Welcome to our second ever artist spotlight! Today we will be having a chat and taking a look at Amberfall; the ambitious and story driven dark and grim world that Tom (@lutherian_99) has created through his miniature painting, map making, and concept art.
A month or two into my painting journey, I came across Tom's page with a picture of one of his Stormcast in his Amberfall colours. I had only seen Stormcast painted in their traditional regal gold and blues at this point, so thought it was incredible to see them painted in such a distinct darker style; it fitted them perfectly. This led to me buying my own to implement my own colour scheme, but I found myself in love with Tom's painting, as it was more than just a colour scheme; it was an entire world being created.
So let's have a little chat with the man behind it all, and take a good look at Amberfall.
- How, why and when did you start painting?
Hey there, thanks for asking me about the project and my general hobby journey. So how did I get into warhammer, well I got into it pretty much when covid hit and I found myself with a lot of time at home and looking for something to fill my evenings and focus my mind on. I had been into it when I was younger in my teens and then it sort of phased out as I got older. So there was a break of about 18-19 years between starting it back up and have loved being back at it.Â
- What do you love and hate about painting?
So for me I love the different creative possibilities the hobby gives me from painting the miniatures, kitbashing new unique models, to drawing and story telling. Each one sort of plays off the other and ended up being a way to really build the world of Amberfall from a basic starting idea with a few models to where it is now.Â
I would not say I ‘hate’ anything about the hobby really, I do sometimes get a sense of weird anxiety when making new things as I worry they won’t be as good as the previous stuff or that I feel I need to do certain things as it’s what people seem to enjoy which maybe sometimes is different from what I actually want to do. That is something I have become aware of now and I do now tend to follow my passion and interest which is good. Oh and faces, I don’t enjoy painting them. Haha, so many little details, it’s definitely something I want to improve on.Â
- Favourite project you've worked on?
Would have to be the Amberfall project where I have spent most of my hobby time for the last few years. I never thought I would be in a position where I was as invested in a creative project like I have been with this one.Â
- Future project you're planning or working on?
For the future I’m going to build a necron army up as I love the models and feel they are completely different from what I have been doing which is a nice change. I want to use them to start to learn 40k now with the release of 10th edition.Â
- Tell me about Amberfall?
The whole Amberfall process has been a fun one to be part of, I started off like I said with a few basic models from the mortal realms magazines and wanted to explore the ‘grim dark’ visual style I had seen and liked. Then I just went on to build up things one stage at a time. I asked myself questions like, well if I’m doing these models where are they from? What do they look like? What is the environment they live in. This helped me create the aesthetic style to the city and models with the autumn colours and forest bases etc.
Then I just kept being inspired by social media accounts I followed and looked at what models were out there and then it kept building. Each time a model came out in the magazine I thought about how it could be included and part of the project. Not all of them made it it but it was a good learning curve of creativity and decision making. Then the artwork and story elements were added and this helped flesh out the story and in turn aided the design and creative process for me. Each element played off the next. I’m in a situation now where I have a near full fighting force and hoping to make a big display board over the summer to show them all on ready for Armies on parade in the autumn :)Â
Thank you Tom for letting us all into your thinking and for giving an insight into the creation of Amberfall. I think it would now make sense to have a little closer look at this project, as it most certainly deserves to have every nook and cranny of it inspected and admired!
I've never really come across anyone else who creates a world around their models as impressively as Tom, and that's where we shall start today. Amberfall represents a specific city set within a world he has created. Within the narrative, the city is burned to the ground, and the survivors become exiled wanderers. That already sounds exciting enough on it's own, but to help visualise it, Tom has provided visual aids for our lucky little retinas in the form of these maps. Cartography is pretty cool, and I've always found myself in awe of map makers, and the traditional tea stained maps of every fantasy world of all time (thanks Tolkien). So it truly is a great joy to see both miniature painting and cartography coming together to create a project worthy of getting into.
Having a few maps made up is all well and good, but how about creating a cool colour scheme to paint your miniatures to fit the theme for the world you've created? Well, Tom's got you covered here too, as he's pretty talented at both painting and kit-bashing. Take a look at these shields here. We get to see the main colours of the scheme that are uniform, across all the miniatures of Amberfall, but we also get to see the incredible detail put into something as small as a singular shield. Freehand is no joke, and Tom clearly isn't messing around, as I would say he's mastered the art of tiny scribbling.
Now having all of the concept art, story writing, maps created and miniatures painted is one thing, but to really finalise this project, some dioramas and scenes are the last piece required to finish this puzzle, as after all, this is a miniature painting blog and not a cartography blog. Well luckily for you and me, Tom knows this too and has also created all the backgrounds, bases and scenes a human could possibly want. I find it just so inspiring and motivating, seeing all of these elements come together to create an entire world. Not to suck Tom's ego too much, but I am truly in love with the project and always looking forward to seeing what comes next.
If there was any doubt left that this project is worth your time, then take a look at a few of Tom's painted miniatures, making up the forces of Amberfall in all their glory. As you can see, there isn't really a limit to the different characters that fit into the world, and the variation of models, tied together with one colour scheme, is what truly makes Amberfall the ambitious, inspiring and just damn right cool project that it is.
That feels like the right place to conclude my thoughts, and let you take a gander of your own over to Tom's page at lutherian_99 to check out all things Amberfall! There's a huge amount to look at and read about, as well as the exciting new addition of the witch hunter's guild, so it's well worth your time to get a more in depth look at this wonderful project.
I'm a big fan of any project like this, a uniform force with a story to tell. If you've got one that's dying to be seen and heard, then please get in touch via plasticpreacher@gmail.com or @plasticpreacher on Instagram.
A massive thanks once again to Tom for his time and effort in talking about Amberfall, and a massive thanks also to you for reading!
See you all soon!
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