Solith's painting log of eternal distractions

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solith
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Solith's painting log of eternal distractions

#1 Post by solith »

Hello Ulthuan, and welcome to my painting log :)

I started my high elves about a year ago, coming back to the hobby after an 8 year hiatus which somehow improved my painting skills despite doing almost no art during those 8 years. Strange, but I’m not complaining.

I decided to enter a monthly painting competition at my local GW, and actually did surprisingly well, so I decided to share the rest of my elves here.
Image
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This is the model I entered. It’s also the only model in my army that’s fully based and varnished, and is probably the best thing I’ve painted to date. I still have a long way to go, but I’m happy with what I can do now.


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My archers. These may look suspiciously like Wood Elf archers, but they’re actually High Elves. (Mainly because the models are SO much better) I also decided that I’d try to make my army Averlorn themed, mainly so that I could use green. At first I was working around the old Goblin Green (which is about the most intense mid-tone green you’ve seen) and it took me far too long to realise that it was actually not very nice. I’m currently in the process of repainting to a much nicer sea green. You can see the difference here
ImageImage
ImageImage


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My spearmen. I don’t really like the embossed designs for the shields, so I first tried making a green stuff mould to make the entire process easier, but that wasn’t so successful; so I bit the bullet and went for freehanding.

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Scratchbuilt Sword Masters! They’re spearmen legs/bodies/heads, with sculpted arms/plumes, and swords from plasticard/old credit cards. I like the one on the right. He’s going through an existential crisis: “if a Sword Master doesn’t have a sword, is he still a Sword Master?”

Image

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Two mages. The one on the left is a converted Reaper miniature. The one on the right is a converted WE archer. Yes that is a purple fireball. No I don’t know why purple.


Now for the fun part, unit fillers! I probably spend far too much time converting these, but I like what they can add to an army.
Image

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Making pastries is a great way to relieve the stress of battle.

ImageImage
This one is so unconcerned he’s painting when he should be fighting. Internet cookies to whoever can name the painting.

What I’m working on at the moment: I’m updating the green across my entire army, (urgh) and I’ve decided to make a solid try to win next month’s local painting competition, so I’m working on a mounted Prince. (And deciding if it’s worth trying to de-Caledorize it)

Hope you enjoy the pictures. More will come eventually. :)
Last edited by solith on Wed Feb 05, 2014 4:25 pm, edited 1 time in total.
[url=http://www.ulthuan.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=44644]My painting log[/url]
[url=http://www.ulthuan.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=51&t=51340]My battle reports[/url]
Gizmos
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Re: Solith's painting log

#2 Post by Gizmos »

this really brightened my evening. Some nice models there and some brilliant conversions. How did you do the scales btw? is it drybrush with silver over the bronze? its got a nice effect.
Loth_Savage
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Re: Solith's painting log

#3 Post by Loth_Savage »

Great style! Love the look of your guys. I woke the wife from laughing at the pastry making unit filler. Absolutely genius.

Loth
[url=http://www.ulthuan.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=43122&p=824403#p824403]My poorly kept up painting log on Ulthuan.net :)[/url]
henrypmiller
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Re: Solith's painting log

#4 Post by henrypmiller »

Starry Night - Van Gogh
solith
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Re: Solith's painting log

#5 Post by solith »

@Gizmos
Thank you!
For the scales, pretty much that for all of the gold/bronze coloured metal: bronze -> black ink -> either a drybrush (on scales) or highlighting (on everything else) of silver.
I was aiming for an old look for the metal, rather than the shiny-new look that High Elves often have.

@Loth_Savage
Thank you!
I hope she was suitably impressed :D

@henrypmiller
Hooray, internet cookies for you.
[url=http://www.ulthuan.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=44644]My painting log[/url]
[url=http://www.ulthuan.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=51&t=51340]My battle reports[/url]
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Aicanor
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Re: Solith's painting log

#6 Post by Aicanor »

Very nice, love how you add humour into the ranks. =D> And no, he must be an Axe Master. :wink: I gave my (yet unpainted) Bolt Thrower crew elf a paintbrush as well, but it is much less spectacular. He makes just some sketches for later use. :mrgreen:
solith
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Re: Solith's painting log

#7 Post by solith »

@Aicanor
Thank you!
He could be doing trigonometry and calculations to help him aim better :D
[url=http://www.ulthuan.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=44644]My painting log[/url]
[url=http://www.ulthuan.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=51&t=51340]My battle reports[/url]
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Elithmar
Young Eataini Prince
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Re: Solith's painting log

#8 Post by Elithmar »

Very nice idea with the sword masters, and nicely painted models.

