The Lost and The Damned › MINIATURES! › Fantasy Painting and Modeling

Elementals

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For a while now I've wanted a 'set' of Elementals to use in games, Citadel do a nice set from back in the olden (golden?) days of WFB 3rd when the game used to have Elementalist Wizards and they are still available from their 'Collectors' range, but as with most things GW sell at the moment they are rather expensive. Anyway I'm not here to moan about GW's prices again. After looking at the Elemental miniatures produced by many different companies, in the end I decided to purchase these rather striking Elementals (sold as 'Elemental Demons') from Ral Partha Europe for 2 main reasons 1 they were a lot cheaper and 2 their skeletal features make them look a lot more evil than most Elemental miniatures you see. I've always seen Elementals as being some what a-kin to Daemons because they are also beings of magical energy (Daemons and Elementals have very similar rules in WFRP 1 and the early editions of Warhammer) so having them look vaguely demonic fits in well with this idea.

The Elementals came on integral bases detailed like their elements, which I mounted on 40mm round bases and then used Greenstuff (and some gravel and textured Plastic in the case of the Earth Elemental) to expand this detail to cover the entire base, then once the Greenstuff had hardened the next day it was strait onto painting them!

Water Elemental: at first I played with the idea of painting the water elemental silver and using layers of ink to build up a reflective cyan/blue, but quickly abandoned the idea and repainted it Regal Blue and highlighted it up through several lighter shades of blue to Ice Blue with a final extreme highlight of Skull White I then gave it several layers of different blue Inks and Washes followed by 2 coats of Gloss Varnish to give it a liquid look

Earth Elemental: the Earth Elemental was probably the most fun to paint as unlike the other Elementals it wasn't all one colour. I started out by dry brushing the whole model Dark Flesh, then Bestial Brown, Snake Bite Leather and a final highlight of Bubonic Brown. I then used a mixture of Bubonic Brown and Bleached Bone as a further highlight to pick out the roots and vines. The rocks then got a base coat of Adeptus Battlegrey, highlighted Codex Grey and then Fortress Grey. I also used a little Badab Black wash to add some extra shading to the recesses of the stones. The mossy looking bits I painted Dark Angels Green, highlighted Snot green followed by Goblin Green and then used Green Glaze over the top. I then used Green Glaze and Ork Flesh Wash to add 'damp patches' to the stones and vines to break up the colour a little.

Fire Elemental: the Fire Elemental was another quick one to paint. I started with Scab Red and kept on highlighting up through Gore Red, Blood Red, Blood Angels Red, Firey Orange until I reached pure Sunburst Yellow. I've seen a lot of debate online about this being 'the wrong way' to paint fire but this tends to come from the NMM, Heavy Highlighting and White Undercoats brigade who call themselves 'pro-painters' and disapprove of my 'old school' techniques.

Air Elemental: wanting to avoid blue as I'd already used it on the water elemental, I settled on 'grey sky' like colours for my Air Elemental, deciding it should look some what like a tornado. I started with Shadow Grey and highlighted up through Space Wolves Grey, Elf Grey until I reached a 50/50 mix of Elf Grey and Skull White for an extreme highlight. After doing this I noticed that the model had little details like leaves and things swirling around in the wind (which continued the tornado concept) so I picked them out in greens and browns blending the colours back into the main body of the elemental in the direction of the swirling winds to suggest movement. Finally I painted the eyes Elf Grey highlighted with a mix of Elf Grey and Skull White.

As a bonus here's a picture of my old File Elemental from the Dragon Strike Game painted in pretty much the same way as the Fire Elemental above. My group nick named him 'Calcifer' after the character from Howl's Moving Castle which it resembles closely

^ Feeling Brave Tonight?

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Billiam Babble

Re: Elementals

(Hee hee. He does look a bit like grumpy Calcifier.)

I remember some truly awful Elemental figures in the 80's - possibly based on some fairly silly pictures. You have done well to choose these figures - demonically possessed with "attitude".

