Tuesday, April 30, 2019

goblinpaladin's Wood Elves - an April update (275 points)

♫  ♪  we're half way there / woah-oh ♪


featuring: the Hand of God*
This month just sees a single addition:

Adzel, zoat allied contingent commander and level 15 wizard. 275 points.


*my partner. close enough, right
Sometime last year, I got really into zoats as a concept, even changing my Twitter profile to one based around the noble, long defunct creature. The zoats in both fantasy and 40k were intriguing concepts. I'm sad that they've since dropped away. There was a vague allusion to their 40k iteration in one of the Heresy novels, but that's been pretty much it since the release of Rogue Trader. I think they were in an early 90s Warhammer battle report, but I don't believe there has even been any content featuring the peaceful wizards of the realm for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. (I don't talk about 8th edition Warhammer Fantasy.)


her new camera phone really bring out her hand lines
I've bought a handful of them via ebay and the trading communities, but have been really hesitant to paint them. I've not really done lizards or lizard-adjacent creatures before, so I wasn't sure where to start.

This challenge provides a great way to kick your butt into doing things, it turns out.


a noble brow conceals a clever mind
This sculpt is a bit wobbly, with some mould lines I couldn't really scrape away without risking too much damage to his scales, and some wonky bits, especially around the face. I think he turned out okay, at least from my requisite three feet away (in a dimly lit room, without my glasses on).


From Warhammer Fantasy Battle, Priestly, Halliwell & Ansell, p.233. Artist: Angus Fieldhouse. © Games Workshop, 1991.
Only the single miniature this month, folks. Next month should see the return of elves - wardancers, heroes, maybe even a cheeky beastmaster. Until then!

Andrea's Beasts of Chaos (237 points)

Hi guys, 
I finally finished the April quota for OWAC2 and I am really happy for this ;-)


Short post this time (I mean, shorter than usual…) because in these days life is getting a little more demanding! Anyway, here we are with beastmen and the first dragon ogre!

The beastmen unit is a 10-beast worth regiment, a collection of sculpts spanning across the 80s to late 90s. I am pretty pleased with the result of painting, and I am already trying to find new figures to add to the unit. The skin tone is the same I used for the shaman last month, with some little variation. I keep the red color as the army common motif: overall, it seems to work.


The unit first rank…



…and the second rank



The unit champion is a model of Khorne beastman, fully coated in red armour. The big champion from 90s was placed in the second rank: that’s not really a downgrade but I like the big guy in the back rank towering over the others.







Braksh (boar face, CH4 series, 1987) and the champion (beastman of Khorne, 1988)








The big guy (I didn't notice the two small faces on the top of the hat before painting him...mid-90s) and Cabrel (CH4 series, 1987)








The large (MB09 series trooper, 1991) and the tiny (Ungor, 1998)










Laari (the small minotaur, CH4 series, 1987) and a beastman of Slaanesh  (1988)










Beastmen of Khorne (1988)











Finally, the dragon ogre: this is another ubiquitous piece in the Chaos armies of my youth. I have opted for the classical color pattern from the red era.




And here the whole month painting:




Points values: 9 beastmen (90 pts) + 1 champion (60 pts) + 1 dragon ogre (87 pts). Total points 237.

So, based on the original plan, it seems I have two month to finish the challenge with the last two dragon ogres... I can do it! Meanwhile, I am already thinking to some nice surprise addition: let's see what will happen!

Ciao, Andrea

AdamH's Brets - Your mother was a hamster... (243 points)

...and your father smelled of elderberries!

That ropey old quote heralds the first of a new unit for me; the Grail Knights! And I will be honest, again this was a bit of a tough month for me, this time not because of any external factors but rather because I wasn’t feeling my chosen scheme with these guys as I was painting it. Even now that they are done I am still not 100% sure I like it to be honest, but in the interest of plugging on with the challenge and getting an actual painted army completed I decided to hold judgement until the end.





Essentially the thought process here was that the Grail Knights in my army all retain the heraldry designs of their original kingdoms but their colours all get swapped to blue and gold when they obtain the grail. This (I thought) would lead to a visually striking unit while keeping them looking unified. However I am not sure if they don’t just look too… yellow? I don’t know, I might repaint these guys after the challenge if I don’t like the unit when it has a few more models in it but for now at least I am calling these two done. I also might go ahead and put some blazons on them but again the original thought was that the knight sacrificed these when they went on the grail quest.

Next up are some more (and I’m sorry if you are getting bored with these now, because I know I am getting bored painting them)…. Mono-pose plastic archers! Not much to say about these, same as the last lot you may have seen from me, although this time there is a musician in there as well:



However they are accompanied, finally, by the reason I picked this scheme in the first place; which is Bertrand the Brigand:




Accompanied by, Hugo le Petit:


And Gui le Gros:


I loved these models ever since they were released but since I never had a Bretonnian army at the time I didn’t really have a reason to pick them up. Well as soon as I knew I would be doing this challenge I knew they had to go in the army. Such characterful models from back when GW actively pulled inspiration from other sources (which incidently is why I think I don’t really like AoS, all of the character that early and mid WFB had seems to have been replaced with technically excellent models lacking inspiration).



So this month I am submitting:

90 – 2x Grail Knights
54 – 6 x Bergerac Bowmen (I think I had my points wrong last month, for some reason I had bowmen in my head as 6 points rather than the correct 8)
16 - Bowmen Musician
83 - Bertrand Brigand

For a total of 243 points.




