Pages

Friday, March 25, 2022

goblinpaladin's Wood Elves II - a March Rank & File update (236 points)

Nature, red in tooth and claw...
   - Alfred Tennyson, In Memoriam A.H.H, Canto LVI 

very little red actually

I actually finished my March commitment in February, trying to build a buffer which is now being rapidly eroded by climate change. While I am luckier than my countrymen a few hours to the north of me in that my region is not flooded or annihilated by the rains and neither I nor my family are at risk of death or injury, constant rain for two weeks meant that I couldn't undercoat anything until about a week ago. Fingers crossed for April.

RANK ⁊ FILE
Beastmaster + 3 warhounds (25 points)
Beastmaster + 4 bears (93 points) (3 bears count-as 4)
Beastmaster + 5 wild cats (118 points)

Mostly classic Jes Goodwin sculpts this month, as I've managed to get all the original beastmasters and at least one of each animal.

chúnna (chulainn)

The dogs are Jes Goodwin's, but are a weird size compared to other dogs on the market, so I'm not sure if I'll be able to expand the pack.

hound beastmaster

hound

I'll show off the Jes Goodwin sculpts in these kinds of images for those who don't know them.

no not those kinds of bears

The leftmost bear is Goodwin's Citadel sculpt. The mama bear in the middle (who counts as two, sitting on a 50mm square base) is from Crooked Dice. The cuddly fellow on the right comes from Bears Head Miniatures.

bear beastmaster

bear
He actually looks quite gentle, really.

faster, pussycat! kill! kill!

A range of cats here, with only the centre lynx coming from Goodwin. The other two are available at Ral Partha; cougar; tiger.

beastmaster

Beastmaster is, of course, a gender-neutral title.

kitties

Tried to paint the tiger like a lot of paleoart depicted sabre-toothed tigers in my childhood, to get a sense that species extinct elsewhere in the Old World still dwelled in Loren. The black panther-types were to echo those species, which usually dwell in hotter climates than Loren but, uh... elves, man.

The giant cats thing leans more into Wood Elves' indigenous American influences than Celtic anyway, although there was a European lion until the late BCE.

elven hunting cat

Finally, we end with Jes Goodwin's elven cat sculpt - a surprisingly rare miniature, and one I don't think I did a great job on. Still, painted is better than not.

we're gonna eat your bones, outsiders

Lo, those many years ago in my first OWAC, I did paint some boars for this selfsame project. Therefore let me present all the animal packs and their beastmasters I've completed so far. Almost certainly absolutely useless on the table, but they do look pretty cool.

Interior illustration for "The Beastfriend", Warhammer Companion, p.20
Specific artist not credited. © Games Workshop. Reprinted by Cubicle 7, 2020.

Coming up next: Characters! Hopefully!

15 comments:

  1. I really like your thinking around the colour scheme for the tiger and I think you did a great job on the Elven Hunting Cat, a rare mini as you say so it's great to see one painted up as part of such a big pack of Jes Goodwin sculpts :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Such a great assortment of animals, and what kind of Wood Elven army would it be without beast masters (even if you don't field them!) Lovely minis and paint job!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think the chances of me getting any games at all are quite low, but if i do then I'll definitely take the beasts!

      Delete
  3. Great collection of beasties, and all looking gorgeous. Why is that painting animals is fun but painting cavalry (even wolf or boar riders) somehow isn't?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Because they're so straightforward, while cavalry riders have all those pesky human(oid) faces and fiddly details! That said, if anyone has any Melnibonean cavalry...

      Delete
  4. Great job with these! Really enjoying the more animalistic emphasis on your Wood Elves.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hopefully I can get at least one more animal done in April...

      Delete
  5. Refreshing to see a wood elf army that isn't wall to wall wardancers lol. Awesome work dude.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh, I did all the wardancers in my first OWAC! Got to get the other fun stuff now!

      Delete
  6. beasts, always a good one to have as an option.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Nice mix of figures. As much as I like the concepts of the elven haven for otherwise extinct or displaced animals, the tigers seem a little out of place. I think it's just the style & scale of the sculpts. Not that they're bad. But I do really like the rest of the variety, like the bears. I think you should be able to find some more dogs too. Have you seen the Northstar Celtic fantasy dog handler? Maybea little bigger but might work. They seemed to fit the scale of the Orinon's hounds. https://www.northstarfigures.com/prod.php?prod=5501

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I've been considering those, or the various Irish kits that have dogs attached. We'll see.

      And yes, the tigers don't work perfectly, regrettably.

      Delete
  8. Great work! I really love the hound's beastmaster running to keep the pace of the hounds!

    ReplyDelete