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!

JohnR's Dwarf Month 3 - Rank and File (1077 points)

Well we're at the half-way mark and I'm not completely sick of painting beards yet, so I guess that's something :)

 I stuck to the plan again this month and painted a regiment, war machine and character. With those complete I had some time left so went for a few extra bits - crossbow dwarves, sappers and another hero.

25 Norse Dwarves - Hand Weapons, Light Armour and Shields, Command and level 10 Hero - 387 points

 Organ Gun - 99 points

 

12 Crossbow Dwarves - Light Armour and Crossbows with a level 5 Hero - 209 Points

 

 

6 Sappers (3 teams of 2) - 90 points

 

Level 10 Dwarf Wizard - 118 points

 

Level 20 Dwarf Hero - Heavy Armour and 2 Handed Weapon -  174 points

 

I made good progress this month and feel like I'm on track to finish everything in the initial challenge by the end of June. However work is looking busy for next month and we have house renovations ongoing so I guess we'll see!

 

JohnR's OWAC VIII Intro Post - Short of Stature, Long on Nostalgia.

I've always had a soft spot for the dwarves. I think it goes back to those wonderfully characterful Perry sculpts from the Golden Age of Games Workshop.

When I worked as a Mail Order Troll in the mid 90's my staff sale purchases often contained at least a few dwarf minis and by the time I left Geedub in 2004 I had a big mail order box full, weighing many kilos.

Since then I've painted a few hundred but there always seem to be more in the bottom of the box (it probably doesn't help that I kept acquiring more lol). So this OWAC I decided to drag the box out and put together a dwarf army from what I still have unpainted.

The Mystery Box of Dwarven Minis...

 

Prince Ulther's Dragon Company - 444 points.

I unfortunately painted Prince Ulther by himself many years ago - not realising that I would later need him for an OWAC ! You can probably pick him out in one of the later photos.

 

Norse Dwarves - 497 points

Some of those beautiful Perry sculpts that are responsible for this whole sorry situation. Damn you Michael and Alan Perry lol.

 Dwarf Sappers - 285 points

In the preeminent edition of Warhammer these are deployed in teams of two. I already have a few teams painted; these are what I have left. There's probably too many teams here but I suppose they could be deployed as a regiment of Miners for later, ersatz, versions of the game.

 Regiment of Dwarf Warriors - 365 points

 

Many of these are the slightly later Marauder sculpts but I think but they should work well as a unit.

 

 

Two Regiments of Crossbow Dwarves - 325 points

Dwarves with crossbows: 'nuff said.

 

Longbeards and Ironbreakers - 1,104 points

These were released for a much later version of the game and are not Perry sculpts as far as I know, but I really like them. I have a large regiment of the earlier Longbeards that I've already painted (the Order of Ancient Prospectors - photographed below). For some reason I only have a few of the early Ironbreakers though - not enough for a regiment and given the current prices on evilbay I'm not likely to anytime soon...

 

Warmachines - 327 points

That's the last fire-thrower and gyrocopter I have unpainted. However there's another organ gun and bolt thrower in the dip along with a cannon and a goblobber that might make it into the final army.

 

Characters - 1,323 points

3rd Edition doesn't have rules for the Anvil of Doom and Lord on Shield-bearers of course - these mini's came much later - however it shouldn't be too difficult to house-rule them into the game. Fun fact: if you look closely one of these is an unreleased GW mini - can you spot which one?

 

 

Bits and Bobs - Points? TBC

I have a few miniatures for unit fillers, camp followers and baggage train: dwarf villagers from Midlam and some ponies and carts by various manufacturers. I also have the lovely Dwarf Lord on Armoured Snail by Black Scorpion Miniatures and some ogres (they didn't make it into the photo but might make it into the army).

So points wise this totals up at 4,659 though the final tally is likely to be closer to 5k (if I get everything painted). Also I haven't included the anvil of doom or the lord on shield bearers or any of the unit fillers / baggage train or any of the bits that are currently in the dip having old paint stripped off.

 

 

 

 

My current painted dwarves.

There's a couple of hundred painted minis here I reckon. Points wise it's probably around eight or nine thousand points maybe? I played a 7,000 point game a while ago but I've added a few units since then :)

 

 

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 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.