The Ancient Kin - An Elf Project

After a short break, I return to the Elves. Now I delve into the woods to paint up some tree-hugging wild kin to the previous groups. 

To get back in the swing I’ve gone for a quick batch of six Wood Elf Rangers. 

In WHFB they would have been Waywatchers. In any generic fantasy setting I’ll use them as Rangers, low level mooks to fight or hirelings for party members.

With this in mind, I’m going for a quick and simple paint job. Nothing fancy. I was contemplating woodland Camo cloaks, but decided it would take too much work. Ive limited my self to just a few colours. 

The colours to be used:

• Citadel Caliban Green Spray
• Citadel Dark Angel Green
• Citadel Devlan Mud Wash
• Citadel Codex Grey
• Citadel Snakebite Leather
• Citadel Golden Yellow
• Citadel Skull White
• Vallaejo Model Colour German Camo Brown
• Vallejo Model Colour Khaki
• Army Painter Black
• Army Paint Warpaints Flesh

I started by stripping the old paint from the models with Simple Green. They were then given a couple of thin coats of Dark Angel Green spray all over.

I blocked in all the base colours. Using the same colours on different parts of each miniature helps break up the unit, while retaining cohesion. 

The clothes and equipment were based with:

Codex Grey, Snakebite Leather, German Camo Brown, Khaki. A couple of small items (pouch and arrows) in AP Black.

The small amount of skin was based with AP Flesh. 

After the base coats, I gave them an all over wash with the Devlan Mud. 

The first stage highlighting was fairly basic. I went over each colour with the original paint, restricting to the open/ higher areas. 

For the green and the dark brown I mixed in a little of the Khaki. About 2:1 original colour to Khaki. The cloaks were drybrushed, everything else was painted on. 

At this point I kind of skipped ahead and based them thinking they were done.

Looking at these guys again the next day, I decided I hadn’t done enough yet. 

I started by giving the green a second, lighter dry brush.

This time about 1:1 green and khaki. 

The final thing I realised I hadn’t done was the large gem on the belt of each mini. As they are woodland characters, I though an Amber might be more appropriate than other precious gem stones. 

I started with Golden Yellow, followed by a Devlan Mud wash. When dry, I re-layered the Golden yellow over part of the gem, and finished with a spot of Skull White. Not my best attempt at gems, but quick. Which was the point of this exercise. ?

The basing was an experiment on cheap basing options for woodland look. I wanted leaf litter and forest-like debris. Without sourcing specific hobby materials, something I can find in any local shopping centre: Aldi Mixed Herbs. A little watered PVA glue and a couple of extra elements such as grass tufts, chips of Gum tree bark and small stones to give some variety. 

Done!