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 Wehrkind wrote:
Wow, that is a really great set of elves you have been cranking out! I never really loved GW's style as a young lad, preferring Ral Partha, but damn, those bring back a heavy dose of nostalgia. Those ancient wood elves especially.

I still have a few RP elves from this era, and while they were pretty nice, it was hard to get enough of them to build a full army. They did make some nice models back in the day. Maybe I'll do a Ral Partha Nostalgia project sometime...

Looking good. I especially like the one with the mystery magic staff

EDC

More elves:






Five elves with hand weapons and shields. The last guy has always seemed a little off to me, like he got called to battle without any warning. He's wearing the elf-equivalent of Casual Fridays, he didn't have time to add those ridiculous braids to his mullet, and he didn't even have time to put on his tiara. I painted all their shields essentially like the Melniboneans from last month, to sort of tie the army together.



Here is a hero to lead them. This model is based on the same body as the guy with the hawk I posted earlier this month. He seems to be gesturing to his opponent to come closer rather than flipping the bird.



Next, a musician with that most martial or instruments, the pan pipes. Zamfir goes to war!

Finally, everyone together:


I have a few more elves roughly half-finished, so I may be able to post one more time in August.

Love the elves. Are you sure the hero isn't flipping the bird.....

 TP^DC Deputy Manager wrote:
Love the elves. Are you sure the hero isn't flipping the bird.....

Thanks, dude. And yeah, I just looked and it's his index finger. Kind of a shame, really...

Mwah-ha-ha

Great Job Josh

Here's my last entry for August. I had them sealed on 1 September, but wasn't able to get good photos until this morning.


These are, or course, elf spearmen. Note that they are virtually identical to a couple of the swordsmen I posted last week. That's pretty common with miniatures of this era-- a single body could have slightly different details added, which I assume saved the sculptor time and getting more things into production. Note also the ridiculous elf braids, this time one on either side of the forehead, then braided together at the back. I tried this once when I was in high school, but it looked even goofier in real life.


More of the same, this time with helmets and longer hauberks. Their helmets cover their ridiculous braids.


Two more spearmen, this time based on the same bodies as the axeman from last week. I spent a long time on their faces, which are covered by the shields. Sigh.


A couple of miscellaneous spearmen. I only have one of the growly guy on the right, but at least three more of the guy on the left.


Finally, a swordsman who was supposed to in the group I painted last week. His original primer coat wouldn't come off with just alcohol, though, so he had to spend a week in the nail polish remover. This model is remarkably well-equipped, with a couple of pouches and a bundle of rope on his belt. He does not, however, have a scabbard for his sword. In fact, none of the HW&S guys have any place to stow their weapons, so I can only assume that they don't plan to come back from whatever battle they are headed to.

Finally, everything together:


Have you noticed the wallpaper and stained cutting board in these photos? I complained last week about the quality of my photos. This time, I did the unthinkable and pulled out the user manual for my camera. I adjusted the ISO, shutter time and white balance, and set the models up in my little foldable studio, but I could not get my camera to actually focus on the model. I set them on the bookshelf with inadequate lighting, and ended up with my best photos in months. Go figure.

This is the end of the elves for a while. I have a bunch more soaking in alcohol, but I'm out of 25mm round bases. In preparation for Blainetober next month, I will be painting large wlakers for Deadzone/Warpath in September. It's been a long time since I've worked with restic. Let's see if I still remember how...

Amazing elfwork, Josh. It's great to see all of those old, cool models painted and treated so well in 2016. I'm truly sad that the only thing holding you up will be a lack of round bases. Are they difficult to come by in Japan?

Not really difficult, there's just nothing local. There are a number of mail order services, but I prefer to order enough that I don't have to pay shipping. Also, Blainetober is coming up.

Great stuff Josh

I'm currently trying to find my blaine's for Blainetober.

Great job on the elves Josh.

I always prefer to buy things like bases in bulk, but then the question is how many to buy?! I recently bought all the bases I would need for the minis from Space Hulk and Dearhwatch Overkill. I happened to buy 20 extra for Deathwatch marines of my own creation. And then Death Masque arrived so I now need to buy more again!!

Nice work on the Elves. Gotta love those tiny shields!

EDC

@JoRugby: Thanks. I know where all my Blaines are, but only because the stuff I get from Mantic Kickstarters tends to stay in their boxes pretty much forever.

