First Ellyrian Reaver

Whoever at GW had the brilliant idea to sculpt 17 point figures more detailed than a regular champion or hero model of any other faction in Warhammer Fantasy... Good job! 

I managed to finish my first Ellyrian Reaver yesterday, and it only took me 2 full evenings and a few extra minutes here and there in the morning before work. I think in total this figure took me 6 and a half hours of painting. Madness!  

But yes, it's a beautiful sculpt, I think everyone can agree with me on that. 

Many many gems, coloured metal pieces around the horse armour, and even a decorative,  triangulated pattern on the straps that are hanging from the helmet. 

I painted the Ellyrian Reaver in almost the same colour scheme I used for a first Silver Helm test model in the past, I think it works pretty well for Cothique.

 

Only 4 to go now! As I said, madness. Not sure I can paint the probably most intimidating model of my Warhammer collection afterwards, the Prince on Griffon... But I really want to finish my Elven half of the Island of Blood box! Let's see.

Anyway, I hope you like my first cavalry model for the army! More to come soon, if Asuryan grants me the time and nerves :P

All the best

Lucas  

Lizardmen Colour Test

And now for something completely different!

Well, once again, the hobby squirrel with a attention span of only a few seconds has prevailed: I was distracted by a new, exciting topic :D
It's really bad at the moment.

Anyway, when I'm not able to pursue my hobby, I always come up with new projects in my head and then buy miniatures for them rather than actually painting them... 

But this one could be truly epic!
All I can say is that the story and setting take place in the Southlands of the Warhammer world. 

And since there are lots of lizardmen there, I had to paint a few... I'll tell you much more about the project later, but here's a little teaser in the form of an even smaller skink.

I stole the colour scheme from Total War: Warhammer III, where the lizardmen of Tiktaq'to are coloured like this. I think I'll try to get to 1000 points here first, and then we'll see.
The army will consist of 90% Skinks, with only a small troop of Temple Guardians containing Saurus.

The painting hasn't turned out 100% well everywhere, as I unfortunately tried once again to find a quick solution with Contrast Paints... I just can't do it. So I painted over everything again normally.
I hope you like it anyway! 

All the best

Lucas  

First game with my High Elves

Dark clouds gathered in the sky. Calandril looked down over the hill into the valley, at the edge of which the dark shapes of Chaos followers were already gathering. No birds could be heard anymore; the dark aura of the creatures had put all life to flight.

In the middle of the valley, which was bordered by forests, rose a dark ruin that might once have been a temple of the old gods of this region - now only death and despair reigned here. The statue in its interior had strangely glowing eyes, as if it were staring at Calandril even from this great distance and warning him against approaching.

But the elf did not waver. They had not marched over so many hours of travel only to turn back now. Chaos had to be driven from these lands, whatever the cost. The winds of magic flowed through him once more, and the High Elf mage took new heart. He raised his staff, and the small army of elven warriors set itself in motion.

 

Last night, finally our first game of Warhammer Fantasy 8th edition took place!

After months of preparation and reading the rules book, my High Elves had their first test of battle against some blood thirsty Chaos warriors and a pretty brutal Chaos beast!

The battle started with both sides  rolling for reinforcements. My army deployed in its entirety on the battlefield from turn 1, the Chaos warriors had to wait for a turn.

 

 

My elves had the first turn, so I marched onwards to meet the foul creatures in battle.

Unfortunately, I completely forgot about the guardian in the temple. I moved the Lothern Seaguard on the right flank too near towards the temple, and 4 men got killed by yellow beams of light. I can still hear the cries of the poor souls... 

Nothing to shoot and nothing to cast, so the enemy turn began. He also moved forwards, but had no shooting attacks either. 

The Chaos hounds moved behind the wood, probably for a nasty attack from the rear.

Round two, and my elves moved nearer. Cold hatred for all things Chaos burned in the Seaguard, so they charged into combat with the Chaos warriors. Or at least they tried, as they rolled too low and stopped a few inches before the enemy unit. What a pity!

