Stormweaver on Unicorn (Part 4)

 

After getting the Unicorn to a point that I was happy with, I moved onto the rider. Back in the Marauder Miniatures days the Morrisons (Ali and Trish) sometimes teamed up on projects like these where Trish would work on the "monster" and Ali would work on the hero.  I feel like it didn't always work as Ali's elves always came off as having 'puffy' faces particularly when compared to Jess Goodwin's high cheeked and narrow faces. But I digress, the point is that there is definitely a contrast between the Unicorn and it's rider. The mage (now Stormweaver) was done prior to the strict uniformity of the High Elf range preceding the launch of WFB 4th Edition. Indeed, the painted example featured in the White Dwarf adverts at the time were colored in a technicolor palette more fitting for the Wood Elves of that era than High Elves. 

Images snipped from original Marauder ad. 

Forward to now, and I am trying to make the best of both worlds and have a scheme that matches my army but still perhaps calls back, if only a wee bit, to that old house advert. As I have been doing with my High Elves recently, I painted all of the basecoats using Contrast Paints. 

Next came the mid-tones, which really start to pull this closer to how I envisioned it. Polished Blue, my trusted old blue metallic paint from the '90s, went on most of the blue areas. Retributor Gold went onto the head of the staff. I painted the back of the cloak and her tunic/dress thing receding from black, to dark blue to a purple. 

Stormhost Silver was the highlight on anything metal, and this really kicked up the colors I think. Still photos such as these just do not convey the metallic sheen those areas have in reality. I liked the idea of keeping the staff wooded with a vine wrapped around it. I was tempted to just make the whole thing metallic but thought that this gave the staff a lot more character. There are, I guess we can call them ribbons, that flow off of the staff and the sheathed blade. I struggled a lot in trying to pick a suitable color for these ribbons. Ultimately decided to make them white to better tie her in with he rest of the High Elf army, while not distracting from the rest of the model's colors. 

After I added the grass tufts and fallen leaves, the rider was attached. Once everything from this step was done, I took the model outside to my deck and sprayed it with Model Master Lusterless (Flat) Lauer Overcoat to, hopefully, reduce paint chipping. 

Of course I took the opportunity for some natural lighting pics even though I would have preferred a more scenic view...

Oh, I forgot to mention the stars that I dotted onto the cloak and tunic/dress, which ties into the theme of the rest of my army. 

Anyway, this concludes the saga of this Stormweaver, I hope you enjoyed the end results. 

Stormweaver on Unicorn (Part 3)

I managed to turn my attention back to this project. Focusing on just the unicorn mount for now, I decided to go for a dabbled look. This began with a basecoat of Dawnstone. Once dried I washed the model with Nuln Oil.

Dawnstone and Nuln Oil. 

 Although I am using very different colors, the technique found in an old GW US Citadel Catalog is still very much valid. Although my spotting tend to be a bit bigger than the example they demonstrated.  But I am getting ahead of myself here...

Snipped from GW US Catalog 2004-2006

Ulthuan Gray was used next to more or less finish the coat on the unicorn. 

Next, Corax White was lightly applied in patchy sports. It was reapplied again in a heavier coat in the center of these spots before a final dot of White Scar was added to the very center.

For the Unicorn's muzzle I painted over the Corax White using Fyreslayer Flesh and added a small highlight of Kislev Flesh. 

After a few things were tidied up, the Unicorn is now essentially done!

Now to focus on the rider, who currently, looks like a ghost riding a spotted gray steed. 

Elven Ghost Rider!

Stormweaver on Unicon (Part 2)

 Between all the other projects I have going on, I dabbled some more on this model. Here is the current work in progress from where we left it off in Part 1 up to the present. 

As I stated I would do in Part 1, green stuff was applied to the most grievous of gaps left over after assembly. Then it was mounted to it's base. For some reason, it's left letgs peg kept trying to pop out of the hole. This resulted in it appearing a bit more elevated than intended. 

I hid this weird feature with grit and rocks. And when the miniature is fully painted I will hide it more with grass tufts and leaves. 

I had one of those rocks form a kind of a ledge that I hid a skull under. I dig weird little details like this, as they hint at a bigger story or event  which might have happened beforehand.

So I primed the miniatures and was pleased that my green stuff work seems to have been a success. Then I painted up the base.  I used Skeleton Horde on the hooves and horn. Then I.... realized that I needed to figure out the unicorn's color scheme before I could continue further.  

Check back in Part 3 to see what I do next with this miniature. 

