Children of Ulthuan

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Rogue Trader
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Re: Children of Ulthuan

#121 Post by Rogue Trader »

Outstanding & Inspiring work...a pleasure to look at.
Razzat
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Re: Children of Ulthuan

#122 Post by Razzat »

I am totally speechless. If picasso was a great artist you sir are his hobby equal. If I ever saw you in person I would just clap non stop until you left.
[url=http://s1275.photobucket.com/user/matholman/library/Warhammer?sort=3&page=1]High Elves Gallery[/url]
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Rybon66
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Re: Children of Ulthuan

#123 Post by Rybon66 »

Lord Anathir wrote:
psy_lock wrote:
With the Chars done, the next project is going to be something entirely different: I decided to launch another round of terrain-making. I'm not going into too much detail for now, just a little hint. Can you guess, where this is coming from? :mrgreen:

Image

So long!

Spyro the dragon?

Great painting.
Ungoro Crater Cave.
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Myth
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Re: Children of Ulthuan

#124 Post by Myth »

OMG :shock:
Amazing work....really hard to believe what you've managed to accomplish! What an extraordinary skill! =D>
Each model is a showcase figure.

Really great and smooth highlighting and blending. NMM is fantastic.
How long it took you to finish all that?

If you can reveal some of painting techniques you're using, I would be really grateful ;)

Hope you have a plenty more to show here.

EDIT: wow, this was my 100 post here 8) :lol:
Gandalf_82
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Re: Children of Ulthuan

#125 Post by Gandalf_82 »

Awesome work! Another unbelievable Plog well worth following on here! What I would give for even a tenth of your skill!!
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msu117
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Re: Children of Ulthuan

#126 Post by msu117 »

Shameless bump to track in my thread history.

Awesome to see this blast from the past featured on Blond Beer's: The Orange Road
SpellArcher
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Re: Children of Ulthuan

#127 Post by SpellArcher »

Thanks, it was a pleasure to revisit this.
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hoten
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Re: Children of Ulthuan

#128 Post by hoten »

OMG ...I've just laid back in my chair and enjoyed the show


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Lohendrinus
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Re: Children of Ulthuan

#129 Post by Lohendrinus »

Fabulous painting. Now I have the lifetime target for my own level.
psy_lock
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from the ashes

#130 Post by psy_lock »

Guys, it’s been a while.

Well, that’s an understatement if I ever saw one :P
It actually took me over two years to finish another project and until now there have been no updates to show you. What a sad state of affairs, but there’s reasons. Not the least of which is the end of the 8th Edition of Warhammer Fantasy Battles. The Old World went down in flames and cinders, what a kick in the guts. Much wailing and lamenting was had, and the hobby wobbles caught me squarely. Really, I put it all on hold and did some other hobbies for a spell. Sad times! But then, the 9th age came along. With the rise of a new ruleset and some new gamer friends in my area, interests in the hobby were rekindled. So I finally got around to finish this project!

From the ashes rises
Image
the Flamespyre Phoenix

(please note that I reduced the pictures in size and resolution. If you would like to see the original pictures, you can find them in this gallery: http://imgur.com/a/1mrkz)

Conversion Choices
A good friend gave this model to me as a gift. If he hadn’t, I would probably not have picked it up because there are some details about the model which I didn’t really fancy. Look at me, sounding like a pompous ungrateful git! But still, let me tell you about the flaws because they are the reason for the conversions I made. So here goes my little rant:
  • There are two ways in which you can put the Phoenix together: As the Frostheart or as the Flamespyre Phoenix. However, I feel that the little ice crystals on the Frostie are out of scale, so I decided for the Fire version. Unfortunately, at the time the Frostie was basically in every HE army ever to be seen, while the Flamespyre Phoenix was shunned and laughed at.  That was a little discouraging back then. Karma! Now that it’s finished, its rules are absolutely awesome in the 9th Age :D
  • The Phoenix’ design logic is flawed: it consists of feathers and fire, that’s all good. However, at the tips of its wings, it has 5 more blade-like protrusions. They are not feathers, but.. what are they? How do you paint them? Nobody knows.
  • The bird has terrible statics. As in, it keeps falling off of its single contact point with the long transparent stem. The state of things is actually so desperate that in the majority of cases when I saw a Phoenix on tables, there was an empty base standing somewhere, with the actual model lying next to it. A sorry view.
  • The main issue I have with the model is its side-face. If you look at the phoenix from the side, it looks flat. There are no interesting details for you to see from the side, the wings are parallel to the ground, so are the flames following its wake. Also, there is a lot of empty space below the bird. The model looks almost like a 2D model.
Now, some issues were easy enough to fix:
Build a fiery bird instead of the Frostie to avoid the crystals. Use lots of magnets to cure instability. Somehow paint the blades.
The real challenge was the 2D issue, and to counter that, I did four things:
  • Tilted the whole model into a slightly rising position, giving it a little more momentum
  • Added the rider. The rider actually helps a lot with the problem, because he adds a lot to the contour when looking at the model from the side.
  • Built a base with a lot of height. There is a piece of terrain provided with the kit, a broken column. I used that, but I also added two mounds of stone and a big menhir. In itself, this helped fill the void below the bird, but it also was part of the last measure:
  • Added a flock of young phoenixes to accompany the Flamespyre Phoenix. I placed them in such a way that they would create a lot of dynamics and movement, while at the same time giving the observer something to look on from the side-face.
Image

Image

I built the little phoenixes using birds from Dark Elder Razorwing Flock and parts of the actual Flamespyre Phoenix’ fire bits. The blazing trails are bits from the spirits circling the Mortis Engine.

