Minor daemons and murder parrots, primarily for Warcry, but with all sorts of uses in many games.
Furies have been in Warhammer for well over a decade now (possibly more than two). Analogous to – but legally distinct from – harpies, they also show up in the 40k setting.
The current miniatures debuted in the 2019 Warcry Starter set as “Chaotic Beasts” that show up to cause trouble when the inhabitants of the Bloodwind Spoil are trying to have an orderly, ideological driven Sharks vs Jets style rumble, as described here.
I have had these nifty looking figures for a while, assembled and waiting for the painting stars to align. I tried some Contrast paint experiments on them and I like how they eventually turned out: eye catching but still sinister.
For the second set of monsters in the Warcry Starter set – Raptoryx – I decided that I wanted to go for a jungle inhabiting, terror-bird sort of vibe: like some sort of horrifying predator at home on Skull Island or Isla Nublar or similar. As I have plans for pirate based games brewing, plus I (again) had a few experiments that I wanted to try with Contrast paint, I went for a full parrot vibe on these.
A full army that looked that bright that would be a little much I think. However, as a group to sit in the medium sized predator category in my skirmish games, I think that these murder-parrots look great. Technically, it is a very naturalistic colour scheme, close to real world birds.
Importantly the models are great and look pretty terrifying to me. Birds are, genetically speaking, dinosaurs after all.
As I see these creepy pooches as part of a set of wandering monsters for Warcry games, along with the Raptoryx and Furies, I decided to add the Chaos Warhounds that I painted about a year ago to this post. More details on those are in this post.
Some do not like the plastic chaos warhound models, but I do, and the creepy, vaguely Resident Evil inspired flesh tones made me like them more.
I also painted a monkey wearing a hat, the powder monkey from the Empire/Freeguild Handgunners set from Citadel/GW. It doesn’t really warrant it’s own solo post, so he goes in here.
Hardcore fans will remember his first appearance in fan-favourite episode of “The Continuing Adventures of Notrek and Faulix“, the final episode to feature the laughter track.
Now that the “Chaotic Beasts” and “Ruined City” terrain from the Warcry Starter Set are painted, I might tackle some actual Warcry warbands (rather than playable factions from Age of Sigmar) soon.
Filed under: Miniatures | Tagged: 2021, Beasts of Chaos, Chaos, Citadel, Games Workshop, Monkey, Warcry |
sho3box 
Cracking job mate, I especially like the realism you’ve gone for on the murder-birds… superb!
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Thanks Alex!
I hadn’t seen raptoryx in parrot like colours before, and as I wanted to experiment with fading Contrast paint colours across each other, it all just suddenly made sense.
I think that they will be fun to see on the table and if nothing else, easily identifiable.
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Great looking Furies, although I am a bit distressed to notice that one of them has a very instagram-influencer pose going on… the other two poses are more honest in their desire to murder you outright.
Murder parrots are amazing of course, and could be coupled with Kroot painted the same way… maybe also the new Wargames Atlantic lizard men with Krooty heads… parrot men for Venusian jungles?
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Y’know, some kroot kitbashing thoughts crossed my mind Lasgunpacker, and I reckon that it would be possible to make some really nice items with the raptorx. I doubt that realistically I would ever get around to a project like that, although the Wargames Atlantic sets do fascinate me with their unusual but very appealing cross genre accessorising potential. I got a box of spiders in the post today as it happens…
I came across some negativity about the Furies beards at one point, but not about the posing 🙂
I like them a lot, even if they have a tendency to hook on to sleeves etc and leap towards their doom.
I appreciate the feedback Lasgunpacker, thanks!
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Those are gorgeous, and I can see myself lifting… uh.. “being inspired by” your schemes for those three packs. While I can often eyeball things, any specic colours or techniques to share on the Not-Harpies or Murderhawks?
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Thanks Azazel!
I didn’t keep detailed recipes of how I painted these, but I can give you the general gist:
Warhounds were sprayed Wraithbone or Grey Seer (it makes little difference I find), drybrushed/overbrushed with an off white, lightly glazed with a dark red all over, had more glazes of red and some purples applied to appropriate areas and apart from the usual stuff for fur and teeth etc did some simple layering to the body to make the skin overall look off white rather than pink.
Furies were sprayed Mechanicus Standard grey IIRC (a mid to dark grey) and I lightly sprayed the wings with a bone colour from a spray can (an airbrush would be better for this, but I don’t have one and the nature of the models meant that I could get away with it). I drybrushed the body with a lighter grey, hit the entire body with a grey Contrast paint (cant remember which, sorry) and then re-highlighted with the grey. I drybrushed the face, hands, feet and wing membranes with a bone colour. I then brushed the bone colour onto the wing membranes, knuckles and face to get proper opacity where needed. After that I added layers of thinned red Contrast paint or thinned Carroburg Crimson wash to those areas until I liked it and rehighlighted as necessary. I was making it up a bit as I went along here, although I knew what I was aiming for. I decided that lines of bone going inward and lines of red travelling outward was the best way to get what I wanted, but there was a bit of back and forth to get a relatively nuanced (if not really blended) look.
