Shadespyre's June Post - Wild Card Month - OWAC VIII - High Elves of Lothern

OWAC VIII - Wild Card Month - High Elves of Lothern

June

The last month of OWAC VIII and it's WILDCARD MONTH

Probably one of my least wild ones, if I'm honest. But this is what I've got for you:

More Heroes

Let's start off with slotta-based imposters - this is Brommedir from the Blood bath at Orks Rift scenario. Such a fancy fellow that I just had to include him here.

And this is the C33 Elf Hero, in his mounted and dismounted forms. So obviously a match to the C08 ranges and the Regiments of Renown that I'm using that I don't really understand how they ended up separate from them.

And then, I've also painted a few more of the C08 sculpts. I picked through my collection and used the *worst* examples of everything that I had doubles of - in other words, I still have a full set of

 36 in decent condition stashed away - to add to this project.

So here we have another four:

In this set, the two handed sword blade is a replacement, the second guy is pretty much solid, the third guy barely has a face, and the spear has been repaired at least three times!

And here are three more:

These are actually in okay condition. I don't like the first guy much, even in this range he is very busy with clashing details. And then the fighter-mage on the right has a rather deformed face.

And here is the last four:

These are among my favourites. I hope it's pretty obvious that the second guy was missing his hand, and this is how he ended up wielding the enormous Coffee of Doom. Hmm, that cup seems familar from somewhere?

This takes us to 16 out of 36 sculpts included in this project in some form or another. Some of these minis, like the Cleric with the mace, I really like and if I could have found enough to make a unit I'd have been very happy. Some would only work as characters or unit leaders. Maybe the opportunity will come to add more to the army, but I think I'm done with these colours for now.

None of these have a set roll in the army as such, so I'm not going to bother working out points for them.

However, here are some "proper" additions.

Dragons

Would you believe that I had no plans to include a dragon in this army? No Dragons? Me? 

But honestly I did not.

It was only when I paused the project briefly to paint a dragon as a gift / favour for a friend that I realised that I really wanted to paint more of them. So I had a dig around and came up with this:

So this is the Marauder Miniatures MBF17 High Elf Dragonlord *Dragon*, for which I don't have the proper rider, with a modified Elwing's rider on his back. I built the saddle to make the two meet up as best as I could.

The Dragon, Kargos, is traditionally a big red firebreathing type, but to fit better with this army I borrowed the colours from the later Prince Imrik box art. I think he looks quite smart.

I also wanted to include some sort of "sea dragon". I considered a number of serpentine types, but they tend to be sculpted as in the sea, and I wanted something that might have travelled inland with the army - far enough to have joined up with their Wood Elf cousins. And I eventually turned up this little guy from one of my boxes:

This is the Ral Partha Sea Dragon, code 01-151 (I think you can still get it from Ironwind Minis if you want one). I like his fishy look, but those wings suggest he's not restricted to the seaside. The paint scheme is inspired by the Blue Marlin and uses all of the blues which appear in the army, which is a nice way to tie things together, I thought.

So that is that. OWAC VIII done! Apart from a final July post where I might mull on what I've done and try to get a full army picture for you. Thanks for reading!

Scores for June:                620 points   16 models

1 x Elven Dragonkin            (Lance, Shield, Bow)                                                              320 points

1 x Dragon                           (Level 1, Wings)                                                                     300 points            

Running Total:                   3304 points  96  models

"Death from above !!!!" Slaaneshchild's flying month 3 : rank and file

Soooo

New month. New unit. New models. 

I was keeping secretly this amazing box from Ral Partha, "the Draconians". It is an old treasure I have seen in my childhood many times, and I never succeed to get it.

Fortunately, I put my hairy hands on a box in a second hand store at a fair price (35€), I was going to achieve a goal I had since my childhood, how fantastic !

I wanted to do something new, with different colours. I am tired of painting everything in pink :) So I imagined them as kin of a Red Drake.

In game, I will play them as furies. I might create my own rules, to make a regiment of renom, I will see.

