 |
Warhammer Witch Elf by Mark Gibbons
|
I will never forget the first time I opened the 4th Edition Dark Elves Armybook and was blown away from the fantastic art made by brilliant artists like Mark Gibbons, Des Hanley, Dave Gallagher and others. These artworks never bored me staring at them and I studied them for hours. With time moving on they served multiple times as inspiration for my miniature art. First I used them as reference for conversions and later as basis for designing whole miniatures. Still today I often use parts of them as reference for painting freehands.
If there is one artwork which never let me go and which served as basis for multiple versions of its character it is the Witch Elf by Mark Gibbons. That angry lady has a surreal beauty which captivates you and let you be afraid the same time. Mark once wrote me that he is a magnet for dangerous women. I think we can be happy, that he shared his experiences in his art and that we can inspect that from a safe distance. This way his Ladies did not appear less intriguing to us. Once in my head Marks Witch Elf became my archtype for a Daughter of Khaine. Fascinated by this character, Lady Gibbons served as a reference for multiple projects through the ages. Today I want to share with you these sinister Ladies together with their story.
 |
Three different versions of Marks iconic Witch Elf can be found in my cabinets
|
My first conversion
I started Warhammer Fantasy in January 1998 with my first Dark Elves army which I got as a birthday gift for my 19th birthday. It was an army from a poster deal which also contained three blisters of Witch Elves. I remember that these Wicht Elves were some of the first miniatures I painted. I used thick paint and painted all in different colours. Because a Champion for the regiment was missing I decieded to do my first conversion. Fascinated by Marks Witch Elf artwork I used thisone as reference and chose a miniature which was as close as possible to her character. I bended the miniature to capture the reference pose better. There was need to cut of her left arm and rearrange it completly new to get the pose right. The gap I filled with an air drying crafting clay. This was the first time using something like a putty. Because I had no tools I used a toothpick for sculpting. Her rigth arm had needed also a rearrangment but I feard this was to far from my skills. Therefore I kept it that way. The lower leg armour I created with thin cardboard I cut in shape and added tops of toothpicks as spikes. These were glued simply on the legs. Finally, there was need to create some weapons. I used needles for creating the parry blade which she raises high in her right hand. The shape of her sword was cut from her original blade. The basing was simple due to a lack of experience. Because of her pose there was need to position her rear leg on a stone
Witch Elf conversion created in 1999 in reference to Marks iconic Witch Elf artwork
The conversion was finally painted to fit the rest of the unit. I used red tones as I liked these the most from all the colours I had tested. Additionally I added some freehands to get closer to the reference art. In this regard I tried to paint skulls on the lower leg armour and some line work on the upper top of her boots. A rune on her crest and some evil eye make up should underline her champion character. Even if the painting miss technical perfection, contrast and depth, the amount of details was very ambitious in these early hobby days. I still remember how proud I was of her.
However, these early Witch Elves unit was hard to look at as time and my skills moved on. When I started to redo my 4th Edition army 20 years later the Witch Elves were one of the first units I sacrificed in a cauldron of aceton. All except of one. I spared Lady Gibbons. I shortly though if a complete revision of the conversion and a new painting would suit her. But I decieded against, because it would have destroyed the soul of the miniature and I am better doing one from scratch. Finally, she gets a lovely place in my cabinet and reminds me always where I came from and my first days in the hobby when everything was still new.
My first Green
As you have read above I started converting my miniatures very early in my hobby carrer. First using only simple techniques like changing parts, but I started quickly to do experiments with clay to perform some more complicated weapon and head swaps. The quality dramatically changed when I learned about Greenstuff. I can´t remember where I get my first stripes from but I remember well that I felt this will change everything. I started using it for simple conversions and ended more and more sculpting single parts of figures. First it was more some kind of resculpting what I had damaged during the conversion process. Then it became more and more sculpting my own details. Becoming better and with more experience I decieded to do some first experiments in the direction of sculpting my own figure. My first test in this direction was sculpting Tullaris from Har Ganeth by the fantastic art of Des Hanley. While I sculpted nearly the whole miniature I used a head and the weapon from existing Dark Elves miniatures because I feared my skills would not be sufficient for doing that by my own. Consequently, it wasn´t my first complete green, but it motivated me to do my first try in November 2001. I chose a further Artwork from the 4th Edition armybook and I took the one which impressed me most, Mark Gibbons Witch Elf!
 |
Witch Elf Green from 2001
|
I started this ambitious project with creating an armature from with simple wire and put it on a cork as I have seen it from other sculptors. Then I started the sculpting process. My only tool was a toothpick and I used WD40 oil as a separating agent. The latter was a mess and the whole sculpt was always oily and looked like a fried chicken. I started at the bottom and sculpted a rough body shape and legs. Then I sculpted me slowely upwards in different sessions to geht the basic figure before adding tons of details. Luckily, I did a lot of pictures for documenting my project in my ancient forums and on my website. Therefore, I will provide a future article about the single steps of creating this green with all its oily details. Until then, you can see here my final result.
