Monday, January 7, 2008

Special Slot Construction



These "treekin" models are in the process of being sweet. I used sculpey clay to form a body, which i will cover in green stuff and texture it like bark. I am not sure how well the stick models will mix with the new sculpey models. I guess I will wait and see - I can always add more of one or the other types of models I suppose. The deer will be modeled after the dear that kicks the guys ass in "When Animals Attack". The squirrel will look pretty pissed and possibly funny with the short arms. I wanted the bear to not be attacking, but just growling with a huge mouth. I think i might have gone over the top - but again, we are talking about demonic trees that partly resemble animals, so who knows what that would look like. The stick figure guy to the right was inspired by the Transormer (Bonecrusher - Decepticon [I am gay]) that goes after Optimus Prime with the Scorpion thing.

Tuesday, January 1, 2008

Rare slots


for the rare slots I am using the albion list truthsayer and two fenbeasts. I am using the 'hengus' model for the truthsayer and making my own fenbeasts, which i will think of as Snow Elementals. I am making the snow elementals out of 'sculpey' which is a putty that you form up and then bake to make it tough. It worked pretty well in the trial run - a keeper I think. For the second fenbeast/snow elemental, I am just going to make the other hand.

Testing, 1-2, testing...




Here are some pictures of my initial painting and basing schemes. I am pretty pleased. It isn't perfect, but whatever. The horse is my favorite. When Nietzel was trying to talk me into starting Warhammer years ago, I remember thinking that if I were to paint horses, I would want to try to paint spotted horses, because that is what we had on our farm, and they are sweet. I couldn't believe how well my first attempt turned out.

I couldn't resist trying out a piece of wintery terrain. I made a rocky outcropping. I am using something called 'snow-tex' for the snow. It is super easy. It is what old ladies use for giving pinecones and wreaths the snow effect for christmas. It looks like fine-grade cottage cheese. It pastes on and dries in about an hour. It is very easy to work with, and much less messy than the powder stuff that I started with. Anyone want to buy a big-ass jar of fake snowy powder stuff?

Wintery Wood Elves


After years of piecing together an Orcs and Goblins army, I learned some things about my painting abilities and preferences.
1. I am sick of painting everything green.
2. I want to switch it up and do a winter theme.
3. most importantly - I learned to paint from above the table, or what I
think of as "painting from a distance".
I would spend hours painting the O&G and tediously. I tried to paint every detail, and would paint the model right in front of my face. Then I played with the models and couldn't see any of my detailing during the actual game. I realized that contrast matters more than detail from a distance. Painting for contrast also doesn't require tons of layering highlights, inking, and dry brushing. You can do it, but instead of 12-15 steps, I hope to paint most of my new models in 3 or 4 steps. I think I am learning to be a more efficient painter. Pictured above: general on dragon. Just getting started on him.

modeling



I really like making conversions on models. For this project, I decided that I want to model most of the stuff that is in my army that is non-core. I plan on making my treekin from scratch. I don't care for the GW models very much, and plan on making mine look guys as well as animals in the forest. I modeled a spider out of greenstuff, and have a deer in the making. A little "before" and "after" for you on the first of the scratch built models. It turned out above my expectations.

Begin Production



I am now starting a wood elf army. I bought some High Elf spearmen to use as eternal guard a long time ago. Then on ebay the other day, I bought a small war party of six glade riders and five glade scouts. I figured that I would use these just to practice my color scheme on, which I did. I am now pretty pleased with the idea and yesterday a called up the Wood Elves battalion on ebay for 75 (usually 90).