With the complexities I put behind some of my other army collections, it should come as no surprise that I think of my High Elves as a little more than one army.  In the Warhammer World, the High Elves are one of the most prolific when it comes to settling the 4 corners of the planetary map and it seems to me that there should be more to them than the contents of the single army book.

 

Luckily, just because I add more depth and dimension to my army, this does not mean that I have to get carried away with a lot of excess models.  Besides the traditional High Elves, I consider the Elves of Elythis, which follow the organizational structure of The Lord of the Rings elves.  This means that great weapons (Swordmasters), spearmen and archers are common where mounted units and Repeater Bolt Throwers are not.  It also gives me an army with which I can field my Lord of the Rings Elf characters such as Elrond and Gil-galad.  This army will be specifically used in the Elythis Campaign and an updated army list will be posted on that thread when that campaign continues forward.

 

Additionally, there are the Sea Elves, which follow the Sea Patrol list from the Storm of Chaos book.  The Sea Elves are the Elves that occupy most of the overseas citadels and colonies and, therefore, will show up in campaigns that take place away from the homeland of Ulthuan.  The use of a Sea Elves list gives me the opportunity to field Ship's Company (or Elf Sailors) as well as the requirement for several units of Lothern Sea Guard.

 

The High Elves are another of the oldest armies in my collection, specifically due to the release of the 4th Edition Warhammer Fantasy boxed set.  At the time, it was the only way to get the 4th Edition rulebook and a lot of friends didn't want to keep the Elf models that came with it.  Rather than waste them, I decided it was an opportunity to build another army (my 3rd at the time behind the Empire and Chaos).

 

392 models

287 painted (72%)

Largest legal force I can play with entirely painted models:  6,500 points

Estimated goal strength for the collection when completed:  10,000 points

 

 

What better way to start than with Tyrion, the Defender of Ulthuan?  Much of this collection can be seen in action in the large High Elves vs. Dark Elves Battle Report featured on the front page of Wizbangs.com (lower right).

 

Teclis, the brother to Tyrion.  This model is an EBay purchase- an example of a finely painted piece of work that I could pick up at a bargain price!  I am willing to pick up many of the Special Characters all ready painted since their general color scheme is predetermined by how they are painted by the White Dwarf Heavy Metal team.  For example, I could not picture any other way that this model could be painted and still be Tyrion.

 

Eltharion the Grim on Stormwing is an ancient model, dating back to 4th Edition Warhammer.  It is in need of a stripping and new paint job, but doesn't get used enough to warrant the extra work at the moment.  It will probably come unglued and completely fall apart as soon as stripper is applied to the model.

 

Lords of the Elythis Isles (and Lord of the Rings collection), Glorfindel, Elrond and Gil-galad were all acquired off of EBay for the reason cited above.  Gil-galad often pulls time as a Spearmen unit champion in my traditional High Elf army.  They are about to get a lot of company as other Rivendell Elves join the character roster.

 

Another ancient model rendered obsolete by the changes in rulebook Editions:  This High Elf Pegasus rider was converted and painted by my brother Duncan over 15-years ago.  The rider is a 3rd Edition Silver Helm mounted on a Ral Partha Pegasus model.  The leopard skin blanket was his first experiment with Green Stuff.  These days it is used as a Hero on a Great Eagle mount (simply give the Pegasus the stat line of the Eagle).

 

For the sake of classification I usually declare all of my mounted characters as "Lords."  The Hero on the right is the 3rd Edition model for Tyrion painted by my brother Duncan in the same scheme sported in the pages of White Dwarf back in those days.  At the time, he was far ahead of us regarding painting quality and the amount of effort put into his models.

 

     

Years later I painted this old Tyrion model for the collection of David Carter.  Much of Dave's collection sported a light blue paint scheme and I wanted this model to blend in with his other knight units, while maintaining the distinction of being the army General.  I used the same blue wash method on the silver of the crest and horse's head dress that I use when painting my warriors of Tzeentch for my Chaos army.

