If you go out in the woods today... An 8112 PLOG

[Nico]

Great stuff as usual. That chess board is amazing.

Any tips for highlighting Vallejo Metal Colour Gold? I tried mixing it with Vallejo polished gold, which has more yellow to it, but still not convinced. Then I tried mixing it with Vallejo Metal Colour White Aluminium. Neither worked perfectly.

Edited November 1, 2017 by Nico

[Mirage8112]

12 hours ago, RuneBrush said:

Nice to see somebody else using Metal Color - best acrylic metallic I've come across.  I tend to use the gold and silver for nearly all of my edge highlighting now.  Gunmetal is pretty decent when you're after a darker steel, I'd say a fraction darker than Leadbelcher, but more reflective.  They do pull through the undercoat finish too, so if you want it more matt, use a regular black undercoat and then through satin to gloss.  Biggest benefit I've found over Metal Air is that they clean out the airbrush a lot more easily

 

I totally agree. They've really put together a unique product that works as advertised. I tried using Badgers Minitaire for a while, and found the coverage sorely lacking. Initially I was really worried about this product but the coverage really is impeccable. The range is also huge for air-based metallics. Although I only grabbed three, they had at least 8 or 9 there in various degrees of lightness and even temperatures (some slightly more orange, some slightly more blue). I'm fairly impressed and I don't say that very often.

The only drawback I've seen so far is the paint film is fairly fragile. Usually after prepping and priming a model I'll occasionally notice a mold line or two and go back in and scrape or cut it off and then reapply a little primer by hand. However with these products that's nearly impossible, as any small break in the surface is impossible to hide after the fact. In a couple of places my fingernail grazed a raised paint fleck or edge and peeled right through the paint and primer. Usually with plastic model I forgo sealers, but it's pretty obvious that a sealer is mandatory with these. 

 

12 hours ago, RuneBrush said:

Out of curiosity, what colours are you using to shade the gold?

The gold is being shaded primarily with a mix of Mournfang brown into Abaddon black. If I keep the mixture thin and build it up over a number of layers I don't need to bring any other colors in. If it appears I've over-shaded and the shadows are losing reflectivity, I'll use a little Retributor armor mixed into the brown to bring the shimmer back. I'm also using retributor armor for the flares in the shadows (bottom of the chest plates and bottom of the knee pad). 

Since you clearly have more experience with the paint than I do, whats your process for working with it @RuneBrush?
 

11 hours ago, Nico said:

Great stuff as usual. That chess board is amazing.

Any tips for highlighting Vallejo Metal Colour Gold? I tried mixing it with Vallejo polished gold, which has more yellow to it, but still not convinced. Then I tried mixing it with Vallejo Metal Colour White Aluminium. Neither worked perfectly.

 

Thanks man! Believe it or not I'm a little insecure about my work so compliments do a lot for me lol. 

It's my experience that the Metal Gold can't really be highlighted. On a lightness scale of 1-10 it's easily an 8.5, and when you account for reflectivity, it's nearly a 10 as is. Even when Mixing it 50-50 or 60-40 with the Vallejo Metal Colour Aluminium it only pushes the lightness up maybe a quarter to a half step. I found that the best strategy is not to use it a basecoat and instead to use a warmer more "gold-gold" (in the pictures above, I'm using Retributor armor) and then I'll use the Vallejo as a Zenithal highlight. Since I'm using an airbrush I'll give it a few short bursts so the base gold isn't entirely covered which gives it a nice fade and gives me a little more room to strengthen the lights. But even then I find that highlighting it isn't really necessary. 

[Nico]

Thanks! I might try just painting a second thin layer of the VMC Gold on the highlights and adding another shade - perhaps a purple in the darkest regions. I currently use Badger miniature Brown over the gold as it adds some yellow and darkens the recesses, but maintains reflectivity compared to say Reikland Fleshshade.

Edited November 1, 2017 by Nico

[RuneBrush]

11 hours ago, Mirage8112 said:

Since you clearly have more experience with the paint than I do, whats your process for working with it @RuneBrush?

Pretty much all of my experience has been on 40k models, so things like Knights etc which tend to have really simple base, wash, highlight approach.  I tend to use a more military modelling approach to my 40k models than AoS, mainly due to the size of the models.

