My first 6th Edition Army

The gang from the new Millenium

This year the 6th Edition Dark Elves Army release celebrates its 20th anniversary. The Armybook written by Gav Thorpe and illustrated by Dave Gallagher was mind blowing. Dave designed the Dark Elves from scratch and gave them a much darker more delicate appearance fitting perfectly into the new 6th Edition character. The new miniature range designed in majority by Chris Fitzpatrick and Juan Diaz herald a new era of miniature design. I was already a great fan of Chris Dark Elves Sorceress and his Dark Eldar miniatures. Therefore, he was a worthy successor to Aly Morrisons heir and the best what could happened to my beloved Dark Elves. During the years I painted two appreciable 6th Edition Dark Elves armies. My first try on these miniatures was a very dark and gothic like version. It brought me the nickname "Mr. 50 shades of Grey" long before this became the name of an awful novel and translation into much more awful movies. Actually, this chapter of my painting career would be long forgotten and unknown if not one unit of this army won Silver at the Golden Demon competiton 2004 in Germany. Oh wait... there is this Golden Demon series on this blog. Yes... and in preparation for the corresponding article for this unit it is useful to light this dark chapter of my miniature painting. Luckily it was a short phase with a doubtful results but also with teachings preparing me to become one of the best painters of the upcoming years.   

 

The Dark Elves of this millenium

The Army Dark Elves Armydeal of the 6th Edition

It was the year 2001 and the new Dark Elves army was already announced. Official and unofficial teasers were shared in the young internet and I could not wait to get my hands on all these new fantastic miniatures. I still remember when picking up my Dark Elves Army box containing most of the new stuff and also a limited Battle Standard Bearer. At home I dived deep into the new book. The dark illustrations from Dave Gallagher completly overwhelmed me. I was lost in a dark atmosphere, a world in black and white which worked completly without colours. At then end of this sinister path I found light at the last page of the book showing some example miniatures painted by the Eavy Metal team members. There was a Dark Elves Hag Queen painted by Neil Green showing that a Black and White painting scheme could work. Retrospectively, I think it was this combination of Daves atmosphere and Neils fantastic paint job trying to paint miniatures close to Black and White illustrations. I gave it a first try and painted a Witch Elf designed from Chris Fitzpatrick in Neils colour scheme. 

Dark Elves Pristess painted by Neil Green (left) and Witch Elves test miniature painted in 2001 (right)

The result convinced me and I moved on painting my new army this way. The next miniature I painted was the Dark Paladin riding a Cold One. This miniature also won a price at a local painting competition and encouraged me to be on a good way. However, the more I moved on in this project the more critic I got and the community quickly got bored of the monotonous miniatures. However, I was very stubborn at that time and it need a couple of failed painting competitions and long nights looking enviously at the new style from the colourful Rackham miniatures which arrived in the painting scene to change my mind. After two years this phase ended with painting my Dark Elves Princes rinding a Cold One which get me my first Golden Demon Trophy. However, I was able to finish a couple of miniatures in these two dark years and taken together this was enough for a small Army. Lets take a closer look at these really, really Dark Elves.  

 

The dark side of the Force

I painted this Army from mid 2001 to mid 2003. After the Witch Elf I painted further test miniatures incluing a Corsair, a Cold One Knight and a Harpy. These helped me to adjust the colour scheme. I can´t remember exactly in which sequence I painted the remaining troopers of these units. I suggest I did the Cold One Knights first followed by the corsairs. Then I painted Harpies and Dark Riders. The Malus Darkblade on Cold One as well as further Malus miniature riding a winged beast were created and painted rather late 2002 and early 2003. The last miniature I painted in that style was definatly the mounted Sorceress, as she was already going into a new more colourful direction. You see an overview of the army below.

 

My 6th Edition Dark Elves Army from the early 2000+ years

    

In the following paragraphs will find more detailed information about the single regiments (the small bits I can rememeber and reconstruct from my old website) as well as more detailed pictures. 

