Blue Based Elves (and friends)

[Jono B]

Hi all,

This painting blog will be used to motivate myself to finish off my high elf army, and complete some other projects that have been hanging about for far too long.

J

[Jono B]

Almost 2 full weeks off over Christmas and I didn't even pick up a paintbrush.  Tut tut.  However, whilst back at my parents I remembered to grab my camera, so at least I can start taking some photos of my army etc.

To kick things off, here are some of my elves:

Background

Having previously played GW stuff at school, I had then taken the almost mandatory 10 year sabbatical from the hobby.  One of the things that had always annoyed me from that time was that I never had a fully painted army. If I was to once more 'chase the plastic dragon', this would be my objective.

I dug out my old high elves, but they don't really compare to the new elf sculpts.  The old archers and spearman will bolster units until they can get properly replaced.

In the beginning I had tried to paint in the style of the standard GW armies.  I think this works well for single models, but I just can't get the consistency or speed necessary to finish a full unit, let alone an army.

I therefore went with a variation of the 'Sepia' style that I have occasionally seen on other forums.  I wanted my army to look a bit etherial, like the front cover of the army book.  i also wanted them to give off a pewter figurine vibe, like they've just walked off a really expensive chess set.

This would allow me to 'quickly' get an entire army up to table-top standard, and allow me to have fun experimenting with different painting techniques.  I think it also looks the biz.



I went for blue bases because if i was going to paint in a different style, then why not go the whole hog?  It's slightly hard to tell but I went for a sort of broken pavement look, using small rectangles cut out from the top of a butter tub (awesome source of free plasticard).

The wizard is a bit plain-Jane at the mo, but is an example of how I am trying to stick to my tabletop quality.  If I can just keep it neat, I can return later and fiddle about with freehand runes etc.



Reavers are awesome, I want more.  These show how I am trying to constrain my palette to only 3 or so colours.




These are my Shadow Warriors/normal unarmored archers.
I really don't like the current high elf archers, and these from the wood elves seem to be an acceptable proxy.  I have head-swapped a few with extras from the silver helms and the chariot kits, and I think the results are pretty good.



Seriously, are there any bad models in the Island of Blood?  The answer is no.  SeaGuard rock, and I think they are looking nice with the basic sepia style.  Filling out the ranks at the back are some old-school spearman.  They had lost their original shields, so I made new ones out of milliput.  Note the unnecessarily painted freehand runes.




The Internet seems to have declared SilverHelms the worst unit in the list.  Unfortunately I have to agree.  All they have ever done is stand still and get charged by skeletons, or run straight off the board first turn from a skaven jezzail.  One of my favourite units in the army.




A closer look at the champion and eagle conversion.  The elf's torso fits well on normal SiilverHelm legs, and I don't think the cloak looks too bad flapping upwards slightly.



Eagle angle 2.  It was only as I had hacked off the back of the griffon and had repositioned the wings that I realised I had no clue what an eagle's arse looked like.  Searching the Internet for eagle arse images was disturbing, and not particularly helpfull.

Thus ends the painted portion of my elf force.


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The DragonMage

The whole point of collecting Warhammer is to raaagh into big units with even bigger monsters.  And no high elf army should leave home without a big lizard.  My dragon would be the centrepiece, therefore I wanted it to be a bit special.  Although the plastic high elf dragon kit is pretty good, I wanted a bit more movement and individuality in my model.  I also wanted to be able to carry it on the train and not get laughed at/beaten up.  It therefore had to be magnetised for ease of travel.



I cut him up all along his neck and tail so he is now ramping around the rock spire ready to attack whatever the wizard is busy pointing at.  There was a really old Mike McVey chaos dragon conversion in an old white dwarf, where he highlighted how all the movement should be in the same direction to give the model flow.  Therefore the dragon's head, neck, tail, wizard's hair, arms and trailing cloak are all flowing in the same direction.



An above shot, the photo is a bit dark but you get the idea of the curl I put into this bad boy.  I widened the head to make it look more crocodile-like, and added bigger fangs.




