The Sylvaneth of Springash – army log

It’s been months since I updated this project! I had a bit of a hobby drought in the latter half of last year, but lockdown gave me a bit of a kick in the pants, and my Sylvaneth have benefitted from it too.

For starters, I finished my Arch-Revenant, who has been sat half-painted for six months or so:

I’m really pretty proud of her. I have a second pair of wings, so I’m thinking of doing another one. Tempted to convert the second up as a battle standard bearer. BSBs aren’t a part of AoS, but I think it’d be a nice old-school touch to have a hero carrying the army’s colours.

I’ve also painted up a converted Branchwraith:

Ylthari’s Guardians have been sat half painted for a long time too. I forgot to thin the contrast paint I used on the pink areas, and now I’m too lazy/annoyed to go back and start again ??

I’ll get back to them eventually.

I also have a Spirit of Durthu built and undercoated. I hacked off a lot of his leafy bits, as I intend to paint him to look as if he’s charred and blackened after a forest fire.

I’m also working on a mildly converted Gotrek, who I suppose is technically a part of this army, since he’s a part of every Order army. 😛 Never fear, his beard and hair will be pink. 😀

After all this, I’ve got a box of Dryads, a box of Tree-Revs and the Endless Spells to work on. Can’t say I’m excited to paint more Dryads, but they are pretty essential ?

Thanks for looking <3

I took a break from painting my next set of Kurnoth Hunters to assemble Ylthari’s Guardians. I’ve been keen to include them in my army at some point, as I love the model for Ylthari – but they didn’t really fit visually. They look rather noble, and because they’re easy-to-build models, it’s not as simple as just swapping their heads for spite-rev heads.

So I’ve built my own by mashing bits of the Ylthari box with bits from a box of Tree-Revs:

Pretty simple, but I’m suuuuper pleased with them. Can’t wait to rattle through these K-Hunters I’m working on and get this squad on the painting table!

Thanks for looking <3

Finally finished my latest model – this time it’s Drycha:

I ended up rushing her a bit at the end, but I am at least pleased she’s finished.

Next on the painting table are three more Kurnoth Hunters to get me up to 1500 points:

And then what?  Probably some Khorne daemons.  But I’ve also got a big stack of Sylvaneth still on their sprues, and plans to expand up to 3000 points.  I did post a list earlier in the blog, but it’s changed a bit.  I’ve got my expansion planned in 500 point blocks:

• Spirit of Durthu 340
• Ylthari’s Guardians 180
• Vengeful Skullroot 40
• (remove the Branchwych -80)
• 480 pts

• Branchwraith 80
• Branchwych 80
• 20 x Dryads 200
• 5 x Tree-Revs 80
• Spiteswarm Hive 50
• Gladewyrm 30
• 520pts

• Arch-Revenant 100
• 6 x Kurnoth Hunters (swords or scythes?) 400
• 500pts

Lord knows how long that’ll all take me though – I imagine I’ll have to weave in some other projects in addition to the Khorne daemons to keep myself sane and make sure I don’t cause a world shortage of Seraphim sepia ?

Thanks for looking, comments appreciated <3

I split a Wrath and Rapture box with a friend, and got the Khornate side of the deal. From the outset, I knew I didn’t want them to be red, because every Khorne daemon and his uncle is red.

I also thought it would be fun to pitch this army as an adversary to my Sylvaneth, which definitely fits given that they live in Aqshy, Khorne’s favoured realm. Given that tree-folk probably don’t bleed red, this adds additional credence to my non-studio paint scheme. 😛

Karanak here was just a tester, and an excuse to try out some Contrast paints, and I like how he turned out, for the most part. There are more Sylvaneth to come, but from here on out this log will also contain the occasional bit of Khornate khonent, whether that be miniatures or some fluff exploring the Springash Enclaves struggle against the daemonic children of Khorne.

