Shadespyre's March Post - Rank and File (III) - (Still still still unnamed) Dark Elves (1141 points)

OWAC VI - Rank and File (III) - Winter Is Coming... eventually

March

The grind really started to hurt this month, and then I realised that around 90% of the miniatures in this project are now painted or at least started, which is probably why I'm a little bit tired of painting...

So I'm way ahead of schedule on painting, and way behind on basing. So here, at last, is the first based figure (regular viewers will recognise her as my first original colour scheme test mini):

Some snow, some snowy weeds, and a scrap of snowy rock. Acheived in a messy and time consuming fashion, but acheived! Now to repeat that 200 times... hopefully, starting next month, everything new you see will be properly based. In the meantime, however, you'll have to put up with the grey paint.

Here's the new stuff - Cold One Riders, also known as Helldrakes.

One of the more colourful units so far, there's a big splash of green from the Cold Ones - not an original choice, I know - alongside the bright purples and gold. This is the elite unit of the army. so I'm glad it stands out. And it conceals a second New Thing - a shield design!

Ultimately, this got chosen because I could get off-the-shelf decals of the size and colour I needed. I looked into getting some custom made to my own design, but the company I used for my Space Marines no longer offers that service - and nor, as far as I can tell, does anyone else!

So, dragons it is. The design is slightly larger than is ideal, making affixing them to the curved shields problematic, but I'm growing to like how they look. Maybe this new "dragon" theme will carry through, and finally provide the missing theme (and name) for this army? We'll find that out together in the next three months...

Ten more Cold One riders, this time "Doomdrakes"

Cold Ones are notoriously Stupid, slow, and vicious in melee, so it makes little sense to put your mounted crossbowmen on them, but here we are, restricted by the ancient model range that I have tied myself to. And so we have a unit of Doomdrakes - melee troops with the incidental option of crossbows - rather than fleet-footed Dark Riders. At least we get to use that BS4 for once.

It would make more tactical sense to split these into two smaller units, but the army list allows for only one unit with crossbows. One of those things I will worry more about if I ever play games with the army.

I let slip at the start of this post that I've painted lots more that I'm not showing you yet, so it would be rude to not include a "bonus" unit for this month. So here we have a 15 strong unit of Guards, demosntrating that you can be a female Dark Elf warrior without losing either your marbles or control of your hair:

It may not be 100% clear here, but these ladies are all carrying bows. This is Not A Thing in Warhammer Armies - the first step towards repeating crossbows being the default for Dark Elves - but was perfectly acceptable in 2nd Ed. You can choose to look as these as upgraded Warriors or as downgraded Crossbowmen, as you wish. Same stat block and points either way.

Army List Additions:

Scores for March:          1141 points   35 models

10 x Helldrakes    (Lance, Standard Bearer, Musician)                         516 points

10 x Doomdrakes (Repeating Crossbow)                                                 430 points

15 x Guards (As Warrior, with added Bow*)                                           195 points

Running Total:              2185 points    115 models   

As ever, chances are I will add Champions to lead these units in the final army list breakdown.

I've done a head count, and the target army list currently seems to be exactly 200 models, so you've seen more than half now. There are a couple of possible Wild Card projects which might extend that, but I'm waiting for inspiration to turn vague ideas into actual miniatures.

Coming Next:

The emphasis for the next couple of weeks is going to be on shields and then bases. Shields first because decals and my basing materials don't mix - or rather, mix too readily. Everything you see from now on should have shields adorned and bases snowed upon, then in the wrap up I'll post every unit fully finished.

April will be my final Rank and File month. I'm excited to share them - there's new colours and more variety, there's my favourite project in the army. and there's also the unit which almost broke me - and still might!

Frank's: The Great Work - A Daemonic Legion of Slaanesh, Slaves to Darkness Style, "Rank & File", March 2023

This month I was beset by work & life stuff but still the Great Work continued at a decent pace. I worked on bulking out the rank and file portion of the Daemonic Legion. First and foremost this meant more Daemonettes. There are a maximum of forty eight Daemonettes in a Slaaneshi Legion, and all are accounted for in my planning. As before, I wanted these to be wildly colorful but still (barely) coherent enough to look like an army. I finished ten new ladies, who joined their two sisters, who were already painted from before this project was undertaken. That pair got new bases to match their comrades, and wallah, two more packs for the Legion. 

After the eighteen Daemonettes I painted in January, there are only repeated poses to work with. For these I selected those I could convert in small ways, such as more fabulous hair, and some minor reposing. One was cut from two of her sisters and reassembled entirely. I think she worked pretty well. But conversions not withstanding, the devil-red succubus with the green hair is my favorite.

These represent the last of the 'ordinary' Daemonette infantry that I will be including. After this month, the rest of the Daemonettes will be specialized in some way, either with gifts and equipment, or steeds. 

