Shadespyre's January post - Rank and File (I) - (Still Unnamed) Dark Elf Army - 382 points

OWAC VI - Rank and File (I) - Back to Bases / Purple Haze

January

You'd think that having decided to paint an army purple, it would all be easy from there? But I couldn't settle on any of the three purples that I already owned, and spent ages mucking about trying to find just the right colour. In the end, I stumbled upon this boxed set from Vallejo:

Surely one of these would do? After some experimentation, I produced a first mini which I quite liked the look of using SEVEN of the eight in the box. I do like to make life hard for myself. I strongly suspect that i can cut at least two of those as we go along, but we'll see.

I chose this lady to paint first because she doesn't actually have an assigned space in the army yet, so she's in some ways "disposable" - but of course she's also not very representative of the rest of the force, which makes her a rather poor test subject. You'd think I would know better by now?

Other than the two-tone purple, this also confirmed that my other idea would work - the classic Drow combination of dark skin and white hair. Now I know Warhammer purists won't like it, but it follows my old school D&D influences - the same ones that brought you yellow skinned Goblins (or was it Gnolls?) and brown skinned Orcs. Just like those two armies, little else will follow D&D logic, so this'll be a WHFB Dark Elf army in all other aspects. 

I hope it's obvious that the "dungeon grey" base is not going to be the final look? I'm still thinking snowy, but until I get chance to try a few things we'll all have to wait and see.

But, let's talk about bases - specifically, why I've moved away from plastic slotta bases to MDF ones.

The perceived advantages were:

20mm bases are 20mm across at the top, allowing more space for that preslotta lead base to fit; fit together neatly so no visible edges when in movement trays; Can drill holes through them to neatly fit magnets rather than fiddly fixing under slotta bases; save my supply of old slotta bases for slotta figures (yes, I do collect those, too)

Turns out there are some issues that come with them. They are not as tough as plastic, I've squished some corners when dropping them. Drilling holes through them was easy but doing it several hundred times (two magnets per cavalry base) was very tedious. And the bases fit so neatly that it can be hard to get them in and out of the movement trays.

Ultimately, I don't think we can call it success or failure until I have a unit with finished bases and tray to look at.

I bet you really came here to see some painted miniatures, though? Right then, this is what I've got ready to share this month, representing half of my compulsory troops under the Warhammer Armies list

First up, a regiment of 20 of Mengil Manhide's famous Company

I wasn't sure how to approach the manhide cloaks, I roughly mixed Rotting Flesh with various othe normal flesh tones and then slapped it on in random pathes, I think the variations are mostly so subtle that they are lost, but still.

The shields remain unadorned for now, this will remain so until I hit upon an overall army theme (or just panic and pick something). I think a simple device in either white or gold. I've got some ideas but not a clear favourite at this point.

And you may notice that the standard bearer is *not* the one from the RR4 set, but instead a conversion of the trooper model. The one "proper" standard bearer I have got has been co-opted to the Army Standard role, for now. With a second regiment planned, it makes more sense to do this than have mismatched bearers, in my mind at least.

The other compulsory unit is Crossbowmen, so here are the first 10 of those

They end up with a very different balance of colours without the brown cloaks and bright shields (though most of them are shielded, just slung on their backs). I'm pretty pleased with how this worked, and I rather wish there were more unshielded, uncloaked minis to repeat this look with. But as ever, the miniature range dictates what I have to work with. 

Army List Additions:

Scores for January:          382 points    30 models

20 x Dark Elf Warriors    (Standard Bearer, Musician)                                242 points

10 x Dark Elf Crossbowmen       (Shields)                                                       140 points

Running Total:                  382 points    30 models

Chances are I'll end up adding a champion to each of my close combat units, but that's for another day. 

Coming Next:

It'll be no surprise to regular viewers that my "paint early, paint often" policy means that other units are already under the brush. So though February is a shorter month, I'm going to try to finish the same again *and* another unit from the core list I posted in the introduction. If I want to squeeze all the possible extras on, I need that list done during March to create a "spare" Rank and File month.