ZeroTwentythree's Post-OWAC4 Eldar Pirate Wrap-Up Post (2013.5 pts.)

I survived OWAC IV. That's about most succinct statement I can make to summarize how this OWAC went for me. 2021 was a struggle for me compared to past years.

However, standing at the finish line and looking back at what I did.... I like what I see. I was aiming for a very stylized early Rogue Trader era Eldar force, I got that: the pirate crew of the Cold September. I mentioned in my intro post, this was a big nostalgia trip for me.

I do wish I could get a better photo to share, though. All those bright colors on a black background really mess with my phone's camera. Also, I couldn't manage a live pic with the army, so ended up having to Phn0otoshop myself into the background... and, hell, if I'm doing that I may as well add a suitably Oldhammer mullet.

 

...

 

Had to take three separate pics just to get more of the final army in focus somewhere. Click to enlarge at your own optical risk.

 

I strayed a bit from the initial plan, but not far. I was missing an entire month of troops, but made up for that with a couple of custom squads. I swapped out one of the D-Cannons for a scatter laser for variety. Two champions were swapped out for alternate figures. And the highlight of the OWAC (for me) was switching out the war-walker for GOTHMOWER. Best decision I could have made!

So there were a few Left Behind. Like I said, two champion level characters (Probati) were swapped out for Nik (GOTHMOWER pilot) and the musician in my Leader month. I'd still like to paint the original figures. Same goes for the second D-cannon that was replaced with a scatter laser. The one figure that dropped out entirely was a psychic lieutenant. Maybe he's like the Bad Lieutenant, but Psychic? Not sure. But my plan was to convert him as a tribute to the Eldar drop troops with insect like wings in the RT rulebook. I never had the time to work out the details. In the big picture, these swaps/omissions didn't impact the completeness of the project, but I still plan on finishing all of these figures and more. Like the not-pictured war-walker and far too many dreadnoughts/spirit warriors.

 

Midway through the 2021 OWAC, an additional inspiration hit that falls outside the pirate crew of the Cold September. I had somehow (i.e. drunkenly) ended up with a bunch of Eldar scouts, mostly off eBay, that don't really fit within my vision of the pirate crew. I also picked up the original Farseer model in a fit of extreme nostalgia. By far he/she is my favorite figure from the 1.5 ed./Craftworld 40k Eldar.

 

I came up with an idea for a Farseer who seeks to bring stray Eldar back into the Craftworld fold, but uses other Outsiders (scouts) to accomplish this. Sort of a "walk the line" character taking risks for greater gains. I like the idea of them as tag-alongs with/on the Cold September. But they are within the family of the crew -- only tolerated as useful, if somewhat annoying at times. Like missionaries. I'm looking forward to painting them up as a post-script to the OWAC.

Looking beyond the post-OWAC 2021, I've got a couple of ideas for a possible OWAC 2022 project, though I've got to admit I'm running out of legitimate OLD "oldhammer" figures. Plus most of the projects I've wanted to do have already been started, making it hard to come up with a new, complete and neatly packaged OWAC project like the last three have been. We'll see -- hopefully I turn something into an entry for OWACV....

ZeroTwentythree's June Eldar Pirates (376 points)

Squad Month  #4

Again... started the month with the best intentions. I even got the first of two squads of finished in the first week! Then work & work travel unraveled the rest of my plans.

In the end, I was once again up way past bed time, but managing to finish the painting -- but with two days to spare this time! The next two days were packed with work & family stuff, so I figured I'd better use "the weekend" as a good excuse to stay up late and finish.

Back to Troops, I painted two Dragon Squads. Dragon Squads are like the baseline Serpent Squads, but with even more flamers and plasma. Rogue Trader Eldar really liked the heat/fire more than ballistics or lasers. Outside of the usual shuriken weapons, they were heavy on the flame, plasma, and melta weapons.

 

I was on the fence about using the harlequin figure in one of the squads, but really wanted to add more variety and think it's sort of OK with the pirate theme. Plus they had the right equipment, and when painted in the same colors as the rest of the squad, it feels less harlequin-y.

Sort of a blah way to finish the challenge, just more vanilla troops. But I did some cool stuff in the middle part of the challenge, so it's OK I guess. This month it was two by the books Dragon squads, a bookend with the first month's Serpent squads.

