End of Vacation...

Vacation has ended, and there are far fewer elves painted than I'd hoped. I think I've settled on a paint scheme, the archers have been blocked in, and the dragons, except the big one, have been base coated.

I was hoping to at least have the archers done, but honey-do projects consumed much of my time. So little painting was done, but my lovely and patient wife is happier about the state of our house, and that's always good.

Finally, I came to some conclusion. The first is that I need to paint more regularly to build skill with a brush rather than in flurries and mad rushes. The second is that this is not the army for me to learn to paint non-metallic metals. In fact, an army is not the thing at all for me to work on learning that skill at all. once I finish this army, I'll consider learning that skill on either a smaller unit or single models.

When Geekdomes Collide

One of my other hobbies, which consumed much of my life for the last 20+ years has been historic fencing. Through that organization, I also got to continue my interest in archery that began in college and was furthered for a number of years instructing archery in day-camps during the summer.

I FINALLY got to start applying paint to my elves this afternoon. I started with the archers and, to my amusement, I found myself wanting to correct their form and advise them that wearing shirts with big sleeves would risk interfering with their bow strings. Then, of course, I found myself thinking, "But they've been doing this hundreds of years, so maybe they know something about form I don't..."

Progress with Kit-Bashing

My skills in molding and customizing models are not even what I'd call developing. I did a little minor kit bashing for my elves, though.

On the right is an elf spearman. On the left is a spearman I made using the body and legs from some old dark elves I had left over from an attempt at a DE warband for Mordheim. Some extra spearman bits and some trimming of the shoulder armor, and he looks the part.

The kneeling legs, bow, and right arm are extras from the HE archers box. The head is an extra from the spearmen set, and the body is another DE torso.

This guy was originally intended for a D&D campaign, but I was able to add a HE banner and put a sword hilt on the scabbard to make up for the one that went with the hand that was holding it to make room for the banner. Hopefully I'll have a fairly unique BSB.

Getting closer...

Two of the three small dragons and the general are now paint free. I debated using the smaller dragons to instead pull the chariot instead of lions, but the I remembered why I have to keep the lions on the chariot. The right hand lion, the one that is pawing at something, must be painted orange to commemorate Scratchy, my wife's late orang cat she got in grad school. 

So the only minis still incomplete are the conversions on the bsb and final assembly of the chariot.

Slow beginnings

So the unpacking and gluing has begun. I've got the army about 60% assembled, the smaller dragons and the general are soaking in simple green. (Old minis used for D&D over the years.) The current question is the appropriate role for the two bigger dragons. Do I use the one with the 11"-12" wingspan for the general's ride and the 7"-8" wingspan for the phoenix or the other way around? Either will require some green stuff to make a saddle and all.

Here there be dragons?

So in building my HE list, I was looking at getting a few great eagles and a phoenix. However, while the models are cool, I'm cheap. I also already have a large reaper dragon, a medium-plus reaper dragon, and three small reaper dragons. I guess I'm seeing the beginnings of a theme. I'm  debating putting a prince on a dragon as well. but can't decide to put him on the really big one or the mid-sized one and use the other in place of the Phoenix. Using either as a mount will require some green stuff for a saddle, at least. I'll also need to strip and repaint the large and three smalls, but I was planning on doing that anyway.

New Army False Start

With having to cancel out of LWGT and giving up on 40K for the time, there is no reason to delay starting the new fantasy army. Was going to start assembling my high elves today, but all of my glue has dried up. Then suddenly I had things I had to do and never got out for more glue.

For the time being I'm up in the air about a paint scheme. I like the blue and white, but I see so much of it. I was considering red until I saw a really nice red one, and now I don't want to do red. Not feeling it with yellow, orange, green, or purple. Now I'm considering doing a B&W/greyscale army with the only color being in the heraldry. I'm a long way from paint at this point, so it's entirely likely that I'll change my mind a few times.

Either way, this will be the first army I've built using non-GW models, even though it won't be many.