Paul's 90s High Elves - Wild Card Month! (1134 pts)

Summer is here and it's time for a visit to the scenic coast of Ulthuan :)

It's both wildcard month and the final month of the challenge so with the benefit of a kick start thanks to some time off work during Jubilee week here in the UK, I pushed myself into the painting and am very happy with the results. I know I could have taken a few things further in terms of detail, but my aim was a balance between quality and quantity as it has been throughout the challenge, and in many ways this month felt like a mini OWAC all of it's own! 

I've always liked the idea of Sea Elves, and saw an opportunity to play with this theme and the idea of a Dragon and Sea Serpent alliance between Caledor and Lothern in my High Elf host. I've been planning a unit of proxy Seaguard from the start of the challenge, although slightly lost heart with this unit halfway through as I got sick of all the press moulding... but it was on the original OWAC list so I made myself pick it back up. 

As you can see the unit is a mix of plastic monopose Spearmen and Archers, with extra equipment added to represent the full load out for Lothern Seaguard. The shields, bows and quivers, and (very chunky and no tat all pretty!) spear tips are all press moulded from milliput, with brass rod for the spear shafts. 

The command group are metal Seaguard Standard Bearer and Musician, and the Champion is actually just a standard Seaguard trooper, and his bow and quiver is a green stuff press mould, but he looks the part next to the plastic proxies. The rune on the banner is Cython meaning "The serpent, wisdom, knowledge, futility, the symbol of Lileath" used here to echo the shape of the sea serpent emblem on the shields and banner top.

I might have been sick of painting plastic spearmen by this point, but I was enjoying painting the Sea green/Teal colour scheme, so decided to expand the Lothern detachment with a Mage (though not the one I had originally been planning to paint, which I now think will be added to my future Wood Elves). I have to say I wasn't always sure about this sculpt fitting in my Caledor themed army until I saw how well it would fit in with the Seaguard, and I'm glad I decided to switch the models as it ended up also being my entry to the Oldhammer Gary Morley challenge for June. #JusticeForGary

I also added two Repeater Bolt Throwers in the same colour scheme, although in my mind this means that I definitely need at least one more unit in this colour scheme so I have lined up a unit of archers for the future. I kept the loaders but swapped out the two commanders for an old citadel Elf Warrior and a Chaz Elliot sculpted Elf Lieutenant, both of which felt like they had the sea elf vibe to me. Not only does this add a little character to the Bolt throwers, but I've also got plans for the commanders to appear as unit leaders for a couple of archer units.

Definitely not Oldhammer, but continuing with the Lothern Seaguard theme, I was able to do a pretty quick paint job on this modern plastic High Elf hero on Griffon. I painted the Griffon a bit like a sea eagle (the wings are very flat and lack detail, so I had fun trying to add feather texture with old knackered brushes), and added some coastal elements to the base to emphasise the connection to the bolt throwers and Seaguard. The runes were already part of the banner, which was convenient, and read Lathain on one side, meaning: "Storm, wrath, gently falling rain that brings eternal sleep" and Thalui on the other, meaning: "Hatred or vengeance." He does look quite angry! 

Yet more painting detail that you can't see on the finished model

There was just time to push for one last stretch goal and finish the last unit of five Reaver Knights after striking it lucky and being able to source half-way suitable horses for them (they still don't sit well on the saddles, but never mind). Speaking of horses, there was one Reaver from the first unit I did that had to use a Silver Helm horse. At the time this just looked like he was the unit leader, so had fancy barding for his steed, but as the ranks have grown it has started to stick out and bug me, so I was glad to be able to replace it with one to match the rest of his unit, and now I have a fancy Elven steed without rider for my D&D games :)

The banner was a bit of a rush job, although it did feel right for the final piece of my OWAC 2022 to be a banner. The rune is Lecai, meaning "Light, nobility of the soul, lightness of being" which seemed to fit well with the idea of Reaver knights being messengers and scouts as well as fast attack cavalry. I do slightly regret not adding some more detail around the rune, but in the end I just needed these to be done as time had run out and so, finally, had my mojo. 

