Paul's Wood Elves of Averlorn - Wyld Carden! (1466 pts)

This month I have been mostly painting trees and birbs. Also a bear, and a baby unicorn, or "Babycorn" if you will.... 

What do you mean you won't!? Stop throwing those rotten vegetables! 

Listen, ignore the puns and focus on the minis and you might notice a theme. That's right, it's my "Wyld Carden" month! :p

OK, just that one last pun, but it was totally worth it in tribute to the one and only Trish "Mother of Monsters" Carden (nee Morrison) who sculpted nearly everything I painted this month... and what a genuine pleasure that has been!

A fellow OWAC veteran gave me a sound piece of advice in relation to the amazing Treeman sculpt from Trish's Harrowhyrst range from Footsore Miniatures. Pick your base wood colour, then get a light dry brush on it early in the process to reveal the detail. Simple but very effective advice and something that really pays dividends with so many of Trish's models from across the last 30+ years. These are sculpts that really reward careful dry brushing and generous inking and shading. Trish has already done the work with her blades and shapers and these minis are so packed full of character and detail that they really do start to 'paint themselves' once you have got stuck in, with new details seemingly emerging with each new step of the painting process. 

I've used red where I can get away with it, so the impish sprite is obviously a "red cap" and the lovers initials are in a russet red heart. The little owl is indeed painted as a "Little Owl" as one of our native UK species, even if scale wise it is closer to a Brown Owl.... so it's obviously a 'Giant' Little Owl! :D 

Something I really came to love and appreciate is the consistency of the details and textures on the tree-beasties across multiples time periods and miniature lines, which allowed me to blend them all in to one force by effectively use the same paint recipes for bark textures, knots and gnarls, mossy growths, fungal protrusions, and thick thorny claws.  

The Middlehammer era Dryads are supplemented by some juveniles and an elder, both sculpts from the current Harrowhyrst range, and I really like how their inclusion hints at a life cycle of the tree folk. The two different sizes of treeman add to this organic variation which is something I enjoy. 

Deep red was used to signify blood stained wood on the claws of the 'mature' dryads, and to emphasise  the danger of the snapping heads of the juveniles and the antler like crown of the elder, as well as being a strong tie to one of the theme colours for a large part of my army. The slightly sickly orange was chosen to emulate the Chicken of the Woods bracket fungus which is common in the woods local to us and picks up on one of theme colours for the other half of my army. 

Finally for the tree-folk the equally iconic Marauder Treeman, a chunky beaut of a sculpt that was a must have for Wood Elf armies when I was growing up. This one has waited nearly 30 years to be painted, so I hope I've done it justice by choosing to accentuate the Chrace/Winter colour scheme from the established tree-folk colour pallet. 

Keeping the theme of being inspired by local wildlife I decided that my Warhawks would in fact be War-buzzards, the Buzzard being the most common bird of prey in the British Isles and a regular sight in the skies over the woods near our house.

The riders are inspired by Dexy's Midnight Runners again, as Wood Elf Sky-jockeys definitely seemed like the sort who would go for double denim. I finished painting them after returning from a family holiday in Brittany, where we also saw lots of birds of prey, so they ended up having French accents in my head, and then for some reason I kept thinking of Jean-Claude Van Damme, who is not French but is definitely into double denim...

Actual image of a Wood Elf Sky-jockey. Just look at the hair and cheek bones.

Standing by a menhir on the NW Atlantic coast I was struck by the sense of connection of the ancient megalithic cultures of the western coast and this lent some inspiration when I was back at my painting table, so the shield design is a very poor freehand attempt at the 'Triskelion' design common in Brittany, and the basing is intended to be more 'coastal' which will hopefully tie them in with both the Ellyria/Tyranoc (as will the blue and yellow colour scheme) and Lothern elements of my High Elf force.

"In Brittany the Triskel is still widely present, a symbol of regeneration, it represents independence and autonomy and is worn for protection and good luck"

A truly ancient motif it has had many meanings over the years, but this one works in this instance as it fits with how I am beginning to think of my Wood/Coastal Elves as representing more rural or remote peoples of Ulthuan within my High Elf army.

