Second Group of 28mm Elven Archers

    My 2nd batch of 28mm Warhost Elves is now complete & ready to defend their woodlands

This will be my third batch of miniatures painted for my 28mm Dragon Rampant Elven army. That means I have 24 figures done, which tells me these are taking quite a bit more time than the Bonefish Band of my orcs did. I am still enjoying painting the Warhost metal miniatures. The figures have a small amount of flash that needs the attention of a hobby knife, but no assembly for these guys. Yay -- always a cause for rejoicing!

    The guy on the far left is probably my favorite from this batch -- he looks like he is a Sylvan lord

I made a point to look over the miniatures carefully before beginning painting, noting who had scale armor on their shoulders, which figures were wearing metal greaves on their legs, and so on. I also made a list on a sheet of with a spot to write down what color I would paint their inner tunic, vest, trousers, etc. In the end, I used the note for only the inner tunic. Once the lighter base color of the inner tunics was painted and dry brushed, I gave up writing things down. I went back to my method of standing the figures next to the bottle of paint which would be their next color. This method works, too, but I won't be able to go back and make sure I haven't used particular color combinations. I'll have to just eyeball it from this point on in the project.

    Same recipe for this batch -- lighter green for the inner tunic & darker green for the outer vest

One difference with this batch and the first group of archers is I am attempting to be more subtle in the decoration on the hems of their vests. I'm trying to tone down the contrast a bit on the dots and hem stripe so that the decoration looks more subdued. And yes, I plan on decorating the hems on every figure in the army -- or at least something to jazz them up. I would love to give an understated design on the bottoms of their vests, but the sharp pleating on the miniatures is scaring me off. It is really hard to get a micron pen into the deeper folds, and I am not sure I trust my fine brushwork to something like that. In the end, I know that I am not a "Golden Demon" level painter. I want my figures to look nice on the tabletop, but I think I am just a step or two above average in ability.

    I am trying for the decoration on the hems of the vests to be more subtle with less contrast

This batch of miniatures was done exactly as the other two Warhost Elven batches. Same Liquitex White Gesso (which one commenter on the Hobday & Hicks FB page said was "too thick"), same base coat and dry brush combo on a lighter shade of green for the inner tunic and darker for the long vest. I put more decoration on this batch's quivers, going with a couple different two-tone looks. I also did some elven runes and dots here and there on them. Same with the sword sheaths. I tried to stay with the brown equipment theme, so my wood elves continue to have a very green and brown look. 

    I really like the poses & sculpting of these Warhost Elves - very 'Tolkien-like' in my opinion

I am making progress on the army. After this group, I have five batches of rank and file type troops left to do. I still need to purchase figures for an army general, maybe a couple wizards, and then source out my unit of flying raptors (hawks, owls, eagles), which I was going to add to the army. Still, even though it seems to me like slow progress, it is still progress. Hopefully, you like how these guys turned out. I certainly do!

    Elven archers ready to defend the borders of their woodland - nice mix of armor, helms, etc.

So, what else is on the desk, at the moment? Well, I have to admit something. I screwed up! Remember the plan to alternate current, this year purchases/projects with stuff I bought last year or before? Well, for some reason, I got it into my head that the big alien monster figures that I bought at Cincycon were last year purchases. So, that group was supposed to be my alternating "chip away at the lead pile" batch, when I actually picked all of them up this year. As Homer Simpson would say, "D'oh!" Giant face palm! Of those big alien monsters, three of them are completed actually and just need flocking and two are still in progress. I am also finished with the interiors of the Catrine House, the 3-D printed building that I picked up from my friend Rich Brown at RRB Minis & More. I am actually half-tempted to rectify my mistake and substitute in a batch of plastic Frostgrave Gnolls that I picked up from Firelands Games last year. I am certain that I bought them last year...ha, ha! It would make sense, and fit with the Four Delvers solo games I'm running, lately. Hmm...put the big alien monsters on the slow burner and shift the gnolls onto the hot?? Maybe. After all, Samwise Gamgee said it best: "I made a promise, Mr. Frodo...and I mean to keep it!"

    Final look at this batch, bringing my total painted on this project to 24 figures - about 1/3 done

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Miniatures acquired in 2026: 159
  
• Miniatures painted in 2026: 73

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Terrain acquired in 2026: 3
  
• Terrain painted in 2026: 21

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Scatter acquired in 2026: 16
  
• Scatter painted in 2026: 48

First Batch of Elven Spearmen from Warhost

    My 1st batch of 28mm Elven spear from Warhost -- I love the Tolkien vibe of these figures!

I really enjoyed painting the first batch of archers for this project, so I was looking forward to seeing how I fared on the spear. I chose two of the five spear packs (eight figures) I'd purchased from Badger Games and opened them up. I was happy to see the brass wire spears included, but a bit surprised by the long, elaborate, 3-D printed points to glue onto the tips. This was an extra step that I wasn't crazy about because it was one that I could easily screw up! I think I did manage to super glue them on relatively straight, so the first potential crisis averted!