My next undertaking of the month was a second pack of Fiends. The 1988 Fiends of Slaanesh are some of the most problematic models to assemble Games Workshop ever produced. The sculptor made well defined indentations for the leg bits to slot into parallel with the Fiend's body. Unfortunately, these grooves are in the wrong places, and if you were to assemble as indicated, the orientation of the legs makes our Fiends look like dead arachnids, if they can stand up at all. I think that perhaps Games Workshop intended the hobbyist to bend the Fiends legs outward so the grooves would be serviceable and the feet still oriented down. Honestly though, this is an incredibly difficult thing to pull off without tearing up the detail on the legs themselves, while playing about with one's pliers. How did I assemble these and the other dozen yet to come, you ask? 

Well, dear reader, here is the secret...I ignore the grooves almost entirely, and simply glue the legs into place, more or less above the groove, allowing the feet to orient down correctly. I then fill resulting gap with chunks from the slotta-tabs left over from the Fiends leg assemblies. I tend to paint the Fiends in darker palettes than their anthropomorphic allies, the Daemonettes. This is to provide some contrast between the model types in general and to give me a palette for some added detail on the, mostly, flat metal Fiend bodies.

Lastly this month, I began working on a unit of Slaaneshi Legionaries. The are an interesting troop type which never received dedicated models in the range. Slaves to Darkness describes Legionaries as a body of immortal but ultimately trapped and damned soldiers, who could be from any race. The army list entry for Legionaries gives them a human-ish profile and provides them with a standard chaos weapon and chaos armor. It is a lot of freedom, and I wanted to come up with something distinctive for the Legion. In Slaves to Darkness, the mortal Slaanesh army has several Dark Elf units. Although, Games Workshop stripped them out of the list in fourth edition WFB, I still like the idea as the presence of some fallen elves ties into Slaanesh's lore nicely. Therefore, I decided to model a couple units of Legionaries from elves. The standard dark elves of the era are decent models but they are very distinctively Warhammer 'dark elves'. I wanted something more chaotic, and looking less like a transplant from another army. I noted that a few of the old Wardancer models had studded leather body suits and crazy hair. This was just the sort of thing I was looking for. Then I remembered the Blood Bowl elves. Studded leather, crazy hear and the addition of elaborate masks made them perfect for this job. In order for mine to bring something to the legion, other than being cheaper expendable Daemonettes, I purchased them longbows and seeking arrows, which is a legal option in a Daemonic Legion. This way they can jog along with the rest of army while tossing arrows down range, which will never fail to hit, and can actually harm their likely daemonic foes. For these I used, what I think are High Elf charioteer bows, but they are hard to source and more will be required. What you see painted here is a half unit.

So that is my effort for March; ten Daemonettes, six Fiends, and three Legionaries with magic arrows. They value in at 1,354 points and add another 25 models (by the OWAC's valuing for bigger based models). This puts the total (adjusted) model count at 57, and the total points value at 4,904. The Great Work shall continue next month. I have a special treat in the works.

Ratwig's March OWAC VI WAB Romano-British Rank and File Entry #3: Cohort 1 Tungrorum Miliaria (350 points)

My entry for March is an eighteen man unit of Milites, Cohort 1 Tungrorum Miliaria, led by a Tribune, Gnaeus. This was an actual unit raised in the Ardennes and sent to Britain. They are equipped with hand weapon, javelins (plumbatae, or lawn darts as I call them), spears, large shields and light armor. The unit includes full command of leader, standard bearer and musician and costs 214 points total. Tribune Gnaeus is equipped with sword, javelins, large shield and light armor for 136 points puting the grand total for this at 350 points. Shields were hand painted. Gripping Beast sells a pack of hands with lawn darts so I used those to convert the rear rank to be ready to launch said lawn darts. Spears and banner pole are the usual brass rods. The draco banner was swiped from a Black Tree designs command fig. The figures are a mix of Saxon (now Warlord), Gripping Beast and Footsore.

The unit together:

 

Tribune Gnaeus' shield:

Command group:

Front rank:

Second rank:

Third rank - ready to launch lawn darts:

Well, another bunch of dudes with spears joins the army.

Time for a Jack and to prep some horsey riders for next month!

Ratwig out...

George's Space Dwarfs - Leader Month

When the orcs finally breached the defences of Grimshaft, if felt that nothing could stop them. The warriors of the brotherhood sacrificed themselves heroically, but could only slow the onslaught.

Then the king’s son stepped forward. Placing himself at front and centre of the defence, he turned the stronghold’s last stand into a devastating counter-attack.

Inspiring the dwarfs around him onto ever greater feats, he hacked and blasted through the attacking orcs. Even when his arm was severed by a fallen enemy, the prince ordered the medics to replace it with a power arm as he fought on.

When the ancient armouries were opened, squadrons of long-forgotten vehicles were uncovered to lead the counter-strike. The king’s son climbed atop a Mk I Rhino and from there he directed the operation, ruthlessly picking off any orcs foolish enough to come close.

Once the orcs had been driven out of the battle charred tunnels of Grimshaft, the prince volunteered to lead an expeditionary force to pursue them.

Bending low to accept his father’s blessing, Prince Grimfist vowed to stop at nothing in pursuit of revenge.

After a long period of indecision about which miniature to use for my leader, I settled on the excellent Swarf Warlord figure from Wereweevil Miniatures. A really lovely model and great fun to paint.

