Har Ganeth Executioners - High Res Gallery

THAT was a slog!

Believe it or not, this unit of 6th edition Dark Elf Executioners have been one of my most challenging units to complete in years, for a couple of reasons.

Firstly, the preparation. Being 25 year-old models, these old metal minis have seen some life! Before starting anything, I broke all the pieces apart and stripped them with 99% isopropyl. Next, after dusting off my old set of miniature steel files, I took to carefully removing all the mould lines.

At this stage it was clear that the fidelity of these models was very poor....how spoiled we all are with terrific plastic and resin minis nowadays! I knew that putting in extra time to prep them as well as possible would mean a better time painting them. Nearly every armour panel was sanded back smooth and buffed with 1200 grit sandpaper; a messy and time consuming job (not one I was happy about).

Secondly, painting these was a separate challenge. Although super characterful sculpts, again the limitations of these old metal models meant that angles and lines (that we take for granted now), weren't as straight or sharp as could be. Faces are slightly wonky, or undercuts in the cast make for odd, unexpected shapes to paint. I stopped at multiple stages with these guys, really losing momentum.

After our most recent games day however, really inspired me to have another crack at them and get them over the line. And I'm glad I did, because I think the end result has really come together.

My favourite parts would probably have to be the silver armour sections. They pop against the black armour, and stand out against other units in the army as the specialist warriors they are.

Overall, it was quite a humbling exercise. I look forward to painting a few more, plus their full command in future.

If you'd like to have a crack at painting these colours, all the techniques I used on the Executioners are covered in the recent Clar Karond Dark Elf PDF tutorial. Hope you enjoy the gallery.

- Adam