Wash wise, I use gloss washes, or regular washes thinned with air caste thinner (makes them satin) and paint them in the recesses rather than all over.  Recently I've found that Gunmetal drybrushed with Silver Rub n Buff and then edge highlighted in Silver is pretty effective for large weapons

[Xelotath]

The sorcerer lord on Manticore looks absolutely incredible. What did you use to make the head?

stunning work on your paint jobs as well! Kudos

[Mirage8112]

1 hour ago, Xelotath said:

The sorcerer lord on Manticore looks absolutely incredible. What did you use to make the head?

stunning work on your paint jobs as well! Kudos

Thanks man!

A few years back I acquired a Dark Elf Hydra. the Alternate kit is Kharibyss which is a sort of sea monster... thing, which game me the face and the head flanges (which also conceal the joining point. Albeit aided with a little green stuff sculpting). The center of the head also has a the two head plates from the Carnosaur kit, the smaller one is from the rider and the larger one was for the top of the original Carnosaur head.  

[Mirage8112]

So this week, the wife and kid are out of town visiting my in-laws in Arizona. 

I plan to spend a lot of time painting while they are gone; both on tiny soldiers and on canvas. I have a very large portrait (3' x 4 1/2') of my daughter that i've been working on that I started when she was around 10 months old: she'll be 4 in January. Unlike painting miniatures which only require a couple of hours at a time, canvas painting often requires 4-6 hours of uninterrupted time, which is very hard to get when you have kids. So I'm planning on spreading what time and attention I have this week between "serious painting" and recreational hobby work.

Although recreational, they'll be business hobby work too. Registration for Adepticon opens this week and I'm planning on bringing my Sylvaneth. I still have about 1/3 of the army left to paint and basing to do, + another 2-3 forests for my Wyldwoods. I'm trying to finish up Steelhearts Champions from Shadespire. I've managed to play maybe 6 or 7 games so far and I'm totally hooked. 

I'm nearly finished with the golden boys, and I'll probably poke at them bit more over the next few days, but the bulk of the work is finished. 

Obryn:



Brightsheild:

Steelheart:

One thing worth mentioning is how difficult these are to photograph. As I mentioned in the last post, these are basically demimetals; nom-metallic metal mixed with true metallic metal paints. It gives something in-between True Metals and NMM. It's actually quite interesting going through the process of painting these, because it actually adds another factor into painting that you don't normally deal with.

Normally when you're painting a NMM pattern, you're just creating the impression of a highly polished metal by adjusting the hue (the color) choma (intensity of color) and value (lights and darks). But when your working with metallic paints which are highly reflective and non-metric colors that are matt in their finish, you're also dealing with a controllable degree of reflectivity.  The reason that's cool (to me at least) is it gives you an extra factor you can play with that you normally can't with NMM.

In a NMM paint job, all the highlights and shadows are where they are because you've painted them there; and they stay there, because they are not dependent on the light source for their position; it's "fake" light. In a paint job with metallic paint, the highlights tend to be wherever the light is from; if you move the model around the highlights and shadows move too. The other reason NMM paint jobs look the way they look, is that they are trying recreate the effect of a "highly polished" surface. Which basically means the surface light scatters very little, resulting in a sort of mirror effect.  

But drawback to models painting as NMM is that they look great when they're in a magazine, but they often look weird in person. That's because that the light areas reflect the same amount of light as the shadow areas, because the reflectivity of the paint is the same on all surfaces of the model. For when you're moving the model around on in your hands, it's still picking up ambient light in the room. Which means you get highlights where there shouldn't be any. NMM models are attempting to mimic a single lightsource, but that light source is perpetually fixed by where you've painted your highlights and shadows, and it competes with natural light in the room.

Metallic paint jobs have the opposite problem in that their highlights aren't fixed at all. Move them around and highlights move around with you. That basically means you have no control over how the model "reads" from a distance. You also cannot make the model appear highly polished like you can with NMM, because the surface of the metallic paint scatters too much light. 

When you're working with demi-metals, only the "light" areas reflect light. Since you're controlling how much the model reflects light but choosing paint you use (metallic or regular), you can make the highlights reflective and the shadows reflect almost no light at all. The result? The paint shines as if it were metal, but when you move the model around, the highlights and shadows stay put. Plus, the shadows do not reflect as much ambient light as the highlights (they have different degrees of reflectivity) meaning no matter where the light is coming from, the highlights aways reflect more light than the shadows. 

