Ben's Stirland Undead - OWAC VIII - Month 1 (Rank and File)

I decided I needed to be as organised as possible for this project, so I first primed all the models and then painted and drybrushed every base, to give me a head-start in the upcoming months.  I intend to add some flock/clumps to them all in one go at the end.  

Then I made my start proper with the vampire thralls (Westwind Vampire Clan), and transfixed town militia (Foundry ex-Citadel Mercenaries/Heroquest Henchmen), that together will represent a bunch of  Zombies.

I'm really enjoying painting the green and yellow scheme of Stirland, and a suitable Empire banner - unfortunately, neither victory nor death but undeath is the fate of these unlucky troops.

A couple of minor conversions here - replacing the gun from one of the thralls with a flagellant's bell, and adding feathers from Anvil Industry to the hats of a few of the militia to 'Empire' them up.

More troops for the back ranks

Here's the full unit - several sets of twins in this town (I accidentally ordered two of the same pack of mercenaries...).

As a treat after painting all those slashed clothes, I painted a corpse cart / chariot (Dark Art Studios Death Cart) which was much easier going, and decorated it with a few checks and flames.

This brought my total so far to 174 pts:

    22 Zombies, standard, musician - 96 pts (one a test model with a new shield and feather)

    Undead Chariot, scythed wheels - 78 pts (note shield repurposed as base decoration...)

Here is my tribute, which hopefully will prove suitable to join Laurent's Slaanesh horde.  He's a C35 Chaos Warrior 'Count Metalmane' that I got amongst a random bunch of models.  Unfortunately he had a missing head, but I took this as an opportunity to grant him the reward of the head of a Slaanesh Fiend.  Just don't ask how he gets his chainmail shirt off.

Ben's Stirland Undead - OWAC VIII - Intro Post

I have fond memories of sticking together an Undead Horde box, and using the models to play a campaign against a friend's Empire army.  Little of the undead army survives, but my plan for this army challenge is to resurrect the survivors to fight anew.

Nachthafen, Stirland.  The year was characterised by a plague of bats that seemed to be everywhere in the stormy night skies.  Trying to drive them from his tower one lightning-swept night, the Count, who had been driven to despair by the never ending flapping and keening, fell to his death.  Later that same night, the new ruling family clattered through town, in a black coach with drawn curtains, and took up residence in the tower.  No-one left the tower, until the town militia stumbled out, pale and carrying blank expressions, and holding picks, spades and iron bars.  They no longer speak to their families, but march off at night to who knows where, returning at daybreak escorting carts laden with piles of old bones and rusty metal.

The models are from a mix of sources: Citadel knights, bats, heroquest miniatures, skeletons and screaming skull catapult; Foundry skeletons, mummies and ex-Citadel militia; Westwind vampires, coach and wraiths; Dark Art Studios characters and skeletons; and a few Mantic models from a dungeon-crawl game.  I also picked up some sprues from Wargames Atlantic and Fireforge to replace missing weapons, heads and horses.  This lead to a much bigger variety of scale than I was expecting; I've tried to mix things around to disguise this.  If (!) I am able to paint this all, it will total 2,856 pts, as follows:

Characters: 782 pts

Mannfred von Carstein 475
Undead Battle Standard, steed 89
Wraith 75
Wraith 75
Necromancer 68

Units: 1444 pts

5 Skeleton Horsemen, shields, spears, standard 132
24 Skeleton Warriors, shields, standard, musician 234
24 Skeleton Warriors, double handed weapons, standard, musician 260
24 Zombies, standard, musician 104
5 Wights, spears, shields, heavy armour, skeleton steeds, standard 264
6 Mummies, standard 315
3 Carrion 135

War Machines: 230 pts

Undead Chariot, scythed wheels 78
Undead Chariot, scythed wheels 78
Screaming Skull Catapult 74

Monsters: 400 pts

4 x Bat Swarms 400

My aim is to achieve something like the classic art: a shambling horde under a sky filled with banners and bats.  It will be lead - eventually - by my Mannfred von Carstein, my favourite of the characters in the Undead army book.

I painted a couple of test models, and think I might go with green rather than red as the key bright colour; red has great impact, but green will help the army contrast with my red-and-blue Altdorf army.