Here they come, the Astharogh's offsrping : 

I finished them early, so I decided to paint another regiment. I worked on my ungors/lesser beastmen/chaos thugs. Those miniatures are from Metal. Magic's range. 

I was truly and pleasantly surprised by the quality of these figurines. The sculpting is fine—not too detailed, yet full of creativity—and very realistic. I had so much fun painting them. I hope you will enjoy them too !! 

Beware the chaos leprechaun !!! 

And of course, I want to share you the music that has been with me all month long, and that inspired me so much, the infamous and almighty French Black Metal band, Blessed in Sin ! "Par le sang du Christ"

Look at this album cover, isn't it all about Slaanesh beastmen and minotaurs ??? 

So this month I painted :

10 furies ........................ .............................................................................. 150 pts

24 ungors/chaos thugs with shields and full command ............................... 156 pts

Total : 306 pts !! 

Next month, furies again and beastmen !!! 

Cheers guys !! 

Benjamin's Chariots 🛒 - THE IRON CLAWS - Wildcard Month (448pts)

You can hide, but you can't run!

Oh boy has this been a long time in the works! Scouring through my photos the initial stages go back to at least August last year - but the thought of an Iron Claw chariot with an Olley Beastmen was far earlier. This is probably the most overly worked bit of the army so far - and seeing it finished finally feels like a real gift!

The Beastmen Chariots

A true 20th Century Design Icon

The Iron Claw chariot feels like the purest Bob Olley experience. That intense dragon figurehead, and all those gaping square jaws. Like the beastmen he did for citadel, it really captures the spirit of classic warhammer, whilst also not entirely really fitting in. Like a glimpse into a parallel universe where he might have worked a bit more with them.

It took AGES to finally acquire one for myself - however that was only the beginning of the process really.

The Challenges...

I really wanted them to be pulled by boars to fit into the demake logic the army has. Despite sculpting for every company out there - to my knowledge Bob had never sculpted a boar. So I had to cheat and use ones sculpted by Kev Adams. He DID however sculpt a Boar Head for this guy

Don't let me boar you to death with all this

The chariot itself was also a bit short - so incorporating this into the Beastmen army required a bit of a boost. The proportions of the goblins were just too short - so I opted to create a lasercut replica, and allow for press moulded sections to replace the missing details.

An early photoshop mockup

Some cad designs for the laercutter

An eager prototype!

Much of the lasercut stuff got swapped and resculpted later on. I extended the winged panels a bit on the sides and the fronts were heavily altered. The initial plan to just do one kind of ballooned to four due to the availability of free press-moulded components.

To avoid too much repetition I needed to source various components for variation - this included some goat heads (Ral Partha Dwarf Cavalry) to replace the dragon figureheads, and various press moulded bits on the fronts. A happy accident of extending it's height was to sculpt jaws onto the skull fronts.

The Riders were initially going to be from the Midlam Miniatures goatmen range - but they just seemed too skinny in such a bulky chariot. So they were swapped out for very heavily converted Gargantua orcs from Ral Partha. This decision alone really added a few weeks to the whole project.

Cool points if you can guess the donor model for the whip guys.

Painting...

Aside from needing a magic brush to access some of the crevices in the riders - painting was fairly straightforward - although I was a little stumped with how to paint the chariots. Each model is pretty much it's own unit at this point - so there's a fine line between bland and busy that I've tried to keep between!

April 30th, and the varnish is still wet.

Points...

I was a little creative with the points - using WHFB 3rd edition rulebook to build a chariot from scratch.

They're 112 points each - so altogether 448pts.

Next month will be MORE rank and file, and a shrine - and hopefully those beastmen that didn't get finished in February! And a wizard. And another Korag too.

Thanks for reading!

Paul/Golgfag1's March - Actual C series amazons plus a few extras (3150 points)

Rank & File month #3 

More troops this month, but this time I'm actually painting 'C30' series Amazonians from back in the day, originally designed by the Perry twins, produced as a foil to the Slann of Lustria. The first time they were promoted by Citdel/ Games Workshop was in the scenario Rigg's Shrine in the second Citadel Compendium, written by Richard Helliwell.

