Golden Demon series - Beast & Master 2004

We are in the year 2004. Since half a year now I am in a new relationship. I finished my intermediate diploma in chemistry last summer. But, I decieded to change the focus of my further studies to food chemistry. I started into my second semester and everything runs smoothly.  My girlfriend just changed her university and continued her study of economics in Stuttgart. We saw each other on the weekends... and I had plenty of time during the weeks to paint miniatures. 

It´s summer time and only a couple of months before the next Golden Demon competition. The last months my focus was primary on sculpting. When I did some painting it was focused on painting the castings of my greens. I also ran a small buisness selling castings of my own designs. That all keeps me very busy. My shelve of shame grows and the updates for my website got more and more delays. But as the date for the Games Day 2004 came nearer my competitive side awoke. I wanted to defend my title as a good painter. I would not be one of these guys wining a Golde Demon trophy and disappear afterwards. I would not be a one hit wonder. I would show that I climbed that stage to stay!

Duell - Beastmaster fighting Scyla Anfingrimm

It was time to throw all my new skills into the next round. My heart still beat for the new Dark Elves range sculpted by Chris Firtzpatrick. More precisely it beat for everything sculpted by Chris Firtzpatrick. With the 6th Edition - Storm of Chaos campaign the Dark Elves got a new armylist containing Slaanesh Elements. It was a great chance to extend my Dark Evels by a further army which fascineted me. I had already a couple of Chaos miniatures I liked and now it was the chance to include them into my growing army or to use them as opponents. From this mixture of models on my workbench the idea of a beastmaster character fighting against Scyla Anfingrimm was born.

Creative Chaos on my Workbench

Normally, it is hard to remember all the details how these project were done nearly 20 years ago. But, during these time I was already writing articles for my website and was also invited to write for the Druchii.net monthly e-zine. There most of the information were conserved. Read this ancient article here with some minor revision and language editing. 

From Druchii-net monthly Nov. 04

The beastmasters of Karond Kar control the most vicious monsters to be found in the Warhammer world. No beast can escape their cruel teachings, even the strongest willed monster will break under their barbed whips. The bound monsters are then unleashed against the enemies of the Dark Elves. Only the strongest beast handlers survive long enough in their dangerous profession to rise to the rank of beastmaster. The most infamous one is without a doubt the beast lord Rakarth of Karond Kar, riding his black dragon Bracchus. Rakarth also broke Seraphon, the mount of the Witch King himself.

Many worthy beastmasters have risen within the walls of Karond Kar. The greatest among them master the wild manticores, either to ride them to battle themselves or to sell them to high-bidding highborns. They also raise the black pegasi favoured by the convents of sorcery, and the great war hydras are cornerstones of the raiding and siege forces of the black arks. Beastmasters are dangerous by themselves, but that threat is multiplied if their “pets”, which fight to the Death for their Druchii
masters, accompany them.

The first beastmaster I would like to present is a conversion of a 40k Dark Eldar beastmaster, whom I converted for the Diorama category for the German Golden Demon 2004. I liked the 40k beastmaster ever since his release. The miniature was my long-time favourite cast of my great role model Chris Fitzpatrick. The hair, for example, has been adopted for the witch elf range. Therefore, the model already fits the new Dark Elf range well, but I needed to get rid of some of the technological elements and the overall impression had to become more emblematic of the Dark Elves. To fit into the much newer range of Dark Elves, a few conversions were necessary.

 

Conversion

First, I cut off all Dark Eldar elements that looked futuristic or technical. As weapon, I chose the typical weapons of the beastmaster, the whip and spear. The spear I wanted to do myself, but for the whip I chose a nice Games Workshop bit. Kazagh’s whip is a really good one. After I repaired all the damage done by cutting off the non-fitting parts, I started to remodel the armour to make it more Druchii-like. The cold one knights, from which I took the boots and spikes on the vambraces, inspired me strongly.The Idea for the thigh braces I got from Lilith Hesperax, whom I converted already for the Golden Daemon 2003. With regards to this piece of armour I converted the torso and arm pieces as well. The added skulls on the leg bracers came very late, as the rest was already finished. Once again the cold one knights were parents to this idea. Finally, I bolted the whip and modelled the parts of the hilt.

