The Oriour, A Painting Blog: Dragon Maidens 8-3-16

[Cinncinatti]

Hi All,

So I'm starting a painting/modelling blog for my Elves. Full disclosure, I started painting these guys last November and am only now just getting around to starting a blog. I'm hoping by the time I get through posting the backlog I will have amassed more assembled and painted models. But with two baby girls on the way and a three year old boy, who knows what kind of time I'll have for hobbying (I suspect not much). So bear this time gap in mind with any constructive criticism. If I can work any tips and tricks into future models, I will, but you might have to look at some substandard technique for a while.

I got back in the game after an almost 10 year hobby hiatus. My first army was a Skaven army back in 6th edition (so much brown...).
Played a game of Triumph and Treachery last August with an old friend and my hobby fire was rekindled. I picked up the IoB set and haven't looked back since.

So without further ado, here are the Oriour, the Blood Elves!

My inspiration for these guys are the Blood Elves from World of Warcraft. These guys were my first test models. I got the IoB box set and got to painting right away. I was so excited to get back in the swing of things I ignored the fact that I didn't have a proper brush yet. The one on the left came out the best, as he got the benefit of all the lessons learned on the first two. Still, I think they came out alright considering rust and a poor brush. It's hard to tell, but I've given them all green eyes like the WoW Blood Elves. It's a great cop out of actually attempting eyes!




Next is the completed unit.I wasn't happy with the way the GW gold was coming out, so I switched to the P3 gold, which I like better. I'm happy with how they came out overall, particularly the champion.







So what do you think? Have any advice that would be too late to save quite a few models?

[Giladis]

If you want any adivce it would be to do something with the plumes. Staying red will just be to much a look 'unrealistic'. Making the plumes a kind of soft neutral beige or light brown will keep the model in the same pallete, so to speak, but will break the monotomy.

[Cinncinatti]

I definitely see what you are saying, but my personal preference is the unifying red. Fits the fluff I've been writing about them, where they like to project a strong, unified vision (which of course means they are anything but) I have started adding other colors to different units, though, just so they stand out from each other.

[Cinncinatti]

Next up is the the completed Harbinger. I love these models. I'm glad I've got 15 of them, but with the discontinuation of the IoB set I may scoop up some more while I can. You can never have too many Reavers!

[Cinncinatti]

Up next we have Kitbashed Prince/Noble with Great Weapon. This guy took a while despite the look of it. His body and arms are from the chariot kit but the arms are modified. His right arm was actually an arm that looked like it had just loosed an arrow. I cut the hand off, and then cut the hand off the extra Commander weapon from the White Lions kit and glued that hand onto the chariot arm. I had to do this carefully to make sure the angles matched up. Next, I took the chariot arm that was sleeveless and holding the reigns and cut off said reigns. After all, I needed a left arm! I noticed that it still looked like he was holding something in his hand, the strap of the reign. I was considering filing it down carefully when I had a flash of genius! I took a spare head from the white lions kit that looked like a DE to me, cut the top knot off the head and glued both ends to the hand to get the end result. The cape and shoulder pad were part of the chariot kit.









I really like the way this guy came out, he was my first attempt at a bitz box hero. Now I'm always mulling over spare bitz to see what can be made. I'll post photos of him fully painted in the next few days.

[Giladis]

That harbinger as wonderful.

[Elithmar]

Cool character. Are you planning to put blood on the axe to make it look like the head is freshly decapitated?

[Cinncinatti]

@ Giladis

Thanks!

@ Elithmar

Thanks as well! Sadly, no, there will be no blood on the axe. I've never had a lot of luck putting blood on metal and making it look good. The head, though, will have a look of surprise and terror, and yes, some blood. Way I've justified that incongruity is that, after removing the DE's head, he wiped his axe on the dead elf's cloak. Can't be having a dirty axe after all! I'll post the painted pictures in the next few days, lots going on lately.

