goblinpaladin's Wood Elves II - The Second Age Ends

 It's always nice to have someplace to come home to. At best, it's a place where you can rest and be refreshed by familiar surroundings and well-loved people. At worst, at least you remember why you wanted to go away on adventures in the first place.
   - Ursula Vernon, Nurk: The Strange, Surprising Adventures of a (Somewhat) Brave Shrew

the firefox is from the Hours of Joanna I of Castille

OWAC every year is a joy. Stressful, but a joy. Having a clear plan and a consistent requirement to get things on the painting table and pigmented helps keep one disciplined (even I did still paint an entire Blood Bowl team in between). I've now finished a substantial majority of my hopeful wood elf army, with just some Melnibonean cavalry and some chariots to do. Just need to sell some superfluous organs first, with ebay prices...

For now:

left wing

right wing (no not that kind)

hunting dogs

wardancers

Duilliath Shadowleaf and kin

kinband

kinband

eagle-friend

trish treeman (trishman)

another trish-man

Okay, so in Warhammer Armies terms:

CHARACTERS

Duilliath Shadowleaf, Sylvan King (213 points)

Aoibheil Joy-in-the-Earth, Greenfey (303 points)

Laochailan h-eòin, Hero of Birds, Sylvan Chieftain (246 points) + dismounted model

Skaw the Falconer, Sylvan Chieftain (170[?] points) 

Fionn the Harpist, Sylvan Chieftain (168 points)

Eada the Noble (95 points)

RANK ⁊ FILE

5 Wardancers with two hand weapons (105 points)

5 Falconers (55 points)

Beastmaster + 3 warhounds (25 points)

Beastmaster + 4 bears (93 points) (3 bears count-as 4)

Beastmaster + 5 wild cats (118 points)

17-strong Warrior Kinband with shields, light armour, standard, musician (209 points)

Shapechanger (28 points) 

 

11 Guards with standard, musician (195 points)

18-strong Warrior Kinband with spears, shields, light armour, standard, musician (240 points)

Shapechanger with spear (29 points) 

 

Treeman (280 points)

Treeman (280 points)

..for a total of 2852 points. In my first OWAC, I made it to 1058 points, so the wood elves currently stand at 3910 points. That's pretty solid. Now all I need is an opponent. Maybe I'll paint up an opposing force - I do have a lot of metal chaos warriors, mutants, and other horrible things. Then again, I still have those squats from last year - ooh, and then there are those guys....

probably should have brushed my hair

I'll leave you with this photo of Thistle while I decide.

Until next time, star-travellers...

goblinpaladin's Wood Elves II - a June Wild Card update (560 points)

 But if we stayed home and did nothing, doom would find us anyway, sooner or later.

    - Fangorn in The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien

tolkien rules, shakespeare drools

Happy June, folks! I kept getting distracted by other projects, so despite all my efforts, I only actually painted these guys this week - and then nearly forgot to do this post! Dangit.

Very technically these are rank-and-file. In third edition, treemen come from the rank-and-file allotment, meaning you could have an entire army of treemen, led by a single elf hero. I'm sure that would be completely terrible on the field, but also extremely cool. Still, I only did two, so this is a wild card month:

RANK ⁊ FILE

Treeman (280 points)

Treeman (280 points)

Of course, they need no introduction.

These were mostly painted with contrasts and washes, with some stripey highlights on this fellow's white-grey bark. Trish Carden's sculpts are absolutely beautiful, so not really a lot else to say (for once).

The little mushroom man was sent to me by the fellow I bought them from, who I realised post-purchase is Ross from Krakon Games! He'd sent me a little Mykeling freebie. Someone, somewhere built a troll or giant with a snotling on the base mimicking his big friend, and as soon as I saw the little guy I knew that he was going to stick with the Treeman in the same pose - and here he is. Look at his tiny screaming face.

