The Silver Sentinels of The Amber Glade - 1500pt Army Shot

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Tenaka
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The Silver Sentinels of The Amber Glade - 1500pt Army Shot

Post by Tenaka »

I've been wanting to paint a Warhammer Army for a while and decided to do a couple of trial models to try out a theme. The theme is Autumnal Silver Birch which I think is pretty stylised but still inkeeping with a Wood Elf Army. It should allow plenty of scope for a story behind the Army which I know I will enjoy doing.

I'd be grateful for your thoughts, suggestions and comments (apart from my very dodgy camera work which is sooooo close up to the models I feel very on show, warts and all!) before I launch into painting the whole Army.


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Last edited by Tenaka on 19 Feb 2014, 21:04, edited 17 times in total.
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Re: The Silver Sentinels of The Amber Glade - Trial Pics

Post by Playonwords »

Nice painting, and i love how youve added leaves to the dryad branches - what are those leaves? where do you get them? I also like the way youve made part of the glade guard cloak look like a big orange autumn-like leaf.

My only worry is that this paint scheme makes the models look a bit slanneshi with the purple/pink. Without a close-up look one could almost mistake that dryad for a daemonette.
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Re: The Silver Sentinels of The Amber Glade - Trial Pics

Post by gwinn »

Great choice of scheme indeed. I love the white/orange contrast and the extra leaves on the dryad. The thing that really lets the models down are the bases, though. Use something that matches your autumn scheme, such as yellowish grass / fallen leaves. And use a neutral brown on the base edge, instead of goblin green, which really breaks the ambience of the miniatures at the moment. If you fix the bases, this will be one cool looking army :)
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Re: The Silver Sentinels of The Amber Glade - Trial Pics

Post by Frimbleglim »

I like this theme. It looks hard to paint- a lot of freehand- but you have managed to achieve a good effect.

I painted my treeman in my old wood elf army with a silver birch theme. It was much easier on a model this size but you might find some of the techniques I used useful. I actualy used metalic paint on some parts of the model; silver birch, strange though it may sound, when look at closely, sometimes has a slightly metalic looking texture around the gashes.
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I know some people aren't keen on metallic paint but you could use greys instead.

Here is a picture of my treeman. I should be able to remember how I painted it if you are interested... It was nearly eight years ago though.

http://s1095.photobucket.com/albums/i48 ... AG0262.jpg
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Re: The Silver Sentinels of The Amber Glade - Trial Pics

Post by Kulgan86 »

Frimbel : how did you do those white parts?
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Re: The Silver Sentinels of The Amber Glade - Trial Pics

Post by Frimbleglim »

So far as I can remember it was something like this:

Undercoat Chaos Black
Base-coat Scorched Brown
Brown Ink

The above was over the entire model I then did each section individualy. The white parts were painted as follows

Several coats of slightly watered down skull white.
Coat of mixture of water, skull white and scorched brown (this went slightly red/pink much to my supprise)
Highlight of skull white.
Extreme highlights and lines of mithril silver.

I had only ever painted 6 wardancers 8 of the old plastic archers and two LOTR models before this tree-man. As a result it was a rather haphazard colour scheme and involved some rather unorthodox painting techniques. For example apart from the birch effect, the green parts such as the mouth and the recess to the side of the head were painted sunburst yellow with several coats of green ink on top, a technique I later had much success with on the eyes of my dragon and eagle.

Most of the model is quite poorly painted but I am reluctant to repaint it as those silver birch parts turned out so well. I put it down to luck and having seen a lot of trees; I used to go to a school pretty much in the middle of a wood. You get a good view of bark when you are half way up a tree trying to set an ambush or acting as a spotter in a game of tag.

I think in the hands of an actual experienced and skilled painter the technique could be very effective.
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And the sea a shimmering gloom of grey,
And a small face smiling
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Re: The Silver Sentinels of The Amber Glade - Trial Pics

Post by popisdead »

Those are nice. New style and sharp. keep up the good work :)
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Re: The Silver Sentinels of The Amber Glade - Trial Pics

Post by Tenaka »

Thanks for all the comments. Really helpful and pleased that the general consensus is that the theme is a good one and my painting is up to standard for this forum.

Frimbleglim, I like the thought of a very subtle blend of silver into the highlighted white edges - perhaps something to try on the scratch built treeman I've started as it's come out very well on yours.

As for the bases, Gwinn, I couldn't agree more, having seen your stunning Autumnal Army (seriously impressive) the bases really complement the models and the autumn theme. Can I ask though, where do you source the dirty yellow grass & leaves? I will definitely redo the bases then re-post to show the difference. Finally, how do you post pictures so they are straight up rather than attachments? Just makes for a better post I think.

Playonwords, as for the leaves that I used on the Dryad itself, I used brass etched ones from hasslefreeminitures.co.uk - good for putting onto the model as they are pretty robust, but having seen Gwinn's bases, I think they look to chunky for that wind sweep dry autumal leaf look to go on the bases. As for the purple/pink - I've deliberately used that tone to contrast with the orange/yellow, I've tried to keep it subtle but I'll be mindful of not over doing it as I definitely don't want my Dryads confused for slanneshi!
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Re: The Silver Sentinels of The Amber Glade - Trial Pics

Post by Sendaith »

Love it! I had painted my dryads as birch trees. Kind of figured I'd need to repaint them since I was going with cherry blossom. Pink pansy elves FTW. :evil: I agree with the comment on the bases. If you change them, you can't go wrong. Keep up the great work.
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Re: The Silver Sentinels of The Amber Glade - Trial Pics

Post by gwinn »

