The war-host of Maloran Brightblade Part 2

In Part 1 I went through the first three units of my little wood elf army. Each of them was only 5 models. Next up was the massive, by wood elf standards, unit of 16 warrior kinband. I didn't realise these sculpts - sylvan elves - were so popular when I first acquired some. I wasn't planning on having such a large unit, but I found some relatively cheap on eBay and ended up with enough for a good strong anchor for my line (T3 and light armour notwithstanding!). The spears mean six attacks at WS4 which with the elves' high initiative will hopefully prevent too many incoming attacks. The musician is a bit redundant, but it's a nice model and meant a little more variety when painting them.

Spears - perfect for skewering goblins

I had put the archers off until almost the end of the project. Nice looking sculpts, but I hate all the fiddly detail - especially the wrist-bands, shoulder-bands and god-knows-what-else that Jes in his omniscient wisdom chose to adorn them with. Again, more heavily armoured than my theme would suggest because it was less work to paint shields than remove them! On the shields, I wanted to freehand designs on all the shields, but lacking the skill to do artwork I opted for runes - simple but effective.

Jewellery on and ready for fun

The last unit is the falconers. Another fluff unit, as I think they'll have limited usefulness in a game but nothing says wood elves like a squishy unit with insane BS. I'm quite proud of the conversions. I scratched my head for ages trying to work out how to get the right models. There's nothing really that suits even from modern manufacturers. In the end I've press moulded the falcon from Jes elf captain, and the birds from Skaw the Falconer from 4th(?) ed (I got them in a job lot, took the moulds and then sold them on). The fifth bird - the one that looks like a pigeon - is a Reaper Bones familiar.

The elves didn't need too much work - removing weapons and shield bosses - except for a former wardancer who's had a hair replacement and an arm swap to make him look more foresty. By this stage I was a bit over blues and greens, so I've gone for mostly brown.

The general was the last to be painted, while I did the wizard about the middle of the project. When I still liked green. I don't think I'd really have a wizard in a 1000 point army - I think magic with that few points unbalances things a bit - but I really wanted to paint the model. I've loved these elf personality models since I saw the ad for them in White Dwarf 95. They really sum up everything that's great about that era of Citadel miniatures.

And of course, no third edition army is complete without a baggage train. Here, a young messenger and an injured wardancer team up with a family of Halfling pedlars to protect the odds and sods that an army needs to support itself.

And that's the army. It did feel heavy going at times, and I'll be glad for a break. Hopefully one day soon I'll get a game with it and a chance to see how it plays. Thanks for stopping by!