As soon as the new minis were announced I knew I’d be picking up and starting a new project with them and it’s been hard to work on or start anything since tbh. I spent a lot of time thinking about the different directions I could go with these. I really enjoyed the multiple chats about varying realms and influences that could impact our new army.
Ultimately though if you look back through my posts over the years there has always been an element of Necromancy involved all the way to my username Ghrask Dragh, a name the Chaos Dwarfs called a Ogre character Braugh Slavelord that had eaten a Necromancer and translates as Corpse Slaver. So when I saw Zharr Vyxa and read the background of these pirates that harvest the souls of the dead the same as the rest them harvest demons it was hard to choose any other faction.
If you want to skip to the minis then scroll down but if you are interested in my plans for the collections then please read on. I want to include the Nighthaunt as much as I can to represent the realm of death. Soulblight have such and amazing collection of minis right now it was tempting to go down that road but I would like a big Cursed City collection of them one day so instead I opted to use a fairly sizable Nighthaunt I had left over from those old magazines that were loads of bargains £10 each. I must admit though I’ve found it difficult with some of my ideas to not stray too far from the original minis and themes, it’s going to be a tricky balance I think but I’m looking forward to it.
The idea is the blood red armour is smithed with runes to attract and summon the souls of the dead, just their mere presence in the realms is like a magnet to those wandering souls. The gems then on their hats and shields are wards against any attacks from the undead and also denotes to them a hierarchy amongst the Pirates. Despots and Demonsmiths that are covered in gems shine like a light in the dark and like moths to a flame the undead spirits are drawn towards them only to put to task and servitude when they get too close.
I have finally completed my test mini based on the artwork below;
There are a few things I’m happy with and some that need improving. My find detail brush broke during painting the head and I was too impatient to get another one and just cracked on with what I had to hand as I was a little over excited to be so close to finishing me first model
I like the red armour, there is some of this scheme that has a darker red cloth rather than the white, would be interested to know people’s thoughts on that as I may change that down the line.
I also took the glowing green to represent demon powered weaponry, I have plans to change the spears and those Xbox icons I’m not a great fan of. The spirits and other elements will have a lot more of the white fading into the green than dark green but for the weapons I didn’t think the white would help.
To give an indication of where I’m going with this I also did create a little proof of concept, it turned out as good as I had hoped so between this and the successful paint scheme above it is safe to say I’m very much looking forward to the rest of this project.
Now that I’ve got the scheme down (for the most part) I can start to factory line these guys. I’ve got 4 bodies built and ready for the airbrush this weekend. Got a busy one so just a red Basecoat and blacked out details on all 4 I’ll be happy.
I’m in no rush these days, just enjoying.
@Grimstonefire love that shout with the necrotic hand, I’ve been on the lookout but not found a suitable one yet. My green stuff skills are no where near your good self.
Speaking of which I may reach out for some sculpting advise once the bodies are done, got some ideas I’m not sure I can handle
So after finishing the Cohort test model I did try another couple of schemes (because me brain apparently hates me and couldn’t move on until I tried them), purple and green but neither worked as well as the red for me so I’ve shaken off that curiosity if I’m on the right track.
I did also start sketching up some concepts for my artillery piece. In case you didn’t see it may initial concept was this…
I liked the shorter stubby barrel and I do love the smoke effects on that Dominator engine. However, as mentioned in the earlier posts my head canon for the Zharr Vyxa pirates is that their very presence in the Realm of Death attracts the undead souls to them, so I played about with making it look like some of the spirits from that world are being drawn into the cool engine like contraption at the base of our canon. Again this is at the very early concept stage, just trying to get an idea of the shapes and where everything fits, so everything will be tidied up and finished off once decisions are made.
I really like this idea but it changed to look/balance of the whole thing to where I think the original smoke stack idea would look too much or too busy so I put it out of my head and decided to stick with the slender canon it came with. I’ve found when trying to include some of the Nighthaunt pieces it’s a tricky balance to not loose the aesthetic of the new models, which for the initial batch anyway I didn’t want to do. Maybe as time goes by I’ll do some more out there conversions but for now I wanted to just add to the range and not take away too much.
I was happy enough to stick with the barrel until… until I saw @Xander‘s glorious tribute to the original hellcanon. Now I’m trying to decide whether to follow suit and go with the stubby version like the original concept above (minus the smoke) or stick with the longer barrel.
I think you meant to say that I made an homage to the Earthshaker, not the Hellcannon.
I think the concept that uses the even thicker barrel than mine, and has the smoke, could look really cool. I needed those bits for my Kollossus legs, or I would have attempted that also.
For yours, I fear the smoke may end up competing for attention in your arrangement. The spirits seem to be the main focus and the smoke might obscure () that.
I’m sure whatever you settle on will look great! I’m trying to figure out how many more of these war machines to buy on Saturday: 1, 2 or even 3.
Of course we have too many classic artillery pieces, Earthshaker is what I meant.
Thanks for the advice, I think it may be worth buying more just to do more of these conversions
@Grimstonefire thank you Grim, yes I love that swap out of the hobgrot, need to sculpt over the arm to make it look tidy but as soon as found a pose that fitted I was over the moon. Just got to find another one now that suits the musician token, that’ll be a Nighthaunt too
@Zoddtheimmortal yes mate that is a fantastic idea. I’d love to find a way to do that, I’m trying to find a way to incorporate skulls somehow.
Kind of on that subject though, I thought a lot about the how to represent the Realm of Death here, was I going to use Zombies and Skeletons and Ghosts. I decided in the end though to stick with just one element. So I could keep the idea as plain as I could across the army for the time being so the extra bits on top of the original Chaos Dwarfs will be exclusively Nighthaunt… for now
Followed @Xander’s lead with the Earthshaker conversion and tidied up some ideas with how the spirits are coming up from the ground around it. Will probably try and keep the base quite simple as there is already a lot going on.
This is an idea I had almost from the day of launch, I put a mock up of a Demonsmith with some spirits around but had a similar idea for this awesome dominator engine. Early days but I’m liking this setup for now
Holy crap dude, these look amazing! Really looking forward to seeing them painted up with the undead additions - I haven’t seen anyone else leaning into the Zharr Vyxa undead theming yet so this is very cool.
I’ve found myself in a bit of a pickle. I like the red I’ve done on the armour for the tests mini however I would not want to do that red on the Dominator Engine, likewise I’m not sure on keeping it all the gold metallic or silver either. For the big Taurus I’ve been thinking black so maybe it could be the same as that and be mostly black but I really can’t see it in my head.
Would love to know what people are thinking for their Dominator Engine, especially if you’ve gone for Zharr Vyxa. I really like the Jade/Sons of Horus big Taurus so working back I’m wondering if I try and do something closer to the poster boys Anethma
but if you are interested in my plans for the collections then please read on. I want to include the Nighthaunt as much as I can to represent the realm of death. Soulblight have such and amazing collection of minis right now it was tempting to go down that road but I would like a big Cursed City collection of them one day so instead I opted to use a fairly sizable Nighthaunt I had left over from those old magazines that were loads of bargains £10 each. I must admit though I’ve found it difficult with some of my ideas to not stray too far from the original minis and themes, it’s going to be a tricky balance I think but I’m looking forward to it.
) that.
