Sunday, February 4, 2018

Blue Gets Lost in the Woods...Old World Army Challenge

Hi all,

Sorry it has been so long since my last post.  Trust me I haven't been idle on the hobby front...just on the blogging front.  As some of you may have noticed I've taken up a challenge put forward by that Gentleman from the North Country...Iannick!  Iannick came up with the idea of a painting challenge in which all the participants would attempt to paint 1000pts of Oldhammer goodness over the course of six months...basically 200pts a month with one "mulligan" month if you can't get your work done for whatever reason.  Quite few people signed up for this fun a supportive event...and while a few have fallen to the wayside since it began in November, the number of painted models coming out of this challenge is nothing short of impressive.  Every participant is required to write a blog post each month with their 200 points....check out the Challenge Blog here We are half way through the challenge now so there are many many posts of Oldhammer goodness to explore. Follow the blog for regular monthly injections of yet more Lead goodness.

With the option open to start a whole new faction I dug around in my lead pile and settled on painting 1000 points of Wood Elfs.  As a dedicated Dwarf fan I've never actually painted many elves in the past....that was until the very first Bring Out Your Lead event in England.  I decided to paint an iconic wood elf Wardancer for the painting competition of that BOYL and to participate remotely.  The figure I chose was Glam...the wardnacer champion of the Skarloc's Wood Elf Archers Regiment of Renown.

...and surprisingly...I really enjoyed it!  Glam is a great figure and I am very happy with how he turned out.  That fact led to me collecting a significant number of the other Classic Goodwin Elf sculpts of the 80s and the Challenge seemed like the perfect opportunity to get started on painting up a bunch of them.

So sat down with Warhammer Armies and my box of figures and worked up a small but potent force of Wood Elfs...here is what the whole force looks like...naked

In an effort to not have any duplicate figures in my force (other than the boars for the handler) I also did a few head swaps to add variety.  This was also quite fun and I'm happy with the results...though as I have started painting a few of them I see where I could have cleaned things up a little better...

...anyway...here are some examples of the head swaps

Head donor on left...body donor on right...finished model center
same figure with head swap and arm re-positioned on right

Same figure with donor head from a standard bearer on right
 I've chosen very earthy and muted colors for my troops...trying to avoid the standard "Forest Green" that is seen on many Wood Elfs...this has worked well and really allows the flesh areas to stand out and highlight the fantastic sculpting the Jes Goodwin put into this figures.  They really are the archetypal wood elfs IMO.

We have just passed the half way point of the Old World Army Challenge and I was able to take group pictures of what has been completed to date....its starting to look like a force and I'm quite excited to see what it looks like when its all finished.

Have a look!

Wardancers
Glam isn't technically part of the challenge...but as he inspired it I include him in the pictures
 Warrior Kinband

Wood Riders

Lord's Bowmen

Animal Handler and Boars

So there it is...I've started in on the February figures and am saving my general for March...I don't plan to take a mulligan month so will hopefully use the April slot to finish up shields and mounting the Cav models...I may even sneak in a final special character if I have the time.

Cheers for now!

Blue

18 comments:

  1. Well done for managing to keep up with the pace of the Challenge over the Holidays, my own painting/modelling efforts stopped! So, I'm totally ompressed that so many of you kept going and made such a good job.

    Well done

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  2. I really like your choice of colors on these wood elves. Good luck for the next months!

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  3. Simply beautiful! I like the clean, but muted colour scheme - a style that fits the 80/90s aesthetic without the very bright (unrealistic to my mind) colours that dominated miniature painting back then.

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    1. Thanks! I certainly wanted to avoid the bright bold greens etc. that were often used in the past...and which I typically use on most of my other figures.

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  4. Wow, these are lovely. Great colors and brushwork and you've got an impressive amount of work done on these.

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  5. Incredible work. I particularly like the skin, both the tone and contrast you've achieved there.

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    1. cheers Merijn....the skin tone is something that I've been working on lately and these figures have just the right amount to show it off a bit.

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  6. I really love this army. Particularly the stripey boar.

    Why are the riders still separate to their mounts?

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    1. Good question....mostly because in my rush to get started on these I failed to pre-drill holes for the riders to plug in to on their mounts...so now I will wait and mount hem all at once during the final month of the challenge...along with attaching and painting all the shields for the other figures. this will make my final showcase of the finished army more impact-full. At least thats the excuse I'm using right now...:)

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  7. Awesome looking miniatures!
    best regards

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  8. The models look awesome. Especially the skin turned out very well, like Merijn wrote already.
    Cheers
    Hood

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  9. Wonderful work! I feel really inspired by these.

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  10. Beautiful work Blue. I really like how you've set up you shots as well.

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  11. Blue, this is all rather breathtaking. There's so much to take in. But I'll just mention the wardancers. They look fantastic. I love the particular flesh tones that you've used for them... they look natural but not quite human. And I'm glad to see that Glam is still trying to steal the show.

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    1. Cheers Matthew! It really has been a labor of love...and I'm happy that that shows in the product.

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  12. Really awesome work! I have hundreds of these Jes Goodwin wood elves and I love them.

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