Sunday, November 19, 2017

The Ambull


I have wanted to paint my Ambull miniature for many years now. I was first really fired up about doing it back in late 2010 when the 5th Ed Dark Eldar Codex was released. I thought that the Ambull would make a great Clawed Fiend for use with a Beastmaster. I was stuck on a paint scheme until I saw Gholascale's Ambull. It seemed perfect to me, though I wouldn't go with blue for it's mandibles. Anyway, I kept that idea in the 'mental file' until such time that I could get around to it. With our local group still playing Kill Team, I figured it was a good time to finally bring this seed of an idea to fruition.

Beastmaster and Beast.

After scouring the web for painting ideas I settled on sticking with something close to what Gholascale did and the orignal ad from White Dwarf.
The orginal White Dwarf ad.
Note the word "slave" going up the left side of the image below the Chapter Approved stamp. Is this justification for using this as a Dark Eldar Beast?

Primed with base started.
I chose Apple Barrel Color Indian Red for the basecoat.
Indian Red.
I then used an old, barely functioning, Citadel paint called Dark Flesh. It made the perect step up from Indian Red.

Dark Flesh layer.
Next, I drybrushed on Folk Art Buckskin Brown.

Buckskin Brown.
After a thinned Brown Ink glaze, I drybrushed on Calthan Brown.

Calthan Brown
The weird external guts was painted using Pink Hirror on top of Indian Red followed by a Baal Red ink wash before topping it off again with Pink Horror.

Weird gut bitz colored.
It was now done enough to assemble and take to war!

The original Clawed Fiend.
And it performed well in it's first outing.
It moved fast, in contrast to it's lumbering appearance. You can read about it here.

Cleaning up the trenches.
A week after that game and I am looking to touch it up. I chose a yellow color for the eyes by Folk Art called Lemonade as it is a very bright light yellow and contrasts perfectly against the dark recesses. I brighted up the gutty bitz as well using Rose Blush mixed with White. And finally, for much needed contrast, Blood for the Blood God was splatterd on to the claws and mandibles.

Finised in all it's gorey glory.

And after the addition of some grass tufts, it was now finished. I enjoyed working on this old  Ambull miniature, as I have wanted to paint it since that first White Dwarf article from way back in '88.  And it was fun having it chase around some of Da Masta Cheef's Orks in that last game. I look forward to fielding it again.


6 comments:

Suber said...

Sweet take on this classic one, I really like it!

Siph_Horridus said...

Love it! Easily used as a DE Beast. And now in Necromunda when that comes out ;)

neverness said...

Thanks! I am pleased with it as well, but I am you guys like it too.

Rory (Stepping Between Games) said...

Got to admit that model is from before my time, looks well though.

Zzzzzz said...

Dark Flesh was an absolutely fantastic colour. Sooooooo many uses.

neverness said...

Oh I agree. I got the new version of it and have recently rediscovered my love if it. There was an old color from the '89 Space Marine paint set called Terracotta that I absolutely adored. I wish I had a new bottle of it.