goblinpaladin's Wood Elves - a May update (120 points)

I'll admit it first thing: I'm under points. I'll explain why, but I just wanted to front up and admit it. I think the fact that I've gone wildly over points in previous months allows me a little forgiveness, right. Please? Note from the (benevolent) Overlord : Considering your progress and previous months I'll allow it! 

i really cannot take a straight photo to save my life

6 wardancers. 120 points.

best friends

This fellow was so much fun to paint. You know, I've don't think I've ever actually painted an orc. Maybe I splashed some paint at some HeroQuest figures when I was a Lad.

mildly amusing caption

The stripes weren't originally intended, but the plain blue pants just looked a bit too ordinary.

is it a spear? is it a glaive? who cares, she looks awesome

muscle definition like crazy

There's not much to say about this sculpt. I've painted a previous incarnation of her before, and there's a second in this month's addition. It's a great sculpt, we all like to see female figures, and she looks hard as nails, even with a turquoise bodysuit. Fin.

clearly not kusanagi-no-tsurugi right

a moment of respect for her dry cleaner

Another variant of this sculpt. The main thing with these is coming up with colour schemes. I happened to have bought a tub of Screamer Pink for a space elves project. It's a great colour, and the trick is to not use it on absolutely everything.

the knob is for a shield btw

windswept hair is a class feature for elves

I think this is one of the sculpts that made me decide to do this project in the first place. Just look at him. All... masculine and... muscly. He looks like he could flip right over you and cut you in half. Man! Wardancers should cause fear.

obvious joke about braveheart

Goodwin's vaguely Celtic influences really come out in this lad. If the claymore pose wasn't enough, he's clearly wearing a kind of over-the-shoulder proto-kilt. This meant that I had to do a proto-tartan pattern on the cloth, right? I cracked out a couple of old Warhammer Historical books and looked at a ton of early medieval Picts and early Irish online, came up with a plan, sat down - and promptly messed it up.

don't look too close

I meant to use Ogryn Camo, a pale but slightly greenish colour, to help tie him into the other wood elves, but instead picked up Ushabti Bone. It works okay. I also wasn't as careful with my brushstrokes as I really should have been, and the end result looks rushed and awkward. He still passes the three feet test, so he'll do. At least it wasn't full c.17thC tartan - that stuff looks hard to paint at this scale.

obvious joke about pirates

I bought this chap from someone on the trading community by sheer happenstance - I was getting some other models and thought, "Oh yeah, he looks fun." He's actually a really fun sculpt (I think by Trish Carden?), with some fun little details, like his pearls-and-oyster necklace and the ties holding his hems.

tried to get a feeling of undyed linen for him

I fancy him as a river elf, part of a semi-nomadic clan that goes up and down the waterways of the forests, fishing and occasionally raiding human (/dwarf/gnome/halfling) settlements. There are a few other sea or river elf sculpts I might pick up here and there to give him some kin in the wardancer band.

the pewter brothers

So, the reason I'm a bit low on points this month is these two. I was originally going to paint one of them this month (at 90ish points, he'd make the difference), but I just can't decide if I want them to be on diagonal bases or not.

"straight"

Straight-on, they look like they're leading the troops. I'll have them leading some modern plastics (from Oathmark), so this would make the most sense for the sculpts. The problem is that this looks a bit weird, I think. Bases from this period were diagonal, of course, so maybe that would work better...

not-straight. bent, if you like.

Certainly it looks more retro, right? But then they'll look wonky, as their mates will be facing forward. I just don't know. For the other models (as you've seen), I've gone with vertical slottabases, with the exception of some wardancers - but that's because wardancers are flipping about, going every which way. In some later editions, they're even skirmishers. That doesn't apply to these heroes.

For that matter, they're wearing heavy armour and carrying shields, which is all quite a bit for poor ol' elves to deal with. It's hard to come up with a colour scheme for them that won't wind up being all shiny silvers. sigh It was all a bit much, really. Maybe you bright folks can offer some advice? You're all so smart and talented and handsome, I just know that you'll know the right thing to do.

Artist: Russ Nicholson.
From White Dwarf 111, ed. Phil Gallagher, p.57. © Games Workshop, 1989.

Until next month, elf-friends.