Retiring the Lodge... Whaaa?

I hate to say it, but it's time to decommission the Lodge. She's been a faithful rock in the internet realm for quite a few years now, but I just can't maintain her like I want.

Fear not, however, as this just means I teamed up with some like minded fellows to put together the best warhammer blog on the net!

http://www.youmagnificentbastards.com/

All the Lodge content has been ported over, so update your links!

TheRodgeLodge.com address will remain, though, and perhaps someday it will return in some guise other than a warhammer miniature painting site.

-Rodge

The Best Damn Army Case

 So here's the bloody gang all together. I have to say it was very satisfying to see them together in the end. I was worried about the overall look (the dryad bark doesn't perfectly match the Treebastard bark! The Glade Guard won't fit in) but they really came together in the end.

The display base isn't too impressive, however, the whole thing doubles as my army movement case!

So this is another thing I thought long and hard about before I started. I wanted the absolute quickest way to get these guy from the case to the tabletop. I worked closely with the Bear on this one and this is what we came up with.

The Treewench

This is a resin UltraForge model.

I've never worked with resin before, but it was pretty straight forward to work with. It's light, but a little brittle where finecast is a little rubbery. I busted off the top of one of her shoulder branches just by dropping it about ten inches.

She was a bit time consuming due to her size, but I'm very pleased with how she turned out.

A Bloody Sorceress

This is one of my favorite 'conversions', just a simple range swap, nothing else!

Wardancers: Gold in my hands - Shit on the Battlefield

I really dig the Wardancer models. They're the first elf unit I painted up and I love how they turned out. (Although, the Wild Riders have now eclipsed them as my favorites.)

I would like to note I was already aware of the Wardancers Turd-Like Qualities in actual gameplay. Sometimes you have to sacrifice a little effectiveness to stick to your theme. Especially if you're a sucker for a pretty fig, like me.

An Eagle Rider (for those that don't care for Eagles)

So there are a few conversions that don't make the cut in any army construction. This is actually my second "Eagle" rider. I may yet post a pic of the first (if yer lucky).

This does illustrate a key point with conversions. If they're not turning out how you like, either fix it or scrap it. Painting a conversion you don't care for is one of the most grueling tasks any miniature painter can endure.

Give it up for the Ladies of the Forest

These gals were the first models painted for the army. I really had a vision for how I thought they should look and then built the rest of the army around them once I saw the finished product.

I do intend to do a step-by-step tutorial on both a Dryad and a Glade Guard (with pics!), so keep an eye out for that.

Points are tight. Maybe I don't need a BSB?

Um, yeah, April Rodge, if you whole plan banks on Treebastard Stubborn checks, you're going to need one.

Thanks,

-August Rodge

This chap is one of the only real conversions in the whole lot. I've had that damn skull pile for years now and I'm psyched I finally got to use it. It definitely fits the theme. The standard shaft is brass rod. I actually drilled a hole through a glade guard forearm. (The previous forearm holds a bird - this model is one of the wood elf lords.)

Wild Riders up in your Grill!

This unit was the most time consuming by far due to the NMM techniques on the horse and elf elms as well as the blades. They are also my favorite unit - play- and paint-wise!

Let me talk a little bit about NMM. It is not quick. It is definitely not speed painting.

However, it is something I wanted to try and it really fits the army color scheme. You always need to try something new. There are a two reasons for this:

1) To keep it fresh. If you're using canned techniques you already know you're going to get bored. You're going to lack the motivation. This is why expanding an army you already own results in less models painted than if you'd started fresh. Logically, it should be the opposite. We already how to do the paint scheme so it seems like it should be quicker. However, there is nothing logical about motivation.

2) To keep you learning. If your knowledge isn't growing, it's shrinking. Avoid your standby techniques. If all you know is drybrushing and you refuse to try anything besides drybrushing, that's all you're going to be doing in ten years, Ding Dong!

Rank and File (somebody's gotta guard the glades)

So I was pretty nervous about how these guys would turn out. There was really two big problems:

1) No Blood! How in the seven hell's do you make a bloody bow?!

2) They're almost impossible to convert! I can't do a bloody bow and I can't really work anything else in either!

Well, you can see I got a little blood in on the command models and snuck a little blood red in on the feathers as well. Thankfully, that's really all they needed. The lack of blood actually helps theme stand apart from the other units as well.