Autumn Wood Elves

Post by **Anardakil** » 08 Oct 2006, 15:48

I just got 2/3rds through my first unit, so with 8 Glade Guards finished I thought I'd show them to you folks... and why not start an army painting blog to spur my efforts? (I'm rather slow at painging :P)

I am very happy with these girls and boys, the pictures may not be the best, but hopefully they'll do. Just after taking the photos I noticed that I'd missed highlighting one piece of cloth (on a male on the four models base), but that's been fixed now.

What do you think?

Four more glade guardians are to follow, and after that I will try to tackle the Dryads, or maybe my Branchwraith.

What colours do you people reckon I should paint my elven steeds in to complement the warm colour scheme I've got? I'm thinking of painting them grey as a contrast. Is that a good idea?
The forest spirits will probably also be grey, but with the colours of the glade guards for leaves to tie the force together.

Post by **csandvik** » 08 Oct 2006, 17:20

Nice looking figures! How did you base them? What did you use?

For the horses I would use tans, and white maybe some gray for the horses. Althought I saw a noble done in fall colors on a black steed and it looked awesome! That is what I will try next.

Post by **Anardakil** » 08 Oct 2006, 17:46

Thanks csandvik, I'm glad you like them.
I based them with sand painted scorched brown, drybrushed with graveyard earth and then bleached bone. The leaves are mixed herbs stolen from the kitchen painted and highlighted in the same colours as the clothing (except for the graveyard earth colour as they would blend with the sand anyway), and some birch seeds washed with watered down scorched brown. Then there's some clump foliage drybrushed with vomit brown, and some static grass that's also been drybrushed with vomit brown.

I could make a simple text painting tutorial for the models if anyone wants to know how I did them.

I don't think I want to paint the horses white, I don't like painting white and I'm afraid it would get too bright, I also want to steer away from black for much the same reason (although it's too dark in this case, and not too bright).
Do you not think tans will make the steeds blend into the riders? What colours of tans do you recommend? (GW colours)

Post by **Molgan** » 08 Oct 2006, 18:33

Nice painting, like the brownish theme over it. Myself are going for a heavy brown, and some green spring-theme.

Think the horses would look good lighter grey, or white. Brown horses would be to much brown. Or like Csandvik said, black horses would look great. But it makes me (atleast) to think about dark riders.

But if you mae them very dark brown, black with some dark brown hihlights, it could work

Post by **Asterion** » 08 Oct 2006, 21:33

These look brilliant. Congrats on the most autumnal wood elves I've seen. Bases finish them off perfectly.
Don't take this the wrong way as I highly regard the technique, but did you dip these? The blending is so nice they have a bit of that appearance to them. If not you've done damn well to blend them up the way you have. Look forward to seeing more.

Post by **davidvc04** » 08 Oct 2006, 23:01

Fantastic work. I hope to see more pics posted in the future!

Post by **Prince of Arnheim** » 09 Oct 2006, 00:06

Very very nice. I like the brown. I like how it camoflauges the archers with the bases. The bowstrings are a nice touch too.

Post by **Kyte** » 09 Oct 2006, 11:39

Very good work! Reminds me a lot of Emrys' work!

- Kyte

Post by **toshiro** » 09 Oct 2006, 14:46

bra jobbat

Post by **Anardakil** » 09 Oct 2006, 15:16

Thanks for all the replies and feedback everyone! :wub:

To Molgan: Thanks =) I've decided he horses'll be in various tones of grey. And yay for brown colour schemes!

To Asterion: Thanks a lot =D No they're not dipped at all. They've been painted using the traditional layer painting technique and they're not blended either (except for the graveyard earth clothing). Either I did a good job or the camera smoothed out the colours =) Actually I think it's a little of both. I've written a short tutorial of how I painted them.

To Prince of Arnheim: Thanks, yeah the tricky thing is to make them seem at home in the environment (the bases) and yet not look so similar that they blend together completely.

To Kyte: That's fun to hear. Emrys is technically better at painting though =)

I'll probably update once in a month or so, so stay tuned people.

Here's the tutorial:
*drumroll*
Anardakil's sloppy painting tutorial! :ph43r:

Step 1: Spray the models black and then basecoat them in scorched brown.
2: Paint the cloaks terracotta and leave some scorched brown in the recesses. Highlight with terracotta mixed with some bleached bone, and then once more with even more bone added to the mix.
3: Paint some clothing areas vermin brown, again leaving scorched brown in the recesses. Highlight by adding fiery orange to the vermin brown, and then once more with even more orange.
4: Paint some other clothing areas with watered down graveyard earth until you've got an OK blending effect. Highlight by adding just a little bit of bone to the colour.
5: Paint the last clothing areas and the wood of the bows with snakebite leather, but don't leave any of the original colour at all, instead you should leave the leather colour in the recesses while painting the rest in vomit brown (this might need a few coats since vomit brown covers poorly). Highlight the vomit brown by mixing in some bone, and then with pure bone.
6: Paint the faces with dwarf flesh, leaving scorched brown where you think the face would be shadowed. Then highlight with watered down elf flesh, and then make a final highlight with elf flesh. Wash the face with very watered down scorched brown. Leave the eyes dark.
7: Highlight all the ropes or bands or whatever with bone.
8: Highlight the leather armour with vermin brown.
9: Paint the base, glue on static grass or whatever you like.
10: Admire your models and reward yourself for your effort by killing some stuff in a video game.

