Trespass not, for the woods watch with a thousand eyes and none forgive

Last post I promised more green scum, although this time not of the Goblin or Orc variety. So here's a collection of goons from another wretched hive of scum and villainy: Athel Loren. 

There may be no borders in the forest, but stray across the wrong root, and the Wood Elves will show you exactly where the invisible lines lie on their ineffable map.

I grew up with Lord of the Rings. My father read the books to me when I was a kid and I still own the bewildering comic adaptation (in Dutch). That one apparently never saw an English release (here's a link to a Finnish version for those of you not in the know (you can also watch the movie it was based on, of course)). With that in mind, I always had a bit of a love/hate attitude towards Elves. On the one hand they have cool dwellings like Lothlorién and Mirkwood, on the other, they are insufferable bastards. It made the old 'posh tourist' trope in Warhammer Fantasy work for me. Elves in the Old World tended to be the kind of snobs that would critique the quality of the pitchforks and torches arrayed against them, only to point out with their dying breath that the angry mob lacked the skill to properly apply their crude tools. 

As pretty as bases are for individual models, I love the classic aesthetic of blocks of models on squares.

Having said that, the lure of Elves is irresistible to me. When I first caved, the choice was easy: one camp put way too much emphasis on blonde hair and nobles' natural right to rule, another side had bothered Bilbo, so I decided to collect Dark Elves in the early nineties. I had a motley collection of early plastics, some classic Cold One Riders and a unit of truly ancient Witch Elves. I sold off the entire army to a collector a few years back. Since then, reassembling a Dark Elf host has been high on my list of priorities (just not quite high enough). In the meantime I learned to love the snobbish idiots from Ulthuan, blinded as they are by their own illusions of infallibility. I painted some of their AoS proxies a while back to give myself an excuse to paint High Elves. Back then I added Skarloc's Wood Elf Archers to that lot. I blogged about them here and here. 

From 20x20mm square to 25mm rounds to 25x25mm squares again, these Wood Elves get around (or should that be asquared?)

With the joy I get out of the (still sort of new) Warhammer The Old World (and considering AoS mutated into a sad, over-complicated mess), I rebased the Skarloc's Wood Elf Archers back to squares. Even though they are on the 25x25 squares Elves occupy these days. I also reapplied a new layer of thick flock to fit them in with future Wood Elf units (rebasing this unit was the start of a new army, planning the rest of it out followed weeks later*). Working up close with these models, I felt a slight temptation to strip and repaint them once more, it's so easy to get stuck on the faults I see. In the end I decided against it (for now). There's so much fun stuff to paint, I can't keep on stripping and redoing the same models over and over. 

* Just kidding, it's still a work in progress that'll only ever really end when I'm done painting Wood Elves** ;) 

** Never! 

Glam is back on a square base, still doing his best Braveheart impression. The pillars and tree in the back are part of some extra (PLA-printed) forest terrain I've been painting over the past year.

Along with Skarloc's unit, I also rebased Glam. He's still unable to join the unit of his erstwhile friends as Wardancer heroes (Shadowdancers) can only join Wardancer units. This will not stop him from fighting alongside Skarloc and the gang, cheering on a bunch of his dancing friends (because if his friends can't dance, and if they won't dance, then they ain't no friends of mine). I have some classic Wardancers lined up on my paint station and I expect to finish them soon(ish)*.

*Take that with the good old Warhammer projects grain of salt. 

I'm rather happy about the way this skintone photographs, if only I could remember what paints I used to apply it...

As I was rebasing anyway, I put this Die Hard Elf on a fresh square base. I can use her as a Glade Captain (major hero) of Glade Lord (minor hero), or as a Waystalker (Waywatcher hero). It's a lovely sculpt and the pose is wonderfully assertive. It was so assertive that I had to put her on a diagonal slotta base to line her up in a unit.

As you can tell by the yelling and waving with his gleaming sword, this Wood Elf is a master of ambush and stealth.

I painted this wonderful old sculpt by Gary Morley up years ago. He also stands ready to take a role as a Waystalker or maybe he'll feature as a Waywatcher (as intended). I recently added five other Waywatchers from this range to the painting station. The longer I'm in the hobby, the more I enjoy Gary's work. I even like his signature sword in the air pose (as displayed by the chap above), and I really want to get my hands on a bunch of his old ghouls. There was an interview with him on YouTube that was quite entertaining (I know it's long, just listen to it as you paint). Every time I look at my version of good old Nagash I smile. It may look a bit zany, but it's a wonderful miniature whose silliness improves The Old World as far as I'm concerned. There's plenty of darkness there, a bit of humor, a wink and some zany fun are needed to provide contrast that keeps the darkness dark. In short: I love this hobby, and all the various different styles and developments it has gone through over the years.  

