Mini of the Week 8-4-17

Welcome back to Mini of the Week, where every Friday I will find a miniature from around the web that exemplifies an aspect of our hobby and share it with you.

Drazhar, Master of Blades by Gareth Nicholas

Wow, what a fantastically painted model. This is a classic Dark Eldar color scheme if I have ever seen one. The dark teal with the vibrant purple, the white face mask, and the glowing green runes. It's like it's straight out of a Games Workshop publication. All of it is wonderfully smooth too, with those painted on light reflections really showing off the high gloss sheen the drucharii's armor is supposed to have. Everything about the paint job on this is great, with only the base being a little plain. That's most likely due to it being a commission and needing to fit in with the client's needs. Oh, you might be wondering where this Drazhar model came from since it doesn't look like the official GW model from 3rd edition? Well...

He sculpted it! That's right, he sculpted the entire model from scratch using a classic piece of artwork of the mysterious Incubi master as inspiration. This was a digital sculpt and then he had it printed through Shapeways. I think it's safe to say he's pretty good at sculpting. The mini is so dynamic and flawless. I'm sure the amazing paint job is helping show it off in the best light possible, but it's still a great sculpt at the end of the day. I would have thought this was a GW model were it not for some of the stockiness on certain areas like his horns which I'm sure are a byproduct of the 3D printing process. You have to make things a little more sturdy than normal. All around this is an amazing model, both the scratch sculpt and the paint job. I highly recommend you check out the rest of the angles and views on Gareth's website.

Be sure to check out more views of the model on Gareth Nicholas' blog and show the artist some love if you like it.

Until next time,

Tyler M.

For all of your own miniature needs visit Ministomp where you can get the entire Games Workshop product range. They also have frequent model giveaways on their Twitter account, so be sure to follow them.