Adrian's Leader month - Here be dragons (819 points)

One of the toughest policies and direst duties of King Caradryel was the abandonment of the Old World colonies. A tragedy for many nobles that still had family ties with those elves that refused to leave the continent. 

Those who flew to the new populated forests of Athel Loren were somewhat safe. But the people of the coast were damned to perish against the hordes of barbarians, orcs and creatures of chaos awoken after the age of elves and dwarves.

It was not an easy task to enforce the recall of elven troops in the diplomatic table. Among the unrested nobles in Ulthuan, there was a risk of disobeyance and unilaterally send aid to the continent, or worse, open rebellion. One of those, Bel-Tebal of Nagarythe, a caring father for the princes of Tor Nimtala in the Tielan coast. It was vital to retain the few nobles that were still loyal to the crown in the ravaged lands of Nagarythe.

Caladryel was pragmatic and an intelligent leader. It was not possible to make an exception with the stubborn veteran Bel-Tebal. Nor undoing his command. But in the audience with the enraged former prince, he choose wisely the words.

"You, as all the people of Ulthuan, has been commanded not to sent your valuable soldiers to the continent. Yet, I cannot forbid the aid of a father to her daughter and his son-in-law. You can march yourself with your mount, take your best blade and fight for them. Your retinue can accompany you, but they will not be allowed to land in the continent..."

A mount. Not a steed.
Bel-Tebal reached the caverns of his tower and pleaded for the aid of his old friend Ymmrrarior. The ancient female great dragon hear that the offspring of his friend was in danger, so she must stay awake from the dragon dream a little bit longer.

The hordes of chaos creatures did not know that they've indirectly provoked the wrath of an ancient foe. Fire and nightmare made manifest. No ratmen could pass her scale armour. No enemy enough powerful to stand the wrath of the old prince and his terrible ally.

A small change of plans for this month. I needed some supplies for finishing a unit I had in the workbench for the wildcard. However, the printed old styled shields couldn't get in time, and I switched to the big guy instead.

I could have completed some of the other planned pieces, and I am unsure if I could finish the wildcard unit in time. Yet the dragon was a safe bet for this month, believe it or not.

I was also wanting to paint some creature. In the meantime I have been toying with some miniatures based on paleontological reconstructions. I despertely needed to put my hands on the dragon!

At first it was going to be based on some blue lizards that will also be in the same chromatic range of much of my army. The belly and wings in a sandy white or slightly ice yellow. But I was starting to paint my other commander, the elf mage, and I felt in love with the pink-grey I made. It was the perfect colour for the belly and wings of the dragon.

I love to put some small patterns in the horns, head and maybe tail or some key areas of the body of my creatures. I went for a slightly light turquoise strips and then the eye firey-motif.

The funiest or oddest reference was the prince armour. I love the colour combinations of the old Saint Seiya armours of the eighties. Unusual choices today, as we barely see more than two colours in fantasy/sci-fi, both western or manga armour designs.

The cloak and clothes have similar patterns like the other, japanese-styled clothes of my army.

Finally, the mandatory elf mage. I am basing each of my mages in a discipline of the Old World winds of magic. I chose a different approach to the lore of life. Instead of the usual greens, the japanese flowers allowed my to mix the pinky-gray tones with the flower pattern over the cloak.

That makes for

1x High elf prince and a great dragon - 760 points

1x High elf mage - 59

And now for the "easy part"? What would be the wildcard month? Stay tuned for the next update

 

Until then,

Adrian's out.

Paul's High Elf Host - Leader Month (768 pts)

 

Can you hear that? It's the sound of the victory drums approaching! 

I'm presenting a somewhat mixed cast of characters for leader month, some of which I had planned from the start of this year's OWAC and some who have found a place in the drive to paint every damn High Elf within a 50 mile radius of my house!

First up is an 'Ellyrian Reaver' Hero, although I think he is supposed to be a Silver Helm... Anyway, what he isn't is the 'Kingfisher' knight that I had envisioned. I like to go for walks along the river in the woods near my house and if you time it just right and are very lucky... you can see a pair of kingfishers darting along above the water. Their colours are simply beautiful and I got the idea in my head that I would try and use a kingfisher colour scheme... in metallics... on this mini. 

Well.... let's just say my first attempt looked like something my 12 year old self would have mocked and my first attempt at mixing my own coloured metallics ended up with a blue that can only be described as 'Faded 1980s Ford Escort'

So back in the dip he went and I quickly opted to make him the leader of my Ellyrion detachment. As I've elected to use the embossed shields from the 4th Edition Warhammer Box Set (a bit too big for many mounted minis tbh, but good for the themed detachments) I've taken a couple of pictures without the shield before it obscures lots of the detail. The shield itself reverses the colour scheme of the main units, coz that's how you show one of your minis is the champion - right? 