My mage had then the chance to cast a spell, but did not roll high enough either. My already struck unit of Lothern Seaguaard on the right changed direction and tried to counter the Chaos hounds. 

Then it was the enemys turn again, and they attacked with brutal charges. My big unit of Seaguard was attacked from two sides, and I could not do anything about it...  

 

The combat was pretty brutal, flank attacks are pretty nasty... But I managed to kill a few warriors as well. Very close in the end, but I lost the combat. Luckily I rolled very good on my leadership test and the unit stayed in combat and did not flee. 

Next turn, and my Swordmasters charged into battle, as did my other Seaguard unit. My mage tried to cast a spell on the now arriving Chaos warriors, but once again rolled too low... Not a good day for Calandril!

 

As you can see, I lost quite a few elves this turn... But I managed to kill the Chaos hounds, and also did a lot of damage to the enemy in general. 

I think I don't have anymore images of the battle, but it was very bloody. I guess it's Warhammer after all! My mage tried to cast once again on the Chaos warriors, rolled a double 6, lost control and became stupid and did not remember any spell... Oh well :D 

My swordmasters killed the Chaos demon, but also got killed by the big fresh unit of Chaos warriors. The champion of the big unit of Lothern Seaguard got killed in a duell with the Chaos champion, but the champion got killed by the many spears of the Seaguard... In the end, only my mage and the Chaos warriors were alive:

In the end it was a very close victory for the elves. But what could they do? Most of the army had been slaughtered, Calandril was a drooling idiot with no memory of his magical abilities... It was a disaster! 

The game was incredibly fun. For my first game of Warhammer Fantasy, I got into it pretty well. Of course, the many special rules take time to learn, but I think it will go faster next time.
I'm definitely excited and can't wait for the next game!

The Warhammer atmosphere was definitely incredibly cool. 
It definitely motivated me to paint the next units for the elves! Today I already primed the first riders, let's see when I'll finish them... If only they didn't take so long to paint! 

All the best

Lucas  

 

 

 

 

Haldir finally joins the ranks of the wood elves

After promising to paint him for a few months now, this week I finally finished Haldir. A lovely figure, although the casting was once again not the best.

Especially the face is pretty flat, but from the side you don't recognize it.  

I choose a slighty different colour scheme on him, a bit darker than the rest and with more grey. More similar to the movie outfit than the GW paintjob I think... But it was hard to get the colours right!

 

And here is the full warband for the Lothlorien scenario. And to be honest, they were so much fun... Maybe I will do a few more :D 

A little Lothlorien army would be nice. I also have tons of the classic armoured Galadhrim, but I guess they would be better for a future Two Towers project. There are enough iconic miniatures in the Lothlorien range, the Wood Elf Sentinels for example, or the fantastic banner bearer. 

 

 

 

I also painted a plastic wood elf a while back... I think these models are some of the most underrated in the whole Lord of the Rings range. Sure, the details are pretty blurred, the faces are not the best (but look at the metal ones), and they are tiny compared to the command sets and heroes. 

But there is something in this set for me I just can't explain properly. They are exactly what I imagined back when I was reading the Hobbit for the first time: 

"Behind the arrows a thousand or their spearmen leapt down and charged."

Well, maybe I will paint this box in 2026... Would love to have it completed. 
 

And yes, the face really is not the best, but maybe my paintjob was not the best either. 

I will try again when I have the full set. I once had it, or maybe my brother, I am not sure... But now it's incomplete, half painted in thick coats of yellow and red, and pretty much unusable. Maybe I can find a complete box soon on ebay or something.

 

Well that's it for today, I hope you like the new figure!

All the best

Lucas  

18mm Austrian farm

Good evening!

The last post was quite a while ago, unfortunately. As I mentioned, we were completely busy renovating our new house, planning and carrying out the move, and so on. A lot of work and even more work, with no time for the hobby. But it was worth it, I would say! And now, I am never, ever, ever moving again.

Although I don’t know exactly which moving boxes contain about 2/3 of my collection and tools, I decided to dedicate this weekend to the hobby again. It only worked out reasonably well, but hey! It’s a start.

