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A Kingdom of Isolation (Phoenix Temple Blog) - 25/09 - FHGT Display Board pics


Chris Tomlin

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Afternoon all,

Just a super quick one from me, mostly to prove I'm not dead (yet!). I've been pretty absent from these forums of late and apologise for not responding to a number of mentions/messages, I will get around to all of these in time. Basically I have been unwell and have an (unrelated) operation scheduled for just after Christmas. Hopefully by mid January things will be back to normal and I'll have the time and desire to post more frequently once again.

I have been able to get some hobby in during this time at least. Besides assembling more Orks for 40K and playing Shadespire, I've also been investing a lot of time into painting Archaon as a Christmas present for @Drakira's son. I'm just following the WHTV videos, but it's been a really fun project. Will share photos of that on these forums when finished.

This (finally) brings me onto the subject of this topic, my Phoenix Temple army. I've had this sat around in boxes for nearly 3/4 of the year as I got most of it as birthday presents back in March. Whilst it's an army I thought would be super cool (having previously had a 4 Frostheart army back in 8th ed), I have to admit it didn't really get the juices flowing in terms of gameplay due to the limited options available. The General's Handbook 2017 really helped with my motivation here, as the allies system really allows for some diverse options that open up army list writing and hopefully makes it pretty fun on the table.

The icing on the cake was the Firestorm campaign supplement. I instantly knew that this would be a great opportunity to get the army painted and after chatting with some friends, we decided on an escalation variant of this which I aptly named From Ember to Inferno. Kudos if you get the musical reference (I'm not sure if that's less or more so than if you got the one in the title of this topic!).

This campaign will mostly be covered through the Pro Painted podcast and you can find out information on exactly what we are doing as well as blog posts from the entrants over on their website (I'll probably get Matt to repost my entries here over there) - http://www.propaintedpodcast.co.uk/

So handily enough we ended up with the four of us all picking a different Grand Alliance. We have;

I do urge you to check out the other guys stuff as it all looks super awesome with a lot more effort put in than me! :S 

We are starting out with 400 points in the first month (building up to 2,000 over 6 months). Being that we have to fit a legal matched play army into this allowance, there was zero choice for me, my listed was to be fixed as;

Anointed
10x Phoenix Guard
10x Phoenix Guard

Originally my plan for the army was to do it all in cold icy colours, with every colour highlighted with P3 Frostbite to really tie it all in and reinforce the theme. Blues and greys would've been dominant here, with cold golden armour.

I then noticed that the Army of the Phoenicium within the Firestorm book was actually gold and purple, not gold and blue. Bit of a shame. I started to paint a tester model with a purple cloak, but had my reservations. I did actually start a High Elf army back in 6th edition WFB that was gold, purple and cream but never got very far. These are then colours that I used a lot on my Dark Elf army that was my pride and joy between 6th-8th ed. However, I was aware that Russ Veal has a High Elf army with purple/cream cloth and a purple Phoenix (which I was also considering at this moment in time). Whilst gold would've been a much more prominent colour for me, it was still a bit close for comfort, especially as my plan for the basing was to include some paving.

Yesterday I had a bit of a breakthrough after painting the Tzeentch head on Dorghar. The WHTV video uses a really good colour combination (Stegadon Scale Green > Coelia Greenshade > Sotek Green > Temple Guard Blue). Weirdly this actually comes out a lot like the turquoise on my Ironjawz, but for far less effort. Not mixing paints is new to me, but the larger my Citadel paint collection gets, the more I am able to do this to a reasonable standard...though for my higher end work I still think mixing is important.

Anyway, I decided to use this exact colour scheme on the cloaks of my Phoenix Guard. I considered adding Frostbite to the Temple Guard Blue for a top highlight and tbh this would help raise the standard. However I am content with a reasonable gaming standard for these given the time and effort invested. Especially as I have like 60 of them to paint. I went with a cold grey trim to the cloth and following suggestions from Aaron and Matt went with purple/pink gemstones, just to cement this as a classic Chris Tomlin colour scheme!