 

I have also inadvertently (music on shuffle) ended the 2021 challenge the same way as its inception, with "Drive My Rocket" by ASF blasting through my headphones) as I put the last of the last of the paint on the figures. (NSFW, probably.) So that's a good omen, I suppose. I wrote about the inspiration, musical and otherwise, a bit before, I may elaborate  (/ramble) further in my wrap-up post.

 

Squad Month #4:.

Dragon Squad.................188

Dragon Squad.................188

 

June Total............ 376 pts.

Grand Total........ 2,013.5 pts.

 

Adrian's Eldars - The Wild Hunt (202 points)

Wild Card month

The dire avenger exarch watched the holomap with the last line of defense surrounding the webway portal and the entrance to the halls fo the House Delgari.

-We've lost contact with several corsair crews. Hopefully the will be with the other warrios that had withdraw. The line is ready for the last stand...

Suddenly he pointed to the flank

-However, we have reports that several swarms are trying to break through differnt points. The troops are mustering near the portal as you ordered. But we need to counterattack if we want to redirect the swarms to the center point. What shall we do now?

The farseer didn't speak, he simply turned to the webway portal.

In a blast of light, a new reinforcement moved from the webway. A group of warriors in bright clothes riding dragons.

-My name is Calsaar Firebreath, and we're the heirs of Haranshemash. We come to pay our debt in blood and wrath to our allies.

The farseer pointed to the map and commanded.

-The swarm must be herd to our trap there.

The exarch added.

-We could to assist your warriors if needed.

But Calsaar simply checked the equipment of his men and draw the sword.

-You won't have to break formation exarch. We will break the tide and crush those who dare to get to the flanks. The storm rides after us.

The exiled dragon knights charged across the plains between the webway portal and the forests. Farseer Ylshor saw the dragon knights riding towards the swarm and remarked a simple "Indeed" while moving the runes in the air. A psychic storm started to take shape behind the wild riders...

----------

This unit has seated in pieces waaaay to much. The wild card month was the perfect opportunity for the wildest riders.

It is a shame that the exiled dragons never had miniatures, neither they got love in more recent editions. A running gag in some novels or fluff, but nothing more. They're an interesting part of the eldar lore. First, imagining a society of eldars that had rejected most of the traditions and became something like the space amish...but with a more advanced technology than humans. 

Heck, according to the old Titanicus they even have knights and titans...

And the second reason, because dinosaurs. Who can resist to a Dino-Riders army.

So here we go

4x Exiled knights - 152 points

For this unit I took inspiration from Moebius amazing illustrations, with pastel and bright colours. That would add something interesting and different to the usual wood elves in space vibe that you'll expect from the eldar exodites. That's before watching the amazing pastel exodite riders from Lyssane! Truely amazing and inspiring as always. So I went for the original idea of the pastel colours which I do not usually paint.

The dinosaur skins are also different to the usual lizard-like greens or brown/yellow. The inspiration came from a child book I was working with a friend of mine who made the illustration. While the anatomy was right the editors wanted that the colours where... something more radical. I loved some designs and tried to replicate a particular skin into the dark elf cold ones.

Fun to paint in this kind of colours as I usually work with a more saturated or darker palettes.

1x Exiled knight veteran - 50 points

It was pretty fun to convert and paint, so who knows. Probably I will expand the exiled dragons in the future.

This unit lacks a lot of gemstones in comparison to the previous months but I think that 72 gemstones will please the public. 

#GoTeamEldar

Adrian's out.

ZeroTwentythree's May Eldar Pirates (237 points)

Leader Month

 

I started May with the best of plans. May was going to be squad month #4. Hot off the last-minute completion of my April figures, I just kept painting the first few days of May and got half way through a new squad of five troops for May, and even completed the second murder-bot. But then work and personal stuff came up and weeks went by. Earlier this week I acknowledged that there was no way I could finish my goal, and the day before I left for a few days out of town I prepped and (barely) started painting two command figures.