What did get finished is an Austrian farmhouse, circa 1800. Since we are planning to start an 1809 campaign at our club soon, this was a perfect fit. And I realized that I didn't have any terrain for 18mm at all! Scandalous. Well, we are changing that immediately.

The great models are by my friend Jens Najewitz from 3D Print Terrain. I printed them in 18mm and resin (at about 50% size) and filled the edges a little bit.

This is what it looked like during the first fitting test:

I cut the base out of thin plastic card. After that, I moved on to filling the gaps, sculpting the mud on the ground, and adding a few small details:

Actually, I took some inspiration from an old White Dwarf article from 2009 and adopted some of the techniques. Empire Coaching Inn by Chad Mierzwa (?). I’m not sure if the last name is correct, as the article only says Chad... But it could well be.

 

Incredibly good, isn't it? Unbelievable. I think I will soon copy this one-to-one for my own Warhammer collection... So this was a good exercise, I think!

But back to the historical part, Warhammer will return soon enough ;)

After filling the gaps, I glued on some sand and primed it with Zandri Dust. By now this has really become my favorite primer for everything that isn't supposed to be pure white.

The first base coats are on! I dug out the stippling technique again. I had mainly used it for my Legions Imperialis tanks and planes (more on that soon, hopefully), and I found it incredibly fun and effective back then. And wow, the plaster worked better with it than expected!

And then the buildings were already as good as finished. The roofs cost me some nerves; I think I repainted the roof of the living house three times... But now I am quite satisfied. After that, I moved on to a few small parts.

I believe all of them are from Tabletop World. I didn't know for the longest time that they also make STLs, unbelievable! Probably the most realistic fantasy models I have seen so far... But also very expensive, especially for STLs that you might only use once. But that's the quality! I could say a lot about the pricing model of STLs in general, but perhaps another time.

In any case, I also printed the items in resin and painted them very quickly:

After that, I moved on to the greenery, but I didn't take a picture of it. I recently ordered Coarse Turf and Green Blend from Woodland Scenics, and that actually worked out quite well! And this is what the finished piece looks like:

 

  

I must say, I am quite satisfied! I learned a lot and wrote everything down so that I can paint the next buildings in a similar way. 

A big thank you goes to Frank Becker from "Figuren und Geschichten," who gave me several tips for painting terrain like this.

Next, I would like to do a small chapel with a graveyard. We'll see! But I think it’s Warhammer again for now... The Citadel Wood is already primed!

All the best

Lucas

 

Gotrek and Felix

Over the last few months, I've delved deep into the world of Warhammer and listened to the first 13 Gotrek and Felix novels as audiobooks.

I didn't expect much at first, but the books truly captivated me, keeping my motivation for Warhammer at a very high level.

During this time, my good friend Marc and I considered creating a small Gotrek and Felix vs. Beastmen presentation for the Scenario Con 2026.

Since I couldn't get the books out of my head for months, I started 3D modeling the two titular heroes of the novels around the same time. The goal was to have relatively "modern" versions of the figures that would better match the current Beastmen models. I used the wonderful illustration by Johan Grenier as a template. His artwork adorned the first omnibus edition of the novels I bought. I did have to make a few small changes, though; the sword hilt and shoulder armor of Felix felt too far removed from the books for me.

I started with Gotrek months ago, but due to work and various other things, I couldn't dedicate much time to the figures each week, so the project took about 6 months in total. I was able to finish Felix a bit quicker, but I also dedicated an entire Saturday to him to speed things up.

The result is two figures that I am quite satisfied with! They're not truly perfect, and a lot could still be changed, but I think for the time I invested, they are good enough for now.

I will now print the two for testing and probably adjust the size and scaling a bit... Warhammer proportions are always quite difficult to nail down.

I hope you like them!

Calandril Stormsinger

Well, the last few weeks were a bit crazy, driving back and forth between my old home and the soon to be new one, trying to keep people engaged with the new Baden Kickstarter (I am pretty happy with the results!) and trying to find some time for Warhammer. Maybe a bit too much time, but next week the sculpting work will continue! In anyway, next year when the house is ready I think there will be once again a normal daily routine... At least I hope so!