Sorry for all the painting theory. but I find this technique fascinating. It's allowed me to paint some really cool effects that weren't possible before. For example, the reflections of Steelhearts red plume in his armor, the top of his helmet and belt buckle, and the reflection of his golden foot on the sword. Obryn has some cool refections on the underside of his breastplate as does Brightshield. Demi metals also make for very convincing armor scratches, since the black lines don't reflect light and the edges of the scratches reflect a lot of light. It also allows me to play with textures in a new way. For example the blue should pads and blue skirts are both using the exact same colors, but the shoulder pads are demimetals and the skirts are just regular paint. 



This is the first time I've experimented with this technique to this extent, and I need to work with it more to really get the hang of it. It's super complicated but as I mentioned previously I think this is a good candidate for some higher level display pieces. 

More updates soon!

-F

Edited November 13, 2017 by Mirage8112

[Mirage8112]

Greetings!

Now that my family is back in town I'm starting to work in a more focused way, especially since I'm getting ready for Adepticon next year. Currently the project on my desk is more Spites to fill out my battalion requirements for Dreadwood, which seems to be the formation I'm most likely to run at this point in time (although that could change.) Currently I have mostly have everything I need to play the list, but a lot of it is proxied from other models (I.e. my old scratchbuilt Treekin standing in for Kurnoth Hunters, and my WHFB 7th edition scratch built treeman standing in for a treelord.) Ideally the goal is to have everything match. So while I could waltz into my FLGS and play the list as-is, I still have a fair amount of work to do to get everything "ready". 

To that end, I've gotten around to finally basing my 30 dryads. No small feat I tell you. Not because it's particularly difficult, but because I detest basing. It's not even that hard, and I'm generally quite happy the results, I just dislike doing it. I prefer to be painting. But for what it's worth, it really does serve to tie the army together. For those of you wondering, here is the process using the same model from my earlier walkthrough of painting this color scheme. 

First a layer of Stirland Mud on the base.


Then I'll add a small layer of static grass. This will be largely covered by leaves, but it's nice to get a bit of green popping up between the leaves. 



Then every 3rd base or so will get a rock or a twig to break up the unit. 



Then the base is brushed with PVA and I "dunk" the model in the leaf mixture (birch seed pods that have been separated from their seeds). Then after the glue dries, I'll wash the leaves with a 30/30/30 mix of Carroburg Crimson, Agrax Earthshade and water to give the appearance of leaves that are starting to rot. Then I'll glue on a few choice leave that have been painted with Pink Horror to mimic freshly fallen leaves. 

 

 Then it's just individual touch ups. sometimes I add more static grass, sometimes a little water effects to mimic wet mud. It makes each model individual which is one of those little personal touches everybody adds to their armies that only they notice. But regardless of where those little touches are noticeable or not, it certainly makes for a nice cumulative effect:



I'm also making good progress on my next batch of spites.

It's very strange coming back to a unit that you haven't touched or done anything with in months, and trying to figure out how the hell you did it. In that respect this blog has actually been helpful, since I can look back at the WIP pics and use them to jog my memory about the process:

Basecoating with Skarsnick green:


Wash of Coelia Greenshade:



Then a Zenithal highlight of Gauss Blaster Green:



Final assembly with painted details:



While not exactly simple, these are going pretty fast. I'll likely finish all 5 this week (I have 2 more left to detail), and then i'll need to paint the next 2 boxes (10 more). Hopefully I'll accomplish all of this before Christmas vacation. Considering I'll have about 3 weeks, it should be just enough time. Then I can focus on replacing my stand-in hunters, and Treelord with the proper models. 

We'll see how it all shapes up. I'm still not exactly clear on what I'm doing for the spites bases, since I want them to be slightly different than the main army's basing but still visual cohesive. I'm thinking of a sort of swampy-watery theme with fallen leaves, but I'm not totally sure just yet. As soon as I figure something out and figure this round of models I'll try to get a army shot of everything painted thus far.

Good luck and happy painting!

-F

 

 

[Lysandestolpe]

gorgeous!

[Sinister]

Impessive skills!