Clash in the Pass (Battle Report)

 

Duel of the ages.

The Bob and I met up at The Outpost in Johnson City for another game of Warhammer: The Old World. We agreed to play the Mountain Pass scenario from the main rulebook. What's really interesting about this scenario is the Bottleneck rule, which make both the long edges count as Impassable Terrain. This is to represent that those long edges are representing very shear cliffs and the battle field itself is a pass through a narrow valley. So the High Elves are making their way through this pass and find the ruins of an ancient settlement. These ruins are in fact Khemri in origin and the deceased denizens have risen to protect their domain and rid the pass of these Elven trespassers. 

Deployment map for the Mountain Pass.

Here are the armies:

Tomb Kings of Khemri

===

Tomb Kings of Khemri [1245 pts]

Warhammer: The Old World, Tomb Kings of Khemri, Open War

===

++ Characters [417 pts] ++

Tomb King [222 pts] 

- Hand weapon

- Heavy armour

- Shield

- General

- On foot

- Talisman of Protection

- Giant Blade

Royal Herald [85 pts] 

- Hand weapon

- Light armour

- Battle Standard Bearer

- On foot

Mortuary Priest [55 pts] 

- Hand weapon

- Wizard [Level 1 Wizard]

- On foot

- Necromancy

Mortuary Priest [55 pts] 

- Hand weapon

- Wizard [Level 1 Wizard]

- On foot

- Necromancy

++ Core Units [514 pts] ++

15 Skeleton Warriors [90 pts] 

- Hand weapons

- Light armour

- Shields

- Master of Arms (champion)

- Standard bearer

- Musician

15 Skeleton Warriors [90 pts] 

- Hand weapons

- Light armour

- Shields

- Master of Arms (champion)

- Standard bearer

- Musician

12 Skeleton Archers [75 pts] 

- Hand weapons

- Warbows

- Master of Arrows (champion)

- Standard bearer

- Musician

3 Skeleton Chariots [141 pts] 

- Hand weapons

- Cavalry spears

- Warbows

- 4+

- Master Charioteer (champion)

- Standard bearer

- Musician

10 Tomb Guard [118 pts] 

- Hand weapons

- Light armour

- Shields

- Tomb Captain (champion)

- Standard bearer

- Musician

++ Special Units [154 pts] ++

3 Ushabti [154 pts] 

- Hand weapons

- Ritual blades

- Heavy armour

- Ancient (champion)

++ Rare Units [160 pts] ++

Necrolith Colossus [160 pts] 

- Paired great khopeshes

- Heavy armour

---

Created with "Old World Builder"

[https://old-world-builder.com]

High Elves.

===

The Masters of Hoeth [1249 pts]

Warhammer: The Old World, High Elf Realms, Open War

===

++ Characters [286 pts] ++

Noble [156 pts] 

- Hand weapon

- Sword of Hoeth

- Full plate armour

- General

- On foot

- The Loremaster's Cloak

- Seed of Rebirth

- Loremaster

Mage [130 pts] 

- Hand weapon

- Wizard [Level 2 Wizard]

- On foot

- Seed of Rebirth

- High Magic

++ Core Units [316 pts] ++

14 Elven Archers [208 pts] 

- Hand weapons

- Longbows

- Light armour

- Veteran

- Sentinel (champion)

- Standard bearer [The Blazing Banner]

- Musician

5 Ellyrian Reavers [108 pts] 

- Hand weapons

- Cavalry spears

- Light armour

- Shortbows

- Skirmishers

- Harbinger (champion) [Burning Blade]

++ Special Units [487 pts] ++

10 Swordmasters of Hoeth [173 pts] 

- Swords of Hoeth

- Heavy armour

- Drilled

- Bladelord [Burning Blade]

- Standard bearer

- Musician

8 Shadow Warriors [146 pts] 

- Longbows

- Light armour

- Feigned Flight

- Shadow Walker [Seed of Rebirth]

10 Swordmasters of Hoeth [168 pts] 

- Swords of Hoeth

- Heavy armour

- Drilled

- Bladelord

- Standard bearer

- Musician

++ Rare Units [160 pts] ++

Eagle-Claw Bolt Thrower [80 pts] 

Eagle-Claw Bolt Thrower [80 pts] 

- Repeater Bolt Thrower

- Hand weapons

- Light armour

---

Created with "Old World Builder"

[https://old-world-builder.com]

Tomb Kings set up. 

High Elf set-up. 

