Ulthuan

Hi peoples, i've noticed (as i like it a lot myself) how much we like to watch people's work on their armies so i've finally decided to post a log of my most beloved WH army of all that i own: The HE.

I bought an almost complete army in 2008 to a guy (very nice he is indeed) in the US, good deal considering my currency is € and by that time 1 dollar was like 0.7€, but it was not until last february that i began the painting. Since then, ive bought a lot of more minis (more than i would have wanted to in truth ) and have done a huge work cleaning, assembling,some small converting and painting of course.

When i finally gathered the will to start this tremendous labour i had over me, i decided i would speed up my painting by limiting detailing, as im a slow painter. So far isnt going bad, in 6 months i have painted around 2000 points, and my goal is finishing a 2500 point army by the end of the year.

The colours for my army were easy to choose too, as i love white and turquoise, with the metals varying from silver and gold depending on the unit.

So i stop rambling now and go on with the images:


A general View of the army. Theres 2 spearmen units, 20 archers, 12 silver helms, 2 Seaguard units and then 1 unit of all the rest (i love armies based on core troops, as it'd be in real world).





About the silver helms, i wanted to give their horses a different color than the typical grey/black/white, also wanted each cavalry unit in the army to have their horses with 1 different color. For the SHs i chose the palomino color, for the Ellyrion reavers i want grey while for DP im planning white.




For the Seaguard, i really dislike the plastic pieces aviable for the normal spearmen, so i had very clear in my mind that what i wanted. The old Seaguard metals are definitely some of my favourite HE all times models and i was lucky enough to get 38 of them in Ebay and through people in forums.

Want to paint them gold and robes in turquoise.




Ellyrion reavers:



I will go with the Special units in the next post. Thanks for watching.

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A high elves painting log..

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Time for the Specials, although we have played our own house rules for so long where most of these units are rare (and lack ASF :p) that i find really strange talking about them as special anymore.

Phoenix guard:






White lions. In an attempt of representing their eliteness i painted the robe in turqouise and the scalemail golden. Also added as hero a plastic WL, the one which comes in the new chariot.

WHITE LIONS ARE CURRENTLY UNDER REVAMP. heres an old picture and a new one with their current status





Currently im working on the swordmasters, so far i have only put around 6 hours into them, part of that time assembling 2 SM from plastic parts (can see them in the 1st row) so i could have a unit of 17 (so would be 6x3 with a character in the unit). I have had a lot of brainstorming about deciding the colour scheme, but in the end i decided i would just follow the general army scheme, their robes will be white and the hair on the helmet (dont know the word for that) in turquoise, armour will be silver with details in golden.



RBTS: For the rbts i would also follow army scheme, but im putting a different helmet symbol for each RBT, so i have 1 RBT with a feather on the helm, another with some rays and a heart gem, etc. I have 3 plastic RBTs, 1 metal from 6th and a really old 4th ed RBT. So far i have only painted 2 of them, and i guess i wont be touching the other until the very end.



And an eagle, i have another eagle, but it is the mount of a hero that ill post later. They are not glued however, so i can use the eagle alone and the hero on horseback instead on the eagle.




Shadow warriors:




Chariots:






And that is for now. Have to do some work, but will post the characters and the conversions later.

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A high elves painting log..

Follow the dramatic battles and events occured in the ''island of gods'' 4 armies campaign!

Terrae Autocratorum. A space marines log..

I think 'wow' about sums that up.

Really, really impressive - keep it up!

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'The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist.'

38 metal seaguard!!!
damn I'd love just 20 of em.

painting looks good, but I'd like to see darker bases to balance out the light coloured models. Perhaps go over the goblin green on the sides of the bases with black?

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For the dwarfs, there was only this. Hammerson met Grombrindal’s gaze, and the White Dwarf nodded slowly. If it must be done, let it be done well. Whether they were dead or alive, that was the only way dwarfs knew how to do anything.

And Grombrindal said "10 from the back, yeah?"

Crisp and well defined colours, wonderful!

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High Priest of ASS

You sir, have a damned fine army there. I like the White Lions in particular, as well as the mounted heroes.

I have 50 of them... gigity. ^^

One of my favourite miniatures, I must say.

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I'm from Buenos Aires, and I say "snuggle 'em all!"

Hi again, thanks all for the comments.



Maybe brown? im really classic about painting and cant really get away totally from the old eavy metal green , however, i changed sometime ago goblin green for camo green so it wouldnt look so bright hehe. Not sure if i could do that final step and go with the new times hehe.

