Paint Blog: Sisters of Thorn (Part 1)

It's been a few months, but I have finally gotten some paint on some models. Right now I am working on the first group of five Sisters of the Thorn for my ever expanding Wood Elves army. My plan is to have a unit of ten completely finished (though I will probably only run 8 or 9 in a 2500 pt. game). This unit is going to be a mage and battle standard bunker run with the MR(1) banner giving the unit a pretty hardy 3++ against magic missiles and a 4++ against standard shooting. Anyways, rather than spend an article on tactics, let's take a look at how they are looking after a few hours of paint.


My plan for these models is to have them look more realistic than the GW painted mounts. I grabbed some pictures of white-tailed deer (deer native to my area) and thought that variations on this color scheme would look more natural. I decided to keep the basic antlers rather than clipping them for a more realistic model as I had seen others do for two reasons. First, these are still fantasy models and need a little whimsy to go with the elves riding them. And second, because I am still not comfortable in my green stuff skills to make the horns look natural.

First step was to prime the models black. I'm currently priming all of the models for this army black as I am going for a fall theme and the darker base adds a little bit more shadow to the models. Next up was a simple basecoat of GW's Balor Brown. Once the base coast had dried, I washed the all the fur in a heavy coat of Reikland Flesh Wash to get a nice, lively brown color.

After washing.

The next night, after the wash had a chance to dry, I went over the major areas again with a watered down Balor Brown. This step too a little bit of time as I was trying to add layers up slowly. I have been slowly learning new painting techniques and these models are some of my first chances to really experiment with better layering techniques.

After the first level layering.

Next up, was to start adding color to other key areas which would eventually be brought up to white. Unfortunately, I did not take any pictures of this step on the practice model I did so I only have pictures of the finished fur on the model. The next post will detail how I got this overall look, as I copy the process on the remaining four models. But here is where the look is going to go:

Head on view.

Side view with initial saddle idea.

Front hair close-up.

As you can tell from the pictures, the lines are a little more crisp then I would like. So I am going to be more careful with the layering and work with thinner paint on the remaining models. I also have to still finish up the face (particularly the eyes) and work on the antlers. Here is where I stopped last night after a couple episodes of Dr. Who.

The Sisters' mounts in various stages of paint.

A spotted version of the deer that will reach the same highlighting level. The marks and second layer highlights are a mix of Balor Brown and Bleached Bone in a 2:1 ratio.

A better lighted picture of the test mount. I really need to invest in the materials to build a light box.

So there you have it. Paint on models, units coming together. I feel like I may actually make my goal of having the new Wood Elves (not to be confused with my old all Glade Rider Wood Elf army) done by January for use in WaaaghPaca 2015. We'll see. That would require lots of archers to paint.