Shadespyre's July Post - OWAC VIII Wrap Up Post - High Elves of Lothern - 3304 points, 96 models

OWAC VIII - Wrap up - High Elves of Lothern

July

No new miniatures to show you, I haven't added anything new since last month. Instead, I can share some (blurry) pictures of the whole force together.

The block of infantry at the rear right of the photos is not a whole new unit, I just made and decorated a skirmish style movement tray to stand all those individual miniatures on.

What I've ended up with is a small force dominated by cavalry and archers, which I suppose is to be expected for High Elves. With just one solid infantry block it's an army that would rely on aggressive tactics, your best chance of victory would be to smash the enemy in one decisive cavalry charge.

The intention of sharing a basing style with the Wood Elf army (from OWAC VII) is that the Lothern troops could be deployed as an allied force (though it would require a huge game to field all of both!), which would bring a heavy cavalry element which is missing from that army.

It would be fun, but far too much work, to get all of my Wood and High Elves set up on the same table for a photo call. Maybe one day, but not any time soon I'm afraid.

It's a much smaller army (half the size or less) of my last three OWAC projects, which made it a bit more manageable, even though I actually ended up painting more miniatures than I expected. Will I add to it? Possibly. I'd need to find substantial numbers of the miniatures from the range that suit being units - it seems unlikely I'll get that lucky again, but you never know!

I like how the simple heraldry works this time around. The "decal on a plain background" has been a choice born of desperation and laziness before now, but I think it looks much better here than on the Dark Elves, for example.

Thnaks to everyone who left comments, critique and encouragement this year, being part of this group is inspiring and (most importantly) great fun.

OWAC IX

I really don't know right now. Those with long memories will remember that right back when I joined the OWAC group I worried that my participation was threatened by my back problems? Well, after much frustration I am finally on a waiting list for surgery to hopefully fix me, and so until I have a date confrmed for that I can't be sure what months of 2026 I will be fit to paint in... hopefully all will be clear before December!

Shadespyre's May Post - Leader Month - OWAC VIII - High Elves of Lothern (+1345 points)

OWAC VIII - Leader Month - High Elves of Lothern

May

Leader Month. I promised leaders, I promised banners, and I promised basing. Here we go, then.

Let's start off with the units we've seen before, just with their command groups added and their bases decorated.

Here we have the main infantry regiment, the Lothern City Guard, joined by their infamous Champion Lahaven Ramjewel (3rd from left) and notorious commnding officer D'roi Haisplinn (3rd from right), as well as their musician and standard bearer. For the standard, I've simply used a much bigger version of the dragon / sea serpent head on a nice blue background - I don't think it *needs* anything else, and I'm feeling too lazy to add anything, anyway. 

In my quest for the perfect way to make banners, this is made out of milliput, rolled out thin onto a plastic bag and the crinkled to get the hanging effect. It looks quite nice but it was very messy and tedious to make! Not sure I'd do it again. You'll recognise the decorative components from later plastic High Elf kits.

I think in future I might just trim the 3d printed bases down by a fraction of a milimetre; the perfect fit is nice but as soon as paint and glue and flock is involved the minis are hard to get in and out of the movement trays.

Next up is the main unit of Elwing's Guard Cavalry. Elwing of Lothern is the great-coated officer with the golden helmet crest, the unti champion Estrulan is the same sword waving officer I've used in all three units (there are only so many models to go around!) This standard is also made of milliput (I made a big sheet of it and cut out the sections which worked best). The spiral pole was made by twisting some square section styrene rod with two pairs of pliers. I didn't get quite the same shape as the metal spear shafts but I think it looks okay. 

Just a word on the basing - I tried to use exactly the same elements that I did on the summer variant of the Wood Elves. I may have missed or run out of a couple of things, I certainly have used less of the red and yellow flowers as I'd almost run out of those. Looking at some of these pics I might need to re-glue a couple of tufts to make sure they stay in place!

Above we have the two smaller cavalry squadrons, exactly as we've seen them before but with added basing. Just to show that I've done it! The next unit does have a new guy though...

