Project Log: All-Tree Army with Scratch-Built Stuff (PIC HEA

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Zandur of Bronte
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Project Log: All-Tree Army with Scratch-Built Stuff (PIC HEA

Post by Zandur of Bronte »

Evenin',

Back during the Nemesis Crown campaign, I decided that I wanted to attend at least one of the 4 USA Megabattles. The one I picked out was "Under the Hanging Tree". I attended the Games Workshop store in Glen Burnie and actually got to fight against the Hanging Tree model that was on the GW website.

So, at first, I concidered trying to finish my Dwarves in time (This was about two weeks before the event). I messed with them a bit and realised there was no way I was finishing 500 points of Dwarves in two weeks. I'm not sure where my inspiration for what I was going to do came from; But, about a week before the megabattle, I decided, "I'm going to go with an all-tree list!"

Now, I wanted nothing but trees, so I didnt use the Wood Elf list; I used the Ogre Kingdoms list. I feilded what "counted as" a Tyrant, 4 Ironguts, 8 Bulls, and 2 Maneaters. But the list isnt whats important; its the modeling thats important.

So, what I did was, I got a bag of GW monster bases, a package of green stuff, and went out into the yard and rounded up a bunch of twigs. I then proceeded to work day and night and, in one week, built 14 Treemen that, in the end, towered over even the Warhammer giant. I then proceeded to go to the megabattle and get a firm "What the crap?!" reaction from everyone there. In the end, I slew 40 orcs (including their general), 20 undead, and scored 7 wounds on the Hanging Tree - the entire rest of the Forces of Light could only score 3 wounds on the tree COMBINED. So, that was a great success and a ton of fun.

After the battle, I kept stalling on taking pictures of my treemen and posting them somewhere, and I just put them on my top shelf where the kittens couldnt get at them... or so I thought. A few weeks back, one of them got up to the top shelf, and sent 14 uber-fragile stick-and-glue creations hurtling about 8 feet down. So, I am currently in the process of rebuilding and reworking them; they were a mite crude the first time around since I was in a hurry. In addition, now that I had my all-tree thrill, I decided to stop using the horrible Ogre rules and go over to real Wood Elf rules, and have since bought two boxes of Dryads.

Currently, I have only restored two of the models, which will be counting as Tree Kin. Very, very, VERY imposing tree-kin. And everything that isnt a joint, face, foot, or foliage is an actual stick. I have gone through and completely re-foliaged, re-based, and re-painted them.

First, tho, heres the two Dryads I have painted so far... nothin' much to say 'bout 'em...:
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Now, on to the Tree Kin models. First we have the one I have dubbed the "Pirate Tree", because of his pike-arm and missing eye. I wanted to depict him as a very bitter forest spirit.

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Heres a frontal of the whole model. He's one of my favorites, and is the only one who survived the shelf-fall intact.

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Rear view; I didnt give him much foliage, but gave him lots of spiky left-over Dryad bits.

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I didnt have time to do the feet the way I wanted to the first time around, so this time I green-stuffed him some root-feet. I tried to make it look like the roots dissapeared into the ground.

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Closeup of his face and torso. All the limbs are real twigs.

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His trademark head-thing. I dont know why I gave him that, it just looked cool, and looks even cooler with the new paintjob.

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Another front view, with a Dryad for size comparison.

And now for the other one, which is the next in his unit... Getting these things to rank up is horrible.

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Ol' Sadface with a Dryad for scale comparison. Speaking of his face...

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... here it is in more detail.

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Side view, primarily showing off his foliage. I bought a bag of Woodland Scenics trees and cut them up for his back foliage; the origional version, I just stuck foliage on real twigs. It looked okay, but not that great.

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Rear view.

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And lastly, him ranked up with ol' Pirate.

Thanx for looking; I'll have more up soon. I worked out my list and I am feilding 1 Treeman Ancient, 1 Treeman, 3 units of 4 Tree Kin (Or 4 units of 3, whichever), a Branchwraith, and 3 units of 8 Dryads. I will NOT be taking any Elf units; If anything, I may eventually take an Eagle. The point of the army is to evoke the "Last March of the Ents" feel from Lord of the Rings; these tree spirits are very pissed off and are taking matters into their own giant hands. The basic army fluff is that they're part of Drychas woodland uprising; They're attacking anyone they think has done/will do harm to the forest.

