Graeme's Wood Elves - OWAC 9, March Post (Rank and file #2 - 110points )

Graeme's Wood Elves - OWAC 9 March Post (Rank and file #2 - 110 points)

Where did the last eight weeks go to?

At the end of February I just didn't make the deadline to submit. I had seven Archers and three Wardancers that were close to being finished, but weren't quite there.

I got a new camera, and played around with that for a couple of days.

In the beginning of March, I went on holiday for a week, tagging along with my wife when she attended a conference in Bergen in Norway.

I decided that, since I had plenty of time to spare, I'd swap out the wardancers and do three more archers instead. I really want to focus on building up my core army of archers, after all...

The cat picked up an infection, or virus, or something, and needed to go to the vet a couple of times and get a course of antibiotics.

I tried out different hair colours on the archers, and didn't like them, so redid the hair on half of them.

I had a busy week at work and skipped some painting nights...

I looked out the leader figures I want to do next month and tried out a couple of colours on them, to find some inspiration.

You get the picture.

With a few days to go in March I was STILL not done with those ten figures.

I had a couple of late nights and slapped some more paint on them.

Are they done? No. Base colours and shading are done. Highlights and metals still need to be done.

Will they do? I guess they'll have to. At least there's no bare metal on display... They pass a basic inspection from the far side of a tabletop.

Another ten archers join the ranks.

Group 1:

Group 2:

For the bookkeeping:

10 Wood Elf archers - (110 points)
Equipped with longbows and hand weapons

For April, I have to be realistic:

I have to focus on a small group of leaders, and finish them off in the first two weeks of the month. Focussing on batches of two or three figures was working, and I need to get back into that rhythm.
I already have to make a start on the last rank-and-file batch in April, if I want any chance of hitting the deadline in May.

I'm teetering on the edge of the field of bones.

Well done to the challengers who are delivering such a lot of well-painted models! You're making it look so easy!

Hope to see you for another instalment next month!

Graeme's Wood Elves - OWAC 9, January Post (Rank and file #1 - 110points )

Graeme's Wood Elves - OWAC 9 January Post (Rank and file #1 - 110 points)

Well, I got off to a really good start in January, and made the most of my holidays - I had the base colours on all my January models within a few days. Plus, I managed to do at least a little painting every day of the month, so the progress was consistent.

I had a few wobbles in the middle of the month. This is a new colour scheme I'm trying, with a 'summer palette' based on a tetradic color combination, with green as the main colour. However, I realised some of the other colours I'd chosen (purples and oranges) weren't really working as well as I'd hoped, and I'd gone with too many complementary colours, so I had a bit of a re-think and re-painted a couple of tunics to make the group a little more coherent. In the end, I managed to scrape through and get the first 10 models finished. Nothing fancy, nothing spectacular, just 10 basic Elf archers.

I'm happy with how they turned out:

Group 1:

Group 2:

And the whole unit together:

Looking at the photos I see a few areas which need a little more work, but considering this is the most minis I've painted in four years, I'll take it. I'm planning on varnishing everything this year too, but I'll wait for a bit before doing a big batch, then flocking the bases.

I think the 'summer palette' worked fairly well. I used three different shades of green. Two worked really well, but I'm not so sure about the darkest green. I might try another shade in February.

The warm reds, browns and yellows worked out pretty well. My grand plan is to use an 'autumnal' palette with my High Elf army, and a 'winter' palette with my Sea Elves. I'm not sure what I'll do for my Dark Elves, but that's something I can worry about later.

I did want to give an impression of age, despite the bright palette, and was planning to do more ageing on the metals. I still might get round to this, as well as weathering the leathers more, but this would be a nice bonus. If I get round to some warriors in the later months of the challenge it should be easier, since there will be more metal and armour on display.

For the bows, I wanted to emphasise that these are the renowned Wood Elf bows, made from the Lornalim tree. I went for a lighter, natural (bone) colour, but I'm tempted to add more highlights, to make them stand out more.