 

I had initially planned for three command figures, but the third involves some kitbashing/sculpting and I wouldn't have time for that (and still haven't sketched out exactly how I want to do it.) So a lieutenant and champion would have to do -- plus the 'bot I had already finished. So here I am, back home for a couple of days before heading out on the road again, and I spent a bit of my holiday (Memorial Day here in the US) hiding out in my damp, funky cellar trying to paint a couple of figures before the deadline.

I had them planned out in my head -- the colors, etc. I could "see" them. I just needed to get the paint on them. The Prefector (lieutenant) is the most senior leader of the crew to be painted in the OWAC. I had planed on a lot of color for the pirate crew when I first started, but ended up limiting the number of colors on my squads of rank & file. I figured the characters in the could exhibit a bit more individuality (I'll post a separate pic of all of them together in my final wrap-up post -- provided I can complete my June entry in time and avoid the dreaded Field of Bones.) Tar'El, the prefector, should stand out but doesn't entirely break the color palette of the rest of the force. Kell, his aide/minstrel/Probati is a bit of a reference to the lone squad of Eldar I kept from my original RT era army. It was a squad painted black with flame colored accents, mostly with flame weapons. I happened to notice this time (having painted the original musician a good 20 years ago....) that the harp also has a pistol weapon on it.  I guess I'll have to call it a las-pistol, that's what he comes equipped with in the list. Cool little detail that I enjoyed discovering as I painted.

 

The second murder-bot of the crew is an executioner class ghost warrior, One-Arm. I don't have the energy to post my usual fluff in the form of a few lines of fiction/narrative, but the gist is that he lost one arm and had it replaced with a saw blade and is the BFF/nemesis of last month's Goblin. Inspired by my recent choice of reading material, which may be obvious to some who are not so behind in their fantasy fiction library as me. ;)

 

Click to enlarge!

 

So that means my last entry -- June, will be the rank & file # 4 that should have been done in May. Wish me luck. Falling in the Field of Bones in the final month would be embarrassing.

 

May's addition to the crew of the Cold September is...

 

Leader Month:.

Tar'El - Prefector (lieutenant)........ 94 pts.

Probati............................................. 25 pts.

Executioner Class Ghost Warrior... 118 pts.

May Total............ 237 pts.

Total so far........ 1,637.5 pts.

Clever Title Wanted Here - Brendan's (300 points)

 Troops: 300 Points of Wraithguard

I like to have a catchy title to introduce my post, but sadly I was clueless with what to go with. So feel free to add something in the comments!

I don't have a lot of pictures for this month as the troop choices are all very similar.  My friend loved playing with Wraithguard and always played with a unit of 10. To my surprised he had an additional ten models. I don't know how I feel about potentially seeing 20 of these guys on the table, but now he can field a lot of these undead constructs!

    10 models equals 300 points.  These guys are expensive points wise.

It was a lot of work to paint these guys up, they are a lot of model for something so skinny, but I'm happy with how they have come out.  On to next month!

ZeroTwentythree's April Eldar Pirates (526.5 points)

Rank & File #3

"Kel!!"

The stories always seemed to start out this way. 

 

The drop crew had been hunkered down outside an isolated refinery for half a rotation, observing the defenses. All automated. Big, heavy armored mechs. Company policy was to only go in with overwhelming odds & minimal losses. Luckily the crew was equipped for this sort of finesse.

"Sir?"

Get the murder-bots. One of them. I don't care which. I've got a job.

 

"Find a ghost warrior?"

 

"Two of them. They probably won't be far apart."

 

"But how will I..."

 

"There will be a quiet ruckus. Signs. You'll find them."

Another half a rotation later, Kel was approaching forward observation, a hunched but elegant mechanical unit striding just in front of him. They approached the Captain.

"Goblin..."

"I think I shot One-Arm, he's stuck in a gulch. He came out of nowhere and jumped onto Goblin, flames..."

"He'll be fine," the Captain replied.

Kel had only been with the crew short time and was still sorting out the two ghost warriors. On the craftworld they were revered. But these two... The constant pranks, the bickering. Enough to jeopardize the entire crew. But the Captain and most of the rest of the crew seemed to take it in stride. He was trying to do the same, but it was a difficult adjustment. Anytime he had to deal with them it was as if he was dealing with wayward infants...

"Goblin," the Captain struck direct, "take down that mech pacing the nearest quad, then jam the comms-main. We'll be right behind you. Grab whatever wave assets you can after that. Whatever catches your fancy."

