Today we get some insight into the design of the new Slaanesh Miniatures that are up for pre-orders tomorrow. Lets get into the latest...
via the Warhammer Community
https://www.warhammer-community.com/2019/04/26/slaanesh-designer-insightsgw-homepage-post-3/
Curious as to how the new Slaanesh models were designed? So were we – so we caught up with Ben from the miniatures design studio to learn more, and we picked up some very interesting insights in the process…
Ben is a key part of how we design our models, providing top-level creative guidance for our designers as they take miniatures from mock-up to their final versions.
Ben: I started off by making a list of words for the Slaanesh models that would go on to help the designers when they made them.
A lot of these key words and phrases are reflected in the poses of the Slaanesh models, with the daemonic servants of the Dark Prince carrying themselves very differently from other Daemons.
Ben: Rather than depicting them mid-battle, we wanted the servants of Slaanesh to look proud, enticing, and elegant. The new Masque, for instance, is dancing, which fits their background. We’ve got a dancer on our team, who was kind enough to give us some notes on posing them properly!
We wanted the physique of the models to look distinct, too. Esske was based on Olympic swimmers, to make him look strong without being too barbarous. Likewise, with the Keeper of Secrets, we wanted to strike a balance between it looking lithe and graceful without being too ropey and skinny. It’s still a powerful Daemon, after all!
The grace of the new Slaanesh models may also bring to mind some of the other denizens of the 41st Millennium and Mortal Realms – this is quite deliberate!
Ben: You’ll notice a lot of the lines and arabesques* look very Aeldarior aelven. That’s deliberate! Slaanesh is connected very closely with these races in Warhammer 40,000 and Warhammer Age of Sigmar, and we wanted to reflect that in the models.
It’s not just the poses and shapes of the new Slaanesh models that make them stand out, but their splendor. Rather than being clad in armour, like the Daemons of Khorne and Nurgle, the servants of Slaanesh are much more finely dressed.
Ben: We wanted the models to have the feel of a festival. Some models – like the attendants of the Contorted Epitome – are dressed like revellers at a party. Shalaxi Helbane’s headdress, meanwhile, makes them look like they’re at a carnival.
Ben: The important thing to remember about Daemons is that they don’t have “clothes” as a normal mortal does – anything they wear is as much a manifestation of the will of Slaanesh as they are. The line between where the Daemon ends and clothing begins is deliberately unclear. The stockings, for example, start as clothing, and end up as part of the Daemon itself. We wanted the clothing to give each model its own identity, distinguishing them from each other.
The splendour of the new models isn’t just reflected in their clothing, but their jewellery and accessories, which contain several references to the Dark Prince that the eagle-eyed may have already spotted.
Ben: We wanted to refer to the symbol of Slaanesh very subtly throughout the range of models. Very few of them have the full symbol on them, but you’ll see elements of it reflected on nearly every miniature.
