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 gobert wrote:
Cheers MegaDave, though I don’t think they’re anywhere near as neat as your gobbos!

Well to be fair I only had 12 goblins to paint and you have a million elves!

I dreaded those scythes when a friend played them in 6th and suddenly all those warriors coming out of them swarmed me. Excited to see it in your color scheme!

More breakfast is always good.
and taking breaks is also needed when bulk painting. Good luck with the flying bakery though

Enough with the metal zombies...back to more interesting High Elves.

Cheers,

CB

Bulk painting all those elves truly takes some determination! Stunning progress on them so far.

No doubt you had to take a small break to work on something else.
I think I would have veered away a lot quicker haha.

Keep up the good work

 Captain Brown wrote:
Enough with the metal zombies...back to more interesting High Elves.

Cheers,

CB

Exactly, hooray Elves. Boo everyone else!

MegaDave wrote:Well to be fair I only had 12 goblins to paint and you have a million elves!

That is true I suppose, I don’t know why I’m doing this to myself!

Viterbi wrote:I dreaded those scythes when a friend played them in 6th and suddenly all those warriors coming out of them swarmed me. Excited to see it in your color scheme!

Mine probably won’t be doing any killing, but it’s good to know they’re strong anyway

Not Online!!! wrote:More breakfast is always good.
and taking breaks is also needed when bulk painting. Good luck with the flying bakery though

I do like a bit of breakfast, though I’m more of a Pain au chocolat fan than croissant, but I don’t think that would be such a cool design!

Captain Brown wrote:Enough with the metal zombies...back to more interesting High Elves.
Cheers,
CB

Captain, sorry Captain!

Ezki wrote:Bulk painting all those elves truly takes some determination! Stunning progress on them so far.
No doubt you had to take a small break to work on something else.
I think I would have veered away a lot quicker haha.
Keep up the good work

Yeah, it’s quite an elven trait I suppose to carry on sternly! The breaks helped re-motivate

Olthannon wrote:
Exactly, hooray Elves. Boo everyone else!

Fear naught, normal pointy helmet service shall resume shortly!

So this week I was away with work (back in Germany) and I had grand plans to get some good elven progress. Sadly the bier garten and restaurants kept me occupied until it was too late to do any painting so the elves didn’t even make it out of their travel box. However, since it was an F1 weekend they were unpacked last night and after some reunification with their bases I pushed some pigment around on them. Quali wasn’t massively exciting, but I was tired so I called it a day halfway through the first skin layer of dwarf flesh;

The race is on tonight, so I reckon I’ll get through the first layer at least, maybe even 2?

Thanks for looking!

Automatically Appended Next Post:
Not the most interesting of F1 races (though the post-race Americanisms were a bit forced and very cringey, almost as cringe as Willy T Ribbs doing the interviews!), but on the plus side I got a good bit of Elven skin painted. All 52 got the dwarf flesh base tone

and 20 got the Elf Flesh highlights

It’s hard to see in the pics, but the highlight helps give them a more Elven complexion. Looking back at some pics of my previous archers they look a bit tanned, so I might have to touch them up with this recipe. That can wait until these guys are done. That said, it’s a struggle getting to the faces on the archers, so I can see why I was lazy. Even when I do get to their faces, most of them seem heavily deformed, either through poor mould line cleaning or teenage gobert paint jobs laying underneath! Only 20 more to go I suppose (plus the original 20 if I can be ed!

Thanks for sticking with me through this Looooong process!

3 posts in a row, but that’s the price of monotony I suppose

I got a cheeky bit of painting in today and got the skin finished on all of the Elves;

Look at all their little elven fingers! . I think the highlight helped get some definition in to even the most deformed faces too. I think I might do the blue bits next

Thanks for looking (assuming there’s somebody out there )

Lovely looking Elves Gobert! I'm extremely impressed with your batch painting. They are looking really nice, great work on the skin!

Meanwhile, I'm struggling to paint 4 lotr minis at once

Haven't touched a brush in weeks. Good to see you fighting that good fight, gobert.

Quite a good looking skin gobert.

Always looking...

Olthannon wrote:Lovely looking Elves Gobert! I'm extremely impressed with your batch painting. They are looking really nice, great work on the skin!

Meanwhile, I'm struggling to paint 4 lotr minis at once

Thanks Olthannon! Sometimes it feels like a thankless task, but the skin looks nice and is reinvigorating me to get them finished!

youwashock wrote:Haven't touched a brush in weeks. Good to see you fighting that good fight, gobert.

Thanks youwashock, the fight feels like it’s heading in the right direction now. Hope to see you picking the brush up again soon!

Not Online!!! wrote:Quite a good looking skin gobert.

Thanks Not Online, it’s some of the nicest skin I’ve managed to paint I think, even close inspection today whilst doing some more bits it still held up!

Arakasi wrote:Always looking...

Sounds ominous!

I’m feeling motivated a bit more on these guys, probably because I’m on to the fun bits of painting details. Tonight all of the blue bits were highlighted back to (ancient) Enchanted Blue

Not that you can see any of it from that angle, so here’s another one;

See, there is some blue on them! That was quite a quick stage, only taking about 1min 25sec per model. It was nearly quicker, but then I spotted the pouch at the back of the archers . I might squeeze in a bit of painting during a break tomorrow and do some red highlights as they should be quick

Thanks for looking!