Edited December 2, 2017 by Sinister

[Mirage8112]

Jebus. it's been nearly two moths since I've posted anything. Thankfully, I've only taken a break from posting miniatures, but haven't taken much of a break at all from painting them. So, since I have a  wee bit of down time, it's time to get my pictures up!

Firstly. Shadespire. 

I'm still heavily focused on getting my trees painted for Adepticon, and I'm making great progress. However in terms of actually playtime, I've been playing Shadespire more than anything recently. I really really like the game and it's fairly easy to find an hour and a half to get in 2 or 3 games. When the game first dropped, I spent most of the time playing Stormcast. Recently however, I've switched over to the reavers and I'm really enjoying the playstyle. As such, I made it a priority to get the reavers painted up (I refuse to play with unpainted minatures) and really enjoy the break from painting bark + leaves. I very much enjoy painting skin and it proved to be a welcome break. 

Targor (the slippery):



Arnuf: 



Karsus the Chained:



Blooded Saek:



Garrek Gorebeard:



The whole gang!



While it's difficult to tell in the photos, the Reavers red armor is also done in as demi-metal. while picking up some paint at my FLGS I came across a bottle of Vallejo metal medium (basically pure aluminum flakes suspended in an clear acrylic binder) and when added to regular paint it makes a sort of "halfway metallic". it's a striking effect, but doesn't photograph as well as I would like.  

But aside from that, the Reavers and Liberators are all painted, which mean the entire Shadespire core box is now painted!

 

Quite pleased. I have some more Sylvaneth stuff to show, but it will likely be a couple days before I get them uploaded. 

In the meantime, happy painting!

-F
 

[Swooper]

I absolutely love your demi-metal technique. Your stormcast are some of the best painted models I've seen, the metal is so realistic!

I've tried to find some more information about the method, but haven't found much. Can you point me towards some tutorials? How did you learn it?

[Mordeus]

Wow! The color choice for the Sylvaneth is perfect. I'm not usually a fan of pink but it works perfectly here.

[Mirage8112]

On 1/25/2018 at 3:04 PM, Swooper said:

I absolutely love your demi-metal technique. Your stormcast are some of the best painted models I've seen, the metal is so realistic!

Thanks a lot mate! I'm pretty happy how they turned out. I'd love to do an entire army with that technique, but it's crazy time consuming and a fairly tedious process. Maybe at some point in the future I'll either get the gumption to do another army for myself, or perhaps I'll get a chance to do one as a commission for somebody else. 
 

On 1/25/2018 at 3:04 PM, Swooper said:

I've tried to find some more information about the method, but haven't found much. Can you point me towards some tutorials? How did you learn it?

That's because there isn't one!  

Demi-metals are something the manager of my local GW and I have talked about for a while. His former co-worker (who was a multiple demon winner in the past and now judges for GW's Golden Demon awards) turned him onto the concept. Although he sat down a demonstrated a bit of how the technique works, my manager friend has never actually sat down and attempted to do it himself due to the technical difficulty and time constraints. So how did I learn to do it? Trial and error mostly. I also looked for some help from the ole' interwebz, but I didn't find anything substantially helpful. I'm fairly confident with the process now and perhaps at some point I'll put together a tutorial if anybody is interested.

Basically it's a two-step highlight (a halo highlight of retributor armor over a Vallejo's gloss black primer, and then a zenithal highlight of Vallejo's Metal Air Gold) followed by very very thin washes of Mournfang Brown into Abbadon black. Sometimes I added a few drops of Retributor armor to ease the transition from metallic to non-metallic paint. Then there are a few spots where the very edges of gold get a 50/50 highlight of VMA Gold mixed with VMA aluminum (but that highlight is fairly minimal). Really, the whole "shining gold" effect really only uses those 4 paints: Retributor armor, VMA gold, Mournfang brown, and Abbaddon Black. 

 

11 hours ago, Mordeus said:

Wow! The color choice for the Sylvaneth is perfect. I'm not usually a fan of pink but it works perfectly here.

 
Thanks Mate! Believe me, when I started this paint scheme I almost gave up after I finished the dryads. But as the army has grown and I've added some variation I've come to feel that it really holds together well. It also reads well on the tabletop; especially once the woods go down. 

