Company of Villains

During the last two months I was part of an awesome project. It was an Instagram collaboration of different artists and it was called 'Company of Hobbyists'. The rules were as the following: Team up and create a fantasy styled warband with a common theme. This should include lore and same bases to get a coherent appearence. Deadline was set to the end of September. I was invited by Chris, a.k.a. the k03rnl and teamed up with requiem_82, tooth_in_layer and Mr. Golden-Demon winner Seyni. It was a blast and it was so much fun working with these amazing and talented guys. A complete different feeling than my usual lone-wolf-hobbying.

The first thing was picking a theme. Basicly we agreed on a group of villians in a snow inviroment. I instantly started writing a little introduction lore:
"After a long exhausting journey the group of strangers reaches their destination. They suffered cold winds, snow and many fights. Their cold feets brought them trough houndred miles of snow, over the black mountains, hostile territories and countless deadly dangers. And now, the last four survivors are facing the ancient ruins of Khart C'onz. Grouped by fate to form a fragile alliance to achieve their personal goals. No trust, no loyalties, just the desire of power. They are servants of shadow kingdoms and even darker places. Legends were told about a strange and mighty artefact, that once gave the old, dead kings of Khart C'onz the power to conquer these lands and retain their throne over generations. It seems they have prooven the legend's truth. But the artefact will only belong to the darkest and strongest soul in the end. And it will only belong to the choosen one."

Next stage was picking the characters. Everbody was free to choose a charcter and the result was a bunch of individual villains: The Frozen King, a Fallen Knight, an Assassin, a Priestess and a Beast. They all should appear in winter gear to fit the lore.We started rather late and had a few weeks to finish this project. I choose a sneaky, female Assassin and started to kitbash something. 

The Basemodel was created with the torso of a Khinerai and the lower half of a GSC Magos. The head is from a Wildwood Ranger. To add more cold weather gear I added a cape from one of the new Warcry models and extended it with green stuff. The Sword on her back is from a chaos sorcerer.
The pose turned out as dynamic as I wanted and I could start to add some smaller bits to complete this build.

Requiem_82 came up with the idea that the bases should be created by one person to get the most coherent appearence as possible. I volunteered for this task and was really looking forward to work with 'snow' for the first time. It was a bit of gambling, because I couldn't check if the models will fit. But with some reference pictures I tried my luck.

Cork was used to give each one the opportunity of easy pinning their models. I also placed some skulls and used sand and Vallejo texture paints to create the surface. I also placed a small piece of fooliage. Watered down PVA was used to achieve a heavy resiliant bond of the materials. After drying they were primed black and I started to bring in some colours. I started with base colours and some layers of drybrush. Then I used a wash that I created with Agrax Earthshade, Nuln oil and the new contrast medium. And again some more drybrushing. To finish this step I used different pigments.

To push this further I placed some moss (PVA, water, flock and pigments), a reddish plant (painted seafoam and Noch leaves) and started with some snow. The first layer of snow was Valhallan Blizzard. But I wasn't sure to achieved the desired result and mixed the snow with AK's ultra matte varnish on my palette. This gave me the look I was thinking of and also made it way easier to place.

After three layers this was finished and I airbrushed a layer of AK's ultra matte varnish and was very pleased with the result.

I packed and shipped the bases and crossed my fingers that they would fit the other's models and would arrive just in time. And they did, after some (a lot) trouble with the delivery company, creating and shipping a new one, etc.

The Murder Priestess by requiem_82

 The Fallen Knight by Chris

The Frozen King by Seyni

 The Unleashed Beast by tooth_in_layer

The Shaodw Assassin by myself

This was a very successful project and I learned a lot from these guys. I think this is one of my best painted minis so far. Hopefully we will do this another time. To finish this post following some more pictures of my own model.

Thank you very much for your visit. Feel welcome to comment and stay tuned! 

Shadow of the Wildlands

The Arq'Muther told the tribe's youngbloods the legend of the Haunting Shadow, before they go on their first lonely hunt in the Wildlands. There are many serious dangers on Namorra Prime and some will wear your skin and eat your soul. Only a few lucky tribesmen, who survived those nightmares, could told their story and warn the others.

Hi everyone! I've finished my first NPC Monster for the upcoming Namorra Prime campaign. My Herald of Slaanesh was selected for this role and this was the perfect opportunity to finish this model.

I wanted a really grim-dark colour scheme and discard my intention to use my recent slaanesh colour scheme. This is a fact I'm really happy about. I also implemented the recommandation of the Krautscientist, who suggested a slaanesh model with cloth made of skin. All colours are rather desaturated and the only colour highlight is found on the base.

Following a 360° view of the model.

Meanwhile I have collected a group of awesome hobbyists who will attend, contribute and support this event in many different ways. There are some very well known names. But I will talk about the event separately. And be sure, I'm really looking forward to share this with you! ;-)

Sadly my usual camera setup is not available at the moment, so I have to use my smartphone which is ok, but not as good as the Cybershot I've used before. Just saying, if you wonder about the different photo quality.

Thank you very much for your visit. Feel welcome to comment and stay tuned! 

WIP - Namorra Prime Tribe / Blood Priestess

I continued the work on my latest Warband. This Warband will be something like a tribe.
After the decay of Namorra Prime, a planet in the Ondroma System, the population was forced to find new ways of living. This resulted in self-declared kingdoms, clans, tribes, nomads, cults and marauders, besides a very few remaining imperial strongholds. I really like the idea of a ragtag tribe with a strong family-like bond, that has developed over decades in the wildlands. This warband will also include some kids, which are rarely represented in the 40K Universe, but logically a big part of it, in my opinion. My goal for this warband is a sinister, grim dark appearence with a post-apocalytic touch. I finished the witch / shaman, shown in my last post and really looking forward to paint her.

To represent the Shaman's connection to nature and her enviroment, I thought a familiar in form of a 'pet' would be neat. A beast that scours throu the wilderniss and is actually known to be a dangerous hunter. I've searched for inspiration in my 'bitz-box' and found the new Khorne Flesh Hounds. I converted one of them by removing the spiky crest and the spikes on the tail. A ring was added to the collar and afterwards I used Vallejo's Dark Earth Texture Paint to create a fur-like surface. A surprisingly easy and quick job, that could induce me to create a whole pack of these hunters.

Furthermore, I am creating a Blood Priestess for a Malal Chaos Cult. This is a single-model project and she won't be part of one of my warbands. It's my first commission work and and a new experience for me. Usually I don't do commissions, but in this case I can do what I'm used to do and give it a try. Following some pictures of the progress so far.
 

Thank you very much for your visit and stay tuned! As always, I'm looking forward to your feedback.