 

Spear

The idea for the spear sprang from a doodle I did while talking to my girlfriend on the phone. Crucial were the three points, two of them should have blades facing each other. One of the blades should spiral the shaft like Morathi’s Heart-Piercer. The idea with the points on the shaft came during the sculpting. I wanted to go as far as possible from the Games Workshop design to give the miniature my personal touch. 

Step 1: Shaft and blades
For the shaft I used 2 mm strong wire that I cut with my jewellers saw to the correct length. I looked to the other Dark Elf spears for the measurements so the weapon would not get too big. Because of the spiral form, I decided to fit the second blade as well. For that, I used thinner wire and spiralled it around the thicker one. Then I bent the
wire parallel to the first blade and cut it with some pliers diagonally to get the correct length. 

I removed the part and began the modelling of the large central blade.

 

 

 

 

Step 2: Sculpting the blade
For all sculpting I used brown stuff, as it gets harder than green stuff and is then easier to polish. I started with a rough shape, 

 

 

 

which I cut smoother with a sharp knife after it had solidified. Then I sculpted the whole thing cleaner. After the stuff had hardened, 

 

 

 

I once again cut it to shape, especially the point. Finally, the sculpt was polished with water sand paper (you know, that special kind which you wet before using). 

 

 

 

Step 3: Second blade
First, I covered the wire with Brown stuff to have a workable base. Then I had to fix the spiral. To do this, I sculpted the spiral form given by the wire. 

 

 

 

After it had solidified, I polished the sculpt to get a smooth surface from the brown stuff. Now it was time to sculpt the actual blade. Here I used the same process as for the centre blade. First a rough shape, solidify and cut to shape. Then sculpt and polish.
 

 

 

Step 4: Third blade
For the third blade of the trident I once again started with a wire skeleton to give support to the modelling putty. To fix the wire I looped it around the central one. I had to make do with one loop, as very little space was left. Then I fixed the wire with brown stuff. After the wire was fixed, I bent the tip into shape as described and modelled on top of it.

 

Step 5: Shaft points
The shaft points I modelled freehand, which works quite good with brown stuff. I took care to make them smaller towards the end of the shaft and made them look like flesh hooks. Like the rest, they were polished smoothly.

Step 6: Shaft butt
Here the fifth edition spears inspired me. I formed two little brown stuff snakes and twisted them around the shaft. Then I pressed them on with a modelling tool. With a flat tool, I then gave them the right round- and thickness. As these parts were quite asymmetric and unclean, I had to cut and polish a lot. The rivets were added in a second working session.

 

Finished conversion of the Beastmaster

Step 7: Hand
For the hand I returned to green stuff, as it works better for limbs and parts with lots of curves. Here it was important to position the thumb on the correct position. Always check with your own hand as reference. Further attention should be given to the proportions of the existing hand (if any). For these exact reasons, I had to do the hand two times, but the second time went way faster and smoother.

Step 8: Casting
I did a casting of the spear using a spin casting machine. As I ran the machine regularly these times producing my miniatures it wasn´t a big deal puting the spear into one of my master molds. The rsulting casting looked very good and allowed me to use copies of the spear later again if needed.
 

Casting of the Beastmasters spear

 

Painting Scyla

The Scyla model was left unmodified, as I like it as it is. Good old Scyla had been catching dust for over a year now and finally she had found a worthy place. Painting Scyla Chaosspawn
 

Step 1: Skin
First, I painted all the skin in a similar one to my steed of Slaanesh. On a base coat of chaos black I painted a layer of a Dark Flesh/Chaos Black mixture. This was accented with pure Dark Flesh. Further accents were accomplished by first a Dark Flesh/Dwarf Flesh mix and finally pure Dwarf Flesh. Especially the veins I accented very carefully with pure Dwarf Flesh.

Step 2: Fur
I wanted the fur in grey tones. I started with a mix of Chaos Black and Codex Grey. This would then be accented with Codex Grey and Fortress Grey. A last highlight for the tips and the top hairs was done carefully with Skull White. 

Step 3: Scales, claws and horns
Here I used shades of brown. As my Scorched Brown had dried out, I used a mix of Bestial Brown and Chaos Black. I based all the parts with that. The next highlight was Bestial Brown. For the accents, I was careful to go lighter the further I came from the base, and to keep the deeper parts dark. The scales I accented towards the lower rim. I used the original mix and added gradually more Bleached Bone, adding a final accent of Skull White with a hint of Bleached Bone. The scales were framed with this mix on the lower rim.
 