Ben's Eldar - OWAC VII - Wrap-up post

What a fun way to fill in some of the gloomier months of the year - even so, I'm glad it's finished!

I've been able to finish off a couple more Vyper Jetbikes - I enjoy that they remind me of the horde of Alaitoc jetbikes, lost in the mists of time, that I used to field when I played Epic.  

And what says 'Space Elves' better than a jet-powered flying wizard?  I've now, I think, painted one of each Warlock sculpt; sadly, when I stripped the paint off this one, it turned out to be (yuck) finecast, and when I tried to straighten the sword, it promptly snapped, so I had to convert him a Singing Spear with a couple of spare parts.  Perhaps he's zapping someone with some kind of eldritch curse.

Adding up the points for the almost 100 models I painted this year, and I am slightly astonished (even though it contains a load of very expensive characters) to find it's over 5,000 points!

Wrap-up Month: 186 pts
Warlock, Singing Spear, Vyper Jetbike - 121 pts
Vyper Jetbike, Shuriken Shrieker Cannon - 65 pts

Wildcard Month: 444 pts
Baharroth - 161 pts
Warlock, Singing Spear - 76 pts
Exarch, Swooping Hawk Wings, Lasblaster - 95 pts
4 Swooping Hawks - 112 pts

Rank and File Month 4: 949 pts
8 Guardians, Lasgun - 88 pts
3 Guardians, Jetbike, 1 Shuriken Cannon - 98 pts
Lascannon on Anti-Grav Platform - 59 pts
8 Scouts - 184 pts
Dreadnought, Missile Launcher - 205 pts
War Walker, Lascannon, Scatter Laser - 150 pts
Asurmen - 165 pts

Leader Month: 646 pts
Avatar - 300 pts
Warlock Master, Vyper Jetbike, Singing Spear - 222 pts
Ghost Warrior (Solitaire), 2 Power Fists, Shuriken Catapult, Refractor Field - 124 pts

Rank and File Month 3: 1,414 pts 
Warlock, Witch Blade - 66 pts
Exarch, Dark Reaper Range Finder, Missile Launcher - 100 pts
Exarch, Web of Skulls, Chainsword - 77 pts
Exarch, Fire Pike, Melta Bombs - 80 pts
Exarch, Flamer, Melta Bombs - 64 pts
Fuegan - 176 pts
Maugan Ra - 179 pts
4 Fire Dragons - 112 pts
4 Fire Dragons - 112 pts
4 Dark Reapers - 268 pts
4 Sun Basilisks - 180 pts (estimated!)

Rank and File Month 2: 820 pts
Jain Zar - 187 pts
4 Howling Banshees - 81 pts
Exarch, Banshee Mask, Power Sword, Laspistol - 69 pts
Exarch, Warp Spider Jump Generator, 2 Death Spinners - 90 pts
4 Warp Spiders -164 pts
8 Guardians, Shuriken Catapults - 118 pts
3 Warlocks, Witch Blade - 66 pts
Shuriken Cannon on Anti-Grav Platform - 45 pts (estimated)

Rank and File Month 1: 900 pts
Warlock, Singing Spear - 76 pts
Exarch (converted), Shuriken Catapult, Power Sword - 61 pts
Karandras - 150 pts
2 Guardians, Jetbike with Shuriken Catapults, Jetbike with Shuriken Cannon - 67 pts
4 Dire Avengers (converted) - 88 pts
3 Striking Scorpions - 78 pts
5 Wraithguard - 175 pts
Dreadnought, Extra Distortion Cannon - 205 pts

Grand Total: 5,359 pts

As I've finally got to the bottom of the pile of minis... I couldn't resist taking a picture of my whole army, including stuff I painted last year as part of another challenge:

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!

Ben's Eldar - OWAC VII - Rank and File Month 4

"Unit after unit of Guardians arrived and took their place in the formation.  Mighty Spirit Warriors stalked among the ranks on long insect-like legs.  As the last of the force assembled Karhedron speculated on the nature of the enemy they were to face."

