Sunday 19 February 2017

CXVI. The Cult of Vvolos: Skeletons and Apprentice



From left to right: Ieronym, Albrecht, Ikorid, Wilhelm, Kettelhelm.
The Cult warband steadily grows. Last time we saw the meatier fighters of the group. Now they are joined by miserable bone puppets. And one of their yellow-robed controllers. 

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IKORID, NECROMANCER'S APPRENTICE


Ikorid follows his mistress and works hard on learning the craft. Some day, when the time is right, he will assassinate her and take over her House... 

The base was a classic chaos Stabb the Acolyte figure. I replaced his sword with a staff and did a few little changes here and there to make him unique.
His mistress, the Necromancer leader of the warband, will be converted from a Skaven model. What I need to achieve through conversion and paintjob is to make them fit together visually. A good trick, among others, is to repeat some details across both models. This will be very clear when I'm done with the Necromancer and I'm able to show them sidy by side.
Front and back shots.

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 SKELETON WARRIORS

Skeletal minions of the necromancers. Unlike living warriors, skeletons have the advantages of needing no food nor rest and never feeling pain. However, the magic that animates them requires a certain effort to maintain and their gear and bones ask for periodic cleaning and repairs. The latter is normally the task of apprentice necromancers. 
I really had fun painting them. I wasn't sure what to do with the quivers on the two archers. They begged for freehand but gave me a very limited and oddly shaped space. They ended up with tributes to two great artists: the left one has Albrecht Dürer's monogram, the rigth one a part of Hieronymus Bosch's signature. I took this into account when giving them names.
The archer pair used to be standard bearers. High elf bows and quivers replace banner poles. Pretty straightforward.
Kettelhelm's shield was painted before I even started the conversion. Shields are great for having fun with freehand.
The demonic face on the shield comes from this piece by Ian Miller. I just love this image. It's bonkers.
A group shot of skeletons with their higher undead comrades.

20 comments:

  1. oh, yeees. Darkness brush work again! I'm love it!

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  2. Lovely stuff, I may have to borrow that Miller image form some shield inspiration some time in the future

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  3. Very nice indeed! Love the subdued tones on them.

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  4. This is amazing once again! I love the way you did the backdrop and the painting on these is absolutely spot on again! Your style has something 'ancient' about it, like opening a 500 year old book...really incredible and unlike anything I've seen before!

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  5. Very jealous of how you manage to capture the essence of a cold autumnal morning in your painting. I would really love to learn those techniques! <3

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    1. I think it's mostly the subdued colour pallete and the basing that does it. I just like that kind of atmosphere. :)

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  6. Superb! And the actual frecuency of the posts, a very good new. Just wanting for more and more!

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    1. Thank you. I have a bit more free time now and two new projects I'm excited about, so now I can manage to produce a post per week.

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  7. Just fantastic! Some of the best undead I have ever seen.

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  8. I always try to say something interesting when commenting... but here it always ends in the same old "I just love your work so much". :P
    Seriously, though, your work is all kinds of outstanding. I just love the depths of your imagination, as well as your incredible attention to detail.
    Wonderful shield painting, indeed. :D

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  9. That Nurgle sorcerer reminds me of the old Slaine Druids from 2000AD comic fame. I've always liked the sculpt, but not know why I haven't picked him up to date?

    Lovely work as ever Ana. This is fast becoming yet another fav of your projects to follow.

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  10. You won´t be mad if i dirty steal that idea i guess.

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