Army of Eataine (updated 1/28/2009 - Repeater Bolt Thrower)

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damien_lucifer · #31 Post by **damien_lucifer** » Mon Apr 28, 2008 10:50 am

well, beutiful work.

i think Different sheild/armour etc can really bring a unit together, finding cohesion in un-cohesion, a VERY old style of painting (also shown by the brightness of your colour scheme)

but again, wonderfull, i cannot applaud you enough....

Loran · #32 Post by **Loran** » Mon Apr 28, 2008 8:38 pm

Love the free-hand shield on the Lothern Sea Guard

Can't wait to see them completed, so get to work! *Cracks a whip*

Just kidding about the whip

- Loran

Ghost · #33 Post by **Ghost** » Tue Apr 29, 2008 12:39 am

THOSE ARE AMAZING!!!
I love the shields...Although the wolf-maid type fish is... eerrr... could have chosen something like lobster, eel etc...

ctran · #34 Post by **ctran** » Tue Apr 29, 2008 5:32 am

Thanks all!

damien_lucifer - Yeah, IMO they do look cohesive when all ranked up despite the nonuniform shield designs (the consistent palette seems to be enough), and I'll take a group photo when I have 15. They look kind of reminiscent of the spear elves on pg. 98 of the current army book.

Loran - LOL. I usually only get to paint about 1 night a week, and I'm splitting my time between the Seaguard and the Silver Helms. That's why I booked 1 year to finish the puny 1000 pts.

Ghost - You want a Lobster-wolf?

Zardan · #35 Post by **Zardan** » Tue Apr 29, 2008 12:25 pm

You have a very original style (especially the shields) with vivid colors! Also, you have a good grasp of techniques (blending comes to mind).

All in all. Your minis are great and special. Be proud!

Eärendil · #36 Post by **Eärendil** » Tue Apr 29, 2008 1:46 pm

Great painting. I love the sheilds and agree with some of the others that the unit can look cohesive while not all having the same sheild design. The Squid (and the squid hat!) and Seahorse are my favorites. Might I suggest a brittle star design for one of the last few: http://hiddentapir.deviantart.com/art/O ... a-49516788. I was actually going to do a unit of LSG with brittle star sheilds but choose an Averlorn theme so I probably won't now.

I like the way you went old school with the goblin green bases and red spears, but I don't like how the tops of the bases are brown with long grass. If you want the old school goblin green edges you have to follow through and paint the top goblin green and flock them!

ctran · #37 Post by **ctran** » Thu May 01, 2008 5:49 am

Thanks for the suggestion Earendil! I already have ideas for my remaining sea guard, but if I ever expand them to 2 groups of 10 I might have to try your brittle star

I'm afraid my desire for nostalgia only goes so far, and I might have to draw the line at green flock

Actually, once the pieces are in their movement trays the goblin green bases aren't very visible and the brown will match with the color of the tray making it look more "modern".

tinkerbell · #38 Post by **tinkerbell** » Sun Jun 01, 2008 9:37 pm

What can i say but Wow!!!.. totally impressed..keep the pics coming i like the free hand.. that is something i need to work on but that i am sure will come with time..

ctran · #39 Post by **ctran** » Fri Jul 04, 2008 7:40 am

Hey thanks tinkerbell!

Latest Seaguard WIP:

I tried to paint Juza-style light streaks across the spear tip, but I'm not sure if they turned out quite right. (Maybe if Juza happens across this thread he can tell me what I did wrong

) The wing on the quiver was painted with multiple colors mixed with Mithril Silver to make it look like it was inlaid with paua abalone. Unfortunately, the multiple colors didn't show up well in the photo.

From the beginning I felt like I had to use the two official Lothern Seaguard shields among my 15 designs. My standard bearer already bore the sea dragon, so I decided this guy should carry Lord Aislinn's Sea Eagle! I didn't think the official color for the shield (white and light blue on blue) was very striking so I decided to use a red background.

