Phoenix Guard Color Test

While digging  through my small collection of loose unpainted High Elf metal miniatures, I came across this lonely Phoenix Guard.

Primed and ready. 

I was very pleased with how some of the techniques I tried out on the Swordmasters turned out, and I wanted to see if I could replicate some of that success onto this model's color scheme. All the areas intended to become white were painted using Space Wolves Gray Contrast Paint as a basecoat. The non-gold metals was basecoated using Ultramarines Blue Contrast Piant. The gold areas, the main color for these guys, was basecoated using Aggarros Dunes Contrast Paint.  And the flesh of his face was coated with Guilliman Fleshwash. 

Contrast Paint Basecoats.

Next Retributor Gold was painted over the Aggarros Dunes.  I really like how well this seems to work. 

Here is a better view of where Space Wolves Grey Contrast Paint was spread all over the areas that I intend to make white. This is a good base for this scheme and it's a lot faster than the traditional Shadow Grey base that I would've used otherwise.

Space Wolves Grey cloak.

After that I used Ulthuan Grey on all the areas that are going to be white. 

Ulthuan Grey layer.

Polished Blue and Stormhost Silver were added onto the halberd. Stormhost Silver was also the highlight on the Retributor Gold areas also. White Scar was finally added to the white areas and it was done in a few layers. 

After procrastinating forever on how to do the flames in the back of his cloak I finally just took the plunge and knocked it out. The first step, and this was an important one in my opinion, was to use a fine tipped red Micron to draw the outline of the flames.

Micron outline. 

Next, I used Baal Red Contrast Paint to color in the whole thing. 

Baal Red.

Then I brightened it up in layers starting with Wild Rider Red, Fire Dragon Bright and Yriel Yellow. I was very pleased with this process and the results of it. 

"Dance into the fire"

For the final touches I added a few miniature leaves to the base. That with that, this single test model is now finished! 

Finished!

I am pleased with how this guy turned out and I'm looking forward now to building and painting a whole unit of Phoenix Guard. When? Who knows!

Classic High Elf Archers (Part 2)

 I have made some progress with thiese miniatures since Part 1 was written. In fact they're finished now. Well, mostly, but I'll discuss that at the end of this post. 

Before I finished the first ten models of this unit, I took stock in how many more of these 4th Edition WFB era mono-pose Archers I had left and finding only six of them, I decided to just paint them up also. 

Oddly, I finished them first. I then worked on all their gems together before adding the leaves and tufts. Individually, none of these guys are going to get an award for 'Best Paintjob' any time soon, but as a collective they look pretty good I think.  If there was one area I think could be better, it is their faces. Those crude faces are tough to make unfuggly.

Okay, so what's not done? Well, look front and literally center and you'll see the problem: that's right, the standard bearer hasn't got a standard! He's just running around with a big stick!

In part three we'll let that flag unfurl. Come back then and witness that process, as I think I got a neat standard picked out for him. 

High Elf Mage Lady

 

Casting from a high tower.

This is a bit of rarity. This is a High Elf Mage by Ral Partha. It was sculpted by Chris Fitzpatrick prior to him joining GW. I found his Ral Partha sculpts way back in the early '00s and thought that they made better, and definitely unique, analogs for the GW official products at the time. 

With painting this particular model I only got so far as the first stages of the mid-coats before I abandoned the High Elf project altogether. Here we are over 20 years later and I think think she'll work out great. 

After I extended the base, I just went all in on painting her up. Just a few notes I want to touch on: the flesh was done using the old '90s era Elf Flesh over the basecoast of Bestial Brown. Kislev Flesh was painted over that. This was topped with Eldar Flesh which is a Citadel Dry Paint. And finally a highlight of Palid Wythe Flesh. 

This model was a sculpted base that has a kind of summoning or casting symbol etched into the ground. Originally I was just going to leave it dark like a  carving , but looking at it now, two decades later, and I found it really difficult to see. So I went in the opposite direction and filled those groves with white ink. And then hit that (once that white ink eventually dried) with Tesseract Glow. 

Here is a bird's eye view to hopefully give you a better perspective of the glowing triangular rune she is standing in. Even though it's a bit subtle, I'm very much more satisfied with this than with what I was originally going to do. I guess waiting about 25 years has it's benefits? 

Hail to the bird's eye view!

I hope you got a kick out of this one, More elf goodness coming soon. 

Classic High Elf Archers (Part 1)

 I needed to bring out some fire support and decided to go with these classic miniatures from the early '90s. So classic that the three command miniatures are cast in lead instead of pewter, so either these were original release miniatures or they came from the UK which didn't switch over to 'White Metal' until a few years after GW US did. The two guys at the ends of the first rank are pewter. I got them as part of a mixed lot of used miniatures over 20 years ago,  so... who knows? And it doesn't matter really, only to illustrate that these guys, are indeed, quite old. 

Prepped for priming. 

They were basedcoated using the same methods that I explored with the Swordmasters. I primarily used Contrast Paints for this step.

Base coated.

And yes, the second rank are the mono-pose plastics from 1992, but if you ask me they still do the job well. Very well. 

Before any additional work could be done they were called up for action to protect their fellow High Elves from a bunch of feather wearing apes. They proved themselves to be quite versatile, even in close combat. 

They excell at attacking from the rear.

Even though only the Sentinel (aka the Unit Champion)  survived the battle, I was quite satisfied with them and eager to celebrate their sacrifice and get the unit finished. 

+++++++

I wrote all of the above months ago and despite my stated eagerness to finish this unit I was distracted by other things. Now that my attention has returned to them, I'm now geared up to finish these guys. 

Soon.