Aside from the robes, the red crystal on the staff also went through a few color changes as blue didn't pop enough and green added too much green to the model. I finally landed on the most obvious contrast color to add to green, and I think it works. 

Before I blab on about changing styles of miniatures, let's first finish the line-up of characters I have in my army (so far). This wonderful mage will join the others on foot. She'll no doubt miscast at the worst possible moment (as mages always do). Her dress/robes went through a few color shifts as I painted her, until I finally caved and decided to go for green. It may be a bit boring to paint Wood Elves green, but it works, and I like how this particular green pops (the secret is AK Deep Green (intense)). As an aside: I'm desperately searching for a non-GW dark green that matches the vibrancy of Caliban Green, but so far all my search has given me is a huge collection of greens that are wonderful, but not vibrant enough and not quite like Caliban Green. 

At first sight, these classic Treemen and Dryads looked a bit blocky to me, but as I looked for moving trees, I realized they are perfect for what they are supposed to be.

Back to blabbing about styles. GW released plastic Dryads and Treemen a few years back (I think it was around Warhammer Fantasy 8th). As much as I like how these plastic trees look, I discovered (while painting them) that they are just too wavy and branchy for me. In the end I decided to go for GW classics. The chunkier style from a chunkier time better fits my army and taste. I did take the opportunity to experiment with more greys and greens and way less browns (and no reds, as the period these are from would dictate ;). I think that decision turned out to be quite right.

The 'Tree Kin' in the center is my favorite of these three sculpts. A real nasty (and mobile) Old Man Willow, if you ask me.

I have to admit that I still need to suppress the urge to use a Mournfang Brown/Bestial Brown type reddish brown when painting wood. The toddler in me just wants to apply a brown to wood that neatly fits the description of brown, even though my own eyes see mostly greys and greens (and a bit of white) when I take a stroll through the woods. I'm glad I managed to ignore my inner toddler (I usually am). I stuck to greys and greens instead of browns on these bad boys trees. A fun detail to note is that, aside from lots of pin-washes with green and brown shades and thinned contrast paints, I primarily used a sponge to paint these models (and the dryads). The irregular effect of sponging (instead of brushing) on paint works very nicely when detailing nature (even if it walks around, complaining that wizards should know better). 

The greens, reds and yellows of the elves blend nicely with the greys, greens and browns of the Treemen's bark.

I'm going to use the bigger sculpt in the back of this picture as a Treemen Ancient. The two slightly smaller Treemen are going to be Tree Kin. I'm sure it will make for a nice shambling host of walking timber on the tabletop. McDeath had better watch out (if I ever get my hands on miniatures of tree-wielding Scotts). 

Wine: it isn't just fun to drink, it enables you to make amusing new banners too.

The final unit I painted (so far) is this lot of ten Wood Elf Archers. The banner top of the standard bearer in the center of the unit is lost in time and space. Instead of hobbying up a new one (or printing one), I decided to play around with my newly discovered 'ancient' banner technique.

Looking back at this picture, I realize I should've put a paper towel beneath the banner. There's a pointy, banner-shaped red stain on my painting mat now :)

I cut out an appropriate triangle of wine lead and airbrushed the back deep red, the front bright red and, because I was too lazy to paint a freehand, added a random transfer (Eldar, but squiggly and close enough). In the picture above, the banner has just been covered in a copious layer of gloss varnish to protect the paint and hide the transfer's edges. Did I ever write about the semi-easy way to properly apply waterslide transfers?

This could work as a banner, all you'd need is an Elementalist to explain the constant headwinds blowing at the unit (subtract 6" from their maximum range).

After adding matt varnish to hide the gloss varnish, I stuck the banner to the pole with superglue. I waited a day for it to dry, and then carefully folded the banner around the pole, adding another drop of superglue to the bottom to keep it in position. Let's reuse the picture from above to show the end result.

The banner is nice and subtle, if you completely discount the bright red of course.

I like this effect, it makes the banner look like one of those subtle streamers, hanging from a simple banner pole (where it won't get stuck in the branches). I think I would be hard pressed to replicate this effect using a paper banner. 

With that, the first batch of Wood Elves is finished. Next up I've got a few 3D-printed Great Eagles to paint. I like the idea of Warhawk Riders, but I think the models available just don't look intimidating enough. I will combine bigger eagles with classic models as riders. Any helpful hints on properly painting the patterning of Golden Eagle plumage will be greatly appreciated (The more I look at reference photos of the motley patterning on the wings, the more intimidated I get). Aside from that, I have a lot of (attempted) checkered, plaid and diamond-shaped patterns to paint on my Wardancers. Stay tuned for more :).