Usually I paint the background before the foreground image, but since I wasn't at all confident I could paint an eagle, why waste time painting a nice background until I made sure I could do the hard part?

Close enough!

I filled in the background with my usual red gradient (Scab Red x 2 + black at the top, then Scab Red alone, Red Gore, Red Gore + Blood Red, Blood Red, Blood Red + Blazing Orange, Blazing Orange, finally blended to Fiery Orange at the bottom). I applied multiple thin layers to make the transitions smooth:

Next I went back and repainted the eagle in Skull White:

I added stars since the official Aislinn shield has stars. With the tinniest amount of pressure, I painted a thin cross, followed by a smaller 'x' on top:

I added waves, and since the red gradient made me think of sunset, I added a setting sun:

I decided to add some scratch marks and dings to the shield. I begin by painting two squiggly lines in a dark color, scorched brown or black. (In hindsight, I should have made them straight to represent cuts and hacks on the shield, instead of little dings or cracks.)

Then I highlight the underside of the dark lines with white, giving the effect of light reflecting off the lower edge of a scratch mark:

Finally, the shield takes its place on my Sea Guard's arm:

Update
Figure based and eagle beak tweaked a little:

Elaithnir · #40 Post by **Elaithnir** » Fri Jul 11, 2008 11:11 am

Sweet baby Moses in a wicker basket...this is the kind of thing that makes me lose heart! Haha! Great work! I'm doing the Aislinn shield too, but with a blue background, starry night sky thing...I'll try to get one done and post pictures. One question. How do you do the metal? It looks freaken awesome...Keep it up!

Lathaon · #41 Post by **Lathaon** » Fri Jul 11, 2008 12:33 pm

Good question. Looks like NMM, but I'd really like a tutorial on that as I've wanted to try it out for a while now.

ctran · #42 Post by **ctran** » Fri Jul 11, 2008 7:09 pm

Aw, don't lose heart Elaithnir! It just takes a little bit of experimenting (ok, and a whole lot of time

)

Lathaon is correct, the metal areas are my continuing experiments in NMM (Non-Metallic Metal) style painting, i.e., the use of non-metallic colors (black, white, snakebite leather for the most part) to paint silver and gold surfaces (and if I pull it off right, with metal-like sheen and reflections

I'll try to put together a tutorial on it with my next set of Sea Guard photos. In the mean time, here are a bunch of other people's tutorials (other people better than me!):

http://www.one-ring.co.uk/phpBB2/kb.php ... icle&k=175
http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/inde ... opic=74782
http://www.jenova.dk/NMM.htm
http://jestersminiaturestudios.com/nmmdiscussion.htm

Note the tutorials on one-ring.co.uk and bolterandchansword.com use Games-Workshop paint recipes, Jenova uses both GW paints and Foundry paints, and Jester's tutorial uses Vallejo paints.

Good luck!

Chinh

ElvenAirCorp · #43 Post by **ElvenAirCorp** » Sun Jul 13, 2008 5:11 pm

Ahh, thanks for the update, these are wonderful miniatures. Inspirational (if not intimidating

)

Thanks for taking so much time and adding to the hobby.

ctran · #44 Post by **ctran** » Fri Sep 12, 2008 5:23 am

My pleasure ElvenAirCorp. I'm learning too!

It's been a while since I made a update, so...

As you can see he's not done yet, but I figure I better post something before my thread slips to page 10

Baalan · #45 Post by **Baalan** » Fri Sep 12, 2008 11:57 am

that is an astonishing freehand on the shield my friend - not to mention the helmet...

and as for the LSG rest assured that your efforts made me take heart and jump at painting my own...*deep breath and gives a wry smile at the minies*

cheers

Eärendil · #46 Post by **Eärendil** » Fri Sep 12, 2008 8:20 pm

looks great so far. plume, helmet, face, and sheild are all excellent. can't wait to see the final product (of course, knowing you i will probably have to wait a while

)

Acorn-Anvil · #47 Post by **Acorn-Anvil** » Sat Sep 13, 2008 2:55 pm

The detail on the SH face and helmet is just stunning. The NMM is simple and very effective! Well done.

