Dark Elves Sorceress riding Dark Pegasus - Part 1

 Dark Elves Sorceress riding Dark Pegasus

It is the third time I am starting this posting and it´s a bit funny that the first miniature I write about in 2021 is the first I painted in 2020. That all is a bit representative for a curse lying on this miniature and indeed we have a very special relationship. But let´s go back to the start, lets go back into the into the year 1999. The loyal blog readers already know that I started late in the 5th Edition with the Warhammer Hobby with this Dark Elves army. The Bestiary of the 5th Edition I got from some school friends was the thing who catched me back in the day. Here the Sorceress riding Dark Pegasus decorated the army shot and the Dark Elves entry. Unfortunately, her box was already discontinued and the miniature was Mail Order only. She was one of the few things I was able to order when trying to complete the range the official way. I was more than happy to have her in my hands and painted her as good as my 20 year old self was able to achive. I painted her close to the studio paint job and was very happy with the final result. Definatly, not good enough in her eyes and her curse was sure.

 

I dug deep in my picture vault and found these two shots from my old website. That´s all what´s left from this ancient shame.

Back in the day I used some vanish to seal my painted miniatures and I made that embarassing mistake to take the can with chaos black instead of the vanish. I noticed it at once, but it was already to late. A multitude of fine black droplets covered a big part of the miniature. I was not much and I decided to life with it. But that fault never let me go. Years later in the mid of the 6th Edition, I stripped off the colour and tried to convert the Sorceress into a contemporary miniature using the Pegasus but replacing the most of the Sorceress by a Dark Eldar Sucubus. A conversion which was never finished and her parts always remembered me her story and that shame. Long before I started the repainting of my 4th Edition Dark Elves Army I had bought a second copy of her to erase that shame from my collection. Again she had to wait. When finally starting this project she was one of the first minatures I had on my workbench and which I started to prepare. It was about time to get her all the love she deserves. But having waited that long, she wanted it to be perfect! The perfect base, the perfect painting, the perfect banner and finally the perfect pictures! Read now the detailed story of my curse to make her perfect.

 

History of the Sorceress

Eavy Metal site of The Sorceress

I am known to do always a lot of research for the here presented old- and middlehammer miniatures. However, for the Sorceress, there is not much that I was able to find out. The Sorceress was designed late in the release schedule. That late, that she missed a display shot in the Armybook. That fit to the working procedure of Marauder Miniatures and Aly as he always designed the Core Troopers first and the Characters later. The Sorceress was then released in October 1995 beside the Dark Elf General on Cold One and the Repeater Bolt Thrower, all presented in the White Dwarf #190. She got an awesome shot together with her Dark Elves Army fighting the Undead presented on the back of the Cover page. Additionally, she got her own Eavy Metal page showing her in all her glory and with a print of her back Banner. The design followed the typical Dark Elves look of the range with big hair, an impressive backrest and a big Banner. Her design shares a lot of similarities with the Morathi description and also used some details of her artwork. Therefore, it was rumored if she was planned to reflect this character. But beside other special characters she never get that titel written on her box showing that even if Games Workshop intended to do a Morathi miniature they decieded to go with a generic Sorceress riding a Dark Pegasus. Probably Alys design was to far off from Mark Gibbons iconic design which is one of the most impressive ones from the Amrybook and cemented her look for an era.

      

Backsite of the Cover from White Dward #190

Preparation of the miniature

I started by carefully cleaning all parts. As always on mounted miniatures keep the rider parts seperated from each other and from the beast itself. The pegasus I glued together. All bigger beasts of this age needed a lot of intensive care by gap filling and resculpting some loss of details which oftern occures when separating the miniatures for the molding process. Therefore, I spent a lot of time to built the Pegasus and to repair everything properly. Because the pose and wing position cover a lot of the impressive beast when fixed directly on a base I decided to place the miniature on a higher position. For that I get a High Elves obelisc from the Sky Cutter set and tried to position the miniature as close to the edge as possible. I wanted it looking like the Pagasus just jump off into the flight. The whole miniature is very heavy and required to fill the obelisc with steel balls to get some counter weight. Additionally, the bottome of 40 mm Base itself was undermined and a steel disc was added. It is balanced that perfectly that it has to stand on totally even ground otherwise it fell off. The adding of the banner pole finally added the necessary weight to stabilize it properly. Here you can see the final miniature before starting the painting:

