CIRCLE ORBOROS - the Hooded Men (and women, that is...)

[patrazh]

Some adorable paintjobs! my favorites are the war wolf and the bloodweavers. I love your interpretation of the tharnladys, indeed i feel motivated to finish my half-finished ones in a similar way. inspiring stuff! thanks for sharing!

[Folha Seca]

@patrazh: You're welcome. I'd also love to see the result when you are done...!

So,

while I am painting my second Gallows Grove I think it doesn't do any damage if I post the first one representing the remaining 3 (still being in WIP-Status).
The soon I have them all painted, I will add a group picture of all the 4 to this one.

As you can see, I added some leaves to them as I didn't like the default naked-gnarly-tree-stumps-design. With the leaves and grass it gives you quite an idyllic impression - until one notices the rotten bones lying around and hanging from it's branches ("Ah well, let's have a rest over there - waaaiiiit a minute...!"). I really like this antithetic impression of arcadian peace and horrible death you get.

Nothing much to say about it, for I didn't play them yet. But I will, it's all going according to plan...


What's next?

After I have finished my second Gallows Grove, I will return to complete the Wolves...!

Mia san mia!

Cute!

By the way: In the area I am coming from we usually say "Moin" ("Hy"!) and "Tschüss!" ("'bye"!) - which is basically right the size of conversation you have when meeting an acquaintance on the street. We northerners really don't like to waste words...!

[Circle noob]

moin,
your approach on the groves is fantastic. after i have seen them with leaves i think i prefer that way.

[PG_Jolly Angus]

I definitely like the foliage, stroke of genius! Also fantastic glow effects.

[Folha Seca]

Well,

thanks guys!

Time went on and here I am still trying to expand my recent project in the Circles' army: "Trees and Mooks". (Don't worry, I won't post any pic of trees anymore 'till I've finished the full FA:4)

(The glow looks better on the real life miniature, I can assure you!)

or

These guys don't look like much, but took about 14h per modell, though.

The glow on the chieftain's stone was a last minute addition to make his base look more interesting. As a side-effect it also marks him as UA Officer for the opponent in a more subtle way then leaving some mark on the edge of his base. I think I'll stick to that idea for my other UAs (which I actually did on the Stonekeeper unintentionately).

I like how it looks

What's next?

The rest of the Gallows Groves, Wolves or Morvahna, or not...! Let's see...!

[MrMiscast]

Such an awesome army mate. I have been staring at it for way longer than I should. Feels like every single modell has recieved a lot of love.

I´m curious as to how you have painted your runes on the bases. Especially the first ones like those on the warpwolf and worldwyrd. What colours did you use. Got any practical tips for painting them?

[Folha Seca]

Thank you!

I´m curious as to how you have painted your runes on the bases. Especially the first ones like those on the warpwolf and worldwyrd. What colours did you use. Got any practical tips for painting them?

The base markings are all freehands. They have no specific meaning other then to look appropriate to the Circles' style. With just one exception: The Minions' one is an abstraction of the original Minions-Symbol:

The ones of the Circle-Miniatures started with the idea of having at least one vertical line in the symbol, which was meant to divide the front arc from the back arc. These where painted starting with a diluted GW Bestial Brown into which I mixed more and more GW Golden Yellow for each layer, adding in the final steps a little bit GW Bleached Bone to the mix.

The symbols of the new generations are more inspired by the circle runes you can find in the Faction Book "Circle Orboros". Mainly "Cs" with their gap pointing in any direction and some flashes crossing the "C" or some streaks and points added to it. These days I start with GW Desert Yellow, to which I add more and more GW Bubonic Brown and then in the final steps some GW Bleached Bone.

That's it...!

[redmanphill]

Some really nice touches on this army. I like te Warwolf especially and the colours on the Gnarlhorn.

[Folha Seca]

Thanks!

O.k....:

Finally...! They're dooooonne...!

I wouldn't have thought it would take me that long to finish them. But now it's done - and with that I may have completed painting the most annoying Circle-Unit of our range. I think it's safe to say right now I'd never buy an additional Wolves or any Reeves Unit anymore; the effort to finish painting them to my standard is simply too time consuming.

What's next?

For a long time I will return to painting single models: Morvahna, Laris, aso. Units I won't touch the next couple of months or so...!

[PG_Jolly Angus]

Painting units can be a soul crushing experience, especially units this intricate. All your hard work paid off though because this is the most spectacular unit of Wolves of Orboros I've ever seen. Keep it up and go paint something fun to recharge and get re-energized.

