I got my 40k miniature going this week and happily have some progress to show off. As the title suggests, Drazhar is a Dark Eldar or Drukhari (insert GW copyright joke here) and they are a faction I’ve always wanted to paint. Lelith Hesperax was the Dark Eldar model that I was most interested but she was resin and recently discontinued, only to be getting a new model which I’m not quite as keen on. Truthfully, many Dark Eldar models are a bit old and that is where Drazhar came in. While I remember not liking the base on the mini when it came out last year for some reason, I decided it didn’t bother me too much anymore and that I should still give this mini a go. Unfortunately, I had some modeling gaffes while putting him together. I accidently broke off the tassels on one of the swords and have no idea where it went so I removed those. An expert and meticulously planned conversion, you might say! I also cut off a small piece on the end of the swords by accident but I don’t think anybody will really notice those once it is painted up. This model is definitely fragile (and I’m glad to not be painting it for gaming!) so I’ll be hoping I can finish it without causing anymore damage.
One of the reasons I wanted to paint this miniature was to try out a color scheme I toyed around with on the Primaris Lieutenant a while back. I envisioned a kind of gothic red to underscore how evil the Dark Eldar are. This model isn’t the best to work on that scheme as the armor plates are too small so instead I’ve gone in the direction of a high contrast and bright red scheme that really pops. Red has proven to be pretty forgiving thus far and thankfully it isn’t too hard to glaze over the dark brownish/black color so it has been fun working on the armor for the most part. As you can see, I bounced around and have a bunch of half-finished parts on the armor and the base.
Fortunately, the back of the base is very nearly done and that gives you somewhat of an idea of what the front will look like. I really want to make this look like it is on a cruel alien planet (which is kind of what the stonework already look like so why not, play it up?) so I hope that the purple vines and extra skulls help bring to life the cruelty of the Dark Eldar who are not only slavers but also nearly immortal so long as they inflict pain on others from what I understand. Pretty dark stuff!
While I don’t necessarily have any business doing so, I have been eyeing other projects for 2021 as well. The new Warhammer Quest Cursed City board game is absolutely right up my alley with two cool models being teased, including the one below. The Vampire Counts were one of my favorite Warhammer Fantasy factions and I had a decent amount of models poorly painted for that army before I gave up on Warhammer. If Cursed City is solo-friendly, I will probably be a player as I kind of regret not getting Blackstone Fortress while all of the expansions were available. It all works out though because this setting is almost definitely going to be more my speed than 40k generally is!
I’ve also been contemplating acquiring the model below for quite a while and I feel like I’ve finally worked out how I can paint it to make it look nice. I was always a bit intimidated by how to paint the ghosts but I think I can handle them now. So I might just pick the Coven Throne up finally as it is a pretty old miniature and I’m sure GW isn’t going to keep making it forever. Yes, it will be an extremely epic and time-consuming miniature but I think it will be one I’d gladly keep in a display case for many years once it is done. I’ve still got that gothic red paint scheme I want to play around with too…
Kuribo's Painting 
That figure’s coming along well, Jeff! 🙂 The red looks as though it’s actually glowing!
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Glad to hear it, John! I’d say you can expect some more vivid colors as I get further along with it 🙂
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Exciting stuff! The colour scheme and base look great! The purple vines and skull(s) really accentuates that dark alien world vibe you are going for and seem to fit with your thematic description of the Eldar.
While I am generally not personally a big fan of the Warhammer aesthetic, miniatures like the bottom one pictured always make me drool a little bit. It looks like a fantastic model and certainly worthy of display after painting it. I once bought a large Nagash miniature because of how impressive the miniature looked. I did sell it eventually though, before I got around to assembling or painting it. I decided I had too much of a painting backlog already before adding another whole gaming system.
In my dreams, GW will make miniatures of that size and magnitude for MESBG as well, such as Morgoth or Balrogs of the First Age. But that will likely never happen due to licensing restrictions. Although who knows, maybe the Tolkien Estate will change their mind about it some day. That would be pretty incredible!
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I’m really glad to hear my ideas are coming across well 🙂 I know what you mean about Warhammer. I like some of the models a lot but there are plenty others that do nothing for me. I’d struggle to paint up an army in 40k or AoS because almost every range has some models that just don’t do it for me. I’m impressed you bought Nagash! That is a large and time-consuming model to paint up.
A lot of the MESBG models that are larger are showing their age now too. I’d love to see a new and improved Balrog or Ringwraith. Seeing some other big models like you mentioned would be amazing as well. Treebeard is a step in the right direction so maybe we’ll get some more of that, especially considering GW’s obsession with larger models in Warhammer!
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I second gerowniko’s wish that GW would focus their fantastic figures they do for Warhammer in the MESBG world. Of course if they did, I would probably do what you did and accidentally cut off parts that are actually part of the model. I speak of experience there, cutting off what I thought was flash or part of the sprue – whoops.