[Swooper]

29 minutes ago, Mirage8112 said:

That's because there isn't one!

Damn it!

Quote

Demi-metals are something the manager of my local GW and I have talked about for a while. His former co-worker (who was a multiple demon winner in the past and now judges for GW's Golden Demon awards) turned him onto the concept. Although he sat down a demonstrated a bit of how the technique works, my manager friend has never actually sat down and attempted to do it himself due to the technical difficulty and time constraints. So how did I learn to do it? Trial and error mostly. I also looked for some help from the ole' interwebz, but I didn't find anything substantially helpful. I'm fairly confident with the process now and perhaps at some point I'll put together a tutorial if anybody is interested.

Would definitely be interested, particularly in a video tutorial that shows the entire process. A detailed step-by-step writeup with lots of pictures would be appreciated as well!

Quote

Basically it's a two-step highlight (a halo highlight of retributor armor over a Vallejo's gloss black primer, and then a zenithal highlight of Vallejo's Metal Air Gold) followed by very very thin washes of Mournfang Brown into Abbadon black. Sometimes I added a few drops of Retributor armor to ease the transition from metallic to non-metallic paint. Then there are a few spots where the very edges of gold get a 50/50 highlight of VMA Gold mixed with VMA aluminum (but that highlight is fairly minimal). Really, the whole "shining gold" effect really only uses those 4 paints: Retributor armor, VMA gold, Mournfang brown, and Abbaddon Black. 

I've got a few questions, hope you don't mind:

• Do you think a gloss varnish over matte black primer would have the same effect as a gloss primer? How about Nuln Oil Gloss?
• Do you brush paint the VMA colours, or use an airbrush?
• Why do you use Mournfang Brown and Abaddon Black as washes, rather than e.g. Seraphim Sepia and Nuln  Oil? Simply to better control the tint, or is there a property to the handmade washes you're specifically after?
• How do you do the coloured demi-metal surfaces, like the blue pauldrons, and the red armour of the bloodreavers?
• Is there any particular trick to doing the reflections (like how the red helmet plume reflects in the helmet and breastplate), or do you just glaze a little of the reflected colour over that area?

Thanks!

[Mirage8112]

20 hours ago, Swooper said:

21 hours ago, Mirage8112 said:

That's because there isn't one!

Damn it!

I know right? i was slightly surprised myself. I would have thought that there would be more information out there, but apparently not. 

 

20 hours ago, Swooper said:

Would definitely be interested, particularly in a video tutorial that shows the entire process. A detailed step-by-step writeup with lots of pictures would be appreciated as well!

Sure thing. I'll keep it on my radar and as soon as I have another model on deck that could benefit from this technique I'll see what I can do re: a video. 
 

20 hours ago, Swooper said:

I've got a few questions, hope you don't mind:

Dont mind at all! Shoot:
 

20 hours ago, Swooper said:

Do you think a gloss varnish over matte black primer would have the same effect as a gloss primer? How about Nuln Oil Gloss?

Nope. Because it's not the reflectivity of the primer that matters. It's the smoothness of the coat. Vallejo's gloss back primer is glossy because it self-levels. 

When you look at a coat of matt primer (say GW's chaos black or some other similar primer) under high magnification (say 20x-30x) you'll see that the coat isn't smooth at all. It actually has a very fine texture that helps the paint grip to the surface of the miniature. Putting a coat of gloss varnish or even a coat of null oil gloss over that will smooth it out a little, but it's akin to laying a blanket over a bunch of pointy rocks. Sure, it won't be quite as pointy but it won't be nearly as smooth as laying a blanket over a bed of compacted dirt. 

The smoothness of the undercoat is super important when you're working with VMA paints. Normal metallic paint is basically micronized flakes of aluminum suspended in a wet medium (in this case acrylic). If the surface is smooth, then all the light that hits the paint bounces off in the same direction. If the surface is uneven, then the light scatters off in all different directions. This is basically the difference between a mirror that has no surface scratches, and one that has had a very fine sandpaper run over the surface randomly. One will be very reflective and the other will be cloudy (see the pictures of the knights armor below for reference). Because demi-metals exploit how much light the paint reflects you need the paint to be as smooth and reflective as it can possibly be. 
 