I took out the least tidy / most lead-rotted archer and added an officer instead. The pointy pose and heavy armour made him a good choice to add to this unit, I felt. This is a terrible viewing angle for this mini, so here's a hastily-taken but better one.

Added to his colleagues, this C08 High Elf Cleric is just the second miniature from that range that I've included so far. Better include some more, then!

And so here is a second unit of archers. If the first lot are "heavy" Archers, then perhaps these are the "medium" equivalent. Again, these are labelled as "Fighter Thief", presumably because in 1st Ed AD&D single classed Thieves were not allowed to use longbows. The Wizard, meanwhile, is labelled Fighter Magic-user, because there is a breastplate barely visible under his coat and armour and wizards didn't mix.

I went with the white padded armour again, and enjoyed contrasting it with the dark blue. This unit has much less of the dark red on it (but from the rear you can see their quivers).

This unit takes us to 4 (out of 36!) C08 High Elf sculpts.

Finally for now, the presence of Heavy and Medium Archers demands Light Archers, or Scouts. So here they are! Rather than a character class, these are labelled "War Maid" as if to make sure we know they are female. These ladies take us to 5/36. Not 6? No, because their leader is a slotta-based miniature (gasps of horror!).

But I'm not going to apologise for including the famous High Elf Adventuress Riolta Snow (as seen in classic Warhammer scenarios The Magnificent Sven and Terror of the Lichemaster) in this unit, because she looks so good there. And Riolta Snow's Scouts is a good name for a bunch of white-clad Elves, in my book.

Maybe one day I'll get another copy of the mini and paint her in the fabulous bright colours from those scenarios, but that's another story.

Will that do for Leader month? I think it will. 

Scores for May:       1345 points   29 models

This month's additions are a bit complicated due to all the command models, but I think I added:

1 x Lahaven Ramjewel          (Level 5, Heavy Armour, Greatsword)                      54 points

1 x D'roi Haisplinn                (Level 15, Light Armour, Shield)                              131 points

1 x Guard Standard bearer    (Light Armour, Shield, Spear)                                     26 points

1 x Guard Musician              (Light Armour, Shield, Spear)                                     26 points

1 x Elwing                            (level 20, Heavy Armour, Warhorse, Lance)                180 points

1 x Estrulan                           (level 10, Heavy Armour, Warhorse, Lance)               100 points 

1 x Cavalry Standard Bearer (Heavy Armour)                                                          74 points 

1 x Cavalry Musician            (Heavy Armour)                                                          74 points

1 x Heavy Archer Officer    (level 5, Light Armour, Longbow)                                53 points

9 x Medium Archers                                                                                                   126 points

1 x Wizard                            (Level 15, Longbow)                                                     206 points

9 x Scouts                            (Light Armour)                                                              162 points

1 x Riolta Snow                    (Level 15, Light Armour, Longbow)                            133 points            

Running Total:        2684  points  80  models

NEXT TIME:

Wild Card month. So obviously I'll just take a mullig.... no? You want more? Okay, I got more. Tune in in June to see if we can get beyond 5/36 C08 sculpts in this OWAC...

Shadespyre's April Post - Rank and File Month IV - OWAC VIII - High Elves of Lothern (+411 points)

OWAC VIII - Rank and File Month IV - High Elves of Lothern

April

Probably my busiest month of the whole OWAC, lots and lots of progress but only a little bit of it is ready to show to you.

Let's start with the next / last unit of cavalry. The second unit of six, this time with the grey-white horse variant, and with the shields completed. 

Yes, I would love to have had these based by now but I've been prioritising painting. Basing soon, I promise!

That's the last of the 24 copies of the same horse, I think. Phew. Also the last of the Regiments of Renown troopers... but there are some command models to come in "Leaders" month.

So that means no more painting multiple copies of identical figures, right? Oh, no, it does NOT! Because with my initial "promise" pretty much completed, I've started on some more troops...

These ten (nominally identical) archers are from the C08 High Elves range. I think this guy is a "Fighter-Thief" in good old AD&D parlance. It's not easy to collect unit sized numbers of these models, but I've got a bit lucky here. On close inspection, three of these had varying amounts of lead rot and needed some greenstuff - there's one at the back where all of his robes are visibly cracked, and that all had to be filled. I'll probably jettison him in favour of a unit leader at some point.

