Mariano Sánchez - Wood elves - Introduction

In the depths of the forest, where no man ever ever stepped in, was the Spring of Lawën. Only the oldest elves knew the legend that accompanied the place...
“When the great forest does not wake again with the rays of dawn, when spring does not bloom anymore at the King’s Glade, when the end comes to Athel Loren… The halls of the spring will be reopened, and the elven people of ancient times will dance to melodies of hunting".

Hi, my name is Mariano and from the first day I started to play Warhammer one of my dreams has been to have a fully painted Wood Elves army, and the dream is close to be achieved...

Going to need a bigger table!

The text on the head was the start of all my participations on the OWAC. A new OWAC means for me another bunch on Wood elves in order to achieve my goal, to paint all wood elves in the Citadel Red Catalogue and Marauder. And this is going to be the last Wood Elves OWAC!!!

All started the 11 of May of 2017. I decided to participate in a challenge with some friends. I even had to do a list of AoS to be on it!!  

http://volomir.com/en/tale-12-warlords-checkpoint-6-order-alliance-updates/

At that point I had no idea about "my decision" but I´m pretty much sure it was somewhere in my mind. I finish my painting list 6 months later and I was so happy with the result.

I continued painting some unis and characters, but with no goal the hype was decreasing... 

Sometime later, on the 21 of December of 2020, after many posts of many painters (envy was really high) I wrote my first OWAC post. And the little seed that was on my mind bloomed (Wood elves joke) with the idea of painting all Wood Elves models in the Citadel Red Catalogue and Marauder Catalogue

https://oldworldarmychallenge.blogspot.com/2020/12/marianos-intro-post-halls-of-spring.html

6 months later, I had some characters and 5 infantry units. I was so happy with the result.

https://oldworldarmychallenge.blogspot.com/2021/08/mariano-sanchez-make-forest-great-again.html

On December 21, 2021, I was fully focused on finishing my mission.. For this OWAC I presented a fully cavalry army. Not the best idea, for sure, but I would have to paint them soon or later so...

https://oldworldarmychallenge.blogspot.com/2021/12/mariano-sanchez-wood-elves-introduction.html

And after so much pain (don´t want to paint a cavalry model ever but still have some of them to paint) at the end of the 6 months I added 6 cavalry units and three mounted characters, including my general on great stag, great horned horse for me.

On December 22, 2022, The path was clear in front of me. I had some cool units to work on it and a big dragon!!

https://oldworldarmychallenge.blogspot.com/2022/12/mariano-sanchez-wood-elves-introduction.html

6 months later I was very very satisfied with the result. I even have time to add some scenery and a couple of units that wasn´t on the list

https://oldworldarmychallenge.blogspot.com/2023/07/mariano-sanchez-make-forest-even-more.html

Yes, I did pics of the army before I realized I have time to paint some scenery

What is the plan for this OWAC?? Easy, finish to paint all the wood elves remain. I´m going to add to the army some stuff I couldn´t paint on previous OWACs, a baggage train (thanks to the OWAC rules!), some falconers,  Ariel and Orion...

Last batch of "gray" elves!!!

The list, following Third edition rules and Armies book is:

Silvan King mounted - 217

Sylvan Chieftain mounted - 182

Wood Lord mounted - 143

Wood Lord mounted - 142

Sylphseer mounted - 210

Sylphseer mounted - 210

Wood Fey - 78

Wood Fey - 78

10 Glade runners (music and standard bearer) - 192

10 Warrior Kinbands (music and standard bearer) - 156

10 Wardancers (music and standard bearer) - 230

6 Falconers - 78

4 Warrior kinbands - 52 

Treeman - 238

Orion - No points

Ariel - No points

Bear filler - No points

Baggage train - No points

Total points: 2206 aprox.

Yes, I have more points on Characters than on units (Illegal list!!!). I little bit concession...

My present for Adrián!!!!! (quick topic change):

Hope you like it, Adrian!!!!!!

Hope you like it, Adrian!!!!!!

Before I finish my post, I´m still looking for ONE reference to finish my "personal" nightmare. According to https://www.collecting-citadel-miniatures.com/wiki/index.php/Elf_Mage_Variants what I´m searching for is the  hooded version of the "Wood Elf Sorceress Type 1". If anyone is interested in selling or exchanging it, I´m your man. If someone find it on the net, please, contact me!!

