Author Topic: Don's Chronopia models - Elves and as of 18 Sep - SoK  (Read 19031 times)

Offline Don_Silvarro

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Don's Chronopia models - Elves and as of 18 Sep - SoK
« on: September 11, 2010, 03:07:33 PM »
Hello all!

New guy reporting in  :D

A little bit about me: I hail from Warsaw, Poland. I have recently (well, a year or so ago) got interested in Warzone and Chronopia (but mostly the latter). Great timing, I know. But unfortunetly when Target Games was all the rage, I was too young and unexperienced in the miniature wargaming hobby to appreciate their product (you know, being hooked on the evil GW drug). Anyway, a guy here in Poland recently let his dusty old Chronopia stock go at literally shocking low prices, so I picked up a few (can't beat cheap metal minis, can you?). And then a few more. And then some. All in all, I'm currently left with a heap of lead that amounts to full 1000-ish point armies for Elves, Sons of Kronos and Stygians, a bit less stuff for the Devout and Swamp Goblins as well as some random stuff for other races (mostly due to packaging errors and mislabeled blister packs).

I've been lurking these forums for a while now, and though the traffic here is light, it certainly isn't as bad as some other OOP game forums. Anyhow, I recently tackled the huge mound of lead and painted some stuff up. And since I have always believed that sharing some photos of one's painted minis is the best way to introduce yourself to a gaming forum, here goes.

A word of warning: these aren't 'painting competition standard'. I make heavy use of washes, inks and drybrushing and rarely do more that one layer of highlighting (and two is really a stretch!). This is because I am simply lazy and easily bored and thus want to get painted miniatures on the table quickly. Hopefully I didn't completely thrash them in the process...





Elven Spearmen. I chose the Helios list for my elves, mostly because I find the Red Lotus Eater, Keepers and Warrior of the Sun to be absolutely jaw-dropping sculpts. But I didn't like the Helios colour scheme, green and yellow doesn't really scream "Fire!" & stuff. So I painted mine yellow with a bit of red. I guess they'll be some kind of a lesser noble house, vassal to house Helios. Probably with the word 'Phoenix' somewhere in the name since I managed to get those nice phoenix-ish transfers for the shields and banners  :) I'm terrible at freehands and the shields looked bland so you know...

After painting these I took a brake from units and did an individual. I find that alternating between 'assembly line painting' of regiments and a bit more individual-style painting of characters helps to keep me going. I am a very lazy painter with a short attention span (these Chronopia dudes spent over a year in the closet before I even primed them!), so every little bit helps  ;)


He still needs a bit of a highlight on his base and a touch of static grass, but is otherwise done.

And back to the units. These gals are certainly fun to paint, even for me. Probably the coolest sculpts in the Chronopia elf range.

They're currently in progress, as you probably noticed, though the two gals on the left are pretty much done, sans bases.

I still need to do a unit of Axemen and a Red Lotus Eater. That will give me about 800pts worth of elves using the 1st edition rules. I will probably turn to the Sons then and make a similar size army, so that I have two small but painted forces to ready play with my mates  :)

Thoughts? Comments? Advice? Opinions? Fish?  :)
« Last Edit: September 18, 2010, 06:37:41 AM by Don_Silvarro »

Offline Manic _Miner

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Re: Don's Chronopia models - Elves
« Reply #1 on: September 12, 2010, 02:25:18 AM »
 Welcome to the forum.

 Great looking miniatures.Very nice painting too.I have not seen many elves painted in the Helios colours.

 The elves are one of the easier forces to collect.There was a guy in Poland selling loads of Chronopia and Warzone product.Will have to find his details for you.

Offline luckyone

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Re: Don's Chronopia models - Elves
« Reply #2 on: September 12, 2010, 05:27:52 AM »
Great work and welcome to the forums.

Always look out for number one, but don't step in number two.
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Offline joshuaslater

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Re: Don's Chronopia models - Elves
« Reply #3 on: September 13, 2010, 09:22:18 AM »
Welcome aboard!!  My Helios Elves are terribly painted, but I too went with "FIRE" as the theme.

I never understood that green/yellow thing.  That's more Jade House to me.

Anyway, that's great painting there.

