Unreleased Dark Riders - Part II

 Unreleased Dark Riders - Part II

Today my Dark Rider Story continues with part 2 and a detailed report about my work on the command crew. If you have missed part 1 which deals with the troopers of this unit, click here. As I had already stated in my previous article these Dark Rider models are extremly rare. I know only a couple of collectors owning them and to my knowledge a full regiment has never been seen before. And in particular a command crew for them has never been seen before because none was designed back in the day. To make a long story short the Command Crew you see here on the left based on the ideas of Aly Morrison and was then converted/sculpted by myself. The story of this joint project will be the focus of this article and it will be a long one. Therefore, grab a cup of tea or coffee because a wall of text and dozens of pictures await you!

My first meeting with Aly Morrison

With starting the Dark Rider project a hundred question arises about their design, history and why they did not make the cut into the release schedule. Being a scientist I had quickly half a dozen of hypothesis I discusses with friends and acquaintances. One of these friends one day said, you should ask Aly. I asked how this would become possible and then he gets us in touch. That was the short story how I get in touch with Aly. It was also the start of our discussions, first only by messages and then we met the first time personally in February 2020 at the Tactica Event in Hamburg. Aly quickly liked the project and the painting of his old designs. He was joking that some of these miniatures were older than his colleagues at work. He helped me a lot, tried to answer all my bothering questions and tried to remember details which were 25 years in the past. I tried to puzzle everything together and to reconstruct his professional years in the mid 90s. I learned a lot from him, about his life, his old designs and how he is designing and sculpting miniatures. Needless to say, that he is a friendly, warmheated and handsome guy. You don´t belive me?... Check the picture on the left!

Planning the Command Crew
Aly and I discussed a lot the Dark Elves range he created in the mid 90s. On this time point I already had started to sculpt some replicas of some unreleased and very hard to find bits. Also I had sculpted whole miniatures in the past. Consequently, I took the decision to fill the gaps in the Dark Elves range by myself. I asked Aly if he would help me with this and that I would like to sculpt these miniatures by his ideas so that these miniatures fit seamlessly into his original figure range. I was more than happy when he agreed and the the Dark Rider Command Crew became our first joint project. Beside some sculpting advice how he builds up his miniatures in the past he had some ideas in mind for these two sneaky chaps:

I would make the champion with the hood down and make the circlet and crest more elaborate... or possibly even give them a helmet... a sword might be a nice weapon or possibly a double ended version of the spear.

The standard bearer could have a more elaborate crest ... as for the top of the standard pole... I think I would keep it simple... something more suited to light troops... the grinning skull would look good and maybe also a dismembered enemy head...or three. 

This in mind I started sculpting!

My Sculpting experiments and my curse of perfectionism

A look on how cavalery units were structured in the early and mid 90s revealed that in majority they consist of two leg and two body versions for the troopers. The Command Crew Models always consist of a Champion and a Standard Bearer which were conversion of the bodies from the trooper models. Fortunately, I had two recast of bad quality of the troopers left. These required some repair work but reduced the sculpting effort on sculpting the new bodies only. For reference I used the Ellyrion Reavers and the Cold One knights from Aly which show nicely the way he has choose to update a simple trooper into a Command miniature. 

I started to with cleaning the leg parts and added a wire armature as basis for my sculpting. I checked the armature very often to be in size with the modified troopers. Then I fixed the armature itself and its hold on the leg with some first layer of putty which get some rough proportions for body and head.

 

Armature of the Dark Rider Command bodies

After the putty was cured I bended the arms in position. I cut the wire, but by a hint from Aly I keep the longer as needed. Then I added the details to the body and some first proportions for the arms. I took care that the proportions were always a bit smaller because multiple layers of putty will let them grow quickly. There is only need to have a rough idea at this moment. 

 

Added proportions on the arms and details on the torso

In the next step I added the details to the arms. To clothes on body and arms were sculpted similar to the corresponding trooper miniatures. By copying Alys design I learnt a lot about his way of sculpting and how he was using the tools. 