For the bookkeeping:

10 Wood Elf archers - (110 points)
Equipped with longbows and hand weapons

Now, I'm a little worried about being able to keep up the pace I need to complete the OWAC. I didn't have many distractions, was painting a little every day, yet was still cutting it fine to reach the finish line this month. I suspect I'll need to take on some different models in February, either ones with less details, or at least something to break up the monotony of painting archers. I've got a few Wardancers and Bears in the wings. However, I've got to keep reminding myself that my personal goal for this OWAC is to have at least 30 archers done by the end of it...

I'll also try to focus on batches of three figures, aiming to finish them in a week. At least this breaks things up a bit, and might avoid that last-minute sprint for the finish line at the end of the month.

At least our cat is quite happy that I'm joining in the challenge - he's realised I now spend more time than usual sitting still at my painting desk, so has been making the most of it:

Graeme's Wood Elves - OWAC 9 Introduction Post

 

Graeme's Wood Elves - OWAC 9 Introduction Post

Back in the OWAC saddle again!

After the embarrassingly swift trips to the Field of Bones in my last few OWAC attempts, I'm back with my Wood Elf army.

If many of the figures look familiar, it's because many were in my line up for OWAC V, and the rest were in my original plan for OWAC VI, before I defected to #teamskaven! Yes, they've been languishing in a cupboard for almost four years. If you're interested, you can check out the posts here:

OWAC V: https://oldworldarmychallenge.blogspot.com/2021/12/graemes-owac-v-introduction-post-wood.html

OWAC VI: https://oldworldarmychallenge.blogspot.com/2022/12/graemes-owac-vi-introduction-post.html

Hopefully I've learned from some of my previous mistakes - this year I have enough figures fully prepped for the full OWAC, and then some:

My goal for this OWAC is to focus on completing the mandatory 30 archers for a 3rd edition Wood Elf army, and to build from there.

Since OWAC 9 is based on selecting a pice of old GW art and theming the project around it, I'm going for the box art for Skarloc's Wood Elf Archers Regiment of Renown:

In my 30+ years of collecting, I never actually owned a Skarloc RoR box! This year I managed to buy a lot of Wood Elf archers with the front and back covers of the box, which is where I got the photo from. I plan on getting it framed and hung up somewhere for inspiration for the challenge.

I'll not be following the colour scheme too closely, as I'm going for a combination of a summer palette with a weathered and ancient look for these Wood Elves, but it's definitely a good reference to work from.

Now for a closer look at the army.

The bulk of the army will be made up of archers, and archer elites.

Archer unit one:

Archer unit two:

Archer unit three:

Archer unit four, made up of the figures from Skarloc's archers Regiment of Renown, with a small conversion of Glam, to make him look a little more like the illustration on the box. I'll be treating them as regular archers for the challenge, rather than scouts. This means I should be able to hit the compulsory archer minimum number for the force.

Archer unit five:

You'd be forgiven if you're getting bored of seeing Elven archers by now, so there's a few units of non-archers too.

A fairly large unit armed with spears. At this point they only have spears, but I'm looking for suitable shields to add somewhere, to match the 3rd edition army list. If anyone has added shields to these figures, either slung on the back, or attached to the arm, I'd be really interested to see how you did it! My attempts so far haven't looked very convincing.

Beastmaster with bears:

A small unit of Wardancers, armed with two hand weapons. There are a couple of conversions in there, for the sharp-eyed:

Finally, some wizards to lead the army:

I've converted a few of these models, just for some variety, and am quite pleased with how they turned out.

There are a handful of heroes, more infantry troops, and some bonuses in the works, but we'll have to wait and see if I find the time to finish the prep and include them in this year's challenge.

