Firstly a bit about myself. I got in to the hobby in my early teens (which was a long time ago !) and spent many an hour looking at all the lovely models seen in White Dwarf which I could never afford. Anyway fast forward nearly 30 years and being bored one day I came a site showcasing some painted models and my interested was restored. I must admit my first truelove when it comes to models/race are slightly more stocky and a lot more hairier yes its dwarfs. Now for the first few years back in the hobby it was all about the dwarfs, but slowly I got bored with painting them and started dabbling with other races. With elfs it was because of a copy of White Dwarf showing the classic Mike McVey wood elf army (WD141) and so after many bids on ebay I 've managed to get my hands on quite a few of the classic 80's elfs and I thought I'd show you my slow progress. Some of you might have seen these on others sites but I'm guessing this is the place where they will be appreciated.
With the cavalry my first big decision was the colour of the horses, do I go for the typical white or go for something different. After some consideration I've tried to go for a dapple grey/white type. Anyway that's way to many words on to the pictures.
First is my a test model I did so I could work out both a colour scheme and method I would use for painting.
The Horse
The Rider
The Finished model
The only real change from the start to the finished model, were I added a touch of dark blue into the shaded greys which helped give it more depth to the colours. Sadly I've been waiting for a couple of weeks for some basing materials so the base will have to wait.
Here are the next 3 of my cavalry. My only issue is with trying to make each horse look unique, so I've spent a good amount of time searching for pictures of dapple horses.
Here's some close ups of the riders.
And finally a group shot of the 4 so far.
While waiting for materials I've begun to think about how I'm going to line these little buggers up. My plan is to cut off most of the tab and then fill in the base and make a hole in the middle of base. This way I can move the horse's to give my room for the rear rank heads up against the front rank tails. I also need to start making some shields, I've got the molds done just need to actually make some up.
Nice. I've got a decent collection of these guys myself. In some ways I prefer them to the new stuff. Maybe they don't have quite as much detail, and some are a bit static, but somehow they just have more character.
Nice job on the horses. And being able to copy shields for these guys is a lifesaver. It's insanely hard to find them.
I finally got my hands on my basing materials so have been able to work on bases. I've firstly done a couple of test pieces firstly to work out a base colour for the gravel and secondly for the actual flocking of the base. Here are the results
I used a mixture of Gale Force 9 flock, Dark Conifer, Meadow and Spring Undergrowth for the base on the left. This stuff is like finely shredded sponge. I started with the darkest (Conifer) and worked up to the lightest (Spring) it took several coats to get a nice coverage and height. For the right one I firstly glued some Gale Force 9 Summer 3 Colour Clump Foliage mix, this stuff is not so fine as the other stuff so is great for getting some higher areas onto the base. the only thing I might add are some grass tufts but beyond that I'm happy with both the result and the Gale Force 9 flock.
So finally based the first 4 of my cavalry and gave them some shields. Originally I was going to go for just a green shield but felt it was just too plain. So I added the brownish red stripe which not only helps with the shield but also ties in with my colour scheme of green and red. On to the photos.
I've also got on with making a standard bearer, he's at the base coat stage but his horse is done. I've tried to make this one stand out from the others, so not only have I used a much rarer horse but I've also given it a dark mane compared to the usual off white of the others. The gems on the reins were a real pain in the butt as I normally just use a simple 3 colour paint job on my gems, but as these were so large I needed to blend the colours into each other to get the right look so they ended up taking a lot longer than normal.
Especially like the horses and bases. I have a unit of ten in my WE army and they rank OK, you just need to experiment with which model goes where in the unit, how far forward to put the tab in the slot (consider cutting some of the tab off if necessary) and the balance of the horizontal positioning. I think I've had to convert command figures for four units of these guys so far. I ended up replacing the plastic spears with metal ones. All sorts of shields go OK, I've got some big oval ones on my Silver Helms and smaller, rounder ones elsewhere.
Its been a long time and not much to show for it. However I recently got the urge to make up a base for a chariot I intend to paint within the next 10 years LOL. Anyway its a 100mm x 150mm base with milliput trees and greenstuff and paperclip toadstools.
It is a nice teaser, now speed up those ten years. Painted like this, the models actually look great. They have more character than most of the new ones.
Painted like this, the models actually look great. They have more character than most of the new ones.