These two modela are the final pair for this little run of Cthulhu: Death May Die Mythos Creatures – at least until I get another one painted. Today we have some Byakhee. The design on these ones is rather different to the old model I painted years ago and fixed up a year ago. But then again, the background of Byakhee is almost interesting – a nameless creature (or creatures) in Lovecraft’s stories, they were named by a friend and publisher of HPL’s writings. So… fill yer boots, I guess!
As with other Mythos creatures from this game’s range, layers of Contrast-type paints played a big part in the painting – once again I drew from Citadel and Green Stuff World’s ranges as well as some Army Painter washes – and a little bit of traditional highlighting and painting in spots. As usual, I based the scheme off the game’s artwork so they’re easily recognisable on the table from the cards, though I added a little bit more colour on their wings and to their flesh as I thought the art looked a little monotone and other people’s painted examples adding in some extra purples and such looked much nicer.
I did have to use the old Hot Water trick to bend their wings a little. They were really flat looking and I wasn’t a fan. A few seconds work for each wing and they’re looking much nicer. You can see the difference here. The one on the right also got hairdryer-ed to straighten up his posture, since he looked a little drunk.
The painting of these was overall pretty quick, easy and enjoyable. I do like the loose freedom that highly organic, weird-shit models like these offer, especially when compared to a lot of other models that I paint which really call for more careful and strict work – these figures provide a much-needed break along with “easy wins” that look a whole lot better than models on the level of the D&D boardgame figures.
As with pretty much all of the Mythos creatures I’ve painted so far, these fit into that mid-tier of foes, like the Flying Polyps and Fire Vampires and various other whatnot. I’ve only got one more of these things on the go on the Painting Desk – the next batches of these DMD models still need to have their mold lines cleaned up so will be a little further away.
Azazel's Bitz Box. 
Nasty looking individuals! Very nicely done and all the better for that extra bit of subtle colour in them! 🙂
LikeLiked by 3 people
Thanks John – these were a nice change from the D&D models – nicer to work on with a lot more “play” in them as far as the painting goes.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Excellent work on both mate, the bending was well worth the extra work as it improves the overall look of the models. the subtle colours really add another level to the models as well.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thanks Dave. I’ve started preparing another couple of them and the hot water bending is certainly key to a lot of these models looking better than produced!
LikeLiked by 1 person
These have come out really well, you really got the gross organic flesh going!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thank you! It was pretty fun to do overall…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Where did all these Byakhee come from? They’re like buses, you wait forever for one to emerge from the interstellar gloom and then four show up at once! Lovely work mate, probably a good thing that I didn’t see these until after I’d uploaded mine, otherwise I’d be tempted to give mine a few tweaks and improvements (although who knows – I might still…). Love the flesh (very nasty!) and you’ve got the wings spot on.
LikeLiked by 3 people
These remind me quite a bit of Nosferatu-style vampires but with wings. You did a fantastic job painting these up, mate. They are creepy and look straight out of a classic horror movie to me. Its interesting to compare these to the Byakhee designs that Fantasy Flight came up with. I think these are much more terrifying in a good way!
LikeLiked by 3 people
Excellent beasties, and great job reshaping the wings! A small but important detail that I certainly like 👍
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh my God… I LOVE these bad boys… Fantastic!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Good job on getting the wings back into shape. It’s always worth the effort to reshape things. Nice work man, they’re absolutely ghastly!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Sooo, I took a look at these pics and read through the post just before we were heading out for a long weekend…and unfortunately never got a chance to respond! Now I get to try to recall my thoughts…First off, they look great! The skin tone, the fleshy parts of the wings are all very nice with some smooth blending there. Bending the wings was a pretty smart choice too. I had to take a look at the game art, since you had mentioned it a few times now. The colors are different for this game than what I’ve seen in other games, but hey, they can be whatever! A pic of the game art with the mini might be nice, but now I know and can always look them up. I’m not a big Cthulhu fan, but I do like me some random monster creatures. Probably that a combination of your painting has gotten me pretty interested in this lot. Though I think I’ll have to live vicariously through your model work, as I don’t have a game purpose to buy these up.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Love the wings!
LikeLike