Shadespyre's April Post - Rank and File Month IV - OWAC VIII - High Elves of Lothern (+411 points)

OWAC VIII - Rank and File Month IV - High Elves of Lothern

April

Probably my busiest month of the whole OWAC, lots and lots of progress but only a little bit of it is ready to show to you.

Let's start with the next / last unit of cavalry. The second unit of six, this time with the grey-white horse variant, and with the shields completed. 

Yes, I would love to have had these based by now but I've been prioritising painting. Basing soon, I promise!

That's the last of the 24 copies of the same horse, I think. Phew. Also the last of the Regiments of Renown troopers... but there are some command models to come in "Leaders" month.

So that means no more painting multiple copies of identical figures, right? Oh, no, it does NOT! Because with my initial "promise" pretty much completed, I've started on some more troops...

These ten (nominally identical) archers are from the C08 High Elves range. I think this guy is a "Fighter-Thief" in good old AD&D parlance. It's not easy to collect unit sized numbers of these models, but I've got a bit lucky here. On close inspection, three of these had varying amounts of lead rot and needed some greenstuff - there's one at the back where all of his robes are visibly cracked, and that all had to be filled. I'll probably jettison him in favour of a unit leader at some point.

I find it takes a couple of attempts to reach a good colour balance with these very busy sculpts. These started in blue robes but came out very dark overall, and are a completely different prospect with white cloth instead. 

I think the fancy costumes do a good job of conveying "+1 Missile Elite" vibes, don't you?

Finally for now, here's one of the inspirations behind this project's colour scheme:

This is a hand made coffee cup that I got from a clever friend of mine, it sits on my desk all day (usually with a handful of sweets or snacks in it because I don't want to risk ruining it with coffee!). I don't remember actually deciding to use exactly that shade of blue because of the cup, but it can't be a coincidence, can it?

That's it for April! 

Scores for April:       411    points   16 models

1 x Champion          (Level 5, heavy Armour, Shield, Lance, Warhorse)        61 points

5 x Silver Helms     (Light Armour, Shield, Lance, Warhorse, Standard)    210 points

10 x Archers            (Light armour, Longbow)                                                    140 points

Running Total:        1339  points  51  models

NEXT TIME:

Leader month! Heroes! Banners!! Basing??? (yes, I promise)

Adrian's Rank & File month 1 - Sharpshooters! (217 points)

 

The high elves are proud of their archery skills since their rise as an empire. Professional armies made good use of this elite troops. However, after the war of the beard and the disbandment of large portions of the once majestic imperial elf army, these corps have been made of trained levies.

Still highly skillful archers besting the elite marksmen of other races and usually commanded by war veterans.

By the time of the crisis of Tor Nimtala, one of the last settlements on the continent, Nevarth's Sharpshooters were an effective combat unit capable of defend themselves against hordes of greenskins and beastmen harassing their domain.

Nevarth's worked with the lack of support from Ulthuan after the High King's order of abandoning the continent, and opted to mix the levies from the tiranoc and nagarythean lineages of his lieges, in order to boost their camaraderie in case that the unit shall increase their numbers in a major conflict.

They sport the colours of the differnt houses and mix together to compose a colorful and lethal unit. If you see their banner, you're about to get a deadly shoot.

Apart of my theme of a combined army of Nagarythe and Tiranoc levies, I used the mixed colours and patterns to improve the character of the unit. I love the monopose archers and think that they retain much more character and are in every way better than more modern plastics or even many of the 3rd party attempts at elf archers.

However, as we all know, a regiment, not even a large one, can be tedious to paint and boring to display with only one pose available.

12x Archers with a Champion, banner and musician - 217 points

Lastly, my secret santa's offering

Sorry for the blurry picture of the front, but I almost forgot to take the photos besides it has been painted even before knowing that Mariano was my secret santa.

Next month, hope that I can complete the spearmen in time (with mixed colours AND freehanded shields!).

Until then, Adrian's out.

Adrian's High Elves intro post

 

 

 

It's that time of the year again. 

No, I'm not talking about the one with decorated trees and looped Mariah Carey songs. But there will be plenty of elves. 

It is the time for a new Old World Army Challenge presentation!

