Update December 2015: We are all done with Warhammer for the time being. My group have thrown themselves into other projects. So blog is updated to include other things fantasy.
Hello fellow Dawi Zharr and welcome to my new blog, for my secondary army project. Back when my wife was pregnant we talked some Warhammer one night, and the army that appealed most to her was the Wood Elves. So I bought some cheap bits and the armybook, to do another “cheap army” like my Chaos Dwarfs.
The elf army hasn’t become a reality yet, though I have sorted out bits into different project bags. But little hobby time and the fact that my wifes hands have been shaking a bit since the pregnancy (and that takes the fun out of painting) has halted that project.
My wife is fine by the way and real creative - but miniature painting can’t be done.
After reading the armybook (an really great one that 8th ed WE book) I saw that it’s possible to field all Tree Spirits!
Is it a good army? Properly not! Does it make for a strong theme? Hell yes!
When I’ve been around with the stroller, I’ve had my eyes out for cool looking sticks. The Tree Spirits will be build with sticks, wire, greenstuff, toilet paper, superglue and plastic bits.
What I really want to do, is to make a living army and go all out on the basing. I want every miniature to have spring green fantasy forest bases and lush green tree tops.
Treeman Ancient I’ll be building the army in 500 point playable 8th edition blocks. Trying to make sure all models from the previous list can go in the next one. And all I have to work with is Treeman Ancients, Brairwyches, Dryads, Treekin and Treemans. I’ll throw in some eagles as well.
Here’s my first Treeman Ancient and army general done (and he’s just been base coated in brown as well).
He’s made of sticks obviously. Took out my bag of sticks and found something I liked. The GW miniature is just over 6’’ high, so I made sure mine is the same.
Took individual sticks for each leg, each army and the body itself. Each foot is made from two small pieces of stick as well. All joints are pinned, drilled small holes in the sticks, superglue and pins. The all joints are strengthened with greenstuff. All end that was sawn clean off, have been fixed with greenstuff as well.
Notice all those branches sticking out off his back. On those will be glued foliage / treetop made from steel dish washing sponge.
The hand is made from the green wire you see everywhere else. Two wires twisted together for each finger.
To add some extra detail I’ve braided some wire as well. Both as some hair for the Treeman and as a belt for the loin cloth. All that green and steel wire serves a double purpose. I’ll paint them as vines and ivy, add some green to the brown wood. I’ll glue herbes to the wires for leaves.
Secondly is serves to strengthen the sticks and to help prevent them from breaking.
The official GW models have a lot of the circular symbols in them. I’ve added these to the miniature as well. Will paint either a blue or an orange glow effect in them.
Bits used: Treeman left overs gotten for free. A head, staff and loin cloth.
Also added to small sprite creatures, a skeleton and a skull to him. This will add some much needed colour and show the life/death light/dark symbolism going on in Athel Lorien.
I really want a theme of life, spring, green going on. Like a large living forest. But there has to be hidden skulls and the like as well - to show that the Warhammer World is a dangerous place.
For a second Treeman may I suggest buying a bonsai tree and using that - added bonus is that the foliage will change with the seasons so it’ll always be themed to the season outside
The first impression was it looks great and then I noticed how you chose the sticks so there were knobs in roughly the right places to suggest knee and elbow joints and so I spent ten more enjoyable minutes looking it all over more intensely.
And it’s a big model too…better than the GW model (which in my opinion looks more spirit than tree). The green stuff hand, the choice of sticks, etc is all seamlessly perfect. It reminds me a bit Miyazaki, which is a good thing :hat off
We are all done with Warhammer for the time being. My group have thrown themselves into other projects. So blog is updated to include other things fantasy.
Had the old boys over for some winter feasting and gaming a couple of days. We tried out the new Deadzone, Devil’s Run: Route 666 and Frostgrave.
Frostgrave is basically Mordheim - but in a frozen city and better. Better balanced especially in the long running campaigns. Everybody controls a wizard, an apprentice and up to 8 soldiers.
We played 4 guys at the same time, first game for all players. We had an experience gamemaster to run us through the rules. Very simple and quick to pick up. Great game.
My warband thrown together from old bits, bobs and miniatures. From left to right:
My Wizard: High Elf archer legs, empire militia torso, old empire stattrooper left arm, dwarf banner right arm, wood elf banner top bit, woold elf cape.