First things first though, what next? I’ve got Drycha and a unit of Flesh Hounds assembled. Who to choose? 😀

Thanks for looking <3

Bit of a milestone post, this one. I’ve finished my latest unit, and reached 1000 points! Here they are, a very grumpy and very spiky unit of Spite-Revenants:

Pretty pleased with how they’ve turned out, despite an early scare when half of them got cursed by some fuzzy primer. D:

I’m even more pleased with how my 1000 point army looks together:

Yowzer! 12-year old me would be losing his mind right now. 😀

So what’s next? Expanding to 1500 points, naturally:

But first, I think I want a little breather from painting trees. I’d also like to have a dabble with contrast paints.

Is that howling I can hear?

Something wicked is coming for the Springash Enclave…

It took a while – I blame the eighty-or-so (!!!) individual leaves I had to paint – but I’ve finished my Treelord Ancient.  I can’t remember the last time I painted anything this big, as I’m used to smaller models, but he came out looking pretty good.

My favourite part?

I’ve also done some work thinking about how the army will grow past 1000 points:

The only thing left between me and 1000 points is a ten-tree unit of Spite-Revs. Which are assembled and ready to go:

Exciting!  I can’t believe I’ve gotten this far this quickly.  Hopefully the momentum will keep up 😀

Thanks for looking, comments always appreciated <3

After what feels like an eternity, I’ve finished my unit of Dryads.  For 14-year old models, they hold up remarkably well aesthetically, but they are a slog to build and paint.  So I’m glad I won’t have to paint any more of them.

…

I’m sorry, what?

…

My basic troopers, you say?

…

How many?

Oh god.

Oh god no.

As you might have guessed, I didn’t have much fun painting these.  They ended up being a bit rushed, but they will certainly do, and they definitely don’t deserve competition-level painting. 😛

In other news, I’ve also created the obligatory Branchwych-to-wraith conversion, with some Dryad and Revenant bits.  Needs a few joins smoothed out with green stuff, but looking ok.

First things first though, after the energy-tarpit that was the Dryads, I think I deserve a little treat:

Thanks for looking, all C&C welcome <3

@angelicdespot requested some details on how I’m painting this army, so here we go.  I had a couple of aims for painting my Sylvaneth – a very woody look with accents of bright, springlike colours; and  s p e e d .  😛  I’m painting mostly with washes, shades and the occasional contrast paint.  First up is the wood, which is actually a couple of colours painted at the same time.  You can see them in this Kurnoth Hunter – the main, darker wood, and a lighter wood as an accent.

1. Spray with GW Zandri Dust, and touch up with the same colour out of a pot, to ensure an even coat.
2. Pick out focal areas (faces, chests, edging of ‘armour’ like on the KH, etc) with Army Painter Necrotic Flesh.
3. Apply two reasonably heavy washes of GW Seraphim Sepia, allowing them to dry fully in between.
4. Shade the darkest areas with GW Agrax Earthshade.
5. Blend branches/horns to a darker brown using multiple layers of Earthshade, getting darker further from the body.
6. Highlight the areas that started out as Zandri Dust with Zandri Dust.
7. Highlight the areas that started out as Necrotic Flesh with Necrotic Flesh.

The last two steps are optional, and I’ll mostly only be doing this on larger models and characters.  Hordes of Dryads will  n o t  be getting this treatment. 😉

I’m also more or less settled on the recipe for the green and the pink, which you can see in the Tree-Rev below:

The pink still needs some work for larger areas like this, but it goes something like this:

1. Undercoat White.
2. Basecoat with a 5:1 mix of White and Vallejo MC Pink.
3. Wash with GW Volupus Pink and Contrast Medium in a 5:1 ratio(ish).
4. Reapply step 2 as a highlight.
5. Shade deeper areas with Amy Painter Red Tone wash.
6. Highlight with White.

The green goes like this:

1. Necrotic Flesh basecoat
2. Apply two washes/glazes of Secret Weapon Fallout wash.  This is luridly, almost neon green – but we’ll knock that back with:
3. A wash of Army Painter Military Shader and Glaze Medium in a 1:2 ratio.
4. Shade the deeper areas with straight Military Shader.
5. Highlight with 3:2 Necrotic Flesh:Fallout.

I hope that’s useful, or at least interesting!