WildBerry's Spring Wood Elves

[WildBerry]

Hello there,

after reading through many inspirational blogs on this page I decided to start my own (now that I have holidays).
As you can see in the title it's going to be Wood Elves. My very first Warhammer army altogether.

The list I'm aiming to paint up is the following:

Lords/Heroes:

Lord on Elven Steed
Spellsinger lvl 2 on foot or on horse, will have to see about that

Core:

2x8 Dryads (optional with Branch Nymph)
2x10 Glade Guard
2x5 Scouts
5 Glade Riders

Special:

2x7 Wardancers (optional with Blade Singer)

Rare:

2 Treeman (even though I was told 2 Treemen were cheese, so I might replace one).



First off I want to go with my Glade Guard as they are basic to a Wood Elves army I believe.

Those I already have painted spread over a long time because I usually am rather busy with studies and work.

Here a few pictures of my first guys and group shot (sadly it is not my terrain.. ):






Whole Unit:






I know I should still base the guys but I could not decide yet how I would like it to be.

Oh and sadly only afterwards I realized that mold lines are something you can easily take off..


Next thing I am going to work on is a bunch of Wild Riders that I got me for the fact that they look way better than Glade Riders.


Comments and Critics are welcome

[Elazar The Glorified]

Well I'll start with some crit. you need more shading on these The scheme you have looks lovely but you need to add some depth back into these models. I'd definitely have a look at the citadel washes if I were you as they can do half of the work for you. A wash of Ogryn Flesh on skin and faces and Devlan mud into recesses on the clothing etc will do wonders for your minis here.
Looking at what you've painted you have done some beautiful freehand on the cloaks etc. I'm insanely jealous of that, any freehand I try just looks like I've had a paintbrush accident!
All in all with a little work on the shading and fixing those bases (I know you haven't decided what you're doing with them ) you'll have some brilliant Wood Elves!

[Gargobot]

Have to second Elazar here, try some washes they work wonders.
And those freehands really do look sweet.
(Might have just copied Elazar's post; he's right. )

[noeste]

Heh, Elazar basically said all that I wanted to say. A bit of washing will work wonders and add depth and life to your models. And Elazar is not the only one who is jealous of your freehand (grrr!)

I'll be looking forward to more; spring is a fantastic time of year, and an underrated theme for Wood Elves, so keep it up!
I want to see where this ends *smiles* Subscribed!

[Jim]

So...you have blocked the base coats very neatly, the freehand swirls are very well done...and all you need to make these look great is to add some washes to the base coats and maybe a couple of highlights...I think the Ogryn Flesh, Devlan Mud and Thraka Green GW washes will work wonders for you. Also I find it hard to overlook unfinished bases!!!...So basically I've got nothing new to add to what has already been said

Looking forward to seeing your next batch...

Jim

[WildBerry]

Well first of all thanks for your comments so far already

Thank you for giving tips for how to add depth. I tried out the washes on my guys (Devlan Mud and Ogryn Flesh) but altogether I'm not really having the idea that the stuff is making that much of a difference. Ogryn Flesh seemed mainly to give some tan. On the belts it turned out more effective. Thraka Green gave the whole thing a too dark shade so I left it out so far.

With the highlighting itself I'm still having a hard time.. Drybrushing and such is really not my thing yet. But I will see if I can do better on my Wild Riders.

Anyways on the pictures I took it was not that very visible what I did. But that probably has to do with the not so great lighting around this time of the day. Will have to catch a better time tomorrow.

Your compliments on my freehands inspired me to do some more and above all to finally do something about the banner.

I also got a great tip from my bf how I could do my bases and I found that I really do like them like this (even though from close up some of that green mossy-stuff looks weird).

But enough talk, I'll show you what I mean so far with some pictures:

Banner Carrier's cloak:




Banner:




Basing from above:




Small group shot:

[Death Korp]

I have no idea why, but these elves remind me of Peter Pan :P

They look really good, but like others have said, you'll want to make sure you have washed them with the washes (?) to give them some shading. The freehand and the bases are awesome,

Keep it up!

DK

[Breazer]

well sweety as you can hear they seem to really like your stuff..
your blog seems more succesful allready...
keep it up...am proud of what you are doing there

[Gargobot]

Thank you for giving tips for how to add depth. I tried out the washes on my guys (Devlan Mud and Ogryn Flesh) but altogether I'm not really having the idea that the stuff is making that much of a difference. Ogryn Flesh seemed mainly to give some tan. On the belts it turned out more effective. Thraka Green gave the whole thing a too dark shade so I left it out so far.

The washes have very different effects depending on how many times you put them on, and how much water you mix in. For example if you feel Thraka Green is too dark for your woodies try to mix it 1:1 or even 1:2 with water, it should have a lighter look then. And if it's too light you can always go over it a second or even third time. But remember not to have to much of it pooling in one place or it will look glossy when dried.
And the bases are a nice idea, very springy.

[tensions]

the freehands are pretty good.

[noeste]

Well, the idea behind washes, is that they got a special surface tension, which makes them flow and run more easily, seeking the lowest point. Apart from adding a bit of colour of their own, that is. So, every crack and every fold in cloth, everywhere different surfaces meet, more wash will pool up, than elsewhere, thus one gets this feeling of shadows and light, and it gets more 3d-ish.

