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Description
The Dark Emissaries and Fen Beasts were characters from the 'Warhammer: Dark Shadows' campaign Games Workshop ran in the summer of 2001.

The Dark Emissary is a powerful sorcerer and servant of a mysterious dark master, rumored to be both the Demon Prince Be'Lakor and The Shadow Lord, some say the dark master may even be Malal, a renegade Chaos God.
Fen Beasts are elemental creatures formed in the deep treacherous marshes on the Mystical Isle of Albion from the souls and corpses of warriors who drowned in them. Using the ancient power tied up in the Ogham Stones, the Dark Emissaries are able to summon forth and control Fen Beasts to fight in battle.

1> In my opinion the Dark Emissary miniatures is one of the nicest models GW have produced to date and this is one of the few models I have done no conversion work on. I based my colour scheme for my Dark Emissary directly on the art work on the cover of the Dark Shadows campaign book (See #7). I used Red Gore blended and highlighted up to Blood Red for the 'skirt' and piece of cloth covering his face and various browns for the rest of the cloth using Brown and Chestnut washes for shading to keep them dark looking - apart from the bandages which I highlighted up to Bleach Bone. I painted the skin rather plain pale-ish human skin tones since it's not clear what kind of creature the Dark Emissaries are and painted the eye white with no pupil to keep it creepy looking. The beads were painted in bright colours for contrast and likewise the Ogham stones were painted as if they were glowing with power. I used brown ink and a very fine brush to paint a few markings onto the scroll in his right hand.

2> The plate on the Dark Emissary's back was painted with Tin Bitz and then a layer of Dwarf Bronze, I then used Brown and Black washes to pick out the spiral design. I stuck to using dark browns for his leather coat and then ran a dark brown wash into all the details to make them stand out. Over all I'm very pleased with the miniature.

3, 4 & 5> The Fen Beast's paint job, mainly consists of Dark Angels Green, highlighted though to Snot Green and then washed over with Green Ink and Orc Flesh Wash in places. I then picked out bones, rocks and fragments of wood as appropriate. I painted the eye sockets to look like there are glowing yellow. Afterward I used a little gloss varnish here and there to make it look wet, mostly on the underneath and I added little bits of Static Grass to the top and back to help the Fen Beast look like a chunk of living swampland. The base was given the same treatment which also added to the whole marshland effect. The 'coffin-lid' on the base is an old metal skeleton shield by the way.

6> As a thunderstorm rages around them a Dark Emissary and his newly summoned Fen Beast trudge through one of Albion's foetid swamps to spread the word of the dark master.

7> The cover art of the Dark Shadows campaign book on which I based the colour schemes I used for the models.

Although the Dark Shadow campaign is long over these are such great models that I'm always trying to find a way to use them in games ... in our current Mordheim: Empire in Flames campaign there is some swampland called 'The Fey Marshes' we have yet to explore and who knows what might lurk there?

P.S. I wanted to drop a subtle hint that I have some Fimir ready to be painted, but it didn't work

Description
The Dark Emissaries and Fen Beasts were characters from the 'Warhammer: Dark Shadows' campaign Games Workshop ran in the summer of 2001.

The Dark Emissary is a powerful sorcerer and servant of a mysterious dark master, rumored to be both the Demon Prince Be'Lakor and The Shadow Lord, some say the dark master may even be Malal, a renegade Chaos God.
Fen Beasts are elemental creatures formed in the deep treacherous marshes on the Mystical Isle of Albion from the souls and corpses of warriors who drowned in them. Using the ancient power tied up in the Ogham Stones, the Dark Emissaries are able to summon forth and control Fen Beasts to fight in battle.

1> In my opinion the Dark Emissary miniatures is one of the nicest models GW have produced to date and this is one of the few models I have done no conversion work on. I based my colour scheme for my Dark Emissary directly on the art work on the cover of the Dark Shadows campaign book (See #7). I used Red Gore blended and highlighted up to Blood Red for the 'skirt' and piece of cloth covering his face and various browns for the rest of the cloth using Brown and Chestnut washes for shading to keep them dark looking - apart from the bandages which I highlighted up to Bleach Bone. I painted the skin rather plain pale-ish human skin tones since it's not clear what kind of creature the Dark Emissaries are and painted the eye white with no pupil to keep it creepy looking. The beads were painted in bright colours for contrast and likewise the Ogham stones were painted as if they were glowing with power. I used brown ink and a very fine brush to paint a few markings onto the scroll in his right hand.

2> The plate on the Dark Emissary's back was painted with Tin Bitz and then a layer of Dwarf Bronze, I then used Brown and Black washes to pick out the spiral design. I stuck to using dark browns for his leather coat and then ran a dark brown wash into all the details to make them stand out. Over all I'm very pleased with the miniature.

3, 4 & 5> The Fen Beast's paint job, mainly consists of Dark Angels Green, highlighted though to Snot Green and then washed over with Green Ink and Orc Flesh Wash in places. I then picked out bones, rocks and fragments of wood as appropriate. I painted the eye sockets to look like there are glowing yellow. Afterward I used a little gloss varnish here and there to make it look wet, mostly on the underneath and I added little bits of Static Grass to the top and back to help the Fen Beast look like a chunk of living swampland. The base was given the same treatment which also added to the whole marshland effect. The 'coffin-lid' on the base is an old metal skeleton shield by the way.

6> As a thunderstorm rages around them a Dark Emissary and his newly summoned Fen Beast trudge through one of Albion's foetid swamps to spread the word of the dark master.

7> The cover art of the Dark Shadows campaign book on which I based the colour schemes I used for the models.

Although the Dark Shadow campaign is long over these are such great models that I'm always trying to find a way to use them in games ... in our current Mordheim: Empire in Flames campaign there is some swampland called 'The Fey Marshes' we have yet to explore and who knows what might lurk there?

P.S. I wanted to drop a subtle hint that I have some Fimir ready to be painted, but it didn't work