now you've got a scheme down and most of the army there or there abouts you'll be able to churn out units pretty quickly and the deadline will be fine. Just try and not leave it too late before getting on with working stuff up to a base level. Bear in mind that as long as you hit the minimum standard it is allowed. Obviously everyone wants to have a nice looking army but as long as it's acceptable you've got to start somewhere.

Well that is the plan but I want to try and finish off the units I've got that are mostly done.

The only stumbling block other than getting the painting done is figuring out what to take for the reserves. Given that HE cost so much I'm going to struggle to get more than 1 unit out of each 250 reserve. Ideally I'd want to be able to get a character and a unit from each reserve but that will probably be pushing it.

My how time has flown since my last update. Probably has something to do with concentrating a bit more on the website and on painting (which is why I've also not been keeping up with a lot of the posts in this forum which I really should do).

Anyway, my fears about what I need to paint up for the Summer Incursion have proved unfounded as after listing everything I'd got in progress I had everything I need for the main list and reserves, barring a BSB, with a unit of Archers left over and just 5 Reavers to begin.

Given the timescale and the amount of painting I think I'm going to have to do I'm probably going to have to shelve my plans to make my BSB up from the Prince/Noble box the missus bought me for my birthday (which was last October for those of you keeping track or wondering how long that box has been lying around unopened), especially as I was planning to investigate magnetising the arms so i could swap out the different options as need be. I know you don't necesarily need strict WYSIWYG in WFB but once I hopefully get round to playing more often I'll probably be experimenting with my list more so I want to have the model looking as close to what it's equipped with as possible so I don't forget if he's kitted out differently to normal.

In the end I did manage to squeeze both a character and something else into my two reserve options (which both come in at 247 points) so at the moment I'm trying to finalise the order of battle numbering.

I did feel a bit of a numpty yesterday when I realised that I'd started working on a second foot mage when the second mage in my lists is mounted on a horse and I've already got a mounted mage in progress.

I still haven't been doing massive amounts of painting at home though, although I have been doing something most week nights. Last night I did some base skin layers on character and command models and also did some mould line removing on my Ellyrian Reavers.

Speaking of whom, I've just ended up with another load of High Elf models courtesy of my friend Andy who found them in his mum's loft where they've been since we were last playing the game back in the '90s. Aside from the Reavers (he'd got around 10 for some reason, not sure if the rules were different back then for them to make it worth having them or if it was just the usual teenage "Me see, me want, me buy" kind of thing) there was also a bunch of Archers and Spearmen from the starter box, plus a few metal command models, a Bolt Thrower (which means I've now got 4) and a Teclis (of which I've now got 2). In exchange he's now got the Knights Panther I had and will get my mounted Jade Wizard if that ever turns up, although I'm retaining my claim to my Steam Tank (although I have a nasty suspicion that's up in my parents' loft somewhere waiting to be dug out of the bottom of a box).

Ironically, I'd not long bought some batches of the Spearmen off ebay as I'm trying to get enough that I can field 2 or 3 big blocks of them plus have some I can permanently convert to Sea Guard. This does mean though that I've actually now got enough shields with dragons on to use on my Dragon Princes and also plenty of matching sets of shields so I should be able to have the same shield in use on the front ranks (possibly first couple of ranks) of all the spear blocks I end up with.

This week I've decided to use my lunch time at work to start re-painting the cloth of my White Lions blue. This seemed like a good idea until I got started and ended up noticing a) how poor some of my painting on the White Lions is compared to most of the stuff I've painted since (well, my newer stuff isn't massively better but there's the odd thing I know I'm doing better now or could do better if I put the time in) and also bits I've not done on the White Lions that I thought I had (mainly painting in the eyes). I also haven't actually got sand on the bases so that'll need doing and painting as well. Grr!

I think I really need to sit down and work out a list of what needs doing to the force I'm planning to take to the Summer Incursion. I probably also need to stop getting in from work, putting dinner on and then sitting on my laptop "just to check my email" and then browsing the web for hours like I did last night as it means I'm not getting things done.

make a list, play it until you're happy and make sure you have all of it painted. You'll play it for one tourney then tweak it anyway but once you've got that first one it's much easier to add bits to it.

Do not go back over old stuff until you've finished that first list. You'll discover you can always do better but get a whole army under your belt first!

Trouble is there's not much room for tweaking the army list barring magic items and I'll probably be lucky if I can get 1 more game in before the tournament. As I've said before (possibly not here... keep losing track of what I've posted here and on MyBattalion), I've found that with the stuff I'd already got in progress plus a couple of extra bits I can make a legal tournament force for the Summer Incursion. It's just a bit annoying to find things that a) will need to be redone at some point and b) that I missed in the first place and will need to be done (such as having on put sand on half the bases in a unit)

The only things I'm planning on going back to are the models I originally painted with white cloth and making them blue - since there are points to be won for having a cohesive paint scheme I don't want to lose them by not doing something as simple as that and it's something I can do at work.

