DECEMBER 2008 - Emperor's Children, Proximity's NZ Grand Tournament army

With all the contests we've had running lately, you'd think competition would be stiff for a spot in the Display Case nominations lately... and yet we still seem to get dozens of nominations for just a few members' projects at a time!

Taking us to the end of our first year, we have a few more entries on the horizon for the start of 2009 - but for now, we're going to look at a project which has really captured everyone's attention lately: Proximity's phenomenal Emperor's Children Army!





















I'm sure everyone has been keeping up with the original blog, but here is a little more from the man himself -

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Firstly, thank you so much for the nominations for the Display Cabinet, it is truly an honour, and completely unexpected!

The ECs started as nothing more than an offhand concept in a very late night conversation, we sat around having just recently read the Fulgrim book, and were wanting to start an army. Some quick browsing over images, and I had decided to do the Sons of Horus! Well obviously this plan fell apart almost instantly! With everyone else seemingly piking out before we had even started, I began planning what I wanted in the army. I felt something unique and no longer in existence would be required to help really show the "pre-Heresy" theme, and decided to include some jetbikes. I saw the Master of the Ravenwing figure and had a short internal monologue debate with myself about how I would remove all those imperial eagles, before the answer that was staring me in the face all along stood up and punched me in the face; instead, do the Emperor's Children!

Working out the colour scheme took some time, I wanted to use the army as a large scale NMM lesson to at least get the colour mixing right and begin to understand the reflection process, and had never really painted with purple much either. I began the test figure, and about half way through after a week of on-and-off procrastination-filled work, I dropped in at a friends house, and had his Golden Demon-winning wife critique the figure somewhat. She took some photos and then did some quick Photoshop editing to show me what I could possibly do. It was at this point the green was introduced and really completed the figure. This sold me on the idea of the army so much that I went out the very next day and bought 5 Master of the Ravenwing minis!

In true 'me' style, there was never really much planning involved. I kinda just had a shopping-fit on the ForgeWorld website and a GW stockists website, then made an army out of what arrived.

The army took somewhere between 10 and 11 months to paint in the end - it absorbed a huge amount of time, but this was most likely not helped by the fact that I was addicted to the cruel, cruel drug known as "World of Warcraft" at the time. The bike painting progress is now associated with some particularly strong memories, as they were done during the Rugby World Cup, and upon finishing the sergeant whilst watching my favourite team lose the final, my wife came home and informed me she had written off my Nissan Skyline...

I often get PMs asking for a breakdown on how the colours were done, so I thought here would be a great opportunity to quickly do that. All colours were always measured out by feel, so take the below as a rough estimation, I'm woefully inaccurate at times I'm afraid!

Purple: 2 coats of Lich Purple... 3:1 Lich Purple & Warlock Purple... 2:2 Lich Purple and Warlock Purple... 1:3 Lich Purple and Warlock Purple... Warlock purple... Warlock Purple + Bleached Bone... Warlock Purple + a bit more Bleached Bone... 2 washes of a mixture of Chaos Black & Lich Purple highly watered down. Effectively, the final highlight before washing looks over the top and way too bright, the washes bring this down to look just right, and help blend the rest together as well as enhance the shading.

Gold: Dark Flesh... Dark Flesh + Vermin Brown... Vermin Brown... Vermin Brown + Vomit Brown... Vomit Brown... Vomit Brown + Sunburst Yellow... Vomit + Sunburst + Bleached Bone... Vomit + Sunburst + some more bone... Vomit + Sunburst + more bone + white.

Green: A small amount of Chaos Black + 50/50 mix of Dark Angels Green and Catachan Green... Catachan Green + Dark Angels Green... then just mixing various amounts of Bleached Bone in as highlights.

Several times throughout this project I thought I was insane and wanted to quit. The positive comments and feedback from the people on this forum and others really helped me push through and finish, and I'm really glad I did, so I would just like to issue a thank you to all who followed me along the journey of the army. I would also recommend it to anyone else thing of doing a project log, there really are a lot of benefits, and no downsides!

It was great to finally finish the army and have them with a display board at the New Zealand Grand Tournament. Whilst they managed to steer themselves to a respectable third place overall, I was delighted to receive 'Players Choice' for the Best Painted Army, though I did receive quite a bit of stick for having a laptop set up next to the army displaying a powerpoint presentation, haha!

Whilst my next projects are back in the 41st millennium, for Golden Daemon 2009 I'd like to teach myself a whole swathe of weathering techniques, so expect some more pre-Heresy madness from me in the not so distant future! The work that is put out on these boards is dripping in inspiration, so you can be sure I'll continue to lurk around.

