Ulthuan

Hello folks! I've been toiling away, slowly building and painting a High Elf army while I have all this COVID quarantine free time, and thought I'd share it here. It seems to be pretty quiet around here now that GW isn't supporting WHF, and folks have moved on to AoS, but I figured if anybody would appreciate Ulthuan mustering its forces for some classic Warhammer Fantasy, it would be you folks. I've always wanted to have an army to play with, but never really had the time or resources to devote to such an undertaking. I've had most of this collection sitting in storage in various states of assembly since 2010. It was about time I actually just did the damn thing, so here we are. I was always a fan of the classic "glittering host" look, so all the colors, and livery are going to be the classic blue accents on white, with silver and gold armor, so don't expect any cool custom or bold color schemes that some of the talented folks on here are using. I think the army is going to lean towards being from Saphery, so I'm going to try and denote that in the banners, hence why most of them are currently just white. I haven't gone all in on that yet, except with the Swordmasters' standard.

You can find the gallery at the following link: https://imgur.com/gallery/D9Wn9ZQ

For folks interested in the total model count (not all pictured currently):

1 Teclis
1 Prince on Dragon
2 Princes on Griffons
1 Prince on Elven Steed
2 Battle Standard Bearers
2 Mages
1 Archmage on steed
1 Annointed of Asuryan
1 Loremaster
48 Spearmen
20 Lothern Sea Guard
36 Archers
18 Silver Helms
10 Ellyrian Reavers
20 White Lions
20 Phoenix Guard
30 Swordmasters
15 Dragon Princes
1 Lion Chariot
1 Frostheart Phoenix
3 Eagle Claw Bolt Throwers
2 Great Eagles

Edit: Updated model count with 16 more spearmen, 16 more archers, BSB/Noble and Prince on steed.

Welcome!

It's always nice to finally assemble and paint models that have been sitting in boxes for too long! I particularly like your Prince on Griffon.
Good luck and keep us posted!

_________________
"The general has this to say about ensuring against defeat when outnumbered, out–weaponed and outpositioned. It is... Don't Have a Battle."
"Sounds like a clever man," said Jenkins.
Terry Pratchett, Jingo!

Avatar: https://silmarillionproject.tumblr.com/

Thanks! Glad to finally post here. I've been reading and lurking since forever, but never really having gotten around to playing a lot of actual games, I felt I didn't have much to offer to the community. I still don't lol, but hopefully folks see that there are still people collecting and painting hoping to play good ol' square based Warhammer. I started by painting 30 of the spearmen in one go, and that kinda burnt me out, but it helped test my resolve and patience. Now after that, I've decided to paint units one rank at a time, so I get some variety and not just paint 20 of the same damn thing over and over again. So it's slow going for me, but I'll update when I have made substantial progress!

Hi TyrrenAzureblade !

I'm always happy seeing "normal" people painting. Pro painters are great but it looks often too far to reach.
Your army looks great ! I think I already saw some pictures of it some days ago on Reddit, wasn't it ? Standard colours definitely but great quality !

I can't wait to see more of it, especially the lion chariot and the prince on dragon !

Wow, that's a lot of painting!
But you have made a very good start.
Have you got opponents for playing near you? I assume you are looking to play 8th edition?

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My painting blog

My WHFB armies:
High Elves
Dwarfs
Orcs and Goblins

Yeah, that's me! I'm trying not to spam Reddit though, I'll probably post there once I have some fully completed units and not just ranks.



Since I'm in Northern California, and I'm still very much quarantining, I'm not exactly looking for opponents, but once this calms down substantially, I'll definitely be looking for folks to play 8th with. It's the ruleset I'm most familiar with, but I'm trying to also learn 6th/7th since there seem to be a lot of folks that favor those editions. The last time I played was 8th Edition, with the 7th Edition Army book. Looking forward to trying out the 8th Edition Army book. I'm sad the great weapon elites lost Speed of Asuryan, but Martial Prowess seems pretty awesome since it's army-wide.

Welcome sir.




Me too, lots of nice work but this guy is excellent.


It can be very useful. The Great Weapon guys really benefit from Banner of the World Dragon.

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A New Blog (Orcs and Goblins)
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Cavalry Prince Reloaded
viewtopic.php?f=80&t=70001

If you have any questions don't hesitate to ask, we're not many but we all try to support fellow High Elf players
Painting big units (15-30) is indeed a big effort, so your idea of painting 5 models of different units to increase variety is good!

_________________
"The general has this to say about ensuring against defeat when outnumbered, out–weaponed and outpositioned. It is... Don't Have a Battle."
"Sounds like a clever man," said Jenkins.
Terry Pratchett, Jingo!

Avatar: https://silmarillionproject.tumblr.com/

Thank you SpellArcher, glad to be here!

