The boxed set came with enough parts to make 16 warriors equipped with spears and shields or repeating crossbows. There were also a few swords for the officer and what have you. I decided to do 12 warriors split evenly between swords, shields, and crossbows. Since I had already "borrowed" a few of the swords I wound up a few short and had to improvise. Luckily the blades atop the dark elf spears were suitably sword-like and after removing the spear shafts I had a few extra passable (if vicious looking) swords.

• Manufacturer & Line: Games Workshop - Warhammer
• Mini Name: Dark Elf Warriors
• Painted: 2008

 

I still remember how happy I was with how the wrap-bracers turned out. It was a revelation at the time to just hit them with a wash of black after all the highlighting was done, but when you're teaching yourself how to paint these little revelations that later seem obvious are how you improve your technique.

• Manufacturer & Line: Games Workshop - Warhammer
• Mini Name: Dark Elf Assassin
• Painted: 2001

 

This model actually came in a boxed set with a number of other plastic wizards for the Warhammer game. I picked it up for an easy collection of cheap mages for Mordheim and RPGs, so they all got plenty of use (if not paint) over the years. The sorceress here isn't much to look at. The sculpt isn't that clean and I didn't to a good job really with any part of her - she was the first of my Dark Elves I painted and it shows. Still, you have to start somewhere.

• Manufacturer & Line: Games Workshop - Warhammer
• Mini Name: Dark Elf Sorceress
• Painted: 2001

 

I really liked the shade models - they have some nice details like the ornamental hooks and pouches but not too much. I enjoyed deploying them into ye' ole' ruined city back in college.

• Manufacturer & Line: Games Workshop - Warhammer
• Mini Name: Dark Elf Shades
• Painted: 2001

 

Originally this figure had the axe in his right hand, which I removed and replaced with a sword. The sword itself was built using the hand and hilt of a plastic Dark Elf Warrior sprue combined with a spear tip from the same sprue. His left hand and the decapitated head it held was removed and a closed fist was put in its place. The arm looked 'empty' so I chopped the blade off the axe I tool from his right hand and glued it to his bracer to look like a punch dagger/wrist carver.

• Manufacturer & Line: Games Workshop - Warhammer
• Mini Name: Dark Elf Corsair (Conversion)
• Painted: 2003

 

It took me a while to come up with the color scheme for my warband but I eventually settled on the blue and black that you see here - I was having success painting blues and the black seemed to help make the army suitbly dark. These two models are actually the two different Dark Elf Black guard unit leader sculpts that I bits-ordered from GW (along with the swords).

• Manufacturer & Line: Games Workshop - Warhammer
• Mini Name: Dark Elf Black Guard
• Painted: 2001

Rhoven & Honor Guard

First up is Rhoven and the Honor Guard.  I posted some initial WIPs of the Honor Guard a while back and since then I've made some pretty good progress.  The Honor Guards have actually been sitting mostly done for a little while now while I worked on Rhoven himself.

I'm most happy with the lower portion of Rhoven's robes so far, but there's still some work that needs to be done.  I'm going to repaint the stole for starters; the highlights were pretty borked when I did them the first time.  That and some more general cleanup work should make him ready for sealing.

Blighted Swordsman UA

Next up is my Blighted Swordsman unit attachment, which isn't near as complete as Rhoven and the Honor Guard.  I've spent a fair amount of time trying to clean up their leather armor and make it really pop but I'm really happy with the skin tones on these two.

The release of MkII has pushed these guys away from the table a little bit compared to some of the other options in the Legion army.  I've been known to paint models only to have them never see the table again - we'll see if that happens again with these guys.

Reaper 60001: Valeros, Iconic Human Fighter

After the Swordsman UA is Valeros, Iconic Fighter, from Reaper Miniatures' new Pathfinder line.  I wasn't as happy with this model once I got it assembled as I was when I saw it at first, though it makes a good representation for my character in my current Earthdawn game.

I'm still trying to clean up the mouth a little bit so it looks better, but overall he turned out fairly well.  I think I'm going to need to weight the back of the base if I can - the leaning pose makes him want to tip over sometimes if I'm not careful.  I'll be using enough sealant on him to stand up to roleplaying use though so he should be fine.

Dark Elf Corsairs

Whenever we have to hold off on a roleplaying session, my Sunday gaming group usually plays board games to occupy the time slot.  Recently we've turned to Mordheim, which has been a lot of fun.  Back in '01 I started painting a Dark Elf warband but never finished my Corsairs here.  Even though I'm running Reiklanders this time, I decided to get my Dark Elves finished so I could field them as a cohesive force, even if it was standing in for another army.

I'm going the speed-over-quality route to try and get them to the tabletop (they're still being worked on).  It's also an attempt to rely heavily on the Games Workshop washes (Badab Black and Delvin Mud) to see if they can speed things along.  So far those two washes haven't been anything special, but they do save me time in mixing my own so I feel like they've been worth it thus far.

Dwarf Warriors

Last up is another GW sampling from my Mordheim days.  A friend of mine left his plastic dwarf boxed set with me when he left the game.  They have been sitting around for a while now and I finally decided to paint up a collection of them with different weapons for use in various roleplaying or miniature games.

The dwarves painted here are only a sample - there are three of each weapon combinations and a few "officer" types all done in a similar paint scheme.  I went muted for the color scheme on these guys, and it seemed to turn out ok.  The beards, though were a fun shortcut.  I basecoated all of them (except those that would be black) with Reaper Master Series Bleached Bone and then used washes to tint and shade them the desired color.  It was a nice time-saving technique for tabletop-quality dorfs.

While I didn't complete any models in February, I did get a fair amount of work done. So by the mid-March I was putting the finishing touches on almost twenty models - a monthly high for me. I finished three warbeasts I had sitting around - a Seraph, Carnivean, and a Raek to start. I also finished up my second Seneschal and the last two Knight Exemplar Errant I had to do.

That alone would have been a good month but I decided earlier to try to speed paint some generic models for use in roleplaying games. I had a box of plastic GW Dark Elf Warriors that had been sitting around since my Mordheim days about six years go. I figured they'd make workable (if a bit spiky) common soldiers or guardsmen.

The dark elf box came with enough parts to make sixteen models armed with either spears or crossbows. I wanted some variety but also wanted to leave a few spare parts for conversion purposes so I assembled four spear wielders and four crossbowmen. I then took a couple of the officer swords and made two sword wielders. I wanted two more models with swords but didn't have any left. Luckily the dark elf spear blades are long enough that I could snip off the blades and pin them directly to a couple models' hands to be used as larger barbed swords. They're not something that your average town guardsman would use but they'd work as an abstraction. I speed painted them between warbeasts and they were done in no time.

There's no WIP pictures this time around - all the miniatures I was really working on are completed. My plan is to photograph them in the next couple weeks and will update Diminutive Denizens by the end of the month.

Since Privateer's release schedule has been a bit slow lately I only picked up a few models: Reznik, two Shepherds, the Blighted Archer UA, and a Gudrun the Wanderer I got with some store credit won in a tournament. Still with the completion of the twelve plastic dark elves my March total was bumped up to eighteen and my net total has gone to +5, positive for the first time in six months. I know no one really cares how many models I get out the door but me, but it does feel nice to be making progress once again.