I find it takes a couple of attempts to reach a good colour balance with these very busy sculpts. These started in blue robes but came out very dark overall, and are a completely different prospect with white cloth instead. 

I think the fancy costumes do a good job of conveying "+1 Missile Elite" vibes, don't you?

Finally for now, here's one of the inspirations behind this project's colour scheme:

This is a hand made coffee cup that I got from a clever friend of mine, it sits on my desk all day (usually with a handful of sweets or snacks in it because I don't want to risk ruining it with coffee!). I don't remember actually deciding to use exactly that shade of blue because of the cup, but it can't be a coincidence, can it?

That's it for April! 

Scores for April:       411    points   16 models

1 x Champion          (Level 5, heavy Armour, Shield, Lance, Warhorse)        61 points

5 x Silver Helms     (Light Armour, Shield, Lance, Warhorse, Standard)    210 points

10 x Archers            (Light armour, Longbow)                                                    140 points

Running Total:        1339  points  51  models

NEXT TIME:

Leader month! Heroes! Banners!! Basing??? (yes, I promise)

Shadespyre's March Post - Rank and File Month III - OWAC VIII - High Elves of Lothern (+397 points)

OWAC VIII - Rank and File Month (III) - High Elves of Lothern

March

Things continue to move along nicely. There's still lots morework going on in the background, which means I'm confident of ending up with a larger army than I originally envisaged, while still smaller and more focussed than my last few projects. And I've found a few hours to work on non-OWAC miniatures, which was almost unheard of for the last few years.

Here's my presentation for the third Rank and File month, the second (and largest) of three units of Elwing's Elf Cavalry:

Once again, there is a gap left here for the command group. I think I'm going to hand make the banners (as in, the physical structure of them) as none of the plastic ones in my collection quite work. Will it be paper or greenstuff or plasticard or...? At this point I just don't know! 

These horses are the two colour schemes that I introduced last month. I'm still undecided as to whether to mix the horse colours between units, or not. None of the riders are glued in place yet, so I still have total freedom until I do that. Or until I do the basing. And to be honest, the more minis I paint without doing the basing, the more sensible it seems to leave it right to the end. It's just such a messy process!

Oh yes! We have heraldry now!

I'm not going to willingly show such close ups of my tabletop quality minis very often, but I wanted to focus in on the shields. Yes, these are decals, there is no way in hell I was going to try and do this in freehand over more than a few miniatures, let alone a whole army. 

I'm pretty pleased with how these came out, I seem to have got a nice, even finish. Having had mixed results with other armies, this time I put no less than THREE coats of brush on gloss varnish over the decals before applying my usual matt spray coat, and it's definitely the best integration of water-slide transfer and paint that I've acheived to date. A long process, but worth it - I might even go back to previous armies and repeat the multiple glossings!

Scores for March:       397    points   9 models

1 x Champion          (Level 5, heavy Armour, Shield, Lance, Warhorse)        61 points

8 x Silver Helms     (Light Armour, Shield, Lance, Warhorse, Standard)    336 points

Running Total:            928  points  35  models

NEXT TIME:

More Elves, obviously - probably the third and final unit of cavalry, maybe something extra if you've all been good?

Shadespyre's February Post- Rank & File II - OWAC VIII - High Elves of Lothern (+260 points)

 OWAC VIII - Rank and File Month (II) - High Elves of Lothern

February

As promised last month, I've shifted to taking on some infantry this time around, making a start on the almost infinite* pile of identical spearmen that I have inflicted on myself. Once again, painting a Regiment of Renown gives me an "official" description to interpret:

"The uniform comprises a close fitting helmet, which is gilded. The tunic is padded and white, the belts and other decorative items are red. Spear shafts are blue, whilst most metal is either steel or silver." 

It took me a while to get the colours mentioned in places that I liked them, which I finally acheived having waved three different versions at some of my painting pals until they gave opinions! In the end, I think it was the red tassles on the spears which made it work.

Obviously, there is a gap left here for the command group. Though I've made a start, I'll be leaving those for later, partly because I need to build a standard pole, and partly because I need to decide on the theme and heraldy before I do that. Plus "Leader Month" is compulsory and so I need to save something to put in it!

