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I'm repainting my entire High Elf army, so to keep myself motivated and get some feedback in order to improve my skills, I thought I'd blog about it. Plus, there just aren't enough fantasy P&M blogs here (not that I don't love the 40K blogs)

I was inspired on my annual vacation to Virginia Beach to make them Ocean Themed, which fits in remarkably well with the just-released "Island of Blood" pack and High Elves in general. I don't have a real story yet, but I think they'll be the crew of an exploratory ship. So, without further ado, my first half of a unit. Sea guard, appropriately enough:


A Half Unit - 10 regular guard and a Captain


The Captain, Front


The Captain, Back


Regular Model, Front


Regular Model, Back

I started with basic archers, then made the spears from green stuff and wire, and the shields from real sea shells (er... river shells, I collected them from the dried bed of Bull Run).

My self-critique: I like each model individually, but as a unit, they are tough to physically put together, the captain especially spills over his base. Hopefully when I get the kneeling archers painted, that should mitigate that problem a bit. Otherwise, I might take some guys off their bases and put them onto a bigger multi-unit base.

Also, especially in the photos, some of the guys aren't as neat as I'd like, and I missed painting a few places. Hopefully, with time and experience, I'll improve on that. Maybe I could do more with the spears, or at least straighten them out a bit somehow.

Finally, I'm curious to know if what I intended the spear heads to be is clear. I see it, because I made them, but can you all tell what they are?

Any other criticism is welcome - please be gentile though! It's my first time...

Planned Next - Dragon Princes, more Sea Guard, and a Reaver

Are the spears teeth from a giant sea-monster?

The idea is nice and well in line with a sea-based regiment, but I do have a few comments:

- try and get some less blurry pics! You probably took them with your phonecam, and most probably from too close! Try taking them with a higher resolution, from farther, and if necessary, crop the pic, it should end up better!

- we don't see much, but it seems like you didn't highlight or darken most of the colours... Have you tried the GW washes? A simple layer on a basecoat can make the recesses darker, while avoiding the edges, thus ensuring a sort of natural lighting to your model... It works especially well on robes & faces.

Apart from that, they're good!!

As much as I can tell from the blurry photo's, they look pretty nice. I especially enjoy the use of real shells for the shields, nice touch. Shells are pretty fragile though, did you do anything to reinforce them?

I agree with Ygg on the washing & highlighting.

Keep up the good work!

Yggdrasil wrote:Are the spears teeth from a giant sea-monster?

Yes! Glad they are recognizable!

try and get some less blurry pics! You probably took them with your phonecam, and most probably from too close!

They were from my camera-camera, which I think is damaged since those were the best of about 20 shots. My older pics are much clearer. :( I'll try messing with it some more, or getting it repaired if that doesn't work. So, hopefully the quality of the photos will be better in the future.

I did wash everything except the ropes. I was worried about making them too dark, maybe some watered down Badab Black? I have Asurmen Blue, which I'm using on the Silver and Turquoise (to make it more blue-green) and Gryphonne Sepia for the wood/leather/hair/etc.

Highlighting is something I need to work on. I try it, and it turns out too light I guess that's the point of practicing on bunches of core troops.

Asurmen Blue is also nice on white clothes...

As much as I can tell from the blurry photo's, they look pretty nice. I especially enjoy the use of real shells for the shields, nice touch. Shells are pretty fragile though, did you do anything to reinforce them?

Nope. These ones don't seem that fragile. Well... no more fragile than other Warhammer bits

There were some others I left in bleach too long (to clean them) that got... crumbly, but this batch is holding up.

Those shells are an excellent idea and I would probably steal it if I had high elves.

Not sold on the teeth myself, they seem far too large for spear tips.

i really like the shells

Not sold on the teeth myself, they seem far too large for spear tips.

You may be right. They're the same height as regular spear tips, but pretty wide. I was modeling them after shark teeth, but maybe something the same height, but skinner, like this:
or this:
would be better?

I'm also looking for inspiration from these posts, so any ideas are welcome!

For example, I've got plans for White Lions and Phoenix Guards, but no idea on what to do for my Swordmasters. They seem pretty limited in modeling possibilities- I've got 10 metal ones now, and when I get IoB, I'll have 10 more that aren't really posable. The only idea I had so far is to replace the blades of their swords with blades from a swordfish, make up some fluff about magical Ithilmar Swordfish, but that seems kinda dumb. Plus their existing swords are cool enough as it is!

They need a Boat!

As soon as I saw the sea shell shields, I thought of Michael Moorecock's Prince in the Scarlet Robe

Great idea. The spear tips are way too huge though, as mentioned.

The replacement of swords with something that looks like the nose on a swordfish might be ok perhaps?

Other than that, the only nautical thing I can suggest is the use of pearlescent paint. Though I imagine that most of them will be very thick and hard to water down enough for use on models.