 -ish. 

Huntsmen (Part 2)

 Maybe, once upon a time, these guys had names, but that info is now lost to me; assuming it ever existed. Since Part 1 was posted I kind of went a bit nuts with these guys. I broke out all the "earthy" toned Contrast Paints that I had and just went nuts. Note that these guys are still unfinished, but I think I have finished the Contrast Paint stage and think they look good enough to be considered 'battle ready'. 

One of the colors I am most excited about is called Ratling Grime. I used it on some of the coats that a few of these guys are wearing and I think it looks perfect. Grime was a great name for this color as it definitely evokes that feeling. 

There are two colors of green Contrast Paint that I predominantly used on these guys. Creed Camo and Militarum Green. 

Every band of merry men needs a Will Scarlett type of guy right? For the sake of being different, I gave this guy red pants. And a bright green bandana. 

A few of these guys have blue pants to sort of mix up the color pallette a bit. They come off looking like blue jeans, and I think that's just fine with me. 

A few if these guys have shirts pai Ted using Guilliman Fleshwash. The idea isn't to make them appear to be wearing g human skin suits (icky!), but to serve as a base to build up to a dirty white. 

The flesh on these guys are still at the state that I left them in almost 20 years. Some have just a Bestial Brown basecoat and a few others have an additional layer of Dwarf Flesh.  I will figure out what to do about that in the next post. 

The bows were all painted using Wyldwood Contrast Paint. Unlike the High Elf Archers I have been working, these bows are darker. Maybe they are stained, oiled or just worn compared to the elf bows which I like to image are freshly hewn. The ares are brighter which I want to think have just been fetched. 

And this is a good place to leave them off for now. I intend to get these up to higher level in Part 3. 

Dark Elves

 The Dark Elf range has always fascinated me. Well, the '90s models were a bit too bulky and goofy for my tastes, but the 2000s range spoke to me. But l, with exception to a blister pack of random model here and there,  just never went all-in with collecting them. My renewed interest in Warhammer Fantasy over the past year or so has inspired me to get a few more things and make a small force. What follows is a few examples of this dalliance with the dark side: 

This first one is from a pair of miniatures that I got  cheap from eBay. They are the guards from the Cauldron of Blood kit. I thought they looked dynamic as heck perched up on some big tactical rocks. Even more so since I am using actual rocks for this look. 

This one is from Warhammer: Underworlds. I bought it as a single model as I thought it was awesomely dynamic. 

What to do with a resin hag queen? Stick her on a resin slab sitting on top of skulls. It's a simple bit of modeling but I like the results. Also it gives me an excuse to use another piece from the old Citadel Basing kit. 

Finecast Assassins. So sneakiy that they can melt into the shadows. And, if left in a hot car,  can also melt in daylight...

This next one started with the Cold One which I bought for a project in the mid '00s. I had forgotten about it until a recent assessment of some of my plastic sprues reintroduced it to me. Iucked out and found the pewter rider for fairly cheap on ebay. The miniature still in blister sells for a fairly high sum, so this worked out great. 

I bought the command models in this next pic way back in the early '00s as well. I bought them just to paint but I used them mostly for WFRP instead. The other two miniatures were acquired more recently. Mono-pose they may be, but they are incredibly dynamic and a vast improvement over the '90s sculpts. 

This next one is the first Dark Elf miniature I ever owned. Got her back in the '90s thru GW US Mail Order's 'pre-metal' window. It was a kind of speak-easy program that allowed some of us "in the know" to get some select metal miniatures a few weeks before their proper release. The story I recall is that this was one of the test models that Chris Fitzpatrick did to get hired at GW. It was released as a generic Dark Elf Sorceress but the tab says Morathi on it. Not surprisingly as it was clearly  based on a Mark Gibbons illustration from the 4th Edition Dark Elf army book. 

So that's a basic overview of what I have so far to make a start with this faction. Hopefully I can get some color onto these miniatures before the year ends, but I'll encourage you not to hold your breath...

Huntsmen (Part 1)

 Here's a project that I started (and saddly abandoned) just over 18 years ago*. 

Nearly 20 years ago, over on Warhammer-Empire I had asked the users there to show us their Huntsman.  The idea was that I wanted to figure out a paint scheme and I just wasn't getting there on my own.  This was because the paint scheme shown in the 6th edition Warhammer Armies: The Empire was a bit small to really get a good vibe from the one picture. A picture of only three models by the way. 

The response from the Warhammer-Empire users was impressive to say the least, as many folks shared pics of their models, and they were all unique. If you follow the hyperlink above you'll see what I mean, but you'll have to look past the annoying Photobucket** watermarks. Inspired, I did build my guys. I used the Militia kit mixed with bits from Bretonian Peasent and Wood Elf sprues. I still like what I did with them. I even bought some thread to use as strings for their bows.  But....  I never finished it. The only thing I can think of is that I was pulled back to 40k in a big way around that time and just never got back around to revisiting the Empire range, let alone these particular models.  

This guy is the leader of the group. Not pictured here is his little dog and his Middenheim cloak. Expanding the bases on these guys is going to really benefit this fellow. All of them really, as I will have more room to add brush and grass tufts. 

Reinvigorated, I just dove right in and applied the base extenders to get them expanded out to the required 28mm base size. Then I added grit to help integrate the existing basing materials to the new area.

Then I  painted the bases using my trusty old Territorial Beige craft paint. I love that stuff, it does the trick very well. 

Next, I busted out the Contrast Paint, but for the sake of brevity we shall save the results of that for Part 2. 

Check back soon!

*Writing that hurt my soul.

**I am trying really hard not to rant about that ridiculous company.