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Dark Elves Corsair Champion
Color scheme: I wanted to give the mini quite natural look, so for the hide cloak I opted for green, which is the most common lizards color. For reverse of the cloak I decided to use mix of Scorched Brown and Dwarf Flesh, which is quite pinky brown, that looks quite a lot like flesh to me. I like violet and purple colors, they symbolize mystery to me, and so I decided to give the skirt that color, so I sticked with violet colors that GW is using often on Dark Elf minis. How I did it: As you can see, there is no conversion on the miniature, so let's straight start to talk about painting. First thing I did was the cloak. First I shaded it like it was plain cloak, with no scales, using Dark Angels Green as base color, shading into black, highligting into Goblin Green. Then I took the OO brush and highlighted the edges of the scales. In darker parts I used Goblin Green for this highting, in lighter parts I used mix of Goblin Green and Scorpion Green. Finally I gave it slight coat of varnish, to give the lizard skin very fine shine. I continued with the reverse side of the cloak. I keep quite strange shades of Scorched Brown and Dwarf Flesh pre-mixed in bottles, which I use for Skaven skin. This is brown with pinky tint and I quickly found these colors to be ideal for the reverse side of the cloak. Using layering technique I shaded the reverse of the cloak, from Scorched Brown in the most deep recesses into nearly pure Dwarf Flesh. Then came the armour. I want to learn the Non-metallic metal technique of painting metals and I took this mini as a great opportunity to practice something like this (it's my second mini on which I used NMM technique). I used Shadow Grey as a base for armour and shaded it into black, which gave it excellent dark appearance, matching the evil attitude of Dark Elves, just like it was made from hardened steel. I then highlighted all edges into Spaces Wolves Grey and added some light stripes to the large part of shoulder protection. Then I painted the skirt and as I said, I like the purple colors, so I used Liche purple. I tried blending technique to shade and highlight the skirt. Then came the flesh, which I did my traditional way: base is three thin coats of Elf Flesh color, then it is shaded by mixes of Elf Flesh and Bestial Brown and highlighted with mix of Elf Flesh and white. There are only few things to mention: even on dark miniatures I like to make some contrast, some light parts and although from sculpting of the mini it seems that the Elf should not have bare arms, they are ment to be in some sleaves, I decided to painted them bared, which made nice contrast and also underlined the Dark Elves sado-masochistic nature, wearing cold metal protections on its bare forearms. I also painted the eyebrows, which people (including me) usually don't paint, but I decided to do them because on this miniature the supraorbital bends were really huge, and it also gave the mini more dark look. On the hair i just used traditional black highlighted with Fortress Grey, I just painted both drawstrings the same Liche Purple as I used on the skirt, to keep the same mood all over the miniatures. Then came the sword. I expect that many people will use NMM technique on the sword, rest will paint it with metallics. Let's see if I was right. I wanted to differ, and as I said, even on dark minis I like the contrast. I decided to make the sword like it was bony, or ivory, or something like that. Light color of the sword also helps to bring out the runes engraved into it. As a base I used Bleached Bone, which I only slighlty shaded with mix of Bleached Bone and Snakebite Leather. Then I painted the runes using Scorched Brown and highlighted the sword and places around the runes with mix of Scorched Brown and white. It turned out to be a bit more into orange tint than I expected, but I quite liked this result, so I decided to keep it. All gold (buckle on the cloak, earing and handle of the sword) is painted using NMM technique. The base is 1:1 mix of Golden Yellow and Snakebite Leather, then it is shaded into Snakebite Leather and highlighted into white. There are the black boots, just slightly highlighted with grey. And there are the details, like the things hanging over the skirt and the horns on the cloak and sword. These are just simply painted using appropriate colors. When I started the mini, I wanted to give it standard green base with static grass, but when only the base was missing to be finished, I reallized that such new shade of green would disturb the model. So I made the base dark brown, I glued there sand and small stones, painted sand mid-brown and stones dark grey. Finally I gave it few patches of brown static grass, which can only barely be seen on the photos. Such very dark base makes the dark mini stand out of it and I'm very pleased with it. Paints used: Citadel paints made by Games Workshop, except for Black and White paints, which are Delta Ceramcoat paints. Brushes used: Habico Rotmarder brushes, size 1, O and OO, and Citadel Small Drybrush (only for drybrushing the sand and the stones on the base, nothing else is drybrushed). For more pictures of this miniature go to http://www.espace.cz/~Honza/Gallery.asp?System=WHFB&Race=DarkElves&Model=CorsairChamp
Posted: 4 Dec 2001
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