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 Post subject: Adding the 'Individual' Touch
PostPosted: Fri Feb 21, 2014 11:20 am 
Craftsman
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So, having dabbled in miniature Middle Earth for some time now, I have a big discussion point: How to make your armies and miniatures individual. What is it that puts one army up for a second glance and deeper look through than another that is just passed over?

In particular I am thinking of small touches and conversions that set armies apart and tie them together, rather than simply top quality painting (although this for sure is a major factor).

I for one love looking at well made and painted armies for inspiration and just simply because.. and so by all means attach pictures if you reply.

To start of with I think that heraldry can add a nice touch, linking shields, banners and whatever else together. Also, conversion of simple warriors into clearly defined units such as a phalanx in which neighbouring warriors 'fit together' works very well.

Anyway, I'd be interested to hear your thoughts, both for inspiration and as an idea as to what people like to see in a finished army.
In short: What makes an army (or miniature) individual?

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 Post subject: Re: Adding the 'Individual' Touch
PostPosted: Fri Feb 21, 2014 12:11 pm 
Craftsman
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I find that taking the time to base miniatures well, not only brings an army together but can also really make individual models stand out.

If you look at this army by DMS you'll see that the bases are all well done in the same style which really unifies the force. You'll also notice that the heroes and captains have white flowers on the base. This is only a subtle addition but it really makes the models stand out. He's also done some freehand patterns on the hero's cloaks which adds to the model's uniqueness.
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 Post subject: Re: Adding the 'Individual' Touch
PostPosted: Fri Feb 21, 2014 12:46 pm 
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Matching colours helps with cohesion. As an example, I painted up a batch of Rangers with Aragorn to be a warband. They all used the same base colours, even though they were switched around on each model (some had dark grey cloaks and dark green tunics, some had dark green cloaks and dark grey tunics), and they had the same colour bracers across the warband. I also like the addition of little details to some of the troops, but not all of them. I like to have a mixture of converted and basic.

To make your army stand out as an individual, try a different colour scheme from the norm. Some armies have clear colour schemes that everyone paints them in (particularly Gondor/Minas Tirith), so just changing them helps. My Minas Tirith wear silver and blue, rather than silver and black, and because it isn't the standard colour, they stand out a bit more.

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 Post subject: Re: Adding the 'Individual' Touch
PostPosted: Fri Feb 21, 2014 1:57 pm 
Kinsman
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You can have a look at my WIP thread over here: viewtopic.php?f=50&t=25430

It's the small conversions that make your force unique.
Swap weapons, add something small with greenstuff...
Make some conversions and keep some original ones as well.

Don't be afraid to use a different paint scheme, use the colours you think fit with the models.
I also used darkblue for my Gondor forces, because I like it more than the regular Dark grey/ black.

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 Post subject: Re: Adding the 'Individual' Touch
PostPosted: Fri Feb 21, 2014 2:55 pm 
Elven Elder
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Just to add to what others have said about painting. I painted my Dwarf army based upon rank.
Regular Dwarves were green, brown, and grey. Elites were more green and added gold/silver, leaders added still more green and gold. And the Kings (Balin, Dain etc) added blue

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 Post subject: Re: Adding the 'Individual' Touch
PostPosted: Fri Feb 21, 2014 5:45 pm 
Loremaster
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I think that if you use a GW scheme your army tends to only get a glance, even if it is top notch painting it will still only be thought of as an army list. People will not really study it (well some of us still will that love the hobby deep enough to care about the small details).

Conversions can work, but there are bad conversions that stand out (awkward poses because of forced change attempts) and there are very good ones that you may not notice at all because they blend right into the army and don't look out of place. (again many of us on here would still spot it cause we love it).

I think a uniform for good warriors that is not in a standard scheme or has a detail that is not GW / film inspired (like a jewel, a device/emblem design on all). As you see in the DMS elves example you have a different scheme from GW and you have Jewels, even if this was not painted well it would stand out.

With my Mordor orc army, there is no uniform, ridiculous amounts of converting, and I try to hold a high standard...what unifies it is the chaos of it all, and that they all look like the same breed ofhigh quality mess. :lol: I did try to make each orc a character, easily picked out in a line up of hoodlums, so that helps the cause there. With my morannon orcs, I used the GW scheme and converted 36/48 so far, but the army could easily be passed by even with so many conversions. I still have many orcs and morannons to do and will still convert, but I do plan to make a very cohesive (same color scheme) mordor orc warband and I plan to make an alternate morannon scheme as well, so when I get to those in a few years time perhaps I will know better how to respond to this topic.

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 Post subject: Re: Adding the 'Individual' Touch
PostPosted: Fri Feb 21, 2014 9:59 pm 
Elven Warrior
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I like to add a personal touch on the bases - http://eastgrinsteadwargamers.blogspot. ... -ents.html

My woses, galadhrim and other armies all have slightly different bases and leaves used to get them to fit in with each other.

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 Post subject: Re: Adding the 'Individual' Touch
PostPosted: Fri Feb 21, 2014 10:53 pm 
Craftsman
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Thanks all for the replies - great ideas and beautiful armies. In particular I have to agree with DomyHill in that DMS' High Elves are one of the most spectacular and well finished armies I have ever seen.

To add to the thread, here are some armies that have caught my eye around the site:

Mertaal's Dwarves of Erebor:
viewtopic.php?f=50&t=26963&start=20
Lord of Winterfell's Blackwood Company:
viewtopic.php?f=50&t=27421&start=20
Quindia's Arnor Company:
viewtopic.php?f=50&t=27742

And finally some off-site inspiration:
http://www.thelastalliance.com/viewtopi ... =15&t=6982
http://hvm-workbench.blogspot.de (Perhaps my favourites of all)
http://sithious.webs.com/theorcsofmiddleearth.htm (as already mentioned - the other armies are great too though)
http://hetairoiwargames.blogspot.co.uk/ ... -28mm.html (although not LOTR the basing is quite incredible)

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 Post subject: Re: Adding the 'Individual' Touch
PostPosted: Sat Feb 22, 2014 3:22 pm 
Craftsman
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I agree with Sithious that painting armies in a colour scheme that is not exactly the same as the scheme GW have used is a good way of getting your armies noticed. However, I would add that sometimes the GW colours look really good and if painted well then armies will really stand out (and I'm not just defending my gold and blue elves!! :no:), I think red and gold Easterlings are a good example of this.

Another thing that makes particular warbands stand out is to use a spot colour to pick out certain parts of some models. This works particularly well when using a bright colour on an army with usually fairly monochrome or muted colours. A good example of this can be found in the new-ish How to Paint Citadel Miniatures book. In there they show how to paint a Minas Tirith army with the traditional black and silver colours. In that army they included a warband of Knights of Minas Tirith. With that warband, which was led by Faramir, they're used blue and gold to pick out a few details which really made the knights stand out from the rest of the army. Faramir was painted almost completely with blue and gold which made him really stand out from the whole army but also tied him in with his warband of knights.
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 Post subject: Re: Adding the 'Individual' Touch
PostPosted: Tue Mar 04, 2014 4:47 pm 
Craftsman
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Oh and thanks for sharing those links, that HVM one has really nailed miniature photography.


Last bumped by abcdefg on Tue Mar 04, 2014 4:47 pm.
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