Tag Archives: Classic Citadel Miniatures

From the Painting Desk #3 – Wardancing the night away! Warhammer Fantasy Battle 3rd Edition “Oldhammer” Wood Elf Wardancers (Jes Goodwin)

by

6

WHFB Warhammer Fantasy Battle 3rd Edition Oldhammer Jes Goodwin Wood Elf Wardancers, Warhammer The Old World, Age of Sigmar

Unusually for my posts, as it happens – is an actual followup on some of the WIP stuff I’ve shown. Well, first time for everything and all that. Here’s what I’ve made progress on in the last few weeks. I’m still battling a nasty winter cold bug, so I haven’t felt like I’ve had the level of concentration to work on the Brettonian Noblewoman or the old Citadel ranger, so I’ve mostly been concentrating on Project: Update.

Which is to say going through my old cases of figures and doing some rebasing and touchups on them. So none of these figures are newly painted, strictly speaking. They’ve been rebased, and had some of the weakest elements of the original work touched up as well as chipped paint, etc, but the vast majority of the work is original.

WHFB Warhammer Fantasy Battle 3rd Edition Oldhammer Jes Goodwin Wood Elf Wardancers, Warhammer The Old World, Age of Sigmar

I’ve finished several of the Wardancers. You probably can’t see a lot of difference between these pics and the original paint shown in the previous post. That’s because I’ve really just wanted to touch them up, but keep the integrity or essence of the original paint, since they were painted in my youth a good 20+ years ago. (now I feel old!) Mostly simple stuff like brightening the metals, a little bit of shading or highlighting here and there, but not going all out.

WHFB Warhammer Fantasy Battle 3rd Edition Oldhammer Jes Goodwin Wood Elf Wardancers, Warhammer The Old World, Age of Sigmar

For anyone wondering why these Wood Elf Wardancers are painted in an almost Clownish style, rather than like traditional Wood Elves or like Celts – it’s because shortly after these old models were originally released, the paint scheme in White Dwarf/’eavy Metal showed them in a distinctly Harlequin-esque manner. Since at this stage I was still a teenager, I did what teenagers are supposed to do, and used the WD pictures as a guide on how to paint my models. Except for the chequerboard guy – He was a direct copy (to the best of my ability at the time) of a particularly striking model in the issue. On reflection, I wonder if those gaily-painted Wardancers might have been a specific inspiration for the eventual look and feel of the 40k Harlequins?

WHFB Warhammer Fantasy Battle 3rd Edition Oldhammer Jes Goodwin Wood Elf Beastmaster, Warhammer The Old World, Age of Sigmar

This figure has been bundled in with my Wardancers since the beginning, though he’s not actually one of them. He’s a Wood Elf Beastmaster, and originally came partnered with a large model of a Bear. I somehow ended up with two of said bear, and converted one (with my skills of the day) into a Bear-Centaur using the torso of a Chaos Warrior. The other, I’ve seen floating around in my bits boxes, but probably not for a couple of years, and certainly not since moving at the end of last year. Should I be lucky enough to have it turn up again, I’ll be giving him a trip to the front of the painting queue, mounting him on a 40mm round base, and reuniting him with his master. Should that happen, I’m sure I’ll update the blog with a pic or two.

WHFB Warhammer Fantasy Battle 3rd Edition Oldhammer Jes Goodwin Wood Elf Wardancers, Warhammer The Old World, Age of Sigmar

This guy, I’m not sure how to finish. Originally, I darkened the metal in preparation for the usual highlighting of plate and chain, and found the “blackened iron” look to be a nice surprise – so I left it as is. Now that I’m touching the figures up, I’m not sure whether I should leave it dark, or brighten it up to match his brethren. Thoughts?