[Treeman]
From Warhammer Armies: Wood Elves, Nigel Stillman. Artist uncredited. © Games Workshop, 1996

That's it! That's the final entry! I've painted nearly all the wood elves I own, and nearly finished the army plan I designed back in 2018 with all the figures I wanted. Still want some more Morley waywatchers though...

goblinpaladin's Wood Elves II - a May Rank & File update (559 points)

                                             ..he mid bordum het
wyrcan þone wihagan   and þæt werod healdan
fæste wið feondum.         Þa wæs feohte neh,
tir æt getohte.                   Wæs seo tid cumen
þæt þær fæge men           feallan sceoldon.

   - The Battle of Maldon, lines 101-105.

'old' is a state of mind right

As I warned in my introductory post, some of the models I had planned are modern plastics rather than weighty old lead, as is true and righteous. However, none of you objected, so this is my offering for May:

CHARACTERS

Eada the Noble (95 points)

RANK ⁊ FILE

11 Guards with standard, musician (195 points)

18-strong Warrior Kinband with spears, shields, light armour, standard, musician (240 points)

Shapechanger with spear (29 points)

All of these lads are available from North Star, part of the Oathmark range (except the Grenadier shapechanger in the spearmen).

Oathmark elf archers

I don't know how I settled on twelve as the number for the elite archer regiment - possibly some ancient battle report had those numbers, or I just wanted to emphasise their elite status by having a regiment outside my usual 'divisible by five' formula. At any rate, here they are.

I made sure they were well-armed (each archer has a longsword and a knife) to visually cue their elite status. Their robes are trimmed in white, the elven colour of mourning, giving them a more uniform appearance than the warrior kinbands.

Oathmark elf king (conversion)

Eada the Noble is a very minor conversion of the Oathmark elf king model; I clipped off his left arm and gave him a bow. Either his quiver is under his cloak or it's magic; whatever. His colours tie into his men, but he's brought his own gloves, a handsome red cloak, and a lochaber axe.

Oathmark elf spearmen (some converted)

My second infantry regiment is also made up of Oathmark plastics, although several of these are converted with spears and a draco from historical ranges. The musician and unit leaders are Oathmark metals, while the burly fellow on our left is a Grenadier model serving as a shapechanger.

Celarn leads from the front

As with the last kinband, these warriors are led by a Melnibonean whom I painted long, long ago. He's also gained a new shield (with a design also unlikely to be historical but kind of perfect for wood elves!).

eagle-eye view

While they are all the same plastic sculpt, giving them shields from a handful of ranges with transfers from all over the place has kept them from feeling like a uniformed Asur-style regiment and more like the kinband that they are.

shieldwall!

Of course, I did manage to screw up more of the Little Big Man transfers than I successfully used, but they are actually very good.

my poor broken phone

These regiments were mostly fun to paint. Did I regret assembling the archers with all their kit before painting them? Yes. Have I learned from my mistakes? Absolutely not. I also continue to prefer pre-made banners to having to cut paper banners out with scissors, apparently having never mastered the skill of a five-year-old.

Interior illustration for Warhammer Fantasy Battles (5th edition)
David Gallagher. © Games Workshop, 1996

Coming up next: Something Trish-tastic...

goblinpaladin's Wood Elves II - an April Leader update (762 points)

 "Lord Death is patient! I am not, not today..."
   - Arafel in The Tree of Swords and Jewels, C.J Cherryh

please forgive my poor, battered cameraphone

This month we have a trio of heroes, come to lead the elves of the forest. 

CHARACTERS

Duilliath Shadowleaf, Sylvan King (213 points)

Aoibheil Joy-in-the-Earth, Greenfey (303 points)

Laochailan h-eòin, Hero of Birds, Sylvan Chieftain (246 including eagle) + dismounted model

Once again, we have three different manufacturers present!

eagle rider

The eagle rider is a Grenadier model with the usual features of their wood elves - simple tunics, woven quiver, Celtic-inspired jewellery, slicked-back hair. Straightforward to paint and striking alongside his fellows.

