Cothique in isolation

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That's Bradical
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Cothique in isolation

#1 Post by That's Bradical »

Hi folks,
I'm a long time lurker around Ulthuan, and have been collecting all sorts of GW stuff for 20-ish years, with many long gaps in between.
I recently moved house, and rediscovered all my old Elf bits, and resolved to actually get round to painting it. Progress will be slow, as I was never a great painter before (more of a modeller and kit-basher), and I have many boxes unassembled.
I've chosen a Cothique theme, so I'm going mainly for greeny blues, with some small flashes of yellow and purple to break it up. Oh, and since I have a small number of wood elves, there will be a small contingent from Avelorn, which I will tie in with my fluff somehow.
I will try to post here periodically, but as I said; progress might be slow!
Shannar, Sealord
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Re: Cothique in isolation

#2 Post by Shannar, Sealord »

I look forward to seeing what you do.
Luna Guardian
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Re: Cothique in isolation

#3 Post by Luna Guardian »

Hey and welcome, glad to have you on our island! Cothique is a really interesting and cool theme to go with, it's not something that's been done a thousand times, super keen to see what you'll do with it!
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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Re: Cothique in isolation

#4 Post by Shannar, Sealord »

I've only done one unit of Cothique, it would be cool to see an army.

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Vermis
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Re: Cothique in isolation

#5 Post by Vermis »

Luna Guardian wrote:Cothique is a really interesting and cool theme to go with, it's not something that's been done a thousand times, super keen to see what you'll do with it!
Aye, that. When I think 'sea elves' I think a lot of people tend to think of Lothern. I do anyway. Keeping an eye open.
That's Bradical
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Re: Cothique in isolation

#6 Post by That's Bradical »

Thanks for the comments.
I did a rough test scheme, although on a swordmaster; which isn't the most colourful of High Elf models, but I figured they're relatively easy to paint and will allow me to get a bit of practice before I tackle more challenging models. Hopefully this will give a rough idea, excuse the poor lighting.
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Obviously I still need to tidy it up, and throw another highlight on the trim and plume, but I'm fairly happy

I also started work on my Everqueen conversation, using the Witch Elf sorceress, filing it down a little to fit the face from the Sisters of the Thorn champion.
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Still have a lot to build... Sisters to go with Alarielle, some Dragon Princes that I haven't worked out how to make Cothiquean, 2 boxes of Phoenix Guard, 20(!) Reaver's, 30 seaguard, Eternal Guard (I'm using them as spears), Wild riders, and I ordered a box of corsairs to kitbash some Cothique shadow warriors. I hate mould lines!
Last edited by That's Bradical on Sun May 03, 2020 6:42 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Cothique in isolation

#7 Post by Shannar, Sealord »

Sadly I can't see the picture.
Vermis
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Re: Cothique in isolation

#8 Post by Vermis »

It looks like you put the address of the imgur page in the [img] tags, rather than the address of the image itself.

I had a look: very much appreciating the neatness. :mrgreen: Good clean painting on the SM, and the SoT head is so well transplanted, it looks like part of the kit.

That's a hefty to-do list, too. Looking forward to see what you do with it.
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Re: Cothique in isolation

#9 Post by That's Bradical »

Thanks for the help Vermis, I'm very technologically challenged!
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Re: Cothique in isolation

#10 Post by Shannar, Sealord »

I didn't even notice you'd done a head swap on that sorceress. Very well executed, and good choice of parts.
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Re: Cothique in isolation

#11 Post by Luna Guardian »

Very good work, if that Swordmaster was my mini, I'd probably call it good right there and be happy. Can't wait to see how they look as a full unit!
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.
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Olthannon
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Re: Cothique in isolation

#12 Post by Olthannon »

Looks like a great start, I really like the colours of Cothique. I very nearly made my army scheme from there but I liked the red of Chrace a bit better.

Looking forward to more!
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Re: Cothique in isolation

#13 Post by That's Bradical »

Thanks for the comments guys, and I hope you're all well. Unfortunately I started this plog while I was still needed a fair amount of modelling supplies (my brushes are about 10 years old and, much like myself, have seen better days!), so I've spent the last week building and cleaning models, glueing my fingers together, walking the dog, finishing the last of my beer supply, and generally trying not to annoy my fair maiden too much.
I'm still awaiting a paint delivery, but my corsairs arrived so over the past 2 days I've kitbashed the cloaks together bits from the shadow warrior sprues, white lion legs, and various heads to make these guys
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They were harder work than I expected to be honest, I half expected the torso to just fit right away, and a lot of the platemail at the back of the legs had to be scraped away (I also ran out of spare legs, so 3 of them still have Corsair legs, but I think they still look good for what I wanted, and my colour scheme should help to High Elf-ify them)
I'm using the final Corsair cloak to build a loremaster, but I'm still unsure which head to use.
Hopefully the paints and brushes will arrive in the next day or so, so my next update might involve some colour.
Regards
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Re: Cothique in isolation