 

Cold One Knights

Dark Paladin on his Cold One

The Cold One Knights were one of the first units I started for this army. I remember that the Cold Ones were a matter of a great discussion and they polarized the community in fans and haters. I stand a bit in between. I liked their Godzilla like heads and the fact that they get back to move more on four legs. Unfortunately, they got a bulky shape and the constraints for plastic miniatures did not allow to create them more delicate. However, the Knights from the talented hands of Chris Fitzpatrick made these some of the best miniature of the range. Especially, their helmets are great designs. A shame that my lousy colour sheme did not allow to get more out of these beauties. Having repeated that I want to point you to some highlights of my painting. My Finelineing was already very good as you can spot on the various runes I added to the shields and pennants. I also showed some good freehand skills that can be seen at the coiled snakes of the banner, the small dragon on one of the the shields and at the pattern on the trumpet.

I am also very proud of my faces and eye paintings on these miniatures. Beside fifty shades of grey you can also spot some rare colours like the dark green of the Cold Ones, the light green Cold One eyes, purple saddles and a bluish pet dragon. And you can also see some faults like the wrong transition on the gem and the matt vanish I used on my first Cold One knight I painted as a test miniature. I am sure you can spot him ;)

I still love these fantastic Knight miniatures. One day I will paint a further unit of these probably with some optimized Cold Ones working a bit more like the Baby-Godzillas from the Emmerich movie.     

 

Corsairs

Dark Elves Corsair Champion

I remember painting the Corsairs as the next regiment. I finished the Command Group and the the Malus Darkblade on Foot which I put together into the Golden Demon Competition in the Warhammer Fantasy Command entry in Germany 2002. Beside my Dark Elves Demonrider shown below this was my second entry. Unfortunately, I failed with both and drove home without a trophy. I was able to finish further miniatures of this regiment in the months after. Two years later I gave the unit a second chance in the Golden Demon competition and was successful... partly by some sneaky gambling. Read the full story about this event in one of upcoming articles in the Golden Demon section. 

Looking at the regiment now I have to admit that it work much better as the rest of the army. The advantage here is that the unit comes with much more coloured areas and the proportion of light/dark areas is much more balanced. The Standard Bearer and his banner is still today a respectable work and the light blue colours are a very nice eyecatcher. Today it would add more global light and would get more out of the scaled cloaks and weapons. These three points are some major drawbacks looking at them now. However, the unit is still the strongest part of this army seen from the painting perspective. 

Harpies

 I started this regiment already in mid 2001 and my plan was to play a unit at the big DUZI Tournament in October 2001. Unfortunately, the painting was to time-consuming and I was not able to finish it in time. The painting scheme of them is not so special and is very close to the one of the Studio Army. Major differences are my paler skin tone and the missing purple eye shadow. I also added the bluish colour on the wing endings visible in the pictures from the Studio Army in the Armybook. I noticed later that the colour is missing in other pictures of these miniatues making it probably a (nice) artefact from taking the pictures. Back in the days I had planned painting a second unit. But thanks to the Dark Gods this will never happen. 

Dark Riders

The Dark Riders were the last unit I completed for this Army. As you can see in the pictures below I took these words DARK RIDER very, very serious. Some first miniatures of this unit were painted in October 2002. Further members of this dark gang followed in spring 2003 before this army project came to an end. There is not much to say about the painting. As you can see I maximized the possibility to paint 50 shades of black and grey. I remember not much about painting these but what I still have in mind is that it was terrible and frustrating painting these miniatures The final result surely has helped to distance from the idea of an Army in Black and White.

Characters

There is no Warhammer Army without their Leaders. The first Charakter I had finished for this Army was Malus Darkblade riding his Cold One Spite. This miniature fitted so nicely into my growing regiment of Cold One Knigths so that Malus was a must have to be painted. I added him already in October 2001 to my Cold One Knights long before the entire unit was finished. 

Malus Darkblade on his mount Spite painted in 2001

 

Malus is a nice mixture of elements from the Cold One Knights and the Corsairs. I really like his green sword, but I have no idea which demon bite me to paint it this way. If you can here me demon... thanks a lot! A major Drawback is the cut off head which just looks strange and unfinished. Definitely, something I would do better today... and a lot of other things too. 

