Special Branch

There's nothing like an upcoming battle to spur me into painting. Tomorrow, my Wood Elves (*ahem* Sylvaneth) troops will be taking on Age of Sigmar, so I duly abandoned my Night Goblins and picked up my previously-abandoned Dryads.

Upcoming: The Battle of Big Big Horn

To start with: a regular old metal dryad. He was the only dryad that had to be doused in Dettol (the others are all repaint jobs), so I took the advantage to give him some conversion work and a promotion to Branch Nymph.

I was lucky that this model already had mini-horns on the side of his head, so it was a natural conversion to throw on a couple of antlers. The bits originally came from the metal Pink Horror Standard Bearer, but I actually think they look better here.

How very dare you.

The paint job differs from my other dryads - either from a change in my techniques, or just not wanting to replicate - although I don't mind that too much (being an observant soul, I've noticed that not all trees are the same colour).

The green face and sap is Nurgling Green with Drakenhof Nightshade wash (I still can't believe a blue wash can compliment green so well, but there it is). The highlights were Nurgling Green, working up to Snotling Green on the tips of the horns (to make them look newly-grown).

The bark is Steel Legion Drab, with Agrax Earthshade wash and Zandri Drust highlights. I added more Earthshade around the joins of the horns, blending it a little with the green - once again to try and make it seem like these branches have spontaneously sprouted from the dryad's head.

Herne the Hedgerow

And that was achieved in so little time (no belts, no pouches, no eyeballs - I forget how easy dryads are to paint), I had time for another.

Hooray for Holly Wood

This, considerably more-feminine, dryad comes from the generosity of Kraken's Reaper Bones bounty. I tried the 'no-primer, just paint' method of painting - it was disconcerting, and there were some moments, when the paint didn't seem to adhere, but it worked out pretty well (and there is certainly something to be said for the spontaneity of just grabbing a miniature out of the box and painting it - assembly and priming are not my favourite tasks).

The Bones material doesn't do a bad job of holding its detail - although I was mainly concerned with getting the skin right (Elysian Green, Agrax Earthshade, Snotling Green). And it helped that I wanted the body to blur into the tree (to look as if she was growing from it, rather than just stepping out), so some inks and blended paint did the trick.

Ash shot.

The scale is very different to my other dryads (but I'd also heard trees come in different sizes), but I quite like it as a representation of the spirit that lies beneath a dryad's bark. Despite the small size, it's mounted on a cavalry base, because of the spread of the branches, so would make a good unit filler, or a Branchwraith in her own right.

And to finish, another one of Kraken's contributions to my arboreal forces.

Hands up who like Sylvaneths!

This is an Orc's Nest miniature. or unknown origins. It was drafted as an RPG monster known as a Wych Elm, but was given a cavalry base some years ago and put to service in my dryad unit. Once again, a cavalry base to accommodate the miniature's stance means it can either be a Branch Nymph or a unit filler.

So that's it for the bosses. The cannon wood-chipper fodder will follow after they have been massacred by Chaos gribblies. The poor saps.