One way, or another, I´m going to catch you....

Can´t wait to start painting!!!!!!!

Grant's Wood Elf Host - Month 5 *Rank and File* (837pts)

 This month, fast attack was the order of the day. Previous months, per my original plan, I was going to paint one horse-elf per month, with the plan being to end the challenge with a single unit of cavalry, armed with bows. Due to my over-enthusiasm for the project, I ended up accomplishing this unit, in its entirety in March, instead of May. Champagne problems! Prior to this challenge, I’d never painted a horse, so thought that as a reward for my hard work, I’d focus on that for a whole month, and thus Fast Attack Month came about. A bonus of this was that I got to paint two of my favourite all time miniatures – the Elven Attack Chariot, and the Mage on Unicorn.

First up, the Chariot. Being completely honest, this was a pain in the backside to build, and to paint. It’s massive, so needed to be painted in sub-assemblies, but the mini itself really doesn’t lend to that. In the end, I painted the crew, the horses, the chariot body, the wheels and the draft pole and yoke all as separate components, before attaching it to the base. Caused me a lot of headaches in having to hold parts of the miniature that I’d already painted, and a bunch of unnecessary effort in painting things that are hidden away on the underside etc. The crew were done in with the batches from the previous month, and the horses were doubled up with the rest of the month’s effort, ensuring we had four different colours, tied together by the blue black manes and tails. I’ve been describing this job as being one that I’m glad I’ve done one of, but have no desire to do a second!

1 Wain Lord – Scythed Wheels (20pts), Falconer (6pts), Shield (8pts), Long Bow (6pts) – 168pts

                      

                

              


Next up, we have the Marauder Miniatures Mage on Unicorn. I cannot say enough nice things about this figure. It was a joy to paint, and the Unicorn would still look great if produced today. I started out with this as a ‘straight out the pack’ mini, but when I ranked her up, I wasn’t sold on the giant, winged hat she’s sporting, and felt that even with my forest paintjob, she’d look more like a displaced High Elf than a permanent resident of Athel Loren. I got out my hacksaw, and chopped it off, leaving a headband behind, and sculpted her some hair. I think it looks pretty good. Showed it to a pal, and he said he’d believe it was the original version if he didn’t know better, so I’m taking that as a compliment. Scale wise, she’s quite a bit larger than the rest of the cavalry, but I reckon that’s fine – Unicorns are creatures of Magic, so it makes sense that they’re a little larger than your standard elven steed. Works in my head, anyway. 

The box art mini for this features a white, blonde maned Unicorn, and I saw no reason to diverge from this. I went for a cold white rather than a warm one, mostly because I wanted to use the same recipe as the white on the Elves trousers, but I'm really happy with how it's come together on the larger surface.

1 Greenfey (level 20 Wizard) – Riding Unicorn (80pts) – 383pts

    



                                

Throughout the project so far, my goal has been to take the lowest version of each troop type, in order that I have a baseline points value that I can scale up by ‘promoting’ them to more senior versions. With this unit of Lancers, there was no way that they were anything other than Elven Lords. I can’t say I was a fan of some of these. Buddy with the winged helm is ok, and I quite liked the bare head one, but the rest of the range are massively heavily armoured, which kind of looks out of place in the Forest. I’m excusing these as being where the older Elves that chose not to return to Ulthuan kept some of the weapons, armour and customs of their Higher cousins, and are wearing them into battle in tribute to the old ways. Again, it makes sense in my head. I’m using Barding on the horses points wise to represent this, as Heavy Armour isn’t an option in Wood Elves

5 Elven Lords – Barding (40pts) – 195pts



                    

Last new submission for the month is another Hero. My partner bought this for me for Christmas, as she knew I was planning on painting old Wood Elves this year, and combo’d with a pal to pick this. I needed to find a time to get some paint on it, as any lovely kindness and consideration like this warrants a coat of paint on it. Don’t know if I’m sold on this paintjob – I think I’ve botched the eyes on the Eagle, but I can revisit them later.

1 Guardian (Level 10 Hero) – Great Weapon (2pts), Javelin (1pt (to represent his Eagle)) – 91pts
                                

Total for the month – 837pts.
Total for previous months – 2625pts
Running Total – 3462pts

Wow. Planned for a 2000pts army, and am already over the size of the ‘typical’ third edition battle. Very pleased.