[Mercykiller]

On the plus side though they look GORGEOUS!

[Therat]

I love the way your Warwolf came out! Any tips for painting fur like that?

[anthonicus]

Excellent work sir! I really like the progression of your army...you started off already painting very well but you get better with each unit/beast you paint. My favorites are the shadowhorn and the wold guardian. very striking and vibrant colors!

[Mastervalrik]

Great looking army

[Folha Seca]

Thanks guys,

yes I am quite satisfied with them, especially that - even by having a not too much uniformal painting scheme - they look very nice together on the board as well...:

I love the way your Warwolf came out! Any tips for painting fur like that?

It has been quite some time (2 years I guess) I painted that pup, so let's see if I can put it together correctly:

I used only the GW-Range for the wolf, which - as you know - has changed recently. Chaos Black was the primer. As usual I kept my colours thin but not runny. The fur consists basically on three different coloured areas:

1. the most of the body starting with GW Bestial Brown
2. the belly starting with GW Kommando Khaki
3. the streak on its back starting with GW Chaos Black.


@1. The body started with GW Bestial Brown to which I added GW Snakebite Leather and from that point on more and more GW Bleached Bone to give it some creamy yellow highlight. I tried to apply the colour almost not noticeable strikes to create some simulations of the fur as I was highlighting that part of the body. At the black streak I thinned down some GW Bestial Brown to create a boundary.

@2. The belly started with Kommando Khaki to which I added more and more GW Skull White to highlighted parts. Here I also created a transition from the sandy (main) fur to the khaki on with drybrushing Kommanod Khaki over the boundaries into the sandy part of its body. From there on I highlighted the khaki with Skull white.

@3. The Black Streak started with GW Chaos Black to which I added some GW Codex Grey over 3 steps. First step was a continuous highlight the other to visiable short stripes simulating tufts of hair.

The trick with it's fur is to really apply sometimes noticable, sometimes visable strikes of paint to the body to create the furry impression. The miniature itself (which is a very good cast one) helps quite much in creating that effect. It was a pleasure to paint for sure...!

[Folha Seca]

Finally something finished:

Laris is now the last finished Light Warbeast in my collection. It is also the last model ever I painted white - which makes me quite happy I have to admit. Yes, this means: no Winter Argus for me!

Its armour came out brighter than the one on many other models of my circle, alas as Laris is a character that slight slip in consistency can be accepted, I guess.

What'll be next?

The angry fertility goddess! After over two years having her this seems to be overdue...!

[pavel0]

These minis have some of the best contrast I've ever seen. Clearly I have to get away from relying on washes if I ever want to improve my technique. Blending seems intimidating though. For someone who hates painting you do a damned impressive job. Maybe I'll dust off my brushes.

[Drzombieface]

I just... wow...


Your NMM and OSL made my brush commit sepukku.

[Folha Seca]

Hey, thanks!

Ja, well, it looks like I am getting better.

Was quite a difficult model. Problem or goal was to get a proper colour-combination, which somehow displays her sobriquet "Autumnblade" - which the studiogreen doesn't - but still keep the green corset.

Did take quite long but I am satisfied with the result - even by it not turning out as I have planned. I am also quite pleased with the blending on her blade - even if I might do some workover on it's back.

And I think I am gonna trim the grass a little bit.

So, what's next?

As I was not really pleased with her performance during my recent games I will have to rearrange the setup of her army. Thus I prepared a min. unit of Bloodtrackers and Nuala for painting.
And my Stalker might get a paint job faster than I have planned...!

[silks]

That's a beautiful Morvahna, the cloak is especially lovely

[Chris_Oelhafen]

Dude amazing work...I really love the detail you put into these!

Chris

[Folha Seca]

So,

during the time having passed since my last post I assembled, primed and started painting a minimum unit of Bloodtrackers, but very soon (with the first tracker that is) I thought it to be a better idea to paint my yet unplayed Warpwolf Stalker. This enterprise took about a week of testing this and that and this paintjob (again) resulting in a fat layer of paint, a big >sigh!< and consecutively a high jump into a beaker full of acetone... the Stalker did - not me, sure!