Step 4: Boils
The boils I had already painted with skin colours. To differentiate them a bit I highlighted them with sunburst yellow. 

Step 5: Collar
I did the collar in NMM gold. For NMM gold, I use the standard Snakebite Leather. This is accented with Bubonic Brown, the final highlight is done in Bleached Bone, and the rims are done in Skull White to hint at the reflections. The sigils of Khorne is based in Red Gore and accentuated with Blood Red. Further highlights were done with different mixes of Blood Red and Bubonic Brown. The edges were done in pure Bubonic Brown.

Step 6: Faces
The final details were the gums, teeth, and eyes. The eyes got a basic Skull White and Chaos Black look. The gums got a base of Nauseating Blue. This was accented with Liche Purple and finally Warlock Purple. After the gums came the teeth, and they were done in the same way as scales, claws and horns in step 3.
 

Painting the Beastmaster

Step 1: Skin
I base with a dark mix of Chaos Black and Bleached Bone. The skin then gets many layers of pure
Bleached Bone. Then I shade the lower parts with different mixes of Chaos Black and Bleached Bone.
The highlight is Skull White, but better is a mix of Bleached Bone and Skull White – that prevents it from getting too light.

Step 2: Armour
For a dark silver NMM I put the highlights a little further from the edges than for normal silver NMM. The first is a mix of Chaos Black and Codex Grey. The follow-up layers are with gradually  more Codex Grey in the mix. I try to avoid pure Codex Grey, as it is difficult to handle. The last highlight I did with a mix of Codex Grey and a hint of Fortress Grey. Then the edges in Skull White to represent the reflecting light.

Step 3: Fur
Here again I took a Bestial Brown and Chaos Black mix. With this I base the front and back of the fur collar. The next highlight is pure Bestial Brown, and for the accents, I use the original mix with more and more Bleached Bone added. 

 

Step 4: The wing
Here I highlighted the black with a mix of Hawk Turquoise and Chaos Black, the second go with Hawk Turquoise and finally Hawk Turquoise/Bleached Bone. For the after-shading, again I used the original mix. The horns are done in the same way as the fur.

Step 5: Hair and hair bands 

I used first a mix of Chaos Black and Codex Grey. This was then accented with first Codex Grey and later Fortress Grey. A final accent for the tips and the top hairs is done carefully in Skull White. The hair bands are based in Dark Flesh and accentuated with Blood Red

Step 6: The whip
I wanted the whip in a much lighter NMM than the dark armour. To do this, I added a lot more Fortress Grey and later thinned down Skull White to the highlights. In the final layer I used pure thinned down Skull White to get a bright shimmer on the upper side. However, I needed to constantly shade with darker tones to get a good effect. The whip handle was done in the same tones as the wing, the rivets
in the same NMM as the whip. 

Step 7: Metal skulls
The metal skulls I did in NMM gold. For a description of my NMM gold technique, see “Step 5: Collar of the Scyla” painting guide.

Beastmaster half way done, missing only the spear with was painted separately.

View on the spear and gold reflection in the blade.

Step 8: Spear
First, I did the lower blade in NMM gold. Now it is getting a tad tricky, as the gold blade should be reflected in the centre blade. Initially, I painted the lower part of the blade in light NMM, starting dark at the point and getting lighter towards the middle. Then came the gold part, here I started dark at the end and got lighter towards the centre. Furthermore, I accented with grey towards the centre edge. After that, I painted the reflecting edge with a Skull White line. The upper side and upper spear point was done in the same light NMM as the lower part; the bright middle part is walking diagonally over the central blade and has the same angle as on the upper point. Further back is a second reflecting area that follows the same angle parallel to the first one. The small hooks are done in NMM getting lighter towards the tips. The shaft I painted in turquoise tones, using the same colours as in step 4. The golden butt cap is the already described NMM gold.

Step 9: Banners
I decided to include a few long, self-made banners. I cut them from thick paper und painted them in violets. The base is a mix of Liche Purple and Chaos Black, first accent Liche Purple, second with a Liche Purple/Tentacle Pink mix. The flow is always bottom-up, to get a colour flow of dark (bottom) to light (top). Afterwards I added a few Druchii-Runes in Skull White. I glued the completed banners to the spear shaft and had a completed beastmaster.
 

