These guys are recently painted (three – four months ago, lol ok not that recent). Bought them second hand and have been sitting, primed in my cupboard for five years or so. When I read the new wood elf book I figured these were probably something I’d want painted up. When ever I’ve taken hawks in the past they’ve always been high achievers, but it always seemed to be good luck rather than my ability to use them or their inherent characteristics. In the new book though they are monstrous cavalry, meaning the naked toughness 3 elf is not a 3 wound toughness four model. On top of that the hawk and the elf are strength 4 on the charge with armour piercing (hawk has killing blow), elf has an asrai longbow and they’re skirmishing fast cav. All for a slight cost increase effectively a better great eagle for 5pts less (although a great eagle is a single model so still has it’s place).
Regarding the paint/modelling, really hated doing these guys, not sure why to be honest, thought they’d be fun struggled to enjoy painting them. Still not totally convinced with some of the choices I made even though like usual I modelled them on games workshops ones. Part of it may have been the hawks are so heavy that the spindly stand really struggles to support it. So many times I broke the stands. I was quite over it by the time I finished. The photos probably won’t show it but some of the stands have a pin in them now with heavy gauge wire (which I use for pins usually) wrapped around the plastic stem to help support the very thin plastic at the end that holds the pin. Works well but just serves to remind me of how fragile they are and what I inevitably have to look forward to when they break again in the future.