Thus I decided it to be not its time and went over to actually finish painting something (more simple). So, here are my last 2 Gallows Groves:

The naked fourth Grove will have to wait for its leaves for another time, I guess. I anyway don't intend to play more then 3 of them at the same time with any 'lock I own, so...
With the 4 trees done it feels also somewhat mandatory to do the fifth (as in "Wurmwood" and his sockpuppet), but - again -that's something I might consider to do in the far future only.

Next?

...we have the Gatorman Witch Doctor in progress. As I intend to keep on playing my full Unit of Wolves more often they might need this special boost the Witch Doctor can give them. Thus no snacking my poor mooks anymore, you damn dire trolls...!

[Ordo Malleus II]

WOW!

I am glad i did not miss this thread.

Subscribed. You have collected all the units I really like the look of as well

[Zso27]

Seriously great stuff. I love the style.

And thank you very much for taking such great pictures! Looking at some of your models will help me improve my own painting a lot.

[Folha Seca]

Thank you very much for this kind words, folks. They really help me in keeping up the work, even if the process of painting slows down now and then.

Could you please outline how you captured the green glow on the gallows groves and woldguardian? I keep trying to pull something like that off, and it has not been successful at all. I've tried the scheme laid out in Domination with the Celestial Fulcrum tutorial, but no luck.

Secondly, what do you use for the foliage on your Gallow's Groves? It looks sweet, and I think I might have to emulate it.

As the answer to that might interest others as well I am gonna put it in here.

The Glow:

Both theses models are primed GW Chaos Black. This darkens the applied colours of the model but it also grants the Glow a stark contrast letting it shine even stronger in the end - the Wold Guardian (being painted quite dark), for example, benefits a lot from this effect!

After that I paint the models until there isn't anything else to apply other than the Glow.

The trick I use to make the colour really shine is to apply a layer with diluted GW Skull White to the source of lightning. In this specific examples that would be the runes of the Wold guardian, the core of the trees' trunk, the skulls eyes and so on.
The thinned white colour flows into all the crevisses, engravings or edges pronouncing them as sources of light or reflecting edges, while the surrounding areas still will keep on glowing stronger than their adjacent areas.

As green colour I use a mix of

GW Goblin Green
GW Scorpion Green

which starts on the side of Goblin Green. I thin them down with water and apply the colours by Blending.



The first layer (the darkest green) I paint generously on all the areas I feel to be illuminated by the source.

With every coming layer I add more and more Scorpion Green to the mix until I have only Scorpion Green, from which point on I start adding

GW Skull White

to it. The closer I get to the source the brighter the layers get. As edges usually break the light coming from its' source, I pronounce the reflecting edges with a brighter green than its surrounding has.

And that's basically it!



TL, DR:

So again the key tricks are:

1. Black basecoat
2. Preparation of the light source with diluted White
3. Edges brighter than the rest.

The Gallows Groves' foliage:


To simulate foliage I use, well,

Clump foliage

produced by NOCH. Woodland scenics and Gale Force also produce this stuff I've read. For the trees I used a mix medium and dark green to give the foliage a natural look. To make it more resilient against abbrasion I drowned the mix in Superglue (Cyancacrylat) beforehand, broke the block into bits and glued them onto the branches.

Thus, nice looking, play resistent trees!

[jdeckert]

Wow, great looking stuff.

When you say you "drowned the mix in superglue," do you mean that you put superglue over the top of the foliage out of the package, waited for it to dry, and then broke it apart, glued it on, and painted it? It looks amazing, just trying to wrap my head around it so I can steal your idea

[Folha Seca]

I took 2 sorts of clump foliage (middle green and dark green) mixed them together and put them in an empty blister. Onto this mix I dribbled a lot of superglue (literally drowning) and let it dry out in a well ventilated area.
Then I extracted the block, broke it into proper chunks and glued them to my liking onto the trees' branches.

The cyanoacrylate dries out white

which can be covered by a proper colour. I used

GW Gnarloc Green

for that. You also have to wait until the Cyanoacrylate is dried out completely as during the drying process it produces vapours which will (if they have some adjacent surfaces around) leave on them also a white layer. That's not a big problem though, as you can brush these layers off with a strong brush - a drybrush for example.

Clumped foliage comes in various colours. I used a mix which simulates more a summer-like atmosphere. If you want to go into the direction of fall/autumn I'd recommend a mix of yellow/green (early fall) or brown/yellow/orange/red (for late fall).

If you don't want to mix the foliages yourself, you can use for example the ones Galeforce9 offers these days...!