*it turns out there were only twenty of them, but it felt like more.

This isn't everything I've been working on. Progress continues on the cavalry because I want to make sure I can present at least one more unit of those in March. This means I have tried out two more colour schemes for white horses:

I'm not sure that brown tails and manes on white horses is very realistic, but it looks quite pretty. And at the end of the day everyone is looking at the riders, really.

I'm also feeling confident enough with my progress that I've started prepping some extra units for this army. These are taken from the non-Regiment of Renown C09 range, so it would be really nice to be able to get them painted up this year. As previously highlighted, some of them are quite elaborate, so might take a lot of painting!

Scores for February:       260    points   20 models

20 x Guards    (Light Armour, Shield, Spear)                                                    260 points

Running Total:              531  points  26  models

NEXT TIME:

More Elves, obviously - probably a second unit of cavalry. Maybe some idea of what I'm going to put on all those blue shields?

Shadespyre's January Post - OWAC VIII - High Elves of Lothern (271 points)

OWAC VIII - Rank and File Month - High Elves of Lothern

January

Finally under way!

As is traditional, I started with a pile of undercoated miniatures and a vague idea of a colour scheme. Actually, a little less vague because there is a description provided for the Regiments of Renown... for Elwing's Elf Cavalry: "The Elves are dressed in blue uniforms, whilst most of the leatherwork is black or red: Helmets and other metal fittings are silver or silver plated. Spear-shafts are painted blue, with white, blue or red pennants indicating different Companies."

Here's how I've interpreted that:

Because you can never have too many paints, I treated myself to some new ones. I've added Templar Blue, Ashen Blue and Glacial Blue, all from the Reaper Masters Series, to my collection for this project.

Just one unit of six for now, but that meets the monthly requirements so I don't mind. Obviously, they will get some sort of heraldry added to the shields at some point - probabaly a white symbol of some sort. I've got a few ideas but I want to stew on them for a while.

Likewise, I'll do a big basing session when I've got more minis painted. If you've seen my Wood Elves from OWAC VII you'll know what to expect.

One aspect of this project which could get tiresome is the repeated painting of the same miniatures. For example, every cavalryman across three units is riding the same horse! While I want to have a degree of uniformity, I've decided to do different variants of white horse. Here's a comparison of the first two, I may try for four varieties in all.

Alert viewers will notice that the unit above are all riding the "blond" variant, so yes, I have started on a second unit already.

Scores for January:       271    points   6 models

1 x Champion          (Level 5, heavy Armour, Shield, Lance, Warhorse)        61 points

5 x Silver Helms     (Light Armour, Shield, Lance, Warhorse, Standard)    210 points

Running Total:              271  points  6  models

ENTRY FEE MINIS

With a choice of THREE worthy recipients this time around, I was at a loss what to paint for who! With so many projects on my to do list, my supply of "spare" miniatures is quite depleted. Fortunately, as I trawled the depths of my collection, I found a selection of beasts of burden! Highly fitting for the "baggage train" them of OWAC VIII, so I plucked three of them out to paint up:

I'll be posting one of these to each of our committee members as a Thank You for their organisational efforts. I hope they will suit.

NEXT TIME:

More Elves, obviously. Here's a sneak preview of some WIP infantry

Shadespyre's Introduction Post - OWAC VIII - 3rd Edition High Elves of Lothern

Shadespyre Intro Post - OWAC VIII - 3rd Edition High Elves

Introduction Post

It was always likely to be Elves again. For OWAC VI, I painted a rather idiosyncratic Dark Elf army, loosely themed around AD&D Drow and made up almost entirely of ancient pre-slotta miniatures. For OWAC VII, I painted a much more traditional 3rd edition Wood Elf army, consisting mostly of mid to late 80s minis much like those pictured in the Warhammer Armies book. And I added allied contingents from the Zoats and Halfling lists in the same source.

And then once the OWAC had ended, I pushed on and added three more Wood Elf units to the army.

I still have a lot of Elf options open to me, though.