Turn 1

Tomb Kings win the roll off and go first. Nothing too exciting happened in the first round on either player turn, just a lot of arrow trading. The High Elves peppered the undead with a lot arrow and brought down a small number of rank and file skellies. 

Turn 2 Tomb Kings

....and those rank and file skellies were almost all resurrected at the start of Turn 2. The chariots charged into the Ellyrian Reavers. The Reavers took out one of the chariots but the rest of them did enough damage, and had the combat res (they one by 1 point), to force a Break Test which the Reavers failed epically. The Chariots caught them and destroyed them. The chariots ended up next to the archers on the hill, who were more than a little nervous about their proximity. . 

Chariots run down the Reavers. 

Bottom of Turn 2

Turn 2 High Elves

The Archers reformed to dump all their shots into the chariots, and even with the blazing banner to aide them the chariots were unharmed. The mage failed to get Fiery Convocation to go either. It was a lame round of shooting for the High Elves actually, however the Shadow Warriors were the exception as that managed to plink 3 Wounds off of the Bone Giant. 

The run down.

TURN 3 Tomb Kings. 

After more arrow trading, the Tomb Guard unit, which had been joined by the Tomb King and Royal Herald with the army battle standard since the beginning of the battle, charged into the Swordmasters which had been joined by the Noble Loremaster. This Tomb Guard unit had been riddle with bolts from both Bolt throwers for the previous two turns, and most, if not all, of the casualties had already been raised back. So this unit came sweeping in like a tidal wave. Thanks to the faster Initiative of the High Elves they were able to strike first. The Tomb King challenged the Loremaster. but in the end their fight was a draw. Despite killing morem the Tomb Guard was able to beat the Swordmasters by 1 CR. and rolled a 12 on their Break Test. Oops. They fell back in good order, and I thought for sure I was about to get wiped out the I rolled a '5' on the fallback. Well, Isha smiled on them in that instant as the Tomb Guard rolled a '2' on their pursuit roll! 

The first engagement.

TURN 3 High Elves. 

The Swordmaster with the Loremaster Rally and Reform, bracing themselves for the Tomb Guard's inevitable assault. The mage cast Shield of Saphery on the other unit of Swordmasters giving them a 5+ ward Save (remember this). That unit of Swordmasters charged the bone giant, which seemed like the best tactic they had to chose from. On the shooting phase, the Shadow Warriors take out three Tomb Guard with their longbows. Weirdly, neither the Bone Giant now the Swordmaster caused any wounds, but the Bone Giant lost a Wound due to the cr difference of '1'.

The odds stack.

TURN 4 Tomb Kings

The sneaky Liche Priests had moved up enough to try to cast some nasty spells on the High Elves and they successfully cast Incantation of Desiccation on the Swordmasters engaged with the Bone Giant (remember this). As predicted the Tomb Guard slammed into the Sword Master unit with the Loremaster. The Loremaster and the Tomb King we fighting in a challenge once again , and this time the Loremaster was starting to fight back a bit harder, as did the Swordmaster who won the combat this time which only caused a few more Tomb Guard to sink back into the ground due to the difference in Combat Resolution. . 

Duel of the ages (wide angle (wide angle view)

On the other side of the table the other Swordmasters were tangling with the Necrolith Colossus (aka: Bone Giant) when the Ushabti and the nearby unit of skeletons both charged into them. Focusing their attacks on the Bone Giant, they felled it, However Bob won the roll-off anc got to choose which way it fell. it fell and squished two Swordmasters. Then the Ushabti went. They killed the seven remaining Swordmasters! 

Remember when I said to remember those two spells? Well, we wouldn't remember them until the next turn! LOL. It is what is, and we decided it was too far along to try to revise history. 

Ushabti right before the charge. 

TURN 4 High Elves

On the High Elf shooting phase the Shadow Warriors made a break from the woods and tried to shoot one of the Liche Priests but their effort failed. The two Bolt Throwers tried to take out the chariots but also failed. Only in the Combat phase did the High Elves see a glimmer of hope as they wiped out the Tomb Guard and the Royal Harold!

Felling of the Royal Harold

TURN 5 Tomb Kings

The Tomb Kings Turn five was mostly just maneuvers and shooting, but no real achievements were gained. However Another group of skeletons charged in to attempt to finish off the Swordmasters. And they got close to making it happen! Meanwhile the two army leaders were slowly whittling each other down. 

Reinforcements. 

