Wood Elves - Woody One

Callon and The Wain Lords

The start of everything

After a few week hiatus I have decided to focus on what I have currently sat on my painting desk. This should tie the Bluesky posts in nicely to this blog. I will aim to post regularly updates on painting progress on Bluesky, and then summarise here finalised units and style choices of colour and themes, along with little back stories & fluff if there are any..... :)

My First White Dwarf

A little journey down memory lane now. I started getting into miniature collecting and painting when I was a young lad. But one of my very first inspirations was a White Dwarf army show case and then a battle report by the legendary Master painter Mike McVey.

Picture taken from my WD covering Mike's Woodies

There were at least three WD magazines that contained pictures of this woodelf army. This army really captured my imagination and even though I never owned any of the models, they have always been in my minds eye. When I start covering a new fantasy world, army, or starting a new game this is one of my starting points in my head. I don't think I am really wedded to a Warhammer oldworld persay more just this a world where there is a feral woodelf realm exists. Other starting points are things like Lord of the Rings, Dune and Star Trek, most things just morph from there.

Close up of Mike's Hero

Close up of my replica

After 30 or so years of painting and playing games, I am finally confident in my painting reaching an acceptable standard, to attempt turn this fantasy into reality all of my own, and for it to actually look good! 

I started collecting some of these old miniatures during lockdown, with an aim of giving some new life to the Wood Elves. The first model I started on was the magical converted mounted Hero, above you can see my end result vs Mike's original. 

Callon 'The Hero', Level 20 Hero

To recreate this masterpiece I use an old 80s Attack Chariot horse but left the head piece as was. I used the same old Mounted Elf Champion model but replaced his left hand with a dark elf spear and Pendraken winged shield added to the right (Mike made his own shield). I fashioned a blanket saddle from green stuff, and finally I made some feathers and the back-banner from an eagles wing just as Mike did. 

The Wain Lords Card - With Fluff

It took me most of 2021 to finish painting this miniature as there were a few extra details I wanted to add to pull the overall army into the high fantasy bracket, like the mushroom and sprite made from green-stuff. It’s not to everyone’s taste, I know but this army is at that end of the spectrum so decided to go to town. 

Overall the main effort was put into the paint work on the miniature. The white and cream for the horse came from mainly lots of thin layers between the two, with the same approach for the gold and reds on the Rider. I used a trick of a thinned yellow ink to make some of the gold pop and highlighted the red to a pink in the extreme points. I just love the end result and I think it looks even better in real life, you will just have to trust me on that. I wouldn’t say I’d win any competition or anything, but I certainly wouldn’t come last and thats good enough for me.

The Wain Lords

Next I went onto completing the rest of the unit, for my newly named Hero; ‘Callon’ to lead. The Wain Lords, acting as a sort of heavy cavalry, were collected and painted throughout 2022, below are some pictures of the work in progress on the unit and banner.

Back-banners Hand-painted

Unit Standard Hand-painted

WiP Unit Standard

The whole unit is made up of classic 80 wood elf miniatures sculpted by the great Jes Goodwin, there are a few head swaps on duplicate models and I replaced all the shields with some basic rounds classic plastics. The paining is all greens, yellow, and reds, I have kept the gold to a minimum, and all the jewels are varnished in ardcoat. The last point of note is that I have made my own little backstory up for each unit in the army, this can be seen on the unit card - see above.

Here are some more shots of the completed unit in all its glory, hope you like them!

WiP Wain Lords

Freshly Varnished

New Movement Tray Added

The Wain Lords are perhaps the most elusive of all the wood elves. As legend tells in time of most dire need the Wain Lords will appear to face any enemy. So mysterious are some stories, and little is known for certain, it is often told that Callon was slain. One such occasion was at the battle of Blood Keep where Callon is said to have fallen on the field to a Kislev Lance, only to be carried off and reappear later that year at midsummers eve.