Light Relief

I should really be painting Jade Wizards or Celestial Wizards right now, but these two have been languishing in my leadpile for many years, and when they heard I was painting spellcasters, they demanded attention.

We can see the light!

They're a couple of Light College Acolytes, cast in metal and going back to 4th Edition Warhammer. They had a peculiar rule where your Light Wizard could have five of these deployed behind him ranks of two and three, to form a triangle with the wizard at the apex.

A completely unconventional shape (pre-dating even the Bretonnian lance) and quite a lot of bother for 25pts and an extra Winds of Magic card. They didn't even get two hand weapons, despite the fact that only models in existence had ... two hand weapons.

Tripping the light fantastic.

Still, the models are lovely. I had a great time working on these: letting the model take hold of the white, yellow and gold subtleties, before adding a crystal blue that really makes them pop. Being metal, I think they look better than the plastic Light Wizard I originally painted, so they're showing up their boss.

No pouch on this one (travelling light).

The robes got the most treatment, as white is always tricky. I put a very watered-down wash of Shadow Grey directly onto the white undercoat, and then added heavy highlights of White Scar, finally losing the drybrush altogether and painting thinned-white directly onto the raised bits of cloth.

The robes' edges were Golden Yellow (from Coat D'Arms - I don't know what the new range is like, but I've never found a Citadel yellow that works for me), with a Red Ink wash, then a White Scar drybrush to take the edge off and another drybrush of Golden Yellow. Gloves and boots were Shadow Grey with Space Wolves Grey higlhights. Underobes were Ice Blue (a really nice colour) with thinned Blue Ink and Ice Blue/White Scar highlights.

All sweetness and light.

The weapons were the usual recipes for gold (Auric Armour, Flesh Wash, highlights) and metal (Ironbreaker, thinned Black Ink, highlight), though I made the daggers look like stone (Dawnstone, then highlights of Space Wolves Grey and White Scar), which seemed more ceremonial.

The darker flesh (matching the Light Wizard Lord) was Steel Legion Drab, Brown Ink, then highlights; topknots were Chaos Black with Space Wolves Grey highlights.

Waited years to paint. Light years.

We may have also made a bit of progress with the 'crazy eyes', although these models had slightly bigger heads, so were a smidgeon easier (using a proper fine detail brush didn't hurt either).

So there you have it: I still have two wizards to go (and I'm under deadline - more of which next week), but at least my Light Wizard has some flunkies to boss around. I hear there's a dirty trick called the Light Council (taking a few Lv1s just to boost your Lv4's Banishment), so there may actually be a point to having so many.

Many hands make light work.