For the second time, I started prepping a force of Rogue Trader Space Elf Raiders for an OWAC. And for the second time, I've let the lack of a clear concept for a colour scheme and the fact that several fellow OWACers have similar plans put me off committing to it. That and the fact that I've had a Big Idea for it which I haven't yet worked out how to implement. So maybe next time?

I considered swapping to Craftworld Eldar (requires too much shopping) or Harlequins (not a force I want to paint to a time limit) or to one of my non-Elvish options. But then I realised that the answer was obviously High Elves. 

Why? Firstly, they are the next entry in the Warhammer Armies book! Secondly, they are also available as an Allies list for Wood Elves, so I can justify using the same basing style and save my creative energy for thinking about other things. And thirdly, I have a collection of mid 80s High Elves which is big enough to make a small army. And fourthly, Aly Morrison sculpted some of the most distinctive Elves that Citadel ever produced, and I love them in all their bonkers glory.

C08 High Elves

Here's one of my many old Citadel Miniatures mini cases, this layer has at least one of each of all the releases in this range. I completed this collection some years ago, and never really considered it to be a potential army until very recently.

It's a lousy picture, so here are some of the catalog entries for them, borrowed as ever from Stuff of Legends. A bit annoying that Citadel repeatedly advertised the same minis even though there are more than 30 in the range, but they give an idea of the furry-hatted, curly-shoed, overly-feathered silliness of them, as well as the intruging selection of maces, axes and fancy polearms alongside the traditional bows and swords. I'd love to know what brought Aly to use this style, which I think draws on Persian and Indian influences, although some of the minis remain very much in the familar pseudo-European look.

This range came out late in 1984. It's a fully pre-slotta range, part of a brief Golden Era of Citadel minis which has words embossed onto the top of the bases (I'm sure I've talked about this before, I'm obsessed with this phase in miniature history.) In common with the C10 Half-Orcs which were released a little earlier, these guys are each assigned AD&D character classes - Fighter, Cleric, Thief, Magic-user and even multiclass combinations - because the D&D player was still the core of their market at this time. Within a year of release, these were replaced by a new slotta-tabbed C08 range, still sculpted by Morrison but back to a more conventional Elven aesthetic.

I know what you're thinking - some of those silly Elves are quite cute, but an army? It's mostly character models, there's no musicians or cavalry or... anything. And you're right. Which is why, as much as I love them, most of these will be staying in their box for this project.

BUT Citadel Miniatures (and Aly) have us covered - either side of Christmas 1984 they released two Elvish Regiments of Renown.

Regiments of Renown

RR13 Lothern City Guard

RR10 Elwing's Elven Guard Cavalry

As you can see from the art, these are very much in tune with the other High Elves, if a little less gaudy for the rank and file models. These are the minis that I'm mostly going to be using for this army. Worth noting that while the cavalry models are still on solid bases, the infantry are among the first releases with slotta tabs.

So, here's a snapshot of the core of my army, all based up ready for undercoating. This consists of a large unit of Lothern City Guard and a full two dozen Elven Guard Cavalry, which I shall split into 3 squadrons. There's also a couple of other minis in there which I will discuss when I come to paint them.

Yes, this is a much smaller project than I've undertaken recently. This is partly because I felt quite burned out after painting 250 Warhammer minis in the last year, and also because I've started playing in a second fortnightly RPG group, which means less time to paint minis each weekend - and of course I will inevitably be painting minis for that game, too. And let's not forget that painting 25 cavalry will feel like painting at least 50 Infantry.

I do have some extra units that I hope to paint alongside these, and don't forget that big box of characters to dip into. Maybe this will even become the push I need to paint the full set of those?

Bases

A quick bit about basing. For my pre-slotta Dark Elf army I switched to using MDF bases which I drilled holes for magnets into. I liked how they came out, but there was a surprising amount of prep involved - drilling and sanding every base.

So this time round I ventured into CAD and designed and printed my own bases:

These have a 5mm magnet hole and a 2mm high lip around them, the hope being to conceal the solid bases within them and backfill with basing material. I was able to print these out on my very basic PLA filament printer fairly easily with very few mis-prints. I should probably have put two magnet holes in the cavalry bases, but I think one will be enough to protect against jostling even if I wouldn't dare turn the unit upside down like I can with the infantry.