Cheers.
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Offline Don_Silvarro

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Re: Don's Chronopia models - Elves
« Reply #4 on: September 16, 2010, 02:10:25 PM »
Thanks for the warm welcome and kind words  :D

The elves are pretty much done (the 850pt army at least, I still have lots of elves left in the mound-o-lead), so here they are:












Still need to slap a transfer on the Axemen standard, but I think I'll hold my horses until I varnish the models tomorrow.

As a brake from painting I made myself some tokens & assorted stuff:



These are the tokens from the 1st edition rulebooks glued on some thick cardstock. They have that nice 'heft' like thick boardgame counters do, plus they won't fly all over the place if any of the players sneeze  ;)






Next up: Sons of Kronos. I am seriously considering shelling out some cash on the Army Painter stuff to get them finished quickly - lots of flesh, leather and fur, earthy tones overall so should take a dip nicely. Does anyone have any experience with the Quickshade stuff?

Offline joshuaslater

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Re: Don's Chronopia models - Elves
« Reply #5 on: September 17, 2010, 04:52:41 AM »
I like it.  Some on this forum don't see any difference between army painter and regular floor varnish, but I use it, and like it.  

You can paint over it, or, dullcoate, and then paint over it as well.  It's not a bad way to go.  I'll post some pics in the next few days.

Check this thread if you haven't already:

http://forum54.oli.us/index.php/topic,5473.0.html
« Last Edit: September 17, 2010, 04:54:43 AM by joshuaslater »
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Offline Delthos

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Re: Don's Chronopia models - Elves
« Reply #6 on: September 17, 2010, 03:02:46 PM »
Check out my Plog thread on the following forum. I use Minwax which is much cheaper and I get the same results as I would with Army Painter.

http://www.warhammer-empire.com/theforum/index.php?topic=29699.0

As a matter of fact here is a thread on TMP where I reviewed them both, Mixwax and Army Painter. I had no camera at the time so there aren't any pictures, but I covered it fairly well I feel. It's about half way down the page.

http://theminiaturespage.com/boards/msg.mv?id=161403

I think Minwax Antique Walnut would be an excellent choice for Sons of Kronos dipping. It's a nice rich brown color that complements the warm colors you would be primarily using.

Offline insan0

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Re: Don's Chronopia models - Elves
« Reply #7 on: September 17, 2010, 03:09:03 PM »
Check out my Plog thread on the following forum. I use Minwax which is much cheaper and I get the same results as I would with Army Painter.

http://www.warhammer-empire.com/theforum/index.php?topic=29699.0

As a matter of fact here is a thread on TMP where I reviewed them both, Mixwax and Army Painter. I had no camera at the time so there aren't any pictures, but I covered it fairly well I feel. It's about half way down the page.

http://theminiaturespage.com/boards/msg.mv?id=161403

I think Minwax Antique Walnut would be an excellent choice for Sons of Kronos dipping. It's a nice rich brown color that complements the warm colors you would be primarily using.

Very Nice!

Offline Mortimer

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Re: Don's Chronopia models - Elves
« Reply #8 on: September 18, 2010, 02:18:19 AM »
You've got really nice painted army....really good-looking and on the table it has to be awesome :)

Well, I've never been looking for Chronopia because I know that in the moment I would do it, I would start collect them ;D

Offline Don_Silvarro

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Re: Don's Chronopia models - Elves
« Reply #9 on: September 18, 2010, 06:36:39 AM »
Thanks for the suggestions, though I am still kinda undecided  ::)

The cost (and the fact that the can turned out to be really tiny when I saw it on their Youtube videos) of the Army Painter Quickshade is actually what have kept me holding back - 18 pounds is a substantial amount of money after currency conversion in Poland, especially for a poor university student  ;) The problem with Minwax is that it's not a brand that's readily available in Poland, and with oversea shipping it would probably turn out just as expensive. Wood stain dipping was actually a popular technique here in Poland even before Army Painter showed up. We call it 'bejcowanie' :D However, a friend of mine made some comparisons/tests and it turned out that the Army Painter products give a much nicer finish than the locally available wood stain brands.

Since I couldn't make up my mind, I decided to try my hand at some extreme speedpainting techniques, using variations of the greyscale wash, just as an experiment to see how fast and how nice that would turn out.

