A snapshot of my "dusted" Dark Elf Coldone Riders as they stood untoughed in my cabinet for many years. Still nice figures painted to a good standard.
The picture above shows the "dust of years" in my display case as I had removed the Dark Elves recently to take pictures, rework them (a bit) and to add some new miniatures/units.
I started painting the Dark Elves about 10 years ago for two good reasons.
The first was that I absolutly loved (and still love) the fantastic Dark Elves that Marc Copplestone sculpted for Grenadier many years ago. I also wanted to paint some of the High Elf minatures done by Jes Goodwin for Games Workshop - Teclis, Thyrion and the Dragon Princes. This were my absolute favourite miniatures that time.
The second reason was that my friend and regular gaming partner Peer was collecting and painting an High Elf army so a Dark Elf army was a natural choice with the promise of interesting games. So I had good reasons to paint this miniatures and some of the best known High Elves had to change to the dark side.
Here comes a few group pictures I shoot recently:
The following pictures show the units, characters and monsters as I converted and painted them years ago. The text beneath each photo contains some informations about the used miniatures, conversions and the idears and plans for the rework.
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10 Dark Elf Crossbowmen with full command. |
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The miniatures are from Grenadier. |
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Some of the troopers are converted as there are only 2 different types available. |
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There will only little changes to be done - mostly new bases (20 mm). |
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15 Dark Elf Warriors with handweapon, shield and handcrossbow with full command. |
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The miniatures are from Grenadier. |
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Some of the troopers are converted as there are only 2 different types available. |
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There will only little changes to be done - mostly new bases (20 mm). I also will tough up the golden shields and other golden parts because I didn't painted the metalic parts with shadows and highlights that time. |
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10 Dark Elf Raptor Coldones with full command. |
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The miniatures are from Grenadier. |
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This unit has been intensively converted. If I could remember correctly there had only been two different riders, one body for the raptor with two different head variants. The command group is built using upper boddies of a command group on foot with the lower half of the riders. I also changed the position of some legs from the raptors. |
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There will only little changes to be done - I will rework the bases and tough up the golden shields and other golden parts with shadows and highlights. |
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A Dark Elf noble on coldone with Lance and magic sword. |
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The miniatures is Prince Imric, an older High Elf hero from Games Workshop, sculpted by Jes Goodwin. |
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Only the raptor is converted by adding the armor and decoration at the head. Painted in the colorscheme of my Dark Elves and riding on a raptor he became a credibly Dark Elf I think. |
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I am not really about his future in my army. Perhaps he might ge a dragon as mount some day. |
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My favourite unit, 5 Dark Elf young Nobles in Dragon Armor, they are the personal bodyguard of the General and are carrying my personal insignia. |
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The miniatures are older Dragon Princes from Games Workshop, sculpted by Jes Goodwin again. Only the musican and the standard bearer are converted. |
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I will rework the bases and the golden parts on the miniatures. |
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The General of my Dark Elf army, a son of an old noble family. He is my avatar on the battlefield. |
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The miniature is the High Elf Prince Tyrion, one of my favourite miniatures of ever from Games Warkshop, of course sculpted by Jes Goodwin. |
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I will rework the bases and the golden parts on this miniature. |
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20 Dark Elf Black Guard armed with helbards, with standard bearer and commander. They protect a mighty Dark Elf mage. |
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The miniatures are older Black Guards from Games Workshop. The standard bearer is a converted warrior. There had been near to no conversions be done with the except of the standard bearer. |
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There will only little changes to be done - mostly new bases and som highlights to the golden areas. |
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This is a mighty Dark Elf Mage. |
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The Mage is the first Teclis model from the High Elf range, painted in the dark color scheme of my Dark Elves. |
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Again I will only rework the base and the golden parts on this miniature. |
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This is a Dark Elf hero on a big and evil lizard. |
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The hero is the very old miniature of Elric of Melinbone from Games Workshop.The book about Elric from Michael Moorcock was one of my inspirations for the colour scheme of my Dark Elves. The lizard is an Earthbound from Grendel. I had to remove the original rider and fit the normaly standing Elric model to the seat. |
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Once again I will rework the base and the golden parts on this miniature. |
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5 Dark Elf Dark Riders with spears. |
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The miniatures are very old (80th I think) Melibones from Games Workshop. As far as I can remember I swaped some weapons and heads. I also sculpted the coats. |
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This miniatures will be taken out of service as soon as I have painted some more of the newer Dark Rider models from Games Workshop. |
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3 Dark Elf Dark Riders armed with spears. |