Thief: Militia legs and torso, marauder wolf pelt cloak, wood elf head.
Archer: Bretonnia bowman, random quiver, maruader pelt cloak.
Crossbowman: Old DoW dude, dwarf crossbow, pelt cloak
Warhound: From Kings of War dwarf set
Men-at-Arms: Old metal greatsword champion, empire state trooper shield, mordheim sprue hat, pelt cloak
Infantryman: Old Empire Warwagon halbadier, pelt cloak
Thug 1: Empire militia, wolf pelt
Thug 2: Empire militia, empire artillery crew arms with barrel cleaner, unkwon spear tip, wolf pelt
Christmas gift swap My paint pledge group have a tradition of a gift swap. Paint a miniature for another member, get one in return, we don’t know who is painting for us.
Painted a Reaper Bones Frost Giant (on 50mm base) for my mate (and the Frostgrave GM).
It’s my first try with Army Painter Quick Shade. That stuff is fantastic! Model has only been painted with base colour (not basecoat needed on bones miniatures). Drybrushed pelt clok, stone spear head. Gave quickshade. Drybrushed snow and hair white again afterwards.
Made the cubblestone base with greenstuff. The ice crystals are silicone stones used for the cats litter box.
Bones Miniatures are super cheap! And thus perfect for trying out new techniques and to get a lot of different miniature for random encounter for gaes like Frostgrave.
Wow, that model looks great. The mask has notions of horror movies and the rest looks a little bit shamanistic and Inuit style. And the paint job is really awesome, perfect fitting for the miniature.
Started painting my Warband for Frostgrave. Quickly made some bases for the dudes with 50:50 miliput and playdough. The man hole cover was made with a push from a 25mm round base.
Snow Gorilla
My wizards will be Witches this time around. Summon Aminal Companion will be a spell. Got this Gorilla with my Mantic Crazy box - it’s from Mars Attacks. He’ll be a count-as bear as gorillas can’t be summoned.
Major Demon
Witches can choose a spell from Summoners. I’ll choose summon demon. This is the major demon, an old winged nightmare from vampire counts. Just as a beast of nurgle in bloodbowl. A small touch up and he’s my major demon. Will take a ghoul as a minor demon and then find something to act as a ghoul.
Frostgrave takes place in the once great city of Felstad - the wonder of the entire world. After a cataclysmic event the city has been swepped in a 1000 year long snowstorm.
The game takes place in the ruins of the city as the storm has ended.
I was working on getting my Deadzone stuff done before the DZ:I kickstarter shippes out soon. But really wanted to build some fantasy stuff again.
Frostgrave is played on a 3’x3’ board. I’ll be building 9 1’x1’ tiles. I had terrain scattering around during play - and that’s often a problem in skirmish games with lots of cluttered stuff.
So plan is to make the tiles and let them be turned and switched around between games. I’m taking all the Frostgrave scenarios into account when planning the tiles.
So first up is the foundations for “The Silent Tower” and “The Well of Dreams and Sorrows”.
Tiles are made of 3mm insulation foam glud to 3mm cardboard.
The well is standing on a foundation made from polystyrene. The tile work has been done with a heated hobbyknife - best way to work in polystyrene, as it prevents it from crumbling all over the place.
The well itself is made from a yogurt lid (put some foam underneath it to strengthen it - glue still wet in pictures) and in the middle a fountain. Fountain is made from a soap bubble flask shaped as an ice cream cone.
Foundation for the Silent Tower is an octagon. Made the tiles like above.
Here’s what I’ve done in a day, walking to and from the project. So a couple of hours of work in here. Tower is made from 3mm insulation foam, glued together with cereal cardboard in the middle for strength. Used woodglue and cocktail stickers for holding stuff together.
It’s got good strength and has cost nothing but time to make.
Curently it’s 9’’ from top to buttom.
Beside gluing the walls together, I’ve “nailed” them as well with small pieces of cocktail stickers. In demark we call nails like that “dykkere” or “divers” in english.
Here you can also see how I’ve hit the foam with a pointy rock, to break the very clean flat surface.
The large grill spear is to add strength to the build and will help carry the 2nd storey floor.
Hard to see due to “grey in grey”, but the large stairs have two steps. Makes for a grand entrance to the once mighty wizards tower.
Besides the octagonal form, I had no plans. Just building as I go. Started with the door and made the wall pieces side-to-side from there.
