Wood Elves - Woody Six

Eternal Guard, Chariots & Wizards

Part Six - Witches, Wizards, & Roses

Hello everyone many thanks for joining me. I am now drawing a close my Woodelf army this week. I may return to it in the future, as there are a few more units I would love to collect and paint, I’m thinking of the Attack Chariot and an Eagle rider.

Everqueen's Rosewood Guard

Having now painted ten plus units it’s time for a break, overall I am really happy with the army and it is probably the best I have painted to date. Model for model I do not think there is a bad one. There are a few that could be considered top tier, not that I’m saying I would win an award, more a self reflection on how I am improving. The first unit to show you today is the Everqueen’s Rosewood Guard, these are my Eternal Guard.

Rose Guard Advancing

I am really happy with how the shields have turned out in this unit, the green cloth with the yellow shields really make them pop on the table top. They are made from plastic Oathmark, and while they are the first unit completely different from the Citadel and GW, they fit well, especially given they are actually meant to be wearing armour. The standard and musician are converted using some spare plastic High Elf parts.

The unit is led by Princess Morwen, she has magical armour and sword. She has a red cape with the tooth motif and is currently serving as the army’s general. 

She is painted in the same manner as others in the army. For those who missed the paint combinations, they are: undercoat in a grey then white zenithal, basic block colours of Vajello: Japanese Uniform #117, Olive Green #082, Red Leather #136, Deck Tan #110 for the base of anything white, and Basic Skin Tone #017 for skin. GW Contrast Black, Gore-Grunta Fur, or Aggaros Dunes for hair. All these are applied in really thin layers so much so that the undercoat is still visible.

Full Army

The painting procedure for this unit, was then to use a Glaze Medium mixed into slightly lighter and lighter tones until I get a really vibrant colour, all the way up to: Deep Yellow #014, and Lemon Yellow #011. The green went to: Lime Green #077, lastly the red went up to: Clear Orange glaze #025. Metallics are done using a standard dark metal or brazen gold and then shaded with Axgrax Earthshade or Nuln Oil and then highlighted the same method as other colours, however the gold was also highlighted with a little silver on the highest edges and then a thin yellow ink glazed over the top.

Rear view 

The whole unit has shields with a red rose on a yellow background and this is also on the banner. This is my own design and hand painted everywhere within the unit, I used calligraphy paper to trace the design. What I struggle with the most is consistency in freehand and using calligraphy paper helps me to no end. I think all the roses are of very similar shape let know what you think?

Unit Card

Above is the unit card designed around Eternal Guard for The Old World (ToW), you could use this if you want just bear in mind that you might want to change the selection of magic items. As a side note new rules have just this week been released to buff this unit up, so this unit card needs updating but is still useable for Eternal Guard. The new unit of Wardens & Guardians, gets an extra attack and parry/heavy armour special rules for 18pnt each.

Chariots charging on the hunt

Next we have the Royal Chariots of the Swan, or hunting chariots, these are a completely unique unit converted from spare parts with mantic games chariots and a mix of figures and different horses. The leader is another kickstarter model with a red hood and tooth motif, with a standard hand made from old parts with a swan design banner, again my own.

Full unit

There are mushrooms all over the place here and lots of flowers to brighten them up as much as possible. Overall the unit has a really good feel for the army and in the absence of owning an attack chariot these fill in nicely. 

Unit Card

There are also no rules for woodelf chariots in any edition, except the ‘Attack’ chariot of course, and I have just used current ToW High Elf chariot as a base for the rules. So the unit card is a bit of fantasy to be honest but still balanced using high elf points cost.

Wood Witches

Next we have the Witches of the Thicket, a group of three Wood Mages. This is a coven of an Arch Wood Mage, a Spellweaver, and an Apprentice Woodfey. In terms of the army, having three is good for diversity and options. 

 

The models are, an old Games Workshop I painted years ago, a kickstarter with a blue cloak and a Reaper. I think this gives them the appearance of different ages yet they still work well together. I am most happy with the use of the stones and leaves to give the last one the appearance of casting a spell.

Rear view

Last is a unit card for the three Witches. This unit card isn’t needed really as they should all be characters but it gives me a little reference to stop me forgetting who has what.

Unit Card

Reflecting on the overall feel now, I am immensely proud of what I have created, there are tonnes of extras throughout the army and a full mix of figures from at least five different manufactures, yet I think I have kept to the original feel of Mike McVey's army from the early 1990s, and for me these will always be how Wood Elves should be. I must stop at this point and send a personal thank you to Mike, he will never read this, but just incase, if it was not for your army I would never have started painting, thank you. All credit for this army, its design choices, and miniatures must be given to Mike, even though I may have expanded some of the original concepts. As for the rules, we are now a million miles away in ToW from Mike's vision, and to be honest I just want to play third edition again. It was much more fun. I hope this inspires someone else somewhere. 

Another Army shot

Lastly this wonderful army isn't the end, as I said before it will get added to, the whole tree/sprit side needs adding too. But not right now, as I feel sort of empty on the creative front at this point. So I would like to thank you for reading, hope you have enjoyed the army.