 

Final details on torso and arms

With the bodies finished there was need to add the cloaks. I rolled out some putty between some plastic wrap and cut out a rough shape of the cloaks. These I fixed this armature for the cloak on the bodies and sculpted the collar of them. With proceeded cure time I bend the putty in shape of the original cloaks and let these cure overnight. 

Armature for the cloaks

In a next step I added the details on the inside and outside of the cloak armature. Until this timepoint my designs looked very very similar to Alys original sculpts and I was very happy. 

Comparison of the sculpted cloak designs with their references

But then the drama started. The next step was to sculpt the heads and faces and I totally failed. Weel, I had sculpted whole miniatures before and also a lot of faces. But, their designs based mainly on the work of Chris Fitzpatrick and were from the mid 2000. Alys faces were much smaller and I had a lot of problems to get their proportions. 

 

Trying to copy Alys face design

After half a dozen trys I lost the motivation and put the project on ice. With some distance I realized that I need more practice and experience to get these faces done. To get that I needed more freedom in my designs. But the the Dark Rider project required copying Alys work. My perfectionism was in my way. Then I discussed with Aly the sculpting processes in the past and he told me that sometimes you get a box with broken greens from the moldmaking back. When checking all these pieces you get new ideas and started conversions based on these parts. I imagined myself getting a box with Dark Rider parts and decided to do conversions of them. These mock ups would also help to propably finish these greens some day.

Converting the Command Crew

With new motivation I returned to the Dark Rider project. I cleaned the body parts of my Dark Rider recasts and started with doing a lot of repair work. Unfortunately, I have not many work in progress pictures of my sculpting work on the riders, because these were done in March 2020 in a very short time. But I remember the rough process still very good. I started by removing the hood from the Trooper which should become the champion and all other elements not needed on both miniautres. The first thing I sculpted were both crests. For these I used brownstuff as it holds better the sharp edges. Then there was time to do the most difficult part, the repair of the face from the Champion. For that I followed the structures the face already had and completed it. Unfortunately, the face has become an asymmetrical look that way.  Looking back, I should have done this more freehand but at this time point I sticked very much to the original. However, I noticed this first while my painting and so it has was to late to correct it on the miniature. 

 

Conversion of the Dark Rider Champion

In contrast, sculpting the hair and hood worked very well. In parallel I added the scarf to the face of the Standard Bearer and treated him some hair extensions. For both I used Gary Morleys Dark Rider miniatures from 1998 as reference. The next step was adding details to the crest. Here I checked the Command Crews on foot for inspiration and added similiar details in greenstuff to their crests. 

 

 Conversion of the Dark Rider Standard Bearer

The most critical things were done now. Again I did some repair work on the some weak details on the clothes and cloaks. In case of the Champion I resculpted large part of the cloak and used the chance to add further details. 

Sculptured hair, hood and revised cloak with new details

Then it was time to add the weapon and standard respectively. For the Champion I wanted to copy the look of the Ellyrian Reaver Champion. Therefore, I looked for a big sword which shared the same characteristics. I found one in the typical Swordmen sword which was finally reused by Aly on the musician. I cut it off and added it to the Champions hand. There was need to correct the arm position a bit to get closer to my High elves reference. Then, I added some gems and a new hilt to complete this chap. The Standard Bearer was a bit more work. I added a 2 mm metal rod, the same size and position of the Ellyrian Reaver reference. Then I sculpted him a new hand and typical banner rod end pieces. The one on the lower end as jewelry and the upper end as connection for a banner top. For the latter I was very much in love with using Gary Morleys Banner top which I already had converted for this purpose. 

Repair work on the clothes and and the cloak

But, it didn´t feel right to use a bit from another sculpter in this unit of Aly Morrison figures. Therefore, I sat down and designed on by myself. I used a Spearmen spear, the Cold One Standard top and Beasdtlord Rakraths crest as reference and drawed a design. I made a putty copy of the spear using a simple stamp mold and for the jewelry part I cut of the design from a piece of plastic sheet. On this I sculpted all the details. With having everything finished I put the whole unit together to check the overall look.