 

 Painting the Sorceress

 The original studio painting of the miniature was done by Stuart Thomas and the banner by Neil Hodgson. Stuart did an incredible job on this complex miniature to make the Sorceress an army centerpiece. His work is a great source of inspiration and there is not much that I would make different. Transfering his work into a contemporary paintjob would require to get rid of some colours on the backrest and Pegausu which make the project to colourful. The colour choice of the Sorceress itself is timeless and I decided to copy that very close to the original. Because of the backrest the miniature was painted in two pieces but both in parallel. I started this project during a painting weekend  at Mr. Dorns Mansion in Dresden. It was a funny weekend with a lot of good food, some beers and of course miniature hobby. The painted the daytimes and played games in the evenings. The miniature itself made me enthusiastic and the guys pushed me further so I had much progress after these two days.

The first steps of painting on the Sorceress

 

I started with my usual skin tone and with the basic colours for the clothes. Here I used also Liche Purple as base but used a plain version with modification of glazes with Warlock Purple. For the bluish grey I used the old Shadow Grey which is much more saturated and a bit darker is the Russ Grey. Both worked perfectly to copy Stuarts style. It was a joy to see his beautiful colour scheme with some natural light distribution. I moved further and added the NMM parts for the backrest and the sword. Finally I was able to add some colour to details like gems and hair on this weekend. I decided to go with red gems only to stay in my usual army colours. The hair was painted plain white without colour nuances as the Witch Elves wear them. When we parted on Sunday the miniature showed already in which direction this project would go and I was very happy with the result. The monday after I was able to smooth some blendings and add more colours to the details. The sword was painted as her studio reference as a normal one but with some additional reflections. I looked forward to marry both parts and continue the work on one piece.    

The Sorceress after two days of painting at the hobby weekend in Dresden

 

Monday night, after 3 days of painting I was already able to join the parts. It required a further painting session to finish her and paint the back of the backrest. The result looked already very stunning and I had to share some first picture in the social media.

The Sorceress after 3 days of painting.

Painting the Pegasus

Painting the Sorceress worked very well. The hobby weekend in Dresden was very good to focus on her and I rushed through the painting. Because of the fast progress I was highly motivated to finish the whole miniature before mid of February, because the meeting with Aly was already planned and I wanted to surprise him with something very big. Therefore, I quickly moved on and started the work on the Pegasus.

The Pegasus ready for some colour

I started the painting with the body of the horse. I did this similar to the my painting of the Dark Horses from the Dark Riders using Russ Grey as basis for my highlights. Because I wanted it less colourful than Stuarts version I replaced the green scales by purple ones to stay closeer to an overall dark cold look. For the membranes I used my typical leather receipt which is a cold skin tone. It based on Tallarn Flesh (Foundation Colour) which gets shaed with Scorched Brown and highlighted with Bleached Bone (1:1 Mix of Ushabti Bone:Screaming Skull with a tiny bit of Golden Yellow). Finally, the whole leather here membran surfaces were washed with a glaze of Liche Purple. I used a lighter version of this receipt for the top and a darker version for the bottom of the membranes, respectively. The colours worked fantastically together and I was very happy with the result.

 

 

 First Colour tests on the Pegasus

After havin successfully tested all colours the diligence work started. There was need to paint the bottom sides of the membrane and on more wing. Also the second side of the Pegasus wanted some colour. I had a lot of fun with the scales and the hair from mane and tail because the highlights were a welcome variation to the moronic blending of the membranes.