The basing remained as intended from inception, cold grey flagstones and gravel, with a copious covering of snow, slushy in places.

All in all, the entire colour scheme actually ended up being pretty close to what I originally envisaged for the army anyway, so pretty happy. The guys may well let me use it as an army of the Phoenicium (still has gold and purple!) but tbh I do kinda get that arguably the snow and ice theme of the army may not suite Firestorm!! I will just say that the Frostheart Phoenixes have frozen over the place. If anyone has a problem they should probably just let it go....

Overall I am satisfied with how this turned out for a quicker standard (you'll have to excuse his bent weapon and sloppy highlights). 19 more and an Anointed to go by the end of January. Let me know what you think,

Chris

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Morning,

On second thought it seems like this topic may be better placed in the painting and modelling section of the forum.

I'm used to the Destruction sub forum where we frequently post army blogs with photos of models alongside our army lists and game reports. Having delved into the Order forum, it seems more commonplace to purely discuss the gaming side there. Strictly speaking I guess this is actually correct though!

Anyway, seeing as this will mostly be a blog around the painting and modelling side (with perhaps small references to games and the campaign), this is probably a better home for it :D 

Chris

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@Chris Tomlin These are looking great! I have one suggestion, one that I learned the hard way: When you do flames, try to exaggerate the curves more than you'd expect to.  It gives the graphic element of them a lot more life and they become more visually interesting. Especially when they're on a cape that is quite vertically draped.

I really think you nailed the blue hue with that pale gold. Gorgeous combination. :)

Keep it up!

Edited by Lysandestolpe
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On 20/12/2017 at 3:05 PM, Chris Tomlin said:

If anyone has a problem they should probably just let it go....

:D:D:D

Love the colour scheme, the blue absolutely makes sense for the whole tone of the mini and in a works filled with elves and goblins we need some things to make sense ;)

 

Great, great mini, a whole army of these are to look amazing. Looking forward to next update already 

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Morning all,

Cheers for the replies!

5 hours ago, stratigo said:

Aaawe, I liked the painting fingy stuff thing.

Thanks...I think! :P 

4 hours ago, Pigbones said:

Fantastic scheme! I think that recipe for blue you found works wonderfully! And I think a phoenix would be great in those colors too, actually.

Cheers man, glad you like it. I was thinking of a cool blue-grey palette for the phoenixes as I think a contract would work better across the army. However I do agree that this colour would work fantastically well and having painting Dorghar's Tzeentch head this way, I can see the application.

3 hours ago, Lysandestolpe said:

@Chris Tomlin These are looking great! I have one suggestion, one that I learned the hard way: When you do flames, try to exaggerate the curves more than you'd expect to.  It gives the graphic element of them a lot more life and they become more visually interesting. Especially when they're on a cape that is quite vertically draped.

I really think you nailed the blue hue with that pale gold. Gorgeous combination. :)

Keep it up!

Thanks for the reply and advice bro. I completely agree with you and were I doing these to the best of my ability I would certainly be putting more work in this department. Don't forget this army is intended to be completed to a quicker, simpler standard due to the pressures of monthly additions for the campaign. I want something that is easy to achieve so I'm not stressing all month over it if that makes sense :) 

That said, I will just try to make the lines on the flames more wiggly (technical term!) than straight on the others I think. Definitely a solid tip. Cheers man.

2 hours ago, TeddyMadeMeDoIt said:

:D:D:D

Love the colour scheme, the blue absolutely makes sense for the whole tone of the mini and in a works filled with elves and goblins we need some things to make sense ;)

Great, great mini, a whole army of these are to look amazing. Looking forward to next update already 

Cheers man! Glad you like it. I've certainly got some buzz for the project now. Finishing the first twenty will really solidify this. My addition for February is a Forstheart Phoenix. I am in South Africa for the last two weeks of February so will need to get this done nice and quickly.

Thanks for reading!
Chris

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  • 1 month later...

