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Hi folks!

I have been toying with the idea of starting a blog here since I signed up. I am not the best modeller or painter in the world, but this is a passion of mine and I have really enjoyed seeing other people's work, so I thought I would share mine. The only thing is.... well... I'm a bit lazy. And also rather poor. So my progress isn't always that fast...

My current project (having abandoned my Eldar when GW stopped making Tentacle Pink), is returning to the army that first drew me to Warhammer- the High Elves. I own 4 copies of the High Elf army book, but this is the first time I have ever jumped in and collected them. This sudden return to the hobby was triggered by the IoB griffin, which I picked up super-cheap on e-bay and which is possibly the nicest model I have ever owned to date. After that, a battalion box followed and now I have the respectable beginnings of a nice little army.

Like a lot of new High Elf players, I have been totally sucked in by the new lion models. I love them. Combined with my long-standing fondness for the White Lions of Chrace, I decided to theme my army around the estate (and citizens) of a Chracian noble- so needless to say, there will be more than a couple White Lions (of both the cat and the elf) variety once I am done! I have a fair amount of fluff worked out for this army, and some fun ideas as well. Now I'm just hoping I have the skill to make it look how I imaging.


I expect there to be lengthy gaps between my updates here once I post all the stuff I have done so far, as it takes me an age to paint anything and yeah- the aforementioned poorness/laziness.




Ok - first up, the first half of my Lord Conversion:[u]
For this army I didn't want a 'standard' High Elf lord. The elves of Chrace are hard and weathered, and not so refined and... er... elf-y as other High Elves. Because of this, I wanted something a bit different, so I decided to make a Chracian princess rather than a prince. Kind of an elven Xena, I suppose.

My base model was a rather unfortunate Sigvald the Magnificent. Who else has nice enough hair to be a High Elf?

My working area, and some of the stuff I used. Also, food. Very important, that.


I wanted her to be pointing forwards, directing her troops, so the sword and shield had to go. Commence pinning, ready for the GS and new hands....


A quick balance to check the arms were in proportion. Gorilla arms don't look good on ladies.


I filled the gaps with GS. She's got some pretty impressive muscles, but this is how I intended it. She's something of a giant already, being taller than the others, and I like the idea of her having bare, muscled arms. She's the kind of lady who would wrestle a Lion bare-handed, and probably actually has...


Of course, she wouldn't be much of a White Lion without some lion fur! I toyed with the idea of a full Lion cape, but decided against it. Instead, I have decided to work a lion face onto one of her shoulders, much like the standard White Lions have.


With the arms and cloak cured, I got to work on the torso. The breastplate is going to be metal, so I went for a more styalised look for her bust than a realistic one. I also filled in the Slaanesh symbol on the shoulder, and covered over some of the muscle-sculpting down the sides, to make it a little bit more of a feminine breastplate (but only a little!) I added the gem at the neck, too.

At the moment, this is all the modelling I can do on her as I have run out of GS, and it's unlikely that I'll get any more for a fortnight or so. When I do get more, I will be rounding out her hips (sorry Sigvald, but your butt is too skinny....) and filling in the rest of the swirly patterns on the armour. The idea is to decorate her armour with gems rather than squiggles, and then sculpt the lion face onto the one shoulder.

I will probably go at her cheeks with a file at some point too, if I can manage it. I like the smirk but I would like to give her better cheek bones.

Im very very interested in this blog as myself have been itching to make a High Elf army with as many white lion charriots as possible.

Do you have any ideas atm on how to deal with the lions's poses? they are all the same unfortunately.

Can't wait to see this! I haven't seen a high elf army in years! Also, Vallejo makes a copy of tentacle pink!

LunaHound wrote:Im very very interested in this blog as myself have been itching to make a High Elf army with as many white lion charriots as possible.

Do you have any ideas atm on how to deal with the lions's poses? they are all the same unfortunately.

It's going to awkward, but I'm thinking I may have to do some hard-core kitty surgery with a saw and some GS. I have done a mounted mage so far, but I am going to make a unit of White Lion Knights for him to go with, as soon as I can afford the parts. I may also make stratigic use of some textured bases, to try and add some diversity. Also, some of the lions might get their beards shaved, just for some variety.

It'll be a challenge, though- as will getting the elves onto their backs. I was thinking of pilfering some Cold One Knight lower legs for the project, but I'm not sure they will fit across the lions' wide backs.

TristanGray wrote: Also, Vallejo makes a copy of tentacle pink!