 

After two weeks and several painting sessions all areas were processes and the main work was done 

Even if the membranes were a terrible work their great appearance always kept me motivated to continue painting them. When the work gets to boring I added some colours to the details and painted the face, eyes, horns and hooves. For the latter I based the colour on Graveyard Earth to contrast them from the main colours of the Pegasus.

I love that top view on the wings and I am more than happy with light on the wings

Now only the base was missing. It was only two days before the Tactica Event ind Hamburg and going off to meet Aly. I remember that everything now paced very fast. I hade some days vacation in front of the Tactica Event and used the time to finish the miniature. My wife was already off to visit my parents in law. So there was plenty of Hobby time to finish this project and pack my luggage. Therefore, I have not much work in progress pictures. I took these after glueing the Pegasus on the finished base.

Finished Base with fixed Pegasus. Finally, it holds without the weight of the Sorceress

 

Final Pictures

The main miniature was finished Friday night. I was not able to do the banner pole and the banner in that time and I knew this would cost me some further weeks of hard work. However, The main parts were finished and just in time before I would left the next day into direction Hamburg. I took the time to make some final pictures before she disappeared with the rest of my stuff I would show Aly in my transport box.

 

I hope you enjoyed this project so far. I really rushed through painting her and she was done in 3 weeks only. At this point I did not know that being able to finish her would need a whole year. For the moment I was lucky and it was a pleasure to show this big miniature to Aly. He liked her a lot and his positive feedback was a great honor. She also get a lot of positive reactions from the Oldhammer and Middlehammer Community. Especially, the positive Feedback from Stuart wasa joy to read. All that was motivation to move on with the banner pole and banner but it should come otherwiese.

 
Stay tuned for part two which is all about banner design and Freehand painting.

As always I would be happy to read your thoughts in the comments.

Kind Regards,

GeOrc

The Talisman Sorceress

Dark Elf Sorceress, painted 08.2019

My Instagram Followers surely have noticed that there is a new girl in town. And yes, a new Hero strengthen my Dark Elf force. I painted this Sorceress already in late August, but spare time was rare the last months so that I was not able to write a proper article about her. Time to change that.
Just like the Talisman Witch Elf, this Sorceress from the same Games Workshop Board Game is a very special miniature for me. Together with some other Dark Elf representives she decorated the first Eavy Metal site in the 4th Edition Armybook. Immediatly, I fell in love with this girl! I started stalking her but no retailer was able to help me to get in touch with her. Desperately, I called the UK Mail Order Trolls and they told me she´s out of town... no chance to date her. It was 1998, long before Ebay and second hand market places where you can meet these kind of girls today. I was very sad. All what I had were some glossy magazine pictures. But, I didn´t give up. I asked friends and other players and then in the year 2000, friends called me to say that they have seen her. The Sorceress was back... and my friends reacted quickly and arranged a blind date. And, yes, a couple of weeks later we both met on my workbench! Finally a Happy End!


The Sorceress Miniature

Dark Elf Armybook Cover

The Sorceress is like her Witch Elf sister a plastic miniature. Both miniatures were designed by Michael Perry in reference to some concept art by David Gallagher. Davids concept later becomes the Dark Elf Armybook cover presenting these early miniatures. David says about his artwork:

 "I can’t actually remember too much about this cover other than it was at the start of a process that refined the imagery, not just the figures either, at this stage I was beginning to look at the whole range of box and book packaging and how random it was, just starting to refine a whole range rather than individual items was surprisingly difficult at the time."