Post by **mousekiller** » 14 Oct 2006, 20:59

Really awesome looking couple of WE. The paint job is great, but what is even greater is that you took the time to string all of those bows. Again, great job, love the autumn theme.

Post by **channeller** » 15 Oct 2006, 04:31

They look awesome Anardakil, great blending. Just out of interest, how did you do the bow strings? It seems nigh impossible on such a small scale.

Post by **Anardakil** » 28 Dec 2006, 14:32

Christmas update!:

My GG unit has been done for quite a while, but I've been too lazy to take pics of it. Here is a picture of the whole unit of twelve elves. The picture might not be that great, I don't know. I had some trouble with the camera. Anyway here it is:

Next I think I'll give them some arrows ;D And then it's time to paint some dryads.

And now it is time to show you what else I've been doing with my time:

A merry green (and a tad bit late) christmas too you!
I'd like to change the title of my project log as I now intend to use it for all my stuff, (Wood Elves, O&G and certain army for 40k) but I don't really know how to change it. I guess maybe I need a mod for that.

Oh and for those who wonder how I made the bowstrings... I just used some thread I found in my mother's sewing box. And with some tweezers (or whatever those things are called) and great deal of effort and swearing I managed to attach the strings. It's not easy to make knots at that scale but it's possible, oh and I made double knots -_- then I reinforced the knots with glue. Even trickier were the elves aiming with their bows. I had to superglue the middle portion of the strings to their hands - and that was NOT fun.

But i's worth it

Arrows here I come!

Post by **Victorianbelle** » 29 Dec 2006, 00:56

Absolutely love them!

Your bow strings are actually very inspirational, and I am now very much wanting to start stringing up my own bows!!!! Thanks for that little guide! what kind of glue is best for the thread?

I also like that you have used both the hooded faces and the helmets, the combination actually looks better than all of one kind.

Am looking forward for more! Especially curious as to how the dryads will turn out (as I am having a tough time figuring out what would be a good way to paint them).

Post by **Anardakil** » 29 Dec 2006, 01:29

I'm glad you love them victorianbelle

I dont know what glue works best, but liquid spuerglue works very well for me. But it might not be that good if your models are already painted. In that case you should find som glue that doesn't ruin the paint.

Well yeah I don't intend to field any scouts in my army so I thought I'd mix the heads since I like all of them, and don't want to miss out on one kind

Post by **-= Racka =-** » 29 Dec 2006, 18:01

gorgeous m8

Post by **GreenDragonAddict** » 30 Dec 2006, 06:28

man these are really nice
i was going to do my elves autumn, this just convinced me more ;d

Post by **davidvc04** » 30 Dec 2006, 08:05

The autumn GG look incredible, and I love the Xmas goblins.

So what method did you use for the bow strings? And I'm curious about the bows themselves...what color scheme did you use?

Post by **Deeon** » 30 Dec 2006, 10:09

That is the best GG units I've ever seen! I can't belive it!

Can't wait to see the other models painted!

I have to say it again... Those GG are fricking kick ass! Very, very, very nice.

Post by **Anardakil** » 01 Jan 2007, 22:55

Thanks everyone!

Oh and GreenDragonAddict, it's great to be an inspiration

Davidvc04, I've already described how I did the strings. Look near the end of my post with the most recent pictures.

Wow that is very flattering Deeon

Thank you. I'm afraid you'll have to wait a while for some new models to look at. I'm lazy, and I just started playing The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

Post by **Zalasta** » 11 Jan 2007, 03:14

Fantastic! really nice painting i must say! good work!

( Gött jobbat

Hälsningar från vårt land)

Post by **Beithir Seun** » 13 Jan 2007, 19:12

brilliant job there! really nice selection of warm colours - possibly the best glade guard i've seen!! and the goblins - what can i say?!!! they really are great! keep up the good work!

Post by **Anardakil** » 23 Jan 2007, 22:28

Wow! Seems like people really like my figs. Thanks Beithir Seun, och tack så mycket Zalasta

I just finished two chaos space marines this weekend, but they're not quite as good as my wood elves. Damn I hate painting chaos marines -_-

We'll see what I'll do next. Either I'll finish the Chaos Marines squad I'm currently working on, or I'll paint my mini-goblin diorama. I will also glue and undercoat my first unit of dryads.

Bleh I'm slow. I shouldn't play as much video games and waste so much time on the net :P

Post by **Beithir Seun** » 23 Jan 2007, 23:57

Anardakil wrote: I'll paint my mini-goblin diorama.

There's a diorama?!?!?!

PLEASE POST PICTURES SOON!!!

Post by **Anardakil** » 27 Jan 2007, 17:37

Beithir Seun wrote:
Anardakil wrote: I'll paint my mini-goblin diorama.

There's a diorama?!?!?! PLEASE POST PICTURES SOON!!!

Well yes a mini-diorama, so it's nothing spectacular - but it's funny!

You can actually see the unpainted WIP version in one of the pictures, but I just finished painting it today. I'll get some pictures by tomorrow.

Asrai.org

Autumn Wood Elves

Autumn Wood Elves