Despite having started this year with enough Wood Elves for two OWACs I nevertheless acquired some more along the way, mostly because inspiration struck me when I saw a second Giant Eagle sculpt and an old school Wardancer with her tab already cut off going for a reasonable price on one of the trading groups. Turns out this combo will also pass as a good proxy for Master Mage Thalandor riding Gwandor the Black, and wielding the Spear of Daith. 

Sadly my mojo ran out before I could bring myself to sculpt on the Talisman of Qwarr, but I might go back to add in the magical war paint in the future to complete the not-Thalandor look. Gwandor is painted in the style of a White Tailed Eagle as the easiest native eagle colour pattern to darken down to 'black', but it is also fitting as it is the British Isles largest bird of prey. 

The other Giant Eagle has been painted in the style of the Golden Eagle, also native (and more common) to the British Isles, a theme which is continued with the Giant Barn Owl (not a Trish Carden sculpt this one, but available from Otherworld Miniatures 'Wilderness Encounters' series). I think I will do some more work on the base in the future, and as the first element of my Wood Elf 'baggage train' I fancy adding some bundles or nets full of supplies for the owl to be swooping in to pick up or drop off.

Also from Otherworld (and part of a lovely Father's Day gift so painted up in record time to be included here) is this Black Bear. A satisfyingly chunky lump of metal. More work needed on the base again, but it will do for now. 

My final Trish sculpt of the month, this juvenile unicorn has such a cheeky and mischievous expression I've named it "Rascal". The unusual blue and orange colour scheme and two tone coat is intended to signify that Rascal is the offspring of my other two Unicorns. I suspect that Rascal eats more of the supplies than they help carry :P 

Last but not least we have the 'Kippine' a a forest creature from D&D which I will use as a proxy Griffon for my Wood Elves. This is a 3D print that was a gift from a very good friend (even if she does collect thrice cursed Dark Elves!) and it took me far too long to paint it, but it deserved to be part of a big project like this. The base was completed first as it allowed me to test out my bark recipe before painting the tree-folk, and it was only after I painted the giant Barn Owl that I decided on a similar colour scheme for the Kippine itself.

Total for the month:

10 Dryads - 350 pts
2 Treemen - 560 pts
5 Warhawk Riders - 150 pts
Giant Eagle - 75 pts
Wood Elf Hero w/Spear on Giant Eagle - 181 pts
Kippine (counts as Griffon) - 150 pts

"Baggage Train"
Black Bear
Giant Barn Owl
Juvenile Unicorn

Total:  1466 pts

Tom's Bony Bit

For my wildcard month I painted some carrion from forlorn hope miniatures. I wanted to use contrast paints on my carrion so I started with a zenithal highlight of wraith bone and then use red, purple and bone, the same colours as my zombie dragon.

They needed some drilling and pinning to stay on their stands so that was something to learn about with my dads help. The bases were fun to do because I could use some shields and a part of a skeleton horse to add some detail. 

The riders turned out well but the purple was a bit to much on the swords. I liked using Rakarth Flesh on the wings to add some sickly highlights.

This is the ghoul king from the zombie dragon kit that I painted up separately and will count as a wight lord for warhammer 5th edition. I experimented with slap-chop painting to get the highlights painted in first, then I used a blue ink for the  underside to make the shadows darker and a green ink on top to make the highlights pop. I used skeleton horde for the bones and rags and Tamiya clear red for the blood effect. The bone and red tie him to rest of the army but the sickly green is a new colour for zombies and ghouls if I add them to my army.

Total for the month:

3 Carrion - 135 pts
Wight (Ghoul) Lord  - 65 pts

Total: 200 pts

That's it from us for the final month of OWAC VII - congratulations to everyone who made it this far, we'll see you next month for the wrap up with our best Avenging Dark Destroyer poses ready!