Unreleased Sorceress 2 - Part 1

To the general knowledge three unreleased mage miniatures exist for the 4th Edition Dark Elves Army. There is the male Sorcerer riding Warhydra and two Sorceresses on foot. All three miniatures were designed by Aly Morrison. Aly told me that initially a box of mages was planned including these miniatures. But most of them never saw an official release. By definition from the Collecting Citadel Miniature Wiki the unreleased Sorceresses were named Sorceress 1 and 2. Sorceress 1 is very rare and through the years I only now from three copies out there. Sorceress 2 is also rare. But here I know at least of six copies. One you can see in my hand on the picture to the left. While the male Sorcerer appears frequently in Ebay, but through all the years I never saw one of these Sorceresses. With time goes by they become my holy grail. In January I put up this request in the Oldhammer Trading Company FB group:


Hello,
I am looking for some hard to find and unreleased Dark Elf and Chaos miniatures to complete my armies and collections. I know that most of these will be a long shot but perhaps some of you honorable collectors are willing to sell and look for a new home for one of these fantastic miniatures. Be sure that your offered miniatures do not end as piece of lead in a dark box. Each miniatures gets a first class paint job (19 Golden Demon Trophies) and a special place in my cabinet and in my heart!

... and I was very lucky when Emiel S. answered me, thinking about selling his copy to me. Emiel get this miniature a long time ago. Even if Emiel is a good painter himself he never felt comfortable painting her. We had a lot of conversation and negotiations, but finally Emiel decided that she will move to a new home, where she will get the painting she deserves. I am very thankful for this awesome miniature! I won´t disappoint Emiel and keep my promise. Here is the first part of the story of this fantastic miniature.


Some Sorceress miniature history

Aly looking at his work from 1993

When visiting Aly in Hamburg I showed him this miniature and we chatted about her history and her design. Here I will sum up his thoughts as well as some more information I was able to collect through the years. Back in 1993 Aly sculpted some early prototypes of the Dark Elves. These miniatures followed closely to his 4th Edition High Elves. In cooperation with Jes Godwin he finished the High Elves range sculpting the Elyrion Reavers, Shadow Warriors, White Lions and some Command Crews. The new Dark Elves were planned as a dark and sinister mirror of the High Elves sharing the same grace. To my knowledge his first set of prototypes include 2 Warriors, 2 Spearmen, a Witch Elf and a Sorceress. You can recognize these miniatures by their higher degree of detail compared to their later counterparts. This is especially true for the Witch Elf and the Sorceress.

Dark Elves Armybook Cover

Michael Perrys Talisman Sorceress

Aly remembered that he was carried away when sculpting them, trying to catch all the little details the concept artists put in their concept sketches and artworks. On the other hand, miniatures often were used as basis for further artworks by the atists. Alys early Dark Elves then became the basis for Dave Gallagher famous Cover Artwork of the 4th Edition Dark Elves Armybook we all know. Several months before I asked in another article the question if the Talisman figures were first or was it the Cover Artwork. The truth is, Alys unreleased prototypes were first, then came the Cover Artwork which was then used by Michael Perry as basis for the Talisman plastic Dark Elves miniatures. 

Comaprison of Artwork and reference

But, back to our unreleased Sorceress. It is amazing how many similarities you can recognize when comparing the miniature and the artwork. Here I want to mention the loincloth, the crown, the pearls and jewels in her hair, the sword, the mask (which switched sides) as well as the dominant high collar. Aly really did a Masterpiece in her. But, most of these details became even more filigree in Daves Artwork. And there are also a lot of differences, where Dave improved Alys work. In particular Dave was not a fan of the gloves which he dropped on the Sorceress as well as on the Witch Elf. Dave also replaced the medallion by a spell effect and added a small Cold One to her feet which looks like serving as a familiar. It is awesome to see how the Games Workshop design develop by different artists through different iterations of a design. A shame that we know so less about the fantastic work the designers do in the studio.

My version of  the Sorceress
It was clear that such a piece of Dark Elves history has to become a very special display miniature. Additionally, I had promised Emiel that this girl will get a paintjob she deserves. I really want her to become special and to do my part in the footprints of Aly and Dave. Therefore, I decided to pay respect to both artists by bringing togehter both designs. The idea is to paint her by the Cover Artwork from Dave and to catch his vision of her I had to sculpt the little Cold One in reference to Aly.       

Sculpting the Small Cold One
I used Trish Cardens Cold Ones for the 4th Edition for reference. For the pose I tried to get the spirit from Daves Cover art. I started with a wire construction which I covered with a layer brown stuff to give the armature more stability:

Next I added the rough proportions using greenstuff. I was very carefully to do the whole design a bit smaller because the scales will add the final volume later.  

Then I added the spikes on the spine and covered the whole lizard with scales. I used the original Cold One as reference and repeated the original scale pattern from Trish. Here it is important to use always fresh putty when it is the most sticky. I formed small balls and pressed them on the surface. then I pushed the sides of each scale in shape. I used a small needle to do this between two scales. Here you can see the progress after my first session using two times fresh putty. 

Cold One sculpt after the first session of adding scales

Next there was need to finish all proportions by sculpting the arms and the head. I didn´t care to much about the detail work as most of it will be covered later with scales. The head was a bit tricky and I had to iterate the eyesockets and eys several times before I was happy with the result. Also there was need to sculpt a new lower jar because my first one disappeared after adding the teeth. In this way several parts were removed and resculpted or improved during the sculpting process. Finally, there was need to add much more scales which took a lot of small sessions and a lot of patience.

Done! I now have an idea of the ordeal of Trish with the myriad of scales sculptured in her life or Chris Fitzpatrick sculpting these very filigree scales of the cloaks of his Dark Elves Corsairs! Kudos to both! Here you can see the small Cold One in reference to his bigger brother. You can see that I tried to get identical proportions and scale patterns.

Comparison of the sculpt with the original Cold One from Trish

And here you can see the Sorceress with her little familiar. My goal was to catch the atmosphere of Dave Gallaghers artwork with a small Cold One sneaking around his mistress gnarling and hissing ready to attack each enemy coming to close. In the artwork the Cold One sneaks around her cloak which fits very good as the cloak has a movement to the right. The cloak from Alys miniature is different and very special. Aly sculpted a big cloak as seperate piece which stick out much from the miniature. Consequently, there is a big gap between cloak and miniature which is in my eyes the only weakness this beautiful miniature has. By putting the small Cold One into this gap I was able to reduce this weakness and give the whole miniature a much more compact shape.

Finally, some pictures of this fantastic team on their base. Because the miniature is very large and the Cold One also needs some space I enlarged the 20 mm Base by some cork. The base is still work in progress. I think I will add a second layer of cork to get a bit more complexity.

However, I think you get an idea in which direction this miniature is developing. I am looking forward to do the next steps including finish the base and add some paint to the Cold One and the Sorceress. The painting will become a good challenge because I want to reproduce the transparent loincloth from Daves Artwork and there is also need for an imressive Freehand on the back of her cloak. As promised to Emiel, I will let her shine and will give her a special place in my heart and in my cabinet!! In this regard a short message in my own interest:

I am still after some unreleased and rare Dark Elves miniatures of that era. If you have such a miniature in a dark box, rarely seeing the light of the day and far away to see some paint, think about seeling it to me to become part of this collection. Drop me a message to: georgdamm @ web . de Thanks in advance!

I hope you like that first part. Stay tuned for the second part when this miniature will get painted. As always I am happy to read your thoughts in the comments.
Kind Regards,
GeOrc