Time to get properly started on my coven of Daughters of Khaine for Fembruary. When I first thought of putting the warband together (quite some time ago now) my plan was to base it around the Melusai and Khinerai and leave the old fashioned Witch Elves out of it. I like these bloody-handed killers well enough but the miniatures never quite interested me enough to consider buying them. However that was before Morgwaeth’s Blade-coven was released for Warhammer Underworlds.
I really like the models in the set, so if I was ever going to paint a Witch Elf then these were the ones for me.
Whilst the first one was built straight out of the box this second one was tweaked slightly to give her a shield instead of a second dagger. No real reason for this beyond allowing us to use a variety of equipment in games of Warcry.
It can be easy to see the Witch Elves as falling into the “hormonal teenage fantasy” class of female miniatures, given that they spent their entire costume budget on boots and underwear. The savagery of their expressions gives the lie to that however, at least on these particular miniatures, and the end result looks – to my eye at least – more cruel than sexy.
Finally I’d like to give a shout out to that well-known blogger and podcaster, all round top bloke and friend of this blog, the Imperial Rebel Ork. Despite his many virtues he persists in the belief that all elves are foppish, pretentious wimps, a patently ridiculous argument which he laid out in Episode 47 of his podcast. Hopefully these ladies will be sufficient to show him the error of his ways – if not the rest of the warband are on their way!
Convert or Die 
February 5th, 2021 at 7:04 am
Nice work, I really like this colour scheme too!
February 5th, 2021 at 12:07 pm
Thanks very much. 🙂
February 5th, 2021 at 9:47 am
Hahaha thanks for the shoutout (sort of) I’m expecting a mob of limp wristed Elf supporters to attempt some feeble assault on my front door any minute. I’ll have a good laugh at them and then simply close the door and go back to sharpening my giant battle axe. Great work on these lady elves mate. The first one is quite “cheeky” and I like the shield choice on the second one. Great paint work too of course.
February 5th, 2021 at 12:17 pm
Cheers dude! You should have no bother chasing off elf-fans, a stern glance will be more than enough to send them on their way weeping! (Channelling my inner dwarf/ork for a moment there!)
Aye, the first one is a bit cheeky isn’t she? The studio model of the second one is too but I reckoned she could handle a pair of trousers and still look right, in a way that the first one wouldn’t. Nothing wrong with the first one showing a bit of bum in my opinion but if it starts to get overdone it makes the whole group look a little sleazy.
February 5th, 2021 at 3:03 pm
Nicely done mate, nowt sexy about these murderous lunatics!
February 5th, 2021 at 3:44 pm
Cheers man! Aye, I can’t imagine perving these ladies would do anyone much good – unless they happen to get off on being stabbed!
February 5th, 2021 at 11:09 pm
Well these are nice and scary in a kind of be gentle with me way I must say. The blood on the sword rather suggests to me that the first one is single. I also think if I had an model elf I would tweak her too. 😉 Seriously, lovely work. You are clearly going to town for Fembruary with these kick arse ladies. 🙂
February 7th, 2021 at 9:58 am
Aye, I suspect the blood on the sword belonged to the last bloke who said “Are you sure going out to a battle dressed like that is a good idea?”. Glad you like them, I’ve no idea how long I’ll be able to maintain painting at this rate but it’s fun to push myself and see how much of the backlog I can clear.
February 7th, 2021 at 11:30 am
Well you are off to a flyer that’s for sure. 🙂
February 6th, 2021 at 12:07 am
Looking good. I’m really liking these models. The first one is plain silly in that getup, but the pose is pretty fearsome. Nice paints, once again the hair is looking good and the gold is beautiful.
February 7th, 2021 at 10:03 am
Cheers! Yeah, her choice of wardrobe is a bit daft isn’t it? It’s the classic witch-elf style though (although she’s wearing even less than most). Always seemed a bit odd to me back in the old days that the murderous dark elves were out in their underwear and the Slaaneshi pleasure-cult dark elves were fully dressed but there you go! I guess they’re just so enthusiastic about getting out and killing people that they don’t take the time to grab a sweater.
February 7th, 2021 at 4:55 pm
Oh yea, that does seem to be the opposite. I guess it also depends on what they’re doing. If this was an army, that doesn’t make much sense unless they have a lot of magic defenses to protect their ass. Still there is the distraction and scare factor of seeing a mostly nude foe run wildly into battle, just like with the Picts.