Army List

I haven't written a full army list yet, but looking at the 3rd ed Warhammer Armies book:

20 Silver Helms @35 points each = 700 points

20 Guard @ 13 points each = 260 points

So I'm going to sail past 1000 points just by adding command options, let alone characters.

I'll be compiling a proper 3rd edition list unit by unit, as I go...

Shadespyre's July Post - OWAC VII Wrap up - Guardians of the Moonglade - 3rd Edition Wood Elves (7902 points, 228 models)

OWAC VII - Wrap up - Guardians of the Moonglade

July 

Another OWAC completed, my fourth and possibly my favourite. Why? Because it's a decent match to the picture I had in my head when I started, and also it never quite became a chore despite there being so much of it. It's actually my biggest OWAC to date, if only by around 10 minis. And it might get bigger.

Straight into a couple of army pictures. I can't really get enough light in this room, and my poor old camera doesn't really have enough resolution, but they give an idea of the size of the project.

And because some of the earlier units I painted weren't based immediately, here's a pictures of the Spring, Summer and Autumn groups of Elves. Hopefully this gives an idea of how I tried to use different combinations of the same basing materials to give a slightly different feel to each faction.

Expansion Plans?

I haven't actually painted anything extra since June, but I still may be adding to the army in the near future. Having bemoaned the lack of miniatures to include any dedicated melee units just last month, I immediately managed to acquire enough extra Elves to make that possible!

I also have a unit of possible "Winter" Elves which I'd really struggled to find a good colour scheme for, but as some people seem to like the Winter hero from June I may just try and paint them like that. It'll probably be easier to find my way with the time pressure taken off.

This would all add another 40 or so miniatures to the project, making it my biggest army since The End Times came - for comparison, my 7E/8E Vampire army is around 450, while my 6/7/8E Middenheim Empire army is over 600 minis, but is nowhere near as pretty.

Reflections and Regrets

This one went pretty well. I hadn't really defined my colour scheme before I started and had to feel my way towards something that I liked, but I think once I'd done that it all flowed quite well. The moon theme arrived a little late, and perhaps that shows in the somewhat simple banners, but those are probably the only thing I'd want to change very much. Oh, the 3d printed shields aren't quite as neat as I'd like, but I don't think it matters en masse. And where was I going to get a hundred of the original crescent shaped ones?

I like how the basing looks but it took forever and cost a lot (though I have plenty left over), but I think it's my favourite basing scheme across my OWACS so it was all worth it in the end.

One final self-criticism - once again, the army is bigger than it needs to be! Every unit of 16 Elves could have been 12 or even 10, and there could easily be half as many Zoats and Halflings and it would still express the same themes and ideas and be a useable army. I think I said this about OWACs VI and V as well so I don't know if I'll ever learn...

OWAC VIII

I'll definitely take part. Will it be a big project or a small one? Fantasy or 40k? I don't know yet, and to be honest I don't think I'll think about it much before October.

Shadespyre's June Post - Wildcard Month - Guardians of the Moonglade - 3rd Edition Wood Elves (+955 points)

 OWAC VII - Wildcard Month - Guardians of the Moonglade

June

The final month. To be honest, having completed everything in the original plan and so much of the reserves it was a bit hard to get going again for a final effort. But once I did get back to it I enjoyed ticking the last few units off my list.

Let's start with some extra Elf heroes. I'm very aware that by concentrating on unit after unit of archers, I have missed out on painting some of the great Elf minis of the period, so here are four of them:

I would have loved to include a unit or two of these guys for some proper melee potential, but the sad truth is they are difficult and expensive to collect in numbers, possibly because they are so cool that no-one wants to part with them. The champion with the orc head, and the one with the sword above his head, are iconic members of this range, but the Elf with the two handed sword has always been my favourite, so I wanted to paint one.

These guys represent my Autumn, Spring, Summer and an experimental Winter colour scheme. I really like how the latter looks, but he doesn't feel very "Wood Elfy" to me, so maybe this is a starting point for a High Elf army...

And now for some completely unplanned, bonus miniatures.