View on the base of Scyla

Step 10: Bases
For the bases of both models I used lots of skeleton parts from the skeleton sprue. Added to that I had a few old skeleton minis of horses and chariots. The whole I glued to a base and sculpted it with thinned down Moltofil. With an old brush, I then washed the skeleton parts out again and brushed it to a mostly smooth surface. I fixed a little sand here and there with some glue. After everything was primed in Chaos Black I painted the lot. First only the sand with a mix of Dark Flesh and Chaos Black. For all following accents, I added more and more Bleached Bone up to pure Bleached Bone. After the sand, I did the same with the Bones, but here the final accent was a mix of Bleached Bone and Skull White. The bird sand I dry-brushed with the same colours.
 

Step 11: Show base
The show base is basically the same as the model bases. Only the dry grass is a special fibre from the modelling hobby, and this I glued to the base with PVA glue.

 

View on the bases of the miniatures and the show base

 

Finally a couple of different views on this very special duell scene.

 

 

Looking at the duell today make me thinking that I did many things right and it well deserved winning a trophy. There is this huge conversion and sculpting work on the beastmaster giving him a very dynamic pose. A technical high painitnig standard with very smooth blendings on NMM but also on the Beastmasters skin within one colour or on the Skyla tail between two different colours. Also the small banners I created which add some extra details. The showbase gave these both characters a nice atmospheric scene which fit both characters very well. The colour schemes painting the aggressor (Scyla) in warm colours and the defender (Beastmaster) in cold colours support the scene. A lot of these things were not planed and I did somehow right by instinct.  

 

Today I would only add more contrast ot the NMMs which would make them look more real. For sure I would also exchange the Turquoise against anything different but this colour scheme was one of my favorite receipts at that time point. Finally, I would also add more global light. But, I am still very happy with that Duell Scene and in my opinion its look has aged very well.

 

However, the real diorama aged not so well. Due to the casted spear the Beastmaster had some disbalance and the small wire bended a couple of times before it broke. Several repairs had damaged the link between miniature and the base and a lot of super glue covered the skeleton torso he stands on. Because the Beastmaster did not hold without blu tack it was always very hard to remove the figure. This was necesaary as the beastmaster had a couple of times a use in my games or in showcases. Several times I damaged the showbase when removing him for such events. This article was a great chance to dedust the duell and to repair all these damages. I took the chance to do some new pictures showing this old couple in new glory.

 

 

I hope you enjoyed this trip down the Memory Lane. Return to my Golden Demon Gallery or stay a bit and put your thoughts in the comments. So long, train your blendings and happy painting,

GeOrc

Golden Demon series - Dark Elves Princess / Druchii Anointed on Cold One 2003

I have to start this story a year earlier and with a lot of trouble in private life.  My girl friend had just left me and my studies in chemistry didn't go well. I failed an exam in physical chemistry in 2002 which resulted in getting no access to the the related practical training. Consequently, I had to repeat this in the summer term by splitting my 4th semester. The latter was structured already as a releaxed one and now it was need to split this into two semester of nearly doing nothing and end everything with my intermediate diploma. That was a year of a lot of spare time which I had used for a lot of party, sport and training my sculpting skills. That's how I ended my studies in Chemistry and how I started in 2003. While I get better and better in sculpting and worked on my own miniature range my whole project of studying chemistry were in a crisis. I was at the point of thinking about becoming a professional sculpter. I was already running a small business producing metal castings using a spin casting machine sponsered by my Grand Father. But I was sceptical when the second and third figure sales had a slow progress. In parallel two fellow students tried to motivate me to switch to studing food chemistry. In the end I decided for the studies and switched to food chemisty in spring 2003. Because I was missing a practical training I had to spent again a semster nearly doing nothing before this change would work. But ok, this is how a summer should be for a young student and it was the year 2003 and its record summer. It turned out it should become one of the best summers of my life!

Initial thoughts and design notes

Well... that was nearly 20 years ago! How on earth I could remember any detail about this miniature. Side note: At this point I get a slight idea how Aly and the other studio staff is feeling when I start my interrogations about the 4th Edition Dark Elves! BUT, using the tools of digital archaeology I was able to find some written traditions. I was running a website in the early 2000. The website was set offline many years ago but I still have the backup files. Digging deep into the entrails of my computer I was able to find articles which describe the detailed steps creating this thing of beauty.