Total for the month:

21 Lothern Seaguard, including full command - 362 pts
Mage - 59 pts
2 Repeater Bolt Throwers - 200 pts
Hero (Heavy Armour, Lance) on Griffon - 259 pts
5 Reaver Knights including full command - 254 pts

Total = 1134 pts

Congratulations to everyone who made it over the line, I'll see you for the wrap up with cut off t-shirts, mullets, and cold beers! :D

Paul's High Elves - Reinforcements have arrived! Rank & File Month 4 (510 pts)

Reinforcements have arrived!

April has been a very busy, but very productive month for me both in terms of the OWAC and Real Life - Boo! On the plus side it is also my birthday month and this gave me full license to indulge in the fine OWAC traditions of 'changing plans mid challenge' and 'buying lots more minis' :p

I'm pleased to say I was able to more than meet my needs from the trading groups rather than resorting to the dreaded evil-bay. My thanks to Lee G, Marc P, Carl H, Ben P, and Gavin M all of whom were a pleasure to deal with and helped me fill in the gaps in my changed OWAC plans at short notice, as well as picking up some Goblin wolf riders for my eldest, and a near mint copy of the 5th Edition Magic supplement - so we even got to play an actual game with my OWAC minis this month! :D

A solid Elven back line is supported by two wings designed to press forward and fall back

The plans was working perfectly, the Lion Warriors moving in for the kill, until...

A bloody great Zombie Dragon and Vampire Lord turned up to ruin everyone's day!

Sadly, shortly after this picture was taken the High Elf Mage had his head ripped off by the Vampire Lord and the game ended in victory for the Forces of Evil.

Right, enough of that embarrassing loss! Let's get to this month's painting.  First up were a handful of reinforcements for my Shadow Warriors, with four more to bring me up to a unit of 12 overall, and another four Swordmasters for a unit of 20 in total.

Apologies, I've just noticed the one at the front is out of focus, but it's too late now!

As a prestige unit my Dragon Princes clearly needed a full command group, not least because it is another chance to do a banner, but also because the DP special rules in WFB 4th /5th Edition mean that they get their standard bearer for free (rather than having to pay double, as you would normally). 

My green stuff skills are a bit lacking, but I was fairly happy with this in the end.

The same rule does not apply to the musician however, and at 86 points I'm not sure many HE players actually bother(ed) to take one for their Dragon Princes in 4/5 edition. That may be why they didn't get a musician model until the much later release of newer Dragon Prince sculpts. I managed to get my hands on one of the horn arms from the newer DP sculpts and do some very ropey metal and putty work to convert an older DP trooper into a musician.

R to L Standard Bearer, Champion, Musician, Trooper

My family are by now well trained in spotting useful bits of junk on the ground to bring home to see if they can be used in junk builds and scenery projects. This time my wife played a blinder by bringing home a scrap of old rubber from a netball, as she thought the dimples made it feel like lizard skin. She was not wrong and it makes an excellent dragon hide banner!

The elven rune is named Caladai 'the symbol of the line of kings, the dragons of flame', which seemed perfect for the haughty Dragon Princes of Caledor. I'm afraid the weather was turning so I didn't get a chance to take a picture with the rest of the unit, but there are 9 of them in total now and I've just managed to acquire the bits to make another horse, so a 10th might be on the cards in the future.

I also added another five Reaver Knights in the same blue and golden yellow colour scheme as those I painted in February. Back then the blue and yellow colour scheme just happened to match the flag of Ukraine. This time it's deliberate and I hope the emblem of the phoenix on their shields is prophetic. It's always an important and sobering moment for a fan of 'war games' of any description to be reminded of the realities of war. My experience however is that most wargamers are actually keen students of history and well aware of the evil and misery of war, and it has been heartening to see the response from the community as we come together to hope for peace. 

I had started to hate painting these, but love how they look as a big group. I've got another 5 waiting, inc. command, but I'm in no rush to paint them quite yet!

Total for the month:

4 Shadow Warriors (12 pts each) - 48pts
4 Sword Masters (16 pts each) - 64pts
5 Reaver Knights (w/ spears, bows, and shields - 33 pts each) - 165pts
4 Dragon Princes (43 pts each) (inc. Champion*, Standard**, and Musician**) - 233 pts

* DP Champion = 61 pts
** DPs have a special rule that means the unit gets the standard bearer for the same price as a standard trooper, however the musician costs double as per normal.