 

But enough of this! I managed to finish my High Elven mage yesterday. The model drove me absolutely insane. So many details and hidden parts where I could not reach something with my brush, because of all the parts hanging before it... But in the end I managed to get something done. And I am quite pleased with the result! I studied a lot of old 'Eavy Metal Team articles and guides, which helped me a lot with things like the little glass flasks, the big stone in the staff and so on. 

Still, this period between 2008 and 2012 is my all time favourite hobby era, from model sculpts to painting or terrain... Definitly the best time for GW in my mind and I am trying to paint all of my new figures in this style as best as I can. 

Here's my Cothique mage, Calandril Stormsinger:  

 

What a fantastic sculpt!! I really really love everything that came with the 8th Edition box set... I just wish they had updated the spearmen and silver helms als well. 

 

I hope you like the mage! With the first unit I did last year, I am now standing at 700 points. Enough for a first test game I guess, although I really wanted to paint one or two oldschool GW woods before that. I am also trying to 3D scan them, so I can print as many of them as I want. Only for personal use of course! 

 

What will be next? Maybe I will finally paint my Haldir figure. Tonight we will continue with our Quest of the Ringbearer campaign, and in just two games the Lothlorien scenario will take place. So better hurry up!

 

Swordmasters finished! (for now...)

This weekend I was finally able to finish the work on my 10-men Swordmaster unit.

I initially thought they were a lot faster to paint than the Seaguard, but this unit again nearly took me a full month. Well, my recent Kickstarter went live last week, but nonetheless, it was a lot of work. 

I decided to give all my units names, I think that will automatically lead to more narrative battles and give the army a bit more character. 

So this unit will be called: "Blades of Analdar´s Shrine". 

The shrine is an elf sanctuary dedicated to Drakira, Goddess of Vengeance, and although overgrown and tumbled, rites can still be performed there. The Blades of Analdar's Shrine are protecting the shrine and the near coastline. 

I hope you like them! I used some new elements of the reworked plastic box. Not sure if this was a good idea, as I am not a big fan of the champions sword, but the other option was a bit too similar to the recent conversion I did with the spearmen. They are by the way called "Spears of Tor Dynal". 

 

 

 

I hope you like them!  

Now I only need to paint my  mage, and the 600 points for our first game are done. 

I hope this does not take another month... 

 

First Swordmasters!

Well as I said before, 30 minutes a day can get you a long way with painting figures (and it rhymes!), but a few hours on the weekend also do not hurt.

This way I managed to finish 5 Swordmasters this week!

I always loved the models deeply, since they were first announced. I actually have the old metal version too, but I like the new ones better... Maybe I can do a second unit with the metal figures. But I have like 40 of these plastic models, so maybe I'll stick with them :D 

 

I tried to find a colour scheme that would work with the rest of my army, so a little bit of white, green and grey, and plenty of gold and red gems. Pretty happy with them, I hope you like them too!

Five guys left from this unit, and then it's just the mage to complete my first 600 points... Of course that's completely different from what I had planned before (painting the full starter box force), but I will hopefully continue to paint as I have planned. 

It's just that my fellow wargaming club members are painting so fast, that I have to take a few shortcuts. Not to mushrooms, but to shiny, pointed helmets. 

 

 

 

  

Sorry for the crooked background, I really have to print a new one...

 

All the best

Lucas  

Next unit of Seaguard is finished!

Hey guys,

Finally, after 4 weeks of painting a few minutes every day, the next unit of Seaguard is ready for battle (I think Lothern Seaguard would not be the correct term for a Cothique army?).  

The little seagull was a fun little  detail I had in mind the second I saw the shield design, so that was a must have :D 

Pretty happy with the unit, and I think I will paint all the spear shafts of the first unit also white. Looks a lot more elegant and clear in my opinon.

 

 Painting these guys was a real pain. Like real :D As I said, it took me 4 weeks in total for 10 figures. So many details, so many gems... And the yellow was so hard to paint. Maybe I should have bought a yellow with a better coverage, but I had the Citadel one here, so I used it. 

