Progress
Well, I've gotten a good start on the rest of my Fantasy army. I used an ancient secret technique called Killing Two Birds with One Stone. I'm currently running an Army Overdrive at Discordia Games, you see, and I needed some figures to be my examples. What's an Army Overdrive, you ask? I'm glad you asked! The basic idea is that it is a painting clinic and tournament that is intended to get people off their hind ends and to work on starting that new army or adding an addition to their old one. The first week they buy two Troops and an HQ. I show them how to assemble a model and prime it, then they go home and repeat the process on the rest of the models. In week 2, I show them how to Base Coat, Highlight and Shade a model. They go home and repeat the process over the next week. During week 3, we go over details and basing. In Week 4, they have a tournament, and they get to play with whatever they've gotten fully painted and based that they started in the Overdrive. That gives the incentive to get to work, since if you really work hard, you can get a significant number of models done in 4 weeks, whereas someone who slacks off may only get to play with their Commander by himself, since the rest of their models aren't done. Since I needed an example model for the Overdrive, I picked up a Dragon Ogre (I need 3 for my Fantasy Army) and assembled him. I also may need a Ringer army, incase I end up with an odd number of people participating. While I could just pull out any old set of models for that, it seems more in the spirit of things to assemble and paint models at the same time as the competitors in the Overdrive. Therefore, I'll be painting up all my Daemon Packs as part of the Overdrive.
In case I get to use them as a Ringer army, I figured I'd better have a plan for HOW to use them, so I went through the Chaos codex for 40k. (I know they are Fantasy models, but the only difference for the Daemons is that they have square bases.) I figure I can use the Dragon Ogre as a CC-armed (no guns!) Daemon Prince and summon in the Daemons. I've got Daemonettes, which are Slaanesh. I've also got Screamers and Horrors, which are Tzeentch. Looking at my options, I'll have to go Black Legion so that I can use all three kinds of Daemon. That will give me 2 Troops, an HQ and a Fast Attack choice coming in at about 550pts. I'm planning on using the Daemon Prince to bring them all in, of course, but I'm not sure exactly how I want to use him. The Dragon Ogre is big enough to use Daemonic Stature, but I don't necessarily have to. He's also got 4 legs, which is one of the recommended ways to show the Gift of Daemonic Speed (moves like cavalry.) Dragon Ogres are also built on the hefty side, so Daemonic Resilience would make sense as well. His spiky tail is a perfect description of Daemonic Mutation (+1 Attack) and the sword is a good close combat weapon. I'll probably stick a large blade or something in his other hand to be an extra CCW for now. Basically, I'm leaning toward making this guy a heavy duty fighter with a lot of Wounds and Toughness, so that he can suck up a few hits and still summon all the Daemons.
The last time I did a painting clinic, my friend Janice was with me and I let her pick out the scheme I would be using on the Daemonette that was my example piece. She picked out a cool combination, but I've since run into problems with it. The first problem is that I'm going to be using the Daemonettes (as Furies) with my Knights, which means they have a totally different color scheme. That's fairly easily rectified. The other problem was a bit thornier. She picked out a color from the store paint set called Ghostly Grey. It looked pretty cool, sort of a pallid grey a bit whiter than Space Wolves Grey. Since I wasn't familiar with the name Ghostly Grey, I figured that it was one of the new paints that GW came out with recently, replacing some of their old ones. When I went back to the store to pick up some more, I had a shock! Ghostly Grey is not part of the new line, it was replaced long ago in the paint line, so there isn't any more of it to be obtained easily. After talking with one of the Discordia guys for a bit, I decided that mixing Space Wolves Grey and Skull White should get me pretty close to the Ghostly Grey that I liked the look of. So, I sat down and used a rigorous, scientific process that those in the business call "Eyeballing It." Basically, I opened up my Space Wolves Grey and started adding Skull White a bit at a time, until it looked about right to me. I've since tried it on some other Daemonettes, and while it's not exactly the same, it is close enough for non-government work ;)
So, I've gotten the Furies assembled. I clipped and filed off the odd horn/tentacles sticking out from their heads and gave them Dark Elf Harpy Wings. I also assembled the Screamers and a Dragon Ogre. I then primed all these models and I've started the painting on the Furies. The plan for the Furies is to use Ghostly Grey (or my version of it) as the skin color and Wings, while the Hair and Eyes and any cloth are the same blue (Storm Blue + Blue Ink) as my Knights. Their straps and Talons will be Shining Gold. After painting one or two models with the Ghostly Grey, it ocurred to me that there might be a faster way. Since the Grey is such a light color, and the Blue and Gold are so opaque, I should be able to just paint most of the model Grey and then paint over the parts that will be a different color. This means that I don't have to be as precise with painting my main color, which will save me some time. I'll still have to be precise with the other colors, but I would have had to do that anyway. My Screamers (currently only primed and assembled) will likely be blended between Blue and Grey, with Gold tusks and spines. (That is, some of them will have a Blue Center and Grey Wings and there will be a patch in the middle that is a blending of the two. Others will be the reverse.) I'm currently undecided on the Dragon Ogres, but I'm leaning toward Grey for the main skin, with Blue for the scales and Gold for weapons and claws and such. The Horrors aren't yet assembled, but I'll probably do Grey/Blue for their main parts and Gold as an accent here and there. While Horrors are traditionally Pink and Blue, I want these to fit in with the rest of my paint scheme, so there you have it.
You may notice some of these have more models than I plan on using in the tournament. That's to allow last minute changes of plans, either due to tactical considerations (maybe I need more hitting power, or maybe I feel I need a stronger flying Daemon presence) or due to running out of time to finish a unit and having to substitute something else. Between now and Sunday, I plan on finishing the Grey on the Furies and maybe the Screamers. On Sunday (during the Army Overdrive) I'll be basecoating/Highlighting and Shading my Dragon Ogre, then I'll start on the Blue for the above units.
If you enjoyed this, email me and let me know