[3-10-19] Willmark's Dark Elf Army Blog- Project Rebirth

Gallivantes

Member
Re: [1-29-17] Willmark's Dark Elf Army Blog- Project Rebirth

Back in the day with they also fielded hobgoblin mercs as an additional infantry unit(now also stripped and ready to be painted)

I would love to see this. I have seen a couple of other threads on here lately that put the spotlight on the hobgoblins and I realised the pre-4th edition hobgoblins had largely slipped under the radar for me. My first encounter was the 4th edition design and my beloved red-blue catalog of '91 does not include the prior iteration. Hope to see them join your force in time.
 

Willmark

Member
Re: [1-29-17] Willmark's Dark Elf Army Blog- Project Rebirth

Gallivantes":3c4gojcp said:
Back in the day with they also fielded hobgoblin mercs as an additional infantry unit(now also stripped and ready to be painted)

I would love to see this. I have seen a couple of other threads on here lately that put the spotlight on the hobgoblins and I realised the pre-4th edition hobgoblins had largely slipped under the radar for me. My first encounter was the 4th edition design and my beloved red-blue catalog of '91 does not include the prior iteration. Hope to see them join your force in time.
As I recall they weren't all that great, but not that bad either. In other words they were what they were, cheap infantry, especially for a dark elf army. The fact that you need 40 infantry as a compulsory choice is fairly restricting, especially in an elf army; neither the wood elves or the high elves have that in 3rd.

They are on the docket to paint just not sure when yet.
 

Willmark

Member
Re: [1-29-17] Willmark's Dark Elf Army Blog- Project Rebirth

UPDATE
Still working on the dark elf altar but as I come close to finishing it, I also have been striping paint of my first infantry unit. A few years back when I got into Oldhammer I traded away a few of the members this unit and hence the gaps. I don't really mind however as they were ones I liked the least. I've identified the ones I want (and are now in my want/trade threads). So as they stand they are now at 18 members. I just recently got the dark elf champion from the BC2 Monsters box set (i.e. the Evil Dark Elf Captain). He had a journey that took over a month to reach me and I even got a refund for him via the seller. Two days after the refund, of course he arrived thus being the good chap that I am... I paid for him! (very un-dark elf like) ;) Of course a few days later I got a good deal on another one which is en-route, so now I have two... :roll: Ah well, the other is going to be assigned as crew man for my chariot.

The second infantry unit as noted previous will be Menghil Manhide's bulked out to 20. The witch elves will be at 20 as well and the horde also employs a unit of 20 hobgoblins... so good to go on the infantry side...

I'm not sure when they will go under the brush as it were as you'll see with the next unit...

dark_elf_warriors1.jpg


While stripping the paint from the warriors and the witch elves I also dunked the Doomsteeds unit I have consisting of 10. Unfortunately, these are the "bastard blister" ones http://www.collecting-citadel-miniatures.com/wiki/index.php/File:MM72-18.jpg: Marauder minis which is great, but these are the ones that GW bundled with Empire horses meaning they don't sit on the steeds perfectly. I'm less concerned with the fact they don't have barding (I could sculpt it if I wanted to). The metal Doomsteads are great, but there is no variation in the poses really, plus they cost a ton on eBay now. So I stripped the riders and decided to repaint and touch up the steeds. Some I went for black, but some I wanted to keep a more high elven gray or brown simulating the fact they were stolen from high elf lands in raids.

Here they are in their early stages of being painted.
dark_elf_doomsteeds1.jpg


Next is a manticore. Now I know every dark elf army has to have a hydra for a monstrous host but this guy sans wings served as a temple dog for years. Fortunately I saved the wings and converted him back to a monster and put him on a 50mm base rather then try and shoehorn him onto a 40mm...

dark_elf_manticore.jpg


Lastly, I haven't decided if my general will be in the as yet uncompleted chariot which I'm converting to be pulled by cold ones rather then horses. I have a converted leader for one of my cold one units that could fill in... Tied to this is my army standard bearer. I have one but its banner is directly out of the 5th edition Warhammer book mounted on a metal steed. I think it will go to the display shelf and I'll create a suitable 3rd edition one, possibly mounted on a cold one.
 