 

The last year I completed a new 40k/30k army that has caused more than one raised eyebrow when I played it for the new Age of Darkness setting. However, it also increased my storage problems, so I need to resist the impulse to start a new collection or complete some of the more unfinished projects. 

Instead, some of your last projects gave me the motivation to take it easy, select one of my old armies from the pile of shame old-middlehammer miniatures, and finish it once and for all.

So this year I have selected a bunch of high elves with the 4th edition army list and I will try to get a complete 2000 point army multi-edition ready, with the units I already had painted over the years, for some fantasy love.

The High Elf host of the lost city of Tor Nimtala

 

 

My army general is going to be an old damaged Tyrion that I repared and converted over the amazing 4th ed metal wood elf dragon, which I feel that it is the crown jewel of the elf dragon sculpts after the emperor dragon.

High elf Lord on Great Dragon - 760 points

 

 

My second in command will be a humble elf mage, as it always must be a wizard in a high elf army.

 

High elf mage - 59 points

 

 

 

My rank and file will be distributed over several commont troops

20 High elf spearmen with a champion and command group - 300 points

12 High elf archers with a champion and command group - 217 points

I had these early plastic archers that I started collecting for the Blood Bath at Orcs drift collection that will be used as Shadow Warriors. I am not completely decided if give'm shields as I do not want to hide their quivers and the usual kite shields are a bit too large for these skirmishers (to my liking). 

If I find something appropiate I will give them the shields.

10 High elf Shadow Warriors - 110 points

The other special troops will be 

10 High elf Swordmasters - 224 points

Lastly, I have some warmachines and chariots. I have not finished my baggain train but I will include one for the wildcard/baggain train month.

1 High elf chariot - 72 points

1 High elf reapeater bolt thrower - 50 points

I also have in my box a small unit of high elf militamen/warriors with shields made from a collection of Tim Prow oldies and citadel Middle Earth elves. But, again, I have some troubles the last year by overcommiting some months. So I will play safe this year and depending on how I go with my current troops I will add them later on one or two of my rank and file months.

For now, it is a 1792 point army list, 58 elves, some steads, warmachines and a huge dragon.

More than 1000 points on pure troops and small characters if we do not count the huge point sink of the dragon.

Let see if I can complete another OWAC.

Until January's update, Adrian's out.

Paul M's High Elf Host - Rank and File Month Four - Archers of Lothern

As promised April saw a return to the stormy island city of Lothern for my fourth and final rank and file month, and also my final unit of archers.

Last year I decided to make my own proxy Lothern Seaguard unit from plastic monopose archers and spearmen, some brass rod, and lots and lots of milliput for press moulded shields. I must confess that by the end of the unit build I hated them and didn't want to look at them, but the colour scheme I chose really livened them up and I ended up painting a mage in the same colours... then two bolt throwers... then a Hero on a Griffon...

I had a third and final unit of 22 archers undercoated and waiting for OWAC VI so it made sense for me to add to this contingent within my grand host and give myself a chance to revisit the colour scheme with its bright turquoise (VMC Sea Green and Blue-Green) and mixed blue-green armour (just army painter blue tone and green tone applied carefully in patches and stripes over Citadel Leadbelcher)

The command figures are a bit of a mix as you can see. The musician is the old metal Lothern Seaguard command. I kept back the one bow and quiver I had with this design for use in this unit as it felt more 'archery' to me. However I should really have waited and taken a press mould of it so I could use a copy for the leader who instead makes do wit ha left over press moulded bow and quiver from last year.  The leader is another repurposed bolt thrower crewman, who I think make good archer unit leaders if you are running low on actual champions...

Or you have damaged champions, as in this case (missing sword), who then lend themselves to being converted into standard bearers. The standard is made from a bit of brass rod and a plastic spiky gem bit from the plastic HE mage kit combined with foil from a wine bottle for the banner. 

As you can see here while the style of the banner is more in keeping with the Lothern Seaguard from last year, the runes on the banner are the same as for the other two 'citizen levy' archer units in my army; Minaith meaning: "Skill in arms, spirituality, the Lost Way" and Senlui meaning: "Swiftness, accuracy"

Total for the month:

22 High Elf Archers (including Standard and Musician) - 240pts

And here they are alongside the rest of the Lothern contingent from OVAC V:

I also managed a very quick brush up of two Yvresse themed Bolt Throwers to better match the recently refurbished archers from February this year.

