TWANG!
Continuing with the rebase of my Wood Elf army, I've turned my attention to the core of the army; the backbone of the Asrai; the thin brown line...urgh...that sounds wrong...the Glade Guard.
In Warhammer: The Old World, the Wood Elf army requires at least one unit of Glade Guard to be included. This rule takes me back to the 3rd edition Warhammer Armies book and the reason why I never started a Wood Elf army back then...because in 3rd you had to include 30 archers before you could pick anything else.
As it happens, I do actually have 30 archers in total, but felt like a lot to a teenager getting by on pocket money and deliberately unspent lunch money.
Anyway, I basically followed the same approach as with the Deepwood Scouts, the major differences being that the cloaks are a lighter colour and so needed more definite shading and highlighting to get them consistent and as they aren't wearing hoods I decided the hair needed to be more vibrant than it was.
Going through this process with 20 models took me back to the reason why I wasn't a more motivated painter in my youth: batch painting.
As a teenager, Warhammer Fantasy Battle was the primary reason I was buying miniatures (along with a chunk of Bloodbowl) and I found the chore of painting whole units overwhelming and so never got very far.
I think that if I'd been playing something with more individual character models (perhaps even 40k) I might have learned to enjoy the process sooner.
Anyway, getting all twenty done was a bit of a slog. I did have a bit of remodelling to do as I wanted to remove the two standard heaters from the units as they are a bit of a gift to the opponent on units that don't stand up well in combat.
I previously only included them because tournaments were insisting on a certain amount of standards in an army as some factions gained an advantage from not having them. They had their benefits as I could use them as bait to draw an opponent in, but I've decided to forgo standards for now.
Basing was also done in the same way as the Deepwood Scouts and I'm really liking the splash of colour the orange leaves bring.
I'm pleased with the progress this week as I feel this was a hump I needed to get over and the Wood Elves will start to move more quickly.
I've now bought some of the newer sized bases for the Dryads, Treeman, Treekin and cavalry (no, I did not pay GW's ridiculous prices for these) and so will crack on with rebasing the rest of the army. I'm aiming to do less repainting with the Dryads, so I should hopefully have them ready soon. However, I do intend to strip the Treeman and Treekin as I really want to do those models justice.
Acquired: 10
Painted: 176
Lead Mountain: 850
Painted: 176
Lead Mountain: 850
Excellent work, Kieron. I too am far from a batch painter, so really enjoyed reading your thoughts as to get through these wood elves with your sanity intact.
ReplyDeleteIt was the Batman Miniature Game that got me actually enjoying painting rather than just trying to get things to a tabletop standard as quickly as possible. There's a lot to be said for slowing down.
DeleteGreat work mate. I have recently took up the mantle of Beastmen for the Old World. Going to be novel painting for a mass battle game, something I'v not done for 30 years
ReplyDeleteBeastmen are one of those armies I would need a plan for. So much brown!
DeleteSome of the best glade guard I've seen, the colours you've gone for just makes so much sense, and as you say the pops of colour from the leaves, really make the whole model.
ReplyDeleteThat's very kind of you. I think at the time I was just trying to do something that was quick to do. They've looked quite flat for a long time, so the leaves really have helped.
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