Next up is a multipurpose mini. I decided I didn't need two Prince Imriks mounted on Dragons in my Host, and I painted my preferred version last year, so I decided to repurpose the newer version as a mounted Army Battle Standard/Musician. As I was looking at the mini and deciding what to do with it it occurred to me that the combination of long lance with pennants and the big horn in the other hand rather lent itself to the idea of a 'Battle Herald' who might combine use of the lance and pennants and the horn to signal to the High Elf army.

A slightly damaged High Elf Mage's horse provided an alternative mount although it required some moderate vandalism of the metal saddle that was designed to fit a dragon rather than a horse, the final fit is no worse than most warhammer cavalry of the Oldhammer period... i.e. terrible.

He's obviously a bit flash so I think he could easily be upgraded to the Army General if needed, or could be demoted to unit musician if I want to up my numbers slightly to field two units of Dragon Princes. 

Sods law, as soon as I took the first picture of him on his own I knocked him over and the lance detached, damaging the paint job. He's back on the desk for repair but I was relieved to have got a couple of pictures with the unit first which show him from a couple of other angles.

Right, what's next? No, it's not a Tiranoc Charioteer it's clearly a Phoenix Guard Champion! I have somehow found myself with a surfeit of Tiranoc Charioteers, partly because of 'reasons that will be revealed' and partly because I don't quite know.

Anyway, with his fantastic helmet plumes and fancy glaive I thought he was a good bet for a unit champion for my Caledor themed Phoenix Guard from last month. Again, you can tell he's the champion because his colour scheme is reversed. These are the rules.

A truly classic sculpt from the period and quite iconic in High Elf armies so I was thrilled to find it was as much fun to paint as I had hoped. You can see him with his unit a bit further down the page.

Here we have a Phoenix Guard Unit Standard/Army Battle Standard.

Did I mention I had a surfeit of charioteers? Well this one came to me already prepped for conversion into a standard bearer, and with an unfortunately squashed face (which I guess was the result of him being clambed when his hand was drilled by a previous owner. I have to say I think the idea is a good one and I was happy to make the most of someone else's bravery here and use the already damaged mini rather than risking making a pig's ear of it myself.

That said there was still a bit of work to do in fashioning the banner pole and standard along with the banner itself. The pole is brass rod cut to size, the cross piece is made from pieces of two tooth picks cut and sanded to fit relatively flush (others would have done a much better job of this I'm sure!) and a small grove filed in to locate the banner pole. The standard top is from a sprue of plastic Elven shield bosses while the banner itself is cut from the skin of an expired indoor football, which I think looks a bit like dragon hide. 

The runes are Asur the eternal flame, Mark of Asuryan, symbol of rebirth and lordship; Caladai symbol of the line of kings, the dragons of flame; Sarathai. the rune of the World Dragon, symbolising defiance, unyielding. Used in combination here they represent the ascendancy of the line of Caledor to the throne of Ulthuan.

Utility/versatility is at play again and the mini can act as either full army battle standard or unit standard for the Phoenix Guard as seen below. as such his colour scheme follows theirs, which also serves to distinguish him form the unit champion of the same sculpt.

Finally we have Prince Teclis/Mage Lord of Caledor. This exact mini has been at the centre of my High Elf army since 1994. I have absolutely no idea how his staff is still in one piece after all the time he has spent in show boxes and all the house moves he has survived. It now wobbles if you paint it too roughly so please don't look at it too hard in the pictures in case it breaks.

It is even more remarkable it didn't break when I decided at the end of April that it needed ot go in the dip as a simple refurb just wasn't going to fit the bill for this beauty. I know I could have done more on the detailing on the robes and cloak, and the staff, and the tabard... but I am pretty happy with how he came out and think the red, green and gold make an impact. 

I'm glad I took the risk and added significantly to the monthly work load (as with the last minute Imrik on horseback decision) as painting him alongside the two 'Phoenix Guard-(not)Charioteers' meant I had a consistent 'Caledor' themed colour palette across the three and they sit very nicely together in the Phoenix Guard unit. 

Monthly Total:

Mounted Hero (Barded Steed, Light Armour, Shield, Sword) - 114 pts
Mounted Army General (Imrik) - (Barded Steed, Heavy Armour, Lance) - 172 pts
Phoenix Guard Unit Champion (Heavy Armour, Halberd) - 53 pts
Army Battle Standard Bearer (Heavy Armour) - 101 pts
Mage Lord - 328 pts

Total - 768 pts

So... with May being my leader month and all four of my rank and file months already completed I 'could' call my OWAC VI completed with a month to spare... 

But I think the appearance of Imrik minus a dragon and the mention of multiple charioteers but no chariots might give you some clues as to what might be coming for my final wild card month. 

Thanks for reading and congratulations to everyone who made it through month five!