Ooooooh! It feels good to be OWACking again!
The pent up painting potential was just too much for us so we planned to go to bed early on NYE and get up at midnight so we could start our painting for the OCHO as soon as possible!
Five minutes later we had a big spill of Rakarth Flesh. Whomp-whomp.... Happy 2025! At least it wasn't Nuln Oil!
Worse than that, we'd been out for a walk in the woods earlier in the day to try and burn off some of the Twixt-mas cheese and chocolate calories and make sure we could sleep early... but Tom failed his save vs rope swing and lost a fair amount of skin off his hands and fingers. F*%K!!! It really wasn't good but he was an absolute trooper and insisted on painting even with bandaged hands... although that may have contributed to the spill... :p
Anyway, we had a great time listening to ghost stories and painting through the witching hour, focussing on using up the Rakarth Flesh getting as much basing done as possible in one go, and then enjoying working on our OWAC tribute minis.
I had fun converting these two plastic Daemonettes, one with a ram's skull and the braid from an EM4 plastic gang member, one with a RTB01 space marine close combat blade. Tom selected a Bloodletter that I'd recently been lucky enough to be gifted via a monthly painting challenge in the Middlehammer fb group and gave it a Christmas/Secret Santa inspired Grinch-like paint job. These are destined for one of our very well deserving admin team and will be going in the post this weekend, but I'll leave it as a surprise for that person :)
We were blessed with some really rubbish weather in January, and on top of that I was unwell at the beginning of the month. Obviously this was a blessing in disguise from the painting gods, and I did not waste this opportunity to crack on with my Dark Elves.
But first, an introduction to the concept behind my Dark(ish) Elves, and how I see them fitting into the geography as well as the history of the Old World
The two maps below are snapped from the Dark Elf Army Book. The idea I had in mind for my rogue prince of Caledor is that he would take his ship and a small force of only his most loyal troops on this fateful voyage north, feiging a run to Arnheim but then steering even further north, making for a nearby Dark Elf port, but not one that was too big or powerful that he couldn't still fight his way free if his.... diplomatic.... overtures go awry.
Dawn broke grey and grim across the bleak coast to the south of the blighted isles. The fetid mists of the Doom Glades rolled out over the dark river deltas behind them and met with the cold, clammy sea fog that now perpetually rolled in from the blasted Shadow Lands beyond the sea. The guards on the walls could rarely see very far in such conditions, but that didn't stop them keeping a watchful eye on these dangerous waters. High Elf corsairs were just as much of danger as sudden squalls and giant sea serpents in these waters.
So it was that when a lone sail bearing the sign of a sea drake rising from a blood red sea against a storm grey sky appeared in the south, the alarm bells of the Dark Elf sea fort 'Daggerpoint' were quick to ring out. The crossbow wielding wardens of the first shift soon joined by the second shift, and then the third...
This sigil was known to them. "The Blood Dragon". A fearsome reaver prince of Caledor, but not at the head of a fleet of warships... No... Just one lone sail. Was he lost? Borne on rouge winds north of his intended destination of Arnheim? Was it a ruse to lure out their navy? Surely he couldn't hope to assail Daggerpoint on his own? Unless he knew the fearsome lord of the blighted isle was currently abroad with a portion of his strength?
The watch captains won't run the risk. The bells sound again. The city guard are called to muster.
The classic white plastic Dark Elf Crossbowmen from the Fantasy Regiments box set were always going to form the mainstay of my army and so I thought it was only right to start with them. I've split them into three units of 12 each, which in my head form the three different guard shifts, tasked with watching from the rain lashed walls of the blighted fortress.
I chose three main colours for the different units/guard shifts from what I considered to be a generally Dark Elf appropriate palette and went with purple, teal, and burgundy for the elements which I considered to be leather armour, and then a dark gunmetal with muted steel highlights for the metal elements.
Other aspects of the uniformed kit were painted according to material, dark brown wood for the weapons, more dark steel for metal, and olive brown for leather strapping etc. I also introduced a pale grey tunic and alternate blue-grey leather colour to break up the darker elements but still keep it feeling grim and rain soaked.
The skin is a base layer of vintage citadel Hideous Blue, blended into Elf Flesh, and given a purple wash.
I'm very happy with my first month's output and feel like the principles of limited colour palettes and therapeutic batch painting that have naturally evolved over previous OWACs are already serving me well.
Total for the month:
36 Dark Elf Crossbowmen (13 pts each) - 468 pts
Total: 468 pts
I can't wait to see what everyone else has been up to in their first month! :D
Tom's Bony Bit
Total for the month:
20 Ghouls (8 pts each) - 160 pts
Total: 160 pts
Hope everyone had a good and successful month and I am looking forward to seeing every ones posts!
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