Close-up of the rider.  I wanted to do a female wizard, but I wasn't happy with my sculpting, so this one will do for now.  I changed the weapon for the speartip from the chariot, and green stuffed some flowing hair.





This shows the magnetisation; magnets for the wings, the rider and the base.  Helped along with some sturdy wire stalks.

The DragonMage is still obviously work in progress, I mostly add on extra green stuff as I get leftover bits whilst working on other models.  This blog will hopefully give me the motivation to pull my finger out and get her finished.

J

[TkaiC]

Ah, the one time my Jezzails did anything useful 

I think the army looks fantastic.  Great example of how an uncluttered colour scheme works really well on miniatures, and there's a lovely juxtaposition between the simplicity of the armour/robes and the detailing that makes the jewels stand out.  And the bases,  Utterly Butterly brilliant.

Looking forward to seeing the Mage finished!

Also, what camera are you using as the photos are superb!

[Jonagon]

Sweet! Looking great with the subdued colour scheme. Airbrushed?

Great job with the conversions too, my griffon from IoB is still sitting in a half finished/half broken state. 

[cunningmatt]

As a fellow High Elfer (who has a much poorer quality army) can I say these look absolutely amazing - brilliant colour scheme and paint job acheiving all your objectives. Yes Silver Helms are poo, and it is sad. Yes all the Island of Blood models are amazing! Oh and yes Googling animal's bottoms is never good - had the same problem trying to work out how much of my Elven Steed's bottoms needed green stuffing and how much was hole. Never again. Ewww

[Jono B]

Ah, the one time my Jezzails did anything useful 

Lies!  First dice roll of the game and they leasurely take off 400pts of unit and BSB? They are obviously the most bent unit in the list!

Also, what camera are you using as the photos are superb!

It's just a cheapish digital one, but I set up a 'studio' with a window behind me to get as much natural light falling on the models as possible.  I'll do a photo of the setup tomorrow :)

Sweet! Looking great with the subdued colour scheme. Airbrushed?

Cheers dude, it's not using anything fancy just good old fashioned drybrushing. A lot of drybrushing.  I'm actually starting with a spray basecoat of silver, then wash sepia & sepia/black in deep recesses, followed by lots of drybrushing up to white.

It was only after I had finished about 20 models that I realised i was basically turning grey plastic into grey-painted plastic! :(

As a fellow High Elfer (who has a much poorer quality army) can I say these look absolutely amazing - brilliant colour scheme and paint job acheiving all your objectives.

Cheers dude, although there is no way I can compete with your 10000 pt force! It is an awesome site to behold.

Googling animal's bottoms is never good - had the same problem trying to work out how much of my Elven Steed's bottoms needed green stuffing and how much was hole. Never again. Ewww

I've got David Attenbough's Africa paused on iplayer to help me with my chariot lions. £4 million of license fees well spent I think!

[Toast]

Well, I love your gemstones, and the faces and overall effect are superb.  Are you painting a grey basecoat over the silver basecoat for the plumes of hair on the Reavers etc?  It will look odd if they glitter a bit.  Beautiful circular flow on the dragon.

Tbh, Matt, I prefer your style, but this army is going to look great.  Too.     *cheese*

[cunningmatt]

Cheers dude, although there is no way I can compete with your 10000 pt force! It is an awesome site to behold.

Thanks! But why would you want to? I just have far more Elves than I could ever use in every nook and cranny of my house!!!

I've got David Attenbough's Africa paused on iplayer to help me with my chariot lions. £4 million of license fees well spent I think!

Haha certainly safely than Googling - plus it's a brilliant programme anyway!

Tbh, Matt, I prefer your style, but this army is going to look great.  Too.     *cheese*

Oh you flirt! 

[Ted Johansson]

to quote any teenage girl ever lived "Best... Thing... EVER"
Mayor props hand on my heart favorite colour scheme I've ever seen for a elf army!