Marauders work in progress

Work on the marauders is going well. I am painting over a white undercoat to minimise the time spent on them. A thin coat of a colour over a white base can give the hint of a highlight and shade. A further glaze or wash can add to the shading. For example, the flesh has a base coat and two glazes and looks reasonable. Still to do are the base colours for the remaining leather areas and the metals and weapon handles. Once these are done I will glaze with a grey, hopefully getting a good enough finish to call them virtually done. I may embellish with some front rank highlighting, even tattoos on the skin, depending on how long has been spent. So far, so good.

One interesting thing to note is the difference between the metal and plastic models. All of the unit is being painted en masse, so each model gets exactly the same treatment - the same paint mix and consistency. Yet the glaze seems to adhere better to the plastic models. Look closely at the skin areas of the models to see the difference between how the glaze takes to the metal and plastic models.

Marauders

After some deliberation (and some good advice from various sources, thanks guys), I have decided to concentrate my efforts on three armies this year. As the picture shows, one of these is the chaos army; a unit of Slaanesh marauders in the making. I originally intended to dedicate the whole army to Khorne, but I decided that they didn't really look Khornate enough, so I have started to swap a few heads, losing the hairy/beardy viking style and using more of the bald/smooth helmets. There's also a couple of daemonette heads, but I think they look a bit silly so will probably snap those off and replace them with dark elf heads. I also have a fair number of the older metal marauders, some will be used in this regiment, others will be used in a Khorne unit, armed with great weapons.

Over the next few weeks and months I will get plenty of practise with the army as it will be used in a small series of linked games. This should give me plenty of opportunity to try out different options before I commit to painting too much. I will tackle mostly core units (marauders and warriors), then move on to knights and chosen. I would like to include ogres and dragon ogres, but will have to wait for plastics of these models because I think the metal versions are not quite up to the standard of the core troops.

My original idea was to make most of the units dedicated to Khorne, but I have switched now to a multi god approach. The idea of mutated marauders of Tzeentch that could double up as Forsaken is appealing. I could also attempt a unit of four chaos ogres, one for each of the gods, though that would push my limited modelling skills to the limit. The long term idea is to have enough models to choose an army based on any one of the gods, or to mix and match.

Taking Stock

Mmm. I seem to have a LOT of projects on the go at the moment. I need to write them down in a list and assess progress and prospects. Here goes:-

• Dwarfs - a good 1500 points painted, not much more effort required to take it to 2,000 points.
• Orcs and goblins - a fair number painted (around 1000 points), with at least the same amount unpainted.
  
• High Elves - one of my oldest armies, several units painted over ten years ago. A new Avelorn/Chrace army just started.
• Wood Elves - A joint project with the Avelorn troops - no progress otherwise.
• Empire - a couple of detachments speed painted, otherwise all still grey plastic.
• Chaos - another of my older armies, I have a Tzeentch army in an almost complete state (though a couple of units are daemon, the rest are warriors). A large contingent of unpainted plastics and metals (earmarked as Khorne).
• Ogre Kingdoms - mostly grey plastic, some half-painted units.

That's just the fantasy armies. I also have:-

• Orks - a couple of squads fully painted, plus lots of troops and a handful of vehicles in unpainted state. This is my main 40k army.
• Marines - just the bits from Black Reach and most of the bits from Macragge, plus a few metal models, all unassembled. I do think that this would be an ideal candidate for the new airbrush and would like to develop my own chapter.
• Chaos Marines - a few squads of Iron Warriors from an old painting job, plus a fair few bits of Death Guard/marines I was tinkering with.
• Minas Tirith sprues - a dozen painted troops, two dozen unpainted and sundry metal characters and hobbits. Oh, and a painted ent.

Sheesh, that's a lot of unpainted models. I play once a week on average, so if I alternated between each of these, I would get to use an army about 5 times a year. I really need to thin them down somewhat. But where should the axe swing? I do tend to come back to armies, even after a several year break, just as I recently developed an urge to get back into the elf gaming. Variety is good for me, I'm not really a one army kind of guy, I like to ring the changes. But this lot is probably too much choice. Either that, or make a commitment to painting all this stuff before I buy anything new. Which is about as likely as Gordon Brown winning the next election!

Elf archers

The first unit of my new HE-WE army (that's High Elf Wood Elf for those confused by the abbreviation). This unit is mainly HE legs and torsos with WE arms and heads. It gives a fairly nice generic feel that could be related to either army.

More units to be completed include another archer regiment, possibly in this same style, a regiment of shadow warriors that will double as scouts - these will have hooded heads and cloaks to differentiate them from standard archers. I also intend to make a unit of spearmen, which will double as eternal guard. I am still pondering how best to tackle mounted troops, but it should be relatively easy to put together a unit of glade riders that can double as reavers. I do have about a dozen or so metal Silver Helms from about ten years back, so maybe they could be used at some point, though I was thinking they might fit better into another army.

I am itching to get some paint on these figures, because I want to try out some techniques. But first I have to buy a compressor to power an airbrush. I have wanted to try one for a while so decided this would be as good a time as any to start. My warhammer hobby drought has definitely ended.

More thoughts on the elves

I have been thinking more and more about the multi elf army. In fact, I have started to stick together some prototypes, made from high elf and wood elf parts. And very nice they look too. I am hoping to get a test model painted soon.

I also tried them out in a small battle last night. The defenders of Avelorn (with a small Chrace contingent) attempted to defend their woodland realm against a marauding beastmen army. Despite losing the game in the sixth turn, I really enjoyed playing. It was a completely different propostition from the heavily armoured, tough dwarfs, or the heavily armoured, brutal chaos warriors. It calls for a completely different outlook on tactics. And that is what I was looking for, a change to the usual game of stand back, take it on the chin, then dish it out/grind them down. With the elf army, I felt as though I had to be more mentally agile, more tactical. It was a very promising start and I am keener than ever to get stuck into the army.