 

So, first up a few spear and bow armed bodyguard, will be playing the part of elite +2, from third edition, giving me sixteen figures at nineteen points each - three hundred and four points.

I'm also going to add a few specialists from other manutacturers as I don't really have that many C series figures and my force needs a little something to provide a little bit of punch - Chariots, via Ral partha, the originls are pulled by human slaves, great for the story, but not much good on the tabletop. 

,

So, I switched them for sabre-toothed tigers from Grenadier, which means they move slightly quicker and have a lot more bite when entering into combat. Two chariots with basic crew one hundred and ninety eight points each - three hundred and ninety six points.

My spare time is pretty much taken up with painting for this challenge at the moment, as the early evenings are still fairly dark, and the weather isn't conducive to spending any significant time in the garden. So, I'm going to push on with a second batch of infantry, a mixed bag of C series tribes women, berserkers and Koka-kalim weilding bows, daggers, swords, bolts-pistols and power swords.

This little lot weigh in at a mighty nine hundred and ninety three points, the majority of which is the three powerswords and bolt pistol.

Next up - Pygmie skimishers, weilding either bows or short spears/javelins adding another thirty two points, I've not included for the standard witch doctor or champion.

Whilst trawling E-bay, I dropped upon this dragon (a tiny little thing, not sure what it's from?), which I thought would add a little something to this months mix, I'll be honest attaching the wings was a complete pain, but the simply paint job was done in an evening, so this adds another two hundred and fifty points to this months total.

Before anybody asks how did I manage to dab paint on this little lot in a couple of weeks - Annual leave, as I loose all of any I don't take, on the first April. Recently found this on E-bay, advertised as a living statue, thought it'd would make a nice addition to my growing collection, following on with the Rigg's Shrine - I'm of the opinion that this would make a better avatar for the scenario, than the original model. I've used magnets to make the parts inter-changable from a statue on the plinth to avatar for a thousand points!

 As the end of the month draws ever closer, dabed a bit more paint behind the ears of a few more Pilgrims of various manufacture and ages which shows how attitudes to figure design and nakedness as changed! All I have to do now is base & varnish. I've pointed up this last batch as there's a selection of heroes and magic users mixed in, at a hundred and seventy five points.

This months all based, varnished and ready to join their sisters!

I'm taking next month off, not because I want a break from painting, but I want to paint and post something else, on the Oldhammer Forum. Hope you enjoyed the journey and see you again in May.

Paul's Gribbly Beasts: Month Three (265 pts)

Offalspike could feel the taint of Chaos pulsing in his head, he could taste it on the air like rancid meat. It had been pulling him onwards through the filthy sewers of Felmoor, cursed human stinkpot that it was, ever since he had broken free from the holding pens beneath the arena with his fellow Minotaur, Kronos. He didn't think the other Minotaur was a devotee of the ruinous powers, but neither did he care. That would come in time or it wouldn't. It made no difference to Offalspike.

Finally the pair emerged from the sewers outside the town, breaking through a rusted sluice gate, hides slick with slimy effluent, a small pack of beastmen stood in a circle, their positions describing a five pointed star, their chanting now recognised as the pounding beat he had been following on the journey through the sewers.

Offalspike raised his spear and bared his broken teeth, bellowing a mighty challenge to the leader of the pack, looking to establish his dominance over these lesser beasts

The beastmen brayed nervously for a moment but then calmed and went strangely still, eyes vacant, swaying slowly from side to side. A voice that was not their own issued from the gibbering mouths of the mongrel men, all speaking the same words.

"Well met mighty Offalspike and noble Kronos, victors of the bloody pits and survivors of hardships too many to tell. I am The Watcher, and I have watched you both. Now I look to guide you first to safety away from your former captors and then to future bloodshed and plunder in the name of the Grandfather. Follow Gorehide and his pack to the place they call Goathill where I gather my forces...."