Thanks,
- Charlie
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This spectacular army really shows what amazing pre-Heresy results can be achieved from the standard GW and FW ranges, with a bit of creativity and patience, and also how keeping up with online communities such as TGC really helps to push us on with our pet projects.

Congratulations once more to Proximity, and let's see more of those Display Case nominations coming in guys!

A very fitting addition to the Display Case! That purple is just lurvely!

Aside: should this not be the November installement?

Fantastic stuff, Charlie! I'm sure that you're really proud of these guys, and the attention to detail, brought together by the fantastic paintwork is really inspiring.

I shall most likely shamelessly pilfer some of your recipes in the not too distant future also

Congrats, mate.

But it isn't November, its December! There are a number of months missing in fact (no August or September either) so rather than attempting to go back and 'fill in the gaps' the mods decided to just post away and have entries as whatever month it happens to be.

I'm a HUGE fan of these guys, probably the best pre-heresy project I've seen. Lovely work, the jetbikes and the termis particularly.

What can I say?...

...These models are simply superb and I believe that they are the best Display Case entry of this past year! So well done Charlie!

The army has an extremely strong imagery, and is visually very coherent and pleasing. In particular the attention to detail is superb and the standard of painting and conversion work is very high...

...I've got a feeling that you will do really well at Golden Demon 2009...

I'd say good luck but I know that the standard of your work will speak volumes for itself.

This post has been edited by VESPASIAN on Dec 5 2008, 10:46 PM

A well deserved addition to the dispay case,
well done charly

I addore the purple, its wovley and the use of green is a great contrast, especially managing to get a maching tone like that....
Its great to see armies like this as it displays the tallent of the painters and gamers around the world, this makes me want an Emprors Kids army but I will hold ferm and restrain myself from it, to many of my unfinished projects to finsh, to much time, far too lazy!
one day I hope to get something in here....

goes to scheme...

well done

Very well done, mate!
It's nice to see the Southern Hemisphere get represented in here.
(Even if it is from someone across the Tasman.)

They are a very striking army and definately one to be proud of.
Look forward to seeing what you come up with for Golden Demon '09.

It really is a lovely army this one, and its nice seeing EC that aren't covered in gold. The green adds a nice counterpoint to purple. Congratulations on the GT placing.

A well deserved entry into the display case! Your work goes to show just the level of quality that can be achieved with some elbow grease and perserverance. Well done mate

amazing job man
10/9

Excellent job! An awesome army and a well deserved entry into the display case! I am kind suffering from the drug called warhammer online therefore I understand your feelings about Wow. I must find the time to work on the vehicles of Sons of Horus that are still looking at me from my paint-station...

You guys are honestly too kind with your comments, and I am more than honored to join such illustious company.

I learned a lot of things over the last year painting this army, and I hope to learn a lot more things in the coming year!

Sadly since this has gone up, I have had to sell the beloved EC's. It was one of the hardest decisions I've made in a long time, as I really wanted to have this army on display at home, but I recieved a very fair offer right at the most crucial of times; when I was negotiating a downpayment on a house.

The plus side is that, in this new house, I go from having to shoe-box my painting in the lounge, shared with the computer - I instead will have my own games room, with room for painting table, PC desk, shelving for display, couch, permanent gaming table set up, double wardrobes for keeping all my random wargaming crap in and french windows which open up onto a large outdoor decking area, so it should make hobbying a lot more enjoyable for the rest of the foreseeable future!

So if you see my army kicking around the mean streets of Paris, or even venturing over to the UK for a campaign or something here and there, say hi to the dude, and no - you're not seeing double!

- Charlie

Wow, your hard work has paid off in the most profitable way imaginable then!

Dare I ask, do you mind telling us what the 'fair offer' was on this lovely little lot?

Did you have an annexe in this little idyll?

I could do with skipping the UK permanently right now!

wow
and from great loss came great reward
awsome dude
but your EC left me hungry for a new army with your amazing skills

Nice job Proximity! I like your EC army a lot. Again, Nice job

It's sad to see an army go, but fantastic that the project led to such a reward! The army, as so many people have said, is absolutely stunning; so I look forward keenly to 'what Proximity did next'.

A wonderful army, very inspirational work. Even though you sold the army you got something good back.

pah ive seen better!!!!!


joke, they are bloody amazing, i dont know anyone who paints better than you and iacton

you should both come to my local and show the staff that they aint the greatest painters... keep up the good work... now i wanna do EC!!!

Great painting skills! Army looks fantastic, can;t wait to see what your next project is!