Skål's Dark Pirate Raiders

 Another OWAC in the books. Let us take a moment and toast all of those that took this challenge on and over came all of their personal obstacles. Each of us face challenges throughout the year and at times we forget that we need to spend a little me time as well.

This month I had a little bit of time and really wanted to get a little more painted up, so I knocked out 10 Banshees/Wych's to add a little more variety to my force.

This OWAC I had a goal to make a playable Dark Eldar army for 3rd edition but also make sure that I could fit my miniature selections into a Eldar Pirate army for 2nd edition. 

I also wanted to to add a few missing elements to my Eldar army. Wraithguard and Dire Avengers have been on my list to paint for a while now and being able to finally play them is awesome.

The Incubi and the Talos are going to be beasts on the table for the Dark Eldar and will be fun to field in a Eldar Pirate force. I am excited to drop the Talos on the table as a Dreadnought/Wraithlord.

I had this vision for how I wanted to do my Hellions. I really wanted a Green Goblin vibe to them. They needed to have that dirty smoke plume holding them up instead of the clear flight stand. My buddy Brian (you are the man) printed these off and I am super stoaked with the way that they came out.

Points wise I kept it basic. I matched up the Dark Eldar models with how I would use them in a 2nd edition Eldar Pirate army. The break down is below to include points as well as what I would use them as.

• Archon/Farseer: 170
• Warlock: 51
• 10 Dire Avengers: 220
• 10 Wraithguard: 350
• 10 Incubi/Striking Scorpion's : 260
• Talos/Dreadnought: 160
• 5 Hellion's/Warp Spiders: 205
• 10 Wyches/Howling Banshees: 270
• Grand total: 1686

Till next OWAC I will leave you with a toast

“Here’s to a long life and a merry one. A quick death and an easy one. A pretty girl and an honest one. A cold beer and another one.”

Skål

Skål's Swooping Fluorescent Blacklight Death (rank & file 140 points)

This month was AWESOME! I finally was able to get half of my Hellions painted up. I love these figs. They give me the vibe of the Green Goblin from Spiderman so I went full in with that feel by giving them all smoke trails. I went a little extra by using fluorescent colors that pop under a blacklight. This is hard to photograph but I think it looks really cool in person.

Game wise this unit will be used as Swooping Hawks in 2nd edition games for my Eldar Pirate army and in 3rd they will be Hellions. I think the bummer is in the Dark Eldar book for 3rd edition you are only allowed one unit of these which sucks as I can see painting up a bunch to have them go crazy across the table.

Next month the fun part, the group photo. I am looking forward to putting everything on the table to see how far I have come this year.

Till next month.

Skål

Skal's Hello is it me you are looking for? (Leader Month)

Eldar Pirates are the wildest of all the Outcasts. They are quick tempered and unpredictable raiders whose ships are fast and well armed. Eldar Pirates fight and trade with other races, and will even hire out their services for a price. Throughout Eldar history the Pirates have lived apart from other Eldar but on occasions they have come to the rescue of Eldar Craftworlds or Exodite planets. To the vulnerable human worlds of the galactic rim they are a terrifying curse, plunderers and destroyers who appear at will and leave nothing behind but ruin. Pirate squads are always led by a Pirate Captain, represented by either a Champion, Hero or Mighty Hero.

For my leader month I had to paint up my Pirate Mighty Hero or Dark Eldar Archon for 3rd edition. I had been waiting awhile to paint this nasty dude up. I loved that he is wearing some pour souls face on his helmet to bring about fear in his enemy's. 

This fig was a lot of fun to paint and another step in being able to have a nasty little Eldar Pirate addition to my 2nd edition force as well as being well on my way to having a very fierce Dark Eldar force for 3rd edition.

Hang in there OWACV crew you are almost there, don't give into the pull of the field of bones.

Here’s to the great artistic genius, Pablo Picasso. His last words were “Drink to me.” Who am I to question genius?

Wise words. Till next time Skål.

Just walk away! (Skål's Wild Card 100 pts)

 

Even when the month kicks you you don't just walk away. You look it square in the face and tell it NO. My happiness is painting. So when I get hit with a busy month or the unexpected I still try to fit in a bit of happiness in the form of painting.

For April I went with my Wild Card as time just sort of escaped me. I still wanted to make some progress with my Eldar Pirates/Dark Eldar force so I painted up a Talos which I will use as an Eldar Dreadnought for games or Rogue Trader or 40k 2nd Edition.

What can I say about the Talos? This is one HEAVY miniature and with its pointy bits you could take out your opponent for reals if you threw it at them.

I kept to my theme of the Kabal of the Black Heart as I really enjoy the color combo and I tend to get into a groove when I do the edge lining of the armor. The blood tanks and the poison tank were fun to do and added a nice texture to the model by being able to hit them with gloss varnish. In a lot of the gaps a cracks I added Blood for the Blood God technical paint to make it look like this machine was leaking blood. I have to say I am pretty happy with the way it cam out.

This is all I have this month. For those of you still in this challenge remember it's a marathon not a sprint.  The best advice I can give you is "Slow is smooth, Smooth is fast."

and if that doesn't work grab a pint or horn have a sip, relax and then dive back in.

Skål 

Shadespyre's Rank and File (IV) - The Kingdom of The Gnolls (An Orcs & Goblins Army) (682.5 pts)

 OWAC V - Rank and File (IV) - Even More Gnolls

April

Well. I seem to have painted a lot of Gnolls now. And some Lesser Goblins. Which are a bit like Gnolls, really. But with the last Rank and File month done, so is the vast majority of the painting of little greenish yellow guys.