The written traditions tell the following story. Everything started with a visit of my local retail trader in autumn 2002. There I saw that the Dark Eldar miniature Lilith Hesperax designed by Chris Fitzpatrick was sold for a bargain price. I had to take it and she should be a nice additon to my 6. Edition Dark Elves Witch Elves also designed by Chris Fitzpatrick. Back at home I saw that the Lilith miniature was slightly larger than the Witches. Inspired by my friend Sascha Bukzek aka Goatmans famous High Elven Princess (His miniature won a 3rd place in WH single miniature at the German Golden Demon 2002) I developed the idea to make her an evil counterpart. 

Creating the Conversion

Cut of the miniature and rearrangement into a mounted position

With this in mind I started to think about how to do the conversion. My goal was to use as much of the original Lilith miniature as possible requiring to repose the miniature and resculpt large parts. I cut the miniature in many pieces which allowed me to create a mounted position. Using a knife only this took a whole afternoon. The picture on the right nicely shows the single parts. In brief, I started with cuting the hair cleanly from the leg. Then, the legs were cut in a V shape from the body by cuting through the visible parts of the leg. Because the legs were destroyed the remaining parts were cleand from the armour and later resculpted. Both legs were seperated from each other with a further cut. The resulting right leg was bend a bit into position and was finished that way. Her left leg was a bit more complicated as these were originally two parts. Here, the knee armour was not symetrical to her right one which is not a problem with the original miniature because it is not visible, but would become one in my conversion. Therefore, I cut the knee armour off. Same with the foot tip. Both required a later resculpting. Now I had everything I needed to make this miniature a mounted one. But,I quickly realized that it would be easier to rearrange the miniature when I am able to fix it directly on the Cold One. This required at least a saddle. When looking for inspiration in the Warhammer Armybook of the 6th Edition the heavily armoured Cold one from the artworks of Dave Gallagher catched my eye. Especially, the artwork from Malus Darkblade fascinated me. It was a shame that the available miniature reflected the armour only by an alternate armoured head. 

 

Armatures and first armour sculpting of the back armour

It was time to change that and show a heavily armoured Cold One. I took the Marlus Darkbalde Cold Ones armour as reference and put small pieces of wire into the back and head of the Cold One as basis for the spikes. Additionally, I used some bended wire to create the horizonal spikes for an impressive head armour. The head itself was cut in to pieces allowing me to open the mouth to a big roar. Immediately, I started to sculpt the back armour using greenstuff. Unfortunately, that did no worked that well and I had a lot of problems. First the greenstuff did not stick on the wire and I was not able to get the spikes in shape especially were the greenstuff hanging over the wire forming the tip. Second, I had big problems to get sharp edges and smooth surfaces on the individual armour plates. Third, the overall look was not as symetrical as it was needed to make this a qualitative conversion. For a competition miniature the sculpting has to be in the same quality as the original miniature. Therefore, I threw the miniature in a coner and worked on something different for the next months. 

Reworking through the back armour and spikes

From time to time I returned to the miniature and I tried my luck with the chainmail under the saddle. But that part as well looked ugly and far from the quality of the original GW miniatures. However, it allowed me to fix the legs on the Cold One and I sculpted the saddle in a shape of a demonic head. That saddle looked very good and allowed me for the first time to put all parts together. This overall look was really awesome and motivated me to continue. I used a scalpel to rework through the back armour and I finished the sculpting on the spikes. But the final result was still far away from my expectations. Again the miniature ended in a corner of the workbench and was forgotten for a couple of months.  

Revised back armour and spikes by using brwonstuff

It was already 2003 and a new era of sculpting had started. I was in contact with Chris Fitzpatrick who had left Games Workshop in the meantime. He still did some freelance work for them but worked more on his own comapany Crocodile Games. He teached me a lot about sculpting and also the use of bownstuff for armour parts because this putty had less surface tension compared to greenstuff and keeps better sharp edges. Because Chris is a very kind guy he also sent me a package of this mysterious putty. The Cold One armour appeared to me as the right test area to get some first experiences with that new putty. Again I reworked through the spikes of the back armour. In parallel I resculpted the armour plates. I needed a couple of tries but finally I was able to receive a good result for the first time. It was a demotivating work and despite the good result I threw the miniature again into one corner of my workbench. I made a break for two weeks and took care for my study exams. My motivation changed after I had finished painting a Sorceress on Cold One with a new colour scheme for her Cold One. Now I had a vision in mind for the finished miniature and I was highly motivated to finish it. Within a couple of day I finsihed the back armour and also reworked through the ugly chainmail. The latter looked great after having found the right tool and the right technique.