 

Limited Malus on Foot painted in 2001

Malus twin brother on foot was introduced into my army in April 2002. This Limited Edition miniature was a Give Away during the Albion Roadshow and at this time point very rare. I remember paying 80 Euro for this guy which is still today a lot of money for such a rare miniature. 3 year later I got the same miniature for free as an event miniature at the Gaming Day in Vienna in 2005... and with me hundreds of other people. Definitely, one of my worser investments into rare miniatures. However, at the timepoint of purchasing this little bastard I was more than proud to have one and wanted to decorate him with a worthy paintjob. This meant during that time spending him some extra greys. Therefore, he get a loincloth and a sash full of skulls. The idea was from a Undead Necromancer who had the skulls sculpted into the clothes. Here I added them by freehand. I put one bigger skull into the center which was my favorite Dark Elves skull design released as an icon coming with the Tears of Isha campaign. Various smaller skulls I painted around thisone. The sword als got some special effect. It was inspired by a further Undead miniature I found in the widths of the internet, a vampire conversion which based on Aenur. His green sword remembered me on the greens of emeralds. A gem which fascinated me and which I often looked at in an geological exhibition in our institute where I studied chemistry at that time point. Today I am still very happy with this miniature and the challenges I mastered when painting him. The only thing which drives me totally crazy are his squinting eyes. The next time I will sit on the workbench I have to correct this or I go mad.  

In October 2002 I painted a further Character, the Sorceress miniature on foot from Chris Firtzpatrick also known as Morathi in reference to the famous Mark Gibbons Artwork. The miniature was already created in 1998 and beside the Dark Riders on of the few old miniatures which were transfered into the new miniature range. This Sorceress was my third version of this miniature I painted. Again I decided to spent a few extra greys on her. Because the girls of ther 00-years loved animal prints I went with the trend and painted her a snow leopard cloak.

She get some further decoration my adding finelings to the staff and on the inside of her cloak. The only drawback on her is that the pure white needed a bit more shading to make it a bit interesting but these times were far away from painting light sources into miniatures. I am still very happy with her and I have seen several copies of my painting floating around in the internet. What more you can expect as a painter than serving as inspiration for others.

The last character I added was the Sorceress riding a Cold One. This miniature was already a step into a more colourful direction and therefore she had already its appearance. Here full story can be read in my Articel about my first successful Golden Demon entry dealing with my Dark Elves Princess / Druchii Anointed on Cold One from 2003. 

   

Sorceress riding a Cold One painted in spring 2002

The Outcast

There was a third brother of my Malus Darkblade family... and if every family has this strange psychopathic member who ruins your family party. Here is mine. Make a long story short he disappointed me and was planned to get a complete rework. Finally, he ended as an outcast on my pile of shame and that is why you did not find him in the Army overview at the beginning. However, he has his a story to tell.

 

 His story started with release of the Melchior riding a winged nighmare. I liked that mount a lot and my idea was to use him in my army as a count as Dark Pegasus. I still like the idea and some mounted creatures in this direction were part of the Malus Darkblade comics, therefore not totally absurd. I spent a lot of work into his conversion. The nightmare get a head swap and with Spites head he looked muc more like a daemonic mount. On his back I added spikes and a chainmail armor. Malus himself get a self sculptured seadragon cloak with a hood as well as a halberd and reins. So far this conversion looked pretty nice but the problems started with paiting. At the beginning the miniature was painted the classic way of this army. But with the idea of a daemonic mount in my head and in discussions with others the idea of a mist/shadow daemon was born. I tried to add an effect which should look like the demon materializes out of a fog. Therefore, I painted swirls of fog onto the lower part of the mount and blended skin and fog into each other. Unfortunately, the effect was not self explaining. In my distress I sculpted some swirls of greenstuff and as these also not work I added a lot of cotton wool.

Detail pictures of highlights of this Character Conversion

Back in the day I thought all this was a good idea. I thought this idea was so brilliant to make this miniature an entry at the Golden Demon Competititon in the monster category in Germany 2004.As you might imagine, I totally failed. I never tried it a second time and the miniature was shelved. But with further development in my skills this miniature become more and more a thorn in my side. One day I ripped him in pieces with the goal to rework him completly and make him part of my second 6th Edition Army. The mount was resculpted and I started painting but the project was never finished and ended on my pile of shame. But there is hope! From time to time I grap miniatures from my pile of shame and finish them. Possibly, he will get a second chance one day.