Just for the book keeping, here's an estimate of points for a 3rd edition WFB army, based on what's prepped:

Characters

1 Wood Elf Sylphseer (Level 15 wizard) - (206 points)
Equipped with a horse, and hand weapon

2 Wood Elf Spellsingers (Level 10 wizards) - (236 points)
Equipped with a hand weapon

2 Wood Elf Woodfeys (Level 5 wizards) - (156 points)
Equipped with a hand weapon

1 Wood Elf Guardian Wardancer (Level 10 hero) - (103 points)
Equipped with light armour, and two hand weapons

Total: 691 points

Troops

10 Wood Elf archers - (110 points)
Equipped with longbows and hand weapons

10 Wood Elf archers - (110 points)
Equipped with longbows and hand weapons

10 Wood Elf Guards (+2 missile elite) - (150 points)
Equipped with longbows, light armour, and hand weapons

7 Wood Elf archers - (110 points)
Equipped with longbows, light armour, shields, and hand weapons

5 Wood Elf Glade Runners (scouts) - (80 points)
Equipped with longbows, and hand weapons

20 Wood Elf Warrior Kinband - (180 points)
Equipped (for now) with spears, and hand weapons

1 Wood Elf Beastmaster - (15 points)
Equipped with light armour, and a hand weapon

5 Bears - (100 points)

6 Wood Elf Wardancers - (138 points)
Equipped with light armour, and two hand weapons

Total: 993 points

So, currently not quite enough archers to hit the minimum compulsory number for 3rd edition, but I'm still planning to add some models to the archer units, either with troops, or musicians and standard bearers. If I don't manage that, the Guards will be demoted to regular archers, and I'll update the points values.

It's a bit daunting seeing all these Wood Elves together on my worktop. I'm going to be realistic, and state right from the start that there's no way I'll get all of these painted - I'm just too slow. I'm going to start off painting them in batches of three or four, and see how far I get.

Nice to see some great looking armies in the works for OWAC9. Fingers crossed we make it to the finish line!

Good luck to everyone!

 

Graeme's Skaven (part three - Revolutions)

Graeme's Skaven - OWAC 7 Introduction Post

Paint something different this year! That was my plan. I wanted to get out my comfort zone and paint something new. Not more Skaven. Definitely not!

I put a poll up in the OWAC Facebook group and Slann came out on top, with Norse coming a close second. I dutifully dusted off both my Slaan and Norse models and started counting out and organising them. I had enough models to do either. I had some interesting models looked out to give both armies a bit more character. I opted to go for Slann, because they're ancient, sentient, space frogs, with an Aztec theme!

Then, halfway through my prep, I hit some snags with my Slann...

...and at the same time came across my remaining Skaven models.

I got to thinking...

I wasn't happy how I left off on OWAC 6...
...and I still didn't have a full 3000 point Skaven army I could play with...
...and I had a bunch of already prepped Skaven, just squeaking out for some paint...
...and I was tantalisingly close to having enough painted models to be able to field that Skaven army I dreamed of...

...and, in the end, yet again, the lure of the Great Horned One was too great!

There's definitely some masochistic tendencies needed when choosing a Skaven force to paint for an OWAC. The Jes Goodwin sculpts which make up my force are packed full of detail, which makes them a real pleasure to look at, but sometimes a bit of a chore to paint. And you need lots of them for a decent horde army.

So, ehm, I might have gotten a bit carried away with my prep...

I mean, I had a few Clan Eshin Gutter Runners lying around from my first OWAC...

And it was obvious I had to add to the Clanrats I had left over...

And maybe I could either add to the main Clanrat unit, or create a new Stormvermin unit...

Bulking up the unit was spears was needed...

And adding to the Skavenslave unit was a no-brainer...

Then I added to the bunch of Black Skaven I had lying around...

Obviously I'd need some firepower from Clan Skryre...

And some muscle from Clan Moulder, with something exotic thrown in for good measure...

And, of course, we have to have some leaders and special troops...

To be honest, I stopped counting after a while. It's the largest number of models I've ever prepped for an OWAC. The only thing I need to do in the next five or six months is paint (sounds so simple, right?). I have a few of conversions and something special in the pipeline, but only if I have time.