That's it for April. May should be leader month, but I basically have everything left in my HE collection on my painting table right now so in the true traditions of the OWAC it could still be a wild card and a rush to the finish line with the leaders in June.

Onwards to another month of OWACing! You know you'll miss it once it's gone!

Paul M's High Elf Host - Rank and File Month 2 - Archers and Artillery

Damn you February, you nearly broke me!

That is the closest I've ever come to not making it to the monthly deadline and I didn't like it. It did however remind me just how much of a challenge the OWAC really is and that I DID like. I'm really proud of being able to push through and get it done and want to give proper kudos to everyone else who has made it to the end of the month. It looks like we have lost a few more to the field of bones this bleak and frosty February!

I've called this another rank and file month focussing on more archers and beefing up my artillery options... which given an HE army's very limited war machine choices basically means... Mages!

To keep it in the theme of rank and file I have linked these mages to existing units in the army and shown them alongside their units. 

CALEDOR BOLT THROWERS

Now that I have three mainstay units of Caledor themed levy painted up it was obvious that they needed some heavier firepower. Bring on the bolt throwers! 

Apologies to anyone who read 'Caledor themed bolt throwers' in my intro post and was hoping for sculpted dragon heads spitting out massive barbed bolts - I just meant they were going to be red and green! ;)

If only the war machines themselves counted towards the monthly model total I wouldn't have been quite so panicked and rushed for time at the end of the month, but under the rules of the OWAC only the crew count towards the total. All part of the challenge, right!? ;p

SILVER HELMS MAGE

I think I bought this as part of a project to make to get suitable minis for some of my D&D players favourite characters - the mage on foot that came with the set went to a friend to be their D&D mini while the mounted mage bits stayed in my pile of shame.... until now. 

Having just completed a unit of Silver Helms it was an obvious choice to try and match him up, so I selected head and arm options that seemed to fit best (though possibly not my favourite head of the bunch).

I ended up wasting a good hour of quality painting time right near the end on a cloak which I thought went with this model, but after I painted it and offered it up to the rest of the mini I just couldn't get it to sit in a way that looked any good or let the head be attached as it should be. I gave up with the cloak in the end and actually I much prefer the stripped back look for a cavalry mage of relatively junior rank.

WHITE LIONS/CHRACE MAGE

This is a non-GW Chaz Elliott sculpt from the 1990s, still available from RPE. I originally saw him more as a Wood Elf and he has moved back and forth as I decided what to do for OWAC VI. In the end I realised he would be a good fit with the more austere look of the White Lions unit I painted last year.

The colour scheme is therefore incredibly simple and I tried to bring in some colour and echo the autumnal orange tones from the rest of the unit and the basing by inking the folds of the robes. This ended up much more yellow than I wanted, but time ran out on me and it is not too far from what I was after so it will do for now. I can't decide if the similarity of the finger pointing pose between the unit champ and the mage is a good thing or a bad thing, but overall I like how he fits in with the unit.

HOETH MAGE CHAMPION

I believe this is a sculpt from the Isle of Blood box set, although I didn't get my hands on the whole set so I only have bits that I acquired here and there. I really wasn't a fan of the multi part click together sculpt at first, but it has grown on me over time and I quite like the movement it seems to capture.

I decided that the height of the model leant it to matching up with the unit of Sword Masters, and the sculpt plus having Hoeth as a connection means I see him as more senior than the other two 'unit' mages. I painted this month, so I've treated him as a champion.

Matching him up with the Sword Masters gave me my colour scheme, with a deliberately darker blue and bright red gems. I do regret not having flocked the base properly, but again time was the enemy here and as I was painting it in pieces and only assembled it right at the end I wasn't able to pre-flock the base as per my normal technique. Hopefully the swirling purple magic that is levitating him up provides enough interest to get away with it for now.

YVRESSE ARCHER COMMAND

Not a completely traditional Yvresse colour scheme I will grant you, the green 'dragon' scale in honour of King Caledor throws that out a bit, but the blue and white are definitely Yvresse themes while also fitting well with the rest of my army.

I may go back and add some more white to the front of the plume of feathers on the Champion, and some more definition between the shades of blue in the horn, but I simply ran out of time this month so they will have to do for now.

