Paul and Tom's OWAC VII Wrap Up Post - Wood Elves of Averlorn and the Red Wizards of Thay

OWAC VII is in the bag! This was my 5th challenge and after two years of painting High Elves I set myself the task of painting ALL the Wood Elves* in my lead pile in one. I'd written up two OWACs worth of army lists but I thought that if I stuck to my previous approach of solid prep in advance, early batch painting to get through big units and set in colour schemes and recipes before moving on to more challenging minis, I'd be able to get it done.

There were definitely ups and downs along the way, some paint jobs that didn't quite come off the way I wanted them too, and the classic OWAC last minute switch to Leader month to avoid having to use my first ever mulligan. In short, it genuinely felt like a challenge at times and that is exactly what makes the OWAC feel so worthwhile when you complete it! :)

I also found more inspiration from nature and the seasons than in any previous project, and grew more confident in 'sketching' with paint and less afraid to experiment and risk mistakes, knowing that I can always correct them if needs be. Another year where the OWAC helped me grow as a painter :)

It was also one of the most nostalgic projects I've ever experienced and this definitely helped keep me going through the slow patches. The core of the army was inherited from my younger brother in the mid 90's, around the same time that the Wood Elves made such an impact in the D&D campaigns I played with friends, and influenced characters who are still legend today. Some of the old school white plastic fantasy regiments originally belonged to my BiL and others were added as I got into 'Oldhammer' about ten years ago. 

The deep dive into Trish Carden's sculpts was particularly rewarding, reminding me of when I met the lady herself at BOYL 2019 (she is every bit as lovely and warm and nerdy as you would imagine! :D) and all the other friends I made there. Another year when the OWAC has brought some joy when work has been a drag and I needed some escapism :)

So I guess what I'm really saying is thank you. Thank you to everyone who takes part and makes it such a special even in the hobby calendar, and thank you to everyone who stepped up to help run this year's challenge, especially Byron who bravely took on the mantle of herding this large troupe of cats through months of hobby prep, painting, and perseverance! 

Without the OWAC and the community I wouldn't have the same level of motivation and structure, I wouldn't have another army completed, my pile of shame would be as large as ever, and most importantly I'd have far less excuse to buy yet more minis and hobby supplies! ;) 

Monthly Totals:

Month One Total: 506 pts
32 Wood Elf Archers (Hand weapons, Longbows) 11 pts each - 352
Wood Elf Archer Standard Bearer and Musician 22 pts each - 44 pts
Wood Elf Archer Champion (Hand weapon, Longbow) - 51
Wood Elf Mage (Hand weapon) - 59

Month Two Total: 326 pts
21 Archers (Longbow, Hand weapon) -  231 pts
Musician and Standard Bearer - 44 pts
Champion (Longbow, Hand weapon) - 51 pts

Month Three Total: 365 pts
15 Wardancers (20 pts each) - 300 pts
1 Wardancer Champion - 65 pts

Month Four Total: 315 pts
Wood Elf General (steed, lance, light armour) - 166 pts
Wood Elf Sorceress - 59 pts
Unicorn - 90 pts

Month Five Total: 696 pts
10 Scouts (inc. Musician and Standard Bearer) - 192 pts
Champion - 51 pts
Mage - 59 pts
Wood Elf Hero w/ Longbow (I) - 107 pts
10 Way Watchers - 180 pts
Wood Elf Hero w/ Longbow (II) - 107 pts

Month Six Total:  1466 pts
10 Dryads - 350 pts
2 Treemen - 560 pts
5 Warhawk Riders - 150 pts
Giant Eagle - 75 pts
Wood Elf Hero w/Spear on Giant Eagle - 181 pts
Kippine (counts as Griffon) - 150 pts

"Baggage Train" - 0 pts
Black Bear
Giant Barn Owl
Juvenile Unicorn

Grand Total: 3674 pts

In terms of Old World geography, I always envisaged my Wood Elves as not being from Athel Loren, and I still think some of my core units (late summer theme) as my Avelorn contingent for my wider Elven host. As I've mentioned in some earlier posts, I've come to think of my WEs as representing more diverse wild and rural communities and landscapes beyond the cities and regional heartlands of Ulthuan represented by the High Elf units.

As a result you won't see Orion or Ariel in my army. Although I do own a copy of Orion, I just don't like the sculpt and just don't see it fitting with my concept of Wood Elves, so he has been set aside for a future project... but I do have one more mini to share as a grand finale! 