As I'm painting these elves, I'm starting to try and sort out armies for various point limits. Right now I'm trying to figure out a good 1500 pt. force, and indeed, I'm sticking that Banner of the World Dragon on my elites. Since I'm such a big fan of Swordmasters, I'm trying to build around them. I realize in 8th White Lions are a bit tankier against shooting so they can make it into the fight, and Phoenix Guard are great for bunkering your mage, but I want to try and make Swordmasters work as a mage/BSB bunker.

Here's my current working list from BattleScribe:


++ Standard (High Elves - Army Book (2013-4) -V8.8.0.) [1,495pts] ++

+ Uncategorised +

- Army Size: Army (0-2999 points)

+ Lords +

Archmage [320pts]: Lore of Shadow, Wizard Level 4
. Magic Items: AB - Book of Hoeth, BRB - Talisman of Preservation

+ Heroes +

Noble [135pts]: Battle Standard Bearer, Dragon Armour
. Magic Items: BRB - Dawnstone, BRB - Enchanted Shield

+ Core +

Archers [175pts]: Musician
. 15x Archer: 15x Light Armour

Silver Helms [125pts]: Musician, 5x Silver Helm, Standard Bearer

Spearmen [210pts]: Champion, Musician, 20x Spearman, Standard Bearer

+ Special +

Sword Masters of Hoeth [340pts]: 20x Sword Master
. Champion
. Musician
. Standard Bearer: AB - Banner of the World Dragon

+ Rare +

Eagle Claw Bolt Thrower [70pts]

Eagle Claw Bolt Thrower [70pts]

Great Eagle [50pts]: Great Eagle

++ Total: [1,495pts] ++

Created with BattleScribe

The initial idea was to have enough shooting to try and force my opponent to come to me, so I used to have Lothern Sea Guard with bows instead of spearmen, but I cut them to equip my BSB with some much needed survivability. I can probably switch the Silver Helms to a unit of Reavers so I can have that vaunted Fast Cavalry redirector/chaff unit to help out my eagle, but I really want to have a flanking unit with a bit more punch/survivability. That might be the wrong tact, I'm not at all experienced. And boy, do I not want to paint those Reavers lol.

The army is interesting but I think your BSB is very squishy. I would try to give him at least also the Golden Crown of Atrazar.
An archmage with High in the same unit would also greatly help by way of the shield of Saphery.

Also not sure how useful the spearelves block will be.
I would be tempted to swap them for more silver helms with full command and equipped with shields, and put the BSB there.
Finally I would give the ironcurse icon to the mage if you can find 5 points at the end.

_________________
My painting blog

My WHFB armies:
High Elves
Dwarfs
Orcs and Goblins

Reavers are nice but this list can get by without them.

_________________
A New Blog (Orcs and Goblins)
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Cavalry Prince Reloaded
viewtopic.php?f=80&t=70001

Welcome welcome! As the others have said your gryphon looks great! I also really like that warm gold on your phoenix guard. Hope to see more of your stuff painted up soon!

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One foot in the hobby

Just primed up the last rank of White Lions, so I'll have a full unit of 20 done this weekend. I think I'm going to also tackle a bolt thrower and the Loremaster. Then I think I'm going to finish assembling 10 more Phoenix Guard to get up to 20 for them as well, and probably paint some of those next weekend. I'll post some update photos for sure!

Finished all 20 White Lions this weekend, and took a couple of pictures. I say finished, but I actually still have to do the basing for the last rank, and still trying to make a decision regarding the standards, so the banner is still just base coated in white. I might modify it a bit to make it more Saphery themed, but I'm not that practiced with mods and sculpting, so it might just have to be a color scheme decision. Aaaand I JUST noticed a model in the front rank with unpainted gems. So almost finished I guess.

Nice work again.
I like how clean it looks. The metal parts are not too shiny so it really lets the other colours do their job.

Can I ask what metallic paint do you use ?

Yeah, of course! I'm basing with Citadel's Leadbelcher and shading with Nuln oil. One of the things I'm planning on doing once everything is table ready quality is highlighting with Stormhost Silver a bit.

Good to know.
And for the golden one?

I'm sure the highlight will be a nice addition!

Looks great You can always go back to improve some details later

_________________
"The general has this to say about ensuring against defeat when outnumbered, out–weaponed and outpositioned. It is... Don't Have a Battle."
"Sounds like a clever man," said Jenkins.
Terry Pratchett, Jingo!

Avatar: https://silmarillionproject.tumblr.com/

For the gold I'm using Citadel's Retributor Armor, and doing a heavy wash with Reikland Fleshshade to get that warm gold. By itself, the Retributor Armor is a little too yellow for my tastes. I'll probably be highlighting with Auric Armor Gold, but I've yet to try it on a test model.

Nice work! As others have said your colour scheme is nice and clean and your gold looks great. I also really like your movement trays, very slick!

_________________
One foot in the hobby

Thanks! Those trays are pretty sweet indeed, I got them from a seller on Etsy under the name of Trollmanufacturing that makes all manner of custom gaming components and accessories. The problem is that now I'm torn between pretty classy looking dark wood colored trays, or basing and flocking them.