The lithe ghost warrior darted away in an instant. Not five pacs later, the nearest lumbering mech toppled over, onto the perimeter fencing creating a gap for the crew to cautiously surge forward...

This was the toughest month so far. Not because of the painting, just the time. We had a four day family vacation at the beginning of the month. That was a very good thing. After that it sort of went downhill, I had my second vax shot, got the expected side-effects, and then two weeks of mystery illness that was not covid. I don't even remember a lot of the second half of the month, which is when I painted the Viper Squad and the Ghost Warrior.

 

Yes, the inspiration for the Ghost Warriors might be obvious to some. ;) As with everything else, I've got more backstory & fluff for them in my head.

 

One of the exciting things about this Challenge is that I acquired one each of the Ghost Warriors. They were figures I really wanted when I was young, but was never able to lay my hands on. For whatever reason, getting Eldar as a kid in the '80s was difficult and I just had to settle for whatever I could find until the first boxed set of Guardians (metal bodies, plastic arms) and the Craftworld/Aspect Warriors were released & easy to find. I never had D-Cannons before, either. So this is another bonus!

 

There are a couple of quirks to the list again. As with last time, the Venom Squad is my own invention, based on the existing Serpent Squad, but making use of more figures that are part of the original Eldar range, but didn't fit with the list in Chapter Approved. (MOST of the figures available didn't match the list -- a mystery to me.) This one was to make use of the lasgun & las-cannon equipped figures. Click the template (and all the other pics) to enlarge.

In addition, the D-Cannon was the first released artillery piece for the Eldar. Shortly (a month or two later...?) they released a new platform design for las-cannon, scatter laser, and plasma cannon. But as far as I can tell, there were never any rules or Chapter Approved unit entries released in White Dwarf to accompany the new release adverts like they did with the D-Cannon. Not only that, but there's no official points for the scatter laser until later editions. Even the D-Cannon left the crew up to your imagination. So a bit of reverse-points-engineering, and I've got crew and scatter laser costs...

 

Eldar Artillery Crew ("Crewdar"):

Eldar.... 8 pts.

Mesh Armour.... 1 pt.

Refractor Field... 1 1/2 pts.

Knife.... 1/2 pt.

Laspistol.... 1/2 pt.

Photochromatic Visor.... 1/2 pt.

Communicator.... 1/2 pt.

Respirator.... 1/2 pt.

 

Total per Crewdar.... 13 pts.

 

 

So, for April, the crew of the Cold September is up to...

 

Troops Month #3:

Venom Squad................. 178 pts.

D-Cannon Platform........ 96 pts.

Scatter Laser Platform.... 96 pts.

Assassin Class Ghost Warrior... 156.5 pts.

April Total............ 526.5 pts.

Total so far........ 1,400.5 pts.

Adrian's eldars - Like a Rainbow in the Dark (166 points)

Rank and File month #4 

A tired Dire Avengers exarch is helping some guardians to retreat in the last line of the Forest.

- It won't be possible for all our forces can withdraw to the warpgate without getting catch in the open, they're too close. Ymir prepare your fire dragons again, we will have to stand and fight one last tim...

Suddendly several detonations were felt coming from the Forest and the roaring engines of a Phoenix bomber squadron.

Behind came several grav-transports and landing craft of various colours. The emblem of the Eldritch Raiders could be spotted in all of them. From a door it came a figure.

- Fast exarch, come with me if you want to live.

The corsairs started the evac with the newly arrived transports.

- Wait, even with your ships at our disposal, there are still more troops fleeing from the forests up ahead. And they will be catch by the swarm... we must hold them here so they can reach the city safely.

- Fear not exarch, we will hold the line. When the enemy surround us thinking they have an easy prey, but our targeters will guide the phoenixes so they rain down fire and death upon them...

We may see you in the warpgate. Soon.

And the pirates entered the deep forest, armed to the teeth. Walking into an endless darkness.

No sign of the morning coming.

Now they've been left on their own

Like a rainbow in the dark

----------

Fourth month, the pressure starts to feel and I painted the minimum. But with a little twist. 