 

Closing the cabinet

Time to put back this army into the cabinet. It really enjoyed to blow the dust from these miniatures, to take new pictures of them and dig through all the picture folders and my old website to gather a few information about what happend here 20 years ago. It was a busy time in which I started my studies, changed girlfriends and made a lot of Hobby. Beside painting I also learned sculpturing during that time and sculptured my first own miniatures. That all beside painting this army. Looking back I ask myself how I was able to paint so many miniatures during that busy time.

Sure, the colour scheme looks simple on first sight but is much more difficult when taking a closer look. All these black areas were highlighted towards dark or light grey and sometimes towards pure white. That is the maximum contrast you can paint and this contrast does not forgive you any mistakes. Taking togehter, painting all these Black and White transitions for two years trained me to paint very very accurate blendings. Therefore, this time was probably boring but not lost at all. All this helped me to become one of the most accurate technical painters in that time. And that outcast Malus on his winged Nightmare would become the last miniature which failed me in a Golden Demon contest for a long time. One other thing which remained was the pale Dark Elves skin tone which I became very famous for and which I use (slightly modified) until today for my Dark Elves.

I hope you enjoyed this trip down the Memory Lane. As always I would be happy to read your thoughts in the comments. So long, train your blendings and happy painting,

GeOrc

Cold One Knights Odyssey

My Cold One Knight unit led by their General

Cold One Knights

Wow, I started this article in July 2019 to report about my progress on the Cold One Knights I made in March 2019. Since that a lot of things happend. First my work on the Cold One Knights were interrupted by painting the Warhydra for the #MakeaTrish painting Challenge in the Oldhammer FB group in April 2019. Second I realized that I miss a Cold One Knight lance type which turned out to be unreleased. I took the time to sculpt a replica of this lance in May 2019. Third, because I was into sculpting I decided to move on with my work on the unreleased Dark Riders. At this point the Cold One Knights were thus far below in my priority list that I skipped them everytime in favor of doing something else. I returned to my Cold One Knights in December 2020 when starting an initative cleaning my workbench of everything which was work in progress. In the first weeks of January I was able to finish two "work in progress" Knights and to rearrange the Cold One Kinghts Champion on his new Cold One. I quickly moved on with the next two Knights for which I had already finished painting the Cold Ones. This work was interupted again in February when finishing a contemporary "work in progress" Death hag for my Daughters of Khaine. End of February I had finished two more knights, but both still miss some work on the pennants and on their shields. Because my job was very exhausting at that time point I had no energy to finish these difficult tasks. Instead I went for the low hanging fruits and painted the Cold One for the Standard Bearer of the unit in March. When writing these lines we have mid of June and I am still working hard to finish my the second pair of Cold One Knights and the Standard Bearer . This would allow me having a full regiment counting six Cold One Knights. Lets see how far I have come and take a look at the details.  

Rearrangement of the Cold One Knights Champion

The Cold One Knights Champion was one of the first miniatures I had painted within this project. At that point the project was not that structured as today. Therefore, it was built with parts I had at hand. With more and more research in the Cold One Knights I wanted to rebuild the studio regiment. But, this required to switch the Champion to another Cold One. Some of you had probably read the article about the planing and initial steps of building that regiment two years ago. This process was performed so far that the Cold Ones changed the Bases but neithter were the bases finished and painted nor was the Cold One of the Champion finished. Additionally the former Cold One missed a new rider. The starting situation of my Cold one Knights regiment was even more chaotic. 

The Cold One Knight regiment on my Workbench in May 2019

Instead of finishing the started Knights with available Cold Ones I painted a further Cold One in May 2019. At this point I had four mostly finished Cold Ones without riders beside a nearly finished Champion on his new Cold One and two Knights work in progress. On each miniature some detail work was still needed. That was how I left this regiment in May 2019 when the lance problem occured.