The "Sisters of Twilight" version of the Wood Elf Forest Dragon... Well, I can certainly see why not everyone is a fan of this model! I started writing a cathartic list of all the things I really don't like about this sculpt but that just isn't the note I want to finish on. Instead I'm going to focus on the awesome power of the OWAC to get you through projects that you fall out of love with, the liberating feeling of allowing some things to be "good enough, but not perfect" and the lessons that I learned with this one.

Firstly, if I ever painted this again (I wont!) I would reverse the green and brown portions of the Dragon (but probably keep the green-brown of the wings). There are too many places where the vines snaking in and out of the scales meant I needed to paint green on green and this doesn't let the details pop quite as much as they should. I also think it would be far more interesting to have a mossy green underbelly and a rich variation of polished woody browns for the scales, letting them look like tree bark. It kind of makes sense in my head now as how a Forest Dragon might camouflage themselves in their natural habitat and I think I would have been able to do more with the model if I had reversed the greens and browns. You live and learn!

I came round to the idea of the two riders. I painted them up as Way Watchers and would probably just count them as a single Hero in an army list. I didn't like the suggested positioning of one of them on the Dragon's head though, this looked lopsided on a model already slightly unbalanced in it's mounting on the base so shifting one of the riders o the back made much more visual sense to me. It also risked distracting from the detail of the Dragon's head and overall I left the riders very rough so that they don't steal the show from the Dragon.

In terms of colour scheme, the green and brown and Way Watcher riders tie to that core them of my army, with just enough dark red on one of the imps and the Dragon's tongue to evoke the accent colour of the core units without it dominating (this would look too much like the Caledor Dragon in my HE army). 

I used a rainbow inspired set of colours for the imps, deliberately calling back to the earlier Wardancer troupe (maybe this is where they take some inspiration from for their unit colours?) and emphasising their fey rather than natural forest creatures. The orange-brown of the claws and horns also hopefully ties to the winter/Chrace elements of my combined elven forces, as the orange gorse flowers on the base are also intended to do however I worry when you look at it now these have actually drained some of the orange away from the horns and claws as they seem to pop slightly less in the finished model. 

Never mind... On the whole I'm quite happy with the basing, which took me slightly out of my comfort zone as I knew it desperately some wood and foliage elements to sell the forest Dragon theme, but these are not basing materials I normally work with. A few different height and colour variation tufts along with the flowers make it seem like the Dragon might be bursting out of the edge of the woods onto the battle field, or maybe the added fey elements of the watcher stones, spindly toadstools and a lone skull give a 'fairy glen' type feel? 

I was playing around with some left over green stuff one day and ended up with a strange little mole-toad thing with no eyes and massive nostrils and toothless maw. I liked the idea of adding some wildlife to the base so I painted it up a bit like Fizzgig from Dark Crystal and hid him under the log. Job done. :) 

Close up of random Wood Elves I already had painted/re-painted. Including the mysterious mage with the terrible milliput cloak bought 2nd Hand from the long closed Captain Sci-Fi in St. Nicks Market, Bristol. The nostalgia is strong with this one.

Also, I swapped out the Blunicorn for the more Wood Elfy one I already had painted.

Why yes, that is a Spevna Studios design from OWAC's very own Mustafa Bekir on my 90's style white long sleeve T-shirt. Award yourself 15 Oldhammer points for noticing and then go and order one yourself!

Plans for next year?

* OK, it wasn't quite ALL of my Wood Elves, just like it turned out it wasn't quite ALL of my High Elves in OWAC V and VI. 

When you've been hoarding for this long and building up massive armies you obviously end up with some waifs and strays along the way, damaged and unloved minis, random bits and bobs that don't quite fit, things you swore you had and searched for high and low but must have lost and then turn up again just after you finish the bloody challenge... you now how it goes. 

But don't worry! I've got plans for them. OWAC VIII means "No Elf Left Behind!" but other than that I'll leave you in the dark ;) 

Tom's Bony Bit:

I made it all the way to the end, my first competed OWAC!

Throughout painting my army I have always included the three layers of red to give them the feeling of threat of the Red Wizards of Thay and their undead menacing hordes. The purple is the colour I have chosedn to be the colour of their magical essence. I think all the colours I have used give the army a good look, like they belong together. 

Thanks to everyone who supported me, As a first time OWACer it has definitely encouraged me to do this again next year. I found the task of having to stick to it over the months challenging because there were some ups and downs, such as having to paint over bits of models that had the wrong colour, or fixing broken models, or waiting to paint the things I really wanted to paint...