 

Detailed view on the head armour

After to many drinks and long evening in a cocktail bar I got the brilliant idea to sculpt the head armour at 1 am. Three hours later I had sculpted all eight side blades and looked proudly on my result. After much to less sleep I continued sculpting the next day with designing the side armour and the armour on the snout. After I had sculpted the details of the mouth I sculpted the chainmail on the head and did the spikes on top. With all this new experience I reworked through the back armour once more. Again it was hard to get into a flow but finally I found the right technique and now everything looked like in one piece.            

Finished conversion of the Druchii Princess

After the back armour was compelted I sculpted the missing spikes. Now the whole armour was finished. Taken togehter this was leaning the hard way with a lot of try and error but also with a lot of experiences and I was able to learn and to improve.   

I continued with doing all the repair work on the Rider. There were also a lot of parts which had to be sculpted completly new like her left foot and knee. Additionally, there was need for some gap filling on the Cold One and Lilith. Now it was time for some additional parts to get a higher degree of detail. I resculpted the small chains between leg armour and her thong. Then I treated the mout an update. By proposal of my good friend Konstantin I sculpted bigger teeth and and a split tongue. For fixing the reins I added some nose rings made from wire and glued these including their chains into the nose holes. I added her missing arm and fixed the lose end of the chains used as reins into her hand. Finally, I added the part of her back spikes and filled the gaps. Here you can see the finished conversion ready for priming and painting.

 

 

Painting the Dark Elves Princess

While I was very good in the documentation of my conversion I totally missed to take pictures during the paintng process. Therefore, I have only two work in progress pictures but they nicely demonstrate that the frustration with this miniature goes into a further round.

Sorceress on Cold One painted March 2003

In the early 2000 years a new company smashed the Tabletop scene, Rackham withe their Fantasy Tabletop Confrontation. With the new and fresh design of their miniatures a new painting style appeared. This style in a nutshell consisted of saturated basic colours with less contrast in their very smooth blendings and metalic colours painted with normal colours, called non metalic metal (NMM). After some years this painting style gained a foothold also in Games Workshops Tabletop painters scene. When the first demons were already won with this style I was still in my dark Black & White era. But, as I wrote earlier in this article, Change was on its way. With my latest miniature at that time, a Sorceress on Cold One which can be seen on the left my painting style got a bit more colourful with saturated colours. This was also thanks to painters like Sascha Bukzek and others who pushed me with their awesome works into the new trends. Therefore, I decided to jump on the bandwagon and try this NMM style. But first there was need to paint the Cold One.   

Finished painting on the Cold One

As you can see the colour scheme for the Cold One followed closely the one from the Dark Elves Sorcerss. I painted the greens a bit more saturated into a yellow direction and decided for lighter scales comapred to the Sorceress Cold One. For that the Cold One was primed with a mixture of Goblin Green and Chaos Black. After that I highlighted with Camo Green and used thinned Chaos Black for shading. The bottom of the Cold One was painted in lighter tones. For that I highlighted first with Rotting Flesh and finally thinned Skull White. After that the basic colour of the body was finished. For the scales I accentuated the black primed scales with thinned Rotting Flesh to the bottom. Then I made a second accent with Skull White into the same direction. The warts were primed with Nauseating Blue, highligthed with Liche Purple and finally with Warlock Purple. For a wet effect  I put a white point on every wart. The mouth except for the tongue was painted in the same way like the warts. The tongue was painted in blue colours. Here I used Enchanted Blue as basic colour highlighted with Lightning Blue and Space Wolfs Grey. Teeth and horns were highlighted with Bleached Bone and then by Skull White. The eyes of the Cold One were primed with Red Gore and then highlighted with accents of Blood Red, a mixture of Blood Red and Sunburst Yellow and at least with pure Sunburst Yellow. Then the slitted pupil was painted with Chaos Black. At that point the Cold One was finished. But I asked myself how I should continue? I did not know and again I put the miniature aside.