#14 Post by SpellArcher »

Hmm, the images aren’t showing for me.
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Re: Cothique in isolation

#15 Post by MasterOfNone »

Cool stuff!
Your trajectory out and back into Warhammer is similar to mine, but you seem to be far more attuned to the spirit and knowledgeable of fluff, as well as more inclined to spending time doing conversions.
I have done some stuff but I get bored fairly soon.
As for colour, I go with what I like in the moment, without much or any consideration for coordination between units.
My painting blog

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High Elves
Dwarfs
Orcs and Goblins
That's Bradical
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Re: Cothique in isolation

#16 Post by That's Bradical »

MasterOfNone wrote:Cool stuff!
Your trajectory out and back into Warhammer is similar to mine, but you seem to be far more attuned to the spirit and knowledgeable of fluff, as well as more inclined to spending time doing conversions.
I have done some stuff but I get bored fairly soon.
As for colour, I go with what I like in the moment, without much or any consideration for coordination between units.
I've always been more into modelling than painting, I used to have a Dark Angels army that was mostly converted from Chaos marines and Blood Angels (I got given a bunch of them, but I really wanted a Dark Angels army!).

My main love has always been High Elves though, and I just really like putting my own spin on things, plus some of the Dark Elves heads are way better than what we have. I really don't like the Age of Sigmar stuff (except for the cavalry elves), but it would be interesting to see if I can harvest some bits from the kits.

Anyway, I got a little start on the unit today, using my old paints and brushes to get the basecoat done. I won't push it too far until I get the new brushes, so I'll be back to chopping, glueing, filing, and scraping, tomorrow (maybe tackle those Dragon Princes?).
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Re: Cothique in isolation

#17 Post by That's Bradical »

Finally received my brushes and paints in the mail this afternoon...9 days after the delivery company messaged to say that they were at my local depot. Hmph! So this afternoon i roughly painted up the first of my corsairs (although, as you can see, he isn't completely finished either yet)

Image

I'll take better pics once I have the whole unit finished, I just wanted to get my colours sorted. I couldn't find a teal that I liked so I mixed one together using lupercal green, Vallejo falcon turquoise (I think!), and stegadon scale blue, at roughly 50:40:10 ratio (I filled an empty pot with this, so I have plenty left for the rest of the troops). I'm still working out the cloaks, but so far they've just had a few alternating washes of dark blues and greens, and I want to get some purple in the mix too.
Now that I have all the right tools, I should be able to speed things up a little...but I still have a long road ahead!
Last edited by That's Bradical on Sat May 23, 2020 12:01 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Olthannon
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Re: Cothique in isolation

#18 Post by Olthannon »

Looks like a great start, that Cothiqui teal looks beaut!
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Re: Cothique in isolation

#19 Post by Prince of Spires »

Nice! He should look great once all the finicky details are done as well. A whole unit of these should look pretty epic. Looking forward to it.
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Re: Cothique in isolation

#20 Post by Vermis »

That's top. :) Great cool-hue scheme.
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Re: Cothique in isolation

#21 Post by That's Bradical »

Hello again
Unfortunately I haven't had as much free time as I would like, but I finally got the unit pretty much finished. I still have to do the bases, and there are a few things I'll go back to once I feel more confident (the gems could do with refining, the blades are a little flat, and the eyes could really use pupils, but are a bit too fiddly for me at the moment!)
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I've ordered a lightbox, so I'll get better pics once they're based. I'm pretty happy with the cloaks, you can't really see it in the pictures but I tried to go for a kind of dark mermaid look (if that makes any sense?!) I built up the colours with washes of various purples, greens, and blues, so you kinda see something different from every angle you look at the cloak.

I think I might get another box of each and make a unit of sisters with the sea cloaks, and a regular shadow warriors. However...my next project is the Lotann model from the Idoneth Deepkin range. I'm not crazy about most of those models, but I think I could get away with having a mage with an octopus familiar/summon. I'm also contemplating the Volturnos model (has anyone put wings on that thing?). I'll also be working on a unit of 20 phoenix guard...I'm already hating building them!
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Re: Cothique in isolation

#22 Post by Prince of Spires »

They're looking good. I like the cold colour scheme. It fits very well with the sea theme you have. And they look lethal, with all their weapons everywhere. Thanks for sharing.
That's Bradical wrote:Unfortunately I haven't had as much free time as I would like
Isn't that always the case :)

Rod
For Nagarythe: Come to the dark side.
PS: Bring cookies!