Lastly, the raptoryx were sprayed either Wraithbone or Grey Seer and then I picked the range of Contrast colours that I wanted to go through, based on looking at some images of parrots. I also used the images of parrots to determine where the colours should go, roughly.
Starting with a bright, light blue contrast (Aethermatic maybe?) I painted thinned overlapping layers of the relevant Contrast colours fading through the models. Where the jump was too severe I went back with more glazing to blend them a bit better. I used pure Contrast in some areas for extra definition. I also spot washed with washes sometimes. I added simple highlights in places in between glazes, after glazing or both, as necessary. Highlighting with a single colour across two blending base colours can help to tie them together.
This process sounds like a lot of faffing around, but as a technique it requires very little precision and is quite forgiving. This approach is pretty organic though, so doesn’t break down into step by step as easily as some other approaches. If I did it more often, then maybe I would get it locked in better.
Phew. I hope that helps!
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These all look great, but your raptors are my particular favorite. The colors are just amazing!
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Thanks Hobbs!
It is a bit of a risk slopping high intensity colours all over models like that, but I think that grounding it in reality – parrot colour schemes – helps to sell a pretty full-on palette.
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Love them, parrots especially! Would love to do a Murder parrots feat. murder parrots thing at some point, those raptoryx look like something my tribe would worship or use as hunting beasts.
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The obvious thematic approach would be that the youths of the tribe have to hunt one as a rite of passage and wear some of the feathers in their costume.
Warbands in Warcry get to recruit Chaotic Beasts as “Thralls”, so having a couple of these in your warband is already catered for in the rules. We will of course have a pack of them running around in some Ghost Archipelago games too.
It is just a matter of “when” Mikko, not “if” 🙂
You should pick up a few and paint them to match your band. They are great fun to paint, loads of lovely textures that are easy to pick out.
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That colour scheme on the Furies is beautiful. The warm and cool contrast works for me. Really accentuates the wing detail.
It is indeed a tad odd that fhe middle one as a bit of a ‘pole dance’ pose going, but demons can do what they want.
The Raptoryx (odd name) are excellent in every way. The deviation to the concept art was a good joice. Really love the colourful parrot theme. Great contrast and they just pop. I think an entire warband would work, too.
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Thanks D&B!
It was important to me that the furies look sinister, a little otherworldly and the dark/light contrast seemed like a good way to do it. I’m glad the recesses of the reddish colour is so vibrant on the wings, rather than the main surface of those areas being red, with essentially black recesses.
The raptoryx get away with a lot more than might be expected with a palette like that, purely because it rings true on some level, because of parrots and other brightly coloured birds. It was a fun technical experiment in painting and all the better because it worked out as a nice unit in the end too.
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Just great stuff man, loved the color blends that you chose on the murder parrots. But I really liked the monkey!
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The monkey did get a bit lost in the monsters Mark, but it was a very pleasurable model to paint.
I’m glad that someone mentioned the little guy!
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Those are some great looking additions to any D1000 Wandering Monsters table!
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It’s funny how the encounter tables in the first RPGs that I ever read have lurked at the back of my mind ever since.
I’m at the planning stage of a small gaming event that I hope to run when some elements of normality return. There won’t be a D1000 Encounter table, but I very much plan to have a bespoke one that features these guys.
Thanks for the feedback Subedai!
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Just gorgeous painting… well done!
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Thanks TinyPaintedHeroes! I got a kick out of working on them and it think that it shows.
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Great work – the frill neck murder chickens are great.
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Thanks Warburton!
Considering how potentially comedic the model design is, plus the bright colours scheme, I am regularly surprised at how lethal they look. I keep imagining low to ground virtual camera shots of them hunting through a jungle.
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Oh, they are all so different and so great each one on their own style! The Furies are intimidating, they have a creepy vibe you really got right with your paintjob.
On the other side, the Raptoryx look like real jungle predators, very Ghost Archipelago or something like that. You chose the colours wisely.
The pack of Warhounds looks great; they might be more ‘regular’ beasts, compared th the others, but they certainly look great.
And the lil’ monkey in so great! 😀
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The raptoryx were definitely supposed to give off that sort of Jurassic Park vibe, 100% intended for use in Ghost Archipelago too, while I wanted the furies to look less like more familiar real world live animals, more supernatural.
I wanted the hounds to look less like the familiar dark browns that are usually seen, and more like a subterranean mutant strain.
None of it worked perfectly, but it all worked well enough I think Suber,, thanks!
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fantastic looking stuff
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Thanks Riot!
They did come together nicely.
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