Therefore, the cover figures show the new design direction the new Dark Elf miniature range would develop. However, these plastic miniatures were released as part of the Talisman Board Game Expansions. Read more about the Witch Elf Champion figure here. The Sorceress was part of the Dragons Tower Expansion released in June 1995. Here, she was also available as a free miniature with White Dwarf #186. All Talisman and Warhammer Quest plastics were released a second time in the late 90s or early 2000 in so called Toy Boxes. The release of these boxes allowed me to buy and own these fantastic miniatures. Thank to these boxes, these old plastics are more common these day. Back to the mid 90s! The Sorceress had her first appearance in White Dwarf #186 as part of the Eavy Metal site presenting all plastic Wizards which were available as give away. This version was painted by Stuart Thomas and reflected closely the 4th Edition Armybook Cover. Her next appearance was then in the 4th Edition Dark Elf Armybook released in July 1995. This Version was painted by Paul Muller.

                                    The Talisman Dark Elf Sorceress painted by Stuat Thomas (left) and by Paul Muller (right)


Painting the plastic Sorceress

I bought the Sorceress as a painted second hand miniature on Ebay. The miniature was badly painted without primer. It took a lot of work to strip the old paint using Revell Airbrush Cleaner. Finally I used a toothpick to pick out the old rubber like colour from the depths of the miniature. Luckily, the miniature didn´t get damaged which can happen easily when the plastic miniature is for a to long in contact with your cleaner. Because the Sorceress miniatures appear a bit smaller compared to her metal collegues I put her on a ruined obelisk. This obelisk is a gipsum casting of a high elf terrain plastic bit. The based miniature was primed with two component priming and then was ready for painting. For that, I had in mind that I wanted the Sorceress on Pegasus and this lady here will share much similarities. Therefore, I decieded to go with Paul Mullers reference for painting my own but with some minor changes. I pushed the purple more into my way of painting purple and also I skiped the coloured hair as both Sorcerersses should have white hair.  In the following I will describe some crucial steps in detail. As you can see on the work-in-progress pictures I skipped some steps in the descriptions.

The skin
The skin was painted first using my established light skin colour scheme. In brief, I primed the surface with Bleached Bone (Ushabti Bone, Screaming Skull, tiny bit of Golden Yellow). This base colour was darkend by adding different amounts of Shading mix (Abbadon Black and some Incubi Darkness) resulting in two colours I used for shading. Then I added highlights with white (here Hobby line White). Light and shadows were painted in reference to an imaginary zenital light source. After the colour transistions were finished I Used Warlock Purple (magenta tone) and then liche purple as glaze to add some colour. Improtant to pull the colours from the light areas to the shadow areas
 

Clothes
Here, I used my typical cloth colours described already in detail in my Exectutions posting. What I want to add here is that I painted different textures. While I wanted a fine fabric for her loincloth I wanted a more rough fabric for her cloak. I started for both by adding the basic colours and the shading. Then it started to get in different directions. While I painted the highlights on the loincloth in a classic way I painted the highlights on the cloak with very fine short lines in horizontal direction. These lines give the whole thing the textured look I wanted. I had a lot of fun trying this. Looking at the result I had hoped will look a bit more explicit but it is a good direction. I 
will definitly try out more with textures in future.

The sword
I always like the red-orange sword Paul painted on his version and I definatly wanted to copy this great eyecatcher. In contrast to Paul I painted mine with reflections typical for NMM. I added Mephiston Red as basic colour. For all further red toned I used my classic mix of Red Gore and Dark Flesh. There was need to mix some further colours. First a yellow. Here I wanted a desaturated light Yellow and mixed Golden Yellow with Bleached Bone. Then I needed an Orange which I mixed from the before described Red Tone with that Yellow Tone. For the shading I used Scorched Brown. As always when painting NMM I add some first contrast by lightening the basic colour with that Orange Tone and shading with Scorched Brown. Then I maximized the contrast by using the Yellow Tone and Black (here Vallejo Air Black). For softening the colour transistions to the base colour I used the mixed red tone. Finally I used some Bleached Bone and partly some white for reflections and the edge highlights.