I stuck to the trusty Grimshaft colour scheme that has served me so well in this challenge, with red helmet, green tunic and red body armour.

Still harking back to those halcyon days of EPIC squats and their vehicle squadrons, I wanted another tank! This also gave me a chance to paint another model from Ironclad Miniatures. This steam tank is just the business, a curious mix of old and new. I love it!

So there we are, month III survived! I’m still absolutely loving this challenge. Painting regularly is a dream and working with such great miniatures and models is a joy. Onwards into April!

 

Points:

1 x Warlord:  70 points

1 x Rhino: 370 points

Total: 440

 

Prince Grimfirst atop his trusty rhino!

Prince Grimfist leads the brotherhood into battle!

Jaakko and Slargash - Rank & File #3

Slargash's worst fears seemed to have come true - all work had ground to a halt. The almost maniacal flurry of miniatures walzing through the painting area was only a distant memory. No pot had been opened, not a drop of paint had been applied for weeks and Slargash felt panic creeping into his cold leaden heart. "Hide those horses", he snapped to the Mad Spell twins. "We are not taking chances - I'm not going to tolerate another year in my bare undercoats!"

 

It has been a tough month. I assumed it would have been smooth sailing coming from February, but it was not going to be the case. I was quite exhausted from the first two months and needed a short break from the challenge. That's all nice, but when you find yourself going through a few epidemic illnessess and add a work trip to the mix you surely sense trouble. I had to really force it and burn some midnight oil but managed to paint the bare minimum to avoid using the wild card month. Now I feel in my guts why they call this a challenge.

This month in points:

- 10 marauders:  390 points

Total so far 1639 points, 53 models

 

Next month I will try to finish the final compulsory Rank & File month consisting mainly of chaos warriors. Hopefully this will also include my army banner and some surprises. Wish me luck!

Jaeckel's Castle Wittgenstein - The villagers (R&F month)

 

March is done, give me a drink! Well... maybe not, after all. The Rotgut booze prepared by the good doctor Jean Rousseaux - and sold only for 6 pennies the bottle! - is not exactly the kind of medicine you would expect from a physician: a mixture of alcohol and juniper berries... flavoured with the powdered warpstone, gently provided by Lady Margritte von Wittgenstein. 

Needless to say that the peasants and farm-workers of Wittgendorf that are addicted to the Rotgut booze are both mentally and physically damaged.

Still, the 10 models painted this month are in a rather good shape (if one excepts the bandages hiding minor mutations). The miniatures come mainly from two Citadel ranges: the C46 Militia & Villagers, and the F4 Mercenaries. Only two models have been converted to receive a spear. In terms of painting, I have used purple and light blue in the skintones to suggest that there could be something wrong with some Wittgendorfers.

 

The villagers are led by Kurt Kutzmann, doctor Rousseaux's loyal assistant. Intoxicated by the booze he's selling to the peasants, he's totally idiotic, and giggles all the time. In terms of miniature, I have painted a citizen from the Marauder Miniatures MM62 range.

The Wittgendorfers:

See you next month!

All things that make "ssssssssss ssss sssss" in your head: Slaaneshchild's rank file march month post (807 pts)

Hello there....

Let's start with an S...

S like... 

Slaanesh

Surprise

Sex

Sunglasses

Snakes !!!!

And maybe all of them at the same time !

So I started with something I had in mind since I was a child: a witch elf heroine on war hydra. The dark elves in the 5th ed were really unlucky with the miniatures. and of course as i was young I had no money. But now ! I decided to create it.

It wasn't included in my army list at the beginning of the challenge, but I am playing my dark elves a lot those days, I realized I needed it NOW. I will make a witch elves allied contingent next month.

The war hydra is the model from the 6th ed and the heroine is from the cauldron of blood. Simple as that. The slaaneshi throne is made with bitz from AoS stuff. I hope you'll enjoy it ! I had so much fun with it !

Then I went back on my initial challenge... More snake things. I decided March will be the month of the snake. What a better month for Slaanesh ?

So I had some old chaos snakemen and some new snakemen from Tim Prow's DieHard miniatures, I put them all together. They will count as Slaangors with halberds (Bestigors of Slaanesh), or Chaos Warriors.

I did speed painted them. Honestly they weren't that fun to paint, I was happy to finish them quickly.

More snakes ??

YES !

Time to unleash the Snake Ogres !! (Count as Dragon Ogres) 

They are from Mierce Miniatures. As everything they do, it is huge and a bit messy. Many parts were broken or unusable. So I customized them with some slaaneshi bitz Once again, they weren't that fun to paint, I was glad to finish them. I had more fun with their bases that are clearly too big but I don't care :D

And finaly, time for a family picture !!!! Cheeeeeerrssss !!!! 

"SsssSSsSsssSSSSsssSS" -they said.

Total this month : 

Dark elf Heroine on War Hydra : 132 + 225 = 357 pts

3 dragon ogres with additionnal weapons : 270 pts

10 bestigors with halberds : 180 pts

Total : 807 pts