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Silver Helms as Ellyrian Reavers

2.1K views 9 replies 6 participants last post by  kithre  
#1 ·
So, I've decided to use some Silver Helms I got as Ellyrian Reavers. I've attached spare bows to some and added quivers to all of them. I also added feathers to all their helmets. Because they are armed with lances, rather than "spears," they don't completely have a "fast cavalry" reaver look to them.

Any suggestions with regard to color scheme or bits that I could add to them to give them that look?
 
#3 ·
Silver Helms really look WAY too heavy, in my opinion. I'm guessing that you didn't give them any shields, but they still have barding, which is the biggest problem.
I built my Ellyrians out of spearman, archer, and actual Ellyrian bits.

Ellyrian legs
Ellyrian horses
Archer torsos
Spearmen arms
mix of heads

The regiment can be gotten for cheap- that same Archer and Spearman box built me a regiment of very nice looking Sea Guard. Of course, I went way over the top and added Space Marine bits and some pieces off the LoTR frames (since replaced for legality) to make 'samurai' ERs.

I personally think that the SHs will be too heavy looking, and the lances will be confusing for an opponent. I'd be cool with it in a friendly game, but in a tourney setting, you better have a really good conversion going on for that to pass...
 
#5 ·
Well, the idea is to make use of tons of SH I have sitting around; otherwise, I'd just buy ER models.

And, its for friendly games. I never play tournaments, anyway. so, not a problem there. I was thinking, I may cut down the lances a bit to make them shorter spears.
 
#6 ·
As The Captian said, your biggest problem is the barding, I would shave back and green stuff the mail bits on the barding so that they looked like the were just cloth, a bit like the new chariot horses, this would reduce the heavy feel of the mounts.

I think that i would change the arms entirely and go with spear arms, they are just cloth, no mail and carrying spears, the legs will certainly be an issue as well, but again some clever greenstuffing and brutal carving and you could make them look like they have on thigh high riding boots and cloth decorations as opposed to full plate with scale mail flappy bits.

(Just so you know "Flappy Bits" is the medeval term for those bits the rider wears to protect his mount.)

Good luck, Post some pics when you are done.

My Reavers are done using Wood Elf + High Elf bits, they have better looking horses than us, Pics in the link in my sig.
 
#7 ·
Now that I look at the figures more closely and compared to your Reaver, Allonairre, I see what you mean. I may have to rethink this. perhaps, I'll just keep them as Silver Helms and keep the bows to suggest they are SH from Ellyrion.

Damn ... Time to buy some Reaver models, I suppose.

Thanks for the feedback and thoughts! Always useful having a sounding board.
 
#8 ·
It is not [as] difficult to convert them into Dragon Princes. Unless you have a special preference for Ellyrion, why not go with a Caledorian themed army? My DPs get more mileage than my ERs anyways.

However, don't feel that all is lost for your regiments of SHs. They are still effective, if you field them in units of 10. I know that it sounds excessive, but they can stand up to enemy regiments that a unit of DPs might not be able to crack.
With US20, they normally outnumber, and with 5, S5 and 5 S3 attacks, they can score a few kills. Add a Standard Bearer, and the fact that you will hopefully have a rank left, and you're looking at 2-3SCR+Kills, for a little bit more than a DP regiment.
I use 2 regiments of them as 'hammers' in large games. 1 regiment in smaller battles, for pinning down those annoying hardcases like Dwarves.

I feel for you- I had TONS of cavalry sitting around after the book changed. I played an all cavalry army. Now I play an army that is mostly cavalry, and had to change my tactics and collection around quite significantly. I wonder if the best HE armies had been all infantry, would they have made our SMs WLs and PGs rare, just to sell more cavalry....
 
#9 ·
Captain. Again, thanks for the feedback. I don't have any particular preference for Ellyrion, so I'll give consideration to modding them for DP. Though, I like the idea of having a large, heavy hitting unit of SH. I have enough that I can actually field a pretty large unit of them.

Again, thanks for the ideas and feedback.
 
#10 ·
If you leave off the helmet decor and shoulder guards, use say the archer heads, and use spearman arms (maybe give the lances to the spears as "long spears" for rear-rankers?), then the SH become much more "rustic" looking, and if you have lots of the old Chariots, then swap out the horses, as the barding has no impact on the chariot model (any more).

You can give them the quivers from the Spearmen sprues, and for the legs, file down or otherwise modify the mail to make them appear less heavily armoured, or else use only the unarmoured legs.

I am tempted to do the same myself, as the plastic Silver Helmes models are actually pretty nasty IMO, especially compared to the lovely older models.