Realistically, though, I'm going to aim low. To complete a legal, practical force which I'm likely to actually play with, I'm going to focus on finishing these:

• 20 Clanrats, armed with hand weapons, light armour and shields (120 points)
• 10 Clanrats, armed with spears, light armour and shields (65 points)
• 5 Skavenslaves, armed with spears and shields (17,5 points)
• 2 Jezzailachis teams (78 points)
• 2 Poisoned Wind Globadiers (52 points)
• 1 Plague Censer Bearer (41 points)
• 1 Warpfire-thrower team (81 points)
• 1 General (level 20 hero, around 100 points)

This little horde of 42 Skaven only brings me to about 550 points - well short of the target 1000 points.

Either I paint a LOT more Skaven from the core units, or some elites (Black Skaven or Gutter Runners), or I recruit the swarm, Rat Ogres, and the Manticore (or Harpies that I planned to use last OWAC) to bump up the points. We shall see!

Fingers crossed I can make it through at least the stuff I plan to do. I'm hoping for more, but I've seen real life get in the way far too often.

Good luck to all the other challengers! (Especially the other member of #teamSkaven this year - AdamH).

There are some great-looking plans already afoot. I suspect this will be a sensationally good OWAC!

Graeme's Skaven - July - Wrap-up

Graeme's Skaven  (266.5 points)

Wow, six months have flown past!

It's been a proper challenge this year. It started with indecision about which army to go for, and included some dips in motivation, severely limited hobby time due to work, and the usual amount of procrastination. Starting to paint with magnifying lenses really helped my eyes, but slowed down my painting when I realised how much detail I had been missing...

While I'm glad to have finished, I really scraped through on the bare minimum of models, and let's not even start on points value...

My plans were much grander, and I just don't feel this year's effort is up to the standard I was aiming for, or really completed - there are loads of details I want to redo, and I still didn't get round to painting up their shields, due to a silly amount of work in the last month.

Still, it's another dent in the pile of shame. I'm a step closer to fielding a proper Skaven army. Progress is progress!

Anyway, here's the end result:

So the final tally is 42 figures, broken down into:

1 Warpweaver level 10 Wizard, armed with a spear - 82 points
15 Clanrats, armed with a hand weapon, spear and (still not done) shield - 97.5 points
15 Skavenslaves, armed with a hand weapon and spear - 45 points
5 Clanrats, armed with a hand weapon and light armour and (still not done) shield - 30 points

6 Giant Rats, armed with malice and evil intentions - 12 points

Which is a whopping 266.5 points in total! I'm lucky this was a special edition of OWAC, or I would have been resting gently and deeply in the field of bones!

Thoughts of OWAC VII are already floating around in my head. I've got to try to come up with a realistic and less grand plan if I'm going to take part next year. I came up with a list of options for armies and the popular vote in the OWAC group pointed to extemely Oldhammer-esque candidates of either Slann or Norse. Now I'm not ruling out another last-minute, ill-advised switch to Skaven again, but those are looking like the strongest contenders so far. Some test models are in the pipeline!

I've also got plans for the next 'special edition' OWAC, which involves a Rogue Trader theme. So the summer months should be busy, prepping as many figures as I can.

Massive congratulations to the challengers who managed to finish the challenge. I'm incredibly impressed with the number of challengers who go above and beyond, with not only well-painted armies, but also huge quantities of figures (and scenery)! I'm envious, but also inspired! Keep it up!

Graeme's Skaven - June - Leader Month (82 points)

 Graeme's Skaven - June - Leader Month (82 points)

This month started off well - I converted some models to give me some variation of leader models and add a little bit of character to the army. I managed to get the base colours on them in the first week, and was feeling optimistic that I was going to be able to end the challenge on a high note and deliver a group of at least seven well-painted characters. I even looked out some musicians, in case I finished ahead of schedule, and made progress on the rat swarm I'd been working on.

