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The Dragonewt's Dream

Discussion in 'Painting and Converting' started by Tokek, Oct 9, 2016.

  1. Tokek
    Chameleon Skink

    Tokek Well-Known Member

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    As a bit of a fiddler with Green Stuff and Milliput I wanted to come up with something a bit different for a Seraphon army. Digging back into very old memories - and very old and to be honest not very good early '80s minis - I decided to go with a Gloranthan Dragonewt theme. The similarity of Skinks and Saurus warriors to Crested and Beaked Dragonewts is uncanny, although obviously the modern minis are vastly better.

    The bit that had be stuck for a while was that Dragonewts are supposed to ride Demi-Birds rather than Cold Ones. Sadly demi-birds always did look kooky and odd so I decided to re-imagine them with the modern knowledge that carnosaurs were mostly feathered and semi-bird-like anyway.

    Anyway enough preamble, here are some photos of my first test model. There is a tricky balance being attempted here between being distinctive and remaining WYSIWYG and clearly identifiable for opponents. Comments on whether I have that balance right are very welcome.

    It is not finished, some of the detail work will need an ultra-fine sharpie pen which I do not have to hand and a decent fine brush as mine is too old to be doing eyes (or similar) any more.

    IMG_0506.JPG IMG_0505.JPG IMG_0504.JPG
     
  2. Bowser
    Slann

    Bowser Third Spawning

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    Looks pretty awesome! The balanceis great, and the changes are subtle but effective. Brilliant idea
     
  3. Warden
    Slann

    Warden Tenth Spawning

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    Interesting idea with the tail, curious too see more!

    Curious about the backstory of the Dragonewts, please share!
     
  4. Jorgik
    Carnasaur

    Jorgik Well-Known Member

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    Looks really cool! I like the idea of adding feathers!
     
  5. Tokek
    Chameleon Skink

    Tokek Well-Known Member

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    Thanks for the feedback.

    As for the fluff I would struggle to convey what must be 40 years of gaming fluff but a short version is:

    Dragonewts are spiritually immature dragons. Whenever they die they are immediately reborn in their nest so they are essentially immortal, this gives them time to follow an incomprehensible mystical path towards being a full dragon. They go through several distinct phases

    Crested Dragonewt : looks like a skink, acts like a skink with a sling instead of a blowpipe.
    Beaked Dragonewt : looks like a saurus warrior but mounted warriors ride demi-birds instead of a cold ones.
    Tailed Priest : not too dissimilar to a Skink Priest, a bit of green stuff will sort it out
    Full Priest : rare and magically powerful, not found an AoS model that really fits the bill for these yet. Slann rules would be about right but not the model.
    Inhuman King : extremely rare and equally powerful, looking at a heavily kitbashed Daemon Prince with dragon parts.Could use the rules for Lord Kroak
    Dragon : Gloranthan true dragons are not puny things you put on a battlefield, they are truly enormous with godlike levels of power. If asleep they are often mistaken for large geographical features so one could be the battlefield.

    Nobody understands Dragonewts but they are tolerated because everyone is scared of them (or more to the point their big Dragon kindred) and they are one of the races that fought the final battle that saved the world from Chaos so they are part of what keeps the world alive. The only people to ever understand Dragonewts formed an empire called the Empire of the Wyrm's Friends - it did not end well.

    For visual inspiration - lots of reconstructions of feathered carnosaurs and raptors, like this one

    feathered_raptor.jpg
     
  6. Tokek
    Chameleon Skink

    Tokek Well-Known Member

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    Progress may be slow but it is finally moving forwards again. I really struggled to scale up my approach to a Carnosaur scale so I had to start again and do it differently.

    So this is the big demi-bird and the little guys all together

    IMG_0617.JPG
     
  7. Bowser
    Slann

    Bowser Third Spawning

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    These look so awesome! Great conversion.
     
  8. Crowsfoot
    Slann

    Crowsfoot Guardian of Paints Staff Member

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    They look brilliant, can we have some close up pic?
     
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  9. n810
    Slann

    n810 First Spawning

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    Love the carnasaur model you picked out. :D
     
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  10. Tokek
    Chameleon Skink

    Tokek Well-Known Member

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    I can try this, which shows up that I have not finished all the touching up and accessorizing before I seal it with varnish.

    Also I realise that I didn't add my alternative Slann when I made it a while back. This is built from one of my very oldest models from back in the early '80s and was actually a licensed Glorantha model so it fits my Dragonewt fluff - except for awful original wings which I had to replace with modern ones.

    IMG_0618.JPG IMG_0619.JPG

    Hmm, camera phone is not really up to the job, is it?
     
  11. SlanntaClause
    Carnasaur

    SlanntaClause Well-Known Member

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    Lovely direction your going in its a unique army for sure :D
     
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  12. Bowser
    Slann

    Bowser Third Spawning

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    These are incredible. So awesome.
     
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  13. tom ndege
    Skar-Veteran

    tom ndege Well-Known Member

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    Indeed... really cool stuff you present here! The carnosaur and the dragonsnake slann are really great! :cool:Makes me want to finish mine...
     
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  14. Warden
    Slann

    Warden Tenth Spawning

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    Interesting and unique conversions! Pretty awesome you have a coatl-esque conversion to stand in for a slann!

    I also like how unified your army looks thanks to its color scheme. Very cool, very brutal looking. Like they are predators and they mean business :bored:
     
  15. Tokek
    Chameleon Skink

    Tokek Well-Known Member

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    Thanks for all the positive feedback!
     
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  16. Tokek
    Chameleon Skink

    Tokek Well-Known Member

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    A few pictures of my dragonewts in action at one of our game nights

    26804433_10156541309010400_8931721630321898194_n.jpg 26731686_10156541307730400_2234367484014099653_n.jpg 26907122_10156541306255400_6609712500399810644_n.jpg
     
  17. Aginor
    Slann

    Aginor Fifth Spawning Staff Member

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    Nice!
     
  18. Fulcrum
    Cold One

    Fulcrum Well-Known Member

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    Looks fantastic! Love the look of the models and the table looks cool.
     
  19. Warden
    Slann

    Warden Tenth Spawning

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    They are looking great in action, I never noticed the great looking base-stairs before!
     
  20. Tokek
    Chameleon Skink

    Tokek Well-Known Member

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    IMG_1070.JPG

    A much skinkier list for this game night (which worked better, although my dice were also not cold enough to freeze oxygen).

    Sadly my plan to make the Basti a little more robust for transport failed with the skink on the nearside still falling victim to transit damage and lying on the base :(

    I may need to look at ways to pin those side skinks on.

    OK so painting question - how does anyone think the effect on the upper parts of the basti works?

    I am in two minds about whether the effect is strong enough myself. What I did was a pre-highlight rather than a pre-shading for the airbrush. I got the base colour on then did a dry-brush exaggerated highlight on the shell segments then airbrushed it with the blue thin enough for some of the highlight to show through. I think the idea is sound but I may have put about 20% too much blue on there which damped down the effect rather.

    The crystal is definitely going to have a little more work on the glaze effect, it is too subtle both in the photograph and with the naked eye on the tabletop. The OSL around it does look a little better on the table.
     
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