[Cinncinatti]

As promised, here is the completed Prince with Great Weapon. I'm really happy with how he came out. I freehanded the eyebrows on the severed head to make him look scared/concerned/surprised. Little blood to sell the conceit. You can't really tell in the pictures but I gave the head purple eyes. Only thing I'm not super happy with is one panel on the cloak. The drybrushing came out a little heavy but I don't think I'm going to redo it. But I like how the white helps break up all the red. Did some inking on the bare arm followed by another layer of flesh tone (suns out guns out!).









Next up are the White Lions! See you in a few days!

[Giladis]

It could be due to light but it looks like the plume could use a little wash or highlight. Otherwise very cleaning painting and a liek the bronze very much.

[Elithmar]

Yeah, all the red looks like it could do with some shading, but I do like the surprised expression of the unfortunate victim!

[Cinncinatti]

Hi guys, thanks for the comments. Shading is definitely an area I need to work on. When I put in the effort I love the way it comes out. The hardest part is getting myself to do it. I always feels like I'm up against a deadline as I can only paint at night for a few hours (if that). Sometimes that means I rush certain areas or cut corners. Which is crazy, as I don't have any real deadlines of any kind! Something to work on.

But as promised, here are my completed White Lions!

I'm happy with the way they came out overall. The red portions don't look as flat IRL. I'm not super happy with the highlighting and drybrushing on the lion cloak.





The champion's plume gave me a lot of trouble. It is layered in a way I felt made it difficult to highlight, which frustrated me to no end. I'm super happy with how the plume came out, but I couldn't figure out a better way to paint it. I don't know, I might be overthinking it. Still, I'm overall happy with how he looks.





Next post will be some conversions I've put together. Not sure what yet, as I have quite a few creations I'd like to show off, but it will certainly be a modelling post. Stay tuned!

[Cinncinatti]

So here are some mounted princes/nobles I've put together. Lions! I love the chariot kit, so many kitbashing possibilities. And the prince/noble kit! And the mage kit! The flexibility of the entire Elf range from GW is one of the main reasons I started up on High Elves. Whether you use HE, DE, or WE bits you know they are going to work together fairly well. With limited time these days I've found myself mostly doing modelling work, trying to find unique combos. I'll be posting those going forward while I get my painting station set up in the new house.

Anyway, here are the Princes.
First up, Prince/Noble with Great Weapon







Next up, Prince/Noble with Magic Sword and Shield (I put the shields on after I paint them)








Next up, another Lion Rider that required extensive work to get together. See you next time!

[Cinncinatti]

Hey all!

So last time I said next post would be another lion rider but...I lied. I recently put together some characters and I wanted to post these first. First one up is the Prince with hand weapon and shield. You might notice that he looks a lot like the Lion Rider above. Well, he is supposed to be the same guy. He is Absalom Sundrake, First amongst equals on the Blood Council, Herald of the Balance (I've got plans to flesh out the fluff for my army at some point).

So for this model I used the Anointed legs from the Phoenix kit, the Dragon princes torso, the Mage arms from the Mage kit, Corsair head, and Dreadlord shield.

Not too much modification here, except for the torso. I clipped off the scale mail that was attached to the left arm socket, clipped off the ornate neck guard on the left side. I also built a neck and filled in the arm sockets with greenstuff (the mage arms required a flat surface so I needed to make one). I think he came out great! I really love that Mage sword, really gives it the feel of a magic imbued weapon. If I had known about the other mage arm that can have a shield put on it I probably would have used it on the Lion Rider as well. I'm planning on getting the Ultraforge Dragon at some point which has a howdah, so this guy will be magnetized to ride it.









So what do you think?

Next up is a Loremaster conversion. Stay tuned!

[RE.Lee]

Nice conversions! I like the Lion Rider with the sword the most, a very dynamic pose

[Cinncinatti]

@ RE.Lee

Thanks!

