Tag Archives: Wood Elf Wardancers

From the Painting Desk 3.5 – Mini-update, and Goblin Aid!

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I realise I haven’t updated in donkey’s ears. While I have been doing by best to get more painting done, it’s been restricted mostly to the weekends, since I’m pretty much pooped on weeknights after work, and Mondays are a particularly trying day that involves me putting out spotfires all day with no actual breaks from about 8:45am till about 4pm (and I get in at 7:45am). This sets off a cycle of not really wanting to be arsed with anything aside from shooting things on my PC and sharing abuse in online forums until the weekend comes, when I slowly cycle back into a painting mindset  ….just in time to go back to work on Monday morning.

Anyway, the shitty midwinter weather here has been ok for painting, but not so good for photographing, so here’s some quick snaps of figures I’ve been working on recently.

First up is a pair of the Wardancers I’ve been updating.

Quite happy with these results.

This pair were last shown in WIP post #3. The one charging with the sword and shield has had little changed. I brightened up his armour a little (it looks a bit shit in this photo) and basically just touched him up here and there. The musician had a lot more updated. I redid his leggings in a similar colour to the original, and touched up his boots and leathers. The biggest change, obviously, is his tunic. A friend noted that it reminded him of one of the Croatian National Football Team strips. While it’s unintentional, I will say Pozdrav mojim Hrvatskim prijateljima vani!

Kev Adams’ goblins!

I’ve also been working on some of my Orc & Goblin figures recently. I’ve been rebasing them as I have my old Elves, to use in games like Pathfinder, WFRP and perhaps Mantic’s Kings of War ruleset once I have enough done. I think I’m done with WFB, though I still like many of the models. These three are notable as they’ve been part-painted for well over a decade. The two with static flock on their bases are finished, their mate with the club is close but not quite there yet. Still need to highlight his clothing and do a few spots of detail and cleanup. If I hadn’t spent the afternoon cleaning the house (got to love going through “junk boxes” after a house move!), he’d have been finished as well.

Click to go to the Goblin Aid page on Facebook.

For anyone who hasn’t heard, Kev Adams, the sculptor responsible for the iconic Games Workshop Orc and Goblin look was brutally beaten in a home invasion a couple of months ago. Gamers have banded together to help Kev with his recovery. A large number of sculptors have gotten together and donated sculpts for the cause, and they’re being cast up by Ral Partha Europe. Foundry Miniatures is also donating all funds (excepting VAT) from the Kev Adams Self-portrait figure (with a bunch of snorklings included).

What those fucking cowardly dogs did to Kev.

 

Harlequin(?) Miniatures Skeletons

The last bit of my own work this post are a couple of skellys that again were part-painted for the better part of a decade. I finished these a little while ago, but haven’t had a chance (or the light) to photograph them properly. That’s the nice thing about finally moving into my own place. Being able to dig stuff out of old cases and make it finished. Nothing super amazing here, these guys are for gaming, not Crystal Brush. As Jaokonovski said: “The way I see it, a painted figure is a painted figure and makes you a better person.” Thumbs up to that!

 

From the Painting Desk #3 – Wardancing the night away!

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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.

The first few Wardancers, rebased and touched up!

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.

A couple of angles. Early freehand tattoos from 20-odd years ago!

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?

Wood Elf Beastmaster. Now he just needs his pet!

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.

Dark Metal or Light Metal? That’s the question!

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?

Original Wardancers – Due for an update and repaint!

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?

Newer Wardancers. Queuejumpers?

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.

The Gang’s (not yet all) here!

Next time: Squigs!