Forest Spirits On The Cheap

[Ludaman]

I like 'em a lot! although my first response was... hmm those dryad heads look like pineapples... now I'm hungry... thanks...

[martijn]

looks really cool man, are you gonna include glade riders? or ethernal guard?
if so, i cant wait to see them man!
keep it coming!

[Thurizdan]

I suppose they could be the spirits of pineapple trees...hmm, maybe I should make my Treeman some sort of fruit tree.

I may include some later but for now I'm concentrating on Forest Spirits. Have you had much luck with Eternal Guard? How do you usually use them?

[Thurizdan]

Right, Spellsinger is done. Most of the rest of the painting is pretty self evident so I won't go into detail, but feel free to ask questions. I'm pretty happy with how it came out.





Next up is the rest of the Dryads, regular models, two units of eight. I'm thinking of doing one up as birch trees as a little experiment for a possible Treeman scheme.

[mdiscala]

Looks really good. Then only thing I can see could use some work is the little red guy on the base. Maybe another highlight or two and paint the eyes?

[Thurizdan]

I didn't even realise he had eyes! I was trying to make him brighter in the middle, and it's hard to get bright red without getting pink. I'll try and darken the extremities a bit more to give him a higher dynamic range.

[MF3000]

The Fay looks much better with your paint job!

sj

[quasihayley]

The Spellsinger looks fantastic, you've got her looking really smooth and clean now (and I already said I love the colours previously).

Your dryads are great, you pulled the conversion off nicely. Good colours too.

[Elfboy]

great paint job on the spellsinger, choice of colours works really well

[Dino]

I just had a good look through this blog and I must say that this is a very creative log. I like how the treekin look. The wild riders I personally think could of had a little more work done to them to give them the right equipment but i'm the kinda guy who likes my apponant to know what they are right when they look at them. Dryads are looking noce as well. The spell singer looks really sweet so far as well. I can't wait to see what you make next.

[Thurizdan]

Thankyou all for the praise and suggestions.

What would you suggest I change on the knights to make them look more like Wild Riders? Removing armour is kind of hard, I suppose I could cut their heads off and replace them with Glade Guard heads but that wouldn't really fit with the theme. I could perhaps scratch about for some fur cloaks, would that help?

Next up is the rest of the Dryads (regular models) and then the Treeman conversion. I do have plans for an army display board, I was thinking about having my army coming out of an arboreal gateway (like in that old diorama) and crossing a river, running water being the traditional boundary for the supernatural. I thought I might put some signs of Bretonnian civilisation on there too like a field or a peasant's hovel. I came up with this because I didn't want to have to cover the whole board with trees. So any suggestions for included material? Remember it's a display board not a diorama.

[Dino]

Well first of all just switch the sheilds on with another weapon. You can keep the lance. Heads could be high elven like the spearmen heads. Fur cloaks would work just as well.

As to your display board I like the idea. Material wise water effets, some trees, styraphom bricks, some foliage for bushes, and something for straw roofs. I remember seeing an articale for the peasent buildings. I'll have a look around to find the article.

[Thurizdan]

Well I don't want to give them an additional weapon in their hand because the models already have swords scukpted on. I don't want to give them elven parts because they are meant to BE Bretonnian knights. I'll go with the fur cloaks and some spare Dryad twiggy bits.

I attached a mockup of the army board (5 minutes in GIMP). On the left is a waystone/obelisk. On the right is a ploughed field, a corn field, a well and a stone wall. The rest is pretty obvious.

I was originally going to convert the Treeman out of a Citadel Wood but today my Dad found a perfectly gnarled branch that he'd meant to use for something years ago so it was already varnished. SO I think I might make the Treeman out of this.



My plan is to remove the red bits then foin the two blue lines together. I can make arms out of the smaller branches or some Giant arms I have and the face will have to be greenstuff. But I'm a bit stumped (lol, seewhatIdidthere) as to how I should do the legs. If he's just a solid trunk at the bottom, it'll look like he's rooted into the ground. If I make lots of roots out of wire+greenstuff he'll look like an octopus...and the smaller branches would be too spindly to use as legs. Has anyone scratch-built a Treeman here?

[MF3000]

I think the Wild Riders are fine as they are. I don't think they need to be changed in any way. The fur cloak is a good idea... although I don't think it's necessary.

sj

[Thurizdan]

I have a wealth of stuff to exhibit today! First up are the two remaining units of Dryads:

One brown,


The other based on silver birch trees


A group shot


I prefer colour coded units like this so I don't get them mixed up.

Which brings me back to the Treeman project. I would have posted it step by step but I finished it so quickly that I'll just put up all the pictures now.

This is an X-MEN action figure I found floating around an old box of toys, I decided to harvest his arms and legs for my Treeman. Dryad included for scale.


I stuck them on with a few pins and some PVA glue. You can see the basic humanoid shape. (yes I have long fingernails, I use them for opening tubs of tomato paste and Goulburn Valley Fruit Snacks, very handy)


I then got to work sculpting a face. Nothing complex, just a simple outline.


continued...

[Thurizdan]

...

I sculpted bark over all of the plastic components and all of the joins. It could be neater but I think it looks ok. I mounted the model on a big piece of pine bark and sculpted some roots to cover the feet. I gave him a beard, a vine to separate the bark from the smooth wood, some twiggy bits, an owl, and some claws. You'll notice that I kept the arm joints from the action figure uncovered and thus I can still reposition the model's arms. Useless but aesthetically pleasing.




I painted the whole thing today in almost exactly how long Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake goes for because I listened to the whole thing as I painted. Paintjob is pretty basic, nice and simple; I added a few clumps of moss for foliage. Thought I'd return to the nature shots for the showcase.




Aaaaaand here's some scale shots so you can get an idea of how big this is. I measured it as 16" at the highest point which is taller than most Forgeworld stuff. Included for reference is a Dryad, a Treekin and my Crone Hellebron conversion from my Dark Elves army.




So...any questions?

[MF3000]

Now that is an epic tree man!

Can't wait to see more!

sj

[Elfboy]

He's huge! Looks great, full marks for resourcefulness and creativity! Any chance of some close ups, I actually just want to see the owl, cos I only noticed him just now since he's utterly dwarfed! It's a nice detail.

[Thurizdan]

I've got your close up right here:




Also, here's a bit of terrain I made with my spare pieces of branch. Just a little arboreal gateway.