Wednesday 1 August 2012

Herald of Slaanesh

So today we can skip the history lesson because (assuming you've already read it) it's in my Daemonettes post. Just in case you didn't, here's a brief summary; always liked Daemonettes, Could never paint well enough/afford a full unit, started painting again recently and started with Daemonettes. Why I didn't just write that version last time I don't know but oh well.

The Herald. She was actually something I decided to do when I was bored with my Horrors but I got that into it that I ended up painting the whole thing in a few hours which didn't really help with the Horror boredom much. She's on foot because I didn't have the parts to make anything that remotely resembled a mount, let alone a half decent one and like I said in my Daemonettes post she's a minor conversion. She was missing an arm so I had to add on a spare from the Daemonettes kit (lucky there were so many). I filled in the hole for the old arm and then cut the new arm to fit. Did I mention she's one of the old metal Daemonette models? I think from early 2000 or possibly even 1999, I can't remember.

Here is the Herald herself:



Now I should probably mention that by this point I had bought the 'Eavy Metal Masterclass book (which I have been informed has recently gone out of print because it uses the old paint colours) so I was playing around with a few techniques. The main ones here were thinned paint layers, blending (both of which I already knew but I tried different ways of doing them), gemstones and glowing stone.

So for the skin it was mostly the same as the Daemonettes, except instead of drybrushing I mixed a little Ulthuan Grey with the Daemonette Hide and watered it down so that her skin kept the purple hue but was slightly paler than her sister Daemonettes. I blended in the claw as opposed to having it just stuck on like with the Daemonettes and also on the front of her clawed arm you can see (sort of) that I blended Xerus Purple in with the Daemonette Hide mix so that the scales were darker than the rest of her skin. Her hair was done in exactly the same way as the Daemonettes as was her claw. I painted the bone crown thing on her head like her claws as to me they seem like the same kind of material so it seemed natural to do. Her cloth wrappings were painted in Screamer Pink and then straight up to Pink Horror with the edges done in Ceramite White. The gemstones were painted in Caledor Sky, highlighted in Temple Guard Blue and then I added Ceramite White dots and then added a layer of 'Ardcoat to the gems and the claw.

The rocks were something I had in my bits box from years ago which I painted with a mix of Dawnstone and Abbadon Black and edged in Ceramite White (I think) and then washed with Nuln Oil. The skull was a random mix of colours so I couldn't even begin to tell you what went into that and the glowing stone was done with Xerus Purple and then very thin layers were painted onto the surrounding area; the thinnest layers being painted furthest away from the stone. You can't really see very well but I added a few runes to the glowing stone and then painted the Mark of Slaanesh onto the skull (I'm very proud that it only took one attempt to freehand, which is good because there's no way I could recreate the colour of the skull). I was planning to have a banner of Slaanesh on here but as I was trying to figure out where to put it I realised that it was just going to be massive overkill and would really take away from the actual model so I changed my mind.

In terms of gameplay I've made her a Level 1 Wizard and given her the Allure of Slaanesh (leadership test taken to be able to attack the Herald) and the Daemonic Robes (3+ save). My reasons for this are that she can use spells to keep her enemies away but if an enemy manages to get close then it's harder to hit her and if they manage that then she's less likely to be wounded. Quite a defensive set-up but her 4 attacks and Always Strikes First rule (which she transfers to the other Daemonettes) turn her into a well balanced fighter and it's more likely to keep her around longer to keep allowing the Daemonette unit to strike first as well as keep generating magic dice once the Horrors start taking hits.

So that's my Herald. Pretty proud of her as she was literally just plucked from my head and my bits box and for a while she was my only general for my tiny army, but that soon changed... More on that next time.

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