Nononono shhhhhhhh! You and Forge World can't tempt me back into Eldar I'm not listing lalalalalaaaaa!



Automatically Appended Next Post:
Ok, now I'm done messing about elsewhere on the forum... on with the show!


This is the test model/ideas prototype for my mounted Chracian units. This dude is a mage, but eventually I intend to have 2 units of 'counts as' mounted White Lions- some in heavy garb to use the rules of Dragon Princes, and some lighter ones to either be Silverhelms or Reavers, depending on what I need.


So basically, this is a kit bash more than a conversion... although, I will say this: elves do not have wide hips, and lions have very wide backs. The result? It's well hidden, but this guy will not be fathering children any time soon.....


Here he is with my White Lion champion, just for size comparison. These lions are pretty big animals!






Fully painted up, and I'm pleased with how he came out. I look forward to doing the rest, though while this lion is in a standard pose, I am planning on doing some more dynamic ones for other lions, which will be a fun challenge.

Small update, nothing dramatic. I've not managed to get my hands on any more lions for my conversions yet, so I have mainly been working on finishing up the spearman unit from the battalion box, which (between college and other real-life stuff) seems to be taking an age.

I also put together the rest of the archers, ready to be painted up too. Most are fairly standard, so all I'm showing off is the command unit:



The musician is fairly standard, though I wanted him to look like he had just finished blowing the horn, rather than having it smashed up against his face. easier to paint, and also looks better IMO.


The champion is a kit-bash, using a spare White Lion head. I thought it would help link this unit into the overall theme of the army. It was not entirely straight-forward, though- the White Lion models have the neck attached to the body, while the archers have their necks attached to the head. So I had to build up a neck for this guy before gluing the head on. And I think it might have been too short- he sort of looks like he is slouching a bit (at least to me.)

Anyway, the search for lions continues, and hopefully I will have a picture of a fully painted unit to show off soon.

Beautiful! Just beautiful! The White Lion Champion is amazing, especially the lion IMO. Please keep long breaks between updates to a minimum. I want more painting!

hi ive just recently built 20 white lions. one tip i might give you is that when you build them do not glue them straight to there bases. its a reall pain trying to rank them up so position them how you want them then. put a number on each of the bases so you now how to rank them up. trust me its alot easier and quicker than messing about trying to get them to rank up. also remeber when i first started talking too you about that convertion of a noble and warhawk rider to create a noble riding an egale ive finally got the stuff so it will be on in about a week. too point out about the vallejo there paints cover more area than gw paints and there is an allternative to tentical pink which looks exactully the same

Some cool stuff here. I really like how the lion's head came out.

Nice to see a bit of WFB stuff on here too

Cool! Chrace-theme is nice, I generlly despise High Elves but that is mainly because of Swordmasters. The lion chariot are damn cool, (I bought one just for the lions)

LunaHound wrote:Do you have any ideas atm on how to deal with the lions's poses? they are all the same unfortunately.

Since the lions bodies are made from two parts, you can make four different kind of lions. Then place them different on each chariot.

bunnygurl wrote:Beautiful! Just beautiful! The White Lion Champion is amazing, especially the lion IMO. Please keep long breaks between updates to a minimum. I want more painting!

Thanks! I haven't had any time to do any real painting, but I am slowly working my way through it all! I'll try to have some more painted pictures up soon!

spence909 wrote:hi ive just recently built 20 white lions. one tip i might give you is that when you build them do not glue them straight to there bases. its a reall pain trying to rank them up so position them how you want them then. put a number on each of the bases so you now how to rank them up. trust me its alot easier and quicker than messing about trying to get them to rank up. also remeber when i first started talking too you about that convertion of a noble and warhawk rider to create a noble riding an egale ive finally got the stuff so it will be on in about a week. too point out about the vallejo there paints cover more area than gw paints and there is an allternative to tentical pink which looks exactully the same

Yeah, I have recently learned the hard way about ranking up White Lions. I have just had to reposition a few from my first ten, and believe me I will be taking a lot more care over the next ten! Re-gluing the little was really not my idea of fun!

Also, good to know that vallejo are good- I will have to check them out. At the moment I am not in need of any new paints, but if I ever re-start my Eldar (who were mainly tentacle pink) I will have to grab some of there paints. I look forward to seeing your warhawk Lord too!

BigBadWolf37 wrote:Some cool stuff here. I really like how the lion's head came out.

Nice to see a bit of WFB stuff on here too

Thanks!