Object source lighning (OSL)
To balance the eyecatching sword I added some OSL to her right hand. T he effect should look like a spell comparable to the one in the artwork from David Gallagher. Therefore, I painted the hand in bluish tones using Lightning Blue and Regal Blue. For that I defined a center on her hand where the origin centers. Then I added shades in different intensities with growing distance. To make this really looking an OSL there is need for some bluish reflections in close distance on the surounding areas. The picture reflects this only as a first sketch. I maximized this effect in the end, therefore you have to check the final pictures to see the effect working. 

The Base
The base was painted in my typical colours for High Elf ruins. In brief, I primed the obelisk with Screaming Skull and the debris in Steel Legion Drab. Then the obelisk was shaded with Steel Legion Drab and highlighted with White. The debris was shaded with Scorched Brown and with the Shading Mix. Then, the debris was drybrushed with Steel Legion Drab, Screaming Skull and white. The gem was painted with the before mentioned Red Mix. I used this Red Mix and made lighter colour mixtures by adding Dwarf Flesh. Using these mixtures and pure Dark Flesh I highlighted the gem to the bottom. Then I used the Shading Mix for shading the gem to the top. If you take a close look you will see, that the transition is positioned in a diagonal way. Finally I add a white reflection spot into the dark top area and a white cuvature at the lightest spot at the bottom. I added some ready to use grass from Mininatur. The ear was made with a brush hair dipped into glue and then in beige pigment. Then the ear was glued into the gras.

Freehands
I added some freehands on the inside and outside of the cloak. For the inside I painted small gold runes on the bottom and added a bottom line. I used the Urial Poisenblade artwork from David Gallagher as reference for the scripture. For the outside I wanted something simple due to the fact that the drapery is very tight. A tight drapery results in a lot of offset and hided areas. This makes it hard to work with bigger symbols. Therefore, I decided to do some linework. I wanted to paint coiled snakes into the corners. I made a sketch and tried to bring this onto the cloak. It is not my best freehand work and I am not that happy with the result. However, I decided to go with the result, as I had not the patience to start again on this difficult surface.
 


The finished Miniature

Here you can see the finished Sorceress:

I am very happy how she turned out. I really enjoyed to paint all the small details, which Michael Perry was able to realize from Davids Artwork, namley the crest with its little skull, the arm decoration, all the small jewelry on her cloth and in her hair. I like how the sword and the competing spell turned out. But, I am not so happy with her backview and the Freehand work on the cloak. However, she is a beautiful miniature and the best I have painted so far.

Talisman Dark Elf Sorceress miniatures I have painted so far, 1999 (left); 2000 (centre) and 2019 (right)

After 20 years we have met again and she is still a beauty and aged very well. I hope you enjoyed reading. Let me know your stories of this awesome miniature or let me know what you think about mine.

Kind Regards,
GeOrc

The General,

released in October 1995, the Dark Elf General on Cold One was one of the last miniatures seeing the light of the day of the 4th Edition Dark Elves release. Dark Elf collectors get a first sight of this chap in the Dark Elves Armybook as part of Kurl Vraneths Raiders, an exemplary army supported by pictures of unpainted miniatures. After its release in White Dwarf (WD) #190 he get further appearances WD #191 in an army shot fighting Dwarfs and in WD #192 and WD #193 leading the Dark Elves army of Jake Thornton in a campaign titeled RAID. In the 5th Edition he reappeared again during the High Elves release in WD #210 leading the Dark Elves against their hated cousins in an army shot decorating the back cover. During the Tears of Isha campaign in April 1998 he decorated the index pages refering to a Warhammer Battle Report were he loosed against a Chaos Army. In shame of this battle or as a reaction to the 6th Edition Dark Elves release he disappeared. Now he is back and celebrates his comeback 20 years later on these pages.
    



