Donning The Purple

It may have been an indicator of power and imperial privilege, but in the cursed city of Mordheim it's worn by all sorts - from Ostermarker soldiery to members of the Cult of the Sixfold Path:

 Today I highlighted the purple to completion - the recipe's quite simple: Genestealer Purple, wash with Magos Purple Contrast, highlight with Genestealer Purple and then Kakophoni Purple. After I did that I went in and based a chunk of the wrappings some of them wear on their ankles and wrists (or even around the hafts of some of the weapons) with Steel Legion Drab, based the wood with XV-88, and then started the process of painting the skin with Kislev Flesh. All these areas - wrappings, wood, and flesh - as well as some other sections will get a wash of Agrax Earthshade or similar followed by a couple of highlights. After that I'll go in and do the leather sections, touch up the black areas, and then focus on detailing with golds, creams, white, and the like. I hope to get these figures done at some point in the next few days, but some of them - particularly the Mutants and Possessed - might take a bit longer due to their skin needing some different work.

Return To The Cursed City

Today I painted the names onto the unit champions in the Daughters of Khaine army, and put them into "storage" (a drawer in a cabinet). I really want to put them on display but I just don't have the shelf space for it in my Detolfs!

The army - three Regiments and the Endless Spells. It comes to something in the region of 1,500 points

I'm really pleased with the end result and think that the final overall effect is very striking. The red hair and silver armour ties them all together while the varied snake morphs give the units individuality too. 

Having done that, I turned to my Pile of Opportunity and had a rummage. Quite quickly I settled on painting up the Chaos Cult that I built a while ago for Mordheim. These are made from the 40K Chaos Cultists with a ton of bits from my Warhammer bits boxes - mostly parts from the Free Company / Mordheim Mercenaries sprues with some spare shields and other random parts to turn them into fantasy cultists rather than science fantasy cultists. I want to hint at the cult leaning towards Slaanesh more in their worship so have opted for a black and purple scheme with white detailing on the clothes. To that end I have done all the main metalwork and the base coat and wash for the purple elements:

 I really like these minis and have a bunch of them for my Iron Warriors army as well. The whole warband here consists of:

Magister
2 Possessed
3 Mutants (I only need two but I had three minis, so... options!)
2 Darksouls
3 Cultists with shields and clubs
3 Cultists with swords and daggers
3 Cultists with bows and clubs

I could - and probably should - look to add a couple of Beastmen, but for those I really want some of the Mordheim Beastmen that were released for the Empire In Flames supplement back in the early 2000s. So that'll be something for the future!

They're Done

Well it only took days longer than it should have done, but the Blood Sisters are finished, and with them, 1,500 points of Daughters of Khaine. Still no idea how to fill the last 500 points with the stipulation of "only Melusai" even though that's technically already been broken with the Hag made out of a Melusai, but currently I'm leaning towards either some Khinerai harpy-types or just go big with Morathi-Khaine herself. Anyway that's all for the future. For now, have some Melusai!

The whole unit, with champion Cebilren front and centre in her golden helm

A better look at the caucasian viper morph pattern on their tails

Why yes, it does bother me that the Melusai body taken from the Underworlds set doesn't come with the loincloth and armour piece, how did you know

The polearms are pretty brutal looking, a sort of curved bill designed for slashing and hooking with a bladed butt as well. I imagine in skilled hands quite lethal even in real life

I am very relieved to get these snake ladies done. Tomorrow I'm going to pop the names on the champions' bases, take some army shots, and decide what to work on next.

Painting Points:
Today: 5
This Week: 5
2025: 147

What's In A Name

Today I've done no painting. Well, that's not quite true - I've applied some Flesh Wash to the gold on three of the five Blood Sisters, so I have at least picked up a brush. What's more important is that I used some name generators (Realm of Plastic and Fantasy Name Generator) to come up with names for the six Melusai champions of the Blood Stalker and Blood Sister units that comprise the bulk of my army:

Blood Stalkers:

Selesis, Lisseh, Kathari

Blood Sisters:

Vehis, Melubron, Cebilren

Now I can paint their names on and that way all the characters and unit champions will be named! If I felt so inclined I could, I suppose, name the rest of the army too, but.. that sounds like madness, quite honestly. It would easily descend into the slippery slope that saw me name every single member of several Guard armies.

