Nighthaunt's Lady Olyder arrives to complete the court

This weekend I divided my attention between painting a full unit of Die Hard skeletons (not finished yet) and random models around my painting station. One of these was Lady Olynder, the queen of the Nighthaunt. I am rather happy to say that I've completed her paint job.

Lady Olynder, Mortarch of Grief, wobbles in to join my Nighthaunt Army.

I checked and found out I bought this model last year. And there I thought she'd been staring at me accusingly without paint for at least a decade...If I recall correctly I bought her after getting obliterated on the table due to a lack of magical support. I remember assembling her quickly thinking 'I've just completed the army, so I still remember the scheme quite well'. I primed her, gave her the basic ghostly color of my army and then realized my scheme would not work on this model. Stepping back to think it over I put her aside. From that point she languished on the Window Sill of Shame (and shortly in the Casket of Failed Ambition). This could not go on. And as I was playing around with the galaxy effect on a High Elf Lumineth Realm Lord I decided to just stop worrying and go wild with my paints.

I had alot of trouble painting the white veil (and practically every other bit on this model).

I applied the galaxy effect on her robe with the airbrush, then I used a regular brush to paint the veil white. As all the experimenting so far was going rather nicely I used a Space Wolf/Technical Medium mix to cover the white robe with a Contrast Paint (a tip from an army book)...nope I still fail wherever I apply Contrast Paints. Will have to try again (and again and again untill I make it work). I decided to go for the airbrush to fix this. By using a few bits of paper creatively, I masked the upper cloak and airbrushed it with progressively whiter greys. I highlighted the holes in the cloak with a brush (and pure white). Then I realized she had hair underneath the cloak and above her galaxy robes...I tried my best to get some thinned down blue highlights there to make it stand out. I painted the banshees with a few layers of thinned down Gauss Blaster Green (Edge) and drybrushed them with a mix of this green and white. 

Let's all stand up and welcome the joyless, newly (and permanently) reunited couple.

 The model only came together when I blotted in the green and of the roses growing around her. I basically just went a bit crazy applying different greens to the stems (and Mephiston Red to the flowers) and tying it all together with some thinned down Biel-Tan Green Wash (highlighting the flowers with a brighter red afterwards). With that done I'm calling her finished. I also have every rose has its thorns stuck in my head. That aside I am rather happy to complete the most joyless everlasting husband and wife team in the Mortal Realms (King Kurdoss Valentian is still in my personal top five of best models ever created by GW). Can't wait to see what happes on the tabletop when I join these two. 

Finishing Lady Olynder's model makes me happy on another note as well. For those of you who haven't worked with the modern plastic line of GW undead: they wobble. The Mortis Engine wobbles a bit. Most of the Nighhaunt and the Morghasts wobble terribly. the Mortarchs wobble so badly you worry about them snapping of their tail. Lady Olynder is a true Mortarch as she bobs every which way she can while you desperately try to paint her. I've tried to illustrate her wobblyness by including my first ever video on this blog (please stop sniggering at the horrid quality ;). Ah the Legions of Nagash: I like the look, but the shaking and bobbing, even after painting makes me worry they will snap like the classic Orc Wyvern. 

This top heavy model used to rest upon its single left leg. It would slowly bent down to the table and I would push it back up. That worked right until the pewter snapped. With 20/20 hindsight I see what I did wrongt there.