The miniature

The miniature was sculptured by Trish Carden and Aly Morrison. Trish was responsible for the basic Cold One parts released earlier in 1995. The final Cold One is a conversion created by Aly Morrison mixing parts of the running and standing Cold One versions which was then heavily armored. The Cold One head based on the head with the horn ridge which get an impressive helmet. The tail was a free choice of the four existing tails but most blisters contained the version with two lateral spikes.
Aly also sculptured the rider. While the leg part was newly created, the torso based on one of the Cold One Knights torsos. The head get a skull like design reflecting the skull iconography of the entire Dark Elves release. In contrast to the Champion of the Cold One Knights, Aly decided to give his General a lance and to put a second lance on the back rest of his saddle. Taken together this miniature was an awesome sight and a worthy leader of many Dark Elves forces.

The studio paint job,
    

Studio paintjob by Stuart Thomas

is a bit disappointing. The colour scheme based mainly on bluish and red colours. Therefore, the colour scheme remembers a bit the studio painting of Rakarth on his Black Dragon. However, in relation to the other Cold One Knights, the choice of colors look a bit strange. Especially the reds are a bit outstanding here. Red always draw a lot of attention but in this case on the wrong parts of the model. Consequently, a lot of interessting details get lost, e.g. armour, clothes and the saddle. Additionally, the metals look very flat and the gems are painted in dark and cold colors, not able to challenge these red eyecatchers. Therefore, the dull overall appearance didn´t flatter this very detailed miniature. Regarding the Cold One Knights, the painting make him standing out of a unit but also he loose a bit his connection to the other Knights. The unique shield design supports this impression. While the banner symbol can be spotted in simpler version on some of the shield and lance pennants the red of the shield and the winged skull didn´t appear again in the Dark Elves army. While I like the idea of give the General a more unique appearance I would have prefered to keep him more in line with the rest of the Cold One Knights and the Dark Elves army. These findings motivated me, when planning the paint job of the General as well as of the rest of the Cold One Knights.



A contemporary painting

Even if I am not a big fan of the classic studio painting I decieded to paint my General in a similar way and try to improve where necessary to get the best out of this chap. I really liked the idea of the bluish Cold One as I interpreted the colour shift from green to bluish with a higher age. I droped the blue colours and replaced them by the classic purple as I wanted to reduce the whole army look to a less colourful scheme compared to the studio painting. The thing I most disliked were the red claws and horns. Even if I like some red and used it as a preferd detail colour, the red claws and horns didn´t make any sense in my opinion. Therefore, I used more brown and bonish tones. The most difficult question was if I would to go with the studios shield and banner designs. Both were a bit cartoony but typical elements of their time. I thought a lot how I could improve these designs to fit into a more contemporary painting style. Final question, what kind of base should I use. It was clear that this mini has to stand out from all others and therefore stand on higher ground. Since a long time I was a fan of the broken obelisk from the High Elf Princes Set. Therefore, I produced a copy of this bit in gypsum and placed it in my knwon High Elf ruins setting. So far the plan... lets take a walk through the process:
   


The armored Cold One
I started my own paintjob of this miniature with the Cold One in the beginning of January. I already painted a dark green version of a Cold One based on Incubi Darkness lighted with Bleached Bone. To shift this colour more into a bluish tone I added Regal Blue. This mix I used as a basic colour on the skin. I shaded the skin with a thinned mix of Abbadon Black with a tiny bit of Incubi Darknes. For the highlights and the light belly I used Bleached Bone. The scales I painted with Incubi Darkness Shaded to the top with Model Air Black and lighted them to the bottom with Bleached Bone. After I basic Cold One was painted I quickly started to paint the armour. I used the same NMM silver and gold as described by my Dark Elves Champion. I reduced the gold share to some details only as the General itself will become the shiny guy on top. I added purple to the saddle and the inner side of the chainmail and red to the gems all over the armour. Mouth and teeth were painted similar to my other Cold Ones. Claws and horns were painted with my usual Bleached Bone tones highlighted to white and shaded with Graveyaed Earth and the shading mix consisting of Abbadon Black with a tiny bit of Incubi Darkness. To reflect the older age I added some layers of Scorched brown in the shadows shifting the whole look more into the brownish tones. 