Morning all,

I'm excited to finally be able to share some photos of my initial 400pt army, completed for month one of the escalation Firestorm campaign I'm taking part in (use the hashtag #FromEmberToInferno on Twitter to check out everyone's work). First game will take place with @Forestreveries, @Paul Buckler and @Cowboy Boots Matt this Thursday. Really looking forward to that as I haven't played a game in ages (my hobby has been lacking in many aspects of late, including not reading and posting on this forum!).

@Davariel - Thanks for your comments, hope you enjoy these photos!

So here we have my first Anointed and two units of 10 Phoenix Guard. Next month is the first (of many) Phoenix!

As ever my photos aren't great, though I do have a new phone and they seem to be better than usual. Quite often I talk about being pleased with the result of a paint job for the time and effort invested, however these are kind of the reverse! Don't get me wrong, I'm super happy with them and think they look good, but they did take a little longer than I anticipated spending on them. Things like individually painted scales on the mail and all the gems really took some time. I feel perhaps I should've just gone all in on these and painted them to my best standard, but regardless, I'm happy enough. Areas like the back of the cloaks and the weapon blades would definitely be the main focus if I had decided to do better work on them, though in the grand scheme of things I'm not sure how much it matters for most people looking at them as an army on the table, so maybe I'm being overly hard on myself! :P 

I am definitely satisfied that the minimalist palette works. I was unsure about whether I would need to add another colour, especially on the banners, but I stand by my decision not to and think I integrated the colours into the banners well enough. The only jarring element is the flame I guess. I perhaps should've done this blue as well? These models actually came to me assembled, had I put them together myself I suspect I would've gone for two of the non flaming banner top. I have since considered changing this, however the flame came out quite well I think, so I'm loathe to scrap it. It does give me the potential to add some flaming braziers to basing or other elements of the army down the line I guess.

Let me know what you think,
Chris

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The Phoenix has risen! Great to see you back on the forums, Chris. 

I really like the colour pallet, looks really good on minis that are usually pretty brightly coloured and busy. Actually lends itself quite well to their background as cold, relentless and unshakable killers.  

The fire on the banner is a nice touch. As you said, the flames turned out well, and that bit of extra colour isn't too jarring.

What did you use for the snow on the bases?  The stuff I've been using has been turning out ****** recently - going yellow after a few day! 

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48 minutes ago, CyderPirate said:

The Phoenix has risen! Great to see you back on the forums, Chris. 

I really like the colour pallet, looks really good on minis that are usually pretty brightly coloured and busy. Actually lends itself quite well to their background as cold, relentless and unshakable killers.  

The fire on the banner is a nice touch. As you said, the flames turned out well, and that bit of extra colour isn't too jarring.

What did you use for the snow on the bases?  The stuff I've been using has been turning out ****** recently - going yellow after a few day! 

Haha, Phoenix has risen, I like that!

Cheers mate, glad you like them. I agree with you that they are weirdly quite busy models as there is loads of potential to just splash a whole bunch of colours over them. I was quite a challenge to restrict myself, especially when it came to the banners. I'm not entirely convinced by these but I think I imported the colour scheme into them well enough. Truth be told I am not a fan of the embossed banners and would've rather a flat surface for some simple freehand. Probably would've fit the scheme better.

The snow is woodland scenics. My preferred product is the crushed glass you can get, however it's not the nicest material to work with, so I'm trying to move away from it. This stuff is pretty good, but it may have just been easier to use the new GW Valhallan Blizzard, which by all accounts is pretty great.

32 minutes ago, Tzaangor Management said:

These are fantastic. I love the restricted, muted palette and the snow basing reinforces the cold colour choice, rather than disappearing against it, flying in the face of conventional wisdom!

Thank you for the kind words man :) 

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15 minutes ago, Mordeus said:

Cool looking army! Do you already know what the rest of the list is going to look like?

Cheers man!

Yeh I have written out a few builds previously, some more honed with a view to competitive play. This is where you might dip into the Eldritch Council for a Mage or Loremaster etc to buff those Phoenixes!