Last month, I’d mentioned that I was unhappy with the shields that I’d ordered for the army. Happy to say that while the replacements arrived too late to be included with last month’s entry, I have successfully caught up, and am able to re-present the Kinband and Wardancers, who are now completed. Not claiming any points for these, but they are now done. They’re from the wonderful oldschoolminiatures.co.uk, and I can heartily recommend these.



    

Plans for next month are quite exciting. I’m planning 3 Treemen, and a Forest Giant using the wonderful Ral Partha Cloud Giant. Will break the all-citadel self imposed rule I’ve placed on myself, but it’s such a lovely miniature, and I really want an excuse to paint one. Fingers crossed I can get through this last month – would be incredibly annoying to fall at the final hurdle, and I’d love to push the total over 4000pts, which this planned output would do, even not claiming any points for the off list Forest Giant. See you in a month!

Mariano´s Wood Elves - Warrior kinbands (156 pts)

 RANK & FILE IV

SHAMEN ON ME!!! (some of them are unpaintd)

On my personal planning I  shoud have done 16 warriors plus a sprite but life smashed me into reality. 

The non valid excuses are very clear, I started to feel the tireness of the challenge (too many infantery miniatures), I was really blocked with the golden nmm, shields took me more time...

In my defense, some of my excuses are valid: back pain, neck pain and dizziness. Getting better once I'm not painting.

After the excuses, what have I done this month...?

11 Warrior kinbands with light armour - 121 points

1 sprite - Free

• 13 Warrior kinbands with light armour - 121 points
• 1 Sprite - Free 

156 on the month.

688 for the total.

Every time I see mostly of the oldhammer wood elves miniatures my feelings is they are "historically" setted on the first ages of the colonization of Athel Loren. Think about it, some of them are "really" wood elves, probably the young ones, but a big bunch of them are pretty close to a High Elves.

Lets see a couple of examples:

image from solegends.com

Mostly of them are pretty solid wood elves but the rest, well, it is reallt obvious they are taking more time than expected to integrate themself to the new traditions (and the new way of dress, of course!)

One more...

image from solegends.com

9 of 16 are closer to High Elves than to Wood elves!!!

Why I´m so philosophical on this post? I want to explain why I painted them the way I did. Teh answer: I want to use them as the Eternal Guard. For me, these ones are the begining of what latter was called the Eternal Guard. The finest of the finest, all caming from the noblest families but still attached to the old fashion from the mother country. 

Nobody wants to leave his precious chainmail because it is defined as old fashion...

Ok, time to see some close pics...

I tryed to add them as much green as possible so I changed the way I use to paint the chainmail and I think it works and relationated well with the nmm gold. I wanted to give them a special touch with the shields and I found some from last edition and I added to them, so more green and gold.

At the end I'm really really happy with the result but still have the Itchy for not finish all of them. Anyway, I hope I'm able to advance on them before the end of the month.

Hope you like them.

Bye!

Mariano´s Wood Elves - Archers (196 pts)

 RANK & FILE III

If I have my eye on something,
I won't miss it (just one eye needed)

Hi!!

Time goes fasts when you paint everynight (or, at least, when you try to do it).

Every Wood Elves army need archers and I hada lack of them before the start of the OWAC, just a single 10 elves archers  was painted at that moment so one of the main purpouse of my planning was to add another three units of them. The first 10 were painted on first month and now I have finished 14 more of them, two 10 archers unit less both command group.

7 Lord´s bowmen (12)  Light armour (2)                                                                                                               Total: 98 

7 Lord´s bowmen (12) Light armour (2)                                                                                                                Total: 98 

196 on the month.

532 for the total.

I have continued adding color variations on the army scheme, in order to keep them as an irregular army tryning not to lose the army coherence. Hopefully all them will works fine, but not sure right now.

As archers have not too many metallics elements I play a little bit on the helmets nmm work;   I had a really fun time playing with colors on the nmm. Well, better if I show you how was the month...

So this has been my month work, hope you like it. Anyway, any advice or critic on the army, but specially on the color variation, will be welcomed.

What's next? 3 months to finish and a 17 warrior kinbands and 4 command groups waitting for me. My original plan was to have 5 warrior kinbands already painted and paint the rest of the list in the following two months, leaving 1 month to paint whatever I want. But being realistic, not sure if I can paint all warrior kinbands on a single month so I'm going to use the rest of March to play with a couple of them and try to achieved something different to the rest of the army.

