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Re: Averlorn Army

Posted: Wed Sep 21, 2011 2:56 am
by Gray
Hi Guys, I've haven't had as much time as I would like of late to work on my army but here are a couple of updates.

First up is a new maiden guard character/ champion. She's been converted from the new(ish) Dark Elf Sorcerer. I was trying out some non metal metallic techniques which proved to be fairly labour intensive for a unit champion! Who knows perhaps I can use her as the captain of the maiden guard in a scenario.

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Re: Averlorn Army

Posted: Wed Sep 21, 2011 3:19 am
by Gray
I've also finally got around to finishing a project that I have had sitting around for a while - Sons of Kurnos. I've been reading a few Black Library books and some of the more recent ones go to describe the Armies of Averlorn and all the creatures that fight with them. Although no Centaurs were mentioned they do talk of all sorts of Fauns ect, so I thought I'd put together my own unit. The models are based on Centigors, kit bashed with various other high elf parts. I wanted them to look nobler than the scabby centigors so I swapped their clawed feet for hooves and their faces for elven ones. They were fairly labour intensive - I'm a little disappointed that I didn't do a better paint job but I've got them ready in time for a tournament. I will uses them as High elf Cav.

Thanks for the comments guys, it's always inspiring to see the progress of your many armies. If only we could get together and field ALL of Ulthuan on the table :D

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Re: Averlorn Army

Posted: Wed Sep 21, 2011 4:45 am
by sulannar
They look amazing! Simples! I am especially impressed with the new Hand Madien champion! I may have to steal that idea myself..... sorry :oops:

Re: Averlorn Army

Posted: Wed Sep 21, 2011 5:13 am
by Meraklis
beautiful painting! I know I have said this many times but this army is really well themed and well painted! I especially like the handmaidens and the shadow warriors!

Re: Averlorn Army

Posted: Wed Sep 21, 2011 11:15 am
by Marshal
I enjoy checking out other peoples armies on here to get ideas. This is by far one of my favorites, well done.

Re: Averlorn Army

Posted: Sun Oct 02, 2011 5:41 pm
by Mireadur
amazing conversions. The skin of the maiden champion is specially impressive. :shock:

Re: Averlorn Army

Posted: Sun Oct 02, 2011 5:59 pm
by korhian the 28th
WOW this is real great, never seen so good painted army
al those free-hands shades and go on... very impressive =D>

1 question for the secnery where have you bought the tower, or have you build it by your self, if pleas tell me how to

Re: Averlorn Army

Posted: Mon Oct 03, 2011 12:06 pm
by Elessehta of Yvresse
Those cav will fit right in with the rest of your army, but what do you play them as, Reavers, Silver Helms, or Dragon Princes? Fluff wise I think they would rock as Reavers.

Re: Averlorn Army

Posted: Mon Oct 03, 2011 3:20 pm
by SpellArcher
How did I miss these new pics until now?

The Maiden Guard is really nice but the centaurs are just wonderful. The ability to make this kind of imaginative leap and carry it off with great skill is a precious, precious thing.

Re: Averlorn Army

Posted: Tue Oct 04, 2011 11:45 am
by Gray
A Rough Guide for how I made my Buildings

Hey, a few people requested some tips for how to make the buildings I've made. It's not a step by step guide but hopefully it will help. It's late here so I hope this makes sense.

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Shapes

Due to the nature of High Elf architecture many of the shapes are quite complex and hard to replicate. An ramshackle Orc camp would be much easier to make!
So I suggest cheat :) Use as many pre-made cut shapes you can find. Many of my materials were acquired from what we call 2$ shops here in NZ (basically shops that have bulk cheap household knick knacks)
The Basis of my mansion was wedding cake pillars, and my towers are made from cigarette trays glued to candle holders.
Look out for Curves and tapering shapes, you might get some weird looks rummaging through the discount boxes at stores - but it's worth it.
I've expanded on the materials I've used above.