@TP^DC D.M.: It's been a long time since I've run out of bases. When I first started playing WHFB many many years ago, it was a struggle to get enough 20×20 square bases. Now that I'm rebasing the elves, I suddenly have a glut of those, but no rounds.

@edc: That's what they came with, so I figure I should aim for historical accuracy. I just wish there were more elven designs in the Arcane Armorials set, because I can't think of a good design for the non-Melnibonean contingent.

 TP^DC Deputy Manager wrote:
Great job on the elves Josh.

I always prefer to buy things like bases in bulk, but then the question is how many to buy?! I recently bought all the bases I would need for the minis from Space Hulk and Dearhwatch Overkill. I happened to buy 20 extra for Deathwatch marines of my own creation. And then Death Masque arrived so I now need to buy more again!!

I tend to try and work out the most I'll ever want, and then double that. Safer that way. Changing from 25mm to 32mm is a nightmare though. A never-ending nightmare.

And what the hell is Blainetober? I mean, I can work out that it's about painting Mantic Blaines during October, but is that a Dakka thing, or a Mantic thing, or....?

It started over in the Mantic SF N&R thread. Someone posted a teaser image of Blaine from the next Mantic project, and it kind of snowballed from there.

I'm gearing up for Blainetober by painting up some Deadzone stuff. First up, a Corporation Strider:






I went with the same color scheme I use for all my Enforcers models-- Tamiya NATO green and dark grey. I added some transfers to some of the flat areas to break up the otherwise monotone areas. I considered going back and doing some weathering, but the glaze over the green is still dirty enough that I don't think it's necessary. The base is from Escenorama. I backed their troubled SF scenery Indiegogo, and got some pretty neat terrain from them, but only after paying a bunch of extra shipping. The bases are nice, but that raised lip around the sidewalk area is a little irritating.

Next up: the Urban Pattern Iron Ancestor!

Very nice. The green and the orange look great together.

EDC

Thanks. The canopy is 7-8 layers of sepia ink over Citadel's Mitrhil Silver. That's one of my go-to techniques for tinted glass.

Better late then never, right? Here's all the stuff I finished in August:

That's a lot of elves. Nice strider too!

I have a lot more elves that need to be redone, but I need to restock bases first. In the meantime, the DZ stuff is a nice change of pace.

 JoshInJapan wrote:
Thanks. The canopy is 7-8 layers of sepia ink over Citadel's Mitrhil Silver. That's one of my go-to techniques for tinted glass.

That's brilliant. Definitely want to try this.

EDC

Inks over metallics provide some really interesting effects, if you have the patience for it. Which I usually don't...

I had a day off to myself yesterday. Instead of doing something "productive," I did this:





This is, of course, an Iron Ancestor from Mantic. The basic version is all restic, and for DZ it comes with different weapons cast in resin (they are in the first two photos). Since they are on simple ball joints at the shoulders, I decided to magnetize them. This model is in the same basic colors as the Forge Guard I posted a while back. I initially added some spot color, but didn't like how it looked. I may go back in later and add transfers or something, but for now I think it works well enough. I tried to give the hammer a red-hot metal effect, but I'm not sure it works. Maybe if I had cleaned the mold lines better I could have pulled it off. Ah, well, I have another one for that.

Finally, here's a comparison shot of the two walkers I've done so far:


The strider is a lot taller, but has spindly limbs. You can't tell because of the ginormous gun. Next up, a Marauder Stunt-bot, followed by a squad of Peacekeepers.

Nice work, Josh. Both on the walkers and especially the "Elf Army in a Month". I don't think you posted the horsies in the Tale thread?

I like the Master Chief look you've gone for on your Strider. Some serious Halo vibes there, Josh

Thanks for the kind words.

az: I thought that I had posted everything on the Painter's Challenge page, but all those Melniboneans kind of blended together there at the end.

aov: I'm not really into video games, so I had to look that up. You're right, though, the resemblance is there. I guess the color combination is just a natural fit.

Josh, where in Japan are you? Because I have the feeling we might be the only two players with DZ figures!

M.

I'm in Iwate, which makes me the only owner of DZ in Tohoku, as far as I can tell. Where are you located?

Great stuff Josh

Love the strider, excellent prep for Blainetober