These were never really my favorite minis.
Initially there was something about their faces that reminded me of a terrible dark time in GW past (NAGASH)
The mono-pose huge wings were a nightmare to paint for me, with their curves accidentally catching the brush many times. Emergency wash the paint off happened way too often.
Morberg knights however are very much on my top cool minis list – especially after seeing Ph3lan’s Miniatures
I LOVE the story of the Flesh Eater Courts – delusional cannibal ghouls. Whats not to love?
To be able to play this army in Spearhead, I wanted to come up with a paint scheme – close to Ph3lan’s, but slightly different.
With this in mind, I decided to build and paint these Crypt Flayers from the Charnelgrand Jury. Despite the negatives above, they had lots of space on them to allow paint experimentation, and I wanted to get a plan in place before I started the valiant knights.
Paints:
I took Ph3lan’s advice and used a VERY dark blue (maybe too dark – Ph3lan uses a lighter blue/green) as a shadow color, and then went up to a light gray. I tried a new paint technique (for me) and added very thinned paint stripes as highlights. More of a crosshatch feel than blob of paint. I was trying to avoid blue skin at all costs, but that did not work….at all!
Gray/blue and a 2:1 water to Doomfire Magenta contrast paint wash looked great to me, and I’ve grown to REALLY like them.
I added a quick pic of paints used for reference in case anyone wants to know. As a warning: make sure to thin the magenta. It is a VERY pigment rich paint and will stain anything it touches.
- Airbrushed base: Vallejo black blue
- Zenethal: Administratum gray
- Layer: AK intermediate blue/english gray/rock gray
- Fur: DoomfireMagenta/Mornfang Brown/DrakenhoffNightshade
The faces have a Lord Of The Rings Uruk-Hai war-paint look with the striped highlights which take them away from the Nagash feel.
The gray/magenta look is striking on the tabletop, and despite these guys having blue skin, which I DIDNT want, the other units have more of a a toned down gray version, which to me, looks very (un)natural and fitting.
I’d also like to point out the featured delusional lollipop stick – masquerading as a gravestone. Makes me laugh knowing what it is every time I see it.
Looking forward to getting the rest of these painted and playing Spearhead. I have haven’t actually had a game yet, but I have heard its great fun.
I will add other minis to this post gallery as completed, but wanted to share what I have so far.
Camera:
Another change for me is using a real camera for the mini pics. I’m using my wife’s Canon Rebel XSI with an EF 50mm lens. There has been a learning curve involved, I was surprised that I had to pull the f-stop back from f1.4 (lowest) to f8.0 to allow for a bigger slice of whats in focus. I thought mini photography would be the smallest settings, but this wasn’t true in this case. Even now I feel as though it could have been more.
Any photography tips or cool mini paint combos, please let me know in the comments below