Results are in:





They are quite shiney, this is because of a new spray primer I've been toying with. A coat of matte varnish should fix that. Anyway, I think they turned out okay as 'tabletop standard'. The nicest thing is that painting these five Tribals took me... exactly 121 minutes. I think that with the colours and techniques now sorted out I could knock 10-20 minutes off that total. I am not sure if I'd be able to do it much faster with the 'block colour + dip' technique, so in the end I might drop the dipping idea altogether. Still need to think about - what do you guys think?

Offline luckyone

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Re: Don's Chronopia models - Elves and as of 18 Sep - SoK
« Reply #10 on: September 19, 2010, 03:56:09 AM »
Great work! Thanks for posting here. I like what you did with the tokens etc.
Always look out for number one, but don't step in number two.
What do you mean Flash Gordon approaching? OPEN FIRE!
The entire Capitol Army.
Don't ever say anything but a 20 before rolling the dice.

Offline Don_Silvarro

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Re: Don's Chronopia models - Elves and as of 18 Sep - SoK
« Reply #11 on: October 16, 2010, 09:24:44 AM »
Update time!







The slingers, Hearthguard and Viridian Lords are all done (sans bases, which are halfway done for the slingers and guard and still untouched for the lords). The same technique as with the Tribal Warriors: beige automotive spray paint, Citadel Washes, some touch up on the details and done. It takes about 3-4 hours to do a unit (and that's while watching a movie at the same time to counter boredom), and IMO for that amount of time spent they look decent enough.

Still need to paint a Wyrd, a Swordmaster and a unit of Blade Maidens to reach the point cap set by the Elves.
« Last Edit: October 16, 2010, 09:26:38 AM by Don_Silvarro »

Offline Von Koss

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Re: Don's Chronopia models - Elves and as of 18 Sep - SoK
« Reply #12 on: November 27, 2010, 12:53:17 PM »
Welcome to the Forum Don! (I know I'm a little late to the welcome party)

First, I just want to say your Sons of Kronos army is awesome.  You pulled off the "blue" color scheme where I could not.  That is a very nice job.

The Helios Red Lotus Eater paint job is great and a very nice job on the chainmail on the elven spearmen (you nailed it)

The only thing that I would change (just my opinion of course) is it appears that the bases of your figures seem a little red to me.  It could just be the lighting or that maybe you used a red-brown paint.  In my opinion, it's a little much on the Elven figures.  Saying all that...I too am lazy and would understand if you say "No way that's too much work.  They are done."

I like what you have done so far...so...

How 'bout showing some "brush love" on them Stygian  ;)
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Offline Don_Silvarro

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Re: Don's Chronopia models - Elves and as of 18 Sep - SoK
« Reply #13 on: December 14, 2010, 01:21:55 PM »
Thanks!

The blue is simply two layers of GW's blue wash over the beige undercoat. Not really rocket science  ;)

Seriously, the GW washes are the greatest thing in the history of time. Or at least miniature painting. You should try them out.

Since I don't have much terrain (nor the space to store it!), I recently bought some paper gaming maps originally made by WoTC for their D&D miniatures line. These are nice for any game as long as you don't mind the 1" grid (I don't, since I'm a fan of pre-measuring in all miniature wargames anyway). I bought two of their 'Fantastic Locations' sets, the Hellspike Prison and the Fane of the Drow. The first is kind of a volcano/lava cavern theme, while the second is kind of a 'arcane temple' style. Anyway, the reason I am mentioning this is because I have noticed that, by a happy coincidence, the colour of them volcano maps actually matches my bases pretty closely  ;D So I won't be repainting those anytime soon.

Anyway, I have the initial SoK army finished, varnished and ready to play. Pictures are on their way - I haven't updated the thread because I had a coolant system failure in my laptop and needed to send it to the computer doctor for a few weeks  :P

Quote
How 'bout showing some "brush love" on them Stygian  Wink

I was actually pondering whether to add some Archers and Militia to the elves, get more plastic Imperial Regulars ready (I need shedloads of these since my Imperial minis double up as Guard in 40k) or start work on the Stygians. I guess you just helped me make my mind up  ;)

Offline dave kufner

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Re: Don's Chronopia models - Elves and as of 18 Sep - SoK
« Reply #14 on: December 18, 2010, 09:30:01 AM »
Very nice looking armies.  They turned out well.  I like the color scheme you used for both.
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