Total: 510 pts

I also managed to rebase an existing unit of Silver Helms, and replace their mostly blank shields with a matching set with horse head design from the WFB4 box set, although looking at them in the photos I think they could 'pop' a bit more so I might look at those again at some point.

They had also been badly missing a banner, so I've added a simple pennant with the elven runes Sethai meaning 'Flight, wind, cry in the far mountains' and Harathoi meaning 'Youth, boundless energy, jealousy' used together here to represent the speed and potency of the young elven nobles that make up the Silver Helm cavalry.

May will hopefully be leader month, although I might yet swap things around and play a wild card before finishing with my leader. We shall have to see how the dreaded 'Real Life' behaves ;)

Thanks for reading and bon courage to all my fellow challengers. The end is in sight! :D

Paul's High Elf Light Cavalry - Rank and File Month Two (165 pts)

February is my second 'Rank and File' month and also my second cavalry month. This time it is the light cavalry of the Ellyrian Reavers.

"In the time of Caledor, the Phoenix King called for brave young horsemen t ride the troubled land, for in those days all Ulthuan was in turmoil and the armies of Malekith roamed freely, destroying and slaying at will. Many answered his call, but the greatest in number by far came from Ellyrion, a land renowned for its fine horses and skilled riders. During the long and bitter war that ended in the Sundering these riders served Caledor well, travelling quickly and secretly across the land, taking messages and soliciting support from amongst the Elven lands, shadowing the enemy's forces, ambushing patrols, and intercepting raiders." 
High Elf Bestiary - Games Workshop

The first thing to say is how much I enjoyed painting these minis. I love the sculpts of these older versions of the Reavers but didn't expect to enjoy painting them as much as I did - that might be partly down to an ongoing choice about 'gems' on High Elf minis that I may discuss in a later post. I opted for a golden yellow and a bright blue, deliberately lighter than I've used in some of my existing units. 

The 'eagle eyed' among you (not even sorry :p ) will have noticed all five of these are actually the standard bearer sculpt. I'm not entirely sure how or why I ended up with 5 standard bearers, but the eagle topped banner poles add great character to the unit and I've taken the opportunity to add more foil streamers after being happy with how they looked on the Dragon Princes from last month.

I realised that, as with many High Elf sculpts, I'd painted a lot of detail that was going to end up covered by their shields, so I took a few pictures before adding the shields, and was in two minds as to whether I would, as I was quite happy with the paint jobs.

As with the Dragon Princes though, I really wanted to use some of the 4th Edition plastic HE shield designs to tie in with the character of the unit, and I'm glad I did.

So here's my output in points for month two:

5 x Ellyrian Reavers, with Bows, Spears, and Shields (33 pts each) - 165 pts

Total for the month: 165 pts
(a little under target of 200 pts per month, but on course in terms of numbers of minis, and still ahead on points on average over the two months)

I also rebased and touched up an existing unit of Sword Masters of Hoeth this month, finally getting round to adding a simple banner.

According to the High Elf Army book, the 'P' rune is named Ceyl and stands for 'Law, order, justice, passion, sword that draws blood.' The 'h' rune is named Lacoi and stands for 'Might, glory, fear of death.' Taken together I'm intending them to mean something along the lines of 'mighty swords of justice' which seems apt for a unit of Sword Masters.

I was just admiring my completed unit and going to put them back on the shelf when I realised I was one short...

The sneaky bastard musician had ended up lumped in with a unit of archers so cost me another few days of waiting for PVA and sand mix to dry in the middle of three back to back storms before I could get him finished. 

There always bloody one, isn't there!

Even that's not the unit completed as I've decided I want four more to make a unit of 20. Not sure I'll get those done before the end of the challenge, but we'll see. Anyway, here are the Reavers and Sword Masters together, getting ready to repel Dark Elf raiders in the late winter sun :) 

February was also the month I decided I was going to bite the bullet and try and build, paint or update my entire High Elf army this year. Yikes! So more second hand minis went in the dip and more hideous primary colour monopose spearmen got the flocking they've been so badly in need of since 1994.

Next month promises a big unit of Lion Warriors of Chrace and possibly some other stuff too. Bon courage to my fellow OWAC challengers, and thanks for reading! :)