A Dryad Dilemma

A Dryad Dilemma

Currently I have two units of eight  Dryads converted out of metal Chaos Daemonettes. They were some of the first models I did for the army and they've stood the test of time. But now I have a problem. They don't make the metal daemonettes anymore, and I'm inevitably going to want more or larger units in the future. Blister packs of them are going on eBay for ridiculous money, I'm not paying £100 to add nine core models to my army.

So the plastic Dryads then. They're great models, no doubt, but I've always struggled to paint them. If you drybrush them, it looks like you haven't bothered, if you laboriously highlight them, they either look too monotone or take years per model. Not cool for a unit that's been so effective for me in the past and is an obvious cornerstone of most armies.

Then I found Corai's wonderful forest spirit army in the asrai.org hall of fame. These guys are great as they are quick, simple, and striking. I decided to see if I could adapt the technique for an autumn theme. 

Now, the following guide may waffle a bit, but I hate guides that tell you what to do, and not how to do it, so here goes. You may also find I skip back and forth between parts of the model. This is because I've designed this process to be as time efficient as possible, and cuts down on "watching paint dry" time. 

Assemble the dryad as normal. You will see, I take care to use as many 'plain' pieces as possible, as the ones with additional leaves and details mean more work. Include them if you like, I like to add them to just one who could be a branchwraith if necessary.I mount the Dryad on a piece of stone out of the garden, with little dots of green stuff to keep it in place.

Undercoat the model chaos black. Now, using PVA glue, stick the sand to the base.

Coat the entire dryad in Denab Stone. Do it in two or three thin layers to make sure you don't obscure any detail. Also at this stage, wash the rock with watered down catachan green. When this is dry, Drybrush the entire model with a 50/50 mix of skull White and bleached bone. 

Highlight around the eye sockets, mouth, and the few branches above the forehead with skull White. Keep the paint thin and apply hardly and pressure to the brush, or you'll end up with thick garish White lines

When this is dry, take Baal Red, and apply it in patterns on the Dryad.

I try to vary it in the unit. They always get a spot on their 'core' (I.e. Centre of their torso) and 'loincloth' area, and over and spirals in the wood. The rest I make up as I go, but I avoid doing the tips of the limbs, as it tends to look like that "blood on the sword" effect that just sucks. Here are some example patterns. If they are all the same, the unit loses it's wild look.

Next, lightly drybrush the Baal red areas with fiery orange. Don't worry too much if you get little bits on surrounding areas, but try to be neat. Whilst this isn't a heavy drybrush, keep brushing over the same area till you can see the orange more than the red.

Next, lightly drybrush the same areas with bubonic brown. I stress, lightly, you still want your eyes to say 'orange' when you look at it.

Now, stain the whole model with devlan mud. With a stain, it's similar to a wash but you want the whole model to change colour with the ink. To achieve this, use the devlan mud neat from the pot, and using a large brush spread it over the areas till you have complete coverage. Use the brush to make sure areas of natural shading get a good amount of colour, but also that no bubbles form and you don't get overly thick pools. Also ink the sand with devlan mud at this point.

Whilst this is drying, overbrush the rock with scorched brown.

Then, do successive drybrushes of codex grey, fortess grey, and a light drybrush of rotting flesh. You can, when the devlan mud is dry, drybrush the sand vomit brown. Then bleached bone. Using PVA glue, attach patches of static grass to the sand. When they arrive in the post, I'll add some leaves to the bases like the rest of my army.

Now for the final stages. Drybrush the whole model LIGHTLY with bleached bone. If you get streaks you've got too much paint left on the brush and/or your applying too much pressure. Paint the eyes with regal blue/enchanted blue/ice blue/skull White. Paint Nyvleaves shining gold. Wash with devlan mud, highlight with mithril silver.

Voilà, a happy medium between speed and looks. I'll probably turn this unit of 12 into a unit of 16, then I can use the old dryads as smaller units, or both as big units of 15 or 16

Bit more painting

Just thought I'd post today's progress on the dragonlord, seen here with his red and gold painted. I think he's looking pretty natural on that drake!

Progress on the dragon

Today Ive done quite a bit, which I will post when it's all finished, but I've made time to progress the dragon slightly.

The rider arrived in the post, and I wasted no time in filing his inner legs down to make him fit. I had to remove quite a bit of cloak and leg but it's a good fit now.

Also, and this is the kind of thing you only realise one you've started carving up your models- this rider is designed to ride a horse with a relatively flat back, whereas the dragons neck slopes forwards. To counteract this, ive sculpted a small pelt to bring the saddle up in height. Mostvof this won't be visible, and I'm no great sculptor, but it'll do the job.

Saving The Stag

It's time for a bit of wildlife conservation. You see, I think I'm the only person in the world who likes the great stag model.

Now I know the usual arguments against it. It looks like a moose, a real stags antlers would do this or that, blah blah blah. I like it. It doesn't have to look like a real stag, because it's not a real stag. It's a great stag. With an elf on it's back. 

So about 4 years ago I set out to paint a great stag and silence the doubters with it's awesomeness. I caught a bit of background in the book about a White hart, and I knew that's what I wanted to paint.

So here's that stag I painted back then, and I'm quite proud of his brown-based whiteness. But where's the rider? ......ah....

The riders spear snapped, and I never got to replace it after component order dissapeared. I certainly am not buying an entire new stag for one spear arm. So it's high time I came up with an idea, as the poor devil has sat in the case and never been used.

Presenting, the stag rider body, and a spear arm from a spare warhawk rider.

 

The fit isn't good, but the spear is fancy enough for a noble, so I shave down the arm to the elbow. Then, using a file, I carefully round out the shaved bits to resemble the curve of the arm. Finally, I cut a small flat surface where the connection point will be.