Final design for the Dark Rider Standard Bearer

Looking back, to create my own banner top was a very good decision as thisone really stands out. Aly later told me he liked that design very much and that he can´t wait to see this unit painted. Very pround about his feedback it was time to move on and treat this chaps some colour.

Validation of the Dark Rider Command miniatures between their painted troopers

Painting the Command Crew

Before I started the painting, I put these two guys and their bits in a mold to create a personal copy in case I will ever do a second unit. Then I cleaned and primed the original conversions and one of my castings of the banner top. The following painting was then very straight forward to fit into my other Dark Riders. I started with the Champion and painted his face.

Covering some sculpting errors with my painting

I already saw after the priming that the face could be a bit problematic because of the asymmetric design of the eyes. I tried to minimize this effect by adapting both eyes to each other using shades and highlights. The result wasn´t perfect but I would work as long as you do not look eaxactly for it from a front view. I moved on with painting everything which was necessary to put leg and body part together. Then I finished the Champion step by step.

 Work in Progress on the Dark Rider Champion

In contrast all the new details were a lot of fun and I enjoyed to add much more colours to thisone compared to his troopers. Also, I could not resist to start the sword very early. I spent a bit more time on it and painted it with more attention to make this stand out. Luckily, I had painted his horse in advance so that I was able to put him directly on it after having him finished. With a lot of joy I moved him in his unit increaing its number to 5 and making it the first playable unit in my army.

 

Finished Dark Rider Champion within his regiment

Meanwhile it was end of August / beginning of September when I starte the work on the Standard Bearer. But, we had a lot of heat waves her in Germany which slowed down my painting. I had only a very slow progress and I was painting here and there for an hour without finishing elements completly and making it worth taking picutre. That´s the cause I have not much work in progress pictures of the Standard Bearer. The first ones I took in the end of September already show him finished without the Banner top. 

Work in Progress on the Dark Rider Standard Bearer

I finsihed the latter and his horse until the beginning of October and completed the unit. Proudly I took pictures of the whole unit.

Finished Dark Rider Command Crew within their regiment

The unit was already an impressive sight. I showed the Command Crew to Aly at this time point and he very much enjoyed the look of his ideas. Still his favorite was the Standard Bearer. The last thing missing was the Banner for him and it was time to make that chap even more impressive. 

Painting the Banner

Finally to complete the picture of a evil Elyrion Reaver version I wanted also to turn their banner into a dark counterpart. It was clear that the unicorn from the Banner has to be turned into a Dark Pegasus. That symbol also ties this unit to the sorceress riding the Dark Pegasus and therefore fits perfectly into my army concept. I did some research in the internet to look for inspiration and for ideas how to get the wings into that landscape banner. Unfortunately, all I found works better in a portrait format. Two nice examples are shown below. There was Morathis Banner of the Cult of Pleasure fraction from Total War Warhammer. Also a very nice Banner is the Ellyrion banner from the High Elf heraldry book released a couple of years ago. A shame that Dave Gallagher never did a version for the Dark Elves. 

 

Reference material used for creation of the Banner design

There was need to draw something by myself. For that I need perfect reference material and asked in the Middlehammer FB group for a scan of the WD which includes the Ellyrion Reavers Eavy Metal side. As always the group was very helpful! I get a scan, the right White Dwarf number #165 and a scan of the Banner sheet which inlcudes a 5th Edition version of this Banner. Finally, I bought the WD #165 on Ebay and had everything I needed. I started with copying the outlines of the Banner to get a similar size. Then I printed a 1:1 scan and cut off the horse above a layer of masking tape. With transferation of the the horse on the masking tape I had a template to transfer the horse outlines on the Banner. I changed and adapted the outlines a bit to adapt it a bit to my reference material. Then I added the wings freehand. I also added the clouds and and copied the lightning flashes. Finally, there was only a rune missing and I used one of the Dark Elves repertoire which perverted the original one best. The final design was scanned and mirrored into the left outline using Photoshop.

