Last night I finally finished my Dark Elves. I’ve been working on this army since June last year off and on with the impetus to finish it getting larger and larger as I neared Call to Arms. I had a suspicion Call to Arms would be my last NZ tournament for the year so was keen to get the girls out on the table. I’ve really enjoyed the few practice games I’ve had with the army and love the DE Army book as a whole. I’ve gone down one very specific army build inititally (due mostly to low model count) but I also have a large amount of other models (witch elves, spearmen, xbows, corsairs, hydras etc…) that need to get painted eventually.
Another reason that this army is important to me is that I really took my time to try and push myself to paint as well as I could and create a good looking interesting army. My first army was OnG which I believe to be a basic but decent looking force, I was just getting into the hobby and didn’t really have my head around painting. This combined with the massive model count (I have over 250 painted OnG models) meant that I didn’t too much with the army. The next army I got were my Lizardmen, now I was in a rush to get these guys onto the table as I had grown tired of playing with OnG and while I think they’re another acceptable looking army the painting on them is very basic being nearly all just basecoats with drybrushing and washes. In fact I’d say the army is only really saved by the basing scheme.
The Dark Elves though I have taken my time with. I’ve selected what I think is a very strong and relatively bright colour scheme, along with bright basing to try and make the army pop a bit. I’ve purposefully tried to use a scheme and models that do not make the army look evil as I want to be able to use the army as HE/WE in the future (If I can get it to work aesthetically). Most of the army is kit-bashed or based off of alternative miniatures. I’ve used Angel figures as my Peg Riders, the Warlocks are based off of Witch Elves, the Darkshards are Shadow Warriors kitbashed with Dark Elf Warriors and the dark riders are Gamezone with some weapon swaps. In the end I’m relatively happy with the army although I’ve got a few things to go back and redo, particularly the faces on the Warlocks which I’ve struggled with.
While I’m curious to see how the army goes this weekend on the battlefield, I’m actually just as curious to see how it goes in terms of painting scores. As many of you know I’m not too hot on most painting score systems and this include’s Pete’s Checklist. One of the driving ideas behind Pete’s checklist was that average painters who put in the time and effort would be able to cap out at a cap of 35 . To date I’m not sure we’ve seen this realized (Disclaimer: I have been a net benefactor in terms of placings at every event that has used this checklist.) While I have not painted this army the way I have in order to gain painting points (I did it for me), I am very curious to see how I go on the checklist and hoping for a decent score. The army is averagely painted with no advanced techniques, All of my colours have been done using the Citadel paint system for each color that was on the old site, that is a base, wash, layer, layer and drybrush. I’ve had difficulty in determining where to try to do edge highlighting and where I need to build colours up. I’ve experimented in some places with watering layers down to different amounts but nowhere near the level the painting videos suggest. That said, I have put in an indecent amount of time into the army. Am I saying I deserve a bazillion points? No, I’m just saying that for me, my army represents what is the product of a lot of time and effort.
One thing that has come out of this though is that I have become more interested and a bit better at painting and modelling. Even when I’m cursing the fact that models don’t come painted how I want and considering shipping them off to Bangladesh or Sri Lanka, I’m still looking up how to improve a little bit (and sometimes ignoring it if it looks like too much work). I’ve changed how I hold models when I paint and what brushes I use for what, I’ve made a small foray into using green stuff (I want to try again), and I think I’ve got a lot better hold on how colours go together and how to use them. I’ve resolved to myself that I’m going to try to get better at painting and that I’m not going to move back to dipped or quickly drybrushed/washed models. So it’s been a good experience.
Without further adieu….
The Swift Host Rides!!
These are my Darkshards for the purpose of Call to Arms, they were made by using Shadow Warrior parts, Sisters of Avelorn heads and Dark Elf Warrior Arms. After Call to Arms I’ll be using these as shades and painting up some Darkshard models to take their place
My converted Warlocks, these were done using the Witch Elves from the new Cauldron of Blood, re positioning their legs with a bit of green stuff and chucking them on glade rider horses. I’m pretty happy with the conversion but need to go back and work on these faces.
Also note the old-school bolt throwers, I got these for $4 each off trademe but I’ve decided that replacing these with the current DE bolt throwers is on the to do list as they’re far better models. Crew will be bought from Gamezone.
These are two of my peg-heroes, these models are from Darksword Miniatures and I’m really happy with them. I wanted the army to not look particularly evil so using Angels was a great way to achieve this. I feel like they link back to the rest of the army thanks to the colour scheme.
My Supreme Sorceress in the foreground was made using the DE Sorceress torso from the DE Dragon kit and legs from the Cold One Knights kit. Some of the joins here could have benefited from better green stuff skills but I’ve tried to use darker shades to hide my mistakes.
In the background you can see an old Cauldron of Blood I’ve converted into a ‘sexy’ centerpiece for the army. My intent is to create a display board using the ruined temple display board produced as part of the Secret Weapon Tablescapes kickstarter. This cauldron and some other little diorama pieces I have in mind will be part of the display board.
Two more of my flying characters. I have one more to paint for a total of 5. I intend to paint my last one with Black hair to be Morathi/Katy Perry
This shot gets my big unit of Dark Riders (mobile wounds for my Sorceress). These are tge Gamezone dark riders. When I started the army GW hadn’t yet released the new Dark Elves so these were the best deal in town. They’re good cheap models, but are a bit let down by mould lines and some pitting on the horses. In order to show a mix of weapons and introduce some variety I’ve swapped in some arms from various Dark Elf kits.