A problem can be, and sounds like is for you, that the washes makes it too dark, and I can do nothing else but add my voice to that of Gargobot. Thin the washes out with water, experiement a bit, and hopefully you'll get some results that please you.

Your freehand still dazzle me, though, and I really like that lichen you've used for your bases. Thank your boyfriend for the tip!

Owh, just a last thing, though. If you're going to try to wash your next unit, do it before you do the freehand, so as not to cover the freehand up with the wash.

[Elazar The Glorified]

In your case I would personally only use the washes in the recesses as opposed to over all of the model. You can do a few layers in the deeper recesses and leave the areas you'd normally highlight what is your current base colour. I hope that makes sense!

[WildBerry]

Thanks all for all the explanations I think I will try both the mixing with water and also the use only at certain spots for once.

Anyways I read that too late so today's models I didn't do like that.

I started working on my Wild Riders this morning actually and I realized a few things:

- glueing Wild Riders is a pain (the glueing spots at their waists are like.. uh.. not fitting at all..)
- painting horses is even worse
- shading horses is the worst and I was not successful so far...

I decided to undercoat the guys grey as I don't like the basecoat sprays which are available of GW. Sadly I was a bit too enthousiastic with spreading the grey on them which made me loose details on the guys as well as on the Spellsinger that I basecoated in the same turn.

Anyways I stopped after 2 and a half guys as the room was heating up quite a lot. Therefore I made a movement tray for my Glade Guard. It was quite the task as originally I didn't mind the guys having to fit into ranks when glueing them.

Well here the results of my today's work so far:
(A few links will follow in the next post as I am not allowed to post them together with the pictures..)

Wild Riders front shot:




Wild Riders back shot:





Glade Guard on movement tray:

[WildBerry]

Well as already mentioned here some more links. (Sorry for the double post to anyone that might feel offended by it..)

Oh and I forgot to mention one thing to noeste's post: The thing with washing BEFORE freehanding I had to realize already today.. So on the 2nd picture from the back (in the post above) you can see that the left guy's lower cloak is quite green only and that's it..

I will redo that sometime but I really did not want to do that anymore at that very moment it happened.


Wild Rider 1 only

Wild Rider 2 only

Glade Guard from above

[noeste]

Looking good; I must admit I find horses difficult myself, so much flesh, but compared to most models of human(oids..), there's not as much illustrious (unsure if it means what I want it to...) muscles underneath the skin, so there's really not that much help from the sculpt itself, when it comes to shading the skin. Horses being larger than most other models, generally gives larger surfaces aswell, which when it comes to fleshpainting and shading, gives a bigger challenge, to make it right.
You're not the only one to misslike painting horses, heh.

The movement tray looks good; not that anything less was expected *smiles*

I can't help but notice, though, that you've forgotten to remove a couple of the mould lines on the horses - it adds a lot to a model if you remove them by file or the back of your hobby knife.

Personally, I'm not much of a fan of copper, always liked bronze, brass, gold and steel more, but I guess that's a personal preference, and nothing else. I do think that the armour on those horses could use some wash aswell, however; experiment with all of the brown washes, if you have them, and see which you like the most. If you got some spare parts from either your Riders or Guards, use them to test out different washes and washing techniques (thinning the wash, or just focus on painting in the folds of cloth and other cracks, like Elazar suggested). That way, you can find a technique and colours, which you think fit your theme the best, without risking ruining any of your already painted models in the process.

Keep up the good work!
Owh, by the way, I am quite fond of those Dryads; any chance I'll get to see some Spring Dryads anytime soon, or have you planned to finnish the Elves first? Anyways, I'm looking forward to seeing your take on those "walking trees".

[WildBerry]

Well that copper colour was mainly a result of random trial, it was a mix of dwarf bronze and skull white with a result brighter than expected. But the wash is a nice idea, will try that out.

And about the Dryads I will have to see. My intention was to do those after finishing the Wild Riders, so will give em a try in a few days I believe.

[Breazer]

i like the wildriders...
but that might be because i had the privalidge to have seen them in real life...

[Kronos]

cool painting style, very orignal, I'm not a big fan of flat schemes tbh but it's worked well, nice freehand with the design on the cloaks.

[WildBerry]

First of all thanks for the comments.

Today I finished the Wild Rider I started yesterday (it was the Standard Bearer) as well as the rest of the Leadership Group, so my little bunch of Wild Riders is complete now. Well apart from the banner that is, I could not decide how to do it yet and if someone has (doable) suggestions I'm glad to hear them.

Due to the fact that GW really didn't do a great job on preparing glueing spots I had to fill up the waists with greenstuff which had the result that now the guys have a long upper body.. As it is also impossible to glue the models to the horses without making them look as if they were to fall off at any moment I mostly gave them a little pillow of greenstuff to sit on. And I had to move some horses to the front on their bases because making a line with those guys was plain impossible..
A nice side effect of this was (in my opinion) that the group really looks like a wild bunch now and also it does look more like fast cavalry that could reform any moment (sad that those guys can't be Skirmishers... ^^).

As this is one of the few (3) units in my army that goes in a rank they got a movement tray already as well.

So here the group shots on tray:










C&C welcome

[Kronos]

intresting basing technique, might have to steal it if i find out what it is.. though it has given me the idea of using tea to base my fangorn forest floor

also can't help notice some bits of the base are falling off, a good and very quick way to fix that is.. hairspray, adds no shines and keeps it together.