At first I didn't know what colour should I choose. Do I paint an inverted scheme from Iyanden for the Eldritch Raiders? Combined with black? Add additional colours or the purple + blue variant of this warband?.

So the solution was obvious: Paint in all the available colours.

You guys give me also an excelent idea, "paint them like pirates", and pirates wear strips... I opened my galery of Chris Foss illustrations and started doing whatever I felt that suits each pirate.

In the end, even the disciplined eldars may wear whatever they bring into a corsair force, rather than a uniform pattern. Or atleast it suits the unit quite well, with the arrange of different weapons.

9x Pirates (yarrr!) - 135 points

1x Veteran Pirate Captain - 31 points

They also have cool makeup because I listened to heavy metal while painting but they're more into glam rock.

(The pirate captain's helmet is a Dave Perry unscrupulous copy..err tribute)

It was one the funniest unit I've ever painted in my entire eldar collection. Each model admits lots of different details and motifs. Jes Goodwin early designs are simply put, amazing.

Double inspiration: I just remembered that Stargrave is coming, so this unit will be my warband of space adventurers. With some additional rt eldar and a pair of surprises I've in my desk. Still no murderbots sadly (I envy those of you who have one!).

For whatever reason, the music app started repeating Dio's discography. Which I think it is not a bug, it is a feature! And with such variation of colours came the idea for this month chapter.

A yes, the gemstone count: 168 gemstones if I am not mistaken.

#GoTeamEldar

Adrian's out.

Brendan - Hero Entry (50 points)

Just Like Bonnie Tyler, "I need a hero!"

"I need a hero

I'm holding out for a hero 'till the end of the night

He's gotta be strong, and he's gotta be fast

And he's gotta be fresh from the fight

I need a hero"

I was initially just going to have one warlock be the hero for the competition, but I kind of find those models a bit dull. My friend had a bunch of the old Phoenix Lord models and I asked if I could paint those up for him too, because they are just amazing sculpts. So to get out of the way my compulsory HQ choice, here is my warlock entry for this month:

1 Warlock: 50 points, and totally boring.
Bonus Heroes
First up is a harlequin model. I don't know if he is 2nd edition or later so I'm not counting. plus I was too chicken to try and paint diamonds all over him so he should be disqualified anyways! :) Regardless, he came out looking nice.

I actually owned this Swooping Hawk Phoenix Lord when I was 14. I gave it to a friend who was playing Eldar, who then gave it to my friend whom army I am currently painting, so that is a weird circle of life situation. I just love how he came out:

The next Phoenix Lord is the Dire Avenger one. I thought the dire avengers were a bit dull, but the Phoenix lord one was pretty cool. I tried my best to represent the rainbow on the helmet crest to mixed results.

My absolute favorite has to be the Striking Scorpion Phoenix Lord. He just screams alpha predator to me and I loved painting every minute of him. I wouldn't want to meet him in a dark alley.

All those models completed and I'll just claim 50 points for the Warlock. But this was an enjoyable month to paint!

ZeroTwentythree's March Eldar Pirates (347 pts)

Rank & File #2

The prefector and the main body of his troops were pinned down by a small group of private security troops hunkered down behind a makeshift strong point of  heavy cargo containers and industrial equipment. "Kel!!"

 

"Sir?"

 

The quick reply from just behind nearly made him jump. The rest of the crew tended to drift towards individualism, he often forgot that his new aide, Kel, was more likely to shadow him.

"We'll never get anywhere til we root those mon-keigh out of their shell. Bring up the D-cannons."

 

"But sir, we can't. The D-Cannons haven't been painted yet."

 

The prefector wasn't sure what irked him more, being called "sir" or the fact that the D-cannons weren't ready. He made a mental note to demand the ship's artisan to paint them for his April entry. Hammering away at them with the D would have been perfect for opening a gap in their defenses.

"Well, if we can't give them the D, send Noods."

"Sir?"

It was possibly a risky proposition. The Danger Noodles were an odd bunch that favored close combat and gory weapons. He suspected that more than a few were former Scorpions. But they were good at what they did, rivaling the Vipers in terms of skill and experience. Nobody liked to be on the receiving end of unexpected Noods.

"Send Noods. One squad. That will throw them off guard."