Your painting style is of exceptionally high quality - professional showcase material!

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Billiam Babble

Re: Elementals

In reply to this post by MortiS-the-Lost

(PS. What font are you using for the titles there?)

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MortiS-the-Lost

Re: Elementals

In reply to this post by Billiam Babble

Thanks dude.

The fonts I used are called:

from time to I trawl around the free font sites, I have no idea which these came from ... I suggest a desperate Google search.

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~The ravings of a single mad Goblin is bad enough, but such a power-hungry, malice-filled creature as Mortis can never hope to be understood~

Scumdog47

Re: Elementals

In reply to this post by MortiS-the-Lost

Jolly spiffy!

I seem to recall there were rules for elementals (4th Ed) in one of the earliest issues of Citadel Journal.

MortiS-the-Lost

Re: Elementals

Thanks

I always thought Elementals had disappeared from Warhammer after 4th edition came out. I've always liked the idea of wizards being able to summon Elementals but it doesn't fit in too well with the way magic works in Warhammer these days (8 lores, 8 winds but only 4 Elementals). These models where painted to be used in our Quest and WFRP games, but I'd be interested to see what rules they'd have under Warhammer 4th editon rules.

-----------------------------------
~The ravings of a single mad Goblin is bad enough, but such a power-hungry, malice-filled creature as Mortis can never hope to be understood~

Scumdog47

Re: Elementals

In reply to this post by MortiS-the-Lost

I can see if I still have the article around.

I only had it as a few loose xeroxed pages so it might have gotten lost over the years.

All I can remember is that an elemental under those rules might not be a match for a Bloodthirster but it certainly could take on a Daemon Prince with quite good odds at winning.

Scumdog47

Re: Elementals

In reply to this post by MortiS-the-Lost

Found them.

Scanned them.

Compressed them.

E-Mailed them.

:)

Enjoy!

MortiS-the-Lost

Re: Elementals

awsome, thanks dude!

-----------------------------------
~The ravings of a single mad Goblin is bad enough, but such a power-hungry, malice-filled creature as Mortis can never hope to be understood~

SamuelF

Re: Elementals

In reply to this post by MortiS-the-Lost

Heheh, I like Calcifer.

Great painting on the elementals, I've always wanted a set of my own. Fire looks much more dramatic painted with the darker low-lighting IMO and seems right for this model. Interesting the way these models all seem to contain skeletal structures. I think you were wise to not be tempted to paint in the bone however..

Do I guess right that these models are around 60-70 mm in height?

Thumbs up!

MortiS-the-Lost

Re: Elementals

This post was updated on .

Thanks dude

not so much with the others, but it was quite tempting with the Fire Elemental to paint the 'skeleton' of it as scorched looking bones, but in the end I didn't as I feel this goes against the idea that an elemental is entirely made of it's element

SamuelF wrote

Do I guess right that these models are around 60-70 mm in height?

yea the heads sit at around 50-60mm with arms poking above that hight

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~The ravings of a single mad Goblin is bad enough, but such a power-hungry, malice-filled creature as Mortis can never hope to be understood~

Umboman

Re: Elementals

This post was updated on .

In reply to this post by MortiS-the-Lost

Very nice figures,which could easily have been ruined by a simple paint job-MortiS is the master of the high & low lights!

Having just watched '300' again last night;old Leoniadas could not give that offering of earth & water.........& into the pit withem! The Chinese wrote a lot about the elements ie the I Ching & in The Bible Earth was cleansed with water (The Flood) & will be cleansed by fire in the last days (See Revelation).

I can see a dark theme emerging,the more of MortiS' figures/scenery I see & that is good for our 'creatures' to reflect our personalities. I am especially grateful for the detailed explanations on painting-not just on technique but of the thought processes involved in the decisions made.The water looks light water,earth 'feels' earthy,fire looks like a flame & air is etheral.............good figures brought alive,they look like cgi creations on a cinema screen?

The Prodigal son

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