    These 8 spearmen come from two Warhost packs -- 2 base poses (stabbing & receiving with spears)

Next up, I cleaned off the flash and attached the shields and spears. I'm glad to see that Warhost models the right hands as a closed fist. It is a simple matter to use a pin vice to drill a hole into fist and then to use two-part epoxy to glue them into place. There were four poses holding their spear upright and four stabbing downwards with them. As I examined them closer, they seemed to be sculpted in pairs of very similar figures. So, the four stabbing downward had two basic poses wearing the same type of armor, whether scale, banded, or whatever. I liked how they may have a similar look, but still contain slight differences in helmets, vest length, or whatever. However, I would say overall they are less individualized than the archers, but a long way from a 1970s or 1980s mono-pose regiment of figures. Of course, I would also paint their clothes in varying tones of green. So, that would help individualize them even more.

    Among those stabbing & receiving poses, there was a big variety of armor, vest length, etc.

After priming, I painted the various parts in the same order that I did with the archers. Flesh was first, then armor, inner tunic, outer vest, and so on. Speaking of the armor, that was probably the hardest thing to figure out on a couple the poses. What was armor and what was tunic? I actually guessed wrong at first and had to go back and redo armor on four of the figures. There were also some unique types of armor amongst the spearmen -- one pair of poses wearing a vertically banded armor. It looked almost like lamellar armor that some steppe horseman wore historically. I painted all of the armor types in gold on top of a gunmetal base coat, though. In later batches, I may paint some as dyed eather or linen for a change of pace. We'll see! For now, I'm sticking with the Peter Jackson, Lord of the Rings, elves-in-golden-armor look.

    I have almost 2 dozen greens among my paint bottles & employed a variety of shades on this batch

For the inner tunics and outer vests, I followed a similar approach as I did with the archers. However, I was more organized. With a Sharpie, I put a number 1-8 on each base. On a notepad, I wrote down what colors I would use for each article of clothing ahead of time. This allowed me to think more about which shade of green I would use for the lighter inner tunic and which darker shade I would use for the vest. For the decorative lining on the vests, I also tried to use color combinations that were a little more subtle and less high contrast. I was worried that the contrasting colors I chose for some of the archers may have looked too busy. I examined the first batch closer, noting which patterns and color combinations I liked. Hopefully, the spearmen's vest decorations turned out a tad more subdued. I imagine this will be something I get better on as I progress through this army.

    I tried to make the decoration on the vest hemlines more subdued this time - I like how they look!

Writing my proposed colors for each figure also helped me keep track of where the armor was on some figures because it wasn't always easy to tell. For example, I was fairly certain that five of the figures were wearing leg greaves, while the remainder looked like they were wearing trousers. Or were they? After I was done, I thought maybe the trousers could just have been greaves whose top was simply covered up by a longer vest. D'oh!! I did not go back and repaint them as greaves, though. I also noted for each numbered figure which had armor popping out tunics onto their shoulders, for example. It kept me on track more and reduced instances of going back and redoing parts! 

    Wood elven spear assemble near an ancient pavilion deep in the woods, ready for battle!

For the equipment and trousers, I'm sticking with the brown tonal range I used for the archers. When I think wood elves, I typically think green and brown. Shoes I painted in various leathers, browns or grays to fit with what I feel is a sylvan look, as well. My long-time friend Jason asked if I would recreate the shields of my old 25mm Ral Partha Elven army with my Dragon Rampant army. Way back in our brief Warhammer Fantasy days, I had a very cool army of wood elves using the gorgeous, but venerable, wood elves from Ral Partha. Based out of Cincinnati (an hour and a half away), it was the miniature company I grew up on. In that army, each of my mono-pose regiments of elven spearmen had a matching type of leaf design as their shield blazon. For example, the regiment painted in red-brown regiment had a maple leaf. However, with the Warhost figures, there are a variety of shield faces. Three had a number of raised, circular designs or bosses on them. The other five just had a single, central, decorative boss. I felt it would be too hard to use the exact same blazon on the two different shield types. So, I made the decision to make each shield different. I did some Google Image searches of leaves and their colors, and saved my favorites. 

    Shield closeup for you, Jason! Homage to my 25mm Ral Partha wood elf army, sold long, long ago...

I am planning on fielding most of my elven infantry in units of 12 Light Foot armed as "Mixed weapons" in Dragon Rampant. This means they are equipped with both melee and ranged weapons. I plan to mix a relatively equal number of archers with spear or sword-armor elves in the units. Next up, was the elves' long, flowing, rock star hair. I liked how the four different shades of blond I used on the archers turned out. So, I duplicated it here. I also liked the very dark blue for the center dot in their eyes. Previously, I would often use lighter shades of blue or even gray on some miniatures. However, I've come to the opinion that these eye colors often seemed to get lost on the face. Tthe figure would end up with an almost glazed look. So, lately I've been using a very dark brown for the eyes of most of my figs. These are elves, though, so I went with dark blue. I like how it looks. 

