Dark Emissary and Fen Beast

Posted by MortiS-the-Lost MortiS-the-Lost
      Options
Another re-posting from my old DeviantArt profile for those of you who didn't get to see it the first time round



The Dark Emissaries and Fen Beasts were characters from the 'Warhammer: Dark Shadows' campaign Games Workshop ran in the summer of 2001.

The Dark Emissary is a powerful sorcerer and servant of a mysterious dark master, rumoured to be both the Demon Prince Be'Lakor and The Shadow Lord, some say the dark master may even be Malal, a renegade Chaos God.
Fen Beasts are elemental creatures formed in the deep treacherous marshes on the Mystical Isle of Albion from the souls and corpses of warriors who drowned in them. Using the ancient power tied up in the Ogham Stones, the Dark Emissaries are able to summon forth and control Fen Beasts to fight in battle.

1> In my opinion the Dark Emissary miniatures is one of the nicest models GW have produced to date and this is one of the few models I have done no conversion work on. I based my colour scheme for my Dark Emissary directly on the art work on the cover of the Dark Shadows campaign book (See #7). I used Red Gore blended and highlighted up to Blood Red for the 'skirt' and piece of cloth covering his face and various browns for the rest of the cloth using Brown and Chestnut washes for shading to keep them dark looking - apart from the bandages which I highlighted up to Bleach Bone. I painted the skin rather plain pale-ish human skin tones since it's not clear what kind of creature the Dark Emissaries are and painted the eye white with no pupil to keep it creepy looking. The beads were painted in bright colours for contrast and likewise the Ogham stones were painted as if they were glowing with power. I used brown ink and a very fine brush to paint a few markings onto the scroll in his right hand.

2> The plate on the Dark Emissary's back was painted with Tin Bitz and then a layer of Dwarf Bronze, I then used Brown and Black washes to pick out the spiral design. I stuck to using dark browns for his leather coat and then ran a dark brown wash into all the details to make them stand out. Over all I'm very pleased with the miniature.

3, 4 & 5> The Fen Beast's paint job, mainly consists of Dark Angels Green, highlighted though to Snot Green and then washed over with Green Ink and Orc Flesh Wash in places. I then picked out bones, rocks and fragments of wood as appropriate. I painted the eye sockets to look like there are glowing yellow. Afterward I used a little gloss varnish here and there to make it look wet, mostly on the underneath and I added little bits of Static Grass to the top and back to help the Fen Beast look like a chunk of living swampland. The base was given the same treatment which also added to the whole marshland effect. The 'coffin-lid' on the base is an old metal skeleton shield by the way.

6> As a thunderstorm rages around them a Dark Emissary and his newly summoned Fen Beast trudge through one of Albion's foetid swamps to spread the word of the dark master.

7> The cover art of the Dark Shadows campaign book on which I based the colour schemes I used for the models.

Although the Dark Shadow campaign is long over these are such great models that I'm always trying to find a way to use them in games ... in our current Mordheim: Empire in Flames campaign there is some swampland called 'The Fey Marshes' we have yet to explore and who knows what might lurk there?

P.S. I wanted to drop a subtle hint that I have some Fimir ready to be painted, but it didn't work
as you may already know I did finally get round to painting some Fimir last year
http://the-lost-and-the-damned.664610.n2.nabble.com/Fimir-td5122529.html

and recently I got 2 more painted too (pictures coming soon) - progress is slow when you're working on a far too many projects at once!

8 Comments

classic Classic list List threaded Threaded
messyart messyart
Reply | Threaded
Open this post in threaded view
|

Re: Dark Emissary and Fen Beast

*Marc likes this*
Mankinds first mistake; Questioning why those around him, are dying.
Scumdog47 Scumdog47
Reply | Threaded
Open this post in threaded view
|

Re: Dark Emissary and Fen Beast

In reply to this post by MortiS-the-Lost
You know I hate you for owning the Dark Emissary when I don't...
MortiS-the-Lost MortiS-the-Lost
Reply | Threaded
Open this post in threaded view
|

Re: Dark Emissary and Fen Beast

yes, yes I do
-----------------------------------
~The ravings of a single mad Goblin is bad enough, but such a power-hungry, malice-filled creature as Mortis can never hope to be understood~
Metropolis Metropolis
Reply | Threaded
Open this post in threaded view
|

Re: Dark Emissary and Fen Beast

In reply to this post by MortiS-the-Lost
CONTENTS DELETED
The author has deleted this message.
MortiS-the-Lost MortiS-the-Lost
Reply | Threaded
Open this post in threaded view
|

Re: Dark Emissary and Fen Beast

In reply to this post by Scumdog47
Scumdog47 wrote
You know I hate you for owning the Dark Emissary when I don't...
The good news is the Dark Emissary, Truthsayer and Fenbeast are being re-released next month for Warhammer: Storm of Magic, the bad news it they will be in FineCost ... I mean FailCast ... er ... crappy over-priced miscast resin!  
-----------------------------------
~The ravings of a single mad Goblin is bad enough, but such a power-hungry, malice-filled creature as Mortis can never hope to be understood~
jogar_t_hutt jogar_t_hutt
Reply | Threaded
Open this post in threaded view
|

Re: Dark Emissary and Fen Beast

In reply to this post by MortiS-the-Lost
i think ive got 1 of them dark emissary in my bitz box
MortiS-the-Lost MortiS-the-Lost
Reply | Threaded
Open this post in threaded view
|

Re: Dark Emissary and Fen Beast

In reply to this post by MortiS-the-Lost
The new Citadel FineCost resin casting of the Dark Emissary will set you back £9.50 and of course being FailCast it will be prone to miscasts and bubbles so you can expect some problems with the horns and the spikes on the staff

the Fen Beast is also available for the not-quite-so-bad-for-model-of-that-size price of £15.50
-----------------------------------
~The ravings of a single mad Goblin is bad enough, but such a power-hungry, malice-filled creature as Mortis can never hope to be understood~
MortiS-the-Lost MortiS-the-Lost
Reply | Threaded
Open this post in threaded view
|

Re: Dark Emissary and Fen Beast

In reply to this post by Scumdog47

-----------------------------------
~The ravings of a single mad Goblin is bad enough, but such a power-hungry, malice-filled creature as Mortis can never hope to be understood~