Painting

The army took around six months to put together, from collection to the finished article, and I am always careful my troops actually look like a coherent force rather than just a collection of units. I'm a very slow painter, but I counter this by painting whole regiments at a time, which helps to spur me on rather than become downhearted about a half-painted army sitting on my painting table!

Now, whilst Warhammer is a fantasy game dominated by the weird and the wonderful, I'm a firm believer in realism within that world. I dislike strange or odd colour schemes, especially on a race so ordered and socially stable as the High Elves, which is why I chose the simple, classically High Elf colours of white and blue as well as authentic, natural colours for weapons and accoutrements. No 'red spear syndrome' for me! However, two colours are never enough and can look very boring, so I typically use flashes of other colours to mark each unit out from the rest. You can see this easily with the Seaguard army: red, green and yellow accentuate the white and blue to create a colourful yet unified look to the army. Applying the same principle to the cavalry force was not difficult, but I had to be careful that the horses themselves did not dominate the colour scheme, so I chose neutral shades of brown, grey and black for them. This contrasts wonderfully with the riders, too.

Ever ambitious, I decided to push the look of the army a step further. As it is designed to be from any province of Ulthuan and is focused around the three main units of Silver Helms, I thought it would be very cool to have a 'theme within a theme.' Whilst the classic white and blue still dominate, I would divide the army into three parts, a centre and two 'wings', and each division would not only have a colour but also a symbol to mark them as coherent sub-forces. I could have chosen many different colours and symbols but eventually settled on the Phoenix, the Dragon and the Eagle, all typically High Elf emblems and easily identifiable as such.

The centre part (which comprised the main unit of Silver Helms and the General) I based around the Phoenix, paying homage to the Phoenix King himself with the bold colours of red and orange -- a perfect choice for your Commander's heraldry! Each wing of the army - which included one of the smaller units of Silver Helms, two of the chariots and a Hero - took on the emblems of Dragon and Eagle, their colours being green and yellow respectively. Thankfully the minimum of modeling was required as I found the icons readily available within the High Elf range or elsewhere - for example, the Dogs of War character Asarnil the Dragonlord was used extensively on one of the Heroes. I must admit I love trawling through the Citadel catalogues, finding bits for my army in all manner of strange places!

Once the army was painted it was a must to protect them well; as I stated earlier I love tournaments and consequently my armies are knocked about a bit on their travels, so gloss varnish was the only choice for me. It's much harder than matt varnish when dry and it really brings out the vivid colours of the High Elves!
You may well see the cavalry army at a tournament in the future, although I must warn you it is nearing retirement. I've been very successful with it and I think it's time for a new challenge!

I'm planning to use another High Elf force in the future, this time based around Caledor, but that may be a while yet as this year I have, sad to say, succumbed to the forces of darkness. The siren song of Chaos Warriors has pulled me away from the light, but (true to form) I'm making things hard on myself by theming again, this time around the beasts of prehistory. Intrigued? Stick around - maybe those nice guys at Games Workshop will allow me to take up a little more of their bandwidth when it's finished...!

See you soon!

Rob