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Author Topic: Road to an army (With stops at dioramas and 3D printing)  (Read 1476 times)

Offline Robosmith

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Road to an army (With stops at dioramas and 3D printing)
« on: July 05, 2020, 04:01:34 AM »
For the last year or so I've been having a bit of a hobby crisis. I can't seem to get my paint recipes right and I bounce between projects never getting any fully done. After going through old magazines looking for inspiration I realized one of the things which most drew me to the hobby was seeing fully painted armies on display. I really liked the 80's style of things and having a full force painted up is something I've always wanted to set down and do as a hobby project. I've never do a proper "hobby army" and decided it's time to do that and use it to get over the painters block... With 1 slight issue, I can't decide what army to do...

I've amassed quite a collection of models over the years and have the bad habit of reading hobby news sites and picking up new shiny things. To get myself back on track I plan to paint up some of these, discovering new paint recipes until I find an army I want to paint. Single minis painted to a decent standard until something just clicks.. And why not share the process and hopefully get some feedback along the way? Some of them will end up in dioramas while others will just be thrown back into the abyss of storage.. until finally I hit up on the right army!

I haven't decided on the army size yet, nor what size bases they're going on. I have an open mind for anything (Not GW) fantasy, from skirmish to full infantry blocks. The only criteria I have set out is that it most involved a large center piece model like a big demon. The center piece should be 5ish inches tall not a foot tall as some companies have gone towards. I want it to involve some cavalry and large infantry (trolls, ogres that kind of thing). A war machine would likely round out the project..

My painting style and model interest has changed a lot over the last year as I tried to rediscover the hobby. I've come to appreciate simple colours used in complex ways. Animal print cloaks, camo, these kind of simple colours used to paint interesting items. It's something I'm going to explore more while painting models giving brief tutorials on how I achieved them and what paints I used on each part. I enjoy painting monsters over humans so I'm leaning towards a more bestial army but whatevers the most fun to paint will win out.

With all that laid out I'm going to keep this post up to date with the current projects and potential armies.


Current projects
Shieldwolf Forest goblin
Kings of war bridge diorama

Finished projects
Oathmark Elf Infantry

Potential armies
Forest goblins
Abyssal Dwarves
Abyssals (mantic demons)
Victrix Late Saxons/Danes
Halflings
Lizard/Snake men

Offline Robosmith

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Re: Road to an army (With stops at dioramas and 3D printing)
« Reply #1 on: July 05, 2020, 04:12:36 AM »
Oathmark Elf Infantry Spearman.

First model on the road and I struggled with the colour balancing. The spear, shoulders and chest plate were difficult to pin down. The spear finally fell into place when I recalled Sombre Grey, a colour I've never had work for me before was perfect here. It's under stated tones work great with the brighter colours. I doubt I'll take it forward on elves but this colour scheme has potential in the future.

Shield scales were done with a cocktail stick and were a semi success. There is potential in this method but it didn't quite work here...

Recipes are in the spreadsheet screenshot. All paints are Vallejo unless stated other wise

Offline Tim Haslam

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Re: Road to an army (With stops at dioramas and 3D printing)
« Reply #2 on: July 05, 2020, 11:05:16 AM »
I’ve nearly finished my Shieldwolf Forest Goblin force.
I’ll be using it for WoE, maybe add units for bigger games?
I quite like theses figures, they have a good old fashioned GW feel to them.
Not perfect, but cheap enough.
A millionaire trapped in a peasants body!

Offline Robosmith

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Re: Road to an army (With stops at dioramas and 3D printing)
« Reply #3 on: July 06, 2020, 08:50:24 AM »
I'm enjoying painting the forest goblin but they're a bit expensive for goblins. £30 a box for 25 when you can get similar numbers of humans or elves for £20

Offline Roo

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Re: Road to an army (With stops at dioramas and 3D printing)
« Reply #4 on: July 06, 2020, 10:10:23 AM »
Looking good so far chap.  Treat yourself as the Goblins have clearly maintained your interest...learnt over many years just cos it’s cheap doesn’t mean you will paint, game and enjoy them; better to spend a bit more and achieve the three golden pillars.

Offline Robosmith

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Re: Road to an army (With stops at dioramas and 3D printing)
« Reply #5 on: July 07, 2020, 06:20:52 AM »
Looking good so far chap.  Treat yourself as the Goblins have clearly maintained your interest...learnt over many years just cos it’s cheap doesn’t mean you will paint, game and enjoy them; better to spend a bit more and achieve the three golden pillars.

If I felt they were worth the money I would but the sprue doesn't work as a full army. I built the rest of the sprue I had today and I noticed many of the arms lack full muscle definition on the inside. They go smooth instead of round. Another issue is the heads and kneeling goblin. If you did 100 goblins then 20 of them would be kneeling with different heads and 20x3 would all have the same head. There isn't even head dress extras to change it up. For a Skirmish game or a single unit or two in a wider army they're great. As a full army probably not. If Mantic's new goblins turn out well I can see having some forest goblin units mixed in with those.


Offline Tim Haslam

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Re: Road to an army (With stops at dioramas and 3D printing)
« Reply #6 on: July 07, 2020, 08:37:30 AM »
Agreed, the kneeling goblin is probably a mistake, I’ve used them as front rank archers.

But conversion is what you’ll have to do, hence the cavalry I’ve made.

It’s a start..

Offline Robosmith

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Re: Road to an army (With stops at dioramas and 3D printing)
« Reply #7 on: July 07, 2020, 06:45:14 PM »
Forest gobbo is done. I really like the ability to paint the loin cloth in exotic animal colours and they're fun models to paint in general. The autumn leaf headress appeals to me a lot, it contrasts well with the green skin. I discovered VGA leather brown mixed with Iraqui sand makes for a great wrappings colour.

If I do a goblin skirmish army these guys are front and center. It's a shame there isn't enough variety when it would have been so easy to not attach 2 of the heads and added 2-4 extra head dresses and this would of been perfect.

Offline Shieldwolf Miniatures

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Re: Road to an army (With stops at dioramas and 3D printing)
« Reply #8 on: September 03, 2020, 03:22:48 PM »
The feedback is appreciated!
We had to keep some heads attached due to the sheer number of backers that requested easier assembly. If one has a box of 25, sure, it might not be such an issue, and perhaps for avid wargamers it wouldn't be an issue even for 100 goblins, but most people that backed the KS project (and therefore with their hard earned money co-funded the other 50% of the kit) asked for this and therefore got served. Same principal will likely continue with the Drotts.






We still find it's the best kit ever created for Forest Goblins and are proud to serve the Community with unique and affordable armies!

PS. Like all our plastic kits, they retail at 27,75 (EUROS not GBP). And on top of that all our other boxes have 20 miniatures whilst the Goblins come in 25per box. Shieldwolf Miniatures will always maintain high affordability combined with great quality, that's a firm policy of the company.

 

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