As with the first Caledor themed unit of Archers the runes are Minaith meaning: "Skill in arms, spirituality, the Lost Way" and Senlui meaning: "Swiftness, accuracy" which seems like an apt combination for archers. As I have previously mentioned, in WFB5 both High Elf archers and spearmen have the "Citizen Levy" attribute which lets them shoot/fight with one extra rank. The Minaith rune is a recurring feature of both Spearmen and Archer units to signify this martial philosophy of High Elven citizenry. However this time I have changed the orientation of the runes from horizontal to vertical to show that while the motto is common across HE society the motif is left to specific units/regions. Not entirely happy with the simplistic red arrow heads for an HE banner, but it conveys the right sort of feeling (death from above!).

MONTHLY TOTAL

Repeater Bolt Thrower + 4 crew - 200 pts
Mage on foot - 59 pts
Mage on Horseback - 62 pts 
Mage Champion - 121 pts
Archer command (light armour, bows) x3 (inc. Champion) - 100 pts

Total: 542 pts (11 models, the mounted mage counts as two)

REFURBISHED ARCHER UNIT #2

Of course once the deadline had been met two things happened almost immediately. My painting block lifted and my schedule freed up so I was able to knock out a refurbished Yvresse Archer unit in the first two days of March.

These were never going to count towards the OWAC totals as they were touch ups to existing paint jobs, so it didn't matter that they weren't completed in February itself (as the rest of the minis above were) but I really didn't want them hanging on into March and it made sense to present them along with their brand new command group.

I have a couple of Yvresse themed bolt throwers that are already painted but which now look like they need a brush up to make them match the Yvresse Archer unit a bit better. That might be one for a wildcard month if I don't get it done sooner.

Next month is going to be more rank and file, but a bit more elite... not least because I want a break before going back and painting another 22 archers before the end of the challenge!

Thanks for reading this far. Wishing everyone good fortune for the challenge ahead :)

Paul M's High Elf Host - "The Star and Garter" - Rank and File Month One

Yessss! There's nothing like the start of OWAC season to get the hobby juices flowing. I've absolutely loved seeing all the progress posts and camaraderie in the group this month and I'll start my post by saying thank you and congratulations to one and all, challengers and Mighty Overlords included, for getting OWAC VI off to such a good start.

I always like to start with a rank and file month as I like to get some bulk painting in the army colour scheme done before moving on to things like leaders and wildcards. 

This year I have started with a unit of Silver Helm cavalry, remembering that last year I didn't seem to hate painting all those horses as much as I heard people complain about... hmmm...

These are my second unit of Silver Helms for my High Elf host and in theory form the bulk of Ulthuan's cavalry forces. As such I don't treat them as a particularly high status unit like Dragon Princes, nor a specialist unit like Ellyrian Reavers, and their livery is a fairly basic white and blue combo over simple silver plate, with the thematic green 'dragon scale' on the mail in honour of this being a host of King Caledor.

The unit was assembled from what remained after a pre-OWAC version of myself took the easy option from a hoard of accumulated second hand mismatched and damaged HE cavalry and selected the most intact*/easiest to repair cavalry for my first unit. This meant lots of dodgy gaps around the necks (which to my shame I left unfilled as I had really begun to fall out of love with these sculpts... an early sign of the onset of cavalry fatigue?) and of course missing tails. More press moulding was the answer here of course, but after a number of experiments I found press moulds the plastic horse tails from the original model (with the wrapping at the base) are very tricky to attach reliably and prone to getting knocked off easily, so I have actually gone for tails from Goblin Wolf riders from the same era as the profile gives a better fit/stick, and so the scale is still suitably OTT.

* Intact didn't always mean correctly matched torsos to legs, so both units remain slightly mismatched even after some adjustments between units, but I have come to see that as a feature of how the army book describes Silver Helms as recruited from the young nobility of High Elf society. Yes, there is a broad uniform and standard of equipment within and across units, but Elves lives are long and military equipment is likely made bespoke and at different times so uniformity doesn't seem as important in this type of unit.

I also had a go at press moulding an arm to replace one that was completely missing, always with the idea of making this a standard bearer. I had real trouble getting a decent mould of the arm I wanted to use and this is the best of a very bad bunch. Slightly misaligned cocktail stick banner pole for 1990s authenticity.... also another sign I was losing the love for them. At least I remembered right at the last minute that I had some plastic HE emblems, including the long pointed star to match the shield design for the unit that I was going to stick on top to make it look less like a cocktail stick.... then I took it off again and stuck it on the right way round....

