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.

Gondor army started

I picked up a Gondor sprue from ebay for under a fiver, just to assess the painting speed. The models are smaller than fantasy but with less detail, so should be easy enough to get painted in a short time. In fact, I painted the whole dozen of them within a couple of days of them arriving! I just need some more to make up enough to fill a few bases. But it's nice that collecting an army does not fill me with the dread that it will take years to complete. An afternoon to paint 12 infantry is an encouraging omen. Bring on a whole box!

War of the Ring

I have read a few favourable reports about the War of the Ring, so over the weekend I managed to get a quick demo of the game in the local Games Workshop. And quick it was, the game seems pretty straight forward and the turns seem to rattle by. I don't think it could ever replace WHFB as my favourite game, but it impressed me enough to scan the pages of ebay for some cheap troops. A Gondor force and some orcs (both Isengard and Mordor) will no doubt be added to the mountain of unpainted plastics.

Sap rising

Yesterday I happened to be in Glasgow and visited the KelvinHall Museum. One of the galleries contained some of the work by the Macdonald sisters, artists based in Glasgow at the turn of the twentieth century. In particular, there was a painting titled "Oh ye that walk in Willow Wood" that really caught my eye. There's a link here, though the on screen colours can not hope to match the subtelty of the original.

My thoughts turned to how I could use those lovely colours in my own models. The obvious candidates would be elves, epsecially wood elves. Searching through my piles of plastics bits I found some glade guard and dryads, a solid start to an army. I also have a few bits of plastic high elves, which I could mix in with the wood elves. My idea is to build an army that can be used as wood elves, but also could be used as High Elves from the sylvan realms of Avelorn and Chrace. I could build the archers and spears to be inter-changeable across the two armies. I could also use glade riders/ellyrion reavers in a similar fashion, maybe even silver helms too at a push. If I could get together a half dozen units in this way, it would be a solid start to two armies for the price of one. Result!

When it comes to special units the inter-changeability would be more difficult, so I would probably stick to army specific units such as wardancers and White Lions. Having said that, a unit or two of shadow warriors could easily double as waywatchers.

For characters, the idea of restricting them to female mages is appealing. I have a couple of metals that spring to mind immediately. There's also the mouth-watering prospect of modelling a female elf on a unicorn or an eagle, maybe even a stag.

I need to think about the idea a bit more, to see if it crystallises as a more definite plan, or just another of those pipe dreams.