Wood Elf Scouts

I picked these up a few months back when I got my Spellsinger, and have been slowly putting them together not to mention painting them. It was interesting re-learning the techniques for creating my Autumnal scheme and I believe I've improved upon my old methods somewhat. While painting these two I grew really tired of using my old paints and so have started to replace them, as well as fill in the gaps with more shades. I'm quite excited to not have to constantly thin out the pot with water before applying the next layer.

Heroes of Middenheim

Contrary to all rational thought I've decided to collect an Empire army. I've recently introduced Warhammer Fantasy to my gaming group and I've only got three armies. *only*. So naturally I need a fourth to spice things up. Crazy I know. So to start off the force I got some heroes to take my time. First, my general on horseback:

 The pallette I've gone with is quite a challenge. Being from Middenheim the colours are white and blue, but I want the army to have a grittier feel than other Empire armies which come across as a little too flambouyant. I also didn't want to get into much of a dirty painting technique, such using as lots of drybrushing and inking (which I do for my Nids.)
When I say dirty I don't mean it negatively. White is always hard, and to tone it down I've thrown in lots of grey, which can be hard to add depth too. The initial results aren't too bad. I've landed somewhere between the quick drybrush/ink style of my Tyranids and the clean-cut-within-the-lines style of my Eldar. (photos to come).
My battle standard bearer:

Back when I used to play in 6th edition I never used battle standard bearers as I preferred to kit up my one lord to around 500 points. This was foolish, but my gaming group was obsessed with hitting 2,000 points. Now that heroes, especially their magic items, have been tooled back I'm happy to spread the weight. I look forward to fielding this guy right in the middle of a block of state troops, while my general smashes through the enemy lines surrounded by the Knights of the White Wolf.
Said Knights are my next project, and after that it will be a battalion. With even more knights! I'll do those up as Knights of the Black Rose to add to my darker, grittier theme. After all the strife Middenheim went through during the Storm of Chaos it only makes sense that Knights obsessed with Morr have appeared in the area.