BSB difficulties

I've converted up Araloth to be my Battle standard bearer and it was a lot more effort than I thought it would be. I like how it's come out but bloody hell it was hard work

The first unit!

I finished another 5 today! That means I have completed the first of 5 units! Now the technique is down I can actually do these quite quickly and hope has been restored that the army can be finished in time. I think I've fixed the problem I had with the bases in that they needed starker highlights.

The first 5!

FINALLY!!! After lots of intense family issues and worky business things I finally managed to finish the first 5 Wood Elves! I love the Glade Guard models but they're so detailed that in the end I left a bunch of the details brown. I'm not convinced on the bases yet, feels like they're missing something (maybe the brown needs some more highlighting or a bit of stone here and there) but I love how the flowers look. 

Only another 37 models to go!

Wild Riders and Spellweaver

The final reinforcements for my Wood Elves arrived yesterday and I managed to get some time on this lovely Chocolate Sunday. The Wild riders are lovely models but they're in so many pieces that after the first one I was really eager to see them finished.

I ummed and erred over whether or not to make these Sisters of the Thorn instead but I figured that with all of my archers I really had the support aspect covered so went with some hard hitting cavalry. I'm glad I made that decision as that left enough pieces to convert up a Spellweaver for my force!

I had some spare Glade Guard legs and added the Sisters of the Thorn champion body. I think it's come out nicely but only a decent paint job will show up what it really looks like. Right that's all the figures I needed for my force so now on to painting! 

Seeing the Wood for the Trees!

My Wood Elves arrived on Thursday YAY! Two days later than they should have due to Royal Mail BOOOO! So I've been itching to stick them all together as fielding this -

- would not win me any prizes at Battle Brothers in May. Now I have two months to get all this assembled and painted (plus 5 Wild Riders and a Spellweaver) which I thought would be incredibly easy. Assembling them was only going to take a couple of hours right? WRONG!

First of all Wood Elf models are exceedingly complex, nowadays most of GW's range is incredibly detailed and I'd forgotten this. Second I decided, as you can see in that last picture, that I wanted scenic bases. A nice base increases how good a model looks tenfold and it's so easy when you're using cork. I intend to make it look like a mix of raised mud and rocky outcrops, still needs a few roots and bits and pieces but you can already see that it creates a couple of different levels in the units to make them more interesting.

After sticking together 31 Glade Guard I was glad to move on to the beautiful Wildwood Rangers. The models are gorgeous and I can't wait to get these guys monster hunting. But after these guys I finally got to the model I'd been waiting to put together all day. The Treeman!

I love the model but the 3 standard builds aren't completely to my liking. The Ancient and Durthu have a bit more movement in them but I love the strangleroots shooting out so I did some clipping and changing and there you have it! A simple modification to the build and it's a lot more dynamic, my only concern is that those strangleroots are super fragile. I can see them breaking at some point and me being very sad.

Finally after so many hours I completed all of the boxsets, as you can see from the family shot above. Really excited to have a Wood Elf army again and I can not wait to try these guys out int heir first game!

TO THE TREES!

I've made a big decision. I will be going to Battle Brothers this year! Last time I played in a tournament at Warhammer World I was 17 years old, that means it's been 16 years! Then I took my beloved Wood Elves, I remember sitting on the side of a bed in a B&B finishing the bases at 1am on the morning of the tournament. I didn't win or even get in the top ten but it was one of the most fun weekends I'd ever had. Those Wood Elves have long since been sold for rent money and I've moved out of the hobby and back in again so when I saw that the weekend after the grand reopening of Warhammer World was a doubles tournament it reignited some nostalgic fires in my hobbyist's soul and I couldn't resist signing up.

As readers of this blog and anyone I meet randomly in the street will tell you I have a large Vampire Counts force now, on it's way to being painted at 3000pts, and play with it regularly. I love my Vampires and they're quite a pretty looking army to boot. However, it's been 16 years, I couldn't return to Warhammer World without the army that started it all for me. With the aid of a very good friend (Samuel!) I now have 1000pts of new Wood Elf models on their way to me. But some remnant of my old force remains and joins the new recruits so for your enjoyment here is the first model of my new Wood Elf force, my spellsinger:

Here's the 1st draft of my 1300pts list, to me it seems a bit sparse but I'm assured Wood Elves are an elite army and as my partner is an Ogre Kingdom's player I'm not too worried about massed units:

Anyone got any thoughts?

In the grim darkness of my mother's loft

While visiting my mum this weekend to take her cards, presents and affection I discovered my old Eldar army in the loft. What surprised me is that not only is it at least 1500 pts but that all the bits are there! Heads, arms, weapons everything! Well done past Chris! I used to love Eldar when I was collecting 40k and no matter what other armies I'd try out I'd then go back to my beloved Eldar. If I remember rightly this was the 3rd Eldar army I did with the newer models. I imagine if I dig around in my mum's loft a bit more I'd find fire dragons and swooping hawks. If you look very carefully you'll see the original Avatar model with the slave girls from the old dark elf set. So now I'm thinking that maybe I'll start playing 40k again. What do you guys think?