Iron Within, Iron Without

I feel a degree of sympathy for Perturabo. He strikes me as the guy who sticks his hand up in a meeting to point out the catastrophic flaw in management's latest scheme, gets shouted down, and is then expected to clean up the inevitable mess. 

I wasn't going to paint an Iron Warriors army. But I had loads of Chaos Marines knocking about. It struck me that the Iron Warriors colour scheme would be quite easy and satisfying.

I decided not to bother with black shoulder pads. On a test model, I found that they actually detracted.

Sometimes, it's good to just settle on a scheme that allows you to get a nice result quickly!

High Elves, plans, plots, schemes and me getting my hands stuck together

 Right! So, I've had some very kind messages and a comment asking where I went. Truth is, all the stuff with my family really knocked me silly. I had to step away properly for a bit. I took the time to learn some new stuff as well - I've been working on my terrain building. One of the things I learned was that water clear resin sticks like a limpet: I got that shit on my hands and literally had to keep washing my hands for the rest of the day!

Oh! Quick shout out to Square Hammer for motivating me to get back into things again!

Now, my original Age of Rebuilding writing schedule got completely blown out of the water, and this wasn't helped by the fact I decided I had to do something different than what I'd been working on when my father died. But I've not quit. I'm working on a new piece, which I admit has got a bit out of hands, but I'm getting there. 

So, let's talk about High Elves! Like a lot of 4th edition kids, I started with High Elves and Orcs. The former have always been special to me. 

These are the multipart spearmen, and I recently painted this unit. For a long time, I thought these models were outdated, until suddenly one day I realised that it didn't matter. Yes, the hands are a bit big, but I like them anyway. They come from a time when Warhammer Fantasy was at its apex (well, arguably its first apex, since it nows exists as a purely community porject, which is fairly awesome).

What I will say is that the newer paint ranges make painting High Elves a lot easier. Corax White is more or less my saviour at this point. 

I was also pretty pleased with the bass. They're a base-ready mix from a company called Geek Gaming Scencics. 

It's nice to be back. 

Building the Mystic Isle

 Right, I'm back, more or less. My father's funeral went well... even if my mother was diagnosed with lung cancer only days later. My blog output might be even more spotty than usual!

Anyway, on to business. I've always loved the idea of Ulthuan, this mystical pseudo-Atlantis of soft focus, slender pines and blue hues. But how to realise it? I've never felt quite confident enough to scratch build elven terrain due to all the perfect lines and wotnot. Luckily, Etsy and Ebay came to my rescue!

Look at these statues! LOOK AT THEM! The detail on them is incredible. I got these from an Etsy seller called Elfhead 3D, who was really nice and quick as well as creating great terrain. I decided to paint them as a cold blue stone. 

Speaking of Elfhead, they also sell this great obelisk. My paintjob isn't quite as solid on this one, but that's me, not the model. 

Last one from Elfhead. I decided that this fallen statue should be overgrown. Indeed, all of these bases use a variety of static grass and model leaf litter.

Now, this one here is from minimonsters.eu. It's a bit differently proportioned, but the texture is probably nicer. They also do a bigger version, which I have, but... erm... it's in a different paint scheme and doesn't fit here. 

So there we are! Ulthuan on the tabletop at a fairly low price!