Themed army project EDIT: More of a random blog thing.

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Caekface
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Themed army project EDIT: More of a random blog thing.

#1 Post by Caekface »

Hello! I am a fairly experienced warhammer player, and I've been playing High Elves for the past few years on top of my other armies. I've collected a bunch of models already, but I've been very slow to get around to painting them. I thought I needed some motivation, so I got the idea to post a kind of WIP thread. The more feedback I get the more work I'll do ^^
So far I either have, or plan on having;
1 Dragon
1 Griffon
3 Mages
1 Prince/Noble on a barded steed with a lance
1 Noble BSB
1 Prince on foot with two hand weapons
25 Spearmen
16 Archers
20 Lothern Seaguard
20 Phoenix guard
20 Swordmasters
20 White Lions
2 Lion Chariots
5 Dragon Princes
2 Repeater Bolt Throwers

This is far too much for a single army, but that's not my intention, I want to have a lot of options for whatever unit I will be using, so it will be a very large project that is going to take a very long time.

The theme for my army is centered around a storm, and lightning. I have one Dragon Prince WIP model already, and I've done a fair amount of work on the dragon. I've also started on my block of spearmen. I am planning on using dark colours mostly, and a fair amount of purple. This can easily make it seem like a dark elf army, and that's going to be a hard part of this project. So far though my Dragon Prince still looks like a High Elf ^^
Last edited by Caekface on Fri Aug 24, 2012 7:14 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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Re: Themed army project

#2 Post by Jimmy »

Welcome to Ulthuan.net.

I'd love to see some photos of the dragon prince if they're available?
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Re: Themed army project

#3 Post by Caekface »

I don't have any photos on my computer as of right now, but if I can find my camera, which I know I have lying around somewhere, I'll take a picture or two and post them here.

Thanks for the welcome :D
Seems like a very cool place ^^

I'm also planning a very detailed backstory for the army, I've named most of my characters and units, though I'll do some more work on that before posting it.
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Re: Themed army project

#4 Post by Caekface »

Here's the dragon prince WIP:

Image

Image

And a few shots of the dragon and it's Prince rider. The dragon is far from finished, still toying with ideas really, but the Prince is completed. I'm considering repainting him though, as he was painted a little randomly. I made it up as I went along for him, so he doesn't really fit the army theme.

Image

Image

Image


My paints are almost all TREMENDOUSLY old, and I only have one brush... So I'm a little limited when it comes to materials, but I do try to make do. If you have any comments on thinning the paints or just generally about the quality of the paints themselves, trust me I've heard them before :)
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Re: Themed army project

#5 Post by spiderpig »

good job man, I really like your work on the dragon.
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Re: Themed army project

#6 Post by Caekface »

Thanks :D
Just spent about two hours trying to get the right colour for this damned horse... It's the first horse I've ever painted, and I can't seem to get it right. I think I'll leave it like this for now, but I'm really not very happy with it at all.
The reason I chose white is because I want the standard bearer to really stand out, and it's because this is a high elf army after all, the majority of the horses will be lightly coloured as they are after all from Ulthuan.

Image

Image

Image


Ignore the splashes of paint here and there, it will all be painted over ^^
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Re: Themed army project

#7 Post by Elessehta of Yvresse »

It's far easier to paint the rider and horse separately, and horses are ideal for drybrushing. Try a light grey base coat, and dry brush the white on there. to add variation, Try some brown base coats too. I like the decorative lightning.
[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]
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Re: Themed army project

#8 Post by Aerethan »

Why is nothing primed? Every model in the history of ever needs to be primed.
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Re: Themed army project

#9 Post by Elessehta of Yvresse »

Ye gads, you're right! No primer?
[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]
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Re: Themed army project

#10 Post by whatawittyname »

The BSB seems to be primed in black.
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Re: Themed army project

#11 Post by Caekface »

I've primed the entire army actually, the only thing that I haven't primed is the dragon prince actually. I kind of just picked it up one day and whacked on a bit of colour, and rather than lose what I already had I decided to just push forward. I do my best to prime each part that I paint before I begin to work on it, so although it seems like I'm just painting on randomly I do undercoat ^^
Slapped on a few more lightning bolts today, and on parts of the cloth I tried to make a kind of blizzard-like pattern. Also started on the riders plate-y parts of his armour, which I want to be slightly more blue than the rest of the model. I'll try to post picture of it later.

EDIT: And yes, I realised shortly after gluing that I would have trouble with putting the horse on the rider straight away, I was far too over-eager, was really excited to get cracking on some dragon princes, I think they are some of the coolest models :)

EDIT 2: Thanks for the tip about the horses by the way, the one problem is that I don't have a single gray coloured paint.. I basically had to make do with two shades of blue, some purples and white, I think I managed so so with what I had, but like I said I'm not very happy with it. If I stop by the games workshop anytime soon with some cash in pocket I'll be sure to pick some up :)
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Re: Themed army project

#12 Post by Elessehta of Yvresse »

Yea, I had no grey to do my White Lions, so I mixed some black and white together, it worked okay.
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Re: Themed army project

#13 Post by Caekface »

Well, things have taken a turn for the worse. Yesterday I sat for ages and just got cracking on this guy, made a lot of headway, but I can say with a certainty that I'm not happy with the headway that I made. I'm planning on highlighting the plate the rider wears with a light metal colour, and going over the middle of the lightning again with white to make it stand out a bit again as it got a bit dimmed with a very light wash. I'm considering a pattern for the cloth lowest down, but I'm not sure what.

