KoW Elves are coming (finally)

Quick update, with little to post. Slowly increasing my physical activities and I wanted to share my thinking about the approach going forward.  I plan to try and fully complete each unit base in turn before moving onto the next one.  What I want to avoid is a common situation where I ended up preparing numerous figures, sometime not fully completed, and building up another “pile of shame” without finishing things off fully.

So, this time I’ll try a more focused approach.  I’ll paint up and complete the figures for a unit base, prepare the scenic base and glue/finish in full (depending on things drying etc.) before starting on the next base.

I’ll also plan to alternate the figure bases to add variety in my preparation, for example, Archer followed by Scout, then Archer followed by Spearmen etc. Dropping in a “Hero” or special figure in between.

Other small changes to the paining.  I decided to drop the armour colour on the helmets crests and instead will add some Bronze for variety. The Mantic figures have lots of small features, which I will use to add extra colours to individualise some of the figures. I’ll still paint belts, scabbards etc. in a variety of leather effects, but I like the idea of adding spots of highlight colours as well.  Pictures will be posted as I progress.

Scenic bases will use the Mantic unit bases (these are plastic and obviously the appropriate size for the units).  I have enough, so why not?  I’ll use DAS as the main material to create undulating “meadow” features, with a variety of heights and area covered.  While still ‘soft’ I will also use another Mantic figure to depress the DAS sufficiently for the actual painted figures to sit “in” the ground, rather than on top of it. I hope this will make the final base more “realistic” bearing in mind I will also be covering these figure bases with sand, flock, grass etc anyway.

Trees and shrubs will be created to further enhance the base/mini-diorama to make the bases “interesting” as well as practical. Finally I will probably use slightly fewer figures than the Mantic minimum recommended numbers for two reasons. Firstly I want the scenic base to be “full” of scenery and consequently there will be less space for figures, but secondly, I’m not a tournament player – I’m solo – and can play to my own ‘rules’.

So hopefully within the next week or so I’ll have something to show. Certainly I’ll finish the first unit by then!

Happy gaming.