I like the red you are doing – very striking! I actually like the base they did, just wish that every base that GW does for non-MESBG didn’t have skulls on them.
Will have to look at Cursed City again, just gave it a cursory glance before. I do remember I liked that figure also.
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The models that GW makes now can be quite complicated and have a lot of pieces on them that can break so I blame them and not us! Even the newer Theoden had a few weak plastic pieces like the reins come to think of it.
Thanks for the kind words and actually, you can blame me for the skulls, I added them to symbolize the victims of the Dark Eldar’s cruelty. I kind of admire the grim style of Warhammer and so I tend to embrace that when I paint and base them.
There isn’t a lot of info on Cursed City yet unfortunately but I’m hoping they show us more and that it looks as good as the first couple minis do!
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Reds looking good!
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Glad to hear it, Mark! 🙂
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That red looks great. I look forward to seeing the finished figure.
Whilst I agree with wanting to see GW do more with MESBG figure design I suspect I would balk at the pricing!
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Thanks as always for your support, mate 🙂 Truthfully, the larger minis that GW has made for Warhammer are often beautiful but the prices are no joke as well so I know exactly where you’re coming from there!
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The gothic red looks great mate. I must admit my interest has been piqued with cursed city.
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Cheers and maybe we’ll have a number of us in the blogging community working on the Cursed City minis at the same time once it comes out 🙂
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Could happen
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Great start on the figure and I am a big fan of red, such a great colour to paint with. No harm in planning ahead with new projects, I suspect most of us do it all the time, I know I do. My only problem is I have 40 years worth of projects lined up but not that long to live!
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Really glad to hear you like it so far and you’re spot on with red being a great color as well. I have very few projects planned out (or even purchased ahead of starting them) so I’ve got some catching up to do! 😉
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That’s looking excellent mate, that red is really, really nice! I must admit I wasn’t a fan of the model for Drazhar when I first saw it but the more I see other people painting him the more he grows on me. I’m not too keen on the new Lelith Hesperax either but part of me hopes she might turn out to be similar and I’ll grow to like her more once I see other people tackle her.
Cursed City looks amazing though doesn’t it, if the rest of the models are anywhere close to the quality of the two we’ve seen I’m going to be very excited about that one indeed!
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Thanks mate! Other than being fragile, I’m pretty impressed with Drazhar thus far. I think for me, the old Lelith was quite nice and while I appreciate they made the new one a little less sexy (which is totally fine in my book), her face looks kind of ugly on the new sculpt (or at least the way they painted it is) and I feel like the overall design on her is very similar so I don’t know why they’re making a new one exactly. I’m not very knowledgeable on Dark Eldar but it seems like a different character could have been redone or a new one could have come out but oh well. Anything new for Dark Eldar is good with me 🙂
Its good to see that Cursed City has a lot of people excited. I hope we’ll see more classic fantasy releases like it appears to be from GW in the future! 😀
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Aahhh, dark Eldar. I don’t know the character but what I do know is that when GW made them up someone said “wouldn’t it be cool if they looked like eeevil grasshoppers but with whips and METAL!” And high fives were slapped all around. 😀. And now whenever I see them I think of A Bugs Life.
Still, your making good progress on the miniature and it’s gonna look great in the end. I don’t like a lot of GW aesthetic but they Always produce a fine miniature (except fir the fine cast ones).
To me, that last model of the throne is utterly ridiculous as a playing piece but simply fantastic for someone who likes to paint. If I owned it I would have to pay someone else to paint it bc I couldn’t do it right. Big miniatures like that simply aren’t playable. I was watching an LoTR event on YouTube once where the guy had a Balrog all looking fantastic but it mostly sat at the edge of the table while the player used a base the same size in the actual game.
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Its funny you mention the bugs and whips with Drazhar because the old version of him/her is very bug-like which I found after Googling for painting ideas. This one will look a less bug-like when done, I think but I’ll let you be the final judge 🙂 And thanks for the kind words as well on the painting!
I agree. I’m sure the Coven Throne looks awesome on the table but there are a lot of little pieces that could break off while playing. Honestly, painting it is a bit intimidating consider how it all goes together and that it is so much bigger than the typical models in wargaming. I had no idea people did that with their big centerpiece models but I would do the same if that helped keep them safe. There is nothing worse than seeing a piece has broken off your fully painted miniature as repairing that kind of thing is not easy or at least not for me.
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A great pair of minis, and It’s really weird to me to hear the Coven Throne described as a pretty old miniature. I’m looking forward to what you’ll do with it once you get going, though!
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Ha, Coven Throne isn’t old in terms of your collection but some of us don’t have 20-30 year old miniatures kicking around! I got into the hobby in the early 2000’s and don’t really have much of what I painted from back then anymore and what I do have, I don’t really cherish to be honest. I meant more that I think the Coven Throne sculpt could be retired from production about any time since it is getting to be ten years old. I do wonder with Death looking like they’re getting an overhaul if that may happen sooner than later, in fact…
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