Get your brushes and clippers, and welcome to the Space Dinosaur Hobby Table, where I cover what I've completed recently in the Age of Sigmar hobby, along with a mini-review of the sculpts, how easy they're to paint, and any tips or tricks I can pass on to make your life easier. After what feels like an eternity, I've completed a unit of 10 Swordmasters from the now defunct Swifthawk Agents faction.
Sadly, these models are models, along with the rest of the High Elves and Skaven (except the clanrats), are no longer available for purchase from GW. I got these way back when I first started in the excellent Spire of Dawn box, which itself was a repackage of the Isle of Blood starter box from Warhammer Fantasy. I've painted the other unit of 10 in the box, the Lothern Sea Guard/Spire Guard, and these fellows follow much the same scheme as them.
Much like the Sea Guard, the Swordmasters have a lot of detail. Almost too much detail. Their spiritual successors, the Lumineth Realmlords, feature the same issue. Lots of different textures which require lots of different colors. You can cut back on some of this, as I didn't pick out every detail on the armor, instead opting for a uniform silver. Same with the hair; every elf here is rocking the light brown.
Now for my overall thoughts on the models, I will judge it based on two categories. Firstly, the sculpt itself will be scored on a scale of 0 to 10, with 5 being average, 0 horrendous, and 10 a marvel. For a reference point, I consider the Stormcast Liberator to be a 5, neither great nor bad. Just a passable, average model. Then I will score on Ease of Painting, between 1 and 5, 1 being a slog to paint and 5 being a breeze.
My High Elf Swordmasters review:
Sculpt: 6/10
These guys still hold up very well, although the need to have them ranked up from the Warhammer Fantasy days really limits the look. This renders them fairly flat and static. Compare to the new Vanari Bladelords and you can see what they could have looked like without this limitation.
Ease of Painting: 3/5
They have so many little details that it takes a lot of time to get it all looking nice. Thankfully, there's nowhere on the model that's difficult to reach with a brush, so no subassemblies are required.
Final tips: You'll have trouble finding these at a decent price nowadays. I recommend working with the Lumineth if you want something close.
-The Space Dinosaur
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