 

The unreleased Cold One Knights Lance

When planing the Cold One Knights regiment I did a lot of research on the Studio army. I realized that there is a second Cold One Knight lance, which looks like it was released but was very hard to find. But until today I was not able to find one, neither on the marketplaces nor in anyones collection. Therefore, I think it was a rather unreleased bit, probably due to some casting problems. Already in spring 2019 I realized that this search could take a bit longer. Therefore, I started to sculpt a replica of it. The scultping wasn´t that difficult with having the reference pictures from the catalogue pages at hand. In the end it need a couple of days to have it finished in end of May 2019. 

Sculptured replica of the unreleased lance in comparison to the released one

 

However, I needed at least two of these to copy its appearance in the studio regiment. Therefore, the casting of it would be necessary. But the casting process makes only sense, when you have enough stuff to fill the mold. It needed a whole year and a couple of further projects and its greens and bits to perform this step. In May 2020 I was ready to do the mold making. The lance was very large and I had problems to fit it into my small mold. It was possible but with a very flat angle. I already feared that the casting will become a problem and I should be right on this. I ran more than two dozen castings of the mold and finally get four complete lances from this session. However, that was enough to fulfill my task.

 

The return of the Cold One Knights       

Due to a lot of other work in progress miniatures it needed until end of the year 2020 before returning to the Cold One Knights. The end of the year is mostly the time I clean my workbench from unfinished stuff. In this regard I had first finished my work in progress Executioners. Then, I started again the work on the Knights. Two were lying around on my workbench half way painted. I started with the one who would carry one of my replica lances. The Knight and his lance were quickly painted. But, I had a lot of troubles with the lance pennants. First, they did not fit properly, then I cut out their fixations to long and had to fill the gap and then the runes in NMM gold did not work. It was a lot of try and error to make this work. I was more than happy, when this guy was finished January 5th. 

Cold One Knight still with gold rune colour

I moved on to the next Knight to reproduce what I had learned. I started with finishing the base of the formerly Champions Cold One which should become his new mount. The Knight was then quickly painted and also the missing parts of the saddle of the Champions Cold One were also finished so that these two miniatures were finished just five days later. It was the end of the first week in January and I had finished work on these three Cold One Knights now standing in front of me on my workbench.

 

That was a very good start into the new year and into the third year of my 4th Edition Dark Elves army project. Quickly, I moved on with painting the next two knight where I had already the Cold Ones for.

 

View on my Workbench at January 14th, 2021

But, in contrast to their colleagues their finish took some endless time. I had several breaks on them because I finished / painted other stuff and also private life and my job drained most of my energy. I was able to get one knight on his saddle until mid of march and also the the pennant was already prepared and fixed. But again a difficult time in my private life appeared on the horizon.

 

The Knights at March 22nd, 2021

During this time it was very hard to motivate myself painting the penannts and shields. Therefore, I continued the work on the other Knight. Motivation and the energy was low and in the rare cases I sat down on the workbench I looked for painting something simple. At that point the Cold One of the Standard Bearer sneaked into my view and took its chance. During this time I painted the Cold One or the remaining knight always in depandance how much energy was left. With the beginning of April I finished the Cold One first and in less distance the knight and put him on his saddle.

Painting the Standard Bearers Cold One and the remaining Knight in the beginning of April 2021

The smiling thirds

While the two unfinished knights still fight for my attention, the Standard Bearers and the next knight which is already part of the reinforcement get on my workbench. After some first painting sessions on both I quickly focused on the Standard Bearer. 

Continue painting the Standard Bearer and more Knights

I had a good start on him but here as well I quickly loose my motivation when life became that hard that I did not paint miniatures for weeks. When I returned to my workbench again I was a bit out of practice and decided to do something completly different. I finished a Realm of Chaos Slaanesh Champion which laid on my pile of shame since 2009 and a couple of Daemonettes for some excercise. One evening I grabbed for the Standard Bearer instead for the next Slaanesh Follower. I had a lot of fun painting all the NMM golds on this evening and I was again on fire. 

Painting the Standard Bearer in end of July 2021

With this experience I went to vacation on the Baltic Sea with my family. We had a very good and relaxing time there. With new energy I returned home and I could not wait to start painting again and to finish the Standard Bearer. Meanwhile it was already mid of July. It took me a couple of painting sessions, before I was able to put him on his Cold One in end of July. 

The finished Standard Bearer between his comrades

 

Banner please!