The beastmen bleated pitifully, some falling to their knees and vomiting bile as the momentary possession passed. Such a demonstration of power was to be respected. When the red skinned beastman got to his feet and began to lead his pack away... the Minotaurs followed.

Blimey, are we half way done already!? It has certainly been a busy month for my OWAC project as I upped the mini count from February and added to existing units already in my collection to add to the overall army. This involved some rebasing of the existing models, toning down the green slightly to match the OWAC forces.

First up was the classic D&D style Troll from Ral Partha. It was a really evocative mini to paint and I do love him, but the base is an unforgiving chunk of lead and the pose is slightly stooped when stood flat, so it needed some creative basing to bring it to life so I added some height so the pose is more dynamic and menacing as if it is about to leap off the rock on its victim. This also helped this scrawnier Troll look less wimpy next to his Middlehammer era River Troll mates, and I used the same 'frog-bellied' paint scheme so they sort of work as a unit and will do double duty in my Orc and Goblin army.

Next was Festemus from Knightmare Games Pantheon of Chaos range - I'm using him as a unit leader for my Plague Bearers and I think he fits the bill perfectly. The restricted colour palette ties him in to the key colour scheme for the force , whereas the rest of the Plaguebearers vary slightly. I also used the same worm purple and fleshy pinks as I did with the 'beasts of nurgle' on the second Plaguebearer I painted up to complete the unit and tie it in to the overall force despite them being painted much earlier.

This one needed some TLC in advance of the challenge as he came to me having been cut/filed flat on his belly as he had been used as part of a scenic base, so back in December I added a press mould of the alternate head from The Carver) and 'sculpted' a basic simian-like face on the nurgling at his feet (as it had too had been filed flat) and re-sculpted a broken arm - all of which serves to make it stand out a bit from the original sculpt (which I already have two of in the unit)

I'd been looking forward to painting the Minotaurs and  wasn't dissapointed, especially with the Grenadier sculpt with the axe. It evokes classical mythology for me more than some other Minotaur sculpts and outside of this warband I could even see him as a Neutral or Good aligned NPC or even PC in a D&D game. I tried to use the restricted colour palette so he fits in with the warband but isn't too overtly chaotic in case he does need to do some moonlighting in the future.

His larger, and slightly cruder companion seems more primitive and barbaric in comparison and I wanted to to give him a colour scheme that would also hint at possible Khornate tendancies. I'm not sure this paintjob works as well as I'd hoped to be honest, although the ruddy red skin tone is what I was going for, it drowns out the rest of my chosen colour pallete a bit. This hasn't put me off Minotaurs however and I spent a good amount of hobby time this month prepping an additional three of the blighters to add to my Challenge pile.

I also added another five Beastmen to the pack. Not wanting to over do the purple in this warband I decided to mirror the colour scheme I used on the minotaurs. I don't dislike this, and the sickly yellow and mouldy green-whites work well to tie them in to the rest of the force, but unfortunately I don't think they look great alongside the five Beastmen I painted in month one as part of a single unit.

So.... I think I have accidentally painted myself into a corner and now I have to do two units of Beastment. Lucky then that I also acquired and prepped an extra set of Beastmen command figures this month, and stripped the rest of the plastic monopose hulks I had been holding back for 40k conversions. Happy little accidents as Bob Ross always says ;)

Total for the month:

5 Beastmen - 10 pts each = 50 pts

2 Minotaurs - 40 pts each = 80pts

2 Plague Bearers - 35 pts each = 70 pts

1 Troll = 65 pts

TOTAL = 265 pts

Here's a shot of the whole gribbly bunch so far (inc. the existing models I was adding to) now we are half way through. There is absolutely no chance I would have this warband so far along without this challenge - thanks again to Iannick and everyone involved :)

I also acquired, repaired, and prepped a Middlehammer era Beast of Nurgle this month, to complete my unit of three , but April promises more Beastmen, Chaos Hounds, and hopefully more Minotaurs!:D