WHFB Warhammer Fantasy Battle 3rd Edition Oldhammer Jes Goodwin Wood Elf Wardancers, Warhammer The Old World, Age of Sigmar

Since managing to finish the first wave of these models, I’ve pulled out the  remaining 4 wardancers that I have really not been as happy with in years, so for these four I’m in two minds on whether to overpaint certain sections or strip and repaint. At this stage I’m thinking overpaint on the Native American-themed model, partial repaint on the guy with green boots (new pants or new boots? Suggestions?) A significant re/overpaint for the  musician, and I’m really not sure at all what to do with the guy in camo. Obviously, it was kind of a humorous paint scheme, but I’m not sure if the joke really holds up these days. Anyone have any opinions on it?

WHFB Warhammer Fantasy Battle Midhammer Gary Morley Wood Elf Wardancers, Warhammer The Old World, Age of Sigmar

I also came across a few of the more modern Wardancer figures in bare metal that I’d picked up randomly, which I was happy to leave aside for an indeterminate amount of time but now kind of feel like I should paint up, since I’m almost done with their OldHammer brethren. On the one hand, I don’t really want to have these figures queue jump the stuff I’m actually trying to finish – but on the other, obviously the best time to paint these Wardancers is at the same time I’m repainting the other Wardancers.

Next time: Squigs!

Realm of Chaos – “Oldhammer” Part 2

by

4

So after the positive feedback I received for the first batch, I thought I’d put up some more of my old Realm of Chaos models for perusal.

First up is a Champion of Slaanesh. This guy is counterpart to the Champion of Khorne (3rd from the top) posted last time, and like the Khornate fellow, was sculpted by Mark Copplestone. This was one of my early attempts are painting properly pastel armour, and I’m still happy with it to this day. When I rebase this guy I’ll have to paint his mouthparts with gloss, though! His shield has a decal – not freehand on this guy.

This guy isn’t especially amazing, but he’s bloody old – predating the RoC books. I’ve included him here partly because of that, and partly because of the freehand on his shield and tabard/groin protector. Funny – even back then, I’d often rise to a good sculpt with one of my better paintjobs, and just try to get it done when on a lesser sculpt.

Technically, this guy isn’t a chaos model at all. it’s actually the Troll figure from the Talisman series. Given his small size (he’s on a 25mm square base) I painted him with flesh tones and called him a beastman, since they had a lot of flexibility of appearance back then. Goat-heads were just one of many types…

Again, not strictly speaking a Chaos model (well, sometimes but not always, depending on packaging over the years!) This familiar was a quick and easy paintjob. and I still have an affection towards the little blighter all these years later.

I don’t recall exactly which range this guy came from, and until I rebase him down the line I don’t plan to pry him off the base to find out. I suspect that he might be from the old Night Horror line. The Night Horror figures were a Citadel Fantasy figure sub-range that included all of the typical Hammer Horror-type figures – vampires, mummies, werewolves, etc – as well as tombstones and gargoyles and other odds and ends, both scenic and character-based. I drilled into the base of the decapitated guy’s head and left a pin hanging out, which I put some droppy gloss PVA onto, along with some segmented paint to represent spinal column, and of course, some blood.

Aside from all that – he makes a fine beastman!

An actual Beastman this time. I’m still happy with how his face and teeth turned out and still mildly annoyed at how his shield hides it all. The drybrushing on his chest is a little rough, but I’ve never noticed that before posting up this picture. Isn’t it wonderful how large photos magnify all the minor flaws in our painting and make them look huge and hideous?

One of my favourite beastmen of the day. I still really like the figure and sculpt, the paintwork I did, and the freehand on his shield (no decals involved at all here). If I had to criticise my own work here, I’d perhaps point out how the clean and bright shield doesn’t quite gel with the more grungy figure holding onto it.

Lastly for this round, an old Champion of Nurgle, sculpted by Jes. It looks a little shitty in the picture, but the armour is deliberately corroded and messed up looking – and it looks quite decent in person. Note the early version of the symbol of Nurgle on his gutplate and helmet. I always wondered about that, and wasn’t in the slighted bit surprised when it got changed to three circles/flies/etc.