Progress continues with getting my Wood Elf Army rebased for Warhammer: The Old World with what are, to my mind, the quintessential Warhammer Wood Elf unit: the Wardancers.
I say this in full knowledge of the fact that many will consider Glade Guard or the mighty Treeman to be more iconic. There might even be folk out there that idolise the heady days of the four-horse chariot racing between the trees.
However, Glade Guard (Archers) and Treemen are arguably lifted straight out of the pages of Tolkien (whilst the chariot was a gloriously silly thing), whereas Wardancers have always felt very much a Warhammer concept.
Although I may be wrong about this as almost all of Games Workshop's IP is nicked from somewhere, Wardancers make Warhammer Wood Elves different and are responsible, I think, for pushing the design team in a more tribal direction over time, away from the well used tropes of Middle Earth.
Although I didn't strip these models, they did need fairly extensive work doing. I used my original base coat and wash paint job as a starting point and set about highlighting up pretty much every aspect of the models.
I was somewhat surprised to discover how slack I'd been at trimming flash from these models, and so there was a fair bit of tidying up to do.
The miniatures are from a range of iterations of Wardancers and I think the guy with the spear is the oldest of the bunch.
As well as cleaning up untidy paint jobs, I also took the hair and leaves to brighter yellow and green respectively to give the miniatures a bit more 'pop' on the tabletop.
Simultaneously I calmed down the orange, using Ratskin Flesh, as my Trollslayer Orange had dried up and I'm impatient. Having said that, it gives them a more earthy tone that I like.
I also took the time to get some difference between some of the browns use on the models, something I'd not bothered with previously. This also adds some visual interests.
As I'd used orange on the model, the orange leaves aren't as crucial for this unit, but it does tie the army together well.
I've now actually managed to physically rebase the entire army except for the Treeman and the Treekin as they are currently having layers of sludge removed from them. The characters and cavalry are next in line for the tidying up treatment.
Acquired: 10
Painted: 201
Lead Mountain: 849
Painted: 201
Lead Mountain: 849
Excellent work on these classics, I agree they are what always made the Wood Elves different from the other Elves, but the look is also very Celtic, with the hair braids and bare torso's. I really like your use of other colours on this unit, gives them an individual identity, but still tie into the rest of the army.
ReplyDeleteThanks. Originally the Wardancers and Wild Riders were the units that brought orange into the army, but with the addition of the leaves I've been able to pull that back a bit, which I prefer.
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