Keep painting you pointy eared coward!! Sorry, thought the motivation might help

you are close to finished, Gobert, now is the time to Push on.
great job so far aswell!

Ragsta wrote:Keep painting you pointy eared coward!! Sorry, thought the motivation might help

will do!

Not Online!!! wrote:you are close to finished, Gobert, now is the time to Push on.
great job so far aswell!

Yep, definitely coming closer and bits are better than the earlier Elves I painted for sure.

Last night I did a bit more as it wasn’t too late when I finished a stage of decorating my eldest’s bedroom (still loads to do and a mountain of ikea furniture to build ). This stage was near invisible though as it was just tidying up the reds;

Mostly it was tidying the red on the arrow holsters (not sure of the proper word of this), shoulder trim on the archers and skirt trim on the back of the spearmen. I need to do another highlight on the hair of the spearmen command group at some point too.

As I was only part way through an episode on Netflix I started on the white robes too, getting a base layer of Celestra grey on the spearmen.

I wasn’t too neat so I need to tidy up some more red trim now! that notwithstanding I’m feeling really close to the end on these guys; finish Celestra on the archers, then highlight the robes with Ulthuan and the archers will be done. The spearmen will need their spear blades painting. I need to make a few shields too, paint them and of course they need basing.

We’re getting there!

Quiver.

Marching onward! You can do it!

Tidying up is always worth it, especially with High Elves!

youwashock wrote:Quiver.

Marching onward! You can do it!

That’s the badger! I had quiver in my head, but thought that was the tail of the arrow cheers!

Olthannon wrote:Tidying up is always worth it, especially with High Elves!

Yep, it’s time consuming but the Elves need it!

And so the white is done, it was a slog again, but the Archers now only need the white highlights to be done!

If you’re particularly eagle eyed, you might also spot that I highlighted the hair on the spearmen command group too.

There’ll not be much to show tomorrow as we’re off out for a friends surprise birthday party, though unfortunately we’ll miss the surprise. Depending on the hangover, I’ll try to do some on Saturday.

Thanks for looking!

Your doing some great progress! I dabbled a bit with kings of war a couple years ago and learned that cranking out rank-and-file regiments is no easy task. I always think its awesome when someone can show off an entire battle line of such units. Looking forward to the finished product. Are goblin green bases in the works or something more modern?

 brushcommando wrote:
Your doing some great progress! I dabbled a bit with kings of war a couple years ago and learned that cranking out rank-and-file regiments is no easy task. I always think its awesome when someone can show off an entire battle line of such units. Looking forward to the finished product. Are goblin green bases in the works or something more modern?

Thanks BC, it’s quite a slog, but they’re coming along now, surely there won’t be too many more posts about them!? They won’t be getting goblin green bases though, they’ll have volcanic wasteland bases (black sand with grey highlights). I also have plans to do a slightly scenic base for them too, though by scenic, I mean a surface to match the bases! . Maybe I’ll throw a skull or 2 on there to break things up a little.

So the hangover was pretty horrible last weekend! Then it revealed itself to be a stinking cold which makes sense as it wasn’t even a heavy drinking session. . Despite the cold I ended up doing loads of wall painting instead of mini painting as the carpet fitters who normally take 2 weeks had a slot on Monday! Huzzah! I then took on building a mountain of flat pack furniture so my daughters can finally have their rooms to themselves again! As such progress has been next to non-existent, but I snook a quick bit of paint on to the spearmen, who now have highlighted white robes, which I’ll take pics of later this evening when I hopefully finish the Archers robes too. Wish me luck!

Sounds brilliant Gobert, bugger about the cold, I've got one as well. But good that it means painting time! Looking forward to seeing the pics! The volcanic bases sounds awesome

 Olthannon wrote:
Sounds brilliant Gobert, bugger about the cold, I've got one as well. But good that it means painting time! Looking forward to seeing the pics! The volcanic bases sounds awesome

Yeah, it’s weird how post lockdowns we seem to be getting hit with colds harder, or maybe I’ve just forgotten how much colds suck! To see what the bases will be like, check out my previous unit of Spearmen.

As advertised earlier, I got some painting time in tonight and progressed the Elves whilst watching some F1 and the Motley Crue movie (the dirt). It’s a good watch, and unbelievable how they’re still alive! Anyways, the Elves were all about slogging through the white robes;

Now you’d be forgiven to think that I only painted the spearmen and 15 Archers, but the others actually got some paint too. The step from Celestra to Ulthuan greys was too much in one pass as the folds in the lower part of their robes is very shallow. so I did a 50:50 mix for a first highlight on all of the Archers gown bits before going over the 15 at the back with neat Ulthuan.

Whilst doing the whites I spotted that most of their straps need tidying up as I got flesh colours on them. Still I’m hopeful I can get them to a point that I’ll be able to finish them either this weekend or next

Thanks for looking!