February 6th, 2021 at 3:44 am
I like how you went with a dark scheme for these ladies. I think the GW scheme is a bit too pastel for my taste and using black highlights how dark and evil they are. I don’t know the lore at all but I can’t quite wrap my head around how they are considered part of Order in AoS which I would consider “The Good Guys” but I fully admit that I’m very ignorant of the lore in Warhammer these days.
Thank you for calling out IRO’s prejudice against elves as well. I will begin a worldwide boycott against his podcast shortly for his misdeeds 😉
February 7th, 2021 at 10:48 am
Cheers Well you’d better give that particular episode of IRO’s podcast a proper listen before the boycott begins, I think you’ll find his arguments hard to counter. 😉 (I can’t seem to decide whether I’m on the side of the elves or against them can I, in some comments I’m cheering for them, in some I’m slagging them. Clearly my recent dalliance with Tzeentch has made me even more Chaotic than usual!)
Nah, Order aren’t the good guys – that’s the Orcs and Goblins! At first I found the Daughters of Khaine to be something of an outlier in the forces of Order too. The way it’s laid out is that anyone who wants to build a civilisation forms part of Order. If you’re an Orc, a Goblin or an Ogre then you fall under Destruction, if you’re undead then you fall under Death and if you worship Chaos then you fall under Chaos. Everyone else is Order – but that makes for some very strange bedfellows and a lot of them really aren’t “good guys”. The Sylvaneth are basically plant supremacists, with a low view of anyone who goes around chopping down trees (so that would be all the other factions in Order then…). The Idoneth are soul stealing horrors one step away from being vampires who make stumbling, mindless husks out of anyone unlucky enough to be raided by them. The Stormcast Eternals are losing so much of their humanity over time that they are becoming increasingly dogmatic in the face of Chaos, more than willing to purge entire villages because Nurgle has been sighted in the region and someone just sneezed. The mass-murdering Daughters of Khaine seem like a bit of an oddity at first but given what some of the others get up to they’re not any more good or bad than a lot of the others.
Honestly I found the lore of first edition AoS to be unbelievably guff but they’ve really improved things in the second edition, it’s actually quite good now.
February 7th, 2021 at 6:23 pm
IRO and I were having a conversation that led me to subscribe to his podcast (which was long overdue) so I’m going to catch up on this controversy in short order 🙂 I’d also like to think you’re starting to be taken by the majesty and regality of elves but it could also be the God of Change messing with us too 🙂
Haha, da Greenskins are always da best! That actually makes a lot of sense to me and I appreciate you sharing that as well. I think maybe my mindset is too caught up in the old Warhammer system and lore and I expect AoS to line up with that. Change is hard (except for Tzeentch!) 😉
February 6th, 2021 at 11:41 am
Both witches are well done and convince with great contrast and cohesive colour schemes. I especially like the black hair (that doesn’t look grey) and the blood effect on the blades. The idea to give one a small shield is a good one, too.
Both are definitely in the sexy cruel category, but avoid cheese cake due to pose and expression. As long as such a miniature has agency and doesn’t look like a model posing in a sexy fantasy outfit it is usually ok with me. An option would be to paint the skin as a tight fitting dress, a bit like a combat diver.
February 7th, 2021 at 10:54 am
Thank you!
” As long as such a miniature has agency and doesn’t look like a model posing in a sexy fantasy outfit it is usually ok with me.”
That’s basically my thinking as well, she looks powerful so it’s all good with me.
The black hair was definitely tricky, it’s so easy for it to end up looking grey. So far I’ve managed to keep it looking the way I want it to, and I’m very pleased with the end results, but there’s no denying it’s a challenge. I think if I could travel back in time to a few weeks ago when I was picking this scheme I’d give other hair colours a bit more thought before I committed. 🙂
February 6th, 2021 at 2:09 pm
Very elegant ladies, I truly appreciate the witch elf and her murder thong 😃
February 7th, 2021 at 10:26 pm
You can’t go wrong with a murder thong! 🙂
February 7th, 2021 at 3:42 am
I got these for Xmas. You have done a great job with them. Mine just wen tin the lead pile for now.
February 7th, 2021 at 10:27 pm
Thank you! Ah, the good old lead pile, it never seems to get any smaller does it? Looking forward to seeing what you do with them when you get around to them. 🙂
February 8th, 2021 at 12:47 am
Excellent – they make for a mean looking pair.
Cheers,
Pete.
February 8th, 2021 at 4:39 am
Cheers – I certainly wouldn’t want to get on the wrong side of them!