[Cinncinatti]

Hi all,

So up next is my Loremaster conversion. I decided a while back that I wanted to do some sort of conversion for my Loremaster, as I don't particularly like the GW model. I've looked for inspiration all over the place, including here, but still didn't have a great idea as to what I wanted to do. Then I discovered a blog called Bloody Beast and saw this guy http://bloodybeast.com/2013/05/loremast ... th-shield/ (I highly recommend checking out this blog, his painting is top notch). It was such a simple concept, that I knew I could do without spending an arm and a leg on specific...arms and legs. While I love the concept, I thought I could do a better job removing the original head than he did, and adjust the length of the arm better than he did (His models neck looks like a weird slab of metal, and the arm is too long in my opinion).

I used for this model the Swordmaster Musician, Corsair champion Head, and an arm from the Skycutter kit. This was a super cheap model to make, as I said, with the musician and head costing a buck each, and I had the arm already! First I removed the head, being careful not to damage the pauldrons and the hair that hung down the back and the front. Next I constructed an oversized neck and used the excess to blend the hair from the torso to the head together. I also put some small hair tendrils on the front torso, it will show up better once painted. The arm I cut down to a size I thought made sense and glued and greenstuffed it to the arm.

I still need to clean up a couple of things, but I'm very happy with how he came out, and am looking forward to painting him. I was further inspired by the original model that I'm going to try to do some light source stuff with his raised hand. Anyone have any tips and tricks for that?

[Jimmy]

Nice work sir.

[Cinncinatti]

@ Jimmy

Thanks!

Up next are the initial models for my Panther Guard. These are White Lion conversions that are supposed to represent different regions in the Oriour's realm. I hope to have a few units in this ilk, as I'm not a fan of making 25 of one particularly model. I had my fill of that with Skaven many moons ago.

So here are Panther Guard proof of concept models!

The one in the center is a hero, while the other two are rank and file. For the hero I added hair down the back and front to have him stand apart. I've found hair fairly easy to use, just add a slab of greenstuff and use a sharp pointed object to create lines. I felt the bare arms were a tad too plain, so I decided to take a stab at making pauldrons. To make the pauldrons I actually just used a plastic straw haha. I pressed it into a flat piece of greenstuff and gently blew it out of the straw, then placed it on the shoulder and molded as I saw fit. I have to say, using Vaseline with greenstuff makes it soooo easy to do these things. All of my earlier struggles with greenstuff have been eliminated once I started using Vaseline. I can't recommend it enough!










Bits used:
Head from Wargames Factory
Arms from WE Eternal Guard/Wildwood Ranger kit
Front Torso from Corsairs/White lions or chariot kit
Back Torso from White Lions kit
Legs from White Lions/Chariot kit

[Cinncinatti]

Hi all,

Up next is my a painted Lion Rider. I like the way he came out, might redo the hair at some point to give it more depth. The only thing I'm not happy about is, again, one section of the chariot lion cloak. This is now twice that this cloak has given me problems. I need to compensate more for the shallowness of the detail on the cloak compared to the regular white lion cloaks.











Next time: Shadow Warrior and Sisters of Avelorn conversions!

[Elithmar]

Those Panther Guard look just great! I'd never thought about using the Wildwood Ranger weapons with White Lions.

That lion rider looks good now too. Keep all of these wonderful models coming!

[Cinncinatti]

@ Elithmar

Thanks for the encouragement!

[Jimmy]

Love your work. Red is my favourite colour so this gets a huge tick of approval from me. The conversions are very dynamic as well. Great job.

[Cinncinatti]

@ Jimmy
Thanks, I appreciate that!

Up next, my shadow warrior and sisters conversions!. I wanted to build both types of models but didn't want to buy the same box twice. So I put on my thinking cap and...looked around online for ideas. I wanted to be able to build 5 of each, and use the bits to make the rest. After some inspiration and innovation I got to work.The two in the middle of the first picture are the standard models. The ones on the outside are the conversions. I used the eternal guard/wildwood rangers bodies from the wood elves kit.



