait to see them painted!

Edit: Nevermind, just discovered they are GW, sorry
 
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Borgnine

Master Necromancer
True Blood
Jun 15, 2013
2,036
Pruszkow, Poland
@Unas the slayer Big thanks! The creepier, the better ;)

@Farmer7574 Thanks! To make it perfect, one should probably leave the bowl empty, sculpt a 3D image inside and cover it with red-colored resin ;) Maybe I'll rework it after I'll get some experience with water effects xD

@edwardvlad please steal away, it's not illegal ;)

@Nagash Will Thanks!

------------------------------------------------------------

I finished painting the Flying Horrors - rather quick I think, even considering how troublesome all the parts on their wings were... Those are rather heavily converted Carrions from the now discountinued GW Tomb Kings range - I sculpted their heads from scratch, added some creepy finger and filled their bellies with tendrils and bodies. The general concept was inspired by this artwork. The mess in their bellies represents the first try of the visceral fleshcrafting I would like to add to one of my factions - think something like from The Thing.

Some backstory for Gudvanger's Flying Horrors:
Built from strange varieties of bones, feathers and flesh, held together with steel and skin, the Flying Horrors are another mad creation of the flesh-stitcher Haralamb Gudvanger. What sets them apart from others, are their bellies - in which he planted seeds from the Lady of the Bog. Amongst all the dead, necromantic tissue molded by the stitcher, those writhing tendrils of the blooming flesh are the only living parts, twisted as they are. The hungry mass of viscera catches and consumes all nearby body parts - be they alive or dead - with unending appetite. As long as the Horrors won't devour themselves, Gudvanger can think of the experiment of joining dead mass with the living flesh as successful. When they are not fighting with wretches over waste bodies, they are useful in flesh-stitcher's modest force for scouting and terror tactics.

iZs9M8t.jpg


Hope you like them ;)

Also, I brought here some Wights and seeing as I was making photos today, I decided to sit and remake some old photos to make them similar in style to the last ones (read: much clearer and overall better ;) ) Upgraded stuff are the Vampire Brothers, Krell and Grave Guard together with Black Knights.

And now that the competition is taken care of, I can go back to painting the Vampire Coven Throne girls and that Necrarch.
 
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Farmer7574

Vampire Count
True Blood
Dec 10, 2013
1,587
England
@Borgnine These are stunning. The Thing is one of my favourite old-school movies and I've never seen anyone use it as inspiration for a mini. These are sick!

Nice photos, all the detail shines through here in the finished mini shots. I especially like the mix of feathers & bone broken up with giant blobs of fleshy messiness. The hand stretching out is a nice touch too (I like the thought of using this on my next zombie ogre filler :) ).

Great idea, great green stuffing and great painting! Looking forward to seeing those vampire ladies!
 

Theerteen

Cheerful Cranium
True Blood
Aug 20, 2012
1,503
Germany
How the hell did you get that look on the eyes?? (Ha, get it? :D) Seriously, this looks like you've molten some plastic over it so they appear to be in a real slime sack or something. Dude, I just finished Morathi for a friend and was quite satisfied, but now I feel like the three-year-old with paintings on the refridgerator again...
 

Unas the slayer

Moderator
Staff member
Jan 1, 2017
1,863
Northern Italy
I believe this is the border when we exit the realm of "painted minis" and we enter the "art".

You truly obtained something impressive, here: the sculpting, the painting, the visual effects... the final result is staggering.


(Shameless plug: I saw that you entered the "painting the world to darkness" challenge, but it would be amazing if you could decide to join also the challenge on Khemri forum, with these ones... :innocent:)
 
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Borgnine

Master Necromancer
True Blood
Jun 15, 2013
2,036
Pruszkow, Poland
@Farmer7574 Thanks! Now that I think of it, it really isn't used very often. A shame really, because it's really easy to sculpt and paint ;)

@Theerteen I joined small greenstuff balls in one place and then washed over them several times with liquid greenstuff, to 'merge' them together. Then I painted everything red, then washed and highlighted to fleshy pink - with some additional highlight on the eyes. Then irises and glossy varnish at the end, no fancy molten plastic there ;) I recently seen Crystal Brush entries, especially that Nagash - and now I too feel like a three-year-old - like most mortals, probably ;)

@Unas the slayer Big thanks! They really turned out pretty well, especially for such a spontaneous project. Usually my projects are waiting in my head for months or years before being done ;)

@Nagash Worshiper Thanks! Aesthetics of those games fit my tastes, so some similarity is not impossible ;)

@Malisteen Also thanks!

---------------------------------------------------------------

So, finally the Coven Throne is finished. That was one bitch of a project... Lots of different colours, lots of different parts that had to be painted seperately, all that needing certain cleanliness and precision. No wonder than in the meantime I started playing three different video games, almost finished my Necrach, sculpted quite a lot of dragon scales and built several zombies for the expansions ;) I'm content with the result, not perfect, but will suffice. But enough rambling ;)

Challenge for the mini was to really push the red-black-white scheme to the max. It works for the carriage itself, but it gets lost in all those spirits. Maybe her three vampire lieutenants will be better for that experiment ;)

Lady Ecaterina Sokolov, with her backstory in the spoiler:

After returning to their ancient homeland in Varsavia, von Greifens found themselves at odds with another vampire that rose to power during their long absence. A small, bloody court was held here by Lady Ecaterina Sokolov - once a wife of a Kislevite Boyar, now a vampire countess on the lands of Varsavia. Yet despite her pride, her position and forces seemed weak, which provoked brother’s attack. They came out victorious - only barely, though. She kept her own domain in which she still rules unquestionably, together with a personal army - and von Greifens were obliged to defend that land. In exchange, Brothers were free to govern and expand Varsavia as they liked. Before both parties concluded their meeting, the Countess shared a secret with the newcomers - information an ancient Varsavian death cult, which much later led to unraveling the story of wights and their Death God, changing the local balance of power forever.
Ecaterina herself, when enraged by something personally, brings down her wrath from upon an exquisite throne loft upon by ancient spirits and accompanied by her two most loyal handmaidens.

First the whole Coven Throne:

267opnh.jpg


And some details too:

vHGUiw0.jpg


Now back to all the started minis! Dragon gets the priority, but the greenstuff needs to cure a lot, so expect other stuff in the meantime :)
 
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Shadespyre

Vampire Count
Aug 11, 2012
1,023
Amazing. I've run out of suitable superlatives for your work now. This makes my own Throne, which I'm really proud of, look about half finished! :bowdown:

Instead of crying into my coffee about it, I'm going to try to take some inspiration from you. I'm making a list of things you've done on this model and I'm going to try them out on some future projects... one at a time, and on models that seem easily suited to it. You've gotta walk before you run! ;)
 

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