Check out my plog
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Check my writing blog for stories on the Prince of Spires and other pieces of fiction.
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Re: Cothique in isolation

#23 Post by Olthannon »

Nice work! Those corsair cloaks work really well with the Shadow Warriors.
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Re: Cothique in isolation

#24 Post by SpellArcher »

I like the orangey hair.
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Re: Cothique in isolation

#25 Post by That's Bradical »

SpellArcher wrote:I like the orangey hair.
I wanted something to brighten the unit up a little without going over the top. Fun fact; that paint is actually from 1996, when my cousin decided to buy a couple of dwarf trollslayers. He then realised the hobby was too much hard work for him, and donated me his paints. The paints have lasted longer than some that I've bought 5/6 years ago.

I have almost got the Phoenix Guard built, I just need to decide on which heads to use (I'll be using a mixture of actual PG heads and various others to make them a little more unique).
I also purchased, what I believe to be, the last High Elf Dragon from an actual retail store (for £30, not like the few I've seen on eBay for upwards of £50). I'm still contemplating converting the Dark Elf Dragon , as I just like the pose a lot more.
Anyway, thanks for the comments, hope everyone is well
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Re: Cothique in isolation

#26 Post by Vermis »

Great to see the unit all done up. :) Just very well done in everything: conversion, painting etc. Looking forward to see the other units you have in the works.
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Re: Cothique in isolation

#27 Post by That's Bradical »

Hello again, and apologies for the long absence. Life is a little crazy atm.
I still haven't had as much time as I'd like to paint, but whatever time I've had I've been building a bunch, and make some progress on what will be one of many mages I'll be painting
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Other than that, I bought the Lumineth pre-order (for a bargain £80), however I'm only keeping the cavalry, to use as Silver Helms, and maybe the spearmen, but I've thrown the book, dice, and the weird Eltharion model, on eBay.
I was a little worried that they'd be larger than High Elves, but there isn't too much difference with the IoB Reavers
Image

I think after Lotann, and his octopus, are finished I'll be finally tackling the Phoenix Guard and some of the old metal Shadow Warriors.
Stay safe everyone.
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Re: Cothique in isolation

#28 Post by SpellArcher »

That's Bradical wrote:Hello again
Well met sir!
That's Bradical wrote:one of many mages
Nice use of gold, a colour I feel that it's easy to go wrong with.
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Re: Cothique in isolation

#29 Post by That's Bradical »

Greetings comrades,
I've been struggling to find the will to paint this past week, so no progress on that front, however, I have been putting together the new Lumineth cavalry and spears. They're nice models, but I'm a little disappointed...one of the things I keep hearing from the age of Sigmar crowd is how dynamic the models are in comparison to proper Warhammer, but these guys are fairly static, and my biggest disappointment is that there is only one way to put each model together. There's no being able to adjust the pose to your liking (not without heavy converting), or seem like there's much capacity for kit-bashing and making the units unique to each army. Plus the lore is awful (That's not really relevant, i just wanted to get that in...my god, I really hate the AoS lore).
Good news though, I sold the Ghost Eltharion thing and the book/dice etc, recouping over half of what the set cost (and I already bought that heavily discounted).
I'm not making any promises, but tomorrow I'm going to crack open the paints and force myself to get back into the swing of it...wish me luck
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Re: Cothique in isolation

#30 Post by Prince of Spires »

I sometimes feel like dynamic means "waving weapons in random directions". Some of the newer models (as in released 8th edition or later) are dynamic, in the sense that they give a sense of movement. The last HE dragon (which was released in 7th edition I think) is a great example of this. Leaping of a rock it gives a great sense of movement. The last WL models are the same.

The spears from what I can tell aren't so much dynamic as they are simply pointing their weapons in a forward direction. I guess it gives them a sense of fighting.

As for only being able to put the models together one way, that's a trend which GW has started in 8th edition already. I think it's to do with making the models easier to assemble (for a novice). It also means in some cases that you have to keep track of which part goes on which model and if you accidentally swap pieces it can make it very tough to get everything put together. It does make me wonder if GW wants to reduce the usefulness of the bits box. With older models, it was easy to swap a spear for a bow or great sword or whatever. Now, I'm not sure.

Rod
For Nagarythe: Come to the dark side.
PS: Bring cookies!

Check out my plog
Painting progress, done/in progress/in box: 167/33/91

Check my writing blog for stories on the Prince of Spires and other pieces of fiction.
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