Also i really love the seaguard, just hate how much they suck edition after edition. Anyway I dont field them too often because they are not painted but at the same time i want to give them a more careful treatment which puts them on the end of the painting queue .

Time for the characters yep. I have dozens of them ready to cover any kind of mount and gearing i want to use them with. However i still need to make a white lion BSB on foot. I will begin with the 3 characters i have painted, although im noticing now that i dont have any pic of Aenür alone.

So the hero on eagle.. I painted them following the army scheme, as i said above hes not glued to the eagle and has been drilled in the ass so i can put it on a different mount.



And a back view, i just remembered that i still have to paint a quiver with a bow for the model, because there are some rare times where i equip it with the reaver bow or even the seafarer.



This is the last thing i finished, just 3 weeks ago before i had to stop painting due to work. The BSB on foot made from the commander box set. I just did a small conversion on the left hand so he would be holding the 2 handed sword. For the model i wanted to try something different for the armour and i came up with this greenish colour, i think i will do something similar for the dragon princes but with red.

I spent 10 hours on it and i must say it looks pretty good (at least in reality, not in pics). I worked on him to the best of my capabilities, so you can see there whats the best i can do, nothing too impressive but quite good for tabletop.

I have only 1 doubt about the BSB and i hope you guys can give me your opinion: Think the hair on the helm would look better in a different colour instead white? i couldnt come up with a solution but also didnt have the valor to repaint it and test. Which colour would you paint it?

In this 1st pic you can see the Aenur model i was talking earlier. Ill try to get a single one for him too.



And another pic with the BSB back. It's sad the back looks better than the front, but well.



Well, those are the only 3 characters i have painted so far, Aenur i painted it so many years ago when the WD gave the model for free.. MAybe 10 years ago? since then i did only rework the skin on the face since back in the day i had painted it with drybrush it looks like...

The next character i have to paint is a mage on foot, i have like 6 mages in the army 2 mounted the rest on foot plus the one on the dragon..uff... Since magic is not my favourite feature exactly i will just paint 1 mounted and 1 on foot until the very end.

The conversions....

The 1st general and my favourite: a guy build up completely from the commander set, except the flaming sword and hte head are from some mages..nothing special as you can see.



I did this model as a hero trying to emulate some drawing ive seen somewhere.. is a normal elf with a spear and the hair to the wind. its been made up with parts from the chariot, lord on dragon, archers... Looks very dinamic and it will be a pleasure to paint it. In the end he turned in just a simple spearmen champion so it should be painted in october/november that is when i have the unit sheduled up for painting :p



Then theres probably my favourite. The prince on white lion. I have seen this guy made by the 2blackdragons guys so i had to make my own. Legs and torso are from a silver helm (i have like 40 SHs... so take a guess about how many conversions i can do with that :p). Head and cloak from the new chariot and the big axe is from the lord on dragon weapons set. I hope to give it a final appearance quite exquisite.. Gonna put so much love on him



Finally a simple DP hero. that horse is the one i will use to substitute the eagle on the 1st hero posted. All the characters have been drilled anyway so i can swap them through all the mounts aviable.



And this is all for now.. I hope i can finish the swordmasters within 1-2 weeks, im quite busy lately and finding difficult to focus enough on the painting. Also painting units is the biggest pain for me, for this reason i decided i would paint the full models in the units at the same time.. So once i started i couldnt stop hehe. I decided this because i normally paint 5 or 8 guys and get bored of it... move to something else.


Oh i almost forgot it.. This is the 2500 point list im working on currently, as you can see the goal is having it done by december!:

Proyecto de pintado a 2500: (objetivo Diciembre 2009) 294 horas

- Héroe en eagle /horse X / missing horse
- BSB on foot X
- Noble on foot with 2 hander X
- Mage on foot 0%
- 20 spearmen. 0%
- 20 archers 50%
- 20 spearmen X
- 6 yelmos plateados. X
- 1 RBT X
- 1 RBT X
- 17 white lions X
- 7 shadow warriors 0%
- 17 sword masters 15%
- 1 great eagle X


Anyway thats all, updates will be quite slower from now on. I would like to remark the question i did before about the helmet hair of the BSB on foot.. Your opinions for a better colour would be much appreciated.

Also, would painting bases in brown improve the minis for real?

Thanks all for reading.

_________________
A high elves painting log..

Follow the dramatic battles and events occured in the ''island of gods'' 4 armies campaign!

Terrae Autocratorum. A space marines log..