The Dragon Princes are now at the stage where I need to use the brushes I have at home so as not to make a huge mess of them so I can't do any more on them at work right now.

Hmm...

Had another practice game for Summer Incursion today with my list, this time against VC.

It's the first time I've played against either of the Undead armies with my High Elves so the only expectations I'd got were based on what I've read on the forums or heard about on the various podcasts.

Things went reasonbly well for the first couple of turns (helped a bit by the fact that Nick forgot to deploy his Fellbats as they were proxied by cut-outs) but then a unit of DPs failed a fear test when declaring a charge on some Black Knights and things were generally downhill from there.

The only combats I won outright (in fact just about all the VPs I got) were won by my Reavers who shot and beat up a unit of Dire Wolves and a raised unit of 5 zombies. I forgot to shoot with them for two turns as well so they could have done a bit more damage.

Another unit of Dragon Princes held up a unit of Ghouls for about 3 turns before getting ground out (they were already down to 3 before they charged in).

My Spearmen with the BSB got totalled by the (caster) Vamp Lord and his Ghoul block in 1 turn - the Vamp did 4 wounds to the champ of the spears in a challenge, my BSB failed to do any hits to the Ghouls and from 13 spear attacks I gott 0 wounds. The Ghouls killed another 5 spearmen and I auto-broke for being defeated by a fear causing enemy.

My White Lion block auto-broke against the Grave Guard, again I couldn't do enough wounds and even with Dazzling Brightness on them, the Grave Guard managed to score more wounds to leave me requiring Insane Courage.

As to what this means for what I need to paint, I'm not sure. Yes my list could do with something in it that can deal with fear (and terror) but I'm not sure I've got enough things in progress I could add in to make the change and I'm not sure I could start something new, like a Lion chariot, and get it done in time for the tournament.

Well decided to start assembling my Lion Chariot and came up with an alternate army list with that in and some other changes to give me some things that can cope with fear causers (although as I'm expecting to be playing around the lower orders of the tournament I'm probably only going to have Ogres to worry about in terms of Fear causing armies).

Not sure if I stuck some bits together in the wrong order or if there's a bit of bad moulding going on but I can't seem to get the Lion heads that go on the right shoulders of the Elves to look like they're going on right, so I'm probably going to leave them off.

Will try and remember to do some photos once I've got it painted

Oh, while I remember, aside from some more tidy up work on other models, I've also started on my Great Eagle. With the colours I've got I decided to base coat it in some darkened Scorched Brown but when I painted it on it looked practically black even with extra light on it.

Another quick update.

Painting the lion chariot I've used the same paints as I do for the lions what I do for my lion cloaks, Tau Sept Ochre as a base coat, painting straight over the top with bleached bone, where I normally do my lion cloaks with a base of Tau Sept Ochre, then drybrush Bleached Bone followed by White.

Having done a quick experiment with washes I'm going with Devlun Mud. I bought that and Gryphonne Sepia yesterday, along with a new pot of Tau Sept Ochre as I thought the one I'd got had gone off a bit as I was having difficulty getting it to cover the model like it has in the past. The new pot doesn't seem to be any different so I'm wondering if I'm doing anything different.

Looking at the chart in the back of the How to Paint Citadel Miniatures book and also at them in the pot I thought Gryphonne was going to be the way to go but on the model it was just a bit too brown for my tastes whereas the area I tested Devlun on got some nice definition while looking fairly neutral on the raised areas.

Hoping I can get the lions finished today and deal with the rest of the chariot. I really need to find myself a base paint for wood rather then using my current mix of Scorched and Bestial browns. I'm noticing that where I've touched up some areas on models I've not quite got the mix the same and it is noticeable (although probably not from a distance, just to me looking through my magnifier).

I've chosen not to go with the light wood approach for the wood on the chariot as you'll have surmised from the above. Probably still going to go with the white & blue theme on the front piece of the chariot. I've decided not to do the banner for the chariot unless I have the time before I go to the Summer Incursion - I need to concentrate on finishing off some other models and doing banners for the units that are taking them.

Another quick update.

Having sent off my army list this evening I decided to get all the models I'm planning to take to the Incursion together and then clear up every model from my painting table that's not being taken.

With them all in one place I took the photo below.



Not quite as much black basecoat still around as I was fearing but I still need to finish painting the lion chariot and glue it in a way that it'll come apart easily afterwards so I can redo it.

Need to paint my BSB (only just finished making him and undercoated him tonight), paint the base for my eagle (again, only undercoated that tonight), paint about 40-odd shields (well, paint the devices and patterns on them, they've already had a base coat), and generally go through and pick up any little snags I can find.

Oh, also need to repaint a few of the movement trays.

Which means that I should, in theory, have time for a practice game on Saturday, which will be the first time I've used the actual list, having swapped a couple of things around since the last time I played.