Warriors of Order Sketchbook - Part 3

Reviving my Dark Eldar - Lord Havelock Dread-Hand

"I can taste it in the air, the sweet elixir of battle. Blood. Sweat. Fear. Pain. I drink it in through every pore of my skin and feast upon it with my hungry eyes. I live for the violence of our age; if only so that I can dance as a gore-drenched God amongst the stars revealing in my own murderous prowess."

Gladiator and assassin-for-hire, Havelock Dread-Hand was hired by Admiral Karzein Depravum shortly after the fall of Lethis on Lehron IV. Whilst Durizael was incapacitated, Karzein decided to flee to Kharcis Prime to escape the wrath of jealous Archons in the Dark City. The Admiral sent Havelock to Commoragh where he managed to retrieve most of the information stored by the Depravum in their Citadel as well as several relics which had not already been taken by looters. He bought them to the Fleshless Palace on Kharcis Prime and was rewarded with sponsorship from the Faceless Archon and the title of 'Lord' within his court.

This model happened a bit at random as I was taking apart some models I decided I no longer wanted in my army. The parts just fell together and after one quick mock-up later I decided this would be a perfect addition to the Scions of the Skin-Lord. Using nothing but his fists (albeit augmented with Hydra Gauntlets) Havelock relishes getting close and personal to the kill. His stance screams arrogance and also contemplation; as if he has just torn your guts out with his hands and is watching you writhe around on the floor dying.

In games I will be using him as a Succubus with Hydra Gauntlets, probably in smaller games when I don't want to field an Archon but want maximum killing power.

I was going to post my review of End Times: Thanquol this weekend but for various reasons I am yet to finish reading the book despite it sitting open on my desk permanently. I should however be able to get that review up next weekend as I have a far less busy week this week than last. I have been able to do some more painting though this week; Nagash is about half-way finished and I have done some converting with my elves but not much. All of this I should be able to get on the blog sometime near the end of the month. 

At the summit of the Doom-Spire

No light pierced the infinite darkness of the Doomspire as that lonely tower sailed across the aetheric waves of eternity. 

Deep in the gloom of uncountable horrors stirred hidden servants of the black prince; half-crawling, half-limping upon misshapen limbs they carried their ill-gotten prize through the archaic mazes of crumbling stone and cyclopean edifices towards their master. As they ascended the forbidden stair dull globes of witch-light illuminated their passage. The grey light, pale as a winters morning, caused the creatures to recoil, clawed hands were swiftly raised to yellowing eyes unused to all but the subtle glow of drauglin magic. Alas they carried on, each clack of their hooves upon the iron steps echoing into the infinite abyss around them, a sonorous and repetitive sound unhindered by nought else; for that which slept in the blackness cared not to wake and remained silent.

For forgotten eons they marched, never speaking nor turning back. Higher and higher they went with no sustenance or sound, only occasionally interrupted when one of their number fell from the stair; tumbling with a whisper into oblivion. Their trek of ages would be recorded by no man for there were no men, nay there was no such concept of time itself for the Doomspire floats on the currents of a dimension long forgotten by the scholars of Raxas Prime and never sensed by such primitive apes as those who inhabit that lonely rock Earth. Their journey took them to the highest point of that reality, a godforsaken place of twisted ruin and black fire where the powers of the old void conducted their unknowable affairs. 

To the chief of these beings did the creatures present themselves, cowering and mewling before his power. The masked figure of the Hand of Fate, the King of Destinies known to mortals as the Doombringer, did observe these most wretched of monsters who dared to come before him. Regarding them with eyes older than the universe he did take from them their prize; a small thing, nought but an image and a strand of text. He observed this tribute and with a knowing smile did free his servants from their pathetic existence as he began to fill the outer heavens with the sounds of his laughter.

The Hobbit - Thranduil, King of the Woodland Realm

For Christmas my brother bought me this excellent miniature which I consider to be one of the best models to come out of the Hobbit range GW have done. In fact I liked the mounted version of his model so much I have slightly converted it to use as my avatar/antagonist within some of the Dungeons and Dragons games I run. This model is beautifully sculpted and elegantly captures the elven king in all his martial glory wielding his duel blades, cloak whirling about him. 

Thranduil, King of the Woodland Realm

This model was a real joy and challenge to paint in order to get the metallic quality into his robes, this was of course helped immensely by the quality of the sculpt which had lots of folds and creases perfect for making contrasts which I, of course, have managed to photograph terribly.

