Ben's Eldar - OWAC VII - Wildcard Month

"Karhedron walked across the plain of ash.  All around Bonesingers in Wraithbone armour loomed from the twilight, their ornate helmets and baroque armour turning them into menacing spectral figures.  They stood over the bodies of the Eldar dead, singing the requiem for Fallen Heroes."

The final proper month, and a concluding quote from WD127 which was such inspiring reading when working on this challenge.

For this month's models, I finished off some I hadn't managed to fit in earlier -  a squad of  Swooping Hawks, another warlock (pictured above), plus Phoenix Lord Baharroth.  I converted the Swooping Hawks Exarch to make him look a bit different to the original which I've painted before, by rotating his head.  Baharroth was especially cool to complete, not just because the Phoenix Lords are all classic sculpts that are fun to paint, but also because it completed my accidentally-started mini-challenge of painting every Phoenix Lord:

June total: 444 pts

Baharroth - 161 pts
Warlock, Singing Spear - 76 pts
Exarch, Swooping Hawk Wings, Lasblaster - 95 pts
4 Swooping Hawks - 112 pts

For the wilder part of my wildcard month, I had planned to make some terrain out of a £5 toy spaceship and some Mantic crates.  First I smashed up the ship with a lumphammer, and stuck it to an MDF base:

I stuck on some pieces of plasticard and gems to give a smoother, more Eldar-looking upper surface, and hint at the pipes and structure between the hulls.  I used lots of no-more-nails type glue to fill gaps and give some different texture to areas where I imagined plates had been ripped from a wraithbone structure.  And I added some foam rock outcrops to fill some gaps and give some variety to the base:

I stuck sand to the base with a mixture of PVA and brown paint, and base-coated the ship with crimson, grey and beige spray paint:

Then I brushed and sponged on some more craft acrylics to get a fire-damaged appearance, picked out the crates with GW paints, and washed everything with watered-down black and brown craft paints.  I drybrushed the crates in lighter colours, then everything with light grey to pick out edges and make it look dusty:

Lastly, I used it as a backdrop to take a few more pictures - something fun to finish off with:

Congratulations to all fellow challengers and thanks for all the chat, pictures and stories!

Shadespyre's June Post - Wildcard Month - Guardians of the Moonglade - 3rd Edition Wood Elves (+955 points)

 OWAC VII - Wildcard Month - Guardians of the Moonglade

June

The final month. To be honest, having completed everything in the original plan and so much of the reserves it was a bit  hard to get going again for a final effort. But once I did get back to it I enjoyed ticking the last few units off my list.

Let's start with some extra Elf heroes. I'm very aware that by concentrating on unit after unit of archers, I have missed out on painting some of the great Elf minis of the period, so here are four of them:

I would have loved to include a unit or two of these guys for some proper melee potential, but the sad truth is they are difficult and expensive to collect in numbers, possibly because they are so cool that no-one wants to part with them. The champion with the orc head, and the one with the sword above his head, are iconic members of this range, but the Elf with the two handed sword has always been my favourite, so I wanted to paint one.

These guys represent my Autumn, Spring, Summer and an experimental Winter colour scheme. I really like how the latter looks, but he doesn't feel very "Wood Elfy" to me, so maybe this is a starting point for a High Elf army...

And now for some completely unplanned, bonus miniatures.

 

Once I realised that the Owl theme was going to be a thing, I went fishing in my collection to find thisold favourite. This dapper chap is a Citadel C29 Giant Owl from back in 1985. The code makes him part of the "Monsters" range even though he is a total sweetheart. I elevated him on a grassy tump to make him a little more impressive next to the Elves. It might be possible to pop a rider on him but I'll be including him as part of a Monstrous Host.

Also unplanned, here is a Blunicorn of unknown origin, pinched off Ebay for a fiver. Is it even a Wood Elf army without a Blunicorn? I feel like everyone else in Team Wood Elves has one, now.

Sadly, without a suitable Elf maiden to ride her, Bluey will have to stay as a mascot rather than a points scoring unit.

Back to planned bonus miniatures, now.

Hidden Reserves

These vague blobs were numbers 6 and 7 on the list

And now I can reveal that the vague blobs are hiding lots and lots and lots of... Halflings!

Everyone loves halflings, right? There's an Ally list for them in Warhammer Armies, and Wood Elves (along with Empire, Brets and Dwarves) are allowed to make use of them. But I didn't want to use the chubby, chicken munching, cook pot wearing Citadel Halflings (even though I have collected one of each of all the 80s and 90s ranges) here, I wanted more rugged looking, serious minded Halflings who might live in the outer forest, farming and hunting and foraging and tussling with wolves and goblins and beastmen. And that meant Mark Copplestone's halflings, currently available via North Star Miniatures.

After rushing to convert a command group back in December, I revisited these poor efforts and am much happier with the newer version.

Now painted and complete with their 6th Edition Empire plastic hats. The oak leaf standard is again made from cheap jewellery, which is a gold mine of little metal bits and bobs, it turns out. The standard bearer has goofy buck teeth, so we haven't entirely left the comedy halfling trope behind. 

As well as some very cheap BS4 missile fire, this unit also contains three characters and the option to carry a magic standard and a magic weapon.