Posting an update from this past weekend. Managed to get most of the command group/front rank of the Phoenix Guard done, still a couple of minute details to change, and waiting on a yellow paint to arrive to finish the flame on the standard. Those pesky multi-part infantry are a small pain in the ass to rank up properly, but with a little planning, worked out alright. I also painted a test model for the Dragon Princes. I'm realizing I'm not the biggest fan of painting cavalry, it feels like it takes so much longer than infantry. I'm guessing it's the horses. I may try to remove the riders from the horses for the others, and paint them all separately. They're all so damn spiky and layered. The Dragon Prince ended up feeling a bit too monochromatic, so I may repaint the reins and robes more of a warm color like the box art. Or maybe they'll just look better overall once they're ranked up and I won't care anymore hahaha. I also assembled a Frostheart Phoenix and am going to magnetize the Caradryan model so I can run it with Caradryan/Annointed, or just solo, something I wish I had done for my dragon so I could swap between prince and archmage. Doesn't sound like Caradryan sees a lot of competitive play, but for casual games, it could be fun.

Ooooh, shiny!

The PG are looking good. I like how warm te color scheme is. And if it's any consolation, the previous, metal PG are also a pain to rank up.

I agree with you on painting horses. It takes me forever and it always feels like I'm only doing a half decent job on them. It's all the big flat surfaces combined with lots of fiddly little details I think.

I haven't see too many lists with caradryan mounted on a frostheart. I think the main reason is that he doesn't provide much benefit over taking the two separately, except for the ward save (I think it affects the phoenix too). But he should be fun to bring along. So I'd say go for it! And let us know about it of course.

In comparisson, I have seen some competitive lists with an annointed on flamespire phoenix. They're decent in combat, but their main thing is that they are very hard to score points off. With the phoenix reborn rule, you have a very good chance of just not dying.

Rod

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Painting progress, done/in progress/in box: 167/33/91

Check my writing blog for stories on the Prince of Spires and other pieces of fiction.

I suspect the unit could look pretty good with slight variety via command figures.


I fought one at a tournament. It let my opponent bring three Frosthearts (Ashtari being a Heroes choice) which combined with his Star Dragon was formidable.

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A New Blog (Orcs and Goblins)
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=70550
Cavalry Prince Reloaded
viewtopic.php?f=80&t=70001

Hot damn. Or rather, cold damn? Don't think I'm going to be buying two more Frosthearts anytime soon, but that sounds pretty intense. What was the points limit for that tourney?

You are not alone, cavalry is is a pain for everyone.
I think a cavalry model on average takes more time than 2 infantry.
Speaking of time consuming models, I am still stuck painting my arachnarok - the most fiendish painting task I've ever undertaken. After that it's either a frostheart or a unit of trolls.

_________________
My painting blog

My WHFB armies:
High Elves
Dwarfs
Orcs and Goblins

I generally don't really like the usual colour scheme for Phoenix Guard but I have to admit that yours are pretty neat ! Good job.
For the Dragon Prince, nothing is really popping out. Maybe a some highlights on both helms would help ?
And this is the first time I see this phoenix like this. I've never realized that there's that much details. It looks like a nice little project to paint. I can't wait to see the result !

I recently discovered that you could magnetize parts of the minis for more adaptability and I loved the concept. Even for some models where there's almost no use I think I'd do that for the fun Good luck with that !

2500. I had a unit of Eternal Guard rocking Earthblood Regeneration courtesy of their Branchwraith but...Caradryan's Flaming attacks. He killed her and though I got him, Ashtari then Thunderstomped the unit to death. I guess when you consider how formidable a Frostheart is anyway, add in Big C's powerful attacks, less chance of ranged threats hitting the Phoenix and MR 1, it's quite interesting.

_________________
A New Blog (Orcs and Goblins)
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=70550
Cavalry Prince Reloaded
viewtopic.php?f=80&t=70001

Yeah, good call. I think a highlight on the ribbing for the prince's helmet and some edge highlighting on the steed's would do wonders. I was thinking of also giving it another wash pass, but maybe the highlights will create enough contrast. This weekend I'm trying to get myself motivated to paint some Silver Helms to finish off a 10 model unit, but damn, the heat here is getting oppressive.

Small update:
It was oppressively hot the last two weekends, along with really smokey air from all the fires in California, so I didn't get to finish my rank-a-week progress, but I've started in on a unit of ten Archers, and finally got a complete, new-in-box High Elf Prince and Noble to put together! These two models kinda became a bit of a collector's grail for me, as it was difficult to find for a reasonable price. But now I've got a legitimate Battle Standard Bearer to bunker in one of my units, and a lethal prince to bus around! Hoping to get these Archers done by the weekend, along with hopefully three more SilverHelms. We'll see though. Not looking forward to doing those eyes on those archers.