My last Fembruary model today (though not quite my last February model to share) – a Wood Elf Waywatcher, released alongside the Warhammer Armies: Wood Elf sourcebook in 2007. A Gary Morley sculpt, the technique is competent, but the sculpt itself is a bit of an overdetailed but indistinct mess – full of “wait.. what is THAT supposed to be?”-type details, which frankly make the model notsomuch fun to paint. As you can see, it’s a complete mess of “visual noise” up close, but given the four-foot test, it looks fine. So I’ll call that a “good enough” win.
Just one Waywatcher, you ask? Yep. This one was a model selected to represent Marouda’s Elven archer in a long-gone, lightweight but decent fun but, low-effort, kill-and-loot pathfinder “campaign”. We didn’t get all that far, and the “long-gone part is probably the biggest reason why the model never got completed – and Fembruary is the reason that it now finally did get completed. I’ve got a few more of these somewhere, but they’re not likely to see the painting desk until we get back into the swing of something like Kings of War or AoS again. I’d like to do so this year, but there’s a lot of cleaning and clearing and culling to do first…
Azazel's Bitz Box. 
At first glance it looks great. Looking closer… yes, there’s too much there, but you’ve still made it look good!
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Thanks Tarmor. I’m certainly not looking forward to painting the rest of them, though!
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Great work
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Thank you!
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Looks good, and I feel your pain on the denial overload, that was always a bit of a pain back in the days I played GW games.
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Yeah, it can be really off-putting sometimes. It’s the main reason I never started painting my metal Sisters of Batttle….
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Nice work on that. I agree with you about the sculpt- I think losing the leaf design would have been a good start for it.
Cheers,
Pete.
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I don’t mind the leaves to tell you the truth – the biggest offenders while painting were the layers of cover and binding on the arms, legs, torso, bow and the weird messy mask…. after that the leaves were pleasant by comparison!
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She looks fab mate, and to be fair, it’s not the worst thing Morley ever sculpted 😂
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Touche, Alex!
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We do not mind this miniature, and it seems to us that you have reached a good balance between respecting the camouflage aspect of this waywatcher (full of leaves, clothes, laces) and the pictorial need not to make everything too uniform with identical colors. Indeed some details are subject to interpretation…but your result is very satisfactory
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Thanks Rodor! – I do like to try and strike a balance between keeping things interesting without making them too uniform – unless that’s what’s called for on the model, of course! 🙂
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Some sculptors really do have a phobia of blank spaces on models don’t they! I knew someone who always called their clippers “Citadel Extraneous Detail Removers”. Regardless I do like a Wood Elf and you’ve done a lovely job with this one.
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Hahah I’ve never gone that far 😀 but I don’t get too annoyed by the extra details if I can figure out what they’re supposed to be/be part of. That wasn’t easy on this one!
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Lovely, I hadn’t realised that Gary Morley was working on this range. I think you’ve, made a really good job of this – and you know that I’m big a fan of the ‘four foot test’!
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Heh, it really does make more sense in a lot of ways if you think about it than overdoing it with details. 😀
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Very nice! 🙂 Colours all work well for me and she didn’t strike me as an overly-busy detailed mini!
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Thanks John – you’re very kind. I’ll ship the rest of them to you to paint up for me in that case! 😀
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I have to agree that the extra leaves were a bit unnecessary (and lacking in detail at that!). Having said that, you chose great colors because the leaves don’t overpower the painted mini at all. Its great to see a Wood Elf or any elves really. I always enjoy painting them and seeing others paint them 🙂
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Thanks Kuribo! I didn’t mind the leave to be quite honest – it was the layers of cover and binding on the arms, legs, torso, bow and the weird messy mask. I would like to get more elves done – we’ll see where this year’s painting takes us, eh? 🙂
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Nicely done Azazel
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Cheers, mate!
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Great use of subtle tones mate, ties the model together really well.
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I fully agree with the detail. It’s one of the reasons I much prefer the 4/5th Ed sculpts and have so far avoided painting these! I think you’ve done a great job though!
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