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Farmer7574

Vampire Count
True Blood
Dec 10, 2013
1,587
England
Hey all,

I’ve been spending all of my painting time over the last 18 months on my Greenskins. It was meant to be a side project but turned into something bigger.

I’ve been looking forward to getting this army up and running for a while now but have had a few setbacks with this & that. Now it’s time to get this plog rolling, turn lots of pieces of plastic into horrific creatures of the night and raise the dead!

I’m going for an autumn forest theme, mostly because I love the idea of the colours contrasting with the dark blue & black army colour I have in mind. It also gives me the chance to pay more attention to basing than I usually do. Hopefully it’ll work...

The first unit: Dire Wolves





My inspiration for these:



I went for jet black fur and painted them up as if they were living evil animals that live in the woods rather than wolves that have been raised from the dead.

I started with these because I’m still making up my mind about how I want to do the metal on the skeletons. Their poses are really dramatic, which gave me a chance to play around with the kind of basing I’m after. I'm pretty pleased with how they've turned out except the wash dried a little shiney. Anyone have any remedies for this?

Let me know your thoughts. Cheers.
 
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Borgnine

Master Necromancer
True Blood
Jun 15, 2013
2,036
Pruszkow, Poland
Oh oh! First! xD

Good to see you started on them undeads! Thunderdogs really fit really good into what you have described, a nice choice! It's also interesting to see how you'll do with the autumn theme. Regarding that, I find the bases to contrast-y as they are right now, the leaves stand out too much in my opinion. I would add more of them, or maybe make the base a bit more monochromatic - dirt on the ground during autumn tends to make things similiarly colored. Other than that, it's terrific.

As for the glossiness, right now you can try some spray varnish, like the Army Painter Anti-Shine - of course, if it won't turn everything grainy and snowy... I still don't get the hang of this thing ;) And for the next ones - shake the wash REALLY hard and long, it should help ;)
 

Farmer7574

Vampire Count
True Blood
Dec 10, 2013
1,587
England
@Borgnine Top tips, cheers mate! :thumbsup:

I used the leaves sparingly as I didn't want to go overkill on them and end up with a bunch of pooches having a leaf fight. I'll throw some more on later.
 

BTK

Zombie
Oct 1, 2015
7
Kolding
Hi @Farmer7574 The fenrisian wollves are perfect for dire wolves , like the black colours and the red eyes. Think that the bases look great , the contrast of the dark wolf to the lighter base works . Have seen undead fenrisian wolves with more glowing eyes , but in blue and green , red look more "natural " great work . Looking forward to seen more ........

Let me know if you out about the wash glossiness , have had the same problem , and I like matt surfaces.
 
Feb 2, 2014
104
Bath UK
I really loved looking through your greenskins, everything is so clean and crisp; excited about seeing some of your undead now though! Always nice stuff to ogle at in your threads. :)
 
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Farmer7574

Vampire Count
True Blood
Dec 10, 2013
1,587
England
@BTK Cheers mate. Totally agree with the glowing eyes, red makes them look more menacing but I think green could work too if I was going for a green theme. I'm going to try and get some of that stuff @Borgnine recommended and give that a try.

@Eternal flitter Cheers! I'm a fairly tidy painter so I'm not usually a fan of heavy drybrushing which can lend itself well to skeletons. I'll probably end up layering the bones.
 

Farmer7574

Vampire Count
True Blood
Dec 10, 2013
1,587
England
Speaking of which, those guys are up next so here's a step-by-step on the basing while I'm at it:

Farmer's Forest Basing Tutorial:

I assembled them as normal. I bought a bunch of cheap bare model train trees from the net. I used 8cm trees for these guys but used anything up to 14cm ones for the wolves' bases. You can see the trees have some detail on the trunks but the canopies are poor, this won't matter though.



Then I cut the trunk and branches down into nicely sized pieces for the bases. I hollowed out the trunks and greenstuffed some of them to make it look like there's heartwood inside. I kept the trunks quite short so they don't interfere with anything around them.



Next I positioned them and stuck them in place with superglue. I left the fallen branches unattached.



After that I rolled out some green stuff and crafted some roots at the bottom of the trunks to give them a more natural shape.





