Paul M's High Elf Host - Rank and File Month 3 - Phoenix Guard Elite

 

March for March! I always like to work on infantry units during March and this year was no different for my third rank and file month. It was finally time to work on the elite Phoenix Guard, painted in colours suitable for the time the Kings of Caledor sat upon the Phoenix throne, to match the theme of my army. 

(Apologies. I thought I had better photos of this stage of the process but I can't find them anywhere.)

As those of you who followed the first half of my High Elf project last year will remember I did A LOT of press moulding for this project. Mostly shields, which turned out OK. Occasionally very bad attempts at other things... The problem with the old Phoenix Guard sculpt is that while being a good weight it has a very spindly spear point top to the halberd, and the combination of a very weighty base and the flimsy join means you see an awful lot of damaged ones with no halberd tops.

There were a number of such unfortunates in my collection and I had a crack at moulding some halberd tops from milliput. They were not my best work and a lot were just binned. I managed one decent one out of green stuff, although I wasn't that happy with the slightly bendy quality it still had.. useful sometimes, but not quite what I wanted here. I know that you can mix milliput and green stuff, and that is almost certainly what I should have done for best effect here, and will try if I have to do something similar again.

Although I wasn't a massive fan of the job I had done with the press moulded halberd tops but once they are all painted and in the mix with the others they don't stand out too badly.

The concept behind the Phoenix Guard as elite guardians of the Temple of Asuryan, sworn to a vow of magical silence and their service to the Phoenix Kings, plus the mix of helmet designs suggests to me that they might be a unit that draws from the elite warriors from across the regions of Ulthuan. Why the helmet designs? Well I sort of see Yvresse in the eagle winged helm, Caledor in the dragon helm, and Cothique in the fish helm. The more modest, arrow design could be Eataine. I like this idea because it gives me a chance to represent a few more regions of Ulthuan in my grand host, even if I don't have any dedicated units from those regions. Although... Cothique... Hmmm.... I've always been tempted by Sea Elves ;p   

I often joke about my chosen faction being "High Maintenance Elves".... well this lot really are high maintenance. 105 gemstones in this unit. One. Hundred. And. Five. Some of them are tiny bastards too.

Right! That's enough waffle for this month.

Monthly total:

20 Phoenix Guard (14 pts each) - 280 pts

Here they are alongside the Army general and his dragon from OWAC V, who inspired the unit colour scheme.

Next up more archers and a return to the great island city of Lothern!