I also painted an injured infantry model, in case the eagle is slain. This is a Jes Goodwin wardancer and is very obviously equipped differently, but uh don't worry about it.

arm's in a sling but he found some chainmail pants

There is a surprising dearth of female wood elf wizard models that aren't dreadful in some way. Thankfully, Tim Prow has one in his Diehard Miniatures range! Tim's sculpts are designed to fit in with 32mm modern ranges, so she's a bit chonky but that works alright for a character model.

Onica Silver Leaf - Wood Elf Shaman

Finally, Duilliath Shadowleaf himself, the army general.

tragic hero

Part of Crooked Dice's Fantasy Stars collection, he's clearly - ahem - inspired by certain albino anti-heroes from legend, so I tried to paint him to match. The black armour and lank, pale-grey hair turned out alright, but his pallid skin is a bit mixed. The sword was given a tarnished, corrupted hilt and a blade made of dark matter to hint at the true nature of this terrible thing.

Interior illustration for Blood Bath at Orc's Drift, p.8
Gary Chalk. © Games Workshop, 1985

I also completed some archers during April, but I'm without their banner, so they can wait until May. Hopefully I'll get some spearmen to accompany them! We shall see what we shall see...

goblinpaladin's Wood Elves II - a March Rank & File update (236 points)

Nature, red in tooth and claw...
   - Alfred Tennyson, In Memoriam A.H.H, Canto LVI 

very little red actually

I actually finished my March commitment in February, trying to build a buffer which is now being rapidly eroded by climate change. While I am luckier than my countrymen a few hours to the north of me in that my region is not flooded or annihilated by the rains and neither I nor my family are at risk of death or injury, constant rain for two weeks meant that I couldn't undercoat anything until about a week ago. Fingers crossed for April.

RANK ⁊ FILE

Beastmaster + 3 warhounds (25 points)

Beastmaster + 4 bears (93 points) (3 bears count-as 4)

Beastmaster + 5 wild cats (118 points)

Mostly classic Jes Goodwin sculpts this month, as I've managed to get all the original beastmasters and at least one of each animal.

chúnna (chulainn)

The dogs are Jes Goodwin's, but are a weird size compared to other dogs on the market, so I'm not sure if I'll be able to expand the pack.

hound beastmaster

hound

I'll show off the Jes Goodwin sculpts in these kinds of images for those who don't know them.

no not those kinds of bears

The leftmost bear is Goodwin's Citadel sculpt. The mama bear in the middle (who counts as two, sitting on a 50mm square base) is from Crooked Dice. The cuddly fellow on the right comes from Bears Head Miniatures.

bear beastmaster

bear

He actually looks quite gentle, really.

faster, pussycat! kill! kill!

A range of cats here, with only the centre lynx coming from Goodwin. The other two are available at Ral Partha; cougar; tiger.

beastmaster

Beastmaster is, of course, a gender-neutral title.

kitties

Tried to paint the tiger like a lot of paleoart depicted sabre-toothed tigers in my childhood, to get a sense that species extinct elsewhere in the Old World still dwelled in Loren. The black panther-types were to echo those species, which usually dwell in hotter climates than Loren but, uh... elves, man.

The giant cats thing leans more into Wood Elves' indigenous American influences than Celtic anyway, although there was a European lion until the late BCE.

elven hunting cat

Finally, we end with Jes Goodwin's elven cat sculpt - a surprisingly rare miniature, and one I don't think I did a great job on. Still, painted is better than not.

we're gonna eat your bones, outsiders

Lo, those many years ago in my first OWAC, I did paint some boars for this selfsame project. Therefore let me present all the animal packs and their beastmasters I've completed so far. Almost certainly absolutely useless on the table, but they do look pretty cool.

Interior illustration for "The Beastfriend", Warhammer Companion, p.20
Specific artist not credited. © Games Workshop. Reprinted by Cubicle 7, 2020.

Coming up next: Characters! Hopefully!