As I mentioned in my previous post, the Amber Fiefdoms have received two new units in the form of the Dreadlord on Blackdragon and an Archmage from the out of production Spire of Dawn boxset. This army had been giving me trouble as I was struggling to find any desire to paint them. But recently my wife mentioned that I should paint the big dragon sitting at the back of the shelf, and here we are. On top of that, Broken Realms: Morathi gave me a bit of motivation as well. More on that in a bit.
I even have some progress pictures this time to document the thought process as I pick color schemes, which often times is the most difficult part of painting models. It actually took a while to decide what colors to use for this army, turquoise and amber, and I wanted to make it work with the Black Dragon.
Originally I was going for a much brighter purple underbelly, but I thought this was clashing too much with the blues and silvers of the Dreadlord. I toned it down by mixing in some Matt Black (AP) with Alien Purple (AP), then drybrushing the underbelly with the same purple. This gave a much more blended tone to the body.
The wings on the other hand I did want to be bright. This gives some visual interest to the dragon, as I didn't glue the rider on and I want the dragon to be able to stand out on its own if I ever play it as a wild dragon. I used more purples and even blended in some pinks using Barbarian Flesh (AP) to get variations in the hue and give some warmth to the purple.
The base is standard for this army, but the size really helps to show off the style. I'm especially proud of the rock looking dusty, which was just drybrushing some Fur Brown (AP) up onto the rocks as well as ground. The base goes a long way of mixing the Dark Elf and High Elf units in the army, and makes it look more cohesive as a whole.
The rider was simple to paint as well: the armor is based with Plate Mail Metal (AP) then washed with Nuln Oil (GW), and the armor around the dragon got the same treatment. The cloth and shield are Hydra Turquoise (AP) washed with Blue Tone (AP). The chain mail was painted with Liberator Gold (GW) and washed with Agrax Earthshade (GW). The rider is glued to his saddle, and a little bit of blue tac attaches him to the dragon. Now I can play him as a Dreadlord or as a wild dragon in narrative games.
The mouth was painted with Barbarian Flesh (AP) and washed with Reikland Fleshshade (GW). The teeth and spikes are painted with Skeleton Bone (AP) and glazed with a thinned down Agrax Earthshade (GW). The eyes are Moot Green (GW) with a slash of Flash Gitz Yellow (GW) for the pupils.
While I was painting the dragon, I worked on this Archamge as well, since they use a lot of the same colors. Now that an Archmage is no longer a thing in Age of Sigmar, I just play it as a battlemage in my army. Speaking of playing, the next segment contains some spoilers for Broken Realms: Morathi.
SPOILERS: In games of Age of Sigmar I was playing this army as Anvilgard, which was ok but didn't offer a lot of synergy to the units within. But now that the first book of Broken Realms has put that city under the control of Morathi and renamed it Har Kuron, along with suitable rules and artifacts, the army has become much more playable, plus I think the lore is really cool. So now, instead of having the Anvilgard label, any posts with this army will have the Har Kuron keyword.
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