Prince Ielthan's Midnight Host

[Ielthan]

Decided to make a place to try and make me a bit more consistent with painting and more motivated to photograph my painted models well. Will mostly be High Elves but will post bits and pieces from all sorts I've done over the years too when I manage to get some proper photos of stuff. Quite a lot of terrain, as well as some dwarfs (the shame!), vampires, LotR and historicals. I should probably do an Instagram...but sod that, sometimes the old way are the best ways!

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These are some spearmen of Saphery I'm working on (hence the White Tower on the shield), my army is very much themed on the 5th and 6th edition cover art, trying convey an atmosphere of a mysterious, magical race. The plastic ones I did last year and I'm working on these 4 metal ones at the moment. My infantry melee units are organised into units of 24, ranged into units of 20, cavalry into 12's as long term I want to play a system similar to warmaster but at 28mm scale, on an epic table I've been designing. This is a very old collection that's taken decades to put together, wish I was a bit faster at painting! It took me so many years to figure out exactly how I want to paint the nmm blue effect, and tbh I'm still figuring it out a bit (I don't understand how to do the bounce reflections that really give the model that sparkle), but it gave me a lot of task paralysis when it came to my high elves. I learnt a lot though from watching Ben Komets and Richard Gray videos though which really helped a lot, as well as reading a lot of tutorials and theory articles by Roman Lappat (Massive Voodoo) that helped enormously in understanding how to create atmosphere, of course there's a long way from reading about painting to actually executing it!

The basing will be snow that can be seen here on my archers:

https://imgur.com/a/6hZ0Rxv

[Giladis]

Vaul's beard!!! Those shields!!!

I look at this and as much as I marvel at your craft I do despair over my own mediocre abilities.

Your progress will be followed with much interest.

[Ielthan]

Vaul's beard!!! Those shields!!!

I look at this and as much as I marvel at your craft I do despair over my own mediocre abilities.

Your progress will be followed with much interest.

Haha thanks, it's funny seeing some of the old names here, I can remember first seeing you on the original high elf forum, before asur I think there was another, probably early 6th edition period? So long ago now and our hobby's have all progressed so much through life, great to see people still in the hobby through thick and thin! After all these years I figured I should finally do a painting blog!

[Turion Rilyaloce]

Decided to make a place to try and make me a bit more consistent with painting and more motivated to photograph my painted models well. Will mostly be High Elves but will post bits and pieces from all sorts I've done over the years too when I manage to get some proper photos of stuff. Quite a lot of terrain, as well as some dwarfs (the shame!), vampires, LotR and historicals. I should probably do an Instagram...but sod that, sometimes the old way are the best ways!



XJ1K0647.jpg


XJ1K0649.jpg



These are some spearmen of Saphery I'm working on (hence the White Tower on the shield), my army is very much themed on the 5th and 6th edition cover art, trying convey an atmosphere of a mysterious, magical race. The plastic ones I did last year and I'm working on these 4 metal ones at the moment. My infantry melee units are organised into units of 24, ranged into units of 20, cavalry into 12's as long term I want to play a system similar to warmaster but at 28mm scale, on an epic table I've been designing. This is a very old collection that's taken decades to put together, wish I was a bit faster at painting! It took me so many years to figure out exactly how I want to paint the nmm blue effect, and tbh I'm still figuring it out a bit (I don't understand how to do the bounce reflections that really give the model that sparkle), but it gave me a lot of task paralysis when it came to my high elves. I learnt a lot though from watching Ben Komets and Richard Gray videos though which really helped a lot, as well as reading a lot of tutorials and theory articles by Roman Lappat (Massive Voodoo) that helped enormously in understanding how to create atmosphere, of course there's a long way from reading about painting to actually executing it!

The basing will be snow that can be seen here on my archers:

https://imgur.com/a/6hZ0Rxv

Your army looks fantastic. I can’t wait to follow along and see more.

[Ielthan]

Decided to make a place to try and make me a bit more consistent with painting and more motivated to photograph my painted models well. Will mostly be High Elves but will post bits and pieces from all sorts I've done over the years too when I manage to get some proper photos of stuff. Quite a lot of terrain, as well as some dwarfs (the shame!), vampires, LotR and historicals. I should probably do an Instagram...but sod that, sometimes the old way are the best ways!



XJ1K0647.jpg


XJ1K0649.jpg



These are some spearmen of Saphery I'm working on (hence the White Tower on the shield), my army is very much themed on the 5th and 6th edition cover art, trying convey an atmosphere of a mysterious, magical race. The plastic ones I did last year and I'm working on these 4 metal ones at the moment. My infantry melee units are organised into units of 24, ranged into units of 20, cavalry into 12's as long term I want to play a system similar to warmaster but at 28mm scale, on an epic table I've been designing. This is a very old collection that's taken decades to put together, wish I was a bit faster at painting! It took me so many years to figure out exactly how I want to paint the nmm blue effect, and tbh I'm still figuring it out a bit (I don't understand how to do the bounce reflections that really give the model that sparkle), but it gave me a lot of task paralysis when it came to my high elves. I learnt a lot though from watching Ben Komets and Richard Gray videos though which really helped a lot, as well as reading a lot of tutorials and theory articles by Roman Lappat (Massive Voodoo) that helped enormously in understanding how to create atmosphere, of course there's a long way from reading about painting to actually executing it!

The basing will be snow that can be seen here on my archers:

https://imgur.com/a/6hZ0Rxv

Your army looks fantastic. I can’t wait to follow along and see more.

Thank you! Once this unit is done the ambition is to finish off the last 5% left to do on the reavers, then base both and base some characters. Then it's silverhelms time, want to have the core units done.

