Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Many people think that Warhammer Fantasy is a very expensive game. To a certain extent that's true - you don't exactly get too many models in a box, and many armies require loads of models.

I'm here to disprove that as mere legend (the first sentence, not the second one)! With a bit of creativity and imagination, you can easily build a decent army rather inexpensively.

This is a P&M blog about assembling models like a cheap person. I will not, however, use eBay or any online retailer. I will purchase the models from my local shop or from GW themselves.

I have chosen the Wood Elves to be the army for my Cheaphammer blog. I love the models but hate the fact that many are made of metal. This army therefore will be mostly plastic with the occasional metal and resin model thrown in.

This blog is not going to be about my painting skills because, quite frankly, they fething suck compared to other people's. Instead, I will demonstrate my ability to be a total scrooge.

First thing's first -


I went out and bought the battalion and a box of Dark Elf warriors. And the army book, of course.

In the Wood Elf battalion, you get 24 Glade Guard, 8 Glade Riders and 12 Dryads. This is pretty nice of Games Workshop to do this! There's a lot you can do with the kits.

The Dark Elf Warriors are some pretty nice models in my eyes.

So, with the models I have at my disposal and the thought of conversions bubbling away in my mind, I built this list.

Lord:
Wood Elf Highborn with Elven Steed, Spear and Wild Rider kindred - 216 points.

Core:
8 Dryads - 96 points.
15 Eternal Guard with Full Command - 210 points.
14 Glade Guard with musican, standard bearer and Banner of Eternal Flame - 196 points.

Special:
5 Wild Riders of Kurnous with Musician - 130 points.

Rare:
6 Waywatchers - 144 points.

Total: 992 points.

All these models I could build out of the kits that I purchased!

The Highborn - will be kitbashed using Glade Rider parts.
Dryads and Glade Guard - built from the box.
Eternal Guard - built from Dark Elf Warriors and spare heads.
Wild Riders - built from Glade Rider and spare Dark Elf parts.
Waywatchers - built from Glade Guard parts.

So, how much did this 1000 point army cost me?

Less than 600 dirhams (about 161 US dollars)!

Not only that - I knew that I had a lot of spare bits for any mages!

When the army is assembled and ready for battle, I will show you what I have managed to do with the models. Until then - happy holidays!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
In the true spirit of Cheaphammer, I'm using blue tack instead of green stuff! It's just as solid once a layer of superglue has been placed over it.


Automatically Appended Next Post:




The first fully assembled Eternal Guard model. I think it turned out really well, it looks rather nice in my opinion.

What do you think of it?

It looks good man. I had wood elves and gave them up because of all the metal models, so I have a strong interest in this thread!
Quick question: Are you going to be using the dark elf shields as well or others or convert?

I'm not going to be using shields for the Glade Guard. Otherwise they'll be too heavily armoured, which is not something that they're supposed to be!

If the who unit, with heads, looks really peculiar without them, then I may add round shields made from plasticard. The Dark Elf shields really don't fit in my eyes.

Thanks for your interest!

Sorry for the bad pictures. These are shots of my mounted Highborn. It made from Dark Elf Warrior and Glade Rider parts. It is mounted from the top part of a Gallows Grove.

The rough cost is:
Roughly 1/2 a Glade Rider - $2.1875
Roughly 1/2 a Dark Elf Warrior - $1.09375
A Gallows Grove - $12.495 (who said PP models were cheaper?)
Rough total cost: $15.77625
Actual cost of proper GW model: $17

Okay, so not as cheap as I wanted it to be. But without the rather pricey Gallows Grove, it would have come up to much less than a third of GW's asking price. Plus, I prefer the look of my model - the GW one looks like a mounted Greek Hoplite:

See what I mean?

Check back for some extra stuff in a bit!