As always, I’m very happy to hear your comments, also I know I really need to start responding to them, sorry I do read them I just suck at responding.

- AdamH

Anthony’s Troll-a-la-la la April Submission (220 pts)

Well, April's been a very taxing month due to work and personal life. Also, I've been pretty burned out painting-wise, and I was almost certain that I would be cashing in on my mulligan. I started these trolls last month, which is fortuitous since I don't think I would have been able to muster the motivation to start any model from scratch. Luckily, they are fun sculpts and there's not much in the way of technical expertise needed to paint these fellas. Most importantly, they are not greenskins so I at least get a break from painting green flesh for a month.

Here we have 3 trolls, coming in at 195 points total. These are probably my 3 favorite sculpts from the Bog Trolls range by Drew Williams.  Skin tones achieved by using the Andrea paint set for flesh (which I highly recommend, by the way)





As a further break from painting the greenskins, I experimented with a new rust recipe. I've had this fella primed black in the cabinet for a while, and since he was so heavily armored, he fit the bill perfectly. I also think that he will fit right in with Iannick's undead misfits, so he will be my OWAC tribute to our overlord (and +25pts to my points total for the month, methinks).



Until next time, happy painting (and please send any spare painting mojo my way, if you please).

Monday, April 29, 2019

Jeff's Dark Elves - April (232 Points)

Ogres!  Yes, I know the title says Dark Elves, but what Dark Elf general wouldn't like some Ogre Mercenaries to soak up casualties? As an added bonus, if they all fall in combat, they don't have to be paid...

4 Ogre Mercenaries with Heavy Armor and Double Handed Weapons 
58 points each

I've a soft spot for the Ogres with the halberds, the one on the right with topper missing from his helmet is among the first miniatures I ever bought back in the 80s...I think his paint job's a little more flattering this time around. 😊


I tried to tie the Ogres into the Khornate faction within the army, without being so overt about it that they would look out of place in an army without ties to Chaos. (I do have plans to field them with my Empire and Orc & Goblin armies 😎). 

The Ogres all had casting issues, I cleaned them up as best I could, but I had to resort to turning some of it into "moss" on one of the shields.  Anyhow, I hope you like them.

Brennan's Slann on a plate! - 213 points for April

It looks like a meal, no?

Well, I thought I would need an easier month somewhere in the mix and this is month that I needed it.  I did the mage priest on on litter and a scout.  This brings the scout unit up to five.  I'm very pleased with how the scouts came out.

It feels like the photos are a little blown out.  I wonder if I used too much light or the black backdrop was too much...

The litter was a bit of a challenge.  I tried a couple of different basing options, but I decided to go for the old, everybody gets their own seat approach.  It allowed the littler to built in the manner that looked most, err, reasonable to me.



There are a lot of different elements that are nice with the litter.  I really like the little pile of grapes(?) at his feet and there is a frog under one of his haunches.  There are some frog legs coming out from underneath one of the pillows.  Lots of little touches like that.

You can kinda see the grapes and a set of frog legs.


Total for April:
LV 15 Wizard on a Litter - 199
1 Scout with poison and shield  - 14

And a nice little work in progress army shot for the road...


Thursday, April 25, 2019

Ratwig's OWAC II Entry #4: Hin Deng 'Ee and the pirates (216 points)

Submission 4 consists of Hin Deng ‘Ee and his Dark Elf pirates - 15 Dark Elf Warriors. They bear the bleeding eye of Varl Heavy Hand on their shields. Their standard is festooned with the skulls of their enemies defeated in ambush… er battle.

Only two figs were modified, the standard bearer and one of the female figs received a head swap. The standard is brass rod with skulls wired on with fine copper wire. The skulls are from a GW skull set that comes with 370 some skulls of various types. Most of the figs are Marauder with a few older Citadel figs.

15 x DE Warriors with standard and level 5 leader. Total points: 216


Thanks,
Ratwig out

Tuesday, April 23, 2019

James' Obligatory Nondescript Skeleton Pile - 206 Points



April quickly turned into be the "oops, only two months left and there's only one model in the core skeleton unit so far" month.  Nothing terribly ground-breaking this month, but it had to get done!


The core skeleton unit is led by a Citadel Wight on foot that rummaged through my bitz box and stole a Foundry viking shield. The rank and file are all from Alternative Armies and really just gobble up brown washes very well. There's also a pair of archers and a skeleton with double handed sword to beef up the archers and Grim Reapers a bit.


It wouldn't be a classic undead army to me without the option to toss skulls across the battlefield.  Enter Bony McSkulltosser.  I know I've got the little pile of skulls lying around somewhere in the basement, but just like that one errant Lego piece, it won't make itself known until I stop looking.


The army so far...easily more complete than anything I ever put together between 4th and 6th editions!

And what of Slange?  The rest of his story takes place on the other side of the ocean.  By the time he gets there, everyone on the boat (i.e. April's painting) ends up a touch thinner. What Slange lacked in excitement and adventure this month, though, he'll make up for in May when he lands in Lustria and finds new and unfamiliar species to exploit!  Those special carrion are going to be a lot of fun to work on.

April's Horde
Lv 5 Hero: 30 points
Skull Chukka: 80 points
6 skeletons: 60 points
2 Archers: 24 points
1 Grim Reaper: 12 points
Total for April: 206 points

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