Warmaster: High Elf Spearmen 2

Hurrah!

Another Warmaster unit finished, this time my 2nd Spearmen unit.

I'm still hand painting the shields, but a star is a lot less work than the calligraphy style of an Elven Rune. 

The one on the banner is a lot easier to do as there's enough space to be forgiving to mistakes.  According to the Warhammer: Uniforms & Heraldry of the High Elves, the rune is Edra, which stands for "Laughter, the cruelty of Fate".  This feels appropriate considering my dice rolls...

Warmaster: Chaos Command

I have been using this blog mostly to post recently finished things, but that is never as often as I'd like

I thought that I'd start posting things that I've finished over the past year or two for Warmaster, as I am very proud of what I have accomplished so far.

Most Warmaster armies have about 1 Hero and 1 Wizard per 1000 points, or a near equivalent.  My dream for Warmaster has been to have 2000 point armies for as many factions as possible, so you can see, just like the High Elves, two Wizards and two Hero stands!

The Chaos command blister has some wonderful models in.  There's a minotaur or demon like figure bursting out of the ground as though he is being summoned, but it's very low to the base and I couldn't figure out how to make it look good so I've put that one on ice.  There's also a beautiful gibbet figure, which is very grim, but my idea for that was to use it as an Empire town or Vampire Count graveyard scenic piece.

Warmaster: High Elf Command, Heroes & Mages

After a long time ignoring my poor High Elves, they finally have a command group for 2000 points to match my Chaos!

Two mages and two Hero stands.  My General is represented by the Dragon stand I completed a while back, because even if he's not riding a Dragon in the rules, I refuse to allow my General to be anything less than the most impressive model on the battlfield!

These Hero stands were inspired by one of the lovely fiction/"fluff" stories in the original Warmaster rulebook.  In this story, a commanding officer and his cohorts see from a distance a comrade being chased down and slain by enemy forces.  Before this scout dies, he shoots an arrow directly at the feet of the officer, wrapped with an important message that could change the tide of the battle.

The idea of the High Elves being such exceptional shots that they could use bows and arrows to telegraph each other messages seemed to me too good to pass up.

On each Hero stand you can see the officer listening to their scribe reading out a scroll (or taking dictation, maybe?) as the archer prepares to fire the message to their peers down the line.  The archers were a spare normal archer strip I got with odds and ends on eBay.  I clipped it in half and trimmed the base to fit it on here.  The Hero figures and scribes are normal figures found in the original Warmaster High Elf command blister.

Warmaster: First steps with Dark Elves

The kin of Malekith arise!

I found myself burnt out trying to polish off some High Elves, so decided the most logical course of action was to START A NEW ARMY.

I've gone with some unusual paint scheme ideas for my Dark Elves.  For the basing it's pale grey with snow rather than blue grey with grass that my High Elves have.  For the main troops it's pale gold and a range of blue-greens.

The first finished units are a Hydra and a Bolt Thrower, but I won't add the snow until I have several ready to be varnished and polished off all at once.

The hydra was a real pig of a model to put together and needed artistic license with mold lines and green stuff.  Finally though, I think it looks good enough to put on a battlefield.

I finished the base of the Manticore before anything else.  It is meant to come on a single moulded 40mm by 20mm base with the rock and some detritus as standard.  I like my Generals to be on a 40mm round and a bit more dramatic, however, so I trimmed it to fit, then used High Elf spares to make it look like he was triumphant over his goody two shoes brethren!

The part on the right is a High Elf hero on a horse I had spare, the one on the left is a High Elf Chariot archer I had spare.

This bolt thrower was the test bed for my colour scheme.  Whilst the old GW paint pots have awful lids that drive me crazy and waste a lot of paint inside the rim - I have still been buying a few of the more unique ones to try out and fill gaps in my collection.

The new Retributor Armour and Liberator Gold are expensive at £3.50 each, bust boast a very high pigment level which means that a single layer seems to work even over a black undercoat.  Compared with more watery metallic offerings from the earlier ranges these really do shine even in small quantities.

For the greens I've got Incubus Darkness as a basecoat and I am really pleased with it.  It is very matt, not glossy or too vivid like the Orkhide base colours.  Then I've had Kabalite Green and Sybarite Green to play with.  The latter is too bright so I've used Vallejo's Jade Green as the brightest highlight so far.