Bravo! :D
"I say the Eatainii were cheating - again." -Aicanor
"Eatainian jerks…" -Headshot
"It was a little ungentlemanly." -Aicanor (on the Eatainii)
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Prince Asarion
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Re: Solith's painting log

#9 Post by Prince Asarion »

Hey there, I was wondering what paints you used on the free hand on the shields? I'm looking for a similar effect on my banners and was curious.
Check out my [url=http://www.ulthuan.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=40192]c/b/plog[/url]

[size=85][i][color=#0000FF]Army - L ~ D ~ V ~ SV - Year[/color][/i][/size]
[size=85][i][color=#BF4000]HE --- 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 8 - 2012[/color][/i][/size]
[size=85][i][color=#BF4000]HE --- 0 ~ 0 ~ 1 ~ 0 - 2013[/color][/i][/size]
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tinman
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Re: Solith's painting log

#10 Post by tinman »

Hey there, Welcome to Ulthuan! Nice paint work and very nice armor. It looks ancient. Well done.
How much wood can a woodchuck chuck??..
solith
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Re: Solith's painting log

#11 Post by solith »

@Elithmar of Lothern
Thank you!

@Prince Asarion
Most of my paints are older generation GW, but with the new names it should be:
Mournfang Brown -> Skrag Brown -> Karak Stone -> Flash Gitz Yellow -> White Scar.
It's a simplified and non-blended version of NMM gold. Ish.
The real 'trick' is going over it afterwards with the grey of the shields to neaten up the design and cover up mistakes.

@tinman
Thank you!
[url=http://www.ulthuan.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=44644]My painting log[/url]
[url=http://www.ulthuan.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=51&t=51340]My battle reports[/url]
Luna Guardian
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Re: Solith's painting log

#12 Post by Luna Guardian »

You have the same Idea I do for archers! The Glade Guard makes for much better archers than our own do.

Nice conversion work, and a nice colorscheme :)
Prince Deral Lionbane, head of the House of Lionbane, Lord of Lionstone and Warden of Tor Charta

Luna, try not to beat them too hard. They are proud about their pseudo-glorious past and their present nothingness, you know.
-Elmoth, about Caledorians
solith
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Re: Solith's painting log

#13 Post by solith »

@Luna Guardian
Thanks!

Okay, so a WiP of my Cavalry Prince. Unfortunately the picture quality isn't great, and I had to use flash to get half-way decent pictures and that slightly hides all my highlighting, But:
ImageImage

I'm trying to push myself with this model, so please please give me feedback; anything that will improve my work here. :)

P.s. Is there a way to resize pictures on the forum? I'm currently having to downsize the pictures so they don't invade everyone's screens, but is there a way I can display the picture at 50% size for example?
[url=http://www.ulthuan.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=44644]My painting log[/url]
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Tzineris
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Re: Solith's painting log

#14 Post by Tzineris »

Lovely and inspirational work!! My humble compliments!! =D>
My High elven painting project http:[url]http://www.ulthuan.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=44391[/url]
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Elithmar
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Re: Solith's painting log

#15 Post by Elithmar »

NIce idea with the wings. :)
"I say the Eatainii were cheating - again." -Aicanor
"Eatainian jerks…" -Headshot
"It was a little ungentlemanly." -Aicanor (on the Eatainii)
"What is it with Eataini being blamed for everything?" -Aicanor
Loth_Savage
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Re: Solith's painting log

#16 Post by Loth_Savage »

Solith

Good start on the horse, nice conversion. Note about the spots, I think they look to regular in spacing and size. It distracts from the final idea. Check google-fu for images for comparison. I think it'll look great finished.

About resizing, I think most people rely on their image hosting service to resize. I use imageshack and it gives me an option to resize to 'forum' dimensions 600*400 when loading.

Loth
[url=http://www.ulthuan.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=43122&p=824403#p824403]My poorly kept up painting log on Ulthuan.net :)[/url]
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Aicanor
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Re: Solith's painting log

#17 Post by Aicanor »

I agree with Loth_Savage. The dots should be less regular. Other than that I like him a lot. Can't resist to add my own try on dappled grey in my plog. :mrgreen:
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Nyeave
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Re: Solith's painting log

#18 Post by Nyeave »

Where are the archer heads are from? They don't look like the heads shown on any other glade guard pics I can find.
Visit my plog at [url]http://www.ulthuan.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=43542[/url]
solith
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Re: Solith's painting log

#19 Post by solith »

@Tzineris
Thank you!