Basically, I need suggestions!
I'm a terrible painter, the Prince on the dragon was the first model I ever actually completed fully, and also the first times I tried to highlight and layer.. Any suggestions are helpful here, I really have no idea what I'm doing, just what I'm hoping to end up with :D

Image

Image

I rushed things a lot yesterday, I got way too carried away and just did things in no specific order and it all went horribly wrong. Luckily it's only one model, and I feel as though it's salvageable.

Also not sure at all about the gold chainmail, that's not finished at all I don't feel..
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Re: Themed army project

#14 Post by Elithmar »

So what's the problem? You need a pattern for the cloth?

I like your colour scheme BTW.
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Re: Themed army project

#15 Post by Caekface »

Thanks, I'm aiming for a much grittier and darker feel than most high elf armies out there. The backstory for the army is very grim indeed, involves a lot of darkness and despair and the like, and you guessed it, a massive storm. Even the worlds most pristine warriors get beat up and dirtied sometimes ^^

Well what I'm struggling with is a little bit of everything, I feel like I like what I've done, but at the same time it could be so much better. I'm not sure about the cloth, I feel like it's a bit naked as it is, but I'm not sure if a pattern would be too much. Decisions decisions..
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Re: Themed army project

#16 Post by Caekface »

Cleaned up the plate armour and the lightning, though that's not what I'm posting for.
What do you guys think of the banner? I'm not entirely convinced by it, it was a wild idea and I just kind of slapped it on during an hour or two, it's not done, but I want to know if it's worth doing before continuing.

Image

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Image


I'll be cleaning the banner up with a (possibly/probably) black background, so I'll sharpen all the lightning with that. I also could use some suggestions for.. Well. The whole model. This is the first model in the army, so once I get everything down on this I know exactly what to do with the rest of the army, just gotta get this one right, and I would really appreciate some constructive feedback and how to improve, that's why I posted here :D
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Re: Themed army project

#17 Post by Elessehta of Yvresse »

A lightning bird? Fits your theme well, I must say
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[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: Themed army project

#18 Post by Caekface »

Well the idea was a kind of lightning phoenix, though personally I think it looks more like a pigeon :D
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Re: Themed army project

#19 Post by Elessehta of Yvresse »

Looks more like a Seagull, and with the lightning it looks like it fits into a seaelf them, devoties of Mathlann the Storm God?
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Re: Themed army project

#20 Post by Caekface »

Hah not quite, supposed to symbolise the elves coming back stronger than ever after a huge magical storm destroyed their home, but hey, seagulls work too!
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Re: Themed army project

#21 Post by Jimmy »

I would really advise to undercoat/prime your models and components going on said models fully and paint them all at the same time. Saves a heap of time that way.
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Re: Themed army project

#22 Post by Caekface »

Yeah I do normally take my time priming all my models and painting before gluing awkward models like cavalry, I just got so excited having a dragon prince that I couldn't resist gluing him. Silly yes I know, but I just had to ^^
I've started on my block of spear elves, and there I'm painting as many models as I can at once, so I keep it consistent. I just want to get this one dragon prince done just right, so that I have a kind of base that I can refer to while painting the rest of my army. I know what I want things to look like more or less, but it's really experimental to be honest. Just need to figure out just how dark it will be, get the right shades of purple, and perhaps more importantly, learn how to paint horses >.>
I would probably have finished him today, but I spent all day out, and all evening and half the night playing actual battles, and I'll be out a lot the next few days aswell. But I'll finish him soon enough :P
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Re: Themed army project

#23 Post by pearsonw »

After completing my first set of HE's from my IoB set I've ran into the pre glueing mistake and it was also cause I'm excited haha. I've learned a couple thing for my next piece of my army
1: I will prime with white not black
2: I'll paint pre assembled
And lastly
3: I will use more water with my paints!!
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Re: Themed army project

#24 Post by Elessehta of Yvresse »

Not that I'll use it(my army is dark, I like it that way), but there is a white primer?
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Re: Themed army project

#25 Post by Prince of Spires »

Elessehta of Yvresse wrote:Not that I'll use it(my army is dark, I like it that way), but there is a white primer?
Yes, GW make it: White primer

I prime almost everything white (except for terrain and shadow warriors). I like that it gives a slightly brighter finish. And I find that paint sticks better to white primer...

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Re: Themed army project

#26 Post by Elessehta of Yvresse »

A spray? pfft.
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Re: Themed army project

#27 Post by Flaxis »

Vallejo also do a surface primer in white (or grey and black)

http://www.acrylicosvallejo.com/gb/primers-gb.html

I find it gives you a great surface, especially if applied with an airbrush, but you can use a normal brush also. I prefer to avoid the spray cans.

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Re: Themed army project

#28 Post by Caekface »

Right now I'm stuck with the spray cans, well, spray can, I only have the one chaos black one ^^
I wouldn't want a white one anyway, my army is supposed to be very dark, so even if I had all the choices I would use the black. To be honest I don't know much about priming, I've only ever had the spray, as I never really used to care about the quality of my painting. I'll upload a picture of my previously "best painted model" or so I thought, and you'll get a feeling for how much I was engaged with painting ^^
High elves really clicked for me, so I want to do my best to make them look good as well.

Any tips for cheap primers that are better than the GW ones? Like I said up there ^ I don't really know anything about it at all, so any little helps.
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Re: Themed army project

#29 Post by John Rainbow »

I also prime white - I find it helps with painting some of the lighter/more translucent colours (esp. white!) on top of the base coat.

As for brands, I use 'Krylon' acrylic sprays for everything - they do primers and varnish. They're the cheapest brand available in Walmart and I've never had a problem with them.
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Re: Themed army project

#30 Post by Caekface »

Good luck finding walmart in Sweden :lol:

Thanks for the suggestion though, I'll do some digging and see if they are available here :)
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