Monday 27 April 2020

High Elves

With all of the painted Bretonnians now listed I thought I'd move on to my High Elves. Now these were my army of choice waaaaaay back in the dim and distant early 90's. They were amongst the first Warhammer miniatures I owned as my parents bought me the 4th Ed WHFB boxed set. I still own all of those miniatures and now after some 30ish years I'm finally getting around to painting them.

As well as the plastic spear elves and archers I was bought Tyrion and Teclis, three Dragon Princes and the Ellyrian Reavers boxed set. I still own all of these minis and I've managed to acquire a few more. I bought the Blood Island boxed set when that came out which gave me a small boost to the army. since then I've acquired a unit of 10 4th Ed Silver Helms and boosted my Dragon Princes up to 10 including command again all 4th Ed. I've bought a unit of 20 5th Ed White Lions and some command figures for my Spear Elves and Archers. These command models along with a Chariot are the only non GW figures in my High Elf army.

But enough waffle, on to some pictures.

The Front rank of my Spear Elf unit. This unit consists of 22 GW Plastic 4th Ed Elves and a Command section from Black Tree Design. The BTD Elves are ever so slightly larger than the GW ones but not enough for me to worry about it. I still need to source a suitable flag.

The two front rank GW elves. painted in their Caledorian colours

The BTD command figures are well done and have a good level of detail. They had very little flash or mould lines on them and I think they fit in quite nicely with the GW ones.


I like the Champions pose although some might find it a bit flat. I find it quite reminiscent of a lot of the character poses that GW produced in the 90's. I especially like the shield that comes with this mini.
The front rank of one of my Archer units. Again the unit consists of 4th Ed plastic archers with a BTD metal command. This time the BTD minis are slightly smaller than the  GW ones but again not enough for me to be bothered.

There is quite a lot of detail one these figures and they were fun to paint. The banner was the template from the 4th Ed High Elves Army book painted by me.

The Champion has lots of small details and everything was well sculpted with no flash and minimal mould lines.


I'm not so sold on this figure I think the trumpet/bugle thing is a bit too big but again its well sculpted and cast with very little in the way of mould lines and no flash.
Next are some of my all time favourite miniatures. the 4th Ed High Elf Silver Helms. I wanted these as soon as I saw them pictured in the battle report in the 4th Ed boxed set. If anything really made me fall in love with fantasy figures it was these. But it took 22 years for me to finally own one! Thankfully I managed to get all 10 for less than they would have cost me back in 1993.
I still need to finish their bases and add a shield to the Elf on the right. I loved painting these but it took me a long time to get them finished. I'm not a quick painter by any means but these really did tax me a bit.

It doesn't help that I hate painting white which was a bit of an issue here!





As these Silverhelms are from Caledor they will all have Shields inspired by the 4th Ed Dragon Princes as it seems fitting.



Thursday 23 April 2020

The Peasant rabble!

Having finished with all of the beneficent shining nobility its now time to turn our attention to the filthy ungrateful peasants!

The Pilgrims of La Abbee Fontenfell

Carrying the mortal remains of Phillipe Marchand 3rd Marquis de Cumbri and Knight of the Grail

Most of the Pilgrims are from the Black Tree Design hundred years war range.
 Now for some slightly more professional soldiers
The Yeomen Spears of Broomfeld as mustered by Sir Phillipe de Bickleigh. This unit of 41 Men at Arms is entirely from BTD. Most of them come from their hundred years war range with the command figures and some others from their Men of Averaign range.


Not to be outdone by his neighbour, Sir John Rudd has also mustered his Militia
This unit consists of 18 6th Ed plastic Men at Arms and a Resin limited edition figure


Meet Jorge and Lenoir. I'll have to do a post on their back ground one day!

After the 'professional' soldiery we have the part time soldiers in the form of the Archers
Sir Phillipe's muster consist of a mix of 6th Ed plastics and BTD Men of Averaign

Sir John's muster are entirely 6th Ed Plastics with the exception of the musician who is a 5th Ed metal.

Finally we've got the Heavy Artillery in to form of the Field Trebuchet, Lady's Wrath







And that's it, that's all of the painted Bretonnians so far. Hopefully I'll get the six Knights Errant needed to finish the Cavaliers of Broomfeld finished during this lock down.

Tuesday 21 April 2020

Heroes of renown!

Having finished all of the Knightly units that are painted so far. it's time to turn our attention back to the Knightly Heroes and dazzling Damsels.

So here we have Morgiana Le Fay, Fay Enchantress of Bretonnia mounted on her trusted Unicorn





Next we have Sir Edmund Curwen mounted on his noble Steed Flyhthwaet.





Sir Edward Ladieman is the maternal Grandfather of Charles Marchand, Marquis De Cumbri and he carries Charles' personal colours.
Sir Edward is a Gamezone miniature and the entire model is metal so he weighs in pretty heavy


Finally we've got Sir Torphin of Gilgarran who carries the flag of Marquessate.