Here's my Duel entry for Golden Demon UK 2013. If anyone's unsure, this is an Ulthwé Farseer squaring off against a Flesh Tearers Contemptor Dreadnought.
I immediately thought of this idea when I saw the new plastic Farseer, which I really love for a number of reasons. The base in the kit gives the Farseer a slight forward lean, so by omitting the base the model is instead facing upwards. When I had that image in my mind the Dreadnought just seemed like a good fit, especially since the Forgeworld Contemptors are so poseable.
I chose Ulthwé because I really like them, I think they're very representative of the Eldar ethos, their whole gloomy doomy attitude. I've also painted an army of them, so the colour scheme was familiar. The head comes from the Dark Eldar Wyches kit, other than that it's all straight out of the box.
For the Dreadnought, I wanted a colour scheme that worked well with the dark, cold tones of the Ulthwé Farseer, as well as a suitably ferocious chapter of Space Marines to balance the good-bad ambiguity of the Eldar. The Flesh Tearers are certainly fighting for the Imperium, but I wouldn't exactly call this dude "good".
A big focus with this duel was to convey a sense of direction and movement, as the Farseer mind-pushes the Dreadnought off the cliff. The plastic Farseer already has great, flowing robes, and I used the braid to reinforce that. For the Dreadnought, the challenge was to keep him looking heavy and not too flimsy, and I added a bunch of purity seals to again help give a sense of direction.
I really enjoyed making this, duels are always great fun and I've already got some ideas for next year.
Comments or questions are always welcome, of course, and check back soon, we've got more entries from GD UK coming up!
Martin