Birds of Prey: 'Lesser Warbeasts' for my Elven Army

    Birds of prey as 'Lesser Warbeasts' for my 28mm Elven army -- from a variety of sources

I have to be honest and upfront -- I am unable to identify where most of these figures came from. Most are likely from "Companion packs" by various manufacturers. Some are metal, though, and some are plastic. I believe the one of the elf with a hawk on her arm is a game piece from some board game that I've never played. I think a friend gave it to me because I definitely don't remember buying it! I did have to convert that figure, lopping off her rifle-carrying hand and substituting one carrying a sword. So, if anyone recognizes these miniatures (other than the Bad Squiddo Ravens, which I know), please speak up in the comments!

    Bird whisperer? Bird mistress? Plastic fig from a board game - I cut off her rifle & gave her a sword

 As I sat down to base these birds (or as Gollum would say, "birdses..."), my first thought was that I wanted to elevate them off the ground. For some I took wooden dowels and sliced them to a height I liked. Next, I shaved their sides with a hobby knife to look more like a wooden trunk. I used my pin vice to drill a couple holes and then inserted bent pieces of brass wire to become scraggly branches. For others, I used a large rock and epoxied the bird directly onto that. The clever among you may have noticed that Lesser Warbeasts in Dragon Rampant require six figures, but I am painting up seven. I was hedging against being less than thrilled with how one came out. The unlucky one will be relegated it to my box of animals!

    Left hand hawk is a raven from Bad Squiddo, but I have no idea of the metal bird on right

All were based on normal sized circular bases from Litko with heavy duty magnetic material underneath. Well, the elf bird-whisperer was on her own plastic base, so all I needed to do was put a magnet beneath her. Once all of the feathered Elf friends were securely epoxied to their base or perch, I primed everything with white Liquitex Gesso. Then they sat there for several days while I pondered how to paint them. On a day trip my friend Tom had organized, we stopped by Cedar Bog -- a wetlands nature park in Ohio. In their gift shop, they had laminated plastic cards of birds of prey that can be found in Ohio. I took a quick photo of it and then did Google Image searches on the species whose coloring I liked best. I chose only six because the seventh miniature was obviously a vulture of some sort. So, I picked the breeds with a color combinations that I liked. I numbered each base #1 - #7 so I could keep track of them. Perhaps I will mark on the underside of the base which each one is...? Or maybe not. Keith will likely look at them and say, "That's not a Northern Goshawk...!" Sigh. Some gaming groups have uniform experts who may critique every miniature. We have Keith who...well, according to him, knows everything! Ha, ha!!

    Right hand fig is another soft plastic fig, while left on the skull is metal, once again unsure of origin

From that point on, I would go down the list, pull up the table I'd saved with images of that species, and paint a color or two on it. I would then move on to the next, then the next, and so on. Of course, I was painting the Elven bird mistress at the same time. Why did I choose a green dress when all of the other figures in the army are pretty much green? Well, would YOU wear a different color if everyone else was wearing the one color? Ha, ha! I figured she would want concealment, too, as she stalked through the woodlands with her flock of attack birds. It took me a couple days to get the various plumage heads, beaks, eyes, and feet for all seven birds completed. One most of the birds, I did a brown wash to blend all the various brush strokes together. 

    Vulture (yes, not a bird of prey) perched across scratch-built tree stump & another Squiddo raven

I flocked the bases to match the rest of the army, with the exception of adding some clump foliage to the dead tree stumps. We are in the time of the year here in Ohio when the weather can make me wait several days or more to get a chance to spray coat my figures once they're painted. Some days, the humidity is too high even if the temperature isn't too hot. Other days, the humidity is too much even if the temperature is within the recommended rage for the Krylon matte clear coat that I use. I know, I know. My gaming buddy Mike S tells me at least once every couple months, "Why haven't you built a spray box for your house? It's easy!" Well, if I did, what would I have left to gripe about??

    Final look at the birds -- I like how the tree stump perches turned out...which one is odd bird out??

Tossing this in here because I didn't want to do a post just about measuring sticks. My friend Rich from RRB Minis & More handed these four sticks after I bought my last buildings. They are literally made to look like sticks (or branches? Trunks?) with wood grain and all. He asked if I preferred the 6" or 8" measuring stick, and of course I responded bigger is better! Rich 3-D printed them in a brown filament, but you know me -- I had to fancy them up! I spray painted them black and then brushed my premised 50/50 water and acrylic black paint over them. After that, it was my normal wood style recipe. Dark brown wet brush, Camo Brown dry brush, then Khaki highlight on alternating sections so it would be easier to see. I liked the alternating lighter and darker brown shades on the sticks. The final step was to paint the recessed notches between each one inch section black again to cover up stray dry brushing. So, now I have four measuring stick sticks...ha, ha!

    Measuring sticks painted as...sticks! Or branches or trunks, whichever you prefer. From RRB Minis

So, what else is on my painting desk? Right now, two 3-D printed medieval houses are racing the birds to be completed first. Yes, quite a sight to see a bird racing a house! Anyway, after that, I have nothing primed up, believe it or not. I guess I'd better get cracking! Since this was a batch of "old" figures, the next batch can be new, so that means another batch for my Elven army. I have the six mounted figures, six spearmen, and three (or so) wizards. Sayyy...I could be really clever and put together three of those Frostgrave wizards from the sprue I bought from Fireland Games. And combine the batch into a three of new and three of old? That sounds like a genius plan to me -- otherwise a batch of three figures may not seem like much. As for terrain, I don't know what is next for that, either. I could do another of the 3-D printed medieval houses -- maybe a two story, medium sized one? We'll see...

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Miniatures acquired in 2026: 179
  
• Miniatures painted in 2026: 125

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Terrain acquired in 2026: 12
  
• Terrain painted in 2026: 26

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Scatter acquired in 2026: 21
  
• Scatter painted in 2026: 59