I will probably enlarge this unit to also 18 figures, if we should ever play larger games. 

I think I will paint the Swordmasters next. And well, the 500 point challenge now became the 600 points challenge for me, as my other club members thought that 500 points were quite hard to match. The heroes are REALLY expensive! I do not know if this is something the 8th Edition did or still is true for The Old World, but yeah... So I will do 600 points now, with a 15 figure unit of Seaguard, a 10 figure unit Seaguard, a 10 figure unit of Swordmasters and my mage. That brings me exactly to 600 points, and should look pretty nice on the battlefield :) 

 

I hope I can paint some terrain as well! I got my hands on three of the old Warhammer woods, pretty excited to start painting them up. 

All the best

Lucas  

 

First elves painted!

Well, last week I managed to paint the first five elves of the new unit. 

Pretty pleased with how they came out, but painting these guys up took sooo much time... The yellow shields are a real nightmare. Maybe I need some better paints for this.

I hope you like them, the next five are already basecoated.

 

The Five Hundred Points Challenge

 

 

Welcome to our Five Hundred Points Challenge!

After some great conversations with friends and among ourselves, we've decided to get a bit more serious about Warhammer Fantasy this year. (Just to be clear, I'm not talking about myself in the third person and using the plural. Most likely, other people will appear on this blog, but I'll leave their introductions up to them.)

We've never actually played it, and that feels a little wrong. A few weeks ago, I stumbled upon an old article by Jervis Johnson in an old White Dwarf magazine, where he discussed the advantages of smaller Warhammer battles. He mentioned that while the standard battle size is usually 2,000–3,000 points (I think that was during 7th or 8th edition), he found 500-point engagements to be very feasible and that the system allows for some great games even at that size.

This got me thinking. What has kept us from playing Warhammer Fantasy the most so far? Probably the sheer number of models required, the seemingly very complicated rules, and games that would likely take an entire Saturday instead of being playable in an evening. The article gave me some courage, and after a bit of back-and-forth, we've now decided to paint up 500 points of our favorite armies and just try the system out. If it doesn't work out, at least a part of our collection will be painted, and we can play something like One Page Rules.

Last year, I already started a Warhammer army: the Elven Kingdom of Cothique. I had played it extensively (and very successfully, I might add) in Total War: Warhammer 3 through a mod, so my decision was pretty easy. I already have one unit of Lothern Sea Guard finished, but I thought I could just paint my Island of Blood box. If I leave out the Prince on the Griffon, I'll hit exactly 500 points.

Here’s a picture of my first unit from last year:

For the second unit, I based my work on the heraldry of Cothique and chose the shield design with the seagull. I also painted a first test model last year, but I never got around to painting more:

But that's changing now. Here are a few snapshots of the whole lot, a proud 500 points!

 

Any careful observer will probably notice that these aren't entirely the original figures from the Island of Blood box. The Swordmasters of Hoeth are partly from the new The Old World box, as I find the banner and the new pose of the captain really cool. The only problem was that the new minis are designed for larger bases, and the banner doesn't fit easily next to a Swordmaster when you use 20mm bases (as you should; I find the new aesthetic of The Old World terrible).

So, I had to bend the tips back a bit—not ideal, but the wind can blow in some very unusual ways, especially in the world of Warhammer.

The captain of the Lothern Sea Guard is basically the same model as in the Swordmaster unit, but I've given him a spear here. I hope that's not too bothersome, but I found the conversion too cool not to include. The shields and banner here have already been completely cleared of their original heraldry so I can implement my seagull theme.

The other models, however, are original—the Ellyrian Reavers and the mage.

 We'll see how quickly these figures get finished. Originally, we said five months for 500 points, but I hope it'll be faster. However, since we're currently in the middle of buying a house and preparing for a renovation and move, it might actually take until Christmas. Stay tuned!

 
It's also very possible that some other models might show up in between. After all, I still have to paint Haldir, plus I just 3D-printed a whole Amon Hen model. And I have tons of Legions Imperialis models to paint too!

The hobby is just always a bit wild.

 

All the best

Lucas