Free Dwarfs love Earth Elementals - Defence 6 powerhouses of Natural Aggression , so when the Free Dwarfs of Bowland decided to add some Rocks to their Battle plan the first thing to do was look at the official Mantic Models.
Those Guys have two negatives where I was concerned , Made of Metal so really heavy and expensive , even at Minimum Model count on the multibase I was looking at a lot of Shekels to be parted with. Dwarves are notoriously difficult to part from their riches and I am no exception to this, so what to do as an alternative ?
The immediate answer came from the Scenery forges here at the Bowland HQ , the 3D printing facility that churns out scenery for Golden Troll Events Tournaments could possibly help the Free Dwarfs by creating some "Alternative" living scenery ! Fire up the Forge !
The Bare Naked Plastic
These are some of the "Survivors" of the production process, there were numerous attempts before enough viable models were produced.
Once the models had been produced they were passed over to be painted and based ready to take their place in the Bowland Free Dwarf Army.
The Elementals were undercoated with Halfords Black spray paint and then given a drybrush of Foundry paints Charcoal Black Triad , then the last two highlights were Charcoal Black/Arctic Grey Shade 50/50 and then Arctic Grey Shade lightly brushed over the raised areas. Then to make it appear as though the Elementals had risen from the earth, base texture was glued to upper surfaces and legs as in the above pictures, this will be painted at the same time as the base to make sure they match.
The Two Hordes of Elementals were then based on the correct base size for a Horde of Large Infantry, Only four Models to a base as the models are quite bulky and almost fill the available space and then the bases and earth effects on the models were painted with Acrylic "Traditional Burnt Sienna" to produce a rich soil colour, this is drybrushed up with a mix of the Burnt Sienna and a colour called "Camel" from the same range (Deco Art from Americana - dirt cheap from Amazon) then a final light drybrush of the Camel on its own before a wash of Agrax Earthshade to bring out the contrast.
Then to continue the Theme of the Basing for the Army a mix of Dead Grass and Winter Grass tufts were placed on the bases and on the Elementals themselves.
Total time taken to produce the units 20 hours ( 16 of that was printing the models) and overall cost was around £6.00/€7.00/10 Billion Zimbabwe Dollars.