Shadespyre's April Post - Rank & File IV - 3rd Edition Wood Elves (+1353 points)

OWAC VII - Rank and File Month (IV) - Pets

April

Month Four, so why not a fourth month of Rank and File fun? A bit boring? Well, okay, I'll throw in another Hidden Reserve for you, if you sit quietly and read the first bit. Deal? Good.

Errrm, let's start here. Continuing the three seasons theme of the Wardancers (from March, pay attention at the back, please!) here are three seasons of pets:

Wild Cat Beastmaster in Spring colours, because cats spring, I guess?

Warhound Beastmaster in Summer colours, because...

...Boar Beastmaster seemed like the obvious Autumn choice. 

No, I still haven't got around to the basing. I do hate the large expanses of empty ground here, so I promise to try and get it done in May. 

I'm not sure how effective these small Beast packs would actually be, but I feel like it's important to include some to capture a proper 3rd edition feel.

Let's also have a proper unit, something with actual ranks and files, maybe?

This is my unit of Guards, mostly using the Middle Earth sylvan elves - a couple have replacement swords, and the standard bearer is obviously converted. I put the unit of 18 together and forgot to consider adding a champion or other character, so maybe a bigger movement tray is a consideration for later.

Meanwhile, here they are in the almost not-green Autumn colours. I also added an owl here - and there will be more - because moon-shaped shields and owls work together, and because owls are cool.

And that concludes the Rank and File units for this army, for this year at least.

Hidden Reserves

I did promise, so here we go. Not in the order that I expected to be presenting these units, but this one proved to be very quick to paint once I had the concept in my head. Hidden Reserve Number 3...

...is my Wood Elf themed Ethereal host, in the form of a Wild Hunt, with Ghost Hounds, Wraith huntsmen and a Spectral Centaur:

The idea is based on the text from Warhammer Armies - "shades of faded Wood Elves" - but I struggled with finding a mounted mini I liked as the leader. Eventually I stumbled upon this Centaur (origin unknown) on eBay and decided he would do for now. I've reposed him several times and he still has weird square shoulders but I got bored of trying to fix him.

I wanted to give an impression of fading, with the strongest part of the spirit being the head and arms of each model fading away to almost nothing. So I painted a greyscale fade across each one and then hit them with a couple of layers of green wash, before a final tidy up with a very pale green-white. By the way, I picked up the hounds cheap off eBay suspecting that they were re-casts and, yes, they are a little tatty, but very suitable for this purpose.

What a stupid looking centaur! But I quite like the way the paint came out. 

Army List Additions:

Scores for April:       1353    points   38 models

3 x Animal Handlers    (Light Armour)                                                                    45 points

3 x Wild Cats                                                                                                                  63 points  

3 x Warhounds                                                                                                               12 points 

3 x Boars                                                                                                                          18 points 

17 x Guards                (Shields, Standard bearer, Musician)                                  304 points

1 x Hero (Level 15)    (Longbow, Light Armour, Shield)                                        136 points 

Ethereal Host:

1 x Spectre with Spectral Mount                                                                                225 points

2 x Wraiths                                                                                                                     300 points

5 x Ghosts                                                                                                                       250 points           

               

Running Total:          4343  points  135  models

Undead are reassuringly expensive, aren't they?

Next Time

Leaders, and proper basing, I hope. And I'll try to include another Hidden Reserves choice, too.

Iannick's Gggg-ghosts!!!!!!! (250pts)

Johann leads his battalion forward to the left flank, as ordered by his colonel. He doesn't understand the order, as the left flank seems completely empty. Still, he appreciates not having to fight those disgusting zombies on the right flank or those soulless skeletons in the center. Suddenly, a chilling wind blows through the plain, seeping through every fold of his uniform; he can see the misty breath of his soldiers as they all shudder. 

Translucent, greenish forms appear around the Stirland spearmen, at first dancing between the soldiers like a ballet of the dead.  Johann shouts to his men to avoid looking at the unholy things, but already it is too late. Around him, men die like flies, their faces frozen in unspeakable terror. He hears the deafening sound of gun powder next to him: Albrecht, his trusted standard bearer, just took out his pistol and shot himself. The lucky few who haven't lost their lives have now lost their reason and run like madmen across the plain.

And for the first time in his career, Johann does the same. Twenty years in the infantry, fighting orcs, chaos, beastmen, only to end up running from the dead. The Stirland sergeant always knew he would die on the battlefield, but he doesn't want to go. God, not like this. Not without a fight, not without visible wounds. Turning around to have a last look at his massacred battalion, he doesn't see the large scythe in front of him, swinging for his neck.

The last thing Johann Weber sees, his head laying on the grass near his lifeless body, is the ghostly form of a hooded creature, death incarnate, standing coldly above him. The Wraith looks around the battlefield, floating toward its next victim, not realizing it answered the Stirland Sergeant's dying wish, and offered him a soldier's death.

A small month for me to start the challenge, with only three figures. As someone who painted goblins last year, this is new territory!

My plan was always to ease into this year's challenge with my Ethereal Host. Mostly because January is always a difficult month for me, time wise, and even more so this year as I got visited by Nurgle, like most of the OWAC Northeasterners apparently. I also went a bit differently this year and started the basecoat on a few units, figuring the next months might be more fun that way. 

So for this month we have three Ethereal creatures, making up my Host. The original plan called for two, but I had some extra time and well, three looks like a small Host, two is just a duo! 

I got tempted by the latest fad and did that green Ethereal effect. I've always been puzzled by how to do proper ghosts and well this is the best look i've seen. For all the shit I give GW for many of their new models, I have to admit their new technical paints and washes are superb products. In this case I used Nihilakh Oxide mixed with Lahmian medium over a Ionrach Skin base, and then highlighted with Ionrach skin and Deepkin Flesh. It's pretty rare actually that I use almost exclusively GW paints on a figure, my paints of choice being Foundrys and Andreas.

For a very first try with no tests beforehand I am quite happy with my results! I wanted the Host to tie together so all three figures were painted the same way. Yeah, my Wraith ain't black, big deal.

They look a bit better in "the flesh". It's really hard to get good pictures of such light coloured painting, harder than I thought it would be. 

The Wraith is from Foundry's (now carried by their sister company Warmonger) fantasy Undead range, and I will admit preferring it to Citadel Oldhammer Wraith. It's huge, and I find the chains and the skeleton very evocative of what a Wraith is. It also looks like a 150pts creature. 

Then we have two ghosts to round up the Host. One is an absolute classic and maybe my favourite undead model from the era. He was originally sold as a "Headless Ghost", part of the Night Horrors range. I love how he came out, and had a ton of fun painting him.

The last ghost is obviously from the same range as the Wraith, a smaller version. He's the add-on figure I painted in the last day of the month. It's a cute figure and I will use it as another Ghost.

I used round bases as it seemed more evocative of the wandering nature of ghosts and ethereals in Warhammer. 

So...

• 2 Ghosts : 100 pts
• 1 Wraith : 150 pts

Total : 250pts

Next month I'd like to start painting the "meat" (or rather "bones") of the army, with hopefully my first regiment of skellies. I'm waiting for a command figure, I just hope I receive it in time. 

But don't worry folks numbers are coming!