High Elf Swordmaster - Step 1 [More Fantasy]

I´m very sorry for the modern crowd, this is another fantasy entry - but I´ll get back to you soon with more stuff. I´ve sent another package for casting so there should be new releases to be presented here as soon as I get the delivery.

Meanwhile I´m taking a short break from modern stuff and 20mm to rejuvenate. As I´ve been repainting my Warhammer High Elves (first minis I ever collected) together with my girlfriend, I thought I might as well add a unique hero to the army.

I quickly decided to do my own version of a High Elf Swordmaster of Hoeth as I have a full unit of those and have some fond memories of their background story and their performance in combat back when I played Warhammer (long long time ago ;) )



With that set, I took a normal Swordmaster (the old metal edition) for reference and on a closer look I thought it was equipped in a slightly awkward way - the heavy scale armor runs down all the way to the feet, inhibiting the footwork of these excellent swordsmen. The large helmet probably won´t do any good either. So I decided a slight redesign was in order to give the Swordmaster more freedom of movement which would help in exercising his skill.

First step was to shorten the scalemail protection on the leg. Using some historical references for armor design and combination of different pieces, I decided to go take inspiration from the Samurai armor layout, where the lower legs are armored by metal greaves or cloth armor wrapped around the tights. I went for the cloth in order to emphasise the lighter style of both armor and fighting. Furthermore, being a former swordsman myself I know that you hardly get hit on the legs, there are much more effective ways and targets to strike- even moreso in a battle line with a target-rich environment.

Second step was slightly shortening the helmet.without losing the general appearence of the typical elf-style helmets.

The rest of the armor is fine as it is, most of the changes are to the lower part of the armor.

 Now I´ll stop with the boring background info and finally show some stuff:

This is where I am now. Still way from being finished.

Next I´ll do the arms, build up more cloth around the elbows and add the scalemail on the upper arm. I´ll probably also add a set of shoulderplates, though I think he might just be armored well enough...


I´ll flesh out the helmet a little more to make it less plain, more elfish - just like with the armor, I´ll need to add more details and decoration.

In hindsight, maybe I should also switch back to metal greaves on the lower legs? Not quite sure about that, but I´m not entirely happy with the current version of cloth armor.

More pictures coming soon as I progress.