[Folha Seca]

Well,

here she is, the

This model is very odd:

On one hand it's covered in detailed straps and skull and what not. And on the other hand even painting all these can not fight it looking somewhat plain or simple in the end. Which I don't mind.

There are some things I am quite satisfied with: Mostly the snake and the crocodile skin. First appearing too grey, then too green I found the right colour mix using

- Gnarloc Green
- Codex Grey
- Bleached Bone

What I am not so satisfied with are the weakly illuminated skulls of her hoody. I chose purple as her colour of magic for it being one of the distinct voodoo colours.
As she is also part of another faction (the Blindwater congregation) using a different kind of magic I wanted them to also have their personal magic colour code rather than imitating my Circles' green one.
In the end the purple came out so weak that I am considering to return to my standard green light of magic to make the model "POPP!".

So, what's next?

The second unit Shifting Stones. That should be done fast. I also wonder how they will look compared to the first unit.
What comes thereafter is another thing: My prep'd Retribution maybe, the Warpwolf Stalker or even my new Haqqislamists? Well, we'll see...!

[Folha Seca]

As I was dissatisfied with the OSL I had to fix it. Here is the somewhat blander version of my



Funny, but in this case less seems to be more, apparently...!

[PG_Pszito]

You continue to hurt my feelings with awesomely stunning models, wondrous details (such as red/blue potions on the witch, been playing diablo much ;-), and further proof of a solidly critical process by confidently stating your final impressions as well as a willingness to revisit pieces after making 'final' postings! And is that instagram you're using?!? ;-)

Keep them coming, he more the merrier.

[Folha Seca]

You continue to hurt my feelings with awesomely stunning models, wondrous details (such as red/blue potions on the witch, been playing diablo much ;-), and further proof of a solidly critical process by confidently stating your final impressions as well as a willingness to revisit pieces after making 'final' postings!

Well, most of the times I do the revisiting before posting the finished model. But sometimes a model slips through this threshold and begins to annoy me that much afterwards that I have to modify it subsequently (the Charger of my Cygnar-Demogroup is the other good example for such a situation).

And is that instagram you're using?!?

Photoscape, actually. Some small tinkering with the lighting of a picture and a proper frame to it really help to simulate an impression of "professionalism"... or at least... carefulness.

[Folha Seca]

Well, I finished my second set of Shifting Stones



Compared to the first set of stones,



to which I added more plants I painted the second set intentionally much darker and illuminated. Sadly the lighting effect on the stones isn't captured properly by the camera.

What's next:

Maybe I'll do some more work on Morvahnas cloak or start with my angry elves. Or step back and deal with real life for a while. Let's wait and see...!

[Autumn Stone]

Has anyone told you these are kinda awesome?

These are kinda awesome.

Cheers
A.S.

[Jestor]

Has anyone told you these are kinda awesome?

These are kinda awesome.

Cheers
A.S.

What he said!

[PG_ThickMcLargehuge]

I just started in on Circle and I doubt I can produce anything of this quality, but you sir inspire me to try. Great job that makes me want to paint my own stuff in an attempt to look as good.

[PG_Asa]

I really love your Gallows Groves.

Pretty radical

[Crono]

duuuuuuude awesomeeee

[Folha Seca]

<cough!>

O.k.,

<blows dust away>

let me necro my own thread a little. About 4 months have past and I somehow had experienced a severe case of painter's block when it came to paint my circle stuff. Seriously, for example I spent 2 weeks on trying something out with the Feralgeist only to end up "dipping" this nasty abomination in acetone.

Thus I decided to simply swap the theatre of war and joined the Haqqislam Hassassins for a while to get the PP stuff out of my head.

And well... it took some time...but it worked.



Though apparently I must have caught the wrong train home...

I guess...!

Well at least it's somehow back to Immoren again.

So, what's next?

Circle stuff will return... but most likely the rest of my Retribution Demogroup will get a preference. As I consider the angry elves' commando not to be big enough to really open a new thread for it I hope you men and women don't mind I abuse this thread for this short interlude. It'll be just 15 Pts., I promise...!

[PG_Pszito]

Well worth the wait. We now return you to your regularly scheduled programing of awesome.

Keep the fire burning!

[MikeyC]

I may have to do circle eventually. I just love all them stone guys and the scarecrow dudes. They look awesome. Mix in a few gallows grove trees and it just completes the aesthetic. Is there a theme list for them that uses just those types of things?