Dark Elfs: Dark Pegasus

Next up is a hero on top of a Dark Pegasus. Actually it is just a normal Bret Pegasus which was painted black, but still its dark and its a pegasus so therefore it must be a DARK PEGASUS!!!! Or something to that effect.

Model was assembled by the client, I just filled in some of the gaps on this one, and also trimmed it a bit for some of the mold lines. Unlike some of the past models, I did this only because it is more likely to be seen alone, and cannot hide the mold lines within ranks of cannon fodder ( or destroyer fodder depending on the game he plays ). Did not take that much time, and the improvement is vastly apparent. 

For painting, I did not actually use a primer on this model. I know shocking to say the least, but this was due in past to it being fully plastic, and the other fact that I had 6 inches of snow sitting outside on my terrace. So priming the model was not possible when I wanted to prime the beast. 

That being said, this is a good excuse to break out the airbrush, and prime it with that instead. Using normal black paint from the Vallejo Game Color range, I set off to prime it and the rider ( plus a manticore for later ). 

The skin was again done with the airbrush. First with solid black, then with a slight hint of VGC Cold Grey, and then a bit more grey added for a final hit. No inks nor washes used on the skin for a change. Was surprised by that! I think the final effect shows off the muscles of the horse aspect much better than if I had attempted to do it by normal brush instead. I will definitely be using this in the future more. Too bad I don't play too many horse dependent armies, cept for my high elfs that have been sitting around for years. 

The robes I did in my normal purple scheme, however when I washed it in the purple ink like normal it came out really really bad.. in my opinion at least. So I had to redo that section completely, and layer it through up to mid purple, and then really watered down the purple ink to reapply it over top. I think this time around it was much better results. I guess this is due to the majority of the robes being very flat areas and not much room for the ink to pool up like it does on the warriors. 

Other main area was the metals. Nothing special here, same recipes as the infantry units. 

Only other main point that I did differently was the shield designs on the tabards and armor. As this was originally a Bret Pegasus, it has all the iconography from it also. So for that, we decided to do them in the red/blacks that tie in the characters of this army, and put a symbol on them. Originally this symbol was going to be a 5 headed Hydra, and I did do some practice drawings of one, but was just not satisfied with any of the results. So instead I took one of the transfer designs that he wanted for the Warriors Banners, and tried a bit of freehand on it. I think it came out good.. not the best granted, but then again I am not that kind of painter so it is what it is. Something to look into fixing in the future. I did attempt to put it on all the little shields. Even the tiny ones on the front shins of the pegasus. This was not easy, but something that I think really ties in the shields across the model. 

So all in all a nice model, a good push on my skills, and a good excuse to do things that I haven't done before or for a while. Hoping to see this work more in my favor for other items still in the pipeline. Till then here are more photos of the Dark Pegasus..