The General
For painting the General itself I used established colour shemes and light situations similar developed by painting my Dark Elf Champions on foot and on Cold One. Some features here are the helmet, the lance and his shield. Taking a closer look at his helmet it becomes clear that Aly Morrison sculptured this helmet in reference to the skull designs by the illustrations of Wayne England. Therefore, I choose a light situation and reflectios which support the skull like appearance. The center I painted very bright to give the skull appearance a white look. For the top and the spikes I used a lot of gold to draw the attention of the miniature to this part of the figure. In combination with the red from the gem the helmet draw a lot of attention and become a good eyecatcher. The lances I painted in my typical weapon NMM. While in most cases before I restricted the refelctions to bluish colors. Here I used also brownish glaces for the bottom part of his handheld lance. The brownish tones stand for the earth reflections and together with the bluish heavon reflections they create a much better environmental reflection situation on this miniature. Another eyecatching reflection situation is the big red gem on the bottom of his handheld lance. I decieded to paint this ball with classic spheric
reflecions consisting of two color transitions from dark to light seperated by a curved horizon line. Painting these color transitions need a lot of patience and repetitions to get them smooth. Even if this is hard to achive on a spheric object the result is worth all the pain and tears while painting on this detail. Same is true for the cylincric reflections on the lance poles. Even if these lances look discreet compared to other parts, their simply painting contain a lot of effort and work. Final detail I want to say some word about is the shield. I thought very long about its design because I had not a good feeling for the studio painting. On one hand I liked its unique design compared to the more uniform Knights shield on the other hand I missed the link to the Knights shields. I started with copying the skull design from the knights. For the wings I experimented with the colored illustrations from the armybook. I tested a lot with wings and the skull in different sizes using photoshop. Finally, there was need to morph the wings in a way filling most of the shield and to size down the skull as much to fit between the wings. Then printed the final design and transfered it on the shild using a mask (check my tutorial for a more detail description).  
 

Shield Design from Artwork to mask to final Painting

Banner and banner pole
Some last words on the about the banner. This was the most annoying part of the miniature. I thought a lot about a general banner strategy, when starting this Dark Elves army. 20 year ago I created paper banner as everyone else. As time goes by and the miniatures developed further more and more plastic banners appeard. When you were forced to create a banner by your own using plastic card or polysterene sheet was closer on the plastic banners of the rest of your army. Therefore, I initially thought about using plastic card. I thought these banners would look much more qualitative like the paper ones. I experimented a lot and tried different painting techniques to apply the freehands. Make a long story short, in the end the plast card banner didn´t work. Perhaps I will discuss this topics and show my failings in an own aticle. I removed the plastic banner and painted the same again on paper. The paper banner was more flexible and I was able to add a better movement.

For the Freehands I choose the same symbols and design as the studio did more than 20 years ago. These were copied from an other banner from the shield and banner section from the armybook. I really liked the broken heart design. Its origin comes from the medusa of the army standard design. I have planned to use the broken heart design also on some shields and the army standard will tie later everything together. Further symbols contain the runes from the same banner I used the heart form. I put everything togehter in Photoshop, printed it on 100 g paper and primed it with some Valejo matt medium. In contrast to the studio I choose a puple background which fits better to the rest of the miniature. To transfer that design into a contemporary painting some modificatiosn were needed. As a modern paintjob contains a lot of painting a light situation into a miniature, the banner needs to be adapted to your light source as well. This requires a lot of colour transitions in the vertical axis but also in the banner folds. Something the light situation adds to your miniature are a lot of more details. Therefore, the simple banner design has to be adapted with some additional details to fit to the rest of the minture. Here, I used the dots from the printing for the texture of the cloth. As I always used a very thin painting, the dots from the print were slightly visible until the end. Additionally, I added further details with a gold frame and some damage. I put everything togehter and corrected the movement of the pennant a bit.

I hope you like the final result. Let me know what you think and share your thoughts in comments.
Kind Regards,
GeOrc