Morathi Queen of the Druchii

Morathi Queen of the Druchii.

Out of all the Dark Elf characters Morathi is possibly my favourite. On the battlefield she is a force of nature, unpredictable, wild and exciting. While aspects of the current model are excellent, I felt there were a few things I could improve upon. 

First was the post of the pegasus. In my opinion the current GW sculpt is too small and obscures what should be the main focus of the model; the rider. Because the current Dark Pegasus is rearing up ready to take to the skies, it's bat like wings spread wide, it is easy to forget there is a rider at all. The Morathi sculpt itself suffers for this and she is in an awkward pose, fist clenched screaming into the sky with no sense of movement or dynamism. The first thing to change had to be the pegasus for the older version and re position Morathi into a more natural and dynamic pose. 

I was very conscious that a large proportion of the model was the Dark Pegasus itself and could easily dominate the eye when complete. I was also conscious that it had to be a dark Pegasus and would probably be black - but black can be a hideously boring colour to look at. I decided to paint the Pegasus as if it were magically charged; not a wholesome beast, but deformed by Morathi's art. I used cold colours on the pegasus and snuck a little green into Morathi's skin tone to bring it to the fore. I also painted the magic emanating from her hand in cool colours to add a visual link from the pegasus to the rider. I painted the shadows around the OSL magic in her hand and mounted her on a snowy rock base. 

LilLoser