 

Still absent an appropriate rider, this Blue Dragon will be one of many dragons that the High Elves will be able to ride into battle.  I endeavored to collect every color of dragon from the original Dungeons & Dragons Monstrous Manual with many of them in 2 sizes (large and extra large).  Aside from the obvious evil dragons going to the Chaos Powers and Dark Elves, it seems the High Elves are destined to get the rest of them.

 

This dragon is an old Ral Partha model that came with a human rider and saw a lot of action in our Dungeons & Dragons days.  I added the spots to the body and geometric patterns to the wings to keep the thing from looking like a toy- which is what I feared when painting a "blue" dragon.  The paints were Poly-S.

 

 

                      

[Above]  Different makes of High Elf Mages painted several years apart.  The model on the left is a Games Workshop Mage painted for Dave Carter's collection.  As mentioned before, I used the High Elf battle uniform of white as a base and added a lot of light blue to blend it in with the army.  Dave likes to use the Lore of Heavens, so I added the patterns on his coat to insinuate the image of water.  On the right is a Mage by Ral Partha painted over 10-years earlier.  I was not yet in my wash or dry-brushing stage, but I can tell by the level of detail that I put into this model that I was attempting to make something worthy of Duncan's efforts so that it wouldn't draw negative attention when deployed in the same army.

 

 

This mounted Battle Standard Bearer is another contracted job for Dave Carter's collection.  The conversion was done by John Cennami, who used a 5th Edition Dragon Prince (these used the old Empire-style warhorses) and gave it a Bretonnian banner.  I applied the plastic High Elf shield emblem to the banner before painting it.  The barding and armor are all mithril silver with a blue wash blended in (this was when I was experimenting with the blue-tint effect) and all insignia is hand painted.  I ended up adding the rock to the base because the finished model was top-heavy and the rear legs of the horse did not want to support the weight of the model.

 

The Battle Standard Bearer for my own army is a more recent model- the limited edition Battle Standard Bearer that came in the High Elf army boxed battalion with the 6th Edition release.  The banner is a image scanned out of the High Elf army book, printed and glued onto the metal pre-molded banner.

 

Most recently added (and more often used mounted on an Elven Steed) is this Battle Standard Bearer model.  This is from the High Elf Lord/Prince plastic box set.

 

I have a collection of other assorted Hero and Champion character models, most of which made the transition from Dungeons & Dragons characters.  The model on the left is a 3rd Edition model while the one on the right is a 4th Edition model painted by Tim Murray.  The center model is a Ral Partha character.  These usually represent unit champions.

 

This second set of models also made the transition from Dungeons & Dragons.  The model on the left is another Citadel Elf from 3rd Edition, the center model is a Ral Partha character and the one on the right is a RAFM model with a converted sword. It has since been adopted to crew one of my Tiranoc Chariots, shown later in this section.

 

 

 

As you might expect (considering the 4th Edition boxed set was the origin of this army), I have a lot of Archers in my force (6 units of 10, to be exact. You will also see that I have several more incorporated in my Sea Guard units).  3 of the units have a blank base showing where a unit champion will complete the front rank, while two others have the completed champions all ready deployed.  (One unit will not have a Hawkeye champion attached).

 

Here are the two unit champions completed so far.  These are both 4th Edition metal models painted by Duncan Colby.  The model in the red uniform often plays as a Lord or Hero character wielding the Reaver Bow, rather than a unit Champion.

 

Like the Archers, I have a lot of 4th Edition Spearmen as well.  With the 7th Edition, this is handy since I think the High Elf Spearmen are undervalued and under-estimated.  Therefore, I am fielding two units of 25.

 

The second unit of spearmen still sport their original paint scheme done by my brother Duncan almost 20 years ago.  This unit still needs 3 models to bring it up to the desired 25 models.