 

Once I realised that the Owl theme was going to be a thing, I went fishing in my collection to find thisold favourite. This dapper chap is a Citadel C29 Giant Owl from back in 1985. The code makes him part of the "Monsters" range even though he is a total sweetheart. I elevated him on a grassy tump to make him a little more impressive next to the Elves. It might be possible to pop a rider on him but I'll be including him as part of a Monstrous Host.

Also unplanned, here is a Blunicorn of unknown origin, pinched off Ebay for a fiver. Is it even a Wood Elf army without a Blunicorn? I feel like everyone else in Team Wood Elves has one, now.

Sadly, without a suitable Elf maiden to ride her, Bluey will have to stay as a mascot rather than a points scoring unit.

Back to planned bonus miniatures, now.

Hidden Reserves

These vague blobs were numbers 6 and 7 on the list

And now I can reveal that the vague blobs are hiding lots and lots and lots of... Halflings!

Everyone loves halflings, right? There's an Ally list for them in Warhammer Armies, and Wood Elves (along with Empire, Brets and Dwarves) are allowed to make use of them. But I didn't want to use the chubby, chicken munching, cook pot wearing Citadel Halflings (even though I have collected one of each of all the 80s and 90s ranges) here, I wanted more rugged looking, serious minded Halflings who might live in the outer forest, farming and hunting and foraging and tussling with wolves and goblins and beastmen. And that meant Mark Copplestone's halflings, currently available via North Star Miniatures.

After rushing to convert a command group back in December, I revisited these poor efforts and am much happier with the newer version.

Now painted and complete with their 6th Edition Empire plastic hats. The oak leaf standard is again made from cheap jewellery, which is a gold mine of little metal bits and bobs, it turns out. The standard bearer has goofy buck teeth, so we haven't entirely left the comedy halfling trope behind. 

As well as some very cheap BS4 missile fire, this unit also contains three characters and the option to carry a magic standard and a magic weapon.

The rest of the halfling contingent is made up of skirmishers with slings. Skirmishing Elves always seem like a bit of a waste of points as they are decent close combat troops, whereas these little fellas have no business tangling with anything bigger than a Goblin.

And finally (?)

Hidden Reserve No 8

The funny shaped blob conceals the Forest Dragon, Quercus.

And here is my painted version.

Although this is a brand new resin model, and not produced by GW, there is a proper connection to Oldhammer because the sculptor is Trish Carden who sculpted about a zillion Citadel, GW and Forgeworld minis starting way back in 1984.

You can get your own Quercus from Footsore Miniatures, who are casting and distributing Trish's growing HarrowHyrst miniatures range. 

Army List Additions:

I'm not considering the heroes or the blunicorn to be part of the army list, but it's not like I'm short of points is it?

Adding Champions to the halfling slingers doubles the cost of each unit, but also gives them a surprising combat boost in the form of three WS4 attacks which might swing a fight with enemy skirmishers.

Scores for June:       955    points   71 models

1 x Autumn Hero                                                                                                                   

1 x Spring Hero

1 x Summer Hero

1 x Winter Hero    

                                           

1 x Blunicorn                                                                                                                        0 points 

Halfling Allies List:

1 x Halfling Contingent Commander                                                                             77 points

1 x Ally Standard Bearer                                                                                                   73 points         

22 x Halfling Militia     (Champion, Musician, Bow, Light Armour, Shield)         144 points

10 x Halfling Militia      (Champion, Shield, Sling)                                                     84 points         

10 x Halfling Militia      (Champion, Shield, Sling)                                                     84 points

10 x Halfling Militia     (Champion, Shield, Sling)                                                      84 points  

10 x Halfling Militia     (Champion, Shield, Sling)                                                      84 points 

Monstrous Host:

1 x Giant Owl (counted as Giant Eagle)                                                                      75 points

1 x  Dragon                                                                                                                       250 points 

                    

Running Total:          7902  points  228  models

STOP THE PRESS!

I just received this glorious Ral Partha Cloud Giant, an absolute classic old mini by the great Tom Meier, painted for me by our OWAC pal Chris Howell. Thanks Chris, he's fantastic, and such a generous gift! 

NEXT TIME:

Some army pictures and reflections on the project.