Allerion · #48 Post by **Allerion** » Sat Sep 13, 2008 4:35 pm

love the blood splatter on the front of the horse.

everything is truly amazing

ctran · #49 Post by **ctran** » Thu Sep 18, 2008 6:36 am

Baalan - Hate to make you less impressed, but that's actually one of the standard relief Silver Helm shields (although I painted it as though it were freehand

)

Eärendil - Not as long as you'd think! The reason this guy took so long was because I got distracted by a Space Marine Whirlwind tank, 2 Empire Soldiers and a Night Goblin. But they didn't get posted since they're not helves

I felt the gold wings on the side of the horse's head dress looked awkward since there wasn't a lot of gold elsewhere on the model, so in the end I went back to my candy cane stripes:

Acorn-Anvil - Thank you!

Allerion - Glad someone noticed the blood splatter! I was inspired by GeOrc's blood splattered white lion and decided to give it a try... I think the results were satisfactory for the first attempt

Eärendil · #50 Post by **Eärendil** » Thu Sep 18, 2008 1:48 pm

he looks great! Nice job. How many do you have done at this point?

Also, I would be interested to see how you paint tanks--do you have a link to any of your tank related work?

tethlisslayer · #51 Post by **tethlisslayer** » Thu Sep 18, 2008 7:26 pm

First of all great job on all of the models. Especially the silver helm, the NMM painting, and the free hand work on your models, superb job.
A Comment and question open to anyone:
I have like 6 of the old silver helms, but to me their horses seem much smaller than current ones. Is there any way to just buy horses/bases for the current models?

ctran · #52 Post by **ctran** » Thu Sep 18, 2008 7:29 pm

Hey Eärendil, I have 14 Seaguard & 4 Silver Helms. Both are 1 elf short of a full unit

After that I'm hoping to do a Repeater Bolt Thrower and some Phoenix Guard, but that might be a while...

As for tanks, my Whirlwind can be found here:

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/inde ... pic=144921

I actually used metallic paints!

ctran · #53 Post by **ctran** » Thu Sep 18, 2008 7:33 pm

tethlisslayer wrote:First of all great job on all of the models. Especially the silver helm, the NMM painting, and the free hand work on your models, superb job.
A Comment and question open to anyone:
I have like 6 of the old silver helms, but to me their horses seem much smaller than current ones. Is there any way to just buy horses/bases for the current models?

Yup. GW sells the horses separate:

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catal ... meStyle=wh

Although if you're in the U.S., TheWarStore sells them cheaper:

http://www.thewarstore.com/product27595.html

Acorn-Anvil · #54 Post by **Acorn-Anvil** » Thu Oct 23, 2008 2:43 pm

Hi! Any new pictures?

Cyrannoc · #55 Post by **Cyrannoc** » Thu Oct 23, 2008 6:21 pm

Hi Ctran, absolutely splendid job on the minis so far!, very distintive army your putting together, should look great from afar!, and still retain interest up close, it works on many levels!, just curious if the silver helms you are using (the guys with the Spartan-esque plumes on thier helms) are the old Silver Helm minis or not?, they look like them to me - if so, then its amazing how much the paint job and the addition of the new steed model transforms an immediately updates them!? - Im just curious because ive been thinking of doing something similar to my old minis. - let me know yeah?, in the meantime, keep up the great work! - soon your Eatainian host will become the stuff of Ulthuan legend! (incidentally, I noticed that you are using the excellent old Lothern seaguard/spearmen metal models in your army, Ive always thought that they were far superior models, an wondered if you knew where I might be able to get some from now that they are out of production?)