 

March was another rough month for me. My goal was two squads of heavy (for Eldar pirates) infantry. Very rough. I won't bore you with the details. I probably made it worse by drifting off into working on other things besides OWAC Eldar.

 

The first of my goals was a squad of Vipers. They're an upgrade from the Serpent squads, get power armour and all troops count as champions. So I picked through the figures with the heaviest looking armour and weapons to match the squad build. The only one that seems off is the melta trooper, but that;s the only figure produced who has the right weapon. I'm OK with that. As I was painting these I realized that I never quite made the connection before -- the two "pointing" figures aren't actually pointing. They both have Jokaero digital weapons on their fingers!

 

I decided to paint all the power-armoured figures in a different color from those equipped with mesh armour.

 

Next I worked on a new, custom addition to the pirate list... 

I'm guessing the way the list in Chapter Approved: Book of the Astronomican were created is similar to the way early WFB lists and regiments of renown were created -- they were generated by early games & play-testing by the author(s) & their friends (studio team?) So the lists are specific -- not just "orks" or "space marines" or "eldar" or whatever, but a specific group of ork raiders, space marine chapter, or eldar pirate crew. So, in RT fashion, I'm customizing the list. I will have no "Zoat Terror Squads" but I'm going to make a couple of new squads to utilize the RT era Eldar figures that have no other place in the Chapter Approved list in the hope of fielding most, if not all, of the old range.

I came up with two squads. Sticking with the serpentine naming conventions, one is the Venom squad (not yet painted.) The second was a squad using some of the heavy armoured & melee equipped figures. I opted for "elite" status similar to the also power armoured Viper squad upgrade. At first I was going to name them Rattler squads, since several figures have chainswords. But after further consideration, that seemed too "wild west." So I went to the ultimate cultural reference: memes & t-shirts. "Rattler Squad" was now replaced by... Danger Noodles!

I also made a small photo/display board and started working on a skirmish board and terrain so they wouldn't look so awkward being photographed on my fantasy terrain. Also working on a 3x3 terrain board for small skirmish games.

So I made it through March. Barely.

Troops Month:

Viper Squad..... 179 pts.

Danger Noodle Squad..... 168 pts.

March Total....... 347 pts.

Total so far........ 874 pts.

Adrian's Eldars - The Witch and the Dragon (445 points)

Rank and File month #3 

The deepest parts of the Forest saw skirmishes erupting here and there. The swarm was advancing and the eldar line could not wistand the numbers much longer. Pockets of resistance from the guardians and shrines of aspect warriors tried to maintain safe routes for the incoming withdraw. 

But the tide shall be halted or else the Eldar could not get to the rearguard.

Among the oldest trees, some of them seen the ancient soils of the Inner Planets of the Eldar Empire, everything came to an unnerve silence.

When the swarm was crossing the deepest forest, the unnatural scream came from all directions.

-Lets burn them.

Hundreds of melta bombs annihilated the first wave of biomorphs and the scouting creatures ahead of the main horde. From the flames came the witches screaming and slicing the monsters like butter. And then the dragons came covering them with flaming rays, disintegrating any tyranid than could get beyond the dance of swords of the Howling Banshees.

----------

Third month ready. I have been experimenting with heavy glazing and seesh, for a moment I thought I would get the Mulligan. However, at the last minute I saw Lissanne incredible fire dragons and I could not falther now that Team Eldar is posting such awesome pics.

First and foremost, the banshees

7x Howling Banshees - 189 points

1x Exarch - 69 points

I wanted the armour resemble the second iteration of Jain Zar from the Eavy Metal team in the 3rd ed. Eldar Codex. That pearly grey was awesome.

Harder than I thought and took more time that I originally intended, but I am more than pleased with the result.

The swords and the axe follow the traditional red for energy weapons with a bit of nmm spice added to the mix.

4x Fire Dragons - 112 points

1x Exarch - 75 points

These boys are hot. At this point you'll want to see another take to the fire dragons, but no! there is plenty more orange in the Team Eldar pots. Non-orange dragons for another owac, sorry.

I forgot to draw the aspect rune in the helmets but I had little time left this month. Maybe I will add them at some point.

Lastly, the moment of truth, this month we reduce the quota to only 381 gemstones painted. 

#GoTeamEldar

Adrian's out.