Keep painting!!!

Jeff McC's Wood Elves - Wrap Up

First off, congratulations to all the challengers - fantastic jobs by everyone! And a special note of thanks to the benevolent overlord for organizing it all. I'm really enjoying the OWAC challenges, this is my third one complete and in addition to the camaraderie and getting to see everyone else's wonderful projects, they are a fantastic way for me to find the motivation to get painting projects done (nothing motivates like a deadline..)  But you're probably here for the pictures...I'm afraid I struggled with the army shots, but I'll try to make up for it with close ups.

OWAC III as planned. (closeups to follow)

The Plan: 1067 Points

• Level 15 Hero with Spear, Shield and Light Armor on a Giant Eagle - 208 points
• 12 Wood riders with Standard - 338 points
• 14 Archers led by a level 10 Hero with Longbow - 245 points
• 6 Wardancers - 120 points
• 5 Glade Runners - 80 points
• Beastmaster with 3 wildcats - 76 points 

Global events meant that I ended up with a lot of unexpected extra painting time, such that I was finished with "The Plan"in April.  One trip to the garage later, I'd worked out that I might actually be able to finish all my remaining wood elves. In the end 737 further points were added to the army.

OWAC III as Executed: 1806 Points

• Level 15 Hero with Spear, Shield and Light Armor on a Giant Eagle - 208 points
• 12 Wood riders with Standard led by a level 10 hero - 434 points
• Level 10 Wizard on Barded Warhorse - 126 points
• 9 Archers led by a level 10 Hero with Longbow - 190 points
• 9 Archers led by a level 10 Hero with Longbow -  190  points
• 11 Lord's Bowmen with Shield and Light Armor led by a level 10 Hero with Double Handed weapon, Heavy Armor and Longbow - 261 points
• 6 Wardancers - 120 points
• 5 Glade Runners - 80 points
• 5 Beastmasters with 6 wildcats and 1 warhound - 195 points 

 

 

Not Shown Hound & 2 handlers

 One of my goals with this years challenge was to round out my existing Wood Elf Army.  I'm pleased to say that despite a few years between painting sessions, they all match together nicely.  I debated whether I should show the whole army here since half of it wasn't painted for the OWAC, but in the end I decided I was unlikely find a more interested or appreciative audience anywhere else, so here's the entire army in all it's glory. A few changes in hero levels based on what I would likely field.

Grand Wood Elf Army: 4590.5 Points

• Level 20 Hero (General), Longbow, Light Armor - 173 points
• 20 Guards with Standard & Music (led by General) - 330 points
• 12 Wood Riders with Standard, led by level 10 hero - 434 points
• Level 15 Wizard on Barded Warhorse - 213 points 
• 19 Archers with Standard & Music, led by level 10 Hero - 324 points
• 9 Archers led by a level 5 Hero - 146 points
• 9 Archers led by a level 5 Hero - 146 points
• 11 Archers led by a level 5 Hero - 168 points
• 9 Lord's Bowmen with Light Armor and Shield led by a level 5 hero -  223 points
• 11 Lord's Bowmen with Light Armor and Shield led by a level 10 hero - 272 points
• 6 Wardancers with Double Handed Weapons and Light Armor - 144 points
• 7 Wardancers with Light Armor and Shield - 161 points
• 5 Glade Runners - 80 points
• 5 Glade Runners - 80 points
• 3 Beastmasters with 6 Warhounds - 63 points
• 3 Beastmasters with 6 Wildcats - 165 points
• 17 Warrior Kinband with Spears, Standard and Music led by level 10 hero - 282 points
• 2 Treemen - 560 points
• Level 15 Hero with Spear, Shield and Light Armor on a Giant Eagle - 208 points
• Level 10 Wizard - 118 points
• Halfling Allied Contingent commander on pony - 80 points
• 19 Halfling Militia with Spears led by a level 10 champion - 124.5 points
• 10 Halfling Scouts - 95 points

 

 

 

 Right then, that's all the wood elves. I'm still pondering what I might do for the OWAC IV.  Dwarves are a strong possibility, but I've not made up my mind yet.  Anyhow here's the obligatory Warhammer Armies pose with this year's force, and a bonus action shot of my dark elves from OWAC I & II facing off against the wood elves. See you next challenge!