 

In this command group, the champion to the left was painted by Tim Murray.  The standard in the middle is hand painted using the Ulthuan Star Logo that I practiced so much on to paint on the many Silver Helms (further down this page).  The musician on the right was started by my brother Duncan.  I finished it doing the detail work just recently.

 

This command group is the product of Pete Underwood (including the hand painted banner).

 

As mentioned at the beginning of this page, I am in the process of building 2 Sea Guard units to 20 models each as part of the Sea Patrol list.  This photo shows all of the shield covers I printed and applied to the shields to give the unit a unified appearance (and I wasn't at all happy with the hand painted attempt I had made many years earlier).

 

As you can sea, all of these models are 4th Edition spearmen with the exception of the 5th Edition Command Group.  Metail bows and arrow quivers from the Tiranoc chariot were added to all of the spearmen.

 

Close-up of the Command unit showing the new shield covers.  These were scanned out of the High Elf army book, printed and simply glued over old artwork that had been hand-painted on the shields before.  The banner was also scanned and printed from the High Elf army book.  The two command groups are recent completions.

 

The second unit still needs about 9 models to be brought up to strength.

 

This command group is a mix of 4th Edition spearmen command and a 4th Edition Shadow Warrior (on the left, functioning as the unit champion).  This banner was a black & white image in the back of an older army book that is colored with pencil.

 

 

This unit of Swordmasters was facing termination when the second, newer unit was completed.  However, with the Lord of the Rings army list sporting multiple units of Swordmasters I have chosen to keep them on for a longer tenure.  These models are 4th Edition Games Workshop and Grenadier models.  The banner is from a 4th Edition colored banner sheet (you could buy them in a blister pack back then) with a converted Empire banner pole.

 

The newer unit of Swordmasters is more consistent with my overall army theme sporting the traditional blue and white.  The banner comes from the same blister pack as the one above.

 

With the 7th Edition army book I finally found the impetus to get all of my Phoenix Guard completed.  They are an assortment of 5th and 7th edition models.

 

Here is a close-up showing the command group of the unit.  Both of these models are 3rd Edition models painted by Josh Lyons.  The combination standard bearer and musician is a converted musician model.  I added the banner, which is a printed black & white image from an army book coloed in pencil.

 

Rear view of the command group showing the cape detail that Josh painted on.  I had a dilemma trying to figure out how to paint the unit to correspond with these command models, since Josh went all out with yellow and orange and did not use any of the traditional white in the war garb.  I opted to keep the yellow capes (either the inside or outside in white) to tie the command group in, yet keep the unit itself consistent with the High Elf tradition.

 

Examples of the 4th & 7th edition models showing how I managed to tie in the yellow capes with the traditional High Elf white.  I also carried over the armor color from Josh's models using gold for the chain mail and silver for the plate armor.

 

My White Lions of Chrace are another unit that started with the first hand-full being painted back in the days of 4th Edition and the rest of the unit being brought along to completion since the 7th Edition book came out.  These models are a mix of 4th Edition Citadel models and Grenedier models.  Several of the Grenedier models had thier lion cloaks sculpted on using green stuff.  It was my first serious attempt at modeling with it after so many years of avoiding it.  The banner comes from the same blister pack mentioned earlier.

 

Close up of the command group showing the original 4th Edition color scheme that I used.  The model on the left with the big spear is the original Korhil model.  He functions as the unit champion when Korhil is not part of the game.

 

The number of old Silver Helms units I have demonstrates how I used to play all-cavalry armies back in the 4th & 5th Edition time frames (it seemed like the only way to win with a Toughness 3 finesse army).  Even though they are all Silver Helms by unit definition, I name them by the color scheme that I used to trim them out.  The Blue Helms are the biggest of the units.  The banner is from the aforementioned banner blister pack and the musician on the far left is a converted 3rd Edition Dark Elf carrying a horn from an Empire Knights blister.  The penants are hand painted.