In my last rank and file month I've been busy bulking out the army as much as I could with troops and support, including a shuriken-cannon jetbike that was the very kind gift of OWACer Graeme (before heading for a dip in Dettol).  So, with a small head start from the end of last month, and a bit of a method now for cranking out blue, yellow and wraithbone troops to tabletop standard, I've completed:

8 Guardians, and a shield platform made of a spare metal platform and a modern guardian shield widget.  The banner icon and cross-pole is from a High Elf banner

A Dreadnought with Missile Launcher (spare from a modern Vyper Jetbike kit)

A weapons platform with Lascannon/Bright Lance (ditto)

Three Guardian Jetbikes

A war walker (RT pilot, 2nd ed. weapons)

And 7 Scouts plus a later model which is a bit larger in scale and I'll use for a leader.

I was doing quite well in rebalancing the army away from expensive characters... until I saw a Dire Avenger Phoenix Lord model with a missing banner pole that was relatively cheap. 

Asurmen, founder of the first Aspect Warrior shrines 

May total: 949 pts

8 Guardians, Lasgun - 88 pts
3 Guardians, Jetbike, 1 Shuriken Cannon - 98 pts
Lascannon on Anti-Grav Platform - 59 pts
8 Scouts - 184 pts
Dreadnought, Missile Launcher - 205 pts
War Walker, Lascannon, Scatter Laser - 150 pts
Asurmen - 165 pts

For my June wildcard month, I plan to make some terrain based on a crashed ship.  I also have some one or two Warlocks and some swooping hawks left to paint, including Baharroth.  If I get him painted, that'll be one Phoenix Lord per month and the set completed!  That was not an aim I had at the start, but they were such good models to paint, each one seemed like a treat at the end of the month and I ended up with the whole lot.

Ben's Eldar - OWAC VII - Leader Month

"The Avatar's gaze seemed to bore into the very heart of the Eldar warriors, kindling the fire of battlelust there.  All fear, all hesitation was burned away by unholy joy and murder lust.  The killing power within them stirred in answer to the being's call.  A cry of pure exultation was torn from Karhedron's throat.  It mingled with the great roar of the entire army."

I'd have liked to save the Avatar till the end, but due to holidays I only had a couple of weeks' painting time so it made sense to make April my Leader month.  I found this terrifying god-incarnate to be the best and also hardest model I've painted so far - I wanted to make him look like he was made from molten iron, so he had to be dark red with yellow in the hottest parts, but the process of painting lighter colours rather than the usual shades into the crevices took some getting used to.

He's on a nice big base like all the models in this project - there are many things I love about the look of 2nd edition models, but feet hanging over base edges is not one of them - and raised up on a big hero rock to make him stand out further. Lastly, to try to create the blood that is said to drip from his left hand, I mixed some red paint with PVA and carefully glooped it onto his fingers.

Next, I patched up a 3rd ed Farseer (whose arms I'd previously stolen for another Farseer conversion) with bits of plastic arm and high elf banner pole, and mounted him on a Vyper which I was able to pick up fairly cheaply as it was missing its turret.  I'll have to count him as a Warlock Master as I already have one Farseer for this army.

Lastly, I painted up an Assassin-class Ghost Warrior.  This lovely Rogue-trader era model was the very, very generous gift of fellow OWACer Graeme.  In the lore, Ghost warriors were, like Dreadnoughts, machines powered by the souls of dead Eldar.  However, unlike the looming, powerful Dreadnoughts, they are small and stealthy, fitted with energy shields and built of a material that hides them from sensors, and so they act as infiltrators, assassins and saboteurs.  They disappeared in 2nd ed, and so for points I'll count it as a Harlequin Solitaire with a refractor field.  I used more yellow than usual and a diamond pattern on its arms to make it stand out from other troops and give the idea of harlequin-like stealth fields.

All these characters leave me very short of troops and support, so next month's challenge is to rectify this - I'm aiming to paint my pledged Warlock, squad of Scouts and a War Walker, but also fill out the army with some extra Guardians, Guardian Jetbikes (one of which was another very kind gift from Graeme), a Support Weapon, and a squad of Swooping Hawks if I have time.  Then, for the last month, I have plans for some terrain and/or objectives.

April Total: 646 pts

Avatar - 300 pts
Warlock Master, Vyper Jetbike, Singing Spear - 222 pts
Ghost Warrior (Solitaire), 2 Power Fists, Shuriken Catapult, Refractor Field - 124 pts

Ben's Eldar - OWAC VII - Rank and File Month 3

"Nearby atop a great butte, Dark Reapers arranged in three-man fireteams, stood immobile as statues.  Their massive forms radiated menace yet their presence was strangely reassuring.  Karhedron knew no enemy could approach without being the target of their missile launchers."