 

Final drawing of the banner design (top) and the final mirrored and edited version (bottom) using Photoshop

The complete design was then printed on a 100 g Paper and the paper sealed using Tamia Matt Vanish. The Vanish helps to close the paper surface and facilitate the painting with thinned colours. I started the painting by concentrating on the Pegasus first. I used the same colours as used on my Pegasus miniature including black for the horse and flesh colours for the wing membranes. The first sketch showed me that this central symbol will work very good. The dark Pegasus required a lighter background which directs the colour for the outer frame again on a dark colour. Therefore, I painted the frame of the Banner in again in black and repeated the colour of the Pegasus. 

First painting steps included painting the Pegasus and the banner outline

I did a lot of thinking about which background colour I should use. I discussed purple and red as two possible options fitting in the army context. Red would add a better contast but purple would make it fit better to the colour scheme of the unit. After discussion in my local painting forum I decided for the latter. The background was then painted using Liche Purple with a light to dark transition from top to the bottom. For the highlights I added some Bleached Bone and for the shades some Shading Mixture to the Liche Purple, respectively. In parallel,  I painted the clouds and the lightning bolts. The latter were a lot of work and required a lot of correction work between background and foreground. Finally I painted the rune in gold which contrasted nicely from the purple ground.

Roughly finished right side of the Banner

With one side painted completly it was time to start the other side of banner. It is always a bit boring painting something identical within such a short time, but there was no other way to get this finished. I repeated the steps above with some minor changes. This time I painted the lightning bolts before the background which helped a lot to reduce the correction work later.   

Final Banner ready for getting fixed on its banner pole

Finally, there was a lot of correction work. There was need to get a sharper definition of the lighting bolts, smoothening of the purple mcolours in the background transition, and some colour and blending adaptions. I also added soem fine lining to seperate the content of the banner from the outer frame using Russ Grey. With having the Banner finished it was time to fix it on the miniature and adapt it to its final shape.

Attached Banner and finished Standard

 I used PVA glue to fix the banner on the banner pole. This have to be done very carefully and quickly, as the PVA glue in combination with paper works like superglue. Once both sides are linked there is no step back. Therefore, there is need to do some testings without glue to get a feeling for the position. I glued the banner in two steps. first only the connection to the pole and the first cm of the banner area to get the link to the pole and the orientation of both sides perfectly right, second the rest of the banner area. After glueing I bended the banner slightly to give it some dynamic shape. After everything has cured and was really fixed I added the golden outline on the banner frame and adapted some colour transitions to its flow. 

Finished Standard Bearer carrying the Banner of his Mistress

Adding the banner was the most difficult part and I had a lot of trouble doing it right. Finally, I get it done but there was need to correct the cut of it. Some remaining minor errors disappeared with help of the golden outline. First I was very annoyed about the troubles I had but with some distance I was happy with the final result. The problems and errors were quickly forgotten when seeing the final result on my workbench.

  

Result and Outlook

I am very happy how these two miniatures turned finally out. It was a very long progress to get them done with a lot of ups and downs. But it was worth all the work and I was able to create something unique which has not been seen so far. 

Now its time to lean back for a moment and to enjoy the freedom of having finished this unit after more than 1.5 years. Here are some final pictures of the whole unit.

 

 

I tried my best to pay justice to Alys brilliant ideas and I am happy and feel honored to put this long forgotten miniatures from Aly into a worthy spotlight. Even if this unit had made me a lot of headaches and beside all the ups and downs I very much enjoyed working with Aly on this unit to finish what he had started 25 years ago. It has something really satisfactory to have filled this gap in his Dark Elves range. However, there are some more missing miniatures in Alys range which dropped from the schedule as time moves on and other armies get into the focus of Games Workshop. Therefore, stay tuned for further joint projects to complete this lovely miniature range from 1995.

I hope you enjoyed the read of this article. As always I am interested to read your thoughts in the comments!

Kind Regards,
GeOrc