Good Lord that BSB looks amazing!! Any chance we can get a close up of him? Seriously, I think that may just be my favorite High Elf model ever!
You have an excellent looking army, indeed. It's well painted and well converted. Kudos to you!

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Morathi and Tyrion sittin' in a tree...ewwwwwww

Sure, ill take some close pics of both infantry heroes. Anyway, what do you think about the hair tail on the helmet? think its ok in white? would try a different colour?


EDIT:

BSB




aenur: he has several scratches, 1 of them right on the nose that i cant fix because the flesh pot wont open!



very close on eagle.




About the SM, i washed black all the armour and added the 1st layers to the face plus wash.. Now need to light up the faces with just 2 layers and paint the eyes and teeth to get the faces done.

Since my flesh pots wont open im using vomit brown with a lot of white for the skin..I guess it will work since SM barely have any skin visible.

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A high elves painting log..

Follow the dramatic battles and events occured in the ''island of gods'' 4 armies campaign!

Terrae Autocratorum. A space marines log..

Another update:

Sword masters progress slow but they will be done soon. Since the last update i painted the turquoise parts, finished faces and added gold parts. I highlighted gold with simple silver mithril drybrush and used old chestnut ink for the shadow.

To paint the faces i had serious issues for the eyes (they are really small), but its np, in general im not focusing too much on the unit, just want to get it done, since i feel these guys will be casted in plastic for 8th edition so i hope to have most of the army painted by then.

Finally i started painting the robes white. Once all are painted white i will only have to paint the gems, small details as leather and the standard pole and adding several layers of light to the turquoise..

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A high elves painting log..

Follow the dramatic battles and events occured in the ''island of gods'' 4 armies campaign!

Terrae Autocratorum. A space marines log..

I like your choice of colors very much. They make me want to start a seaguard force. The BSB colors are spot on to me. Love the green armor. I think it needs the white plume to tie it into the rest of the force.
The eagle hero simply rocks.(am... loosing.. strength... to resist the.. seaguard build)

Much thanks for your opinion about the helmet tail on the BSB, and happy that you like the colours i chose =).

I completed the swordmasters finally! It took me only 25 hours (all along almost a complete month though). I had never painted so fast and sadly it shows on the minis, which cant stand a close view, but for the purpose of a good tabletop quality that im looking for they are perfect (and will scare my opponent friends twice as much now they are painted :p).

The golden parts are highlithed with a really fast and simple 'silver mithril' drybrush, the pony tails on the helmet are dry brushed too for lights. Only thing where i tried something more elaborated is on the standard pole that i attemped a wooden like look instead the common 'bleached bone'.

In the 2nd picture you can see better the 2 easy conversions i did using parts from spearmen and silver helms, for the weapons i used 1 from the lord sprue and the sword from the dragon prince champion (which ironically had a way more realistic appearance for a 2hander than all the others).





Hope you like them, Next im going to work on are 10 more archers (to complete a 20 man unit) with standard included (will draw an unicorn on it).


EDIT: i swear the SM look better in the pics than in IRL. It is strange how i often get the opposite effect but this time the camera improved the appearance.

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A high elves painting log..

Follow the dramatic battles and events occured in the ''island of gods'' 4 armies campaign!

Terrae Autocratorum. A space marines log..

nice army, wish mine looked half as nice. (or one color scheme, for that matter)

concerning the flesh pot: (after 100s of paints not opening, you tend to figure out ways to make them open)

look at the space between the lid and the jar. cut away any dried paint there.
tap the lid around the entire circumference, and on the top for good measure. you can be fairly vigorous with this, because you have to put SERIOUS strain on the glass to break it (ive only broken 1- and that was with a vice )
take the biggest set of adjustable pliers you have (this kind: https://tcboe21.wikispaces.com/file/view/pliers.jpg) that can fit around the lid, and twist.

if that doesnt work... well, not my problem

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Too bad Andy was banned

I used a cutter (sp?) all around the screws but they didnt open! hehe, anyway believe it or not those pots had like 13 years and the paints where not in too good shape sooo... I just went and bought an ''elf flesh' pot hehe.

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A high elves painting log..

Follow the dramatic battles and events occured in the ''island of gods'' 4 armies campaign!

Terrae Autocratorum. A space marines log..

That is an awesome paint job. . I have but one critique; why did you not fill in the joint between the steeds' heads and their bodies? This in my opinion takes so much from the models.

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--- thankyou come again! ---

You are totally right, for some reason i've always been lazy to add greenstuff to horse head joints I promise it wont ever happen again! Im sure that once i reach the goal of 2500 points painted that ive marked myself the work will be more relaxed. My problem is that i have so many minis and armies laying around that i had to make a trascendent decission last winter...Speed up painting or wouldnt see an army done in all my life! So these HE are the result of it.

