I’ve always felt that the dreadscythe harridans were a little bit naff. The concept of savage ghosts with jagged claws is suitably terrifying in and of itself but Games Workshop, in their wisdom, clearly felt it wasn’t enough. Instead they kept adding things, striving for something unique that they could put their stamp on, and ended up over-egging the pudding. It was bad enough that they gave them a contrived back-story about them all having been doctors (and seriously GW, haven’t you done the evil doctors thing to death by now) but then they decided that they would all be female as well. Of course conveying femininity isn’t easy when all you have to work with is an animated sheet with enormous claws, but rather than rise to the challenge they decided to make do with putting flowers in their hair. Here’s one of the studio models so that anyone who isn’t familiar with them can see what I’m on about.
I had intended to let the murderous-stabby-lady-doctor-flower-power-ghosts pass me by, but I got the chance to buy a single one rather than a full box and talked myself into it on the grounds that she would bring variety to my Nighthaunt warband. What better time to get her painted than Fembruary?
I replaced the skull of the original model with the head from the zombie kit (also from GW) which I think makes her look a bit more scary, and – to my eye at least – makes the flowers look less out of place.
February 18th, 2022 at 7:52 am
Nicely done and I prefer the green to the studio white.🙂
February 19th, 2022 at 8:57 am
Cheers! Yeah, the white looks too much like a sheet for my taste. It works for something like the Blood Bowl ghosts that I painted the other week because those actually are sheets, but these are supposed to be a bit more serious. Plus it helps that the green is nice and easy to paint and the white is quite the opposite!
February 18th, 2022 at 8:27 am
Nice mate, the green looks great but the pose is a bit weird to me
February 19th, 2022 at 9:07 am
Cheers! Yeah, the pose is a bit weird isn’t it? It’s the problem with buying one random sculpt from a set, you take the risk of ending up with an odd looking one like this! I like the way the Nighthaunt are twisted into all kinds of weird shapes and poses but it’s an effect which works best across a squad than it does with individual models. With this one I tried angling her head upwards more but that made her arms look awkward, and shifting the arms would have meant resculpting parts of the model and was generally more hassle than it was worth. In the end I’m happy enough with her but it was definitely a compromise.
February 18th, 2022 at 11:11 am
Nicely done! 🙂 Your take looks way better!
February 19th, 2022 at 9:07 am
Thank you 😊
February 19th, 2022 at 2:57 am
That is one creepy looking ghost lady! My complaint about the sculpt is that the blade things look like Tyranid arms and that is a real suspension of disbelief for me anyway! 🙂
February 21st, 2022 at 6:19 pm
I think when I first saw them I joked that they were Genestealer Cultist size-zero models! This is also why I went for rusted blades rather than organic boney claws, I liked the idea that this is a construct rather than a creature, anything to make her look less like a Tyranid. On the whole though I feel that GW tried too hard to be clever here and just missed the mark. A pity because the rest of the Nighthaunt range is stunning but you can’t win them all.
February 20th, 2022 at 6:02 pm
Much better mate – turd successfully polished I’d say 😊👍
February 23rd, 2022 at 1:51 pm
Cheers mate – definitely a case of doing the best I could with the material but I reckon she’ll do. 🙂
February 20th, 2022 at 6:17 pm
I actually don’t mind the flower hairs, even if the design is a bit lazy, but can’t get over the blade arms. They look awkward and don’t make sense to me. Hmm.. I wonder if swapping the arms for normal, handed ones, would make the models work for me.
February 23rd, 2022 at 1:56 pm
The arms are a bit weird aren’t they? I like them well enough but the Nighthaunt range is already stuffed with ghosts who stab and slash wildly at whoever they meet and it seems to me that they were trying to do something different with the concept here, without actually doing anything different. It’s part of the reason I’m so pleased to see the new crossbow ghosts actually, the Nighthaunt are crying out for something that isn’t just more of the same. I think putting hands on these ladies could be quite cool actually, might be something worth pursuing. If I ever get another one it’s something I’ll take a look at.
February 20th, 2022 at 10:23 pm
Those are lovely- the green is always a favourite of mine.
Cheers,
Pete.
February 23rd, 2022 at 1:57 pm
Thank you – I like it a lot myself (it’s dead easy to paint and it looks pretty good, what more could anyone ask for!).
March 13th, 2022 at 4:58 am
You know what I’m going to say!!! yep, love that GREEEN !
March 17th, 2022 at 5:44 pm
Cheers muchly! More, as ever, are on their way – I can’t resist painting that green either!
April 7th, 2022 at 8:17 pm
Um.. lovely? As with the other commentators, I do love that deep green for this model. I’d be tempted to try and putty surgical masks over their mouths if I were going the high-effort fluff-tastic route with these. So.. yeah, not much chance of that happening. 😀
May 30th, 2022 at 9:50 pm
Oooh – I do like that idea! If I had the sculpting skills I’d add a stethoscope hanging out of a pocket as well. That’s well beyond my abilities, or time, but maybe now we’ve both thought about it the idea will percolate into the mass unconscious and somebody will make it happen!
June 3rd, 2022 at 2:10 am
It wouldn’t be the first time I’ve had a great idea, sat on it for several years only to eventually see someone else stole it from me (despite me not ever having spoken about it publicly!)