The birch ent is my next base for my Impetus Phantasticus Rohan army. I used the plastic set by Games Workshop, which is quite nice. However the paintjobs I have seen so far on this model looked very simple an I did not like the plastic leaves. Therefore I decided to paint a special tree, which I like very much – a birch.
As a tiny detail I used a squirrel from the „Kleintierset“ by Busch, on which Massive Voodoo wrote a very nice article. The model is very tiny, the effort the pro painter Roman aka jar put in is incredible.
Moreover I used MiniNatur Birch foliage, which is the best material for tree foliage I know. The ivy is by MiniNatur, too, but I bought it in a small set distributed by Army Painter.
The tree stump was modelled by me, I made a silicone casting mold and casted it in resin. Initially the model was made for our „Kaiserschlacht“ WW1 Club project.
The axe was taken from the Gripping Beast Hirdmen Plastic Sprue, images of the sprue can be found here. I bought this box in order to have variations for both Dunlendings and Rohirrim and to have options for battlefield debris and a camp model.
The rocks are casted plaster rocks made by Rusus. These are perfect for basing models since they are flat at the bottom. I bought a whole bunch of that rocks, since it makes cool looking bases in a very fast and light way.
I primed the model white, since it is very difficult to have a smoth white color when you prime in a different way. The stone painting was done in a simplified way of Elladans way to paint stone. He uses several steps with thinned airbrush colors like brown, black, green on light primed stone models. I started with white.
During the next game I will give the modified ent profile a chance. I am curious how monsters will work in Impetus, personally I do not like the way they are integrated in War of the Ring and Lord of the Ring Strategy Battle Game.
Comments 5
Nice Idea, but my first impression was „Zebratree“ .. but maybe it’s just the Pictures
Author
Assi, you need to have a closer look at Zebras. They are striped vertically. 🙂
I must admit that an birch ent is not an easy task. I was not overwhelmed by my success… It´s a nice model and that´s it. A different color would for sure result in a far more realistic looking model. It´s not really the pictures, the Zebra look is similar in RL.
My first thought was that the model looks like a hippie or an german 68er with locks and long hair and bell bottoms trousers. But Ents are for sure Middle Earth´s hippies!
I know that Zebras are vertically striped, but we’re talking about ents, so I, naturally, assumed it would be a magical Zebra walking on its hindlegs. ….. 😉
I thought a little bit about your birch and compared them to those I see when I’m walking the Dog and I think it is too bright white: Birch are white, but „dirty“: Every spot that can catch dirt, moss or something like that is darked more or less with grayish, greenish and brownish „bio-slug“, so only the highlights are really white. Maybe a greyish wash and just some real white highlights could change the look enough.
@assi:
One theory says that the reason for the greyish, dirty look of our local birches is air pollution. So, most of the „bio-slug“ would be grime.^^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peppered_moth_evolution
In my eyes this fits quite well to pre-industrial Middle-earth.
Birken haben oft einen leichten Grünstich auf der Rinde…meist wohl rudimentäres Moos…
würde den Ent sicher aufpeppen…
Auch sind einige Striche zu „glatt“ mehr Struktur durch unsauberere Linien täten ihm gut tun…
Die Borke der Birke reisst nicht nur horizontal, sondern auch vertikal…