Finally, I get to do an Insider on my favorite Journeyman Warcaster! Our young Retribution Warcaster, Elara, Tyro of the Third Chamber successfully completed her “learn-to- kill-everything” training and became a full-fledged warcaster. This promotion came, of course, with an impressive, new title: Elara, Death’s Shadow.

Comparing her original concept (by Nick Kay) to her current concept (by Nate Feyme), you can see Elara is the same tall, lanky combatant we first met a few years ago.

Peeking at the early concept art gives us an idea of what her creation process was like. When creating new warcasters, Art Director Mike Vaillancourt likes to start with a lot of options for the team to review. To keep ideas clean and simple, he started with these silhouettes:

Once the team had finalized Elara’s new design, it was time to pick her pose. Sculptors use the pose as a guide for their work. Sometimes it will be tweaked to improve production or to crank up the cool factor. For Elara, they went with option C and passed the final concept along to a sculptor, who just happened to be me! (Are you really surprised? I mean, who else would sculpt Elara? There was no way I was letting this project slip through my fingers!)

As a fan of Retribution of Scyrah, I try to get as many sculpts as I can for this Faction. Plus, I had sculpted both of her previous versions, so I was excited to have this opportunity to sculpt her latest version. In the end, I was very pleased with the results. The whole process made me feel like a proud parent watching my kid grow up!

And finally we’ll wrap things up with a great illustration (by Jeremy Chong) that shows Elara in action. For me, this piece was an instant favorite, and it gives a hint at what Death’s Shadow brings to WARMACHINE. I can’t wait to add Elara, Death’s Shadow to my own games!

To wrap up this series, we’ll take a quick look at the visual development of Kommander Andrei Malakov. We wanted to reflect his relentless desire for power by using Irusk as an influence for his new look.

In this final concept by Andrea Uderzo, you can see Malakov is dressing the part of a great leader, as if his shiny new armor grants him entry into the ol-’caster- club.

Does he look like less of a selfish $#!% after art director Mike Vaillancourt gives him some color? Nope!

Oh, what the hell? The illustration by Svetlin Velinov really showcases what a jerk Malakov is. I’m here to tell you, he isn’t trying to save that poor Winter Guard. Do you see why I consider Cryx the heroes of the setting? Do you?

Sculptor Carlos Castaño has done an excellent job of capturing everything we love to hate about Malakov in the rendering above. Don’t you want to punch him in the face? (Talking about Malakov here, not Carlos Castaño.)

And with the final figure in hand, painter Dallas Kemp brings him to life in all his anti-glory.

In reality, creating characters like this is a lot of fun, and you never know, maybe Kommander Malakov will get his redemption story. In the meantime, you can put him on the tabletop and turn him loose on your friends after you pick him up at Gen Con or the Privateer Press Online Store next week, from August 4th through 7th.