I tidied up the roots with a knife when dry. A bit of PVA glue & sand to finish them off and they're ready to be primed in the morning! (The fallen branches get attached when the bases are finished).





A scarcely populated forest right now but I reckon it’ll look decent over a substantially sized unit with a few fillers here and there. Let me know your thoughts. Cheers.
 
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Adam_Barrow

Sleepless Knight
True Blood
Dec 25, 2010
3,068
Nashville, TN
Your bases are looking awesome. I was thinking about Borgnine's suggestion of more leaves while I was in my yard this morning, and he may be onto something. I've got a few orange leaves scattered around already even this early in the season, but a forest will have more.

Great work so far. Those wolves are cool.
 

Farmer7574

Vampire Count
True Blood
Dec 10, 2013
1,587
England
@Adam_Barrow Cheers mate, I thought they'd look like junk when chopping up those trees but I'm pretty pleased with what a bit of plastic, greenstuff & paint has done to them! I'll get some more leaves on there when I base the next batch :thumbsup:

I've spent the day trying several of the rust experiments I did here and have come up with the following:







The one on the left: This guy is from a unit I did 2 years ago. I'm quite a fan of the dark steel look. It's made up of a Nuln Oil wash followed by Agrax Earthshade. It might be a bit too dark but if I did this again I think I'd go for Reikland instead, and only in the deeper areas. Excuse the shakey edge highlighting.

The one in the centre: This one is Experiment No.5. Flicking the wash has actually made an interesting effect and gave the blue some nice contrast. An easy and quick process too!

The one on the right: Here is Experiment No.3 without Agrax Earthshade (with a lot of care put into the drybrushing this time). I think the heavily rusted wargear turned out well but perhaps a little too colourful.

Experiment No.11 didn't make it as he looked like he'd been Tango'd.

I'll be heading back to work tomorrow, so no painting for about a week. I'll be putting more bases together for the hundreds that lie await. Let me know what you guys think of the test minis.
 
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Adam_Barrow

Sleepless Knight
True Blood
Dec 25, 2010
3,068
Nashville, TN
For the new leaves, maybe pay attention to piling some up on the windward side of the trunks and stones and things. They'll get blown against those obstacles by the wind and tend to pile up there. That may give you more leaves with enough open ground between them to still be an accent.
 
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Borgnine

Master Necromancer
True Blood
Jun 15, 2013
2,036
Pruszkow, Poland
Great idea with the cheap trees! I normally use real branches to simulate tree stumps, but they don't have the bark texture at that scale. How exactly cheap are those trees? xD
As for the skellies - aw yiss man - I just love the combination of the bone color here and the dark blue of the clothes on the right guys - in my opinion it's tons better than black. And I think that the middle guy has the best metal on him.
And if you're going to simulate some wind there - how about a skeleton that's trying to remove the leaf that flew just right into his face? ;)
 

Farmer7574

Vampire Count
True Blood
Dec 10, 2013
1,587
England
@Borgnine Thanks for the feedback mate! I've been thinking about these colour schemes over the past few days. The right one looks nicely aged but has a big lack of silver, whereas the left one has no orangey brown colours to contrast with the blue. I think the middle guy is what I'm gonna run with!

Living in China, these trees are extremely cheap. Now that I've made up my mind on the basing, I've just ordered another 65 in various sizes and they've cost me £3. You can get similar stuff on eBay, I found 20 for about £5 when I looked a few months back. Here's a link: http://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/20X-Bare-Tr...ery-Layout-1-75-12cm-/370821354225?nav=SEARCH

Oh, and I love the idea about the leaf in the face, although the the wind is blowing from behind them.... Ah, this has to be done! xD
 
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Sessioni

Black Knight
Dec 29, 2014
300
Farmer's undead, oh yea! This is actually happening! xD
Very nice looking wolves, I have left my vampire counts wolves unpainted since I really don't even like them much, I have considered using the old wolves, but fenrisian wolves, that's a good idea. It's good that you managed to pop dem eyes out around the dark surface. The basing is also top notch, I don't think it's too bright. I actually thought about your basing while I was walking down the road the other day, it is autumn in Finland. The leaves look fantastic.
 

