Desert Town Update

Tonight I went back to the crafting table and started to finish off the Adobe town.

After seeing Richard Brown's lovely interiors in his MDF kits, I felt a little inspired. I added some simple pen marks to create a stone floor. Part of this reason was because this small house has an open door, so a little detail would really help.

I'm pleased with the way the mud bricks have turned out, a bit of dry brushing and they look quite realistic.

I gave the bottom of the building a dry brush of yellow ochre to act as desert weathering.

 

A bit of mud brick colour reference.

Mirkwood Standard Bearer

Rough working out of the idea and look of the standard.

I decided to model the banner out of green stuff after a long think. I had bought Elven paper flags but misplaced these in the recent house move. However, the putty banner works great and reminds me of the thick 'Regiments of Renown' standards from the Eighties. I have decided to sculpt the decals and emblems on the shields and banners in putty. This is easy to do and saves a lot of tricky painting. It also differentiates them from the other armies that use painted designs.

The last of the undercoated figure gets finished off, the standard bearer. I left him to last as I knew he would need a bit of extra detail 

For all of my constant research and reference, I had started to paint the banner brown but then remembered one of the only details in the book about the the Elven host... They had green standards. This worked out better as the green really popped once washed with ink.

The torso is from a Perry's plastic Hundred Years war figure. I loved the plant looking tunic. The plate mail was not okay for a Dark ages look, so I trimmed off the knee discs and painted it a leather colour. Kind of works and at a glance no one notices. " Keen are the eyes of the Elves"

 

Elves on the Shelf

Here you can see the two types of painting methods used for my Orcs and Elves. The dirty Orcs get a dip with dark tone while the beautiful Elves get a luxurious ink wash. They are still getting a strong tone wash, but the water based inks allow for a little more subtle shading. The two look good together, with the Elves having a cleaner more defined look.

The shields have taken a bit time to work out, but I'm there now I think. Reds, greens and browns are mixed on the copper coloured shield so they look like Autumn leaves. Green in the middle with red at the top and bottom of the shield.

For this round shield from Scibor, I randomly placed Autumnal colours to give a woodland look.

An Elven shield wall braces for impact. Although the shields follow a basic shading technique, I quite like the fact they are are all a little different from eachother. They are looking very Wood Elf now I think.

I repainted this hooded Elf in red, I think he looks a bit more interesting now. 

 

Painting Wood Elves

The next batch of Woodland kin join the throng.

I pushed the shield colours slightly so they look more leaf like.

Autumn leaves.

The old test model gets his new embossed shield and joins the shield wall 

I am a terrible sucker for names. This Elf has a cloak painted in 'Elf green' from Army Painter.

" Does what it says on the label."

An Elven captain leads his company forward.

 

wood Elf Shields

After deciding to make my own leaf embossed shields, I went back and tweaked this old test model I did a few years ago. I also repainted his helmet a darker copper colour.

He now has a new shield boss to match his brothers.

This was a tricky one to work out, but I think I've reached something I'm happy with. The shield from Scibor was painted in Tamiya Dark copper. Then it was washed with red, green and brown ink. When this was dry it was dry brushed with Vallejo brass for a highlight.

The idea was to make them look like leaves in Autumn. The red ink on the bottom of the shield really helps with this.

I might try just one more highlight to make them pop. All these dry brushing layers are still a lot easier than painting decals.

I have to say getting the Scibor shields off their resin sprues is a nightmare! You have to be really careful with the clippers. Out of ten at least three lose their tops. Not wanting to waste the money I file the damaged shields to make them useful again.

The subtle greens and reds come out in the light.