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The riders are the (still) actual models of the Dark Riders from Games Workshop. The horses are converted from unicorns and Pegasi from Reaper - sculpted by Julie Guthery I think. She is my favourite sculptor of horselike creatures. |
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There will only little changes to be done - mostly new bases and some highlights to the golden areas. And there are much more of them to be painted in the furture. |
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15 Dark Elf Witch Elves with tow poisened handweapons. |
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The miniatures are older Witch Elves from Games Workshop. |
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There had been only few conversions be done, mostly some weapon swaps. |
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There will only little changes to be done - mostly new bases and some highlights to the golden areas. And I will remoe the symbol of Khorn on the model of the champion of cause. The models are well painted and the unit looks good, but the newer models of the Witch Elves are even better and so I will paint a second unit some times. |
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3 Dark Elf Repeater Boltthrowers. |
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These miniatures were painted at a time as no good looking models had been available. So I used the (at that time) new High Elf Reapeater Boltthrowers from Games Workshop. The loader are converted Bloodbowl players from Games Workshop, with some bolts added and painted in the colour scheme of my army. |
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Again I only will reworkthe bases and some golden areas. I also plan to paint two or three of the new DA Repeater Boltthrowers some day. |
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This are two pictures of my Dark Elf Warhydra. |
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It is a very nice but extremly heavy model from Grenadier. I especialy like the five different heads. |
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There had no conversion work to be done, only the assembly of the multi part kit. |
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I still have to paint the two beastmaster to controll the Hydra in battle and to rework the base. |
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1 (lonely) Dark Elf Black Arche Corsar armed with two handweapons. |
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The miniatures is a Black Arche Corsar made in white metal from Games Workshop. I painted him some years ago as a test and I am very pleased how good he matches with the Dark Elf worriors from Grenadier. |
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I have at least 11 more miniatures of this range to paint. I will also buy a unit of the new plastic Corsars and try to mix them with the older in one unit. Perhaps this will give me the chance to do some conversions too. |
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This is a Dark Elf Hero or Sorceress on a giant spider. |
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The miniatures of the spide is from Grendel (The widows lair), the rider a converted older Dark Elf character model (Games Workshop). |
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I shurely will rework the base. I am also considering to do a new rider because I am not to convinced about the used model. |
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A mighty Dark Elf Sorceress with staff and sword. |
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The miniature is from Fenryll and was only a short time available, because Games Workshop forced Fenryll to remove them from the market. |
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I plan to rework the staff and swap the sword against one that look more "elvish". |
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A bound Deamon (of Slannesh). |
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The miniatures is an Unforgiven from Grendel that I liked very much. In the second picture I placed the sorceress beside him for scale. |
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Only the base has to be reworked. |
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A Giant Scorpion. |
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The miniatures is from Hobby Production. I loved the model and the Dark Elf army was a good reason to paint one. There are no special rules for this monster in conjunction with the Dark Elves but I thought it was suitably. |
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I still have to paint the two beastmasters to controll the Scorpion in battle and again I have to rework the base. |
So far my old and longtime untouched Dark Elf Army.
Now follows my progress with
the rework of old
and the converting and painting of new models:
The first conversions for Dark Elf Spearmen,
dating back from the year 2003.
The basis for this had been the miniature of the normal Dark Elf Swordman from
Grendel. I removed the head/helmet, removed the small round shield, resculpted the arm and
hand, removed the swordarm, removed the handcrossbow and squiver with bolts and added the
scabbard/sword. This "master", the helmet and the swordarm with an added
spearpole had been put into a mould and cast in white metal. The two bare heads had been
sculpted with green stuff and added to the casts.
This are the first 5 assembled and recent undercoated Dark Elf Spearmen.
And this are the first 4 painted Spearmen. They only need to be based and varnished.
I created and painted nearly 80 bases (20 x 20 mm) lately. That was a labour of instudiousness but it is a good idea to paint the bases for whole units at once to get the colours equal.
The first four Dark Elf Spearmen based and varnished. I'm really satisfied with the way they turned out.
I repositioned and partly resculpted both arms of the two miniatures above. I wanted them to stand in the front rank and to have a dynamic fighting pose.
I also finished the three Dark Elf Spearmen in the attacking pose. The two models with the repositioned arms looks much more dynamic for my taste. I will convert three more warriors for the first row in the future. The standig Elf with the lowered spear might go into the second rank, just behind the command group.
I couldn't restit to arrange the seven miniatures just the way they might stand in a unit some days. It is subtle to arrange the miniatures without touching each other - especially the miniatures behind the dynamic poses in the front rank. After some attempts it works and I am very pleased with the result so far.
And here is a comparison shot of an originally and a reworked model of a Dark Elf Worrior. As intended I only reworked some golden parts (shield, mask and swordhandle) and added a new base (20 mm).
To be continued ...