The banner is a simple pennant cut from the foil of a wine bottle top, with the runes Sethai, meaning: "flight, wind, cry in the far mountains" and Elthrai, meaning: "Doom, inexorable fate, hope" used in combination here to infer that a swift death awaits the enemies of the Silver Helms. 

This combination echoes the runes on the banner I added last year to the first unit, Sethai meaning 'Flight, wind, cry in the far mountains' and Harathoi meaning 'Youth, boundless energy, jealousy' used together to represent the speed and potency of the young elven nobles that make up the Silver Helm cavalry. This repeated use of the first rune is also deliberate to try and give a sense of shared military ethos and identity across the regiments of Silver Helms.

I also realised that the unit champions would be far better swapped around so that the one with the horse shaped crest on his helm leads the 'horse' unit and the bare headed Middlehammer era champion leads the 'star' unit. So.... this month I painted a champion, a horse, and a shield from scratch which you can see here over these two miniatures. I swapped the shields for obvious reason but I had to swap the mounts too so the basing would be consistent within the two units.

So there we have it. A unit of eight Silver Helms, and an example of a very successful officer exchange programme. I'm definitely done painting horses for a while though!

Total for the month:

8 Silver Helms inc. Champion, Standard bearer, and musician -  353 pts

Total: 353 pts /16* figures

* mounted troops count double according to OWAC rules, and rather than points value this year's SPECIAL EDITION is more focussed on the minimum 10 figures per month.
NB: for my own self imposed rule about needing to paint one extra figure per 5 pre-painted bases I use, it is important to note that all 8 bases were done from scratch this month. I might need that cushion later!

Now, that might sound like a negative, moaning post about how much I hate the models I've just painted.... Nope. It's an OWAC victory is what it is! There is NO WAY I would have bothered to go back and try and resurrect a second unit without the OWAC giving me the proper motivation. They are FAR from perfect but they are ready for the battlefield and now I have two units of far from perfect Silver Helms rather than just one, and a total of 42 painted High Elf cavalry across 3 divisions of light (15 Ellyrian Reavers), medium (18 Silver Helms), and heavy cavalry (9 Dragon Princes). Fourteen year old me is not going to believe this when I tell him :)

...

"Wot!? All that and still no blummin' archers?"

Alright, alright. Keep you shirt on (until the end of the challenge where you can bare your chest like a real man behind a fully painted army of toy soldiers!). Here...

I finally got round to finishing my first refurbished archer unit - 22 Archers of Caledor. These don't count towards the OWAC but it does feel good to have them done as this unit includes some of my very first high elf models from the original WFB4 boxed set I got for my birthday back in 1992... and it is at least their third coat of paint so don't look too closely for any detail because there isn't any!

Despite all the battles they have fought in they have never had proper leadership until now. I've tried to mix up my available command figures across the multiple units, so I've co-opted a spare Bolt Thrower crew member to act as unit champion (I quite like the idea and look of Archer/Bolt thrower officers having the same 'uniform' in the Caledor lines).

I was short one whole musician, and had a broken archer with no bow, so I tried my hand at some more ambitious press moulding with some of my least impressive results to date. After 5 failed attempts I took the least worst and made it work. Sort of.... There is also a single very old, and very bad (possibly one of my first EVER attempts at press moulding from many years ago), replacement bow top in amongst the crowd.

The standard bearer had a broken sword which kept him out of use, but I finally found the blade that was broken (not even sorry) and fixed it. The runes are Minaith meaning: "Skill in arms, spirituality, the Lost Way" and Senlui meaning: "Swiftness, accuracy" which seems like an apt combination for archers. In WFB5 both High Elf archers and spearmen have the "Citizen Levy" attribute which lets them shoot/fight with one extra rank. I have already used the Minaith rune on the banners of both my Spearmen units to signify this martial philosophy of High Elven citizenry, so I have deliberately used it again for the archers to show that connection in how the units are formed and then function as the back bone of any High Elf army.

Right. I'll shut up. Thanks for reading and I hope to see you again next month :)