Here we go then: the middle ranks of the Gnoll monarchs' army; your every day, properly dressed, trained-but-not-elite common soldiery.

First, some Gnoll Boar-riders. I'd hoped to get more of the armoured riders to make two small, distinct units but they are so hard to find that I've settled for this combined unit. 

I was tempted to add bows to the lighter armed fellows, but it doesn't make much sense for those wearing big helms, so I left it. Just light armour, hand weapon and shield for this unit, then.

Hopefully you have noticed that there are now movement trays, and also some additional plant life. I tried not to go overboard with those and crowd the miniatures too much, so I hope I got the balance about right.  

And here are the 20 Gnolls-at-Arms.

I had several goes at turning a broken Gnoll into a musician, and this was the first version I'm reasonably happy with. A standard might have been nice, but as these troops are also archers, a horn seemed more fitting.

Archers, you say? I might have mentioned before that one of the (many) issues with the Orcs & Goblins list for this army is the minimum requirement for "Arrer Boys", and so I have added bows and arrows to this unit in this fashion:

The quivers are a modification of an old plastic one, which I then made a mould from, and the bows are just paper clip wire and greenstuff.

The few actual archers visible in the unit are technically C12 Great Goblins, but they match well and reinforce the unit's role nicely. Again, they are suprisingly hard to collect, like so many things in this range...

I like to have some multi-role troops in an army. I don't know how effective the archery from this unit might be, but they should have melee sticking power which the Lesser Night Goblins are not going to offer

Bonus Unit:

Speaking of which, here's a last bunch of the little fellows:

The sword and shield combo means I could use them to boost the numbers of either of the bow or javelin armed units. Plus I already ordered an extra movement tray so it seemed like I should paint these to fill it.

You want more? Okay, I did put up some little hints last month, so maybe reveals on some of those? Go on then, we're all bored of looking at ordinary Gnolls so let's bring some things forward from the "Leader" and "Wild Card" categories...

The bearers of the tiny, weeny flowers. I had to make several of those becuase they are so small that I kept losing them... they are folded up out of little bits of brass foil, and the leaves are greenstuff. There's a whole bunch of different variations of this Female Gnoll mini, but I thought two was enough. I never get around to writing down any background for my armies, but in my head these are the King's Aunties, fearsome harridans who enforce loyalty to the king, because their status depends on his survival. Let's count them as low level Wizards, because why not?

Finally this month, I might as well show you these because *someone else* has already painted them better, thus totally ruining any "wow" factor they might have had...

Yes, I know they both come from a Dwarf set and so they "belong" in that Other Project better, but I liked the idea of moving the models from the Dwarf King's Court to the Gnoll King's Court. These were actually amongst the first minis picked out for this army, after the Chariots and Gnoll Gnights and Huscarls. 

I'm counting Cyril as a Wild Card and not really a part of the army per se, but the wee Jester is plainly a Goblin Wizard with an illusion spell or two.

Scores for April:  682.5   points        42 models

8 x Gnoll Boar-riders       (Gruntas, Light Armour, Shield)                               200 points

20 x Gnolls-At-Arms      (Arrer Boyz with Light Armour, Shields, Musician) 220.5 points

10 x Lesser Night Goblins       (Gobbos with Shields)                                       35 points

2 x Aunties                        (Level 10 Orc Wizards)                                            182 points

1 x Jester                            (Level 5 Goblin Wizard)                                          45 points

1 x Cyril the Bear                                                                                                 0 points

Running Total:             1711 points        181 models

Coming Next: Leader month I guess?

Skål's Dire Avenging classic (248 points)

Rank & File month 

This month I decided to paint a classic Eldar miniature in my own style. The iconic cover from the 2nd edition Eldar codex is something that every old schooler will be familiar with. There have been numerous artist who have done their take on the Dire Avenger Exarch from the cover of that beautiful 2nd edition Eldar codex.

This codex filled so many players with dread (including myself). When this codex came out I was firmly entrenched into the Dark Angel's. When I started my Eldar project last OWAC I knew that I wanted to paint up my take on this glorious miniature.

I am pretty happy with the way the final paint job came out and I have another one set aside for me to convert up to truly match the cover.

Next up I have a mix of Rogue Trader and 2nd edition Dire Avengers. I really love the contrast between the white helmets, red plumes and the blue armor. This unit was a lot of fun to paint up and I know I want to do another one in the near future.

The next two months will be fun and full of painting deadlines. Congratulations to everyone who has made it this far. Hang in there, focus when you can on painting to take a mental break from the real world.

 How to Skål Swedish style.

Skal's 3,080 gems on the Elves, 3,080 gems, take one down pass it around 3,079 gems on the elves! (401 pts)

The host is on the move. Every month is a crazy month when OWAC is around. We subject ourselves too happy little punishments and we enjoy every minute of it. I love painting, I love painting little soldiers, super hero's and I love painting happy little trees.

This month was fun as I have been wanting to paint up the Wraith Guard that I have had for YEARS! I loved the green and white colors of Biel-Tan I did last year so I figured I would keep doing the same. So this month I did two units of five and a Warlock.

So less words and more images.

Here are all ten Wraithguard in all their glory.

To be able to tell the two units apart I decided to do a checkered pattern on one unit of five as a visual way to pick them out on the field of battle.

I thought the Warlock was going to be a break from all the damn gemstones and I was sadly mistaken. In total for the month I painted 3,080 gems. Yeah next month I am going to work on some of my Pirates (Dark Eldar) or vehicles as a break, cause damn those gemstones.

Till next month,

may the paint forever flow

may you drink always stay cold

and may you never run out of things to paint

Skål