Age of Sigmar: Treelord Ancient Build Part 1

Hi folks,

Just before my local GW store closed its doors due to social distancing restrictions, I went in to choose a monster so that I could enter their Monster painting competition. It was a difficult choice, as the large models in the Age of Sigmar range are just phenomenal at the moment, but I ended up walking out with a Start Collecting Sylvaneth box to add to Penny's Wild Riders and Sisters of the Thorn. The box comes with a Treelord, which fits the entry conditions of the painting competition, and I have always had a soft spot for Dryads.

Last night I spent a bit of time constructing the Treelord, using a mixture of the Treelord Ancient and the normal Treelord parts. It was quite a challenging build, as many of the parts have three versions, each specific for the pose of one of the options and only compatible with certain other pieces. For someone building a hybrid, that makes it very easy to pick pieces that don't fit together. I only made one significant mistake doing this, mixing the hip joint and ankles of two different poses, which was serious in the grand scheme of things as it effects the models ability to stand. Pulling it apart was successful but hard, with only one piece (his butt) being irretrievable for the rebuild. That's not a huge loss, you can hardly see it and it is intentionally sculpted to look like nothing anyway.

This morning, with the polystyrene glue all set, I have been filling gaps with green stuff and doing some sculpting work. In particular, I am adding a large number of mushrooms to his body. I am trying for a Realm of Shyish theme, with these Sylvaneth coming from Satyr's End, in the region of Lyria. They are the wardens of the vine-shrouded sanctuary to Alarielle, in the human city of Glymmsforge, which spreads living limbs over the rooftops of the city. They tend to the living trees there, carefully excising a deadly magical fungus that seeks to infest them; a grim reminder of the realm they live in. Whilst the aelves are immune to its effects, the treelords and dryads are not. Who knows what the fungus will do when it wrestles control of these gentle servants of Alarielle, or what deadly symbiosis they will form...

Next step will be priming and undercoating; a job for the airbrush I think.

See you across the table,

Marc