The shadow warrior was the easier of the two, as I merely needed to fill in gaps for the arms and head and also build a neck. I saw the Ulthuan's own Mr.Lucifer do the same thing to great effect. I've actually finished the shadow warrior unit, but I don't have any pictures of all of them yet.



The sisters, though, are another story. Again, I used the wood elves torso as the base. But the sisters' bows require their standard torso. Since the eternal guard torso is two pieces split lengthwise, I had to cut off the front torso of one of the pieces. Then I just glued the front leg where it would be ordinarily. After that, I glued the sister torso into place, and filled in the small gap on the sides with greenstuff. After that, I just did the same process for building a neck that I used on the shadow warriors. I think I'm going to use more greenstuff to sculpt the rest of the collar around the sisters head, shouldn't be too hard. I think all of these guys came out great, and look like they fit right in with the standard models while maintaining a unique look.





The nature of the sisters' torso seems to discourage any kind of kitbashing based on my searches online, so I'm glad I came up with this. I've actually got another project in the pipeline with the sisters' bits, but more on that later.

Up next, Korhil!

[Cinncinatti]

Hi all,
It’s been a minute since my last post as things have been crazy in real life. But, as promised, here is my completed Korhil!
I like this model, has a lot of character which is the sole reason why I purchased it. It was my first metal model in some time and I can’t say I fully enjoyed the experience. I just greatly prefer plastic models. With metal, I’m always worried about paint chipping while I work. Plus, it isn’t as easy to do any sort of conversions with metal models. I know it can be done, as I’ve made a custom Verminlord using a Carnosaur body and dragon wings over 10 years ago, but it requires more time and effort in my mind.
Still, I like the way he came out.







Up next, converted Shadowdancer!

[Cinncinatti]

Greetings!

Up next we have a converted Shadowdancer! I view the Oriour as a Pan-elven nation probably because I got back into the hobby around the time of the End Times. So naturally I have a good excuse to pick up the models I like from every Elf range.

For this model, I had a goal to use Warlock rider parts. I love those models, but the way they are designed they aren't the easiest to make a kitbash hero out of, IMHO. Still, I was determined to try some new stuff for this one.

The top part of the Warlock torso is too short to just stick on a pair of legs, so I had to find a way to lengthen the torso. I considered sculpting one, but I don't have that level of confidence yet. So I cut the bottom part of a Glade Guard torso off, and fit it to the Warlock torso with some greenstuff. The head is just the White Lions bare head, with a little greenstuff to make sure it fit properly on the neck. The arm with the weapon is unmodified, but the left arm is the Warlock arm that held the reigns with the hand cut off. I took the hand from a Sister of the Thorn which a spell effect and put that in it's place. The legs are just Glade Guard legs, no real modification necessary since the bottom part of the torso is from the same kit.

I haven't based him yet, as I was waiting on round bases to come in (blasphemy!). I've found I actually prefer round bases, they just have a cleaner look IMO. I'm planning on taking an Eternal Guard spear and making it look as though he planted it in the ground to cast a spell. I'll post pics once I get around to it.

So here he is, Tyclo Moonweave, one of the members of the Blood Council!

[Cinncinatti]

Wow has it been that long since my last update?!

Things have been crazy around the house, so hobbying went to the backburner for a while. But I have not been completely idle and have even gotten into a good rhythm now that my paint station is all set. I plan on getting some more posts up here sooner rather than later.

In the meantime, here is the Griffon Prince! Finished him up back in January once I got everything up and running again. Enjoy!

[SpellArcher]

I love your reds cinncinatti!

I also really like the effect on Korhil's lion cloak, almost stone-like.

[Joaco]

Wow I really like them and the conversions! Im also painting my high elves army on reds.
If you add some washes or shades they would be perfect! so the details can be more apreciated!
I think with only a black wash in the metalic colors (or a brown if you like it more on the golden)

Grats on your work!

[msu117]

Any new updates on Sister bits conversions you alluded to, or any conversions for that matter?