Willmark

Member
Re: [1-29-17] Willmark's Dark Elf Army Blog- Project Rebirth

Gallivantes":3e7hdagu said:
Back in the day with they also fielded hobgoblin mercs as an additional infantry unit(now also stripped and ready to be painted)

I would love to see this. I have seen a couple of other threads on here lately that put the spotlight on the hobgoblins and I realized the pre-4th edition hobgoblins had largely slipped under the radar for me. My first encounter was the 4th edition design and my beloved red-blue catalog of '91 does not include the prior iteration. Hope to see them join your force in time.
You're in a bit of luck.. Here the are now primed. The champion I painted probably about 10 years ago and he sets the standard as to what the rest will look like:
3rd_hobgoblin_mercnaries1.jpg


Not sure when they will be "going under the brush (TM)" but we'll see...
 

Gallivantes

Member
Re: [1-29-17] Willmark's Dark Elf Army Blog- Project Rebirth

Hooray! Looking forward to seeing them come together.

The fellow up front and centre has a great expression :)
 

Willmark

Member
Re: [1-29-17] Willmark's Dark Elf Army Blog- Project Rebirth

The model is known as Baron Brightgore which usually goes for a lot of $ on eBay. I got him fairly cheap a a while back and have not done anything with him in terms of painting.
 

Willmark

Member
Re: [1-29-17] Willmark's Dark Elf Army Blog- Project Rebirth

Continue to roll through the repaint of the Dark Elf army. While I do not have all of my witch elves (still need four more) I did at least finish my dark elf war altar. For the most part I'm pleased with how it came out. One cool thing is the chaos moon Morrslieb is not glued in. A fun part to this project will be down the road I can create different icons/totems based on the army I'm facing off against.

dark_elf_war_altar9.jpg


dark_elf_war_altar10.jpg


dark_elf_war_altar11.jpg
 

Subedai

Member
Re: [2-16-17] Willmark's Dark Elf Army Blog- Project Rebirth

Nice work, that plan really came together well. Having the icon swappable is a nice touch, looking forward to seeing its iterations.
 

Willmark

Member
Re: [2-16-17] Willmark's Dark Elf Army Blog- Project Rebirth

Bump.

I've been working away http://thedarksideofwillmark.blogspot.com/ on my wood elves but have also been working on my dark elves too. I don't usually show WIP photos but here is my unit of Dark Riders rounding to form. My thought is at some point I'll bite the bullet and get 5-10 Doomsteeds and pay the outrageous eBay prices for them. So these guys go to Dark Riders.

The horses are mainly just touched up from their original 1992 paint job but the riders were stripped and redone.

dark_elf_dark_riders.jpg
 

Quendil

Member
Re: [8-5-17] Willmark's Dark Elf Army Blog- Project Rebirth

They are looking very good. I love the war altar as well
 

Willmark

Member
Re: [8-5-17] Willmark's Dark Elf Army Blog- Project Rebirth

Many thanks.

I've worked on them quite a bit this week. I also scored a dark elf repeating bolt thrower for $12! I might have them finished this weekend.


And got 2 more glade guard models for my wood elves do they might get painted soon. I like these models better than the 3rd edition wood elf warriors, plus I use the actual 3rd edition wood elf warrior minis in my wardancer units anyways.

Another possibility is my unit of 20 hobgoblins pictured on the previous page. Not sure I want to paint more green after ten years of my Chaos dwarf Army.
 

Willmark

Member
Re: [8-5-17] Willmark's Dark Elf Army Blog- Project Rebirth

As discussed the Dark Riders are more or less complete. As I noted up-thread the horses mainly just needed to be touched up and the riders were stripped and repainted.

I toyed with using them as Doom Riders but settled on Dark Riders. I think they fit the unit type better. Of course that means down the road I'll need to purchase Doomsteeds off of eBay which cost a LOT of $$$$$.

Anyways here they are. I finished them about a week ago, and the banner just this AM.
dark_elf_dark_riders1.jpg


dark_elf_dark_riders2.jpg


dark_elf_dark_riders3.jpg


dark_elf_dark_riders4.jpg


Next up I just finished a unit of Whelp Masters with 5 warhounds and handler. Another unit of 5 are underway, but the handler is a 4th edition marauder minis which I don't really like, looks like I'll need to get another 3rd Edition one... Also I have a unit of 10 Shadows nearing completion as well as a unit of 10 Doomdrakes currently being painted; in short lots of stuff underway!
 

Willmark

Member
Re: [8-19-17] Willmark's Dark Elf Army Blog- Project Rebirth

UPDATE
I didn't get the first pack of Whelp Masters photographed so I'll have to show some other updates.

