 |
| 28mm metal Warhost Elven Cavalry gallop out of the woods, swelling the ranks of the wood elf army |
With this batch of Elven cavalry done, I am one final batch of six foot figures away from having my
Dragon Rampant army completed! There is always a chance I may add in another pack or two from the
Warhost 28mm Elven line. They've added some nice sculpts to the line since I bought my initial batch from Badger Games in the U.S. I have really enjoyed painting the figures for this army, with one exception, though: these Elven mounted!
 |
| I liked the variety of weapons the figures came with, though I had to supply the shields |
To be 100% honest, this pack was a major disappointment. First, my box contained only five metal riders instead of the six that were supposed to be in there. I feel it's been too many months since I received it to go back and complain to Badger Games. I should have counted everything when I the order arrived. Perhaps I missed the shortage when I opened the box because of the real reason I'm unhappy with these --the horses are plastic! I know other companies do metal riders on plastic horses, but the whole reason I went with the Warhost Elven line is because they are metal. If I wanted plastic cavalry, I could have bought these much more cheaply from Oathmark, or somewhere else. I searched through my 28mm Dark Ages unpainted figures and found an Ancient German cavalryman who was clean-shaven and wouldn't look ridiculously out of place, in my opinion. His fur cloak would be unique in the army, but hopefully painting him in the same color scheme as the army might make him blend in more. I'm assuming you can pick him out -- what do you think?
 |
| Like with most of this line, there is also a nice variety of armor & helmets, too |
The horse sprues include left half of the body, right half, tail, plastic head, and some bizarre horse equipment piece that -- for the life of me -- I could not figure out where it went. Weirdly, it also includes resin horse heads that look like they belong to a more armored horse miniature. The resin heads are noticeably smaller than the plastic ones (which I ended up using). Even then, I felt the plastic ones didn't fit that neatly and the seam between the neck and body was quite visible on a few of the poses. The box also included wire spears for the two riders supposed to be holding spears, and the impractical, fragile plastic tips. This time -- unlike with my foot Elven spear -- I eschewed using the resin tips. Too easy to break!
 |
| I also had to supply a 6th rider - for some reason my box contained only five riders but 6 horses |
I also substituted some of my own "pill-shaped" bases instead of the huge round ones included. I decided to glue the riders onto the horses before I began painting. I go back and forth with 28mm figures which way I do this. Yes, it is easier to paint the rider separately. However, I find that gluing them on first makes the whole figure more solid. The paint adds an extra layer to the epoxy bonding the rider to the horse. So, typically, I glue them on first. However, this does make reaching certain areas with a paint brush more of a challenge.
 |
| A shot of the four shielded riders, showing off their leaf pattern shields |
The horses painted up okay, other than the seam between the neck and body being a little too visible. The poses are dynamic enough, but nothing spectacular. The riders were also problematic in their own way. There was a flat area on their backsides, facing the horse's tail, with three indentations. It looked almost like an outlet to plug an electric cord into the figures...ha, ha! Perhaps it had something to do with the piece of horse equipment that I couldn't figure out? I tried, but could not come up with a way that the piece (which I didn't use) would have covered this noticeably deformed area on riders. I failed, though. I had to resort to mixing up some green stuff and smoothing that area out.
I'm sure there is something I missed, and probably should have done some Google or YouTube research before fully assembling everything. Still -- there is a tendency among plastic kit manufacturers to leave out any instructions, and expect everyone to experts at putting together puzzles of the pieces they include. A small piece of paper with black and white diagrams for assembly would not add anything significant to their costs, but few do so. Another reason I prefer metal miniatures -- you usually don't have to puzzle out how to "assemble" your figure...except in the case of this box! The riders also did not include shields, even though their arms are bent in a standard "glue a shield here" position. Luckily, I have a decent sized collection of unused metal shields and picked out ones to use on the poses where it would have looked weird without a shield.
 |
| Wasn't crazy about the mix of plastic horses & metal riders - plus some parts I couldn't quite figure out |
Once horse, rider, weapons, shields, and green stuff were all applied, I did my usual Liquitex White Gesso priming. I went back to my painted 28mm Mongol army for Saga, and picked out six cavalry whose horse colorings I particularly liked and brought them to my painting desk. I used those as models for the horses, which I painted up first. Next, I did the flesh, robes and tunics, and armor. I wasn't crazy about the poses of the metal riders, either. Maybe I am suffering from burnout painting these elves? Either way, I wasn't particularly enthused about this batch as I was working on it. Painting mounted figures is always more of a chore for me, so maybe that was contributing, too?
Either way, it felt like work getting through these six mounted miniatures. I was happy to be done with them and close to completing the army. After this experience with mixed plastic and metal figures, I will be more careful in purchasing mounted minis. In the future, I will attempt to avoid these hybrids, though I understand fans of Games Workshop have been happily painting up this type of combination for years. Yet another reason to avoid all things GW (besides their prices)...ha, ha! I also don't enjoy their very cartoonish look, with leering expressions or exaggerated features. The Warhost line has been the opposite and many have commented on the line's "Tolkien-like" appearance.
More stuff is on the way soon, so stay tuned! I have been very busy with the release of Surviving 'Nam -- and apparently it has paid off! Check out the snapshot of the Bestseller list from Wargame Vault! I don't think any of my rules before this made it to #2 on the leaderboard. Thanks to everyone who bought copies! By the way, print on demand copies are now available on Lulu, besides the PDF downloads on Ganesha Games and Wargame Vault.
MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026
- Miniatures acquired in 2026: 179
- Miniatures painted in 2026: 141
TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026
- Terrain acquired in 2026: 12
- Terrain painted in 2026: 28
SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026
- Scatter acquired in 2026: 21
- Scatter painted in 2026: 59
No comments:
Post a Comment