Painting Technique
Since there have been some questions about the painting techniques used in my army, I’ll try to shed a little light into that. So basically, there is a problem with this whole project: When I started it way back years ago, I was younger and ‘Non Metallic Metals’ (NNM) was the hot fuzz all over the internet. Fair enough, I wanted to try it myself, and went for it. So turns out: it looks cool, but it takes a lot of time to paint it. After all, you can’t just paint all the metals in one colour, as you can with metallic. Instead, every time the surface changes, you have to start anew, with another colour transition from black to white.
After a few units painted in this fashion, I felt I had the hang of it (at least black and white, I never tried golds or other colours). But it was at this point that I realized that either I keep going with this technique and style or there would be a visible change in style. If I started to suddenly paint the next units with say, True Metallic Metals, there would be no overall coherence in the army. And so I stick with the NMM.
This situation is the reason why I do not encourage anyone to do the same. Go for true metallic, or maybe airbrush. But if you want to know, I’ll tell you how I paint: I use a wet palette. I drop a few drops of black paint into it, add a little water. Now, let's say I want to paint a red cloak. I paint the whole cloak black.No need to hurry because the black paint can dry, that’s okay. Just make sure that the paint is thinned down.
Next step: take red paint, and let a drop fall into the black, mix it all up. Now you have an almost-black colour on the wet palette, and you go ahead and paint a layer of this colour over the black, leaving just a small area in the original black.
Next: add another drop of red, paint another layer. Then, do the same again. This is it! Always remember to add some water, you want the layers to be thin. It takes patience and a steady hand. :?
Actually, I still employ the same slow technique I used for the first units, and the reason is the same: I don’t want there to be a change in style, an incoherence in the overall army appearance. Also, it is an approach I can reproduce. It’s slow, but I know what I get. :wink:

Colour Choices
Image

The Flamespyre Phoenix is the first big monster I painted for my army. I did paint a griffon from the Island of Blood bix set, but frankly, that model is barely bigger than a giant eagle. So this model was to be a centerpiece in my army, and as such I wanted vibrant, popping colours. I have had some experience with painting fire from the terrain projects and painting the mages, so the red colour for flames was soon decided for.
The colour choice for the phoenix itself took me a while to decide upon. In the end I decided to try and go for all the colours present my army (except the black and white for metals):

- Blue (Vallejo’s Magic Blue)
- Purple ( Vallejo’s Hexed Lichen)
- Red (Vallejo’s Bloody Red)
- Orange (Vallejo’s Orange Fire)

Now, that’s a load of different colours right there! I was really concerned that the result would be a confusing swirl of colours, distracting and jumbled. So in order to organize all of these colours, I decided to arrange them in big colour transitions, from blue all the way up to orange.
It was then that I realized that this transition wouldn’t work without also adding the colour magenta. Now, when this was decided, all that was left was defining the areas to paint the transition on. In the end I went for wings, body, head and tail.


Image

Here is another picture, this time from top down. It’s probably the best view point to check out the painting of the feathers. Also, you might notice the different colour choices for fire: on the undersite of the model, the fire was painted with black, red, hot orange, orange fire, sun yellow (see left picture). On the upper side, I used the same colours but didn’t go for sun yellow (right picture).
The reason for this is in the lighting: I bought a daylight lamp roughly when I was finished with the bottom side. In the new, brighter light the fire looked better without the yellow. So I decided to go with that from then on :)

Image

In the lore for the Flamespyre Phoenix is a part about it’s transition into a frostheart phoenix: ‘As the creature ages , its body cools, and even begins to sap heat from its surroundings. Finally the plumage that once blazed ith fire grows heavy with frost and ice. Once this occurs, the Phoenix must leave the Flamyspyres, for the chill that surrounds it causes agony in its brightly burning kin.’
I like the idea that the colours on my model might represent this transition.

Image

A part of the mane is magnetized, so that it can be interchanged with the rider’s saddle. I like the model better with the rider. Also, all of my army’s colours are present in the model, when it’s ridden. The Anointed of Asuryan is a detailed model, but since I used a load of colours on the bird itself, for the rider’s ornaments I stuck to reds and blues where I could.

Image

The phoenix was a big model and I’m glad that it’s done. It’s also a lot of fun to play with! So what’s next? I learned some things about centrepieces, and that’s how this blog will continue. After all, what self-respecting Highborn Elves army lacks an ancient dragon?

My brother gave me the most beautiful dragon model as a gift..
Last edited by psy_lock on Sun May 28, 2017 9:37 am, edited 1 time in total.
SpellArcher
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Re: Children of Ulthuan

#131 Post by SpellArcher »

Thanks very much psy_lock, excellent post.

Shame that 8th died in your area but great that you've got 9th Age going on. Just a lovely model, great contrasts and very thoughtful treatments. Can't wait to see how the dragon's going!

:)
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RE.Lee
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Re: Children of Ulthuan

#132 Post by RE.Lee »

No paintjob will make me like that sculpt, but yours comes close :wink: Superb skills! =D>
cheers, Lee

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Prince of Spires
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Re: Children of Ulthuan

#134 Post by Prince of Spires »

You have some pretty nice friends, if they keep giving you large WH models ;)

Great paint job. It's very unusual and very striking. It works very well. And thanks for the detailed explanation about your thought process in how to select paints and how to position the model. Very informative.

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