Grant's Wood Elf Host - Month 5 *Rank and File* (837pts)

 This month, fast attack was the order of the day. Previous months, per my original plan, I was going to paint one horse-elf per month, with the plan being to end the challenge with a single unit of cavalry, armed with bows. Due to my over-enthusiasm for the project, I ended up accomplishing this unit, in its entirety in March, instead of May. Champagne problems! Prior to this challenge, I’d never painted a horse, so thought that as a reward for my hard work, I’d focus on that for a whole month, and thus Fast Attack Month came about. A bonus of this was that I got to paint two of my favourite all time miniatures – the Elven Attack Chariot, and the Mage on Unicorn.

First up, the Chariot. Being completely honest, this was a pain in the backside to build, and to paint. It’s massive, so needed to be painted in sub-assemblies, but the mini itself really doesn’t lend to that. In the end, I painted the crew, the horses, the chariot body, the wheels and the draft pole and yoke all as separate components, before attaching it to the base. Caused me a lot of headaches in having to hold parts of the miniature that I’d already painted, and a bunch of unnecessary effort in painting things that are hidden away on the underside etc. The crew were done in with the batches from the previous month, and the horses were doubled up with the rest of the month’s effort, ensuring we had four different colours, tied together by the blue black manes and tails. I’ve been describing this job as being one that I’m glad I’ve done one of, but have no desire to do a second!

1 Wain Lord – Scythed Wheels (20pts), Falconer (6pts), Shield (8pts), Long Bow (6pts) – 168pts

                      

                

              


Next up, we have the Marauder Miniatures Mage on Unicorn. I cannot say enough nice things about this figure. It was a joy to paint, and the Unicorn would still look great if produced today. I started out with this as a ‘straight out the pack’ mini, but when I ranked her up, I wasn’t sold on the giant, winged hat she’s sporting, and felt that even with my forest paintjob, she’d look more like a displaced High Elf than a permanent resident of Athel Loren. I got out my hacksaw, and chopped it off, leaving a headband behind, and sculpted her some hair. I think it looks pretty good. Showed it to a pal, and he said he’d believe it was the original version if he didn’t know better, so I’m taking that as a compliment. Scale wise, she’s quite a bit larger than the rest of the cavalry, but I reckon that’s fine – Unicorns are creatures of Magic, so it makes sense that they’re a little larger than your standard elven steed. Works in my head, anyway. 

The box art mini for this features a white, blonde maned Unicorn, and I saw no reason to diverge from this. I went for a cold white rather than a warm one, mostly because I wanted to use the same recipe as the white on the Elves trousers, but I'm really happy with how it's come together on the larger surface.

1 Greenfey (level 20 Wizard) – Riding Unicorn (80pts) – 383pts

    



                                

Throughout the project so far, my goal has been to take the lowest version of each troop type, in order that I have a baseline points value that I can scale up by ‘promoting’ them to more senior versions. With this unit of Lancers, there was no way that they were anything other than Elven Lords. I can’t say I was a fan of some of these. Buddy with the winged helm is ok, and I quite liked the bare head one, but the rest of the range are massively heavily armoured, which kind of looks out of place in the Forest. I’m excusing these as being where the older Elves that chose not to return to Ulthuan kept some of the weapons, armour and customs of their Higher cousins, and are wearing them into battle in tribute to the old ways. Again, it makes sense in my head. I’m using Barding on the horses points wise to represent this, as Heavy Armour isn’t an option in Wood Elves

5 Elven Lords – Barding (40pts) – 195pts



                    

Last new submission for the month is another Hero. My partner bought this for me for Christmas, as she knew I was planning on painting old Wood Elves this year, and combo’d with a pal to pick this. I needed to find a time to get some paint on it, as any lovely kindness and consideration like this warrants a coat of paint on it. Don’t know if I’m sold on this paintjob – I think I’ve botched the eyes on the Eagle, but I can revisit them later.

1 Guardian (Level 10 Hero) – Great Weapon (2pts), Javelin (1pt (to represent his Eagle)) – 91pts
                                

Total for the month – 837pts.
Total for previous months – 2625pts
Running Total – 3462pts

Wow. Planned for a 2000pts army, and am already over the size of the ‘typical’ third edition battle. Very pleased.

Last month, I’d mentioned that I was unhappy with the shields that I’d ordered for the army. Happy to say that while the replacements arrived too late to be included with last month’s entry, I have successfully caught up, and am able to re-present the Kinband and Wardancers, who are now completed. Not claiming any points for these, but they are now done. They’re from the wonderful oldschoolminiatures.co.uk, and I can heartily recommend these.



    

Plans for next month are quite exciting. I’m planning 3 Treemen, and a Forest Giant using the wonderful Ral Partha Cloud Giant. Will break the all-citadel self imposed rule I’ve placed on myself, but it’s such a lovely miniature, and I really want an excuse to paint one. Fingers crossed I can get through this last month – would be incredibly annoying to fall at the final hurdle, and I’d love to push the total over 4000pts, which this planned output would do, even not claiming any points for the off list Forest Giant. See you in a month!