Finished off a bunch of units for this latest update, a unit of ten Shadows being one. As you can see they are fairly eclectic: Back in the day I just bought what I could find so I ended up with a mixed bag. I didn't intent them to be next, but they came out much better then I expected and better then the photograph indicates.

dark_elf_shadows.jpg


Next up is my first completed Repeating Bolt Thrower. I got a great deal where I probably spent $35 total for both including the shipping from the UK, not a bad deal. As you can see I made a small base for everything to tie in the icy woods of Naggaroth.

dark_elf_repeating_bolt_thrower1.jpg


dark_elf_repeating_bolt_thrower2.jpg


dark_elf_repeating_bolt_thrower3.jpg


dark_elf_repeating_bolt_thrower4.jpg


Next up? Photographing the first Whelp Master unit, another unit of crossbowmen (now at 20) and my repainted Cold Ones unit of 10, mostly likely fielded as Helldrakes. The Cold Ones are well on their way to being completed. In the case of the crossbowmen I need to duplicate a few more crossbows via Instamold as I'm missing a few.

Now I probably hear you say "Hey Willmark, what about the other compulsory choices?" Glad you asked, for the warriors I have the following plan:
* 1st warrior unit. After sorting and removing the plastic warriors from 4th/5th I'm left with needing 3 more. I know which models I want and will be grabbing them off eBay. A few of the minis will be getting some green-stuff additions to their armor to make them more cohesive. Will be a unit of 20 when complete.

* 2nd warrior unit. Currently stands at 11. This is my Mengil Manhide's unit. The plan here is to boost them to 20 via eBay.

* Witch Elves- I have enough for 20, but that is if I include 8 Marauder Witch Elves which I do not like. So the thought here is to get some of the dark (drow) line from GW, they come up occasionally on eBay so I'll need to be patient there.

After that I'm thinking the altar will get its own guards and separated out from the Witch elf unit proper. Back to the scratch built chariot perhaps too.
 
Re: [9-4-17] Willmark's Dark Elf Army Blog- Project Rebirth

Great conversion for the war altar and solid colour scheme, basing and paintjobs! Really fine force so far, of a great old range of minis.
 

Willmark

Member
Re: [9-4-17] Willmark's Dark Elf Army Blog- Project Rebirth

So I haven't forgotten about these guys, just that I've been rather busy working on my Nippon castle for my Nippon army.

In various stages I have teh following that could be next:
[*]20 crossbowmen- primed and ready to go.
10 Cold One Doomdrakes
7 Helldrakes- unit also contains my general, army standard bearer and a mounted wizard. so need three more to round out to ten.
16 warriors- still collecting minis here.
12 warriors- this is the 3rd edition Mengil Manhides unit
20* Witch Elves- They will carry the war altar into battle; 4 are on their way from the UK wielding crossbows (of which I got a very good deal).
1 temple dog and rider
1 manticore (pictured on page 3, still primed but not painted;)
1 unit of 5 war hounds with handler, but its the crappy Marauder handler which I don't like.
1 unfinished scratch built 4 cold one chariot.
2 primed but not yet painted wizards.

And 20 hobgoblin warriors as mercenaries.

But while working on some some other projects and rummaging through boxes I thought of spiders. Now GW did put out the huge metal spiders but Im sure they go for a lot these days... So once again that gift that keeps on giving? The Battle for Skull Pass box set (aka the Chaos Dwarf Army box set). So here they are in the earliest stages. I obviously have to do some green stuffing to where the goblin riders would have gone, but a think a fairly effective way to represent spiders for my Dark Elf host. Now they aren't old-school per say, but will work. Thoughts?

dark_elf_spiders1.jpg
 

Willmark

Member
Re: [9-4-17] Willmark's Dark Elf Army Blog- Project Rebirth

Well....Almost a year later I finally get some more pictures up, but not from lack of working on minis, rather life getting in the way.

I have even more to share but these guys surprisingly went together quite well during their repaint so they vaulted to the top of the painting pile. As you can see I've done some minor modifications to all of them. The banner was painted over from what I originally came up with and I might add a bit more to the background (we'll see). So here we are ten Cold One riders who can either be Doom or Helldrakes but most likely Doomdrakes. The reason is I have a unit of 7 assembled with my general so they probably get the nod as Helldrakes... (as noted in my last post above from a year ago!)

Feedback always welcome, cheers WM.

CY0rNUV.jpg


ENQD1EW.jpg


lqSo5db.jpg


ftqYpgB.jpg


Next up is my first unit of 20 Warriors. All of them are 3rd edition Menghil Manhide's Dark Elves (sans a accompanying wizard) and are about 75% complete.
 

Sparfell

Member
Re: [12-17-17] Willmark's Dark Elf Army Blog- Project Rebirt

You did a pretty cool job on these Dark Elves riders :)
 
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