20 hours ago, Swooper said:

• Do you brush paint the VMA colours, or use an airbrush?

The easiest and best approach is to use an airbrush. The application of the base coat needs to be uniform (to make sure that the light reflects evenly over the surface) and brush application will leave very fine irregularities in the surface. Now, technically you only need an airbrush for the primer coat and zenithal highlight of VMA gold since GW actually makes Retributor gold available in a spray. But if you're going to airbrush 2 of 3 you might as well airbrush all 3: Gloss primer -> Retributor gold -> VMA gold.  

 

20 hours ago, Swooper said:

• Why do you use Mournfang Brown and Abaddon Black as washes, rather than e.g. Seraphim Sepia and Nuln  Oil? Simply to better control the tint, or is there a property to the handmade washes you're specifically after?

Good question. If you were to look at say Seraphim Sepia and Mournfang Brown under a microscope, you would see that the light behaves differently. Seraphim sepia is an ink while mournfang brown is actually a paint. The difference between them is that the pigment in the wash is transparent. I.e. you can see through it, and the pigment in Mournfang brown will look like little tiny rocks, i.e. it's opaque. Mournfang brown covers whats underneath it, while seraphim sepia won't. 

GW washes generally are used to subtly adjust colors (since the original color underneath will show through but will be altered by the wash). They can also be used to give some instant depth by brushing them into the tiny crevices on a model (where the wash pools and helps absorb the light). So while washes can cover what underneath them, they can only do that if they're used in very very large amounts (which is tricky to do over broad, flat, plates of armor). 

I don't really want to adjust the color of the gold, I want to give the effect that it it's highly polished. Think less like this:



And more like this:




Using paint that blocks light, lets you control how much light the surface reflects. In the picture above, the metal is highly reflective and light doesn't scatter. Wherever light hits the metal it just bounces right back off, giving white "flares" of light. The black areas aren't really "black" either. They're just reflecting light in a direction our eyes can't see (sort of like when somebody is holding a laser pointer. You can't see the beam unless its pointed at something because all the light is traveling in a direction that doesn't end at your eyes.) Using opaque paint lets me duplicate this effect.    

 

20 hours ago, Swooper said:

Is there any particular trick to doing the reflections (like how the red helmet plume reflects in the helmet and breastplate), or do you just glaze a little of the reflected colour over that area?

The reflections are just that. A very small amount of the reflection color mixed 50/50 with lahmian medium and glazed over the area. Since the paint is already highly reflective you're really just strengthening a refection thats already there. The same goes for the refection of Steelheart's golden foot in his sword. 
 

20 hours ago, Swooper said:

• How do you do the coloured demi-metal surfaces, like the blue pauldrons, and the red armour of the bloodreavers?

 

The pauldrons and the red armor were done sightly differently, because I came across the metallic medium after I'd already finished the stormcast. But if I were to do it again, I'd probably use the Reaver technique for both. I can detail the steps but it will be easier to follow with pictures. With the dwarfs and Skaven just announced for Shadespire I'll probably have a chance to do some more demi-metals and I'll see what I can do about putting a tutorial together. 

Edited January 27, 2018 by Mirage8112

[Mirage8112]

What's up party people!

This is my first post after getting back from Adepticon. Not only was the tournament a total blast, but the whole experience was just top notch. I played against some very well tuned lists and was relatively pleased with the performance of my Dreadwood army. While there are definitely a few other competitive Sylvaneth builds I am tempted to play, Dreadwood is definitely one I would consider playing again. 

Initially I hadn't planned on building a display board, until my doubles partner asked what I was doing. Initially I planned on something simple, but "simple" isn't really a word I understand the meaning of apparently. Originally I intended to have 1 level, with a river running down the middle. But after some thought I decided that it would be better to have a multi-level display. The display board was built in about 6 days.

This is a photo of the layers before assembly. The two plastic containers are for a built-in dry ice fog machine (that I didn't get a chance to use because I couldn't find dry ice near the convention lol.) The build used 9 1" layers of foam board with various channels cut through the layers to allow the fog to exit through 10 holes hidden strategically throughout the display. 


Here is a photo of the assembled board with the initial layer of oil primer. 