To be honest, though, I would say that my batting percentage on painting a perfectly good eye is about 50-75% for each batch of figures. I like how half or more come out, but am not crazy about a certain percentage of each it seems. I know there are many good miniature painters -- more skilled than me -- who eschew painting eyes. However, I found early on, when painting a 15mm army of Ancient Picts with tattoos and individual tartan or checkered patterns, that doing precise details like that but leaving the eye sockets blank looked...well, weird. Almost like they were creatures who had no eyes at all. I know some folks go by the "six foot rule." Unfortunately, though, people pick those figures up and hold them up more closely than six feet to examine! Plus, with my close up photos of each batch of figures, I am zooming in WAY closer than six feet! So, the "eyes" have it!!

    Final look at these excellent Hobday & Hicks sculpts -- I am very happy with how they turned out

 To touch on something I mentioned in this post early on, I am a bit concerned about the 3-D printed elaborate spear heads. Being spear points jabbing at an imaginary enemy means they naturally stick out. Will they 3-D printed points snag on things, or be dropped and snap? I guess we will see once the elves start making an appearance on the tabletop. I hope that they don't break, because I'm worried that replacing the spear points will be a pain in the butt! If that happens, I will likely trim off the entire point and repaint a new, simpler one directly onto the wire spear itself. I was actually tempted to do that anyway when I began assembling this batch. I decided to bow to the wisdom of the figure sculptors, though, and give the points a try! So, cross your fingers and stay tuned on how that turns out! Speaking of Hobday & Hicks, I was very flattered and grateful for their praise of the first batch of archers both on this blog and Facebook. Thanks, guys -- I truly appreciate it!

What else is on my painting desk at the moment? Well, prior to leaving for Cincycon last week, I got out five of my seven ABC Robot Warriors that I'd won in a raffle a couple years ago. They were soft plastic figures that were a royal pain in the butt to glue together. Superglue didn't really work, modeling cement didn't, and neither did two-part epoxy. I swear that some of the folks designing miniatures are frustrated military modelers of days gone by! Anyway, I figured some could be used as big alien monsters for my Majestic 13 games. Once I got them all glued up and had a close look at them, I was wishing I'd picked a different batch of figures to paint...haha! Esepcially after I bought all of those more appropriately big alien monsters at Cincycon! That would be cheating, though, on my 2026 vow to alternate older figures with this year's purchases. So, I've been soldiering on and working on these not-as-simple-as ABC figures simultaneously with the elves. Stay tuned to see how they turned out -- I will likely finish them next week.

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Miniatures acquired in 2026: 159
  
• Miniatures painted in 2026: 60

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Terrain acquired in 2026: 3
  
• Terrain painted in 2026: 21

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Scatter acquired in 2026: 16
  
• Scatter painted in 2026: 48

First Batch of Warhost 28mm Elves Completed!

    My next army for Dragon Rampant -- Wood Elves, using Warhost's 28mm metal figures

I am now officially on my way to painting up my second army for Dragon Rampant, 2nd Edition. I purchased these Warhost Elves from Badger Games awhile back and really like how they look. Definitely very Tolkien style elves -- or at least Peter Jackson's version of them! No punk rocker elves with mohawks here...ha, ha! I'm painting them in batches of eight because, well, they come in blister packs of four figures. Sure, I guess I could mix packs together to be able to do my more comfortable six at a time, but since the bulk of the army is foot figures, groups of eight shouldn't be too bad. I hope!

    I really like these sculpts -- very much in the line of how I envision 'Tolkien elves' -- not GW ones!

After cleaning the figures of the very little flash on them, I epoxied them down onto their bases. It was nice to be able to skip the "messing with weapons" step here. Of course, they're archers, so you have to expect they're going to come with their bow and arrows cast on! I proceeded straight to the priming stage with my usual Liquitex White Gesso -- thank you, Jason, for introducing this to me awhile back! It does a nice job of providing a good surface for paint and even hard-to-cover-with colors work well with a first coat most of the time.

    It looks like green is going to be the operative color for my Wood Elves -- I have a dozen-plus shades!

And speaking of colors, I decided that green was going to be my operative color for my wood elves. I pulled out every green I owned and lined them up on my desk. Then I went into my closet for my overflow or restock paint collection. I pulled out new ones that looked like a slightly different shade and weren't represented on my paint racks. Once the lineup was done, I closely examined the miniatures. I noticed they appear to have an inner long-sleeved tunic and a long, flowing outer vest. I decided that with this batch, I would use lighter shades for the inner tunics and darker shades of green for the outer ones. Yes, it was going to be green on green "blend into the woods" plan! I decided that any accents or equipment colors would be painted in various shades of brown and tan. At least that is how I am envisioning them at this stage!

