The Fimir of Albion - out of the mist

[Mr Saturday]

LoL, i remember Mr Saturday saying some time ago that he dipped some of his models, he also gave me a great tutorial, but the models he showed us didn't look like they were dipped. They were so well painted! That's why i asked :tongue: Truth is they don't look dipped and YES they are fantastic. So no accusation there, just admiration of his work!
I urge you to consider your comments more carefully next time

Break it up lads!

Truth is, they ARE dipped. However, I'm very particular with the neatness of the basecoat, and all the freehand lies under the dip layer. Once dipped, I work up all the colours that might be muddied, teeth, cloth, weapons, eyes etc. and then add colours the dip doesn't suit, like the blue ley stones and so on. It saves time, a lot of time, but I treat the dip as more of a super wash than a magic sauce. It lets me concentrate on the fun parts of the mini without having to worry about whether the underside of his lion-cloth is shaded right.

Here's the latest members of the Súile na Lisaart. I still have some water effects to add to the fimm with the stone knife, but I'll leave that until I have a batch to do. This leaves me with the last batch of four on my painting desk, so almost there...

 

[Monkey's_Uncle]

They look lovely Mr Saturday, the one with the big two-hander in particular is very mean looking.
The Axe is quite similar to what I've been modelling in Blender recently.

 

[Mr Saturday]

I've been rifling through the bits box looking for some accessories for the meargh. I ended up with some bits to spruce up the meargh's rather plain bone staff, which you can see mocked up here. It's not fixed in place yet, as I'm wondering what ye think of the bones and branches arrangement I've got going on. If I go with this, I'll probably paint wood grain on the staff to make it wood rather than bone.

Dig the owl?

 

[Monkey's_Uncle]

Yes, most definitely.
He looks very 'shamanic' at the moment!

 

[Mr Saturday]

Big day today. Finally, and I mean finally, I have the first fimm warrior unit done! It's a big deal for me, as this army was a long time rumbling around my head before I even started, so looking at a finished unit now is pretty satisfying. The Súile na Lisaart are table ready at last, which let's me work on a character as a little reward, so it's back to converting the meargh's staff.

Here's some shots of the final four fimm, and a group shot of the whole unit.

 

[Malochai]

Wow, Mr S, that's awesome. Just ... Awesome!

 

[Monkey's_Uncle]

They are simply stunning Mr. S.
You must have a lovely warm, fuzzy feeling inside after finishing them...

 

[Mr Saturday]

Thanks folks, it is nice to have them done!

I'm about half way through painting the meargh, and enjoying it immensely, though the slight pressure of having to have her done this day next week is lighting a fire under my rear to say the least. I won't get the water effects done in time, but apart from that she should be ready to rock.

I essentially want her to look like a mean old fimir granny.

No part of her you see here is entirely done, though the hair, staff and skin are almost there. The robe is difficult, I want it to look pretty worn and a bit grimy without just looking just plain old rubbish. The cowl will be as much of a pain too, I'll warrant. The pool in front of her will have three skulls half submerged in bog water, I'm really looking forward to this bit. I love doing the swampy bases. Also, after a bit of mulling, I think I'll add a little ivy to the staff, not much, just a few strands of Army Painter's poison ivy.

Once she's done, I'll be doing a 50mm base with a floating rock platform for her to float about on, trailing weed and gunk as if she just willed it up out of the swamp. The altar of Fimul (war-shrine) model might go the same way, either that of a fen-beast style conversion thingamy.

 

[robtion]

Love the Granny fimir You have really captured the hag/crone/witch/hermit who lives in the forest look with her.

 

[Monkey's_Uncle]

Looking nice Mr. S.
She does resemble the witch from Mordheim.

 

[Mr Saturday]

Thanks, I'm going for the druidess/witch/cyclopean monster look for this one.

 

[Mr Saturday]

Almost there. The meargh is pretty much finished, the only thing missing being the water effects which will be added to the two pools on her base, so these skulls will be half submerged. I'm pretty happy with how she turned out, she looks high-ranking, but still fits in with the fimm as her robes looks worn and the tone is quite subdued for a blue garment. Being the clan leader, this is about a fancy as fimir get, so I'll have a good reference now when doing nobles, dirachs and other higher-ranking fimir.

The bog water will have to wait until after the weekend though, as she is destined to lead the clan into their first tournament. Then I might have a stab at painting either the half-dead or Crom...