A teency blob of green stuff and it's in place! Just a paintjob to do and the stag is no longer endangered!

he's actually a lot of fun to paint, sone nice detals but not overly fiddly. Hope you guys like it!

Lots of Filing...

I found an old half-assembled undercoated Mounted Lord amongst my half-finished wood elves, so I thought I'd test out the idea. Turns out, its not going to be as simple as just sitting him on the gradon. The dragon is much wider than a horse and the lord has lots of folds in his cloak that get in the way.

First, I filed down the saddle entirely, the lord covers it up completely. Second, I filed out the inside of his legs and parts of the cloak to make him fit. It's an odd fit, and I'm going to have to think of something to put near his feet so theres no obvious gap.

I think, on reflection, he's gonna look pretty good riding the dragon. He's just got that look about him, he looks right for the role. And he looks important enough to ride a damn dragon too. I'll pick up a new Mounted Lord on monday and start the actual work, but I'm feeling a lot better about how its going to look when its finished.

Also, I had some spare time...and models, and I made this mock up Treekin. The idea is totally stolen from someone else, but I think it works beautifully. I'll post a little guide on how I made it soon, its simple and effective. Apologies for the iPhone camera shots, they don't like undercoated black!

Out With The Old....

I'm hoping that I'll be happy enough with my dragon that it'll send me
on a buzz to continue with some more units. That's usually how I roll.
This task is made easier by the fact that I already have a dragon,
built and painted, so it's more of a reworking, starting with an
evaluation of what I already have. As you will see, the basis is the
plastic high elf dragon, which in itself is a lovely model.

1) The Rider- At the time I was kinda proud of this guy, but on longer
reflection, I think I can do better. First, his pose. I was a little
obsessed with the way the (at the time, new) wood elves all seemed to
be surfing or balancing on their monstrous steeds (see sisters of
twilight/lord on great eagle/warhawk riders) and tried to replicate
this. Unfortunately it doesn't quite work. I had to alter the saddle
to make him fit. I used the lord on great eagle body, swapping the
godawful head for a glade guard head. The one thing I do like, which I
will be keeping, is the mantle of antlers I fashioned out of great
stag horns.

My plan is to use the mounted lord, who i didn't like at first, but
has grown on me. I didn't like his vaguely triangular shape, but I
think if I make him a mantle, that'll make him 'bigger' and a better
silhouette. Other than that, I just need to make sure he sits astride
the dragon nicely, if not I'll need to make sure he can be filed into
shape.

2) The Face Mask- I love the way the asrai and their steeds all seem
to have these half-masks, so to make the dragon more wood-elf I tried
to sculpt a leather half-mask over one eye. It looks ok, but I think I
can do better. I plan to use plasticard to replicate the gold armour
plates along it's back, for a more armoured face.

3) The Mid-Section- As mentioned above, the saddle was extended, I'm gonna try to
put this back how it was. Also, last time this came outta the case, some kid snapped its wing off, I'll need to pin it back on.

4) The Base- Now, I like the base it comes with. But I recently saw
someones conversion where they swapped the rock for a tree. I'm still
in two minds about that. I'll see how I feel when the new rider is in
place. If it still needs more 'wood elf', I'll give it a go.

Thats the plan, lets hope it turns out ok!

Why I Stopped Playing Warhammer...

It's been 2 years since I played a game of warhammer. If I recall correctly, I won. If I recall even further, I didn't lose much with my beloved Wood Elf army. And, on inspection, through perseverance and pig-headedness, I painted all but one unit, in not the simplest of colour schemes. 

So what changed? I had a good looking force, I was winning games, I still paint models, why have I let a whole edition of warhammer pass me by?

Well...

I played WFB in two distinct phases in the past. The first was aged maybe 10-16, where I absolutely loved it. Perhaps I didn't grasp every rule, and my opponents were limited and probably equally as clueless, but I enjoyed it immensely, and my persevering impression of Warhammer was a couple of cool units, but esssentially, a guy on a large monster of some description. This was probably coloured by the White dwarf battle reports of the day, and essentially the great artwork of 4th edition Warhammer, with the high elf hero on griffin being significantly more bad-ass than the hordes of greenskins around him. This is the Warhammer I remember and love.

The second phase was around aged 19-24, Most of which spent as a GW staff member, and was the period in which this army was built. I remember this as mostly an angsty time, where my natural longing to have cool things in my armies was at odds with my need to have armies that 'worked.' I was part of a very competative set of gamers, and there was a lot of theory-hammer going on. I painted lots of cool models that never got into a game as in theory they just weren't good enough. This is probably why I stopped playing, as I had an army that won lots, but I was too shaky about swapping it around and putting new units in. I believe I spent days painting my great stag. It's never been used.

Which brings us to the present. Over the past year or so, whilst working on a few little projects, I've opened my big figure case and cast passing glances at my wood elf army. I still like it when I look at it, but when I thought about using it again, I get that same angst. 

Imagine my joy, when on an errand just to get some paint and glue I spy the Island Of Blood set on the intro table. I was dangerously close to starting a high elf army, but I resisted. I don't have the time or money for a new army, and painting White properly is laborious. But there he was, on the table. Bad ass elf on griffin. If he can exist, why can't I run a wood elf army with a forest dragon? Why not a great stag, when I love the model (probably the only person in the world who does :/)? I find myself on the GW website, there's monsters everywhere all of a sudden! Even questionable ones like the lammasu...

So, to revitalise this much loved and, most recently, much neglected army, I thought I'd start with a centrepiece. For me, there's no better centrepiece in a WFB army than a guy on a dragon.

So, a happy medium. I know my Wood Elf army worked in the last edition. I would very much like to not care if it works in this one. I can now, with a clear head, build my dragon.