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Most people paint them white and blue with a little gold... and frankly I think it's boring.

So I decided with the Island of Blood new fantasy boxed set to paint the high elfs as a "fall" theme... So I did Oranges and black gems standing in leaves...

This is just the sample model I did up that will be the basis for the rest of my theme.

Sorry for the poor quality of the pic... taken from my phone as opposed to my SLR.

Yeah good scheme and the black gems are a nice change!
One thing that I'd say is that the long grassy bit on the base looks a bit wrong with all the growth at the same length. If you grab some scissors and point them in the same direction as the growth to cut it you should get some irregular lengths. (Like how hairdressers cut hair)

The orange seems to be working quite well.
Is the leaf litter oregano?

Nice work on the black gems... I had a tutorial floating around about how to do them.

The mini could use a few shades, otherwise it would look flat across a unit.

As for the straw/dead tuft... it looks too uniform. Suggestion as per 'jackanory', you may also wanna hit it with a wash to stain it. Grasses tend to be different colours, even amongst the same patch on the ground if you look at your lawn.

I did actually already trim and wash the grass did it right after I saw that first comment and was like "oh... right"

The model looks pretty properly shaded in real life... I took this pic with my iphone 4 in the HDR setting and I'm not convinced it looks right...

Looks fine on the phone but as soon as I imported it, it was all grainy and stuff...

Thanks for the feedback though... I'm really quite happy with it, and looking forward to painting more of them

Yeah the leaves are oregano.

I did a base of sand, then waited for that to dry, then did oregano over it, waited for that to dry, then the little clump of grass - which has been modified some since.

then painted the sand brown, with the base, the oregano mechrite, iyanden and macharius, then a little calthan to mute it all, then hit it with a devlan wash.

Did the grass with a devlan wash on it's own with a couple of strands hit with a small streak of calthan.

Very nice.

Oregano? Like, seriously?

<checks spice rack>

That... could... work!

And it would be a nice-smelling set of minis as well.


Any special techniques required to apply paint to spices? That's one I've never even considered, much less tried.

Youd be surprised at how many things youve got in the kitchen that can work nicely for minis. Hell I use sugar for basing my desert theme Orks bases. Looks really nice too.

Also when I played CSM I used to base them with cigarette ashes and super glue. The whole fluff said they came from a planet that was an ashen waste and it looked awesome. Didnt even have to paint it

Vulcan wrote:Oregano? Like, seriously?

<checks spice rack>

That... could... work!

And it would be a nice-smelling set of minis as well.


Any special techniques required to apply paint to spices? That's one I've never even considered, much less tried.

With larger spiced like Oregano or Basil just make sure you give it time to dry before trying to paint... use water too... not straight paint as the thicker paints can move things around. Be prepared for some to fall off..

Also for Oregano I used Carpenter's glue instead of standard PVA. Seems a little thicker and more adhesive. I don't doubt that PVA would work though.