Another week and more progress on the all-consuming elf project. I’m working on the other side of the elk which isn’t as exciting but is possibly a bit more relaxing since I have a pretty good idea of what I’m doing with it. I also knocked out the red armor parts which is by far the most tedious part left due to it needing a lot of glazing to look smooth. Now if I can just get that other gold “fin” done, then I’ll have my least favorite parts of the elk done. My hope is that I can get the elk’s side and maybe even the front of it done before the wedding in three weeks’ time but we’ll see what happens.
I did want to give a shoutout to Mikko whose site, Dawn of the Lead, is very inspiring and features well-painted nautical miniatures in recent times. Even more importantly, he correctly guessed the video game inspiration for the elf which incidentally was harder than I thought it was going to be. This piece is inspired by none other than the Blood Elves from Warcraft and World of Warcraft. I used to love Warcraft (the RTS games, WoW was a disappointment for me personally) growing up and I remember when Blood Elves came out pretty fondly. I thought they had the coolest color scheme and character design ever. While I’m not slavishly devoted to the art style Blizzard uses for my project, I have found that the piece of art below has been great inspiration. Often in the past, I’ve tried to create a very specific image or idea in my display pieces and truthfully, I think it is best not to do that if you can because it is often hard to replicate an idea in that way. For this particular mini, I hope the end result is that people recognize this project as being inspired by Blood Elves but also that it looks pretty darn cool. Of course, if you’ve never played those video games or are even aware of them, hopefully you’ll enjoy it still too!
Outside of painting progress, I wanted to give a shout-out to Bret aka Mapper on The One Ring, forums dedicated to MESBG, who very generously sent me some Hobbit miniatures. He, along with something else, has got me thinking about painting LOTR minis again in the future. I’ll talk more about that mysterious thing later on though. I also received some Sarissa MDF terrain for Fallout that I need to work on one of these days too. Unfortunately, the Pulp Alley project has completely stalled as well. I have multiple, ambitious display pieces I want to complete in the coming years that are waiting for me to start them. So what I’m saying is, I’ve stretched myself pretty thin in the hobby and won’t be taking on any new projects for a while. Its funny how easy it is to do that yourself in this hobby. To end on a positive note, having so much I want to accomplish has motivated me to try and make more progress on the Elf so we’ll see how productive I can be amidst all of the craziness in my life at the moment.
Kuribo's Painting 
Great progress on the second side Jeff, and seems to be progressing faster than the first side. Can see where your inspiration for the colour scheme comes from now, and a very fitting tribute you’ve been creating.
Hope life stops being so chaotic for you soon, before you know it the wedding will be done and hopefully be filled with happy memories for you both.
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Thanks, Dave! I would have to agree that the second side is coming together faster which is a relief because it means it shouldn’t feel too tedious to work on. I cannot wait until things slow down. I’m really have trouble keeping up with everything that needs to be done. Only three weeks to go until the wedding now…
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Ah, it was the Blood Elves from Warcraft! Good choice and a great colour scheme for these elves. I was much the same as yourself really, the old Warcraft strategy games were great but WoW left me cold. Oh and isn’t stretching yourself thin with too many projects 99% of this hobby? I’m pretty sure it is anyway…
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Its nice to know other people felt the same way about WoW. It was a long grind with no payoff for me. I’m glad to hear that people such as yourself do see the Blood Elves connection now. I was starting to worry that I was too subtle about it 🙂 I completely agree that everyone in the hobby is being pulled in too many directions but I guess it is part of the fun and madness of it!
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Ah, I should have realized Blood Elves… I was over thinking it. Looking beautiful mate!
And I look forward to seeing some more Middle Earth from you. As for Pulp Alley, you’ll get to it when the time is right. And I will be here to hear about it.
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I think the reference wasn’t quite as obvious as I thought though it may become more obvious once I get going on the rider. I look forward to painting some more Middle Earth and Pulp Alley for that matter. I’m very motivated to get this elf project done which is probably too bad for me because I’ve got quite a ways to go on it still. Once I do finish it, I’ll take some time to work on the neglected projects for sure so hopefully it will be worth the wait!
