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Stevewren

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Blog Entries posted by Stevewren

  1. Stevewren
    After my trip to Warhammer world for the AoS open day i was flicking through photos and came across this shot of the Ironweld Arsenal. 

    So inspired by this I have decided to start my own warmachine host. So far I have a mortar, a hell blaster volley fun and and Organ Gun with crew completed. 

  2. Stevewren
    I completed the Unit of Spite Revenants the other day. I think these are some of the best Sylvaneth models as I love the menacing look and feel they have. These are the last unit to be done. All I have left now is Alarielle, the leader. 

  3. Stevewren

    Spite Revenants WiP

    By Stevewren,

    These are the final unit I am doing for the army. I've tried a little cheat for these guys - I sprayed them green then overs prayed white and then used nothing but washes for the colours. The only highlights are on the face, the claws and the tabard section. The black bark and the brown bark is just drybrushed. I like the models so I might get a few more, but it's not top of the list at the moment. 

  4. Stevewren
    After having a week off on holiday I'm back on the Sylvaneth. I took these to Alliance, Ben Curry's one day event, but they were not finished at the time. They also qualify as my entry for our latest Hobby Challenge at Derby Wargames Club. When I got back I completed the banner and added the foliage so that they would fit in with the rest of the army. I went for a pale ethereal skin tone combined with bright green hair. I keep the weapons in a similar hue to hopefully give them the impression of being some what spectral in nature. I gave the blades a green glaze to tie them in more with the rest of the models. Overall I think these are great models and they are fun to paint, but they were not great in the games I used them. All I have left now are some Spite Revenants and Allarielle herself and that will be the army complete so I can start on something new (or more likely i'll be rebasing something older!)

  5. Stevewren
    Just a quick apology for not getting a post up over the last few days, but I've been busy and not had much time to complete anything! However this morning I was able to get the Hunters on to their bases. The bases are just smaller versions of the base that you can find details of how they are done in this Drycha article. One thing that might be of interest is how the flock stays on - I very rarely have any issues with the foliage falling off the models. I use Superglue Thick from GW and am quite generous with how much I apply over the branches it will be sticking too. The foliage then has to be pressed down firmly into it and this seems to give a strong bond that lasts. 
     

  6. Stevewren
    Here is a quick photo of where I'm going with the Kurnoth Hunters. I used the Airbrush to lay down some base coats and then went in with a dry brush of Underhive Ash. I then fixed the white areas which I had done in a very round about manner. I like the contrast between the White and the dark brown. The bow was done in dark reaper with the brown details picked out. Overall I am quite happy with the scheme so I'll be doing the others in the same way. 
      
  7. Stevewren
    In an attempt to try and keep the blog updated regularly here are the finished Objective markers for our club monthly challenge. I just tried to keep them in the same style as the rest of the army when painting them, and I added a green glow to the acorns to try and give them a mystical seed pod effect. I'd like to make more terrain to go along with the army now. The pictures are a bit over exposed again. I seem to lose the light colours a lot 

     
  8. Stevewren
    I played my first game with the Sylvaneth recently against my friends Iron Jaws. I only took painted models for this game, so I was a little limited, but I could easily do the 2000 points we had decided on. We also played the comet scenario from the Generals Handbook. 
    My list consisted of: 
    Tree lord Ancient (Oaken Armor, an extra spell) Drycha (the spell that generates woods) Branchwych (regrowth) Branch wraith (Acorn of Ages, The Reaping Spell) Spirit of Durthu 3 x 10 Dryads 2 x 6 Kurnoth Hunters (Great Bows) Firstly the army felt small, although my opponents Ironjaws looked similar. He had: 
    Godrak Mega Boss Orc Shaman Warchanter 2 x 5 Brutes 2 x 10 Ardboyz 3 x Goregruntas Deployment: 

    Turn 1
    Pete went first and roared across the table. The move in the Hero phase that Destruction units get made the army super fast. Everything moved up and allowed Gordrak to attempt to charge, but he failed. In my turn I popped out a couple of woods and fired a few arcane bolts doing minimal damage. I ran Drycha up to attempt a turn one charge (which she failed - this was an error as you'll find out later). I moved the Kurnoth Hunters to allow them to shoot the Ardboyz on the right flank and the Spirit of Durthu moved into the Acorn of Ages Wood ready to charge Godrak. I thought that this was my chance to get him off with Durthus mighty sword. However I failed the charge (its important to note I also forgot the Spirit Paths rule that could have allowed Durthu to move and charge on the roll of a six). Still, there was the chance of the double turn....
    ...which I didn't get
    Turn 2

