Art Elementals as a Fantasy Army

[PineyPhantom]

My most ambitious project ever ahoy. I've been thinking a lot about the role of art in tabletop wargaming, originality, and creative drive. My friends are (good-naturedly) badgering me to get back into Kings of War but to do an army that isn't plain-jane humans finally. I've thought about what army I would play for some months. I didn't want to make the mistake I made with the Second Songs and make an army that wasn't necessarily functional on the tabletop because the focus was on the conversions and basing.

Cue a sudden interest in Van Gogh and impasto paint style. The idea formed in my head, absolutely inspired by the incredible Warsinger's hot glue sculpture necrons, to do a fantasy army of paint elementals. I've been looking at the Prismari cards from MTG for inspiration, as I want to avoid the typical elemental monster styles commonly seen. Ideally, by the end, the army will evoke fire and water expressed through base elements and modern sculpture. I've not done sculpture since high school so we'll see how I fare. I'm going to try to combine as many stylistic mediums in this project as I can, to really push myself to do something I've never seen anyone do before. From the start that means combining traditional hobby acrylics and oil paints on the minis to make it seem like they're living paint creatures. Who knows where the road will take me?

I built and painted my last total conversion army in about a week of intense pain as a coping mechanism. This time I hope to document the creative process more thoroughly for your enjoyment, as it's fun to watch such things happen and the point of the project is creativity expressed through wargaming.

To begin, a humble snapshot of my first results playing with hot glue as a sculpting medium. It's not much but it's honest. I've already learned so much from my hour of interacting with it (I need glass so the glue doesn't stick so well). Go make something new!

[PineyPhantom]

End of day 1: did a refresh crash course on the principles of art, and did what any novice does. I looked at what other people made first, then worked to try and make it my own. I sat down and sketched out a few designs for elementals. I tried to make what will be water elementals more water-centric with fire and vice versa for the fire elementals. Another goal of this army project is to make each miniature its own art piece, in which I blend water and fire, or whatever my best-achieved approximations are. I've never done modern art design before, so I'm very happy to say some of the later designs were of my own imagination rather than based on others' work! We'll see how many of these initial sketches turn out to be pipe dreams!

[Sunjester]

A fascinating idea! I look forward to seeing how this progresses.

[fred]

A very interesting approach.

In KoWv1 Forces of Nature was a great army - not played the more recent versions to know how it has changed. While my force had a solid core of Elementals it did have most of other troops too - but the elementals are certainly powerful units. You will want a few Druids to buff and manoeuvre them.

[Seal]

I, too, find this a fascinating idea. I’ll be continuing to watch this thread. I love the concept. 👍🏼

[PineyPhantom]

A very interesting approach.

In KoWv1 Forces of Nature was a great army - not played the more recent versions to know how it has changed. While my force had a solid core of Elementals it did have most of other troops too - but the elementals are certainly powerful units. You will want a few Druids to buff and manoeuvre them.

My current list has a few druids to act as the wizard artists! I'm on the hunt for dnd bard models to lend the army some more artistic flair. I'm going to paint the wizards with traditional miniatures painting styles, to highlight that the elementals are "made" of paint.

[PineyPhantom]

First fruits! I considered taking the morning off, had a cup of coffee, and decided I'd rather make art than play a game. I started with a basic vertical shape, just to get an idea of how well the wire I have bends, how much glue will drip, etc. The wire is excellent to work with, but the glue does not hold up to gravity at all when even a little warm. Today I experimented with a wax paper pallet to try and make winglets of fire but quickly learned that I need to practice making such things and acquire a silicone mat, because hot glue (surprise) does what it says on the tin and holds things together!

Go make something new!

[dwbullock]

I've only really seen people use hot glue as 'slime/drool/snot' or pudding/slimes.  I haven't seen people sculpt with it before.  You've taken me down quite the rabbit hole, and I'm happy to watch your progress.

[PineyPhantom]

I've only really seen people use hot glue as 'slime/drool/snot' or pudding/slimes.  I haven't seen people sculpt with it before.  You've taken me down quite the rabbit hole, and I'm happy to watch your progress.

You've gotta check out The Warsinger on Instagram. He makes C'tan shards from hot glue and cards stock and such. I wish he'd describe his technique, because he's the only hot glue sculptor of his skill level that I'm aware of, so I've been practicing based on what I can extrapolate from his work.

[BeneathALeadMountain]

Piney this is really interesting - an innovative way to approach the hobby. I don’t know much about the kings of wars lists: what other troop types will you need to represent? (Other than the elementals and paint wizards).

Andrew
BeneathALeadMountain

[PineyPhantom]

Piney this is really interesting - an innovative way to approach the hobby. I don’t know much about the kings of wars lists: what other troop types will you need to represent? (Other than the elementals and paint wizards).

So far just water and fire elementals and the druids. I've been thinking what else I'd do, and I'm pondering doing music bars and notes as air elementals, but we'll see. I'm open to suggestions .

[PineyPhantom]

Massive progress today. I took yesterday off because work was so exhausting, I had no creative energy by day's end. Today was an enormous breakthrough. Shout out to my kitchen's sideboard plate for cooking utensils, you're a piece of hobby room gear now.





As you can see, a much cleaner peel on long, multi-bodied, shallow-bodied, and even perforated fan structures! Initially, I tried peeling them off with an impasto knife before realizing I, the fool, ought to be using an exacto blade. And gentlemen, the results are better than I could have hoped for.







As you can see, once dried the glue holds to itself perfectly, especially if the gun tip is used as a heat tool to re-seal the pieces. Individual splats can be quite narrow and even adopt a very natural flame-like curl. Accidental or deliberate holes in the fans don't seem to cause an upset in the durability of the piece. I am exceptionally pleased. My technical control of the gun needs practice, but with enough time I think I'm really onto something here.

[PineyPhantom]

One whole unit of fire elementals is built! I've found a way to make twisting sheets of flame by spreading glue thinly between two pieces of wire. That way, when I pry it off the plate the wire holds the glue in whatever shape I want, resulting in the luxurious twists below. I'm going to see how hard I can push this technique on the next model I make. The three rank up nicely, and this is the experimental stage, but I might see about making more prevalent shapes between figures if the results start looking too visually haphazard across units.









I'm a little trepidatious about starting oil painting, as I've never done it before and will no doubt need some supplies. I'd also like to pick a basing scheme before painting them.

How about a poll?

• A: tiled floor
• B: wooden floor (maybe with the paint elementals springing out of canvases on the base?)
• C: open to suggestion. Honestly haven't thought too much about basing

[Freddy]

I like the idea, but how easy is to paint onto this material?

[PineyPhantom]

I like the idea, but how easy is to paint onto this material?

I have no idea

But to quote Godrey de Boullion in Kingdom of Heaven, "We can find out together."