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Still coming along nicely Jeff! 🙂 Quite a bit of progress actually! Way back when I used to love playing Warcraft!
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Thanks, John and I’m glad to hear you enjoyed Warcraft too 🙂 It was such a fun game and it was the best game in that genre by far.
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The Elk is coming along beautifully, Kuribo!
Nice choice with the Blood Elves – They are what inspired my (badly stalled) High Elf force as well! 😀
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Cheers, mate. I wouldn’t mind seeing you paint some of those elves now that you mention it… 😀
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I’ll get to them eventually. Probably! 😀
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The Elk continues to look great and will be well worth the effort when finished. I think we are all probably guilty of spreading ourselves to thinly at times, the trouble is there is just too much stuff out there to tempt us! 🙂
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Thanks, mate and that’s the truth! I think we have ourselves to blame for participating in this community 🙂 For example, I see you painting really cool Baron’s War minis and I start thinking, I could maybe swing painting some of those too. And before you know it, you’re distracted with a new project you didn’t anticipate 🙂
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You’ve certainly made quick work of that mate – beautiful.
I can’t say anymore than that, otherwise there’s nowhere to go when you produce the next installment; I’m already running out of superlatives!
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Be careful what you wish for, mate. You encouraged me to post this week (and in the future) 😉 But in all seriousness, thanks for the kind words as always!
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Just to give you an idea of what a dimwit I am, at no point during your previous posts did I think, “Wow, he has to do this to the other side as well”. Duh. It’s looking fantastic, the painting is as beautiful as ever. Looking forward to seeing more of it get painted!
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Ha, I don’t think that makes you dense at all. It would be nice if there weren’t too sides to be honest. It’d save me a bit of time anyway 🙂 I’m going to try and make plenty of progress this week and hopefully get to “new” parts of the sculpt soon!
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I am amazed at your dedication to detail and that you can do a miniature one side at a time vs the same feature on both sides at once. Adding to your to do pile reduced mine!
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Bret really should have your own blog. I don’t go over to one ring much anymore mainly due to lack of time and my own lotr stuff going back to the sidelines.
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I completely agree, Stew! Maybe we can try and peer pressure him into it 😀
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I don’t know which approach is smarter to be honest, Bret. Usually on smaller minis, it really isn’t an issue but on something this big, it was probably something worth thinking about instead of just painting whatever whenever. Thanks again for the minis and I agree with Stew’s comments that you should make your own blog so we can follow your work on there! 🙂 I do check OR but its almost exclusively to see what you’re up to and I think I’ve missed some stuff lately due to a lack of free time.
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Oh, it’s a blood Elf! Neat-oh!
I was big into WoW back in the day. In fact I was SO into it that I stated to struggle to finish grad school. I was running a guild and doing all that stuff and not writing my dissertation.
But the miniature is looking good but with 3 weeks till a wedding I doubt you’ll have much time to paint so don’t stress over it.
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I would have never guessed you were into WoW, Stew. I honestly have no idea why, because the game was so popular when it came out. My problem with WoW is how all-consuming it became and how you couldn’t really play it casually. Once I realized that, I quit and never really looked back.
I’m optimistic that I can make plenty of progress during the week even with the wedding stuff. My weekends are more hectic than the typical weekday which is opposite of what it normally is. Either way, we’ll see what I can do and if nothing else, I can argue for painting time as I need plenty of stress relief right now 🙂
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Thanks for the shout out, I’m always happy for a scrap of online cred 😀 This is turning out excellent, the blood elf palette is spot on.
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You’re more than welcome! Your site is great and you earned it with that guess. Nobody else came close! Thanks for the kind words as well 🙂
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Fantastic, but methinks at some point you might want to get ready and enjoy your wedding – remember that post wedding, well, your painting time just might get compromised!
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That is going to look very nice when you are done.
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