First try in painting the back armour in a silver NMM

The model got dusty more and more on my desk. While it continued getting dusty I had painted some other miniatures and get more and more experience on my NMM path. One day I chatted with Goatman about the project and I shared some pictures of the miniature. I asked him how he would paint the rest of the miniature. He proposed a very colourful colour scheme with a blue coloured rider with white hair and a Cold One covered in a shining gold armour. Additionally there should be green reflections in the armour of the rider. That all felt complicated and to colourful. There was no way I could imagine that miniature beside my other miniatures in the cabinet. Full of doubts I returned to my known colours and tried a silver armour for the Cold One. But now I saw and recognized what Goatman had said. The armour in gold was needed to get contrast from the scales. It was obvious that this did not work and I painted the whole stuff over, and started with Goatmans suggestions, with exception of green reflection in the rider’s armour. 

I had started with the Cold Ones armour. First everything was primed with Snakebite Leather which was then highlighted with Golden Yellow and Bleached Bone. For the red golden colour of the spikes I used Blood Red which I put carefully on the Snakebite Leather in several thin layers. This had been the only procedure different from the other golden parts. The next step had been the Cold Ones saddle which was designed in a shape of a demon skull. Therefore, I decided to use bone colours and painted it in exactly the same way like claws and teeth of the Cold One. Additionally, the demons horns were painted with the same purple colours I used  for the warts.

Unfortunately, I have no WIPs showing the different steps. Instead here some side views of the finished miniature as reference

 

Now it was time to paint the riders skin. There was need for a dark skin tone because armour, hair and clothes were all planed in very light colours. The idea was some kind of Drow style, but with blue highlights instead the usual brown tones which can be frequently seen. Therefore, the black priming was painted again with Chaos Black. Then highlights were added by using Deadly Nightshade, Enchanted Blue and Lightning Blue as well as some Space Wolfs Grey for the lights. Finally, I used very thinned Deadly Nightshade as a glaze to adjust the darkness of the miniatures skin tone. The result looked very bluish which gave this lady the nike name: Smurfette And I have to admit that I needed some time to get used to it.

Next on my to do list was the Silver NMM. I had to say that my early NMM was of a very light style without much contrast. This was typically at that time and refelcted the style introduced by the Rackham studio artists. Today, I would paint this with much more contrast and consequently a lighter skin tone would be no problem. But the time and my skill set was different. At that time, I used Shadow Grey as a base colour and added highlights with Codex Grey and Fortress Grey. The light reflections were placed finally with pure Skull White. Here I used the same technique which I described already by the gold colour. Looking today at the miniature I know why Goatman proposed the green reflections. With the greens the whole miniature would look much more harmonic. With the bluish version in the less contrast style the result goes more into a comic direction.

After a lot of grey colours it was time for something different. I painted the purple elements of the miniature consisting of the drapery on the arm, and the hair-band. I used the same colours which I already used painting other purple elements. I decided to paint the boots and the hair in white which was inspired by the rest of my Dark Elves army. For that I primed everything in Codex Grey and highlighted it in many layers with Skull White. Now there was only some detail work to do. I painted sword, chains, and earring in the same NMM colours described ealier. The last thing to do was the eyes, which I painted very carefully in the holes in the helmet.

 

Basing

View on the base and showbase

At that time point I used Moltofil for creating my bases. To give the surface its pointy structure, I used a toothpick and poked around in the slightly dried mass. I placed some skulls on it and fixed the Cold One on the base. After everything had been dried I put thinned PVA glue on it to make the whole structure more stable. Then the whole base was primed black. First the skulls were painted in bone colours as discribed earlier. The ground was painted using layers from dark to light in the following sequence: Scorched Brown, Bestial Brown, Snakebite Leather, Bubonic Brown and Bleached Bone. The stone spikes were painted using the following colours in this sequence: Codex Grey, Fortress Grey, Skull White (only edges). Finally, the brown ground was decorated with Staticgras. 

For the Showbase I created a frame to hold the miniture base using coffee sticks from a know fast food restaurant. The surface was then created directly on top of the socket and around the frame using the same techniques as used for the miniature base. In additional I used toothpicks and coffee sticks, partly modified with skulls as decorative elements. These wooden elements were dry brushed with several blue colours to link the base to the miniature. For that I used the following colours in the sequence: Enchanted Blue, Lightning Blue, Space Wolfs Grey.

