Paul's OWAC VII Intro - Wood Elves of Averlorn

After two years of painting High Elves you would think I'd be sick of the pointy eared primadonnas, and you would be half right! However, having felt the rush of completing a truly long held hobby dream my mind has turned to the army of Wood Elves my brother gifted me many years ago and I have added to slowly and modestly without much of a plan a few times over the years.

What plan I do have potentially involves tackling these in two parts, and potentially over two OWACs. I'm also thinking of them in two parts thematically, with part A being a bridge from my High Elves and Part B being more of an expression of the wilder and more fae side of Wood Elves.

However, as any veteran of the OWAC knows, plans can and will change so who knows how much of this I will make it through this year!? If there is not enough left for a second OWAC by the end of this challenge then I will count that as a success/excuse to buy more models!

What you can see in the picture:

21 3rd Edition era plastic archers
32 5th Edition era plastic archers, plus two sets of full command in metal
10 Waywatchers
16 Wardancers
Assorted musicians, sorceresses, and beastmasters/champions
Scarlocs Archers x 11 plus one proxy from Forlorn Hope
9 Dryads (inc. some proxies from Trish Carden's recent HarrowHyrst range available from Footsore) - I would like to add another of the 5th edition era sculpts to this unit to make it a neat 10, so if anyone wants to sell me one on the cheap then do give me a shout! ;)
2 Treemen (inc. the big fella from Trish Carden's HarrowHyrst/Footsore)
A random figure on a fancy base that looks like hero material to me
A proxy Griffon (a 3D print of a Kipine from D&D)
Sorceress on Unicorn
Mounted General that may end up as a BSB
A rogue High Elf champion to tie in with the Avelorn theme

I've got some other stuff knocking about that needs more prep work and may or may not make an appearance this year, plus it's always nice to have a few surprises isn't it.

This year I have the added joy/challenge of having my son work on his Undead army alongside me in a sort of parallel to the challenge (although he isn't starting completely from scratch with some of his paint jobs). We've been focussed on prepping his birthday haul of heavy metal nasties from Forlorn Hope, and rebuilding some busted up bones on a unit of skellies ready for us both to start painting on Jan 1st.

I can't wait!

This will be my 5th OWAC and it always forms the mainstay and highlight of my hobby calendar. I would like to take the opportunity to salute our outgoing Overlord Iannick Martin one last time for setting this whole thing up and running it successfully for so many years. I would also like to thank Byron and everyone else who has stepped up to help keep things going into OWAC VII.

Bon courage all! Remember it is a marathon, not a sprint and the feeling of having a completed force at the end of it is definitely worth all the effort :)