I'll spare you the details of the , but work got crazy busy, the weather was too hot and humid to paint (at least for me - my Scottish blood doesn't appreciate temperatures over 30 degrees Celsius. I couldn't focus well, and I was getting frustrated with the paint not flowing well.) and I suddenly found myself with a week left in the challenge with no way of completing them. I decided to focus on just five models. After a couple of days that got narrowed to three. With a day left in the challenge, I just focussed on getting a single figure finished to avoid the field of bones...

So, here he is:

1 Warpweaver level 10 Wizard, armed with a spear - 82 points

I'm VERY fortunate I left the leader month to last. I wouldn't have had a chance if it had been a rank-and-file-month. In the end, I'm happy with how he turned out, and to get over the finish line, but I'm frustrated at how little I painted this year - I started with grand designs, but I've been struggling to keep up the pace, and this month in particular feels like a real let-down.

I'll put some finishing touches on as many 'in progress' models as I can in July, and see what I can put together for my wrap-up post.

Congrats to all the challengers who made the finish line! I'm genuinely impressed with the quality and quantity that people consistently produce here. It may takes me years to complete the same amount of models some people get through in a six-month challenge, but progress is progress.

Graeme's Skaven - May - Rank and File #4 (75 points)

Graeme's Skaven - May - Rank and File #4 (75 points)

Well, May was the first month where I felt confident that I'd finish my monthly contribution. Unfortunately, things were busy at work in the last week and I didn't really have time to get the finishing touches done, yet again. So it's a pretty basic look for some of this motley crew, but it keeps me in the race... with the finishing line in sight!

May's contribution of 10 Clanrats:

Luckily, rounding things off with my leader month should give me enough time to catch up on all those shields, details and finishing touches I've missed over the last few month, so I'm aiming to make sure the final results will significantly better.

10 Clanrats, armed with a hand weapon, spear and (still to be painted) shield - 75 points

Breaking my monthly total record yet again with a whopping 75 points!

I've made a start on a couple of the leader models already, and have a couple of ideas for bonus models, so am looking forward to putting together the final lineup.

Graeme's Skaven - April - Rank and File #3

Graeme's Skaven - April - Rank and File #3 (52.5 points)

This month should have been a walk in the park - I'd almost finished painting my March contribution, but just couldn't get things over the finish line. I expected it would take a few nights of adding the finishing touches and then I could get the April post done early and make a start on some of the May contribution, or pick up some leaders or more exotic troops.

The reality was slightly different.

The end result for April:

5 Clanrats

5 Skavenslaves

Naturally I had forgotten about a short break in the beginning of the month - I went with my wife and a group of friends to Islay (my fourth pilgrimage to the island) for some whisky-tasting and sightseeing. The preparations and trip effectively took up the first 10 days of the month. Well worthwhile! I tasted some great whisky and brought back a nice memento or two.

Just a little souvenir...

After returning I half-heartedly picked up my paintbrush and faffed for a week. I think I painted, re-painted, and then refined the same pieces of tunics and armour on three figures for about a week. I got stuck in a weird rut, where I just didn't like what I painted.

Then one of our two cats, which we've had from kittens, suddenly developed a blood-clot. My wife adopted them when a friend found them abandoned in some woods in Germany, about nine years ago. Within two hours of me spotting something was wrong, I found myself sitting at the vet's, watching her being put down. This was on my wife's birthday. The day before my birthday. This resulted in cancelled celebrations and a week or so of little motivation to do much, let alone paint.

Baloo

I finally forced myself to sit down and get some painting done in the last few days of the month, in a desperate attempt to avoid the field of bones.

Yet again, it's not my best work, and I don't feel the Slaves are really done, but they'll do. I'm pretty happy with how some of fabric and details, especially on the Clanrats, turned out. I was finally enjoying painting them in the last couple of days and it was a welcome distraction from the suddenly much quieter apartment.