@Elithmar
It took me a while to decide to cut up such a nice model.
The wings are made from the top chunk of a White Lion helmet (mainly for the plume) and the wings off the IoB prince's helmet - then green stuff to smooth them onto the horse's head and to fix the gemstones.

@Loth_Savage
Very good point. I've now added more - and smaller - spots to break up the regularity. It's a big improvement.
Thanks for the info on the pictures.

@Aicanor
Now why didn't I find your pictures before I started, it would have helped so much :D

@Nyeave
They're all from the Glade Guard kit. It comes with a huge number of heads, about 10 per 5 bodies. (Compared to the HE Spearmen kit for example, with 5 heads per 4 bodies) I've mainly gone for the hooded heads because I think they're much cooler.

Work has continued: the cloth of the barding is now green. I'll post some pictures at some point when there's been enough progress. :)
[url=http://www.ulthuan.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=44644]My painting log[/url]
[url=http://www.ulthuan.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=51&t=51340]My battle reports[/url]
aurynn
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Re: Solith's painting log

#20 Post by aurynn »

That is simply amazing! I really love your sculpts and conversions. I am going to heavily convert my army too so I will be back here often for inspiration. :-) Keep it up!
[url=http://www.ulthuan.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=44814&p=804131#p804131]My personal PLOG[/url]
[url=http://www.ulthuan.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=67&t=45715]Lost Asur Expedition - army blog[/url]
[quote]"Well, hey, I didn't spend all those years playing Dungeons and Dragons and not learn a little something about courage."
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solith
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Re: Solith's painting log

#21 Post by solith »

@aurynn
Thank you! It's great fun making these silly conversions, even though some (many?) won't really be noticed when they're ranked up in units.

Update time.
ImageImage

Since the last update, I've added more dapples, (not that you can see in the pictures) done the green and grey cloth of the barding and painted the scale armour.

I was originally going to do the semi-metallic-metal thing, starting with a base metallic colour and highlighting it up to white - you can see what I'm failing to describe properly on my Sword Master Champion at the top of the thread.

However I then remembered that I have this artist's acrylic metallic white colour (I don't know why I have it :? ) so I highlighted up to that instead, partly to experiment and partly to make the model stand out a bit more. (Because a model with reduced metallics in the middle of an army with full metallics can risk coming across as a bit dull) The paint in question is utterly horrible to use, it's incredibly thick and dries too quickly even on a wet palette, but when it was finished... oh my. I think I'll need sunglasses to look at the model once all the metals have been finished, it's so bright. The pictures really don't do it justice but even so you can see how shiny they are. The shading on the rest of the model is pretty much the shading I painted there. The huge difference between individual scales you see? That's due to them reflecting the light differently, they're actually quite uniformly painted.

Because of this I'm changing my original plan, If most of the armour on the model is gold, it'll just be ridiculous. Instead I'll end up painting the metals quite similar to the GW Prince's colour scheme, which I didn't particularly want to do but I think it's the only option left to me. It'll still look awesome either way :D
[url=http://www.ulthuan.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=44644]My painting log[/url]
[url=http://www.ulthuan.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=51&t=51340]My battle reports[/url]
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Il Maestro
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Re: Solith's painting log

#22 Post by Il Maestro »

Nice work on the steed, the few extra light grey spots that you've added take away from the uniform look from before, and make it look more like the animal's natural hide.

Really cool army so far (can't believe I hadn't noticed it!), I especially love the glade guard (conversions...? :wink: ), the bow strings and arrows add a lot more to the models. Looking forward to seeing how this log progresses!
[b][url=http://www.ulthuan.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=40568]The House of Black Flames: A Druchii Project[/url][/b]
Shannar, Sealord
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Re: Solith's painting log

#23 Post by Shannar, Sealord »

solith wrote: This one is so unconcerned he’s painting when he should be fighting. Internet cookies to whoever can name the painting.

What I’m working on at the moment: I’m updating the green across my entire army, (urgh) and I’ve decided to make a solid try to win next month’s local painting competition, so I’m working on a mounted Prince. (And deciding if it’s worth trying to de-Caledorize it)

Hope you enjoy the pictures. More will come eventually. :)
Is it a van Gogh?
solith
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Re: Solith's painting log

#24 Post by solith »

@ Il Maestro
Thank you!

@Shammar, Sealord
Yup: Starry Night

Update time:
Well my painting competition is (or should be) tomorrow, and I've finally finished. Sort of.

