High Elves and Vampire Counts P-Log.

[wilsongrahams]

I'm hoping that by starting this, I will have the incentive to get models finished quicker and not start new projects all the time. First up, my most recently finished models and some advice wanted on my Black Knight Conversions - the sculpting and is more armour needed? These were made from a few ebay parts and spares so I didn't have shoulder pauldrons for them all - I may sculpt some if needed. The only models with sculpted parts so far are the Hell Knight and Standard Bearer.

[wilsongrahams]

And my High Elf Lord and Noble Battle Standard Bearer. The BSB has yet to have his base done as I'm still undecided if a few details need to be tweaked or not. Any thoughts? I will add my current painting projects as I get pictures of them - be patient. Currently have 20 HE Spearmen and 20 Phoenix Guard on the painting table.

[LarryLimerick]

The High Elf Lord and Noble Battle Standard Bearer both look great, really like the way their armour came out (and the banner)! I have never been to big a fan of Warhammer High Elves, but when I see them painted so nicely like this, they begin to grow on me a bit!

[wilsongrahams]

Thanks - it was High Elves that got me into Warhammer in the first place - actually that very Lord model that inspired me to buy just to paint up. Then I started buying more units and slowly I'm getting them painted!
I originally had the armour painted up and the details just lacked definition even after going from bronze to silver for the gold and boltgun metal to silver for the steel. A thinned Badab Black wash applied to some recesses and around the edges then just brought it all together like magic, and improved the finish ten fold!
As for the banner - of all the sculpted relief banners GW do, I have found this one the easiest to paint as the detail is well defined and cleverly stepped where needed.
Next up - Spearmen, Archers and Swordmasters - basing in progress!

[wilsongrahams]

These are my first Spearmen unit - I have another in painting and another unbuilt that may be split up to add to these first two for larger units instead.

I'm considering removing the Banners and using the one from my Swordmasters - see next post - the Swordmasters will then get a spare one from the new IoB guys instead.

Any comments on the shields? Not unified enough?

[wilsongrahams]

These are my Swordmasters - my first ever High Elf model was a Swordmaster Command and I painted up the Champion that night. He's still doing well.

These are a very fear-inspiring unit against my enemies and regularly inflict crippling damage and survive to the end of a game - a shame the rest of the army falls apart and I tend to lose on victory points.

As stated above, I'm thinking of swapping the banner for one from the IoB box and this banner would then remain white whilst the 2nd Swordmasters unit from IoB models will have the blue banner depicted by Eavy Metal.

[wilsongrahams]

Here's my Archers and Bolt Throwers - my main ranged firepower. I'm quite happy with how both of these turned out sp have no plans to make any adjustments yet.

I've recently bought 22 of the armoured 4th edition archers so will be adding them after I've finished my Phoenix Guard - next on the painting list after the second spearmen unit.

[wilsongrahams]

Here's my small Shadow Warriors unit and the Noble I usually give Shadow Armour and deploy with them to take out War MAchines and to sometimes just slow the enemy advance by forcing them to fight out a combat or two - yet to be tried in 8th ed with the supporting attacks - possibly a big fail that tactic!

[Ramius4]

Looking good wilson, keep it up!

[b4z]

I think these High Elves are great, particularly the standard bearer! Keep up the good work, ill be coming back when you next update

[Elfboy]

Some lovely painting, swordmaster banner looks great. Those black knight conversions are looking pretty tasty too!

[8bitMummies]

Your High Elves are very impressive!
I cringe just thinking about painting so much white. Excellent job!

[Desert Rain]

Really nice High Elves, great work on the shadow warriors and their hero.

[Aenorris]

Masterful painting m8

[wilsongrahams]

Thanks for all the compliments guys.

As for painting white - that was one thing I was prepared for when starting this army and the main reason I wanted High Elves to begin with - silver and white - and also why most of my banners are white with patterns in metallic threads.

Here's some WIP shots of my second spearmen unit so you can see the stages the white goes through - Hideous Blue (similar to Shadow Grey but slightly more blue), then old Space Wolves Grey (identical to Ghostly grey basically), and then white in a couple layers on top - as you can see I use the layering method, always starting darker and getting lighter with the occasional wash or ink when desired.

The metal is still Chainmail in these shots and I'm yet to finish the same stage on all models so they look a little rough. The silver on the armour I leave til last as I can cover any errors in the other colours at the same time as the highligh then - these are infantry so I don't mind a rougher look.

I also finally got round to removing the swordmaster banner and putting it on my old Spearmen standard - I just need to smoth the join and touch it in with some paint - that'll be done tonight.

A question - the WIP spearmen, I'm thinking of using red trim on them, same as I plan for my White Lions as if they have been loaned from Chrace rather than coming from my Lord's estate. What do you think? Would it make the army look mis-matched? Also, what colour should their feathers on the helms be - grey, white, red or something else?

[wilsongrahams]

Here's the current progress of my small Dragon Princes unit too - these have stalled at the moment with just the basic colours going on as I haven't decided how to paint them yet. I don't fancy the blue on the GW ones so will likely leave them white and silver with plenty of gold.

[Desert Rain]

They look really nice, I'd go with either beige or brown feathers since that usually looks best. Red should work nicely for the trim. And it seems that I'm not the only one who uses silver helm shields on my spearmen

[wilsongrahams]

Yeah, I really liked the silver helms shields and as soon as they were available as a bitz pack I bought several - I have enough for another full unit if I want to, although as stated before I may split up the unbuilt men and add them to my current two spearmen units instead and run them at 32 models each in 8x4 formations. The new sea guard models will form 2x20 units to bolster the core of my army.

I'm also currently assembling two Tiranoc chariots and a Lion Chariot and have 20 White Lions waiting to join the Phoenix Guard in the painting queue. It seems I have so much to get done before September! (ps, I'll be lucky to get the current WIP done but I can dream!)

I never really liked the red on the 4th ed models but then there was a lot of red, but the front box art for the spearmen has red trim and looks just fine so I think I will go for that, and finalise the feathers colours after the rest of the models are done - I'm thinking not bright colours but more of a neutral and natural tone, maybe grey to white and then inked with beige to neaten the fine lines on the feathers - the first layers will likely be drybrushed for a feathery look.

[El Aartos]

Great mini's mate! I like the spearelves a lot with the totally different silver helm shields. It gives the unit a sort of flaming look. Your heroes are also very good, I like the guy with the sword and shield standing next to the BSB. It's a very cool model and you painted it very nice.
Keep up!

[wilsongrahams]

Thanks for the compliment - it's actually very similar to the GW model with blue trim instead of red and I did the cloak in an extreme highlight effect for something like silk or satin.

Last night I finished the clothing and shields on my current spearmen unit and decided I'd reward myself by starting my mage so did his robes in a high sheen effect too - I like this for characters that would likely be rich in fluff terms, and it makes them stand out more in a unit too.

I'll post pictures soon - am hoping to get the red done on the trim of the spearmen before the weekend because I'm expecting my partner to go into labour any day now - and that will mean not much painting for a couple weeks cos paternity leave means no painting in latin, honest (Not really).