Saintspirit wrote:Cool! Chrace-theme is nice, I generlly despise High Elves but that is mainly because of Swordmasters. The lion chariot are damn cool, (I bought one just for the lions)

LunaHound wrote:Do you have any ideas atm on how to deal with the lions's poses? they are all the same unfortunately.

Since the lions bodies are made from two parts, you can make four different kind of lions. Then place them different on each chariot.

Thanks! I am pleased with how the scheme has come out, and it's a nice change from all the white and blue.

With the Lions, while you can make 4 with the parts available, I am hoping to make some more 'galloping' poses- which will require me to cut and green stuff the legs quite a bit. You know, assuming I even find the time to do the conversions!



Automatically Appended Next Post:
Ok- so- I have lacked any real time to do painting, but I did manage to do a bit more kit-bashing. This time, it's my Bolt Thrower crewmen and my much-loved White Lion Chariot.

Bolt Thrower Crew first:




Again, I wanted to go for a look that made them fit better with my army, so I ditched the helmeted heads and put them together to match my archer units. The rather fierce looking gentleman holding the bolt has a White Lions shoulderpad and a head from the chariot set, to make him look more like a veteran/retired White Lion.


White Lion Chariot:
(I'll say from the off, this is my favourite model so far, and it will probably take me until the end of time itself to paint it.)

Rawr!
I deliberately didn't put the banner on this chariot, because it made everything look very crowded. I wanted a more practical look for the chariot, and frankly, big banner poles get stuck in trees.


Here's the crew. Both have White Lion shoulderpads from the White Lion box set, because the furry 'whole head strapped to my shoulder' pads from the chariot set looked a bit silly to me.


This guy is actually a new Dark Eldar head, which was kindly donated by a friend of mine at the local GW store. The head is remarkably appropriate, and didn't take much work to convert- I just had to file down the tech-y looking stuff on the back of it and it works just fine.

The guy holding the reins had to be blue-tacked to the Lions so that his arms dried in the right position, as he is not fully attached to the chariot. Putting him together was remarkably hard, but worth it in the end.

These models are all now base-coated, and I will be working on my Bolt Thrower and crew in the next couple of weeks. Hopefully, my next pictures will be of them completed.

Ouch... You have already basecoatedit, you say? That's too bad, considering you hadn't fixed the mould lines on several parts.

Haha, no... I have cleaned them. Sorry- I should have mentioned that in the write-up.

You are on to a nice start. Cosnider me subscribed. Ahh, dakka needs more of these WHFB P&M blogs.

Looking great, looking forward to some more progress.

Nice idea of using the White Lion parts to tie the other units to Chrace. I'm extremely impressed with the quality of the Sigvald conversion you seem to be well on the way to making him a High Elf Woman.

@OP: I sell those lions like crazy through bits store, and every time I see them go out I think how much fun it would be too see them as a Cavalry unit. Cheers to you for doing this and I am very intrigued too see the end result.

Huscarl wrote:You are on to a nice start. Cosnider me subscribed. Ahh, dakka needs more of these WHFB P&M blogs.

Thanks. WHFB blogs seem thin on the ground here, but then I guess DakkaDakka is more of a 40k forum, so it's to be expected. I'm really enjoying the place, though- seeing all the other stuff people are working on is very inspiring.

Listrel wrote:Looking great, looking forward to some more progress.

Thanks! I'm hoping I'll have more time to paint in the near future- I have quite a lot to be getting on with, and most of it is spearmen and archers.

Llamahead wrote:Nice idea of using the White Lion parts to tie the other units to Chrace. I'm extremely impressed with the quality of the Sigvald conversion you seem to be well on the way to making him a High Elf Woman.

Thank you. She's taking time to put together, but I'm hoping that once she's done she'll look pretty formidable!

Empchild wrote:@OP: I sell those lions like crazy through bits store, and every time I see them go out I think how much fun it would be too see them as a Cavalry unit. Cheers to you for doing this and I am very intrigued too see the end result.

Oh really? Stupid question- is that a website? I'm pretty new to the online miniatures world, but anywhere I can source lions for a fair price is good in my book. I've worked out that I need about 10 of the ers, and then I have to figure out how best to put White Lions on top of them, too...

Hi folks.

I'm posting here to say that I am putting this project on hold for a few months, as I have been diagnosed with a fairly serious medical condition which has been causing my sight to deteriorate. Hence, no painting- it's easier to assemble things at the moment than to paint, and even that is now getting difficult. :(

I hope to be able to continue relatively soon, depending on treatemnt and all. Fortunately the condition isn't fatal, but my coordination and eyesight might never be the same, so we'll see.