The cloaks aren't really fitting onto the shoulders, so I've completely left it off for now. Later when I have time I may try to re-shape one of them to fit better.
I've also not finished either shield yet (ss cool as the dragon one is I think I'm slowly leaning towards the eagle/sun shield. Either I use that or I have to fluff away the dragon shield as being a gift from some Caledori Prince because it doesn't really fit - theme wise - by itself) and even if I do finish one I'm not 100% sure if I'll attach it yet. At this stage it's probably better to wait for the new book to settle on equipment anyhow :lol:

However... magnets! I've magnetized his right arm so I can change him into a BSB noble when I want to. I had to buy some even smaller magnets to fit (these new ones have a size of Pi mm cubed :D ) but the banner arm itself is quite heavy so I'll have to repose the shoulder a little so that the banner points vertically - otherwise it spins about the magnet and pokes at the floor, which isn't very glamorous.

All that remains now is to varnish, and then go over the gems with a gloss varnish and it'll be done!

Pictures will come, hopefully within a week.
[url=http://www.ulthuan.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=44644]My painting log[/url]
[url=http://www.ulthuan.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=51&t=51340]My battle reports[/url]
Caekface
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Re: Solith's painting log

#25 Post by Caekface »

Swordmasters study every weapon so him having an axe works just fine I reckon!
I love the unit fillers, especially the artsy one :)

Keep it up!
Demigryphs shouldn't exist.
I try to paint. http://www.ulthuan.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=40152
solith
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Re: Solith's painting log

#26 Post by solith »

@Caekface
Thank you.

Here are some quick pictures of my cavalry prince/bsb.
ImageImage

If I manage to take some good quality pictures I'll put them up, but that won't be for a while I imagine.
Last edited by solith on Sat Apr 27, 2013 5:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.
[url=http://www.ulthuan.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=44644]My painting log[/url]
[url=http://www.ulthuan.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=51&t=51340]My battle reports[/url]
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Elessehta of Yvresse
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Re: Solith's painting log

#27 Post by Elessehta of Yvresse »

I like the headdress on the horse, and the green and bronze look good together.
[url=http://www.ulthuan.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=34506][i]Lord Elessehta Silverbough of Ar Yvrellion, Ruler of Athel Anarhain, Prince of the Yvressi.[/i][/url]
[quote="Narrin’Tim"]These may be the last days of the Asur, but if we are to leave this world let us do it as the heroes of old, sword raised against evil![/quote]
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Re: Solith's painting log

#28 Post by Luna Guardian »

Nice job :) . The model has a very Gaulic look to it, tres heroic :)
Prince Deral Lionbane, head of the House of Lionbane, Lord of Lionstone and Warden of Tor Charta

Luna, try not to beat them too hard. They are proud about their pseudo-glorious past and their present nothingness, you know.
-Elmoth, about Caledorians
solith
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Re: Solith's painting log

#29 Post by solith »

@Elessehta of Yvresse
Thank you!
I was going back and forwards for ages on whether or not I should cut off the original headdress. It's very nice but it doesn't fit my theme, yet I could have ended up ruining it if things had gone badly.

@Luna Guardian
Thank you!
It's the horse that makes it so heroic imo. That pose just demands that you make the rider as heroic as you can also :D

In other news, I won the competition!
To be fair, it was split into two categories so I was competing with only three other entries (a Vampire on foot, Be'Lakor and a big Tyranid gribbly) but I'm pleased I was able to put the Asur in their rightful place.

More importantly, it's a personal best for me. Even if I did put a ridiculous amount of hours into it (compared to how little better it is than models I've painted in half the time) I'm satisfied and that's what counts.

The model itself will be sitting in the shop until I go in to pick up the new book next week, so better pictures will have to wait.
[url=http://www.ulthuan.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=44644]My painting log[/url]
[url=http://www.ulthuan.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=51&t=51340]My battle reports[/url]
Luna Guardian
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Re: Solith's painting log

#30 Post by Luna Guardian »

solith wrote:In other news, I won the competition!
To be fair, it was split into two categories so I was competing with only three other entries (a Vampire on foot, Be'Lakor and a big Tyranid gribbly) but I'm pleased I was able to put the Asur in their rightful place.

More importantly, it's a personal best for me. Even if I did put a ridiculous amount of hours into it (compared to how little better it is than models I've painted in half the time) I'm satisfied and that's what counts.

The model itself will be sitting in the shop until I go in to pick up the new book next week, so better pictures will have to wait.
Congratulations, a victory well deserved! Ulthuan shall never fall!
Prince Deral Lionbane, head of the House of Lionbane, Lord of Lionstone and Warden of Tor Charta

Luna, try not to beat them too hard. They are proud about their pseudo-glorious past and their present nothingness, you know.
-Elmoth, about Caledorians
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