Tenaka: The yellow grass is from a railroad modeling shop, these guys are the ultimate source for terrain related projects. There are tons of different static grass colors made for model rail road. The "leaves" are from birch trees and I believe the things are called "seed pods" in English. Not sure. But it is easy to find these "seeds" on birch trees in autumn. You need to leave them to dry. When you break it up, there are 2 things, the "leaves" you see on my bases and then a tiny seed with a super thin "wing" around it. The seeds themselves don't look that good, so it is a good idea to separate the two by gently blowing onto it (you need to find the right balance), so that the lighter seeds with "wings" are blown away and you are left with the "leaves". This is a horrible description, because I lack the specific tree related vocabulary in English, but hopefully, you can still decipher what to do :)

To pup pictures straight into your post, just use the "Img" button at the top of the editing window and then put a link to your picture in between the tags. You have to upload the picture somewhere else first, though.
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The Silver Sentinels of The Amber Glade - Scratch Treeman Ad

Post by Tenaka »

Sorry that I haven't posted for quite a while but lots on!

Anyway, I've changed the bases to a much better effect so thanks for the suggestions. Clearly I've done more than just the bases of two models in 10 weeks or so. As such, I hope you like my scratch built Treeman, Argentis. I really don't like the GW model or any others that I've seen so took the plunge with alot of Green Stuff, alot of brass leaves and a few bits & bobs from the Dryad sprues. The photo isn't the best I'm afraid but taking pictures of a large model is not as straight forward as I thought.
As ever, comments, suggestions etc welcomed.

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Re: The Silver Sentinels of The Amber Glade - New Treeman Added

Post by Ender Shadowkin »

Sweet Treeman, love the birch theme. Making your own treeman is definetly the way to go! And yours is an excellent intimidating size. Do you have any in progress shots?

You should build yourself a nice river valley display board. That would fit in very nicely with the birch trees....
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Re: The Silver Sentinels of The Amber Glade - New Treeman Added

Post by Tenaka »

Sadly I didn't take any progress shots (note for the next conversion!). I made him by using alot of green stuff onto a wire frame that I made from florist wire. It was ideal as I could bend and mould the pose after I'd shaped the Treeman. Adding the leaves was slightly time consuming but I can see me adding to it to a thick fooliage over time - just couldn't face doing hundreds of leaves all at once! Working on the Glade Guard unit at the moment but will take a few more decent pics of the Treeman.

Like the sound of the river valley but I'm thinking of doing a water fall into a autumnal glade but isn't far off your suggestion...!
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Re: The Silver Sentinels of The Amber Glade - New Treeman Added

Post by Tenaka »

Some more and what I hope are better pics of the my Treeman. Working on the Glade Guard unit at the moment but hope you all enjoy these in the mean time.

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Re: The Silver Sentinels of The Amber Glade - New Treeman Added

Post by Salamander »

I absolutely love your treeman!

It really looks absolutely deadly!
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Re: The Silver Sentinels of The Amber Glade - New Treeman Added

Post by Baardah »

Very very cool treeman!!!
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Re: The Silver Sentinels of The Amber Glade - New Treeman Added

Post by Tenaka »

Thanks alot guys - always nice to get positive feedback. Just the encouragement I need to knuckle down and do the rest of my models!
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Re: The Silver Sentinels of The Amber Glade - New Treeman Added

Post by Salamander »

Remember to post pictures :)

That treeman is some of the best work I've seen so far: )
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Re: The Silver Sentinels of The Amber Glade - New Treeman Added

Post by Skarlock »

I really like the birch theme.
It is not one I have seen too often.
Great job!
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Re: The Silver Sentinels of The Amber Glade - New Treeman Added

Post by Blackwood »

I really like the color choices you went with. It’s nice to see purple being used with Wood Elves. The treeman looks amazing, keep posting pics of your progress for us. :)
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Re: The Silver Sentinels of The Amber Glade - New Treeman Added

Post by Tenaka »

Slow progress with the Glade Guard - but here is the completed standard bearer in the meantime. I'm afraid the photos don't really do it justice and the colours look flat, I promise the banner looks alot better in the flesh - need studio lights!!

Cheers


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Re: The Silver Sentinels of The Amber Glade - New Treeman Added

Post by Cynath Auren »

This is fantastic. I really like your theme, picking a particular tree seems a lot more interesting and suitable to my mind than generic "Winter" "Summer" schemes (not that these don't look fantastic). Especially so given the unique and striking appearance of birch, and especially especially given the detail and care that's gone into the execution of that scheme, really nice.
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Re: The Silver Sentinels of The Amber Glade (Updated 2 May)

Post by Tenaka »

Thanks alot Cynath Auren, it's slow going due to there being alot of free hand to complete the birch effect - but I'm in no rush and I think (hope!) the overall effect of the theme will be well worth it when the Army comes together.
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Re: The Silver Sentinels of The Amber Glade (Updated 2 May)

Post by ThaneWill »

i love youre zebratree patren
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Re: The Silver Sentinels of The Amber Glade (Updated 2 May)

Post by Bael »

I'm a big fan of this army and actually thought of exactly the same theme (autumnal silver birch) before seeing this. I thought I was being so original :cry:
I have a couple of suggestions for improvement:
It might be beneficial, for some of the larger models and possibly some of the smaller ones e.g. the dryads, to look more closely at the bark of silver birches as it is actually a lot more textured than you might think. There are many irregular black shapes in it which may help to break up the constant linearness of it. Also I'm not such a fan of the pattern on the glade guard and dryads although it does help to tie your army together better.
Overall, great job :D (I especially love the treeman!)
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