The painting was pretty straight forward. Basically I went to the local art store and bought 2 cans of paint. One was a close approximation of Rakarth Flesh, and the second was a close match for dryad bark. The "rocks" were washed with a combination of a water-based sepia and burnt umber ink and then dry brushed with a mixture of Yellow Ochre, Grey, and White Acrylic paint. You can see in the picture below that the bases of the Wyldwoods fit snuggly into the pre designed areas which were bordered with toilet paper soaked in Elmers glue and then sprayed with the brown dryad bark stand-in which gives it a reasonably seamless transition. If you look between the blue rock and the tree hole there is a slight "cave" in the rock face. That cave conceals one of the exits for the fog. 

 

  

The next step was to set everything up to make sure it fit. While snug, thats roughly 2k in points + 1 extra unit of Tree-revenants. 



Once I was reasonably confident in the positioning, it was time to pour the resin for the water. The edges were blocked off on the top and bottom and the tinted resin (a few drops of coelia and athenian washes) was poured in 2 layers for the top and 4 layers for the bottom.



Envirotex is an amazing product, but it is not easy to work with. It took a significant amount of work to get the transparency right and I ended making a mess all over the damn place. It's not only incredibly stick before you mix it, but once it's mixed and hardens it does not. come. off. EVER. I learned a lot working with it, but it's not a product I would recommend lightly. Makes a bangin' pond though....



The final step was the waterfall. The rocks were then airbrushed with a mixture of Athonian Camoshade on the rocks and Coelia Greenshade near the waterfall (I figured rocks around the waterfall would be wetter and therefore more "green"). The waterfall was then built up from plumbers silicon caulk glued to a rigid plastic backing. Incidentally the cloudiness over the water in the photo below is because the fog machine was turned on and being tested:



All in all, a pretty atmospheric board. Earned me a shout-out on the Adepticon_AoS twitter page and a spot on the top painted table. Super honored to be featured next to guys like Terry Pike, Tyler Mengel and Thomas Lyons. 

A few more pictures before moving onto new stuff:

I will probbaly bring this board back out and make a few modification to it for Armies on Parade later this year. I'd like to put a bit neater of an edge on it, and make some modification(s) to the fog system. As well as repair a few dings that the board sustained during it's travels to and from Adepticon. 

And while I'm totally happy with how the army has turned out (visually and play-wise) I'm positively THRILLED to have an opportunity to paint something other than trees. I have more planned for my Sylvaneth force, but for the time being it's time to get some work into my other armies and other side projects. We're also planning on selling our house within the next 3 months so I'll be juggling packing, landscaping, dealing with mortgage companies and all the hullabaloo that goes along with such an endeavor. I originally planned on completely shelving my painting activities but that lasted about 2 days. It seems I can't live without painting something. 

Fair enough. Things are the way they are. So it's onto my next project.

Next up: Shadespire Dorfs! 

Happy painting...

 

[Thundercake]

simply awesome!

[TeddyMadeMeDoIt]

 

On 11/04/2018 at 2:37 PM, Thundercake said:

simply awesome!

 

Yep

[Kronos]

VYour painting is nothing short of inspiring, not just as a complment but literally makes me want to put some life into my grey and green miniatures. You bring a serious amount of ethereal-dark-faerie-world quality to those sylvaneth. Awesome stuff. 

[TheDangerRanger]

The army turned out fantastic! I just read through the whole thread and I appreciate the time you have taken to explain your processes. I'm definitely interested in hearing the color theory for your army that you mentioned.

Now I just have to figure out where I can get birch seed pods lol...

[Mirage8112]

Hi All!

I just finished moving (mostly). so I'll be posting some more work up soon! 

[Mirbeau]

Beautiful army, looking forward to the shadespire lads.

[D6damage]

Just enjoyed looking through your whole plog. Amazing work. You sylvaneth are works of art.

[Mirage8112]

On 10/10/2018 at 5:57 AM, D6damage said:

Just enjoyed looking through your whole plog. Amazing work. You sylvaneth are works of art.

 

On 10/5/2018 at 7:27 PM, Mirbeau said:

Beautiful army, looking forward to the shadespire lads.

That actually means a lot. Sometimes it feels I'm locked in my studio and doing this work that nobody will see. And then you have a bunch of games where your dice are ice cold and you wonder "Why am I doing this again?" lol. So an emphatic "thanks" to both you.