    When Pete measured for his spells Drycha was in range for Foot of Gork, which Pete got off due to the proximity of being near orcs and some arcane scenery. He promptly stomped Drycha three times and killed her dead. Gordrak tore into the son of Durthu, bellowed at him for 5 wounds, and then killed him easily with the attacks that multiply out to D3 on a 6 vs monsters, heroes and wizards. He also charged the Kurnoth Hunters. The comet came down in the square on my right flank which was good as it was uncontested, meaning I had a shot to get it with the dryads or the hunters if they could finish off the units they were fighting. He also charged my ancient who killed a Brute whilst taking two wounds in return.

    In my turn I found that I couldn't escape from the Brutes with the Ancient due to the rule of being 9" away from models. This has been an issue in all my games with the Sylvaneth since AoS dropped - its really hard to move around if your opponent pops a model or two in the middle of a wood. The new rules allowing up to three woods to count will help, but then it becomes very difficult to place them. Anyhow, I'm digressing from the game, which was spiralling out of control fast! The Treelord missed with all his attacks (standard fare), and the Kurnoth Hunters did minimal damage with the bows. The Dryads failed their mystical terrain test for the second turn in a row and got wiped out. The unit in the centre stood and moved to contest the comet the had landed in the middle of my lines. The Branch wraith and Branchwych took up station to try and stop Godrak charging the ancient, knowing full well they were being sacrificed for the greater good! 
    Turn 3

    I lost the dice roll for turn three, but we were still drawing at this stage. The orcs continued to pour forwards. Gordrak went into the Branchwych, killed her and then charged again into the Branchwraith and killed her too. I was pretty sure Pete could have got into the Ancient, but I think at this point he was easing off the gas and didn't do it. This didn't matter as the Ancient went down to the two units of Brutes. I had successfully failed 12 3+ armour saves over 4 rounds of combat. This is a solid effort, even by my standards. The gore gruntas finally removed  one unit of Kurnoth Hunters, and the Megaboss got into combat with the others to help out the Ardboyz. The Hunters had proved to be surprisingly resilient with the preroll on the saves, which made up for the fact they couldn't hit a barn door with their shooting! 

    Turn 4
    Turn 4 I lost the roll off again and the Gore Gruntas claimed the objective on Petes side of the board. Gordrak smashed my Dryads in the centre allowing him to claim that too. With only a Kurnoth Hunter and 10 Dryads left we called the game. The Ironjaws had been victorious! 

    Conclusions
    1. Man, I could not roll dice today! However I also forgot a lot of rules and I'm not sure I considered my army combos well enough. By my own admission I've spent a lot more time painting than I have reading the rules! 
    2. Kurnoth Hunters were very resilient, and would have been better with hand weapons in this game. Saying that I think that the bows are still a good option. 
    3. I'm not sure what I could have done against Gordrak other than run away and arcane bolt him. He was horrendously destructive. The fight with Durthu would have been better if I had remembered the rules and I think there may be ways to get him closer and make the charge more viable. I also played Drycha wrong. She would have been better being held back, although I didn't realise the potential of Foot of Gork. This meant I had lost my two best combat pieces before my second turn which really left me on the back foot. 
    Overall there are a lot of things I learnt. Hopefully we'll get a game in next week and I can try out a few more things. 
  9. Stevewren

    The Branchwych

    By Stevewren,

    I managed yo get this girl painted up quickly for a game I had against some Iron Jaws. I don't normally base my models before painting them, but because the base and the Branchwych have a similar paint style I did them both together, speeding up the paint time. I base coated her with very wet paint so I could wet blend all the browns, gave her a couple of dry brush layers (i need a new dry brush i discovered!) then washed her with various washes. There is no real formula here - I just use very colour I have, keeping the darker ones in the recesses. I then picked out some raised areas with paid which flesh before glazing it back. The rest of the details were picked out and given a quick highlight and when done I added the foliage and glazed the runes with green to give a bit of a glow effect. I then did the usual foliage trick. From start to finish I think the model took just over 2 hours which was pretty solid. 