However the lists for this particular campaign look like they are going to be of a softer nature;

@Paul Buckler - Spiderfang Grots
@Forestreveries - Wraithfleet
@Cowboy Boots Matt - Acolyte heavy Tzeentch

So with that in mind I will probably grow my list as appropriate, gauging the power level as we go. I would expect around 60-70 Phoenix guard (30/30/10 is a solid core due to the discount on 30, but does leave an awkward amount of points in most builds) and 3-4 Phoenixes.

As mentioned I will definitely be adding allies, even if not for the campaign. To be honest I've been sat on these models for almost a year and it was definitely the allies system in the GHB2017 that reinvigorated me to complete the project. I have some Vanguard Raptors and Aetherwings (baby phoenixes!) that I am keen to add in the same colours scheme.

The points breakdown for the campaign is as follows. Having a little log to keep it added up might be a plan as well (as I currently don't have a plan for when I'll be painting each unit). You can carry over points from month to month.

  • Month One (Dec-Jan)- Anointed, 2x 10 Phoenix Guard (400/400)
  • Month Two (Feb) - Anointed of Asuryan on Frostheart Phoenix (640/700)
  • Month Three (March) - 2x 10 Phoenix Guard (960/1000)
  • Month Four (April) - Anointed of Asuryan on Frostheart Phoenix, 10 Phoenix Guard* (1300/1300)
  • Month Five (May) - (/1600)
  • Month Six (June) - (/2000)

*10 Phoenix Guard added to an existing unit of 20 only cost 100pts (420 for 30)

That was actually quite fun to do and pretty helpful. I best crack on with the Phoenix for month two as I'm out the currently from the 15th for the rest of the month. Pretty much just have Wednesday night and Saturday afternoon/evening to get him done.  

Cheers for reading!!

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Morning all,

I have another small update for you today. As previously mentioned, I am on holiday from 15/02 onwards, so I need to complete my second months contribution ahead of that time. Thankfully I've only got one model to paint this month; an Anointed of Asuryan on Frostheart Phoenix. The downside is that I have no real plan for the bird itself at present. I've undercoated it with The Fang and will likely either give it a blue wash first, or just start building up some drybrush layers...anyway, I will tackle that on Saturday.

Ahead of this I planned to complete the Anointed and the base. Last night I started with some basecoats and washes on the Anointed and will hopefully be able to finish him tonight. I was also able to finish off the base. Seems a bit backwards to do this first and hardly the most exciting of updates, but I do think it came out pretty cool.

In the pics I took below, the snow is still a bit wet so looks a little strange in places. I am particularly happy with the icicles, which I made out of flying stands (melting them and shaping with a knife).

All being well I'll have pics of the complete model early next week!

Enjoy,
Chris

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Hi again,

Following some of the earlier comments around lists, I have been playing around with Warscroll Builder a lot over the past week. I think the "proper" list I most like in general at the moment is;

Anointed Of Asuryan On Frostheart Phoenix (240)
Anointed Of Asuryan On Frostheart Phoenix (240)
Anointed Of Asuryan On Frostheart Phoenix (240)
Anointed Of Asuryan On Frostheart Phoenix (240)
Archmage (120)
Loremaster (100)

30 x Phoenix Guard (420)
10 x Phoenix Guard (160)
10 x Phoenix Guard (160)
3 x Aetherwings (60)

Total: 1980 / 2000

It does feel a bit light on bodies if I'm honest and after some games I may find I need more Guard. The denominations of those units is interesting due to needing 3 units and the points break for 30. Despite not particularly wanting to paint 70, I do think 30/30/10 seems good, but initially I'll start here. The Aetherwings are clearly not a great choice, but tbh even though this is billed as my "proper" list, they are mostly an aesthetical pick here (to be painted like the Frosthearts).