Now there was only one thing left to fnish this dude. The Banner of the Cold One Knights Standard Bearer. The Banner wich was designed from Neil Hodgson for the studio army is one of the most beautiful ones and is beside his Army Standard my favorite Banner design. The banner design was published in White Dwarf #190. There was need to transfer it to a line template. I used a scan and photoshop to create my template. I adjusted the contrast to very light and printed it. The template was sprayed with three layers of matt vanish to seal the surface. Then I started painting my beloved banner design. Time and motivation was on my side and I fnished the banner in only three sessions in a couple of days in the beginning of August. 

Prepared print of the banner design ready to paint

First half done

Second half done

The finished Banner after adding some more details and corrections

However, two more weeks had gone by until I was able to fix it to the standard and give it its finish.

Freehand madness

Finishing the Standard Bearer was a great motivation. Especially, because the banner turned out that good was a big surprise as I had a lot of respect of its design. I thought it would be good to use the flow and continued with more freehand work. Time to paint one other point on my to do list of things I prefered to skive off... SHIELDS! They should carry also a skull design fitting to their pennant. I had already done one of these designs but I was a bit unhappy because the skull was slightly to large for my taste. This time I wanted to try a bit smaller design. The shields for three were already prepared and painted on their back side. This time I decided to paint them without mask and use freehand skills only.

I also decided to paint them ALL at ONCE to get a highly reproducible result. Therefore, the armory was very busy in the end of august with some Dark Elves shield mass production. The most important thing were the line sizes and arrangements in the beginning to get a reproducible result. Here I really used a ruler to check the correct size and location. Later lines and proportions were estimated. It is important to have a strategy what is drawn in which sequence to get the correct size and proportions. Later stages include corrections using foreground and background and vice Versa to shape the final design. Fine lining techniques were used to define the outlines and details. Blending techniques were used to create attractive areas with depth and details. I put the individual stages on different shields to demonstrate the process. I hope this helps you to get an idea what I had done there. 

Step by step process of the freehand development

One more finished and step by step development of the following

Three skulls finished, rough details on the forth and proportions on the fifth

All freehands finished and the golden edge was added

Finished shields with battle damage

My nemesis

Time to finish my nemesis. Time to finish the two remaining Knights. I started with the "low hanging fruits" and therefore with the Knight who misses only the finish on his pennant and base. The golden outline was added and the light situation on the pennant was adapted in depandance of the drapery. He also get one of my finished shields. At this point point it only takes one painting sessions to finish this guy. Insane that since half a year I was a couple of evenings away from finishing this Knight. But sometimes I have this blockade which need some distance to get through it. I moved on to the last Knight. I painted his pennant which was already prepared and ready for painting since a long time. It took me two small sessions to paint it and fixed it to his lance. Then I gave it its finish and added some more details to the base of the Cold One Knight. Finally, the Knight get also on of the finished shields and he completed my unit of six Cold One Knights.

 

 

 

These pictures just give an overview with the regiment in focus. I have planned to publish some more articles concentrating on single miniatures and groups of miniatures showing these knights more in detail. So far I hope these pictures give you a first impression and I hope you like the result. As always I would be happy to read your thoughts and your feedback in the comments. 

Outlook

People who know the Studios Dark Elves Army know that my unit does not cover it at all. There are some more Cold One Knights and Characters riding Cold Ones and I want them all! I want TEN Knights! That means two more Knights and the Battle Standard Bearer have to be included in this unit. While writing these lines a further Knight is already work in progress. He also will ride a bluish coloured Cold One which is already finished. The Knight is already half way done. The second Knight is ready to get painted. The conversion for the Battle Standard Bearer is finished and I am more than happy with this character. I can´t wait to paint this miniature and I am sure this Dude will become a centerpiece of this regiment and of this army. Here some teaser what will be on the workbench until end of the year.

 

 

 Two teaser pictures will show what will come next and that this regiment is not finished yet

Now I am at the end of this article. It is already clear that finishing this regiment swallowed most on my spare hobby time in 2021. Thanks for joining me on this trip. Thanks a lot for reading and I hope you enjoyed this wall of text and pictures. Stay tuned for the further progress on this mighty regiment.

 

Kind Regards,

GeOrc