Painted: Woldwarden and Woldwyrds
Immoren is a dangerous place and my boy Baldur doesn't go far outside the neighborhood exept under the protective gaze of these golem-like constructions of wood and stone.
Line: Hordes
Faction: Circle Orboros
Figure: Woldwarden
Release date: 2006
Sculptor: ?
Date painted: 2008
Line: Hordes
Faction: Circle Orboros
Set: 72023 Woldwyrd
Release date: 2007
Sculptor: ?
Date painted: 2008
Let me know if you know the sculptor of these.
The paintjobs are canonical and the main area mine differ from the studio paint jobs is mine are a lot warmer, with richer tones as if under a summer sun. In a wicker object wicker is naturally going to be very dull, but I wanted the wicker parts here to seem supple and vigorously alive, and I also wanted them to contrast nicely with the green tones. So I made them very red, starting with Vallejo Back Red as a base, under the logic the beast creation recipe called for a special red plant, whether it was a kind of rattan or reed or what have you, and that further the life giving creation magic imbues this plant with an even greater luster, as if, giving it's life for the stone beast it dies in a way but nonetheless becomes more alive than ever. You know, that Lacanian thing, the death drive.
The ropes, meanwhile, were done greenish to represent hemp.I also glazed the woldwarden with mossy green tones starting at the feet and fading upwards to make him more an element of the environment. He spends most of his day standing silent and watchful, and it should show as weathering.
The woldwyrds are easy to paint but that orb in the center is a clear focal point and needs a bit of care to get it right. A plain sphere is not the easiest thing to create forced highlights on so I recommend photo reference in cases like this. I spent a little extra time on these hoping have it look like they were focusing their energy to a single point from which a laser blast was about to be released. That's the whole point of these guys, after all, they fly around and shoot lasers.
At first I wanted to have one or both woldwyrds flying on flight stands, but thee thin and fiddly nature of the bottom of the figure made this a challenge, and I just wanted to get them painted as these were the last ones to get me to a finished force at the recommended mid-range points value. What was that at the time, 500 points?
The woldwyrds are stock but I did tweak the head of the woldwarden. The stock head is longer and has less depth. This was just an aesthetic choice. I cut down the chin and built out the back of the "skull," and then I had to dremel out neck cavity it rests in considerably, which took some time.
This is also a good chance to call out the bases. These guys are from the wood and more than most factions I see these guys fighting on their home turf, so forest bases are particularly fitting. I wanted the forest to be lush and dark, like you're under the canopy just at that window of time in the year when the ferns and mosses are their greenest, like the redwood forests surrounding my mother's house which I feel a particular affinity for. What I see as the success of the bases is due to a few factors. One, the temptation when painting ground is to drybrush it, to highlight all the little rocks etc. In the forest, however, the soil is moist and draws in the light. So first of all I used mostly concrete patch (which has a fine gritty texture) and fine sands. I then liberally put in patches of larger rocks (Woodland Scenics talus and course ballast) and debris (little bits of sage brush from Sweetwater Scenery Products, which sadly looks to have closed it's doors). The ground bits were painted a dark, rich brown (Folk Art Burnt Umber, and then brought up only to a slightly brighter hue, a really intense, warm mix of Folk Art Burnt Umber and Raw Sienna. This gave a good match for a redwood forest bed. The branches were picked out in a duller brown and some with greenish highlights as they were new-fallen, and the stones were done with Ceramcoat Hippo Grey (one of my favorite terrain colors) and then highlighted, probably with Ceramcoat Mudstone (another must-have terrain-grade paint). Next up, foliage, done with Noch static grass and AMSI foams of different shades. Many of the little bushes were then given rich green brushovers ("wet-brushing") with mixes including the awesome and electric p3 Necrotite Green (which also figures predominantly in the greens of the beasts themselves).
You'll also see I put faint stripes on the bases to mark the 180° field of vision, which is important in the game. Some folks like to draw attention to this on the bases and quite frankly I think it looks terrible most of the time. Instead, I like to use a dark color you can see easily when you're looking for it, but only when you're looking for it. In this case it was P3 Thornwood green, which is a highly recommended dark, warm, neutral.
As always, these and all my figures are on flickr.
Great stuff. Kudos. :)
ReplyDelete