We’d like to thank Freecompany for providing us with a preview set of these models for review purposes.
With the updated edition of the Eldfall Chronicles base game, Freecompany added some new neutral Tier 3 monsters to the menagerie of nasties available to challenge the various worthies of the world of Calad.
The Water Elementals come as a pair comprising a central “pillar” body piece (about 2.5x the height of one of the aforementioned heroes) decorated with swirling waves and ice crystals, complemented by interchangable arms and heads, with options for tentacles, a crab claw, a big ice shard and a clawed hand. They’re packaged with two profile cards and two hostile behavior cards, one for each type (they come in Type 1 and Type 2 varieties).
The miniatures are cast in the quite exceptional Unicool “plastic resin” material, which is pretty exceptional when it comes to both holding sharp detail and generally feeling very solid in terms of structural integrity. These models are absolutely stuffed with various undercut parts and still they look and feel great; at no point was I worried that a little drybrushing would knock parts off.
I’m a bit of a fan of the Freecompany designers and these miniatures continue to impress – I can’t wait for Northern Wind to be released so I can get my hands on some of their more esoteric upcoming designs!
Painting Water Elementals
How, then, did I paint these lovely watery beasties? Since the models have obvious crystals of ice on them, I chose an arctic-ocean kind of scheme with lots of blues and whites. Because there aren’t a lot of hard edges and the piece is (hah) fluid, I did almost all of this painting with an airbrush.
- To begin with, after a black prime I sprayed the whole model with ProAcryl Dark Sea Ben (hereafter DSB), making sure to get into all the nooks and crannies.
- After that, I did a quasi-zenithal highlight with one of my favourite aquatic colours: Army Painter Air Ocean Depths. I made sure to leave the DSB in the downward-facing parts, like the lee of the breaking waves.
- Once the Ocean Depths was dry, I followed up with a general highlight of Hydra Turquoise from a 45 degree angle, making sure to hit all the upward facing bits, including those parts of the breaking waves that are not covered by the crest.
- Once that was done, I took a bit of AP Air Psychic Shock and mottled the colour a little with patches here and there, particularly on the upward facing surfaces.
- For the ice spike weapon (and the… chin? chest spike?), I airbrushed both Ocean Depths and ProAcryl White Blue, increasing the white towards the tip of the spike.
- Using a little ProAcryl Transparent Blue, thinned down with Glaze & Wash Medium, I sprayed into the darkest parts corners to boost the saturation and really amp up that cold water feel, I also blended the two ice spike colours together at the same time.
- With that done, I drybrushed the model with ProAcryl White Blue: very gently in places like the wave crests and heads to build a smooth transition, and quite roughly on the ice crystals to pick out the sharp edges.
- With all that done, I applied some gloss varnish to the ice crystals and spikes to deepen the colour and make them look properly icy. I also painted the base rims black.
Voila! Icy ocean elemental beasties!
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