Cheers!

ctran · #56 Post by **ctran** » Thu Oct 23, 2008 10:08 pm

Hey Acorn-Anvil,

Yup, I have some new minis painted up, but they're Black Orcs

Unfortunately, I have no friends (Lathaon, don't you dare quote that out of context

) in "real life" who play WFB. Actually, I can get them to play, I just can't get them to collect or paint the miniatures. So I've come to the hard realization that if I ever want to play a game with them, I'm going to have to supply both armies. Ergo, I have shifted my focus from painting a 1000 pt High Elf Army to painting two 500 pt warbands.

The second warband is Orcs & Goblins, and I've decided to paint them using metallic paints to get that dirty, gritty feel. I've been using NMM for so long I'm having a harder time with the metallics and am still figuring it out, hence my lack of new photos recently. I'll try to post something in the next week.

Cyrannoc - Thanks for the compliments! You're correct, the Silver Helm with the Spartan-esque horse-hair helm is a 4th or 5th edition Silver Helm. I bought a bag of them on ebay, which is where I'd suggest looking for the old school Lothern Seaguard as well. (Searching for "Lothern" I found a Sea Guard Champion and Musician, both for $0.99 right now.) And I definately agree with you that they're way better than their 6th edition plastic counterparts.

Happy Scrappy Hero Pup · Fri Oct 24, 2008 1:00 pm

ctran, your NMM is really fantastic. You catch the whole earth/sky reflection beautifully, and the wear and tear is tastefully done - it shows damage without being overwhelming.

I'm curious about your whites on this latest guy. Are you finished with them? Maybe its the pics, but I don't see any depth on them. Just curious, because you're such a great detail painter.

Thanks for the updates! They are worth the wait!

Cyrannoc · #58 Post by **Cyrannoc** » Fri Oct 24, 2008 5:05 pm

I thought so ctran. as i said before, nice job. Ill keeping checking ebay (as i have been avidly recently) the two minis you mentioned are from the U.S. and as im currently based in the U.K. the postage becomes a bit prohibitive - but resta ssured that should any of those old Lothern Minis come up on ebay, ill be sure to snap em up (that is unless you do before i do)
Just wondered if you (or anyone for that matter) knew where i could pick them up (maybe some local stores still have em?)

Anyway, ill keep checking your thread for updates on the army, so keep it up!

Prince Eldarion · Fri Oct 24, 2008 10:11 pm

Your army describes perfection.

ctran · #60 Post by **ctran** » Tue Oct 28, 2008 7:30 am

Happy Scrappy Hero Pup wrote:I'm curious about your whites on this latest guy. Are you finished with them? Maybe its the pics, but I don't see any depth on them.

How dare you criticize my whites!?!

Just kidding! Well, I'd like to blame it on the photos, but I think you're right that there isn't a lot of depth to the white on that last guy. I usually use blues or greys to shade white when there are deep folds (like the Lothern Seaguard robes), but the folds on that Silver Helm are pretty shallow, so they're just dark-lined. I think black & white are the hardest colors to highlight and shade. You don't want it looking grey, so all the highlights and shading have to be subtle. As far as whether or not it's finished, I have a habit of going back to stuff I painted a long time ago and updating them, so nothing's truly finished

Nice new dog avatar you have there Scrappy!

Cyrannoc - Good luck on your hunt for metal Seaguard. I won't be buying any more of them myself (already have my unit of 15), unless the once rumored peg-legged Lothern pirates show up. You can check bargain websites like this one:
http://www.bargainbingamer.com/index.ph ... 5abc65cdf1
but generally, since they're long out of production, most stores won't have them.

Prince Eldarion wrote:Your army describes perfection.

Uh oh, nowhere to go but down hill

By the way, if anyone is interested in seeing my Orcs & Goblins (I'm still getting the hang of them), you can find them by clicking on the new link in my signature ("Da Red Skullz").

Army of Eataine (updated 1/28/2009 - Repeater Bolt Thrower)

Lord Aislinn's Man