The metallic red-orange colour on the inside of his cape was difficult to achieve but I think turned out rather well and I would like to try out again on some models in the future. I was thinking that it could work really well contrasted with blue armour trimmed with silver and gold, perhaps if I ever feel like resurrecting my Tzeentchian Warriors of Chaos this would make a somewhat unique colour scheme.

The orc blood splattered on his swords, robes and cheek was simply a mix of 'Blood for the Blood God' and a small amount of 'Abaddon Black' which I think is suitably dark enough to represent orc blood but not so black in order to make it unrecognisable as blood.

I used greenstuff to sculpt some cobblestones on his base to represent the streets of Dale he fights upon later on in the final movie when he becomes unmounted from his elk. Speaking of which I found it odd that GW sculpted him upon a horse rather than the elk which he is seen riding briefly in the first film and is prominently shown in the third. 

Only a quick Hobbit post this week as I have been very busy with reading for my new modules and consequently haven't had much time for hobby work. In fact despite receiving End Times: Thanquol on Monday I am yet to read beyond the introduction I have been so busy. I should hopefully get some time to read it this weekend and get a review up next weekend for you. 

Nagash, Elven Hosts and Sauron - New year, new projects

This week I have finally begun my new projects for this year after settling back into university. My main project is going to be Nagash, whose model I have wanted ever since I first laid eyes upon it, and then as a secondary project I will be attempting to build an Elven Host from various unfinished endeavours. I would also like to try and do some more canvas pieces this year, the first of which I have started can be found nearer the bottom of the post, and I thought I might as well put some of this art on the blog. 

This. I have needed it so bad...

Everyone and their cat seems to do unboxing photos/videos on the internet so here is my relatively poor attempt at one. The box design is quite nice, something very clean and slick about it being white that really helps to show off the model. The outer box seems to be unusually robust and made of higher grade card than usual, there is then a regular card tray that pulls out containing the sprues. 

These are the two sprues, the base and the instruction manual which also contain his rules. Rules in the box are a pretty good idea, one that I have only seen positivity for from the community. I was quite amazed that they managed to fit such a complex miniature onto only two sprues and even as I built it I was blown away by the detail and overall ambition of the model. He is sitting on my project table now ready to be sprayed and I can't wait to get to work painting him.

You can read my review of the first End Times book featuring Nagash here where I also talk a bit about the accompanying model release: End Times: Nagash - Review.

This pile of seemingly random collection of plastic and metal is a selection of various elven miniatures that I have acquired throughout the years, many in a state of total disrepair or simply without a use. They have languished in Limbo for some time now and this year I have decided to make them into a coherent force to field alongside my Dark Elves. I will be using the rules from End Times: Khaine to make a Host of the Phoenix/Eternity King. Thus far all I have done is stick the dragon together and drawn up a few plans, over the next few months I will be posting updates on this project including the overall cost of restoring and rebuilding this army. 

This year I have decided I would like to do some more canvas pieces and actually finish them. After falling out with oil paints I have largely been painting with acrylics, however I am terrible for starting pieces and never finishing them after losing interest about halfway through. This time however I have plenty of curious flatmates wandering over to my room from time to time who expect to see some level of progress. I have started two pieces, the main one being this painting of the Eye of Sauron inspired by his appearance in the Hobbit films. This is about half done with lots of work still being needed on the pupil and edges of the eye. I am also going to try and paint the One Ring text around the eye as well which should nicely finish it off. The other painting you can see in the background of a few of these pictures and is a bit of an abstract/surreal piece I will be posting when it is finished with the accompanying short piece of text that inspired it. 

This is my project table at the moment, two paintings started and Nagash ready to be sprayed. I am yet to fully assemble the great necromancer as he would be near-impossible to paint as a single piece. I should hopefully be able to start painting and post some pictures of Nagash in a week or two time, no idea when I will be able to work on the Elves or the canvas pieces. I have been spending a lot of my leisure time reading at the moment as my reading list tripled in size over Christmas and neither my copy of End Times: Thanquol or several books on 20th century history have arrived yet which will need reading almost as soon as I get them. Nagash is also going to take quite a long time to paint on account of the fact that he will require a lot of paints I don't own and I have a limited budget so it will take a few months to even get hold of the paints I need for him. 

Right, that is pretty much everything I am up to at the moment. I probably ought to go back to researching the formation of nation-states now so I will see you again next week, hopefully with a review of the new End Times book if I can read it in time. 

Doombinger out.