Scale
While sourcing objects or putting together a plan, it's important to keep a sense of scale. It's really easy to loose sense of it and build something to the wrong size. At the end of the day, if the scenery is too big it will be inflexible to use in games because it will dominate the board. You've also got to store it as well. Measure and compare a figure of your race to door heights and windows. So before you buy that perfectly tapered candle holder to use as a basis for your white tower ensure it's the right size.


Reference
Learning from others is not cheating. Have a really good look at the army books and at the Rule book at the different high elf buildings.
Also googling Warhammer online high elf buidlings will give you some great source material and other fantasy games. You will start to see notice some universal features that will make your high elf building look like it belongs in Ulthuan.

Painting
Where a there is a stone texture or walls I painted it with a mixture of PVA, light grain sand to give it a textured rougher feel. GW paints are fine to use but other cheaper acrylics much more economic if you are painting large areas.

Thats it, If you have any other queries let me know, if you have any success making your own- I'd love to see it. Give it a crack- its actually fairly quick to make em. Cheers.

Re: Averlorn Army

Posted: Tue Oct 04, 2011 8:03 pm
by Gray
Image showing the the work in progress.

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Re: Averlorn Army

Posted: Tue Oct 04, 2011 8:13 pm
by korhian the 28th
thx gray, now where are my hobby tools, time to build some buildings :wink:

Re: Averlorn Army

Posted: Tue Oct 04, 2011 8:23 pm
by Paulo Cavalcanti
Great Theme, sreat scenery, Great Log! =D>

What about some Tree-men as unit filler for spearelves! :roll:

Re: Averlorn Army

Posted: Wed Oct 05, 2011 2:37 am
by Gray
Attached are some templates I created for my lodge, you can also adapt it or use shapes from it like door archers or deck railing. For example you could use the door shapes on a tower. I also used the tiling patterns for my tower roof.

Glue these print out outs (using a light glue - spray mount is ideal) to a light cardboard. Then cut out the shapes out and you will have the detailing and shapes for a lodge.

Once these are covered in a textured paint you will never tell they made from light card.

I created these low res for the forum print them A4, if you need them at a higher resolution flick me a private message.

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Re: Averlorn Army

Posted: Wed Oct 05, 2011 2:43 am
by Gray
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Re: Averlorn Army - & guides for creating elven buildings

Posted: Wed Oct 05, 2011 3:49 am
by awesomeshotdude
Thanks very much for sharing your building projects and instructions, they are very nice buildings. I have downloaded the pics of instrutions etc and will give them a go at some stage down the track.

Fantastic work on the converting and painting of your mini's mate, very nice.

Re: Averlorn Army - & guides for creating elven buildings

Posted: Wed Oct 05, 2011 3:53 am
by Gray
Sweet as, thanks. Good luck and let me know how you get on.

Re: Averlorn Army - & guides for creating elven buildings

Posted: Wed Oct 05, 2011 6:51 am
by Prince of Spires
Thanks a lot for all that. There are a lot of great ideas and tips in those few posts.

You make it sound / look very easy, though I'm sure you put in a fair amount of time to get these results.

Of course, feel free to post more pictures of your work (old or new) ;)

Rod

Re: Averlorn Army - & guides for creating elven buildings

Posted: Sun Oct 16, 2011 4:34 am
by Gray
I've seen a few non-warhammer based photographs recently where people have placed figures in organic environments and photographed them in a great way.

I don't have the optimal lens for it but I've tried to replicate it with some of my figures. All the foliage is real, the effect has been created with scavenged moss, pot plants and some sticks shot on a coffee table. The rain effects were created with a spray water bottle.

My next project is some pimped up White Lions, and as Paulo guessed - a Treeman!

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Re: Averlorn Army - now organic

Posted: Sun Oct 16, 2011 5:00 am
by Elessehta of Yvresse
It's like actual art!