So i started working on this foot mage: So far i have painted the basic colours, the flash of the camera did show the colours too bright but the intention is to paint the robe in shadowgrey and the sleeveless coat in bluish-purple. Staff, sword hilt and belt will be in golden.



Before deciding starting off the mage i trimmed, assembled and primed another 10 bowmen, but changed mind in the last moment:



Also started work on the 2nd unit of spearmen, i modified the champion (he used to have a bowmen torso and changed it for a silver helm one, what caused a lot of trouble because the damn arms wouldnt stick. Modified some poses too on the spearmen so the 3 front rows would have the speartips pointing ahead. Still have to trim most mold lines though, since i bought the unit 2nd hand and already assembled.



Anyway, im hoping to have the mage done by the weekend (i expect just 5-6 hours on it) and then i probably go for the spearmen. Ill post the finished model then.

Thanks for the nice words and the tips for improving the army guys, i hope you are enjoying my updates as much as i do!

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A high elves painting log..

Follow the dramatic battles and events occured in the ''island of gods'' 4 armies campaign!

Terrae Autocratorum. A space marines log..

Such a nice looking army,do be quite proud. I love the swordmaster conversions.

Hi again guys, i just finished (its 2.20am here) painting the foot mage. I must say that there are 2 reasons giving me an special motivation lately: your approval and seeing the 2500point goal quite close. With the mage that makes 2100 points done!

It took me just 5 hours to finish this one, i was going to paint a plastic foot mage made from the mage box set, but i wanted a foot mage painted quickly for my games and the plastic one is going to take me at least 10 hours. I must say i used for the 1st time and on the silver parts a blue wash followed by a black wash and i think the result is better than just using a black wash. (i use the new citadel washes and must say i really like the results you get with them, much more if you compare them to the old inks). Also i found a lot of trouble with the lights and shading of the shadow grey robe, but in the end i got to a result i feel comfortable with.

Well so this is the result for the mage:




Now i think i will go for the 10 archers. I have a lot of wishes to paint the spearmen but im lacking the magnetic bases yet (already purchased them but they never arrive!). Anyway i will show the progress as usual.

Once i finish these 10 archers i'll have to go back to the other 10 archers i have finished and add the plumes to them.

40 foot models and around 70hours of work to accomplish the goal!

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A high elves painting log..

Follow the dramatic battles and events occured in the ''island of gods'' 4 armies campaign!

Terrae Autocratorum. A space marines log..

Truly very nice. Your models keep looking better and better, and 5 hrs for that mage is remarkable. It would have taken me quite a bit longer I think. Wow, I understand how that painting pressure feels, I hate to field gray plastic. I must say I think you are doing a fine job keeping the blog fresh as well. Looking forward to your updates,great job Mireadur.

SMALL UPDATE: Thanks for your compliments asur aman!

I havent been painting much since i finished the mage. Played 4 games in the weekend instead, where i won all of them with 2 massacres, 1 solid and 1 marginal victory! and i must say i owe a lot to the swordmasters which since they are painted wont stop getting good rollls to hit and wound! . In all truth im being very lucky lately with the dice, this is leading me to believe im Asuryan's most beloved son, his chosen son who will restore Ulthuans former glory

Anyway, leaving nonsense apart, as you can see in the pic ive applied all basic colours to the 10 archers im working on. Want to shade and highlight the skin today and maybe finish the white robes. Hopefully they will be done by Sunday night.

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A high elves painting log..

Follow the dramatic battles and events occured in the ''island of gods'' 4 armies campaign!

Terrae Autocratorum. A space marines log..

Great job so far. I really like the way you're painting the blue, very "electric"!

The Mage is my favorite, specially his staff. You just nailed on the golden parts, great contrast!

Keep it up!

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I was marveling at the gold myself... how did you achieve it? It looks metallic and not NMM, but beyond that all I can think of is a Devlan Mud wash?

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Jyrus Yenlukhaesrath, High Prince of Tiranoc - 211 Slain; 26/4/6

Hi, im happy you all like the results i had with the mage. In all truth i didnt expect such good comments about it when i started painting it.

About the gold when i paint it for characters i do the following: Base of scorched brown, then shining gold, after that i apply either devlan mud or ogryn flesh (think it was ogryn flesh that one). After that i use a mix of shining gold + a little bit of golden yellow + some drops of the old chestnut ink + a little bit of white. Finally i add more white to the mix for more highlighting. I just add 2 or 3 as much layers to the shining gold base. Nothing special but it looks well i guess.