Farmer7574

Vampire Count
True Blood
Dec 10, 2013
1,587
England
@Sessioni Cheers for the feedback matey! Glad the basing is getting some attention, I guess it's the right time to start this plog :cool:

Once this week-long stint of work is done, I'll be turning up the heat on this army.

I think the dire wolves minis are ok but zombie dogs isn't my idea of dire wolves. The Fenrisian wolves on the other hand are totally mean and dramatic! I got the idea from Bloody Beast, a commission painter in Poland.

@Blutsauger Glad you like what you see, more on the way :thumbsup:
 
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BTK

Zombie
Oct 1, 2015
7
Kolding
@Farmer7574 you going to cost me money , I bought 10 fenrisian wolves because of this , and I had 20 old dire wolves ready for paint ! Relly liked you plastic trees great way to do it , and I tryed to sculpt my own in super sculpy.....took forever .Looking forward to see more from you whats up next ....Nice skeletons .

And really like the paint and conversions BloodyBeast is doing and his high lighs and colours really appeling to me .....
 

Farmer7574

Vampire Count
True Blood
Dec 10, 2013
1,587
England
@BTK Nice! Looking forward to seeing how they turn out.

I don't envy you sculpting your own trees, the roots that I do in green stuff take long enough for me. Doing trees for 200+ infantry might make a person lose their sanity!

Just two days left of this work marathon then it's back to painting. I work away from home so usually bring parts with me to work for cleaning mold lines off when I've got time on my hands. Got the morning off so that's exactly what's happening!
 
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Adam_Barrow

Sleepless Knight
True Blood
Dec 25, 2010
3,068
Nashville, TN
What kind of work do you do, mate? A couple of my boys teach English in South Korea, and another teaches in Japan. The guys in the SK act like it's the coolest place in the world.
 

Farmer7574

Vampire Count
True Blood
Dec 10, 2013
1,587
England
@Adam_Barrow I teach English over here in a private training school, which means lots of work over the weekends but 4+ days off a week. Living here has its pros & cons, the job is alright but the time off even better.

I've never been to South Korea but heard that it's awesome over there, having the coolness of western & eastern countries combined and at a low cost.

The area I work in is fairly small and rural for China, but everything is dirt cheap. Food & beers all night usually set me back £10/$15 max. You could party every night if you wanted to. It's quite a cool but quiet place (perfect for painting minis) and you see some crazy stuff here!
 
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robtion

Vampire Thrall
Aug 23, 2011
989
Australia
What kind of work do you do, mate? A couple of my boys teach English in South Korea, and another teaches in Japan. The guys in the SK act like it's the coolest place in the world.

I taught in Japan for a year back in 2005 and it is one of the best things I have ever done. Was an amazing experience and not at all what most would expect. I was well paid, had a great social life, and the work was one of the best jobs I have had (still work but relatively easy compared to the alternatives).

Friends have told me South Korea is quite similar, so not surprising your boys love it.

@Farmer7574 On topic, great looking Wolves you have there, I'll keep an eye on this plog :thumbsup:
 

Farmer7574

Vampire Count
True Blood
Dec 10, 2013
1,587
England
@robtion Cheers!

Small update while I'm at it. Got this guy based to get a good idea of the colours working together and I'm pretty happy with it.



Batch painting is a rolling and I'm slogging my way through a bunch of skeletons to kick start the unit.
 
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Adam_Barrow

Sleepless Knight
True Blood
Dec 25, 2010
3,068
Nashville, TN
Take no prisoners, homie! Are you doing ten at a time? Also, I apparently wasn't kidding in your OnG thread. I ordered a Wurrzag to try my hand at it. At least you're on undead now. If I get inspired up in this plog I won't have to spend any money.
 

Farmer7574

Vampire Count
True Blood
Dec 10, 2013
1,587
England
@Adam_Barrow Yeah mate, more or less. It usually takes me 2 weeks to get 10 done so I might break it down to 5 to keep progress more frequent and my sanity in check whilst layering all that bone.

I'm pretty interested to see your take on Wurrzag! Are you keeping him simple or mixing things up a bit? He was a fun one to paint.
 

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