Re: Averlorn Army - now organic

Posted: Sun Oct 16, 2011 4:20 pm
by Ptolemy
Amazing work, truly. =D>

The Sons are particularly impressive but then again, all of your little conversion work throughout is very nice as well.

Very much appreciate the building templates. Scale is very hard to get right on terrain sometimes.

Re: Averlorn Army - now organic

Posted: Sun Oct 16, 2011 5:05 pm
by Elithmar
I like the title of the thread now. :)

Really good, I'm going to have to try this. The rain effect is amazing (not as amazing as your painting, obviously ;) ).

And then..YAY! - TREEMAN! :D

Re: Averlorn Army - now organic

Posted: Mon Nov 14, 2011 5:29 am
by Gray
I've got around to finishing off my Treeman. There were a few issues on the way- I lost his jaw (!) It must of dropped straight off my desk and into the warp. I rebuilt it and made some tweaks to his face to make it slightly less demonic, although he still looks pretty angry :) I also had a lot of fun adding on all the extra growths and moss. I used Mireadur's guide for producing a glowing effect. Thanks Mireadur.

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As far as using him as a unit filler, what do you think? He is massive, do you think he's over the top? He's pictured here in a unit of classic seaguard who I was thinking of fielding as spearmen. Hmmm.

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I'm thinking of building a display board and my tournament army lacks some of the big things that often stop a passerby- so I'm contemplating whether to include him.

Finally I've decided to pimp my white lions. My current unit just doesn't do them justice. Don't really know where my Averlorn army would be without a unit or two of them wandering across the Averlorn border in times of need. Heres the Unit filler. More to come soon.

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Re: Averlorn Army - Now with Treeman

Posted: Mon Nov 14, 2011 6:57 pm
by Elithmar
That's right Druchii - die! Die!

I like the treeman and love the lion. ;) Is that a GW treeman under all that, or a different model?

The legs and pose look like the GW one...

Re: Averlorn Army - Now with Treeman

Posted: Mon Nov 14, 2011 7:23 pm
by korhian the 28th
Elithmar of Lothern wrote:That's right Druchii - die! Die!
LOL go on eat him! :wink:

like the tree man, the rune in the middle on the stone looks real good how have you paint that green lightning?

Re: Averlorn Army - Now with Treeman

Posted: Mon Nov 14, 2011 8:03 pm
by Jimmy
That treeman looks sensational, can't wait to see the entire unit finished.

Great colours on the White Lion as well!

Re: Averlorn Army - Now with Treeman

Posted: Mon Nov 14, 2011 8:04 pm
by Gray
Nothing like smashing Druchii!

The Treeman is a Banebeasts model, from Maelstrom games.
http://banelegions.maelstromgames.co.uk/?p=267

The green lighting effect was achieved by following mireadur's glowing technique which he outlines here.
http://www.ulthuan.net/forum/viewtopic. ... &start=390
I tried integrating white, but I felt that it became a bit chalky and wasn't as striking.
Still it's the first time I've tried it, so hopefully its something I can refine.

Re: Averlorn Army - Now with Treeman

Posted: Mon Nov 14, 2011 9:41 pm
by Purplesounds
Favorite model is the dark elf sorceress converted to a high elf mage. Absolutely stunning!

I like the theme and conversions and the army idea overall. I don't really like a lot of the old models personally but for sculpts I'm not a fan of you've certainly made them look good.

The photography of the action shots are simply AMAZING!!! I would love to do that with all of my painted armies!!!

Keep the updates rolling in!

Re: Averlorn Army - Now with Treeman

Posted: Mon Nov 14, 2011 10:41 pm
by Meraklis
that lion unit filler is very good! I might be stealing.. ehm borrowing this ;)

Re: Averlorn Army - Now with Treeman

Posted: Fri Nov 18, 2011 8:04 pm
by Lagast
That treeman is absolutly sick! What an amazing paint job.
I can only dream of this!