     
  10. Stevewren

    Drycha Completed

    By Stevewren,

    Completed Drycha last night. She was pretty fun to do. I put all the Flutter Flies and Squirmlings on so it was a pain to get them paint. I really didn't take that much care with them. I then went and did all the basing, which again was a lot of tufts, clump foliage and flowers. I also added the Woodland Scenics tree foliage to the top of Drycha and around her back so that she would fit in with the rest of the Sylvaneth models. Overall I am pleased with the model. She fits in nicely and looks pretty dynamic. 

  11. Stevewren
    With Drycha nearing completion she needs a base to stand on. Most of my basing is done in a fairly standard way now. The first thing to go down is the playback, which I am a huge fan of. It makes the best kinds of rocks. All I look for to start with is pieces that will keep the model level and these are glued down with Mitre Bond. Once these have been chosen I can then get cracking on extra parts. For this one I took a square forest base I had lying around and just glued that down. Then its a case of going to town with polyfilla to make it all blend together. I then stuck down the funny worm thing from the Branch Wych kit and also added in another piece of bark from the garden that I dried out. Once dry this was all covered with sand and gravel. This is the first stage pretty much done. I'll update later with the next step. 



     
     
     
    After the initial layers dried I added in some of the details. I raided the Glade Rider sprue for a couple of stones and a Spite, and chucked on some skulls. I  then went round and added in a lot of Black lava paste and shoved Mica Flake paste into all the crevasses and cracks. This all helps to blend the base together and get it looking as 'realistic' as possible (or at least as realistic as a fantasy base could be). Once it was all dry I undercoated it with the black and white spray painting technique. 

     
    Once everything was dry I gave it a very quick undercoat. This should be done with quite wet paint so that everything can be blended onto the base and shaded. I used Rhinox Hide mostly, plus a lot of Tallarn Sand. For the rocks I used a mixture of Skavenblight Dinge and Stormvermin Furr. Once this is dry it can all get shaded with a wash or two (use all the colours to get tone, especially on the rock). Then the dry brushing can begin, along with picking out the small details and painting the little characters. 

     
  12. Stevewren

    Drycha WiP

    By Stevewren,

    I've bought some of the new kits for the Sylvaneth - basically I got one of each except for Allarielle with a goal to get them all painted for Alliance, @Ben event at the start of August. My Sylvaneth have always been a fairly fast army to add to as I tend not to spend a great deal of time on them, although with these new models I will be trying to make sure that I focus on some of the details as the models are too nice to just rush through haphazardly. 
    I started with Drycha as she was the main character in the army that I will be running. The model went together OK, although there were some pretty tricky assembly parts. I'd give it the usual 8/10 for how cleverly it is engineered, but probably a 6/10 for speed and ease of assembly. I really like the pose she is in now that I have the model assembled after not being a fan in the photos that I had seen. 
    I started out with a black and white undercoat before busting out the airbrush to do the first few layers. I base coated the whole thing in Vallejo Air Mahogany and then started hitting spots with lighter browns and camo green. Then it was a case of quickly dry brushing everything and doing plenty of washing to get the variation in colour. I've gone in and added some line highlights to the claws and tidied up things like the head dress and the loincloth, but otherwise I'll be leaving it as it is. Next up was the honeycomb. This was done in Troll Slayer Orange before being washed heavily with carrouburg crimson. I made sure to get the wash in all the holes. I then went back over with the orange followed by Firedragon Bright. 
    For Drycha herself I just base coated her with a couple of layers of Palyd Wich Flesh and then washed her with Drakenhoff Nightsade. She then highlighted up quickly. I need to get some of the Green gem paint to do the eyes. And that is her pretty much done. I just need to base her and finish the bugs off which shouldn't take too long. After that I'm going to crack on with my Kurnoth Hunters
     



  13. Stevewren
    My first model finished for this month is more of an experiment in a new basing style. I saw some really cool basing on some Stormcast by Dave Roberts at Call to War this weekend. One problem I've encountered is undercoat paint being pulled off polyfilla when the texture paint goes over the top. This time I varnished the base before applying the Khorne red which went under the Martian Iron Earth and this seemed to stop it lifting which was good. I tried a different  colour palette on the rocks which I was happy with and also some new tall grasses to add interest. I was pretty pleased with the bones and skull on the ground at the front too. 
    Hope you like the pictures  

     
  14. Stevewren
    Finished my 10 Eternal Guard for this weekends tournament (Call to War at the end of June). Not sure how much I'll use them, but definitely going to try and squeeze them in as objective grabbers. Paint scheme is the usual quick wood elf scheme I've been using. I do need some more forest meadow flowers for the bases. I also haven't done a rune on the banner yet as not really sure what to go for! 