The rest of the halfling contingent is made up of skirmishers with slings. Skirmishing Elves always seem like a bit of a waste of points as they are decent close combat troops, whereas these little fellas have no business tangling with anything bigger than a Goblin.

And finally (?)

Hidden Reserve No 8

The funny shaped blob conceals the Forest Dragon, Quercus.

And here is my painted version.

Although this is a brand new resin model, and not produced by GW, there is a proper connection to Oldhammer because the sculptor is Trish Carden who sculpted about a zillion Citadel, GW and Forgeworld minis starting way back in 1984.

You can get your own Quercus from Footsore Miniatures, who are casting and distributing Trish's growing HarrowHyrst miniatures range. 

Army List Additions:

I'm not considering the heroes or the blunicorn to be part of the army list, but it's not like I'm short of points is it?

Adding Champions to the halfling slingers doubles the cost of each unit, but also gives them a surprising combat boost in the form of three WS4 attacks which might swing a fight with enemy skirmishers.

Scores for June:       955    points   71 models

1 x Autumn Hero                                                                                                                   

1 x Spring Hero

1 x Summer Hero

1 x Winter Hero    

                                           

1 x Blunicorn                                                                                                                        0 points 

Halfling Allies List:

1 x Halfling Contingent Commander                                                                             77 points

1 x Ally Standard Bearer                                                                                                   73 points         

22 x Halfling Militia     (Champion, Musician, Bow, Light Armour, Shield)         144 points

10 x Halfling Militia      (Champion, Shield, Sling)                                                     84 points         

10 x Halfling Militia      (Champion, Shield, Sling)                                                     84 points

10 x Halfling Militia     (Champion, Shield, Sling)                                                      84 points  

10 x Halfling Militia     (Champion, Shield, Sling)                                                      84 points 

Monstrous Host:

1 x Giant Owl (counted as Giant Eagle)                                                                      75 points

1 x  Dragon                                                                                                                       250 points 

                    

Running Total:          7902  points  228  models

STOP THE PRESS!

I just received this glorious Ral Partha Cloud Giant, an absolute classic old mini by the great Tom Meier, painted for me by our OWAC pal Chris Howell. Thanks Chris, he's fantastic, and such a generous gift! 

NEXT TIME:

Some army pictures and reflections on the project.

Byron's Hippie Wood Elves - Leader Month (166 points)

 This month was a relatively Low-Effort Month. I just painted up 4 minis and 4 banners (and almost finished 2 more cavalry).

Here's a pic of all the banners together.

First is a banner for my archers regiment (26 pts). It has a slogan "Save the Krakens" as a fantasy interpretation of the old "Save the Whales" environmentalist slogan from the 70s.

Here I have done my best to paint a Kraken based on the Man O' War miniature. 

Next we have the army battle standard (98 pts). This is a freehand homage to the sun banner included in Warhammer armies. This is my favorite banner of the group.

On the back I have painted some lyrics to a Beatles song that is a bit on the nose. 

The front of this banner is painted as a homage to the original Wood Stock poster.

And the back is a minor alteration on the Woodstock posters, here it is Woadstock, because they are celtic-y wood elves.

The wardancers' banner  (42 pts) has a quote attributed to Emma Goldman. Y'know because they dance and hippies are semi-revolutionary movement... and dancing would be important to them... 

The other side of the banner features a freehand stylized picture of two dancing elves silhouetted by a fire in the woods.  

Finally, my tribute: a marauder Dark Elf Assassin painted in a color scheme that I think will generally match my secret Santa. Not to get him in the mail this weekend. 

The last but not the least.... Chaos Altar, chariot, and other conforts, Slaaneshchild's Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiillllld month.

 Tadam !!! Summer is coming ! And with it, the end of the OWAC ! To finish with style and beauty, I needed something really cool. I wanted to make a Chaos Altar / Baggage train.

Center pieces, especially in chaos armies, have always been huge opportunities for kitbashing and painting.

I wanted something big, that I could use in gaming in different ways. I started with a 3Dprinted version of the skaven doom bell, I asked to make it smaller than actual version. I added and old RAFM beast from Cthulhu range, two oldhammer bone champions, et voilà !! 

Rejoice in death for Father Nurgle !!!! 

If I can't play it as a Chaos Altar, I will play it as an hero on chariot pulled by a beast of Nurgle !

Speaking of chariot, I wanted to have a sorcerer lord on chariot. I mixed the horses from the actual range (it is a permanent spell from the ghost army in AoS) with the plague cart. I add the throne of Sauron, a sorcerer and the driver from the RoC chaos chariot.

I love the throne of Sauron. I think I used it maybe 3 times in different conversions. This miniature fits perfectly for Slaanesh, (I see a throne made of living fleeeeeeesh), but not too bad for Nurgle too.

And then... no chaos army is complete without a Chaos Lord on Chaos Steed. So I made one with some bitzs I had.

The horse is from Confrontation, the character is an alternative champion of the Palanquin. I also decided to build a Chaos Spawn from nothing, "just like in the old time" ;)

Finally Graeme send me a beast of Nurgle, so I added a plague bearer on it and now I have a unit of 5 plague riders !!! Thank you !! 

Family picture !!!!! Say Beuuuuuuurg :D

Next month... The entire army !