Lady Gibbons

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

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