Painting Forest Guardians Set 2: Ancient Oak, Autumn Fungi and Spirit Light
Forest Guardians Set 2 is a five-model 32mm set for tabletop RPGs, skirmish games and painting. The live Maximum Minis listing includes an Elder Sentinel, Elderfang Wolf, Forest Behemoth, Great Stag Mount and Ironshell Mount, with bark, roots, foliage and thorned natural textures across the group. The models are printed to order in Australia and supplied unpainted.
Prepare all five as one project
Check each cured resin part for small remaining supports, dry-fit any assemblies and use cyanoacrylate-style super glue where required. Mount the five models on temporary handles, then prime them together. A dark brown primer followed by a light tan zenithal pass makes the wood grain visible and gives the entire set a consistent starting value.
The feature scheme: ancient oak and an autumn canopy
Base the bark in dark chocolate brown, wash the deepest cracks almost black and drybrush along the direction of the grain with warm leather and tan. Keep the brush light so raised roots and splintered edges brighten without coating the recesses. Repeat the same bark recipe across all five guardians to make them read as one force.
Use deep forest green on broad leafy or shell-like areas, then add muted jade edge highlights. Stipple yellow-green and olive moss into crevices where moisture would collect. For the foliage, mix late-summer greens with golden ochre and small burnt-orange tips rather than painting every leaf the same colour.
Coral-orange and rusty-red fungi provide compact focal points. Shade their undersides with cream and glaze the caps toward darker red at the centre. A tiny satin varnish on the fungi contrasts neatly with matte bark, while restrained turquoise eyes or spirit marks give each model a shared magical accent.
The painted image above is an inspirational colour visualisation of the guardian shown in the original listing image. It does not represent the physical products supplied, which are sold unpainted.
Fast tabletop basing for a coherent warband
Cover the bases with dark soil texture, fragments of bark and fine leaf litter. Drybrush the earth in two quick brown stages, then add moss and tufts in irregular clusters. A few ochre leaves near each model repeat the canopy colour and tie the five bases together without making them identical.
Five roles in an encounter
This set naturally supports a layered 32mm encounter. The Elder Sentinel can act as speaker or spellcaster, the Elderfang Wolf as a fast flanker, the Forest Behemoth as the central threat, and the Great Stag and Ironshell mounts as objectives, escorts or powerful allies. Introduce them in stages so the players first hear roots moving, then discover the wider grove awakening around them.
Campaign hooks for the deep grove
Use the guardians as protectors rather than automatic villains. A logging camp may have crossed an ancient boundary; corrupted sap might be turning otherwise peaceful creatures violent; or a stolen seed could force the guardians to pursue travellers beyond the forest. The party can fight, negotiate, return what was taken or help purge the real source of corruption.
Original lore: The Five Roots of Emberfall
The following is invented lore for inspiration, not official product background. When the first frost burned the leaves of Emberfall gold, five roots rose from the earth and took animal shapes. Each guards one memory of the forest: shelter, hunger, patience, migration and wrath. If all five gather beneath the same dead tree, the grove may choose a new path—or uproot itself and march.
Build your own guardian encounter
Explore Forest Guardians Set 2 at Maximum Minis, paint the five-model group as a single woodland force and give each guardian a distinct battlefield role.
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