    Most of the figs have helmets and half of them have scale or banded armor which I painted gold

First, though, was the flesh. I painted their skin with a much paler flesh tone. I still used the ruddy wash I normally put over Caucasian skin, but I made sure it was a light application. I liked how it looked after it dried. It was still paler than my standard humans, but the wash gave definition to the folds and shadows on the face and hands. I had thought about not doing the wash at all, but didn't want my elves to look like they were corpses! Plus, my all-time favorite Tolkien artist, the Brothers Hildebrand, doesn't portray elves as ghoulishly white-skinned. In their paintings, elves always have a healthy flesh tone. Hopefully, these figures end up replicating a Brothers Hildebrand look! The next step was to paint their helms and armor. One pack of four was wearing scale or banded armor underneath their vests. I base coated it with a craft paint called Gunmetal Gray that is very similar to the Iron Wind Steel that I normally use. It is slightly lighter, though. Over that, I painted a craft paint gold highlighted with an even brighter shade of gold. Skin and armor were done!

    I don't think I went overboard on decorating the long, outer vests the archers are wearing

Next, it was on to their clothes and lots and lots of greens! I painted the under tunics first, setting out the first eight shades of green that I would use and placing a figure next to each paint bottle. Once done and dried overnight, I dry brushed them either in very pale greens or white. Then it was on to the long vests. I picked out a nice contrasting shade of green for each and placed it behind each miniature. Same plan here -- base coat and then dry brush the next day. I was quite happy with how my green on green looked after both colors were applied and dry brushed. I figured that I may as well do the hair next, since these Warhost elves have long, flowing "rock star" hair (but NOT punk rock star hair!). I used four different shades of yellow for their blonde hair, ranging from a very pale yellow to a strawberry (almost red) blond. Each was highlighted in a lighter yellow shade.

    Another look at all 8 figures in front of a backdrop of forest & mountain that I had printed

Next, it was on to the pants and shoes/boots. I switched to a brown palette here, using various shades of beige or tan for the pants or leggings. The shoes were done in either gray or a medium or darker brown. The next day, dry brush highlighting finished off those parts of the miniature. Now, it was back to those green tunics. Early on, I decided that I was going to put decoration on the vests. For most, I simply added a border in various colors (not all greens!) and then added contrasting dots. These were done with paint rather than my micron pens. After doing their belts, it was time to do and decorate the quivers, sword sheaths, and pouches. For about half of these I used micron pens, the rest were done with a fine point brush.

At this point, I think I realized that a batch of elves was probably going to take longer than a batch of orcs or goblins. I felt like I had been working on these figures steadily for a week, and I still wasn't done. I was close. The last things to finish off were the bow, arrows, and feather fletchings. I went back and forth on whether to do a wash on these. Elves always seem to be dressed immaculately -- not dirty and dusty. Maybe elf magic repels dirt...ha, ha! So, I decided to hedge my bets. I did a brown wash on the skin, hair, and lighter colored clothes or equipment. That means the green clothes are straight base coat and dry brush -- no dark wash. After I put the first layer of flocking on, I was happy with my decision. I think they look fine a bit brighter than my usual darker look for my miniatures.  

    Final zoom in on all of their inner tunics and outer vests -- how many shades of green can you see?

Speaking of flocking, I often go with a standard look for a force when it comes to flocking. I tend to stick with the same basic blended turf with patches of green grass, and then let the tufts or other base decoration define the army's ground cover. For the elves, I decided to go with one green grass tuft and one flower tuft. And lots of leaves! I had bought two new types of leaf base scatter at Michigan Toy Soldier, as well as getting two others for Christmas. They'll be on full display on the bases of my wood elves.

All in all, I am very happy with my first eight elves. Only about 50+ more to go...ha, ha! So, what else is on my painting desk right now? I am painting some Wargames Atlantic plastic spiders that I picked up from Firelands Wargames last year. I am also doing 24 Pin markers for my Vietnam games (though I doubt I will ever need that many!). Also on the table are three 28mm Vietnam miniatures that my friend Will brought back for me from Gringo 40s. They are two Vietnamese snipers and one U.S. air crewman  on foot evading capture. I really want to get the pin markers and snipers done in time for next weekend's Cincycon, when I will be running Surviving 'Nam twice. So, stay tuned and see if I accomplish that!

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Miniatures acquired in 2026: 95
  
• Miniatures painted in 2026: 42

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Terrain acquired in 2026: 0
  
• Terrain painted in 2026: 21

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Scatter acquired in 2026: 2
  
• Scatter painted in 2026: 24