DK Miniature Gaming

Fire Elementals

Fire Elemental Army

Overview

This army is mostly created around a number of prepainted plastic D&D Miniatures figures that came out in the Golden Age of prepainted plastic figures, 2006 through 2012 or so.

Now mostly I disparage the paintjobs that prepainted plastic figures get -- they vary from utilitarian to ... thugly. But these plastic figs were brilliant -- because they were translucent. I can paint well, but I can't paint translucent.

And so I collected a whole bunch of translucent fire figures to make an army of Fire Elementals that are glorious. And here they are.

To maximize the impact of these beautiful figures I developed a basing scheme that simulates how the rocky ground native to the Elemental Plane of Fire gets heated by the presence of these beings. Check out the bottom of this page for a brief description of my technique.

Fire Giant Allies with Firebats

Small Fire Elementals

These are a perfect example of the cool visual effects you can get with these translucent figures.

In Fantasy Triumph these are rated as:

Warband (no battle cards): 3 pts each

Large Fire Elementals

In Fantasy Triumph these are rated as:

Knights (Slow -1/2, Armored +1/2): 4 pts each

Armored is relevant here because Fire Elementals are not particularly vulnerable to missile fire, and Knights in Triumph sorta are -- adding Armored makes them no more vulnerable to shooting than the Small Fire Elementals are. And making them Slow means that they aren't also faster than Small Fire Elementals.

Magma Hurler

In Fantasy Triumph these are rated as:

Pavise (Slow -1/2, Armored +1/2): 4 pts each

Like the Rockfire Dreadnaughts below, these are Slow and Armored because they're made of molten rock.

Rockfire Dreadnaughts

In Fantasy Triumph these are rated as:

Cataphract (Slow -1/2, Armored +1/2, Ranged Attack +1): 4 pts each

Ranged Attack because it gives them the ability to throw the balls of fire at their fists. Slow and Armored because they don't have legs and they are made of (molten) rock.

Wall of Fire

In Fantasy Triumph these are rated as:

Spear (Slow -1/2, Fierce -1/2): 3 pts each

Spear are equally effective against mounted and foot. Slow because a wall of fire is a great barrier, but not a fast-moving one. Fierce because all the fire stuff (Small Fire Elementals, Large ones, Huge ones) follows up, so that makes sense for a Wall of Fire as well.

Firebats

In Fantasy Triumph these are rated as:

JavCav (Flying Slow +1): 5 pts each

Fire Archons

In Fantasy Triumph these are rated as:

Raiders (Hearten +1): 5 pts each

These are studly looking figures, so I wanted to make them a bit tougher than normal Raiders, without going all the way to Deadly. Therefore Hearten.

Azer Fighters

In Fantasy Triumph these are rated as:

Elite Foot (no battle cards): 4 pts each

Huge Fire Elemental

In Fantasy Triumph these are rated as:

Behemoth (Deadly +2, Armored +1/2, Massive +0): 6.5 pts each

Fire Titan

In Fantasy Triumph these are rated as:

Behemoth (Deadly +2, Armored +1/2): 6.5 pts each

This guy usually serves as the General of my Fire Elemental army. He's just too big and cool-looking to be an underling.

Fire Giant Badass

In Fantasy Triumph these are rated as:

Behemoth (Deadly +2, Armored +1/2): 6.5 pts each

This guy is really badass, which is why he gets the same mods as the General.

The figure is from Reaper Bones and comes in white plastic, unpainted, with several parts that need to be glued together. But he's a freaking awesome figure, so it's worth it.

Immolith

In Fantasy Triumph these are rated as:

Warwagon (Hearten +1): 4 pts each

I'm not completely decided on the Warwagon categorization, but that makes him tough, recalcitrant (doesn't take orders easily), and firing out all sides. Which all seems to fit. It's a beautiful figure, too.

Rage Drake

In Fantasy Triumph these are rated as:

Knight (no battle cards): 4 pts each

DDM prepaint, and a good job, didn't require any touchup painting.

You could give this guy a small breath weapon (Ranged Attack +1) or give him Armored +1/2 (to help with the 2 factor defense against shooting that Knights have). I'd probably lean towards the second, and not the first -- this guy looks like his viciousness is in close combat, not in firing from range. Look at his stance, for example.

Fire Genasi Crossbow

In Fantasy Triumph these are rated as:

Bow Levy (Ranged Attack +1): 3 pts each

DDM prepaint, and a good job, didn't require any touchup painting.

Heroes

All three figures shown are D&D Miniatures. The one on the left I repainted -- I don't recall what color her clothing was, but it didn't mix with being a Fire Wizard on the Plane of Elemental Fire. The thing I was looking for with her was that she was playing with translucent fire.

The middle one is called a Phoera. Beautiful figure.

The right one is a Drow sorceror of some sort.

The spellcaster heroes could have the Ranged Attack battle card, perhaps.

The three heroes above are all D&D Miniatures prepaints, chosen for their translucent fire effects. The one on the left required almost no modification -- she was good as is. The center one (which has the coolest fire effects) had to be totally repainted, and it was quite a fuss. The fire dwarf guy on the right was good as is, but I experimented with clear acrylic as a hero base for him. Not sure if I like it or not yet.

Basing the Fire Elementals

Doing the basing shown above isn't very hard, but it does take a lot of time and a lot of steps. The steps are these.

put the figures on the bases with something temporary -- blue-tac, two-sided tape, whatever.
smooge white glue around the base with your finger or a crude brush, trying to get everywhere that isn't figure.
immediately take the figures off the base and shake coarse sand on the base. The size of the grains of sand depend upon the scale of the figures; you can sift the sand in advance to separate out the larger pieces from the smaller.
Let the glue dry.
Spraypaint the base white or black. If white, make sure you get all the central area near the figures. If black, make sure you really get everything away from the figures.
If you sprayed black, when it is dry you need to slop white on the central area near the figures. Maybe two coats. If you sprayed white, you need to slop black heavily in the areas that won't be "hot" -- not near the figures. Might need two coats; make sure you get the nooks and crannies.
When dry, take four paint colors: bright yellow, orange, bright red, dark red.
Using the paint colors in sequence, paint four rings from the outside in, starting with the dark red and ending with the bright yellow. Since you're using yellows and reds, which are usually quite translucent colors in craft paints, you might have to do two coats of each ring.
Using the paint colors in the reverse sequence, touch up the exposed surfaces (which would be exposed to more heat/light). Use yellow in the orange ring, orange in the bright red ring, bright red in the dark red ring, and dark red on exposed surfaces in the part of the black area that is near the red ring.
Put the figure down on the base and check your work. Notice where dark colors are too close to the hot figure, or light colors too far, and touch them up.
Keep doing 8 and 9 and 10 until you can't stand it any more, then declare your work "good enough" and quit.
Drybrush the black rocks with a bit of white. Which will mean you might have to touch up again with step 11. Curse a little, but do it.

Fire Basing showing color rings in process from left to right.

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