So Close!

 And yet so far. I've done the armour, based the hair, highlighted the leather, sorted the buckles...

  ...and still need to do the gold detailing, highlight the skin and hair, do the rubies, highlight the loincloths, and do all the black sections. Then base. Tomorrow! Surely tomorrow! 

In other hobby news, I've started writing a set of rules for a Secret Project. More on that in due course...

Whatever Happened To All The Scales?

No more scales anymore
No more scales anymore

Apologies to the Stranglers for that introduction! Anyway after spending some time with orange and yellow, I have got to the point where I can see the end of this unit in a day or two. I just need to highlight the leather, metal, loincloth, and do things like the gold, hair, and detailing. Luckily I don't need to worry about eyes on these snake-ladies as they all wear full-face helmets...!

 I like the way their markings have come out; they look quite striking at a distance. I've also decided I'm going to go back to all the unit champions and give them names, so expect a post in a few days with all the names on and maybe an army shot or two.

Individual Scales?!

For some reason, I decided that I would individually highlight the scales on the Melusai where possible. There's a mix across the army of dryrbrushing and individual layering, and with this latest unit I'm using both:

 

I drybrushed the whole tail with Mephiston Red and am now working up the orange-yellow markings with Trollslayer Orange and, possibly, if I can stand it, a little bit of a yellow. I've also done the base coat and wash on the skin, so hopefully I can get this unit done this week. And with them the whole army will be done. Then I can pick something I'll find faster to paint, I hope!

Red Caucasian Viper Morph

Normally red caucasian vipers are actually black, with red side patterning, but for some reason I based this unit of Blood Sisters on one particular morph that I found while looking for red snakes:

 

 And with that in mind, I spent the day blocking out the colours on the snake tails and armour of the unit:

The yellow belly scales is a bit of an extrapolation from the above photo of the actual snake

 I'm not totally convinced by the orange on the sides of the tails, but I'll see how it all looks once I've highlighted it and maybe feathered out the colour with some yellow or brighter oranges. Not sure how long these'll take me - probably several days!

At Last!

Well, it took me days longer than I expected, but the last unit of Blood Stalkers (not Sisters, I got the name of the unit wrong) for the army is done:

Patterned after the red-eye tree snake, these Melusai carry heartseeker bows, magically-infused weapons that unerringly find the hearts of their targets

 

The unit's champion (Krone) is second from left, with a copper wyrmling on her arm, and a golden helm as a badge of rank

Their unnaturally pale skin is tinted red, like the scales on their tails

With the Blood Stalkers finished, I just need to work on the last five Blood Sisters (these are the ones with polearms) and then the whole 1,500 point army is done. I still have no idea what to add to bring it up to 2,000 points - I'm leaning towards getting Morathi, honestly, both as a centrepiece miniature and because it turns the army into a 2,200 point force. Or I could just suck it up and break with the concept of "All Melusai", and throw in some standard Witch Elves, but... that isn't as fun.

 Anyway, tomorrow is Blood Sister day!

Painting Points:
Today: 5
This Week: 20
2025: 142

So Nearly There

I did quite a bit more on the Blood Sisters today. I need to highlight the hair, touch up the silver, do all the black elements, and then put the last highlights on the skin... and do the eyes and teeth (curses)! I can get all that done tomorrow without much effort I think, and then I can move onto the Blood Slaughterers, which are the Melusai with polearms.

It's hard to see but the champion's little pet dragon creature is a copper colour (thanks to my partner P)

The closer they get to finished, the more pleased I am with them. I think they'll be a really nice addition to the army once they're finally done - Morathi-Khaine willing, that'll be tomorrow!