 

Side view of the Blue helms showing the hand painted emblem on the trailing horse.  Originally I wanted the High Elf star on all Silver Helms barding (like the unit champion in the center), but I did not have nearly enough decals.  Therefore, most of them were hand painted on after the decals ran out.

 

This is the original unit of Silver Helms taken from my brother's collection back in the 4th Edition days.  I added the hand painted penants, but all other decals and the banner came with the models.

 

Like the Blue Helms, the Scarlet Helms also have a converted musician- this one from a 3rd Edition Silver Helm rider.  The penants are hand painted as are the star emblems on the barding.  The banner is a color cut out from the 4th Edition High Elf army book.

 

The Golden Helms are the latest unit completed and, therefore, their lines tend to be a little neater. 

 

Profile view showing the stars painted on the barding and the gradient painted on the spear shafts and helm plumes.  All of the Silver Helms are slated to get shields with the release of the 7th Edition (which makes it mandatory).

 

While I'm at it, I may as well show this unit of later Edition Silver Helms painted Dave Carter's collection.  I copied the paint scheme from the box since it matched the traditional white and blue theme Dave was using.

 

I also painted Dave's Dragon Princes of Caledor using the same scheme displayed on the box.  This is a larger unit than the stock 5 pieces that came with the box and required several additional blister packs to complete.

 

Close up of the command group showing the hand painted livery on the shields and the banner.  

 

 

This champion is the first of my own collection of Dragon Princes to be completed.  As I learned over the years, I always complete one model first to be sure I am happy with the paint scheme before working on the rest of the unit.  Although I knew green would be the dominant color here, I was unsure of the color of the cloth or the scale armor.

I had a painting student paint these Ral Partha mounted Amazons and she brought them back wearing purple.  I wasn't quite sure what to do with them, but decided to call them "Ellyrian Reavers" and placed them with my High Elf army.  These, of course, are the bow armed Reavers that seldom get used on account of so many other Special Unit choices that are available.

 

This unit consists of old Grenedier Elf riders that made up my original Dragon Princes.  Although only slightly under-sized, they no longer boast the impression of being the toughest unit on the field, so they have been demoted to the role of Ellyrian Reavers armed with spear and shield.  With the exception of the green shield for the unit champion, all other shields are decals from my Empire decal sheet.  The green shield is hand painted.

 

My original unit of 6 Shadow Warriors is being upgraded to 12 since they are proving to be a formidable unit in close combat as well as stealthy archers.  They have become staples in my army for War Machine hunters.

 

Unhappy with the original Tiranoc Chariot models, I picked up these chariots from RAFM many years ago.  They were painted by Josh Lyons who did not like the original RAFM crewmen.  He added the axe-wielding model on the left, which is a 3rd Edition Wood Elf model.  The driver on the right is an aforementioned character model by RAFM.

 

My chariot ranks expanded when I found this model on EBay at a "you can't refuse" price.  It is actually more of a Wood Elf theme (with the female Wood Elf Spellcaster in the chariot), but I don't have the heart to take a brush to it and make it more "High Elf-ish."

 

Faced with 4 chariot slots in the 6th edition army book (2 chariots took 1 Special Unit slot) I needed one more to fill out my ranks evenly.  I picked up this model from Tim Sell in exchange for a Forge World Space Marine Drop Pod that I no longer wanted.  I particularly found the work he did with the jeweler's chain interesting, but the whole model needs to be mounted on a base to be consistent with the rest of the force.  However, since chariots are not high on my list of models to use with this Edition, there's no hurry on the upgrade.

 

 

Repeater Bolt Throwers.  What more needs to be said?  Okay, I painted these in a pale brown with the intention of getting a wood grain effect on them, but never got to the point of painting on the rest of the detail.  I am working on another pair, which will probably inspire me to finsih these as well.  (You wouldn't have known if I didn't mention it).