Volcanic bases sounds sweet. Getting "battle for Mount Doom" vibes, which I love. What's next after the pointy helms? One of the various flavours of Panther or the metal Croissants?

Yeah mine seems to have died down but my wife is still hacking away

Nice work on the robes. I'm always impressed by other people's ability to paint white. It always takes me an age. Those volcanic bases from your other spears look fantastic. The grey bases really make your colourful troops pop.

brushcommando wrote:Volcanic bases sounds sweet. Getting "battle for Mount Doom" vibes, which I love. What's next after the pointy helms? One of the various flavours of Panther or the metal Croissants?

Yeah, that’s the image I have in mind, no doubt it’ll look no where near as dramatic as it does in the movies, but hopefully it’ll look decent enough! Not sure what’ll need next, tempted by my SMH conversions after seeing you start on a squad.

Olthannon wrote:Yeah mine seems to have died down but my wife is still hacking away

Nice work on the robes. I'm always impressed by other people's ability to paint white. It always takes me an age. Those volcanic bases from your other spears look fantastic. The grey bases really make your colourful troops pop.

Yep, they seem to like lingering of late! As for the whites I think the photo somehow helps, though this is the nicest looking white I’ve managed. Thin multiple coats is what I’m doing, plus I’m using a grey which looks white against all of the colours!

So I’ve stayed up way past bedtime, but I’ve pretty much got the painting on the Elves done! There’s a bit of paint to go on the spear tips once the blue wash dries and that’s them painted. Here they are with the white robes finished;

It was a massive slog, but I’m really pleased how they’ve turned out. Here’s post a few touch ups and the Spear tips painted gunmetal and washed blue.

A few boots need more touch up work but I’ll save that for when their bases are done.

It was late when I finished that step, but I had a max idea to add some levels to their display shelf. The ikea furniture for my daughters room had a near perfectly sized honeycomb board that I thought would make a decent structure. I also had some left over polyfilla one fill that I used to make a transition between the levels.

I’m hoping that I have enough basing material left to apply it across the whole board. I have some made with a yellow paint for the elites layer and some with black for the line layer. I’m currently torn on whether to texture underneath the units or leave that portion bare so the unit slots in and sits evenly. What do you guys reckon? Oh and if I do, should I have unit base tray for each of them?

Thanks for looking!

If I understand the question properly, I feel like your going to want to leave the area for the troops completely flat, or the little textures will drive you mad when the models won't sit completely flush against the board. If you're feeling particularly industrious, you could make faux-unit trays on the board by making squares out of spare sprue measured to the units foot print, and then texture right up to the sprues so that there is a smooth transition between the board and the model bases.

Not sure if any of that made sense, but I'll offer it on the off-chance it's useful advice

Nice elves!
Colour me interested in the "terrain" progress¨!

So close you can taste it. Them. Whatever.

I'm with brushcommando. No texture where you plan to have minis standing. Save yourself a world of headaches.

brushcommando wrote:If I understand the question properly, I feel like your going to want to leave the area for the troops completely flat, or the little textures will drive you mad when the models won't sit completely flush against the board. If you're feeling particularly industrious, you could make faux-unit trays on the board by making squares out of spare sprue measured to the units foot print, and then texture right up to the sprues so that there is a smooth transition between the board and the model bases.

Not sure if any of that made sense, but I'll offer it on the off-chance it's useful advice

That’s a really good point, and makes total sense! Ranking them up on an uneven surface will be next to impossible! I like the idea of using unit trays, but I think I may use card to butt the texture up to, then remove the card to make the recesses. If I do around them first then pull them out when its starting to dry I should get a decent edge if I run a blunt knife around it first.

Not Online!!! wrote:Nice elves!
Colour me interested in the "terrain" progress¨!

Me too, hopefully it looks decent in the end!

youwashock wrote:So close you can taste it. Them. Whatever.

I'm with brushcommando. No texture where you plan to have minis standing. Save yourself a world of headaches.

Not sure they’ll taste good, but I’ll follow the advice to minimise headaches!

I skipped painting last night in favour of a movie with Mrs gobert. We watched Senior Year on Netflix, and it was one of those movies where the trailer shows you the majority of the good bits. Didn’t have to think to hard which was a major plus point though! .

Anyways, tonight I caught up on the F1 and started on the bases for the Elves. Unfortunately my mix was a bit wetter than my previous pot of basing material so I didn’t make the progress I’d hoped for. Previously the material had been able to span the slotta gaps but tonight the first attempt just seeped through the gap! I quickly found a solution in some sticky labels my daughter has. They seem to have great sticking power (I needed to scrub to get one to come off her window sill the other day!) and the paint/sand mix should bind the edges too, so fingers crossed they stay on. That also meant that I decided to trim the slottas off the Elves and just stand them on the basing material. I then found they didn’t like to stand up properly so I used some of the archers to stop their mates falling over.

The new mix seems a bit smoother than the previous, but hopefully that might just be that the paint is more watery and that once dried it’ll be just as lumpy as before. That seems to happen with the yellow equivalent, but we’ll see tomorrow. The good news is that it’s pretty easy to spread about so it should be spot on for the display board, which I’ll definitely make my next project.

Thanks for looking!