In terms of the campaign, as previously noted it is likely that the other players (@Paul Buckler, @Forestreveries & @Cowboy Boots Matt) will have softer lists, so 4 buffed Frosthearts is unlikely to be appropriate. Also Aetherwing-eyed readers may have noticed that the foot Anointed isn't in the above list, so campaign wise I am thinking;

Anointed Of Asuryan On Frostheart Phoenix (240)
Anointed Of Asuryan On Frostheart Phoenix (240)
Anointed Of Asuryan On Frostheart Phoenix (240)
Anointed (80)
Anointed (80)
Archmage (120)

30 x Phoenix Guard (420)
10 x Phoenix Guard (160)
10 x Phoenix Guard (160)
3 x Aetherwings (60)
3 x Vanguard-Raptors with Longstrike Crossbows (180)

Total: 1980 / 2000

But really I guess I will just play it by ear and see how the army fares in the initial games played.

I should note that I have just put down Frostheart Phoenixes as a default. They are by far my fav in terms of rules, lore and model, however there is the potential for me to also add a Flamespyre to my campaign army to mix things up a bit. I own 5 Phoenixes, 3 assembled as Frosthearts, 1 as a Flamspyre and 1 on sprue so do have some options available.

Not really much of an update, just a bit of a brain dump! :P 

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1 hour ago, KnaveOfScribes said:

I really like how the Phoenix Guard look with that cooler and paler colour scheme, really breathes new life into them. Looking forward to seeing the first Phoenix as well.

Thanks man :D 

I'm also looking forward to seeing the first Phoenix...always find it daunting painting a model without any real plan upfront!

Finishing the base has also given me some added impetus to get it done.

Unfortunately the first games will now take place on Sunday instead of tonight (blame @Forestreveries). Hopefully can get the Anointed finished quickly and then sneaky a cheeky hour on Horizon Zero Dawn!

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Hey,

So as previously mentioned, I had to finish up my month two contribution for the campaign pretty sharpish as I'm off to South Africa for the rest of the month on Thursday!!

With that in mind I kept my workload down by giving myself just a single model to paint; an Anointed of Asuryan on Frostheart Phoenix. I've already shown off the base (which I was pretty pleased with) and was able to get the Anointed himself done relatively easily as I knew the scheme for him.

And then we come onto Saturday....I had planned to get up early and crack on with the Phoenix, my main concern was not knowing how I was going to paint it, at all. Usually when I sit down to paint I have a clear plan of what I'm trying to achieve and this really wasn't the case here. Anyway, it go worse as I ended up playing Horizon Zero Dawn all morning and didn't actually start until 1pm! I won't bore you with any more details, suffice to say this whole thing was a bit of a nightmare (as @Forestreveries, @Paul Buckler and @Cowboy Boots Matt can attest to from the endless WiP photos I spammed our campaign chat with). Not having a focussed plan was a real problem and I had to second guess myself a number of times throughout, including totally repainting some parts. The result is that the model is actually pretty messy, a fact not helped by my make-up brushes being near the end of their life, creating some shabby drybrushing. Anyway, it was a learning experience and is done now. I learnt a lot which can be applied to future Phoenixes, making their paint jobs much crisper and cleaner. It is crazy the difference it makes not having a plan in mind and instead making it up as you go along!

All that said, I am pleased overall in that I think the model definitely looks cool and on the table will probably look pretty good, which really is kinda where I originally pitched the level of the army.

I had planned for the Phoenix to sit across the top of the base on a pin, but it looked a bit boring and I'm actually really happy with how I ended up fixing it. Works well I think...just have to hope its stable enough for play and not too fragile, may have to introduce another connection point.

But yeah, I'm not down on it now all's said and done (though I was along the way, if I had more time I defo would've stripped and started over). I'm actually pretty enthused for the other Phoenixes and have some cool things in mind for them. I finished this up around 1.30am, so with breaks and what not I suspect it took 11-11 1/2 hours to paint the bird alone...can't work out if it's good or not, I guess most of that is line highlighting the feathers.

Anyway, you probably just want to see the pics rather than reading my nonsense. These won't go on Twitter until a little later tonight, but I'll post them here now. Oh, one final thing; ignore the Phoenix's eyes! I painted them in the same colour as the gems on the Phoenix Guard. It looks rubbish and I will repaint them as "normal" eyes when back from holiday.

Enjoy,
Chris

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