I may eventually mix the High Elf and Wood Elf sprues and make an Avelorn army like my original High Elf army was supposed to be but I did not have the skill to implement. But, thats a project for another day; all I want at the moment is my uber-themed Tree list :-D

Cheers,
- Zandur
Last edited by Zandur of Bronte on 18 Oct 2007, 22:14, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Project Log: All-Tree Army with Scratch-Built Stuff (PIC HEA

Post by Hyarion »

Zandur, the Dryads look great! Keep up the good work.
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Re: Project Log: All-Tree Army with Scratch-Built Stuff (PIC HEA

Post by peterhof »

tree kin are very nice but mabe "ahum" big ? :paranoid:

dryads look good
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Zandur of Bronte
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Re: Project Log: All-Tree Army with Scratch-Built Stuff (PIC HEA

Post by Zandur of Bronte »

Aye, they're meant to be huge - Thats a design feature, not an error ;)
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Re: Project Log: All-Tree Army with Scratch-Built Stuff (PIC HEA

Post by Ryikko »

The second dryad reminds me of Smeagol......if that helps

i think it's a really amazing outcome

a good 2000 pts or so for some $90 or so? (without expenses of GS) that's absurd!

are you buying the GS from games workshop? If so, there is a better GS/price ratio that you can get....i forget the name right now, but you can purchase essentially 4 packs of GW's Greenstuff for about $20 (compared to 4 sets of 15)

It's worth looking into...

rebuild the rest and show us!
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Galengalad
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Re: Project Log: All-Tree Army with Scratch-Built Stuff (PIC HEA

Post by Galengalad »

There's a company called Kneadatite, that makes GS for GW, and when they sell it at their own trade name it is much cheaper. For bigger jobs like theses treemen/treekin you actually don't need GS - you can use Milliput or Sculpey, or Super Sculpt. All these materials are 2 component epoxy putties. They're not as elastic as GS, but they're harder and you can even file you model easily when the stuff dries...
Zandur of Bronte
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Re: Project Log: All-Tree Army with Scratch-Built Stuff (PIC HEA

Post by Zandur of Bronte »

I only used Green Stuff for the roots and faces, where detail was really needed.

The rest of the filler was Milliput for wholesale filling and Squadron Green Putty for joints and such.

I've found that Sculpey is simply too blobby and weak, and even the finest-grain Milliput really cant be sculpted like Green Stuff.

Thanx for the tip on the name, tho! I figured there had to be somewhere else you could buy that stuff :)
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Re: Project Log: All-Tree Army with Scratch-Built Stuff (PIC HEA

Post by Galengalad »

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y149/S ... /tree2.jpg

This one is made from Milliput (you need to add some water in the mixture to get maximum from the material) and Magic Sculpt. Plenty of details, BTW :wink:
I use GS only for faces, very thin ropes/human hair...
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Re: Project Log: All-Tree Army with Scratch-Built Stuff (PIC HEA

Post by Knuth »

:confused: Gotta say those kins are very big.... Dont want to see the treeman :D i would have taken them down a notch, in size. But nice converts
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Re: Project Log: All-Tree Army with Scratch-Built Stuff (PIC HEA

Post by bark »

hi,

really cool idea, for my taste they are to big, but for a complete army it works perfect, and i can really imagine the faces of your opponents, they must be really shocked.

those guys remember me of my on twigbuilt treekin that i hadn´t managed to paint till now....
the look almost simialar, but a littel smaller.

great work

bark
Zandur of Bronte
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Re: Project Log: All-Tree Army with Scratch-Built Stuff (PIC HEA

Post by Zandur of Bronte »

Thanx :)

Not all of them are this size; some are quite a bit smaller, and two or three are a bit taller. They're all different shapes and sizes, jus' like real trees :)

I've got another one about done and i've finished a few more Dryads; I'll post them ASAP. Sorry for not being more active around here; I intend to be, jus' need a little more time :)

In hindsight, I agree that I should have toned them down a little... but running an army of titans was just so darn appealing at the time! :-D
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