  15. Stevewren
    Although I'm supposed to be painting Eternal Guard I actually spent the last few evenings finishing off my Duardin Cogsmith. I wanted to work with metals and try out some techniques to get old weathered metal and I'm pleased with the results. I still struggle to get the really bright highlights in though. 
    The base was a really fun experiment to do. It was something very different to any base I've made before, but I took a lot of inspiration from James Wappells blog where there are loads of homemade bases. 
    It's the first time I've tried to do a 'competition style' mini so if anyone has any critiques please let me know as I'd love to try a few more and get better, particularly with things like composition. Now I just need to find a competition to enter him in! 
     



  16. Stevewren
    Ive been making steady progress on my entry for our clubs Paint a Silver Tower Hero competition ready for next month. So far I have made reasonable progress on the metals, although I do want to go in with a bit of weathering and some scratches in places. Ive also finished the red robes, although its pretty subtle and doesn't really photograph well. One thing I wanted to try and create was a Golden Demon style base for him to be displayed on. I found a chunk of wood that I cut and sanded to shape and then went to town with some play bark and cork which is topped off with some plasticard. I then filled the whole thing with filler so it could be sanded square. Tonight I've added in the pipe and the rocks to start to add some Duardin ingenuity to the whole thing. I have to add a small overflow pipe coming out of the rocks and I'll be adding some water effects to the base when its finished. Whole thing needs to be completed by the 7th June....



    IMG_6292.MOV
  17. Stevewren
    Continuing the wood elf theme for another month or so I have been working on the Eternal Guard. I only want to do 10 of these guys just so I can use them for fun. I've finished the seven regular guys. I've just got the command group to go and add in the foliage and flowers to decorate the base. 
     

  18. Stevewren
    I finished the Wood Elf Dragon today. Painting these older models has definitely been an experience - it makes you realise the difference in quality with the new CAD sculpts. There is definitely a certain charm to the older models, but I also appreciate how the new designs take paint and respond to different techniques in a way these older ones just don't. 
    I used a lot of dappling and patterning on the model - firstly this helps to tie it in with the Carmine Dragon I have so they look like they have come from a similar place, but also as a technique it works well to add interest to large flat sections like the wings. The big membranes respond well to smooth blends, but if you don't have the time or haven't mastered the technique then this method is a quick alternative. To get the circles I used an old Size 3 W&N brush that had lost its point - I cut it down slightly so it had a flat tip and then used it almost like a stamp to make the circles. The paint is just watered down. I try to use a darker colour as a lot of the circles go in the recessed parts, then build up an intermediate colour and finally I use a really bright third colour but I try to do about a third less dots as this shouldn't be too dominant. Its a fun technique to try out so if anyone gives it a go let me know how it looks. 



  19. Stevewren
    I feel like I'm getting nowhere fast with this Dragon. I love the chance to go back and look at these old sculpts, but they are difficult to paint compared to new models because of the lack of defined detail. The scales don't seem to take washes very well, and parts just seem to merge into other areas. I still think it will look OK when its done though! 






  21. Stevewren

    Dragons...?

    By Stevewren,

    With Orion finished its time to move on to another old school wood elf model. I use the carmine dragon as my lords mount, but I've always wanted to paint the old big hand 4th edition one too. This is where I'm at after the first session on him. 

  22. Stevewren
    Despite still having no avatar photo I have actually finished Orion. Pulled him off the silly big base I had planned and put him on a simpler 60mm round and feel a lot happier. Just got to finish the bases for his hounds now. 
    The hands are still horrendous, but to avoid the colour match problem I did the hand holding the staff in a green to make him look like he's channeling the power of the realm of life. 
     

  23. Stevewren
    Here are a few photos of my Orion model that I've had lying around for a few months. After the South Coast GT I needed a bit of a break from chaos so a nice legacy (read oop) model seemed the way to go. The fine cast is good everywhere except the two hands which are shocking. I might have a play around at changing the horn hand to something else. 


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