Final pictures of my Witch elf Green which I started sculpting in November/December 2001
Retrospectively, I still think it was a respectable result for a first green. I am still happy with a lot of details, e.g. the leg armour and the sword. However, the whole figure miss some depth and is a bit to flat. The body anatomy isn´t that good as can be seen at the butt-leg transition, arms to thin and missing elbows. Finally and most important, her face isn´t that evil and pretty as I wished for her... it looks more like a plastic surgery fail of the mid 90s rewarded with nice pair of dinghy lips. Maybe I am a bit harsh with my self critic and I should keep in mind that it was my first try doing something like this. Additionally, I remember that the community liked it very very much. For most people in the hobby sculpting your own miniature was so far away that they totally go insane with compliments and feedback. That not enough I got a very nice feedback from a former friend and collector. His name was James Humphries from the US, owner of the website virtual alchemist and from whom I got my first rareties from. In the early 2000s he produced a series of
limited edition miniatures for collectors. He wanted my Witch Elf for this series and so I sent it to the US where she got casted.
 |
Casting of the Witch Elves Green
|
Unfortunately, the project was canceled by the GW legal department after the first advertising. James sent me back the produced castings and the remainings of the green which was completly destroyed by the casting process. From these castings I built my version which I painted. The painting wasn´t very special and was in accordance with my late 5th Edition Dark Elves colour scheme. That means a lot of metals and beside some small spots of Hawk Turqoise and Liche Purple shaded with Nauseating Blue there was not much colour. I tried to cover the sculpting weekness especially in the face. Some aggressive eye make up helped to correct the eyes. I also added freehand details on the crest and on the boots. For the letter I am still very proud because these small skulls look very similiar to Marks brilliant reference. I think a modern painting could get out much more of the miniature. Especially using NMM could highlight all the beautiful details of the leg armour. Maybe one day I will give this girl a second try.
Painted casting of my Witch Elf miniature. Painted in October 2002
Through the years I shared some castings with some friends and followers. I
do not know where they all end, but it looks like some of these copies get some
doubtful fame and had crazy stories. I know one ended on the Collecting Citadel Miniatures WIKI in the unreleased Dark Elves section where she is still listed as an unreleased trial sculpt?! I also heard one who was
sold through the Yahoo Collecting Citadel Miniatures group for around $
110?! It looks like time tends to produce some legends and I am happy that this lady at least get some attention.
Lady Gibbons in the Age of Sigmar
Sometimes all you need for inspiration is a plastic bit. That is how this latest version of Lady Gibbons started to return again on my workbench. I was already warmed up as I had started a small Daughters of Khaine army a couple of months before. When thinking about a hero miniature and looking through the miniature range I noticed the big hair frome the Cauldron Slaugther Queen. The latter is nice remake of Aly Morrisons brilliant Cauldron Hag designed in the mid 90s. However, it was the first time I got the idea combining this bit with a regular Witch Elf and at once I had my favorite artwork from Mark in mind. Unfortunately, I had already built my Cauldron Slaughter Queen, which made it neccessary to buy a second kit. I experimented with a couple of bits and quickly had everything together to build a perfect interpretation of Marks beautiful artwork.
For the body I used one of the cauldron guardians which had the perfect pose. The pose required some stairs and Morthis base was perfect. It only had to be optimised for the larger step length. A big sword I found in the sprue from the Dark Eldar Wyches. The most difficult part was to find the perfect face. Marks dark magic created an artwork in which the character of the Witch Elves is expressed only by this angry and insane looking face. I think all husbands know a milder version of this look when you had again forgot to take out the garbage. Can you feel the shiver? It was elemental to find an Elven face which enables making you feel this way. Consequently, I looked through all available ones and tested a dozen with potential. None was perfect but the best I could find and which made me shiver was one from the new Khinerai sprue.
 |
Witch Elf conversion work in progress
|
It is important to note that my goal was not to rebuild exactly Marks artwork. Instead I wanted to create an interpretation which fits into the current Daughters of Khaine miniature range but would be as close to Marks artwork as possible. In this regard I used the common form language of the Daughters miniature range. For the leg armour I used designs from the Khinerai miniatures and the shoulder armours were designs from the Melusai. I also added the Parry Blade from the Cauldron Queen. Beside a slight difference in the leg pose I also decieded for a change in the arm pose as the original sword arm drawn by Mark looked very unnatural when recreated on a miniature. Consequently, I chose an arm position which was close to the original and fit to the pose of the conversion.