So, the final tally for April:

5 Skavenslaves, armed with a hand weapon, spear and (soon to be painted) shield - 17.5 points

5 Clanrats, armed with a hand weapon, spear and (soon to be painted) shield - 37.5 points

Resulting in my highest monthly total yet: 55 points! That's an army total soaring into the dizzying heights of three-figures!!!

Anyway, the end is in sight! Lots of unpainted Skaven still await me, as well as loads of little details to finish off, as well as shields and bases still to complete, so that should keep me busy enough. I really hope I find my zone again in May and I can put in a strong finish.

Graeme's Skaven - February - Rank and File #2 (27 points)

Graeme's Skaven - February - Rank and File #2 (27 points)

Like the month, it's going to be short and sweet...

Without further ado, here's my February contribution in all their glory:

February's rabble

February is always a tight squeeze, so the Giant Rats were called up to make things a little easier to hit the 10 figure target. I painted up two of them as albinos, just to break up the dark colours.

The Skavenslaves turned out well, and I'm really happy with them. However, I've been fiddling with my lighting and camera setup and still don't feel the photos are coming out quite right, so the experimentation will continue until I hit the sweet spot and can display them in all their glory.

Skavenslaves

5 Skavenslaves, armed with a hand weapon and spear - 15 points

6 Giant Rats, armed with malice and evil intentions - 12 points

So, the dizzying total of 27 points of Skaven rank-and-file is added to my army this month!

That brings the grand total for the challenge so far to 72 points!!!

The plan for March? Uhm, more Clan Rats and Skavenslaves... It's not creative and it's not exciting, but it's slowly bulking up my army, thank you very much.

I promise to try to prep some more exciting and colourful stuff for later in the challenge, but for now I'm just going to keep grinding out more cannon fodder.

Graeme's Skaven - January - Rank and File #1

Graeme's Skaven - January - Rank and File #1 (45 points)

I expected getting back into the OWAC saddle was going to be a challenge, and I wasn't disappointed.

Breaking last year's record of 2 painted miniatures wasn't going to be difficult, but getting the minimum 10 done before the end of the month came down to the wire, again.

Scraping in by the skin of my rodent teeth, I present my motley crew for January:

January's mob

I've mixed feelings about these. I had to rush in the end to get them done in time, so the bases still need flocking, the Clanrats are missing their shields, and there are a few things that I'm going to tidy up later. So, on the scale of things, not my best effort.

On the other hand, I had to start facing the realities of getting older by using a magnifier while painting, to take some of the strain off my eyes. It's definitely helped there, but also let me see all the flaws and sloppy errors I make while painting, in glorious detail. I think I'm painting more neatly now, and can pay more attention to details (because I can finally see them!), but this has the downside of costing more time. I'll have to adapt a little, to up the tempo...

The bug-eyed monster

Anyway, I'm happy with what I did paint, and I suspect I'll be satisfied once I finish off those niggling details that are missing. I've been getting into the swing of things the last week, so I'm planning on painting smaller batches, to help speed things up.

Some more detailed photos of the meagre January offering:

Skavenslaves with spears - front

Skavenslaves with spears - rear

Clanrats with swords - front

Clanrats with swords - rear

One of the things I forgot to prep, due to my last-minute switch of army, was some suitable shields. And the weather over in The Netherlands hasn't been conducive to undercoating anything - the temperature hasn't gotten up to 10°C in more than 2 months. Fingers crossed things get warmer soon.

Luckily, this edition of OWAC doesn't have a minimum points requirement per month, otherwise I'd be in a spot of trouble...

5 Skavenslaves, armed with a hand weapon and spear - 15 points

5 Clanrats, armed with a hand weapon and light armour (with shields still to be done) - 30 points

So, a whopping 45 points of Skaven rank-and-file to add to my army!

On to February! More of the same, I suspect. Although I might have to do a small batch of Giant Rats to meet the figure count in the shortest month...