The Dogs - Spring Clean Challenge 2026

These are ex-Grenadier High Elf cavalry sculpted by Mark Copplestone and still available from Battlezone and Folorn Hope in the UK.   The fluff for this unit has helped guide how they have been painted.  I knew that I wanted to do some nail art stamping onto the shields and needed some better quality plates with deeper engraving than the Goblin Hobbies ones I used on the Sea Elf infantry.   I was looking on Amazon for some diffferent designs and settled on a plate of Chinese flowers and flowering branches.  It reminded me of Japanese cherry blossom patterns and that was probably what I was searching for when I found it.  The flowers aren’t cherry blossom though, probably a Chinese plant called tan hua or Queen of the Night.  Interesting plant and I’ll use some information about it in the fluff for this unit.

On to painting then.  I’ve gone with pink as the main colour and blueish purple as the complementary colour.  Here’s the main choices:

The pink acrylics were used to get a transitional background on the shields, dark at the bottom and light at the top.  This wasn’t very smooth but that didn’t matter as the very high contrast of the black stamp pattern would make any minor unevenness invisible.  The Oxforb Blue acrylic was used to even out the colour on the cloth covering the horses’ rumps.  The darker purple went onto smaller details like the belt and scabbards.

I’ve used a pinkish shade of brown for the saddles and leather work which blends in nicely with what is a bold scheme.  The skintone used was a blend of Pastel Salmon and Peachy Flesh.  This creates a more opaque colour that doesn’t look too washed-out.

Nail Art Stamping again

I used what I had learned from the first time with this technique and bought a plate with deeper engraving.  This would mean that I had more chance of achieving a good quality pick-up and the design wouldn’t have dried out before it got transferred into place, see Image 1 below.

The shield transfers worked well.  Where there was a minor issue with either pick-up or transfer there was a gap in the design.  These were filled in with black Speedpaint and a 000 brush, this allowed a bit of extra extemporising which meant that all 8 of the patterns are unique, even though I only used 4 different patterns from the plate.

I had been looking longingly at the rear cloths on the back of the horses and then spotted two flower patterns that looked about the right size on my plate.  I decided to try to put these patterns on the cloths.  I knew the standard domed bit of even the smaller stamper was too big to fit onto the space.  I therefore used the side.  I had to make sure I lined it up with the flat edge along the back of the saddle so the dome didn’t catch it and mess up the transfer.  Image 2 shows the pick-up and Image 3 the resulting transfer after rolling the silicone gently over the cloth.

Stamping complete they got a thorough spray of matt varnish and the the shine was restored to the metal with Darkstar Silver and we have this:

I’ve been working on the fluff for this unit for the army supplement.  I’m really enjoying writing these entries and this unit was a particular favourite.  The work I had to do getting the stamp plate has led directly to some interesting things I’d never have thought of on my own that I’ve now worked into the fluff.  It is great to see this evolve and the ideas feel much more grounded when they work closely with what the final paint job on the finished models actually look like.

Two weeks left and I’ve got started on the final characters including La Lionne herself.  Only one unit of pikemen left after that and should be onto those by the end of the week.