This month I've mostly been painting Aspect Warriors, with some non-standard colours to follow the army's blue-green-yellow-white colour scheme.  I started with some Fire Dragons including Phoenix Lord Fuegan.  When I got him with some other models, his gun was broken and power weapon missing, so I fixed him up with a sword and the end of a Guardian meltagun:

Inspired by the green elements on Fuegan, I painted another squad light green, and picked up a later edition Exarch to accompany them - not a Jes Goodwin sculpt, but nice for variety:

To match my Dark Reapers, I had converted an Exarch with a Missile Launcher and added Range Finder vanes to his helmet.  Instead of his pistol, I gave him a chainsword to help defend them at close quarters:

Looking for a colour scheme for my custom Aspect Warriors, I searched for pictures of desert lizards.  I found a rock lizard with a bright blue body and yellow head, and thought this would look striking:

I finished off another Warlock - these are definitely my favourite sculpts.  And finally, as I enjoyed painting Fuegan so much, as a bonus treat I picked up a model of Maugan Ra and after a bath in paint stripper, gave him a quick bone and dark blue paint job:

March total: 1,414 points 

(though I'd have to paint up a lot more squads & support to include all these characters...)

Warlock, Witch Blade – 66 pts

Exarch, Dark Reaper Range Finder, Missile Launcher – 100 pts

Exarch, Web of Skulls, Chainsword – 77 pts

Exarch, Fire Pike, Melta Bombs – 80 pts

Exarch, Flamer, Melta Bombs – 64 pts

Fuegan – 176 pts

Maugan Ra – 179 pts

8 Fire Dragons – 112 pts

8 Fire Dragons – 112 pts

4 Dark Reapers – 268 pts

4 Sun Basilisks - 180 pts (estimated!)

Ben's Eldar - OWAC VII - Rank and File Month 2

A high-pitched keening wail filled the air as the Howling Banshees performed the Dance of Skulls near their dropship.  Karhedron watched as the women sparred in slow motion with invisible foes, each movement part of some greater intricate pattern, as if the whole unit were one organism sharing a single mind.

I decided at the start of painting this army to give all the units yellow helmets, and try to stick to overall colours of blue and green, yellow and white - trying to keep squads individually bright, but also coherent overall.  Because of that, the theme this month is Aspect Warriors that I struggled to decide how to paint!  I wanted to incorporate some of each Aspect's traditional colours, and keep a nice contrast between the main colours, but generally avoid using red and black (which I've used a lot on my other 40K armies).  

For the Howling Banshees, I think the contrast between dark blue and bone works.  On the other hand, Jain Zar has a nice ghostly appearance, but unfortunately doesn't stand out so well - perhaps I should have incorporated some black or another dark colour to add variety.

With the Warp Spiders, I tried a couple of different things, and was still not satisfied with the first pictures I took. I eventually decided the glowing parts of the weapons would have to be red, repainted them, and am a bit happier.

The second theme, for this month's bonus models, is assembling units out of bits and pieces of second-hand lots of miniatures.  I completed a Guardian Squad, three of which (the ones on the right) I had partly painted before.  One of the Guardians was the very first test figure I painted, which I finished off with a plastic Dark Eldar banner - I gave up on finding the original metal banner pole for a reasonable price.  The five on the left were fresh for this challenge, completed after picking up the necessary plastic Shuriken Rifles for the metal body/plastic arm models in a bag of random Eldar bits.  The mixture of armour patterns and guns they've ended up with actually, I think, gives them a thematic feel of a citizen militia fighting with personal, handed-down equipment.  

Having completed the Guardians, I used a Shuriken Cannon left over from a broken Vyper to arm the Weapons platform, and that painted up really quickly.  Then I treated myself to painting a lovely Warlock model to round things out.

Lastly, having given up on finding missile launchers to accompany the Dark Reaper bodies, I decided to convert them into a custom Aspect to paint next month.  I trimmed off their range finders, and armed them with flamers and power fists.  The pose repeated a few times becomes a bit awkward, but otherwise I'm happy.