About the archers, i have now almost finished the white robes (have 8/10 done) and have finished all skin parts, so just missing the turquoise highlights, the gems and leather light. Unfortunately i was working today all the day and tomorrow will be too so propably wont finish them until tuesday/wed. Will post some pics then.

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A high elves painting log..

Follow the dramatic battles and events occured in the ''island of gods'' 4 armies campaign!

Terrae Autocratorum. A space marines log..

Hello again mates.

I said i would have done the archers by tuesday/wed, but i painted today like 7 hours and have almost finished them now! Still need to finish the feathers for the old 10 archers, painting the motifs on the standard and the quivers for these 10 archers, but i believe it wont take longer than 3 hours altogether.

So, i think the results for these 10 archers are quite satisfactory, employed around 45 hours total in the 20 archers (way more than for spearmen and SM) and that considering i had to give up 1 last lighting layer on the turquoise parts. I Maybe should have pushed harder and apply this layer but as you will see in the pics i think the minis are nice enough to move on the next unit, which im pretty excited about.

Well so here are the pics, im sorry for the lack of light on them, i will post a better one once i finish the unit 100%, most likely tomorrow.




I took a somehow special care on the hawkeye of the unit, although i couldnt find a nice colour for the scabbard of the sword..



And finally the WIP on the old 10 archers feathers, only need to paint the gems, something i think will do before going to sleep.



So thats all, i hope you like them. Thoughts, both possitive and negative, welcome!

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A high elves painting log..

Follow the dramatic battles and events occured in the ''island of gods'' 4 armies campaign!

Terrae Autocratorum. A space marines log..

You have done a very good job. Especially on the BsB. My Compliments.

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My Art Blog: Valleys of Eternity

Mage Knight Guild

Finished the archers finally. Quivers and standard motiffs included! Time for a heavy coat of varnish...



Here you can see how i used the same symbol for the archers and the Silver helms, the idea is doing the same for the next spearmen unit, to represent both units are vassals of the mounted nobles.



So im unsure at this point of what to paint next. Im only missing 20 spearmen and 7 shadow warriors to complete the 2500 points. More pics soon anyhow...

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A high elves painting log..

Follow the dramatic battles and events occured in the ''island of gods'' 4 armies campaign!

Terrae Autocratorum. A space marines log..

Hi again, been relaxed the last days but not stagnant! I began painting the shadow warriors, im happy because it looks like they shouldnt take longer than 12-15hours, so probably will be done by the next weekend:

As you can see they are the 6th edition ones, i like them better. Going to avoid the use of gold on them, as i want them really dark. Also will paint them with black hair as they are from nagarythe. For the gems i will use colder ones, like blue or purple, instead the common red gems im painting the army with.


But the real reason for not so much advancing lately has been my latest project: Estalian army! Im spaniard and a estalian army has always been a wet dream for me . In my local gaming club we created some very serious ruling for the army and 2 weeks ago i finally decided myself to buy the minis. It was a hard decission made of opposed feelings: on 1 side i have way too many armies, on the other side i love them. Also i had to do a hard planning and miniature search through the different manufacturers until i found every mini i wanted to represent the different units. This is a very long term proyect. Eventhough i have already bought a 3000 point army i dont plan on fully assembly (and much less painting it) the army in a very long time, not until i have my beloved HE much more advanced. So far this is what i have assembled:

For the cuiraseers i used a mix of GW empire pistoliers and knight arms. The unit is simply spectacular!



Arquebusiers from Gamezone miniatures, they have the pure look from the spanish 16th century army, the age of the empire owned by Charles V.


Finally the war machines and some characters, Machines are from warlord games, characters and mobile cannon from GW empire and mercenaries:



Have a shitload of pikemen, musketeers, halberdiers and swordmen to assemble yet

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A high elves painting log..

Follow the dramatic battles and events occured in the ''island of gods'' 4 armies campaign!

Terrae Autocratorum. A space marines log..

Awesome painting there! Your colors are really striking.

Maybe consider black base sides instead of the goblin green. The bases as a whole should be a little darker to break up the lighter models.

good work.

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For the dwarfs, there was only this. Hammerson met Grombrindal’s gaze, and the White Dwarf nodded slowly. If it must be done, let it be done well. Whether they were dead or alive, that was the only way dwarfs knew how to do anything.

And Grombrindal said "10 from the back, yeah?"