 

[Mr Saturday]

Well, first tourney with the fimir down, 3 losses, 2 wins, not too bad for a new army!

 

[Vectra]

very ambitious project, and it looks great

i particularly like the purple flower/moss thing on the bases. i might have to steal that for my lizardmen

 

[Mr Saturday]

Thanks Vectra, I needed something not green/brown on the bases, and the heather fit the bill.

After some final touches and the addition of some foetid swamp water, here's the withered, saggy leader of the Fir Domhan, Morgayne. She's not as scary as a chaos lord, or as nimble as a dark elf sorceress, but she's got a bus pass in there somewhere and she's not afraid to use it. In the end the addition of the staff, ogham scraps of parchement (which do actually say something) and a spot of fancy basing really helped jazz up a very old model. She's given me an idea how all the other old school fimir will look, and I'm very excited to get started on nobles, fianna fimm and the dirach. The question now is, do I do the fianna fimm next, or the half-dead?

 

[Monkey's_Uncle]

Looking really nice.
All of your bases are amazing!

 

[Mr Saturday]

So! The monumental castle project I've been doing is done, and with barely a moment to switch paint for modelling tools I barrelled right into the half-dead unit I've been eyeing forlornly for the last few weeks. Here is the test model, assembled and with a re-built shoulder and other small green stuff clean-ups. I'll be painting him up as soon as the green stuff cures.

The biggest problem with him was removing the integral base that Mantic models come with. I had a notion to try a soldering iron to melt it off. Boy, did that work well. A couple of seconds and the base was evaporated by the solder iron leaving only his feet. Now, there's a couple of things with this. The iron is super hot and produces fumes from the melting plastic, and if you touch it, the burn is super nasty. I also used it to add more holes to his flesh, for which it works perfectly. I can see this being used to zombify models by melting flesh, hollowing out eyes and adding ragged holes and stringy flesh. The iron is now firmly in my hobby tool set.

 

[Johnny-Crass]

The mantic bases are fairly easy to cut off fyi

 

[Monkey's_Uncle]

He looks very interesting.
I would never be brave enough to use a soldering iron on a model, saws for me all the way.

Nice to see you back into the project!

 

[Mr Saturday]

The test model for the half-dead is done. He painted up pretty quickly once I'd gotten the skin the way I wanted it, which did take some experimentation. I wanted him to have that mahogany looking skin that most bog mummies have, quite dark, which meant highlighting had to be subtle but still effective. The bone I painted as normal, even though it would also be quite dark in reality, but this would have been pretty boring on a model. I then used a matt varnish over gloss, which tends to give a satiny look to the skin. I use this on the fimm warriors too to give their skin a little lift.

I used some Macharius Solar Orange from the now defunct Games Workshop foundation range to add rust to the iron. I added a little flow improver to this to dilute it to a milky consistency. I created patches of orange on the sword which created a very pleasing random corrosion effect. It's a little hard to see on the picture, unfortunately.

The rotted kilt is a 50/50 mix of Mechrite Red and the skin colour. I wanted to mute down any clothing as it would have been stained by the peat as well, but not so much that it was indistinguishable from the skin. I'm thinking of using this mix for hair, as all bog mummies appear to be redheads, which I imagine is the bog's doing over time.

More leathery bog undead soon!

 

[Monkey's_Uncle]

Nice!
A whole unit of them should look very pretty, you're giving me ideas now...

 

[Mr Saturday]

I've been considering putting a glowing effect into the eyes of the half dead. I had a go at it last night, and I'm pretty happy with the result. I'm still unsure which way to go, however. I do like the way it adds a new focal point to the miniature, and I think I managed to avoid washing out the face putting a pale glow into a light face. There's still a decent amount of contrast, which I don't think would have been the case had I used yellow or red.

So, now I would love some feedback on what ye think. Glow, or no glow?

 

[Monkey's_Uncle]

I really, really like the glow.
It adds a nice feel to the mini.

An entire regiment like that would be sweeet!

 

[Mad 'At]

Nice glow and nice verdigris you added too

 

[Mr Saturday]

There's been little progress with the half-dead due to work/sickness, but there has been some. Here's a wip of the next two models, one of which is the unit champion, Sreng. They still need a whole pile of work, but there they are. There's also one of the shields. I'm pretty happy with the colours, as the turquoise appears throughout the army, and also gives the half-dead a much-needed boost of colour. The shield will have some moss or weed growing about it when it's finished. Each shield will have the same colour scheme, but the designs will vary.