Army of the Month: Daniel Read

This month our Army of the Month is Daniel Read’s classically painted, beautiful Elf army. A big shout out of thanks to Daniel, for taking some time to answer my questions, and providing a slew of pictures of the army.

Daniel got into gaming, as many his age did, via the gateway drug of Heroquest. The TV advert was like catnip, it drew him in, and via ‘pester power’ he got his parents to get it for Xmas. From there, he discovered like-minded classmates who were into Fighting Fantasy models and they all started playing any Games Workshop thing they could get their hands on, including Warhammer Fantasy Battle 3rd edition.

Daniel discovered Kings of War after The Sundering, as hobbyist everywhere wondered what we would do with our rank and flank armies. Daniel says he has no gaming home at the moment, he recently moved to a different area and is currently on the search for as many KoW players as he can find in the vicinity!

This project is the completion of an idea Daniel first had for Warhammer Fantasy. He was always drawn to the Swordmasters of Hoeth, who protected the mages of the White Tower, and basically acted as their ‘heavies’ shutting down dangerous or unlicensed magic users.

Daniel loved painting Elves, particularly the Games Workshop ones, because they are full of detail that can be made to pop. You can make their weapons and gemstones look really good. For Daniel they are an archetypal fantasy army, very magical, lots of staffs, robes, swords and dragons!

Daniel said he has a soft spot for his dragon as it was the first large scale model he really painted, over 10 years ago, when he became moderately competent at painting (his words), and managed to accomplish several techniques on him. It also is the MVP from his army, regularly performing well.

Despite the special place the dragon holds for him, Daniel said his best painted piece is the Elf King on horse (the old Tyrion mini), who he really enjoyed painting. The lion chariot is a cracker of a price too.

Daniel’s biggest challenges were the display board and the basing!

He had never made a display board before, and had not really stuck to a striking and consistent basing scheme across an army before. He had a vision of a chalky  elven soil, covering the ruins of an older elf civilization, which had then largely been overgrown by meadows, like a completely un-excavated archaeological site. This would also contain many skulls and remnants.

The hardest thing was finding the right flocks and mixing them to get a natural color, using a Greenstuff World Roller to create a cobbled path, and getting all the tufts and flowers to put on all the movement trays. (If you look across all these pictures you can see the detail and variety in the basing, which creates an amazing end effect- Editor)

Similar to some of our other Army of the Months, Daniel has stuck to individual basing for his army. He said he chose a sort of halfway house for his armies up to this point. Minimum model count, because he paints so slowly. Scenic movement trays are therefore a must, to make a unit look good.

He didn’t want to multibase as he maintains an interest in Warhammer Fantasy as a game for shits and giggles, and wouldn’t want to close that avenue off. To make the models look good, he wanted to maintain a consistent basing theme, that matches the trays. Also, Daniel suggests getting MDF trays cut to the project specifications stating, “Don’t make them yourself, it takes a lot of time out. Mdf stuff is very cheap from the right company, and well worth saving the time!”

Daniel advises aspiring hobbyist to have a vision of how their project will look. Plan the project when you’re exercising (he swims) and you’ll find new ideas popping into your head, as well as solutions for how to achieve certain effects. (I often do this while cooking and cleaning- editor)

Looking to the future, Daniel is planning a multibased, 90% Mantic, Basilean Army next, and hoping to have it ready for Clash of Kings 2019.

Daniel recently attended Franticon in the UK, picking up 1st in paint at the Kings of Hearts Doubles, and best painted unit and also 2nd best painted army at the Erit Bellum singles event that same weekend. He also managed to come 2nd out of 18 in battle in the doubles and 9th out of 34 at the singles. Thanks Elves!

A big shout out of thanks to Daniel for sharing his thoughts and pictures of his army. I personally have been following his progress as he updated and prepped the army for Kings of War, so I was really excited to see the whole thing together, and to hear about the project!

If you know someone who you think should be featured in Army of the Month, please post a comment and help me get in contact with them! Until next week, keep on hobbying!