More Taking of Stock: Wood Elves

Good morning once again and I have the results of another stock take for your perusal - nothing like mucking about with the lead pile when there's painting to be done ;)

I'm nearly there with the 10 4A Goblins on the painting desk - been trying to match them in with the original paint job did two years ago for the first LPL I entered. Might give that up as a bad job to be honest. I've continued various themes but it'll be nice to have a variety of skin tones.

Anyways on with the Wood Elves. I might have mentioned before that this was the first project I took on when I got back into collecting Citadel miniatures. Having had a blast painting up Daleks, Cybermen and various Doctors, I managed to unearth my trusty old Ruglud's Armoured Orcs and decided they needed some opponents. Then of course Orc's Drift came along and the Elves (apart from scenario specific ones) were swiftly dumped! There are a few painted minis in this collection as well as the Orc's Drift stuff and these were the lucky few who got a lick of paint before my attention was drawn elsewhere.

Right then I'll kick off with some characters - haven't got my Army general yet but I suppose this chap is the nearest thing to him - Elf champion mounted on a Giant Eagle. I had visions of recreating the amazing conversion using Glam and the LOTR giant eagle from Mike McVey's inspirational Wood Elf army from WD. However, when I got my hands on said eagle I thought him a little small to have an Elf perched on his back - McVey's version looks great though!

Instead I bought myself a newer and steroid addicted eagle and here's the result - can't wait to get some paint on him...

You have to have some wizards and this chap was always a favourite since I spied him in the 3rd ed. rulebook (talking of which have you seen this genius idea) - although I'm sure I've seen him in purple in a WD advert somewhere, which is where I think the previous owner took his inspiration from. Next to him is the diminutive, but nicely sized in my opininon, LOTR Giant Eagle.

A few familiar faces next - some of you will already know Treebeard and the Zoat. I'd love to get hold of the Zoat wizard waving his orb about. 

And I couldn't split up Erdolas' and Brommedir's brave bowmen, although I might be adding a few archers to Brommedir's bows to expand them to 20 as I accidentally painted 2 more than I needed for the scenario somehow! These chaps will be fielded as Guards in all their finery. Erdolas' bunch will probably just be archers, being garrison troopers and all. 

I have enough Skarloc archers left over from Erdols' lot to form that Regiment of Renown - also I wanted to copy the shield design from the box artwork so didn't want to reuse the Kachas Pass Elves. I seem to have ended up with a lot of the well 'ard looking helmeted archer, who I think fit in well with Skarloc's fearsome reputation.

More archers, looking like the cast of some dreadful Lloyd Webber musical thanks to the paint jobs they came in from ebay! These chaps will be painted up differently to Brommedir's Bows - not sure how yet - and fielded as archers. I've currently got the Oreon champion as their leader but would like to get hold of the later version of that Regiment of Renown at some point and find an alternative commander for this lot.

My favourite unit, again thanks to Mike McVey's beautiful army, is the Warrior Kinband armed with spears - another lot I'd love to get some paint on. 

And for some variety I also got hold of these later spearmen - quite like them despite the mahoosive spears they are lugging around! Complete apart from a few repair jobs on the back rank.

No Wood Elf army would be complete without Wardancers - if I  spot any bargains I may expand this lot to two units of ten. Some destined for the dettol bath of course...

You've got to have some animal handlers too and some of you may have seen some of these guys in action at Ortar Pass.

Hounds - bit suspicious of a few of these. I got a few of them in a nice cheap lot ages ago and they seem a bit shiny and light compared to some of the others. I could do with one more hound to round out the numbers and another handler. At the moment I'm using an old preslotta chap I got in a mixed lot - think he was described as a thief originally?

Wild cats - probably got enough of these guys - definitely the most dangerous of all the pack options, apart from the bear of course.

... talking of which - here he is along with the boar handler. Can't see the boars being that effective in these numbers but they do seem to be strangely expensive on ebay.

Best have some cavalry too I suppose. I've been buying these chaps up as and when I can get a bargain and have finally amassed enough for a unit - not quite on this scale mind!. The Elf with the horn detail on his helmet will be the champion and I'd love to expand the unit to 10 with a few lancers...

And finally a couple of units I do need to finish off - I'm hoping to round these horse archers off with another 2 models and the sword detachment to 10.

Oh and nearly forgot this lovely Marauder Treeman - he doesn't really fit in with old Treebeard but I love the mini. Just hope I can reproduce the silver birch effect that looks so good on the versions I've seen painted.

Last thing on my shopping list is, as I mentioned earlier, a general on horseback -  General with lance would fit the bill :)