While I had fantastic bits which covered most of Marks iconic Witch Elf there was still need for some sculpting work to link everything smoothly. The best way to get the Khinerai leg armour onto the boots of the Witch Elf was making small molds of the bits and to use it for stamping the armour parts with brownstuff on them. The hair I repaired with greenstuff just by following the preexisting lines of the original bit. There was also some work needed to repair the sword and dagger and to link both to the miniature. I added a small skull to the swordhandle but can´t remember I got that bit from.
The Witch Elf conversion taking shape and dominated my workbench in September 2018
Finally, there was need to fit the shoulder armour to the miniature. The original ones were all left sided, so I cut and resculpted one to fit for her right side. There was also need to adjust the arm position and to repair their connection to the body. Then I added some belts to connect the armour to the miniature. Because the original Cauldron Guardian is a bit flat-butted I added some greenstuff to get it in shape. Not that it was really necessary... but the artwork looked like Mark liked some curves. Unfortunately, I have no picture from the backside. But you will see it later painted and I think you will like it too.
Working on the pauldrons and repairing the arm-body connections
I decieded to keep head and body seperated which would make it easier to paint that complex miniature. A quick comparison with the original drawing from Mark showed that my conversion catch right nicely the main features of the figure. I posted it on social media and the following feedback quickly confirmed that this project goes in the right direction. Mark also approved it and with his blessing it was time to paint her.
 |
Comparison of the Witch Elf conversion with its reference
|
The conversion was primed and I started as usual with the skin colour. I quickly focused on the head, because I was very curious if I was able to catch Marks fantastic Witch Elf look. I stayed very close to my colour schemes which I had already establieshed with my Witch Aelves. I painted the hair by a mix of black and with strands which I highlighted or shaded with purple, respectively. The crown was painted in NMM gold with a red gem. Then it was time to start the details on the face. I added a dark smokey eye make up with some pink eyeshadow. The eyes itself were painted light brown and the lips get some natural redish lip tone. Overall I was very very happy with her face. She remembered me a bit on Charlize Theron and I liked that thought. The face was a bit different to Marks work but I think it sends her message very clear.
I continued working on the body with smoothing the skin and adding shades to highlight her beautiful anatomy. For seperating the areas I added the basic colours for the gold areas and the red loincloth.
After I was happy with the skin I concentrated on the metals. I very much enjoyed painting the golden bra and the pauldrons. The latter get some nice reflections on their scaled centers. I also painted the arm armour. The challenge here was to create the cylindrical reflections on their small areas and to seperate the cold and silver areas properly.
The next step included some first blendings on sword and parry blade as well as some detail work on the lower leg armour. The letter included some freehand gold edges on the knee armour. That was how I left here the day before me and my wife started our Honeymoon. When I came back I was infected with the idea to repaint my 4th Edition Dark Elves army. I painting an old Dark Elves Champion and started a project which would dominate my next years in the Hobby. After some lonely months without love on my workbench Lady Gibbons went in the cabinet on the shelve of shame.
 |
My painted Witch Elf conversin how I left her in the end of September 2018
|
From time to time I though about finishing her. But, there was still the big hurdle to finish the conversion of her base. My plan was to base her on Morthis base
but her step lenght is larger than the step. It was necessary to
convert the whole plastic bit of the base and I never got the motivation to do this.
 |
Witch Elf conversion in February 2021
|
However, I felt Lady
Gibbons angry glance from my shelve of shame. Her evil stare became more and more threatening
the more time has gone by. Therefore, she was my first choice to finish anything as an entry for
The Miniatures Open Painting Competition. One day in February 2021 I grabed her base and get the job done. I painted the base in only one session and glued the body of the miniature on it. Then I finished the whole work on the body. I started finishing the leg armour and worked from bottom to top finishing one area after another. After the body was finished I glued the head on the body and filled the gap between both parts. There was only a bit of revision on the head and overall look necessary. Everything went so fast that I have no single picture of that phase. It ended all taking pictures of the finished miniature on February 21st. Here you can see this angry lady in all her weird glory. Isn´t she a lovely fury?
Additionally, here some different angles and a better view on the base which made me so much headache.
View on the base I used to step her downwards
I was very happy finishing her and to unleash her beauty in this Online Painting competition. The
competition was a very very tough one and unfortunately she was not
able to win a trophy. However, I am more than happy having her finished
after all those years waiting on my shelve of shame. Maybe one day she will get a further chance in a competition, either alone or accompanied by her bloody Sisters.
I hope you enjoyed my journey through my collection of interpretations of Marks Masterpiece of a Witch Elf. I am sure now you believe me that this artwork is my most favorite one. I would love to see her starring from my walls.
Therefore, Mark if you read this, if you ever think about to part with this angry lady, please keep me in mind!
Now I am at the end of this article. As always, please let me know what you think and write me in the comments.
Kind Regards,
GeOrc