[Turion Rilyaloce]

I always do it backwards. Characters > Elites > Troops

I just don’t have the discipline to start with the RnF

[Ielthan]

I always do it backwards. Characters > Elites > Troops

I just don’t have the discipline to start with the RnF

Oh this isn't the start, there's quite a lot painted but the style is a bit all over the place. As I get it all more consistent and updated I'll post more of it.

[Ielthan]

Finished the shields on these 4, lots more to go though, quite pleased overall but there are elements I want to improve on. The most difficult thing is getting the lighting effect right and I'm not sure I'm getting it quite right yet. Also thinking of maybe repainting the sashes on the spears, maybe 1 red and another teal to add more variety to the unit. One thing I didn't realise until they were painted was just how much sharper and more fine the metal spearmen are compared to the plastics, to be honest if I had realised I maybe wouldn't have bothered with the plastics and instead try to alter the helmets of some metal ones to add more variety.

Though I want the core units to be quite limited in colour palette I don't want them looking too unifom. The plan is to introduce another colour with the elite regiments, so red with phoenix guard, yellow with white lions green with sisters etc. but mix in cold blues so they have the same tone and don't look too out of place. WIll take a lot of testing...

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These are a couple of mages I painted a few years ago in a mad painting weekend, I want to tweak a few things on them though and they still need to be based. They were quite rushed and I want to improve elements of them, particularly the coats and swords. I am pretty happy with the faces though, I wish I remembered the recipe I'd used for the skin as I can't seem to work it out again.

[Anduil of Elithis]

Really beautiful freehand painting on these!

[TyrrenAzureblade]

These are wonderful, what are you using for the shields? I'm assuming some kind of printed transfer.

[Ielthan]

I wanted the shields to look like Renaissance oil paintings, particularly like some early ones I saw in a gallery in Vicenza that were painted directly on wood, and it gave them a certain finish and quality that was different to vellum and canvas. It didn't make sense to me that High Elves who are these incredible artists should just use simple motifs, and those paintings made me think of what is possible on a shield.

So I at first free handed a shield similar to this, but it took a long time and the idea of repeating it 24 further times was a bit daunting. So I sketched my own in black and white based on the old Karl Kopinski artwork I love, then scanned and digitally painted it, then had transfers made, that I then freehanded borders and some lighting over them to blend them in properly, then used different varnishes to give it the depth that you get from oils. The rear woodgrain and panelling is also all freehand. It took a lot of experimentation to get the colours to match my painting correctly to create the atmosphere I was going for. I'm pretty happy with how it's turned out though, especially as this is the first time I've ever used transfers. Now the experiment worked though I have a lot of ideas of how to use this process, although it definitely needs some refining.

[Althran]

These are incredible ! Top 3 best looking high elves I have seen I would say.
Could you give some recipes for the different colors ? I am absolutely in love with how well it recreates the feeling from the older armybook covers !

[Ielthan]

These are incredible ! Top 3 best looking high elves I have seen I would say.
Could you give some recipes for the different colors ? I am absolutely in love with how well it recreates the feeling from the older armybook covers !

Thank you!

That atmosphere of mystery and magic from the 5th and 6th edition covers are exactly what I'm going for. It took me a stupidly long time to decide the colour palette, hence so many of the high elves I had painted before these are different and will eventually be changed out. I really recommend spending a bit of time studying colour theory as it really helps with painting and choosing palettes enormously, particularly with understanding how to use adjacent and complementary colours. I really wanted the atmosphere to feel more dark and intimidating than the pure white, light blue and silver GW chose with their studio army (that only happened in 6th ed where they tried to more clearly define each race). The GW covers of 6th edition were so good at doing this with picking a very strong overiding colour to create the sense of atmosphere, as well as not being afraid to use large shadows to create contrast rather than contrasting bright colours.

I more and more try to keep things very simple with colours on troops models, as it saves time, and is easier to remember! :

Blue armour: Citadel Teclis Blue (although I think sotek green could work really well too)
Blue robes: Citadel Teclis blue mixed with black as the "colour", then further mixed with black and white for shadows and highlights, it's basically a bluish grey.
Purple: Xereus Purple
Teal (including gems): Vallejo Model Colour Turquoise
Red Gems: Vallejo Game Colour Scarlet Red

Black (including for mixing): Citadel abaddon black, Vallejo model colour black if you want less sheen.
White for mixing highlights: Vallejo Model Colour Cold White

The wood, leather and faces are a bit more complicated.

Hope that helps!

[Ielthan]

Haven't had a lot of painting time but have gotten 4 more finished of the metal spearmen. Tried to introduce a bit more colour variance, I'm not totally sure it's working. A long way to go with this unit but getting there slowly. My local club is starting a tale of 7 gamers next month so I really need to get more disciplined with painting, aim is 250pts a month so I may have to pad it out with a character each month!

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[Prince of Spires]

I like how they're looking. Great tabletop standard, without too much fuss. They are a bit mono-color perhaps as in that they're very blue in tone overall.

Getting 250pts painted each month would definitely be a challenge for me. I'd already be happy if I get that much assembled. Good luck and keep us updated.

[Ielthan]

Got the command done, the banner is going to take a while yet to get sorted, but I'm hoping it will really complete the unit. The basing is a whole mini project in itself which I'll try to document here, requires a bit of sculpting and I'm going to try and cast them to save time on future infantry units.

Pretty happy with how they've come out, the reds were really fun to paint, but some of the details on these were really tricky, they're absolutely tiny. I need to redo the champions eyes a bit once I get a smaller brush. I know the command in particular is very blue but the banner will offset that a bit and the bases will make the effect make more sense. I think I got the lighting correct to sell the NMM but it's still got a lot of room for improvement in the reflections especially.

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