Pennants

I remember that I was very impressed when having the miniature finished on my workbench. This was so totaly different from everything I had painted before. But I thought there is need to push it further to the limit. For that I wanted to add pennants to the shoulder armour of the Rider which I wanted to use to show some Freehand / Finelining skills. The pennants were created using paper and painted in the same purple tones as used on the miniature itself. I painted a small horizontal colour transition from light purple to dark purple on them and inscribed them with small white runes. I fixed the pennants with small skull seals I made from Greenstuff using a skull stamp. The latter were painted in gold NMM to contrast from the pennants and the silver armour.   

Final pictures

The pictures you see below are newly taken ons of this nearly 20 years old miniature. Beside some repair work I had to do two times the miniature is unchanged and still in a very good condition. But see by yourself

The contest and final remarks

While it took months to create my entry for the Golden Demon contest the day istself passed in a rush. I drove to cologne early in the morning by car and met with my fellow student Alex and some of his Nerd-Friends who got there by train. It was my third Games Day and Golden Demon contest so the whole event wasn´t new to me. We tried to get into the vanue early and checked the limited and new stuff which was sold exclusively or some months in advance, respectively. Here I bought a Slaanesh Lord riding a Steed of Slaanesh (which will get his own story in this series). We met some other friends who we knew from the forums and discussed painting techniques and miniatures. Then we checked the studio area and the Gaming Tables. Around noon we left for dinner to a well known fast food resaurant, visited the cathedral and the river Rhine waterfront. We get back in the afternoon to the venue were I checked my competitors and calculated my chances. My miniature was missing in the cabinet, probably for taking pictures. I strolled away and thought that could probably become a good day. A couple of minutes later I was informed that a judge damaged a minature by let it fall on the floor. A couple of minutes later it was clear that it was my miniature.

I visited the cabinets and judges to see what was left of my entry. There I get a lot of excuses by the Judge who was responsible for that accident... ironically it was the Slayer Sword winner from the year before. I feared for the worst! But beside a ripped chain rein and some spalling paint on the sword the miniatures had survived its fall very well. Looks like this angry lady is far beyond toughness 3 which gets her later the titel Druchii Anointed.

 Here you can see my younger Me receiving my first trophy and shortly after between the winners on the stage

After that shock was digested we assembled in the great hall for the award ceremony. As always it was thrilling when they name the winners of the categories you had entires in. I also knew the disappointing feeling when your name was not called. Third place.... other name, second place other name, first place.... Georg Damm! There was it. The moment I had waited for since three years taking part in this competition. I was more than happy and the anger because of my broken miniature was vanished. We celebrated the other winners on the stage before we prepared to leave to celebrate even more in the pubs. It was a hot summer day and there was much to celebrate on this day. 

The Nerds of 2003, from left: Alex, Wolfgang, Little Dwarf, Darkness,
Mr I can´t remember and myself sitting in front with my trophy

Looking back this was a very exciting time. There was so much change in all areas of my life. There was the beginning of a new direction in my studies, I did a lot of sports and had lost some weight and also a couple of weeks earlier I met my new girl friend at that time. Now there was this big success in painting. I learned a lot during this project and there was much development in my skills at that point. I think the the crucial part was to let go from my routine and hear to the teachings of Sascha. It was his influence who made this project finally successful. His fresh ideas pulled me out of my comfort zone and changed my persepctive. The result was a success and the best I had created so far. But most of it was not from me, it was Saschas creativity which I painted on my miniature. Until today I see the mixture of styles in this angry lady. It was about time to develop my own unique style. 

 

I enjoyed a lot writing this article. It was a travel into the past digging through my old hard drives looking for articles and pictures. Finding all that old stuff and some of my olf memories this article has become highly detailed and much longer than I initially thought. Some days I felt like an archaeologist and I took more time for sorting tons of digital pictures in folders. It was a joy to see all the people who accompanied me on this jouney. Some of them I have still contact to others vanished in the sands of time. Perhaps some of them will read these article. I hope you enjoyed them. 

As always I would be happy to read your thoughts in the comments. Stay tuned for further articles of the Golden Demon series.

 

Kind Regards,

GeOrc