My McDeath project gathers pace once more with the completion of this figure, Dart of Harkness on foot. Before you ask, yes I do have the mounted version but for now he resides somewhere in the leadpile. I was pleased to get this model finished after so long, as he has been waiting patiently for some months on the paint station along with McWrecker and Quicksure.
In retrospect, I don't like this figure very much. He is a rather squat, ugly cast and one that I found difficult to paint. To this day I wonder why the bods at GW picked this particular model to represent the character in McDeath, as compared to many of the other sculpts in the range he is more than a little clunky. Most likely, he was selected (along with Quicksure) as there were both mounted and foot versions of the figure but the idea of fielding a chaos warrior model as a human character is a strange one!
Still, I had a good old crack at the model and used John Blanche's lovely cover painting for the McDeath supplement book as my inspiration. Don't you just love the buff leather and jade green colour combo? Actually, working from colour schemes imagined by someone as great as Blanche really helps establish the character of each model and I even went as far to copy much of the shield design. What do you think?
The cover painting shows dart to be armed with a pretty nifty flaming sword. Obviously, this model was cast up in the years before such poultry things as flames were regularly sculpted onto figures, and this model's blade is rather lacklustre in comparison. To remedy this, I opted to repeat the flaming look I had achieved quite by accident on my palanquin of Nurgle. This created some interesting contrasts with the green of the armour.
I also noticed a strange dappled effect had been used on his scabbard. I copied this onto my model too, though I am not too sure how effective the result is now that the model has been photographed. I may have to go back and add a highlight or two to bring out the pattern a little more.
Orlygg
Nice work - I think I'd go darker on the scabbard but with a bit of red highlighting and make the flecks smaller possibly? Tricky!
ReplyDeleteDunno if you're familiar with MST3K but his helmet really reminds me of the Warriors from Hell from Deathstalker and the Warriors from Hell !
I will most certainly attempt to bring out the pattern of his scabbard tonight. More orange with do the trick I think!
DeleteSculpt your own! You have my feeble attempt in hand still, I hope? The official mini leaves a bit to be desired, but you've done a nice job.
ReplyDeleteYes, I still have your version of the miniature, though your shield service was much larger than mine on hindsight. If I was to do the shield again (which is against my 'once it is don, it's done policy) I would have used the rear of the shield instead. Still, after a couple of weeks sitting on my shelf I have grown fond of my attempt and shall keep it, with a few minor tweaks.
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ReplyDeleteWhen I got this figure (quite cheaply luckily) i actually wondered if someone had sent me a recast. The period soft metal and the fact it had been painted suggested otherwise. It's not a great figure, with poor rather clunky detail especially compared to Sir John Quicksure. Your paint job has rescued it though.
ReplyDeleteActually, I think the Quicksure model is even worse than this figure. He is still WIP, so you will have to wait for me to finish him to see what I mean.
DeleteBack in the old days thedifference between "chaos" and "normal" baroque knights was minimal.The proper "chaos" imagery shaped somewhat after Slaves to Darkness. Think about the "chaos knight" (part of a specialty set thus called) that graced the cover of WHFB 1st edition. He was later recycled in the 3rd edition as a generic "human", in his black and white sketch form I think, though, Blanche might have taken the top-spike off in the sketch...or maybe that was added later?
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