TURN 5 High Elves

Desperate, the achers managed to eliminate one of the Ushabti. After witnessing what they did to the Swordmasters you can bet they were now a target priority. Those two chariots were rumbling down toward the Bolt Throwers. They had been moving at their regular Movement so that could get shots off and had knocked one of the Bolt Throwers down to a single Wound. The Bolt Thrower crew must have been rattled or something as most of their shots missed, the chariots shrugged off the two hits that did wound. 

Desperate defense.

Over on the other flank the fight continued on, with the Loremaster and Tomb King continuing to play paddy cake. The Swordmasters themselves were now down to a single guy, the Bladelord (Champion), who was continuing to wipe out skeletons with his flaming sword. 

The final fight. 

The battle ends (Right flank). 

And with that we declared the game over. It was getting late and things were looking like they were about to reach a natural conclusion. 

The battle ends (left flank)

We tallied it up the points and secondaries and this is how it all shock down:

 

High Elves:  463

Tomb Kings of Khemri: 390

Essentially, that surviving Swordmaster Champ would have made the TK score 569 (Swordmasters+ Banner) had he not survived that last round. 

>phew< 

A technical win, but the High Elves are happy to take it! 

But wow, what a grind! I had no idea I had won until the VPs were tallied. in fact, I wasn't even aware that it was such a close game. This was our first time using Tomb Kings. Bob ran them very well, and took full advantage of their ability to raise the dead. It made the feeling of attrition and futility feel very real to me as my glass hammer of an army was shattering against all the odds. Who is to say how round 6 or 7 would go had we continued on. We can theory-hammer this to death but our dice were both being fickle in the end. Although, once again, Bob's ability to roll 6's when he needs to is uncanny, But I had a few instances of surprising luck as well). All-in all, it was a good game, and a very challenging one! I look forward to seeing how Bob continues to grow this Tomb King army. Yes, some mistakes happened, but in the spirit of play we just pushed past them and learned from them.  

Party on the hill. 

Stormweaver on Unicon (Part 1)

I was excited when GW put up this old classic Marauder Miniatures era High Elf Mage on Unicorn for Made-to-Order last year. So much so that I bit the bullet and ordered it, thinking in regards to it's scarcity and value on the secondary market. Yes, I caved to FOMO.. This particular release was to coincide with the Higb Elves Arcane Journal and this particular fellow on the unicorn  being rebranded as a Stormweaver. 

 

Then it arrived half a year later, I was quite bummed by how sloppy this thing was actually produced. Mould lines everywhere, flash, bumps along the joins, and a leg that I had to bend back into place. It was the physical manifestation of nearly everything that could go wrong with metal casting. After a half a year of waiting, this was a disappointment. 

Flash, ah-ahhh

The flash and mold lines on the rider are going to require some time to work out. When it comes to connecting his two halves together I will definitely be drilling and pinning him for a stronger connection. 

It looks so simple too...

After a lot of scraping, filing, sanding, swearing, and leg bending, I was able to super glue this thing together. There is not joins to guide with connecting the two haves together, you got to just eye it and feel it. Once I got it together I used a rubberband  to apply some pressure to maximize the bond and help keep it together. I already know that the next step will be filling in the gaps with greenstuff, but I will cross that bridge when I get to it.

Wound up and bound up so tight

The unicorn from this kit was sold separately for many years. Here in the USA it sold at least through '98 in stand alone blisters. So I am curious to know if anyone reading this recalls getting this miniature back then and if they recall the clean-up being as extreme as what I am going through with this piece. 

From thw GW US 1997 Fantasy catalog.

Hopefully whenever I post part 2, I'll have made significant progress on this thing and not gone mad in the process of doing so.

Classic Eagle's Claw Repeater Bolt Thrower #2

 

I needed a second Bolt Thrower for an upcoming battle, so I whipped this thing out of the Neverness Archive and got it ready. Sorry I didn't have time to take any work-in-progress pics.

Oddly, I have way more crew models than I have Elven warmachines, so I was able to pick out a crew that was totally different to the one that mans Bolt Thrower #1. 

On this one I stuck onto the base  a bolt rack from the plastic Bolt Thrower kit.  I think this works surprisingly well with this original model. I did not notice though, that on both sides of the rack there are two bumps from where the piece was separated from the sprue. It would have a challenge, and time consuming as well, to attempt to remove them . So I had the bright idea to just paint them like gem stones. Why not? Elves stick those things all over every surface they can find! 

Alright, well that's another High Elf unit done for the year, what to tackle next?