0-1 SUN BASILISK SQUADS ......................... 45 points per model

Sun Basilisks shrines are found only on a small number of Craftworlds.  Terrifying when encountered in tunnels or ship corridors, they are heavily-armoured close-range fighters, with power fists and guns that can be fired as either flamers or hand flamers.

Troop Type     M   WS  BS   S    T    W    I    A   Ld
Sun Basilisks   4     4     4     3     3     1     4    1    9 

SQUAD          A squad consists of between 3 and 7 models

WEAPONS    Flamer, Hand Flamer, Power fist.

ARMOUR      Basilisk Aspect Armour (3+ save)

Total painted this month: 772 pts

Jain Zar – 187 pts
4 Howling Banshees – 81 pts
Exarch, Banshee Mask, Power Sword, Laspistol – 69 pts

Exarch, Warp Spider Jump Generator, 2 Death Spinners – 90 pts
4 Warp Spiders – 164 pts

5 Guardians, Shuriken Catapults – 70 pts (plus 3 part-painted already)

3 Warlocks, Witch Blade – 66 pts
Shuriken Cannon on Anti-Grav Platform – 45 pts (just realised it's not a legal 2nd ed. unit, but 10 pts less than a Heavy Plasma Gun based on Vyper Jetbike costings seems ok)

Ben's Eldar - OWAC VII - Rank and File Month 1

The blue stone representing the Spirit Walkers moved off cautiously, and on the battlefield the great war-machines strode forward.  In his multi-compartmented mind a dozen potential futures blossomed.  He saw the machines fall blasted by heavy weapons.  He saw them stride among the dreadnoughts and engage them in melee.  He saw them stumble on rough ground.

In the air the red runes rearranged themselves.  In his mind's eye he saw the human heavy weapons belch.  Flowers of flame bloomed at the feet of the spirit walkers.  Kelmon reeled, feeling the pattern of the conflict emerging from the maelstrom of probability.

I've enjoyed getting stuck into the pile of primed potential this month, and after some initial faffing, my Christmas present of a lightbox really helped with photographing them (thanks Mrs F).  First I painted some Wraithguard, a Dreadnought/Wraithlord, and a Warlock/Wraithseer to guide them through the mortal realm:

The dreadnought has a loincloth banner made from tomato paste tube foil and greenstuff that was not too neatly done but painted up okay.  Some of the icons come from transfers I bought as a 14 year old to decorate my Epic army - many fell to pieces as they came off the paper, but enough survived - looks like I have to get some matte or satin varnish to dull them down though!  

Then, a I painted couple more jetbikes with converted riders to add to a squad I painted in a different challenge last year, again with a foil banner, and a squad of Aspect Warriors from the rare Dusk Stalker shrine:

I hope a ranger themed shrine on Alaitoc fits in with the association of that craftworld with scouts.  They are made from scouts with metal guardian add-ons - 2nd edition shuriken rifles, and 3rd edition storm guardian heads.  The Exarch has half a high elf head atop half a guardian head.  It was a fun exercise but I'm not doing any more - it definitely cured me of nostalgia for converting metal models.  Not so much the extra force required to cut them, but the overshooting that follows meaning gems get squared off and shoulderpad edges trimmed.

The last thing I painted was a mini-squad of Striking Scorpions to round off a squad I painted last year (after I was finally able to pick a few more models up for a reasonable price). To accompany them, Phoenix Lord Karandras who was as fun to paint as I remember the first time.  I originally painted this model for my mate almost 30 years ago, and he kindly gave it to me to strip and repaint for this challenge.

Finally, here is my challenge entry fee for Chris P's Orks - a Rogue Trader era Runtbot with a later goblin wolf rider banner.  Runtbots don't feature in the 2nd edition codex, but I'm hoping it could count as a Gretchin Standard Bearer for his Goff Clan, or failing that a Gretchin Assistant:

Month 1 total - 900 pts

Warlock, Singing Spear – 76 pts

Exarch (converted), Shuriken Catapult, Power Sword – 61 pts

Karandras – 150 pts

2 Guardians, Jetbike with Shuriken Catapults, Jetbike with Shuriken Cannon – 67 pts

4 Dire Avengers (converted) – 88 pts

3 Striking Scorpions – 78 pts

5 Wraithguard – 175 pts

Dreadnought, Extra Distortion Cannon – 205 pts