Sadly, just after I took the wrap up picture I dropped the whole tray of minis while putting them away and had a lot of broken models to deal with - luckily it was after the pictures but it was a real pain!

But... I really enjoyed taking part in the group challenge and I think everyone who completed has succeeded in the task of doing a great OWAC! 

Monthly Totals:

Month One Total: 324 pts
16 Skeleton  Spearmen inc. musician and standard bearer (w/ spears and shields) - 180 pts
14 Skeleton Warriors inc. musician and standard bearer (w/ hand weapon and shields) -  144 pts

Month Two Total: 516 pts
5 Spectres 175 pts
5 Wraiths 325 pts 
2 Skeleton Spearmen 16 pts

Month Three Total: 140 pts
5 x skeleton horsemen (w/ light armour, shield, lance) - 140 pts

Month Four Total: 410 pts
Necromancer Lord - 410 pts

Month Five Total: 144 pts
10 Skeletons w/ light armour, shields, spears (inc. Musician and Standard bearer) - 144 pts

Month Six Total: 200 pts
3 Carrion - 135 pts
Wight (Ghoul) Lord  - 65 pts

Grand Total: 1734 pts

This is Legolas, I painted him up as a reward after completing the OWAC. I'm really happy with hoe he came out. I took inspiration from his outfit in the movie. I used Vallejo Hull Red, Citadel Mournfang Brown, and MP Leather Brown, with Army Painter Strong Tone to get the right look.

Thanks to Tom Young for the Secret Santa mini - it was much appreciated and I enjoyed painting him.

Plans for next year?

I really hope I can take part again next year. I'm looking forward to painting something up for the secret santa entry mini, does anyone like Orcs?

I've been busy building more skeletons for next year as I will be adding to my undead horde. I'm also thinking about adding zombies/ghouls, and some more cavalry.

A new style GW Zombie Dragon bolsters the flank!

Bonus pic with Undead Chariot, Necromancer, and Skeleton Frost Giant (proxy unit filler for 8-10 skeletons)

The whole stinky crew together!

That's it from us for OWAC VII - massive congratulations to everyone who made it to the end. It's a genuinely lovely thing to be a part of. Looking forward to doing it all again with you next year!

Paul and Tom :) 

Paul's Wood Elves of Averlorn - Wyld Carden! (1466 pts)

This month I have been mostly painting trees and birbs. Also a bear, and a baby unicorn, or "Babycorn" if you will.... 

What do you mean you won't!? Stop throwing those rotten vegetables! 

Listen, ignore the puns and focus on the minis and you might notice a theme. That's right, it's my "Wyld Carden" month! :p

OK, just that one last pun, but it was totally worth it in tribute to the one and only Trish "Mother of Monsters" Carden (nee Morrison) who sculpted nearly everything I painted this month... and what a genuine pleasure that has been!

A fellow OWAC veteran gave me a sound piece of advice in relation to the amazing Treeman sculpt from Trish's Harrowhyrst range from Footsore Miniatures. Pick your base wood colour, then get a light dry brush on it early in the process to reveal the detail. Simple but very effective advice and something that really pays dividends with so many of Trish's models from across the last 30+ years. These are sculpts that really reward careful dry brushing and generous inking and shading. Trish has already done the work with her blades and shapers and these minis are so packed full of character and detail that they really do start to 'paint themselves' once you have got stuck in, with new details seemingly emerging with each new step of the painting process. 

I've used red where I can get away with it, so the impish sprite is obviously a "red cap" and the lovers initials are in a russet red heart. The little owl is indeed painted as a "Little Owl" as one of our native UK species, even if scale wise it is closer to a Brown Owl.... so it's obviously a 'Giant' Little Owl! :D 

Something I really came to love and appreciate is the consistency of the details and textures on the tree-beasties across multiples time periods and miniature lines, which allowed me to blend them all in to one force by effectively use the same paint recipes for bark textures, knots and gnarls, mossy growths, fungal protrusions, and thick thorny claws.  

The Middlehammer era Dryads are supplemented by some juveniles and an elder, both sculpts from the current Harrowhyrst range, and I really like how their inclusion hints at a life cycle of the tree folk. The two different sizes of treeman add to this organic variation which is something I enjoy. 

Deep red was used to signify blood stained wood on the claws of the 'mature' dryads, and to emphasise  the danger of the snapping heads of the juveniles and the antler like crown of the elder, as well as being a strong tie to one of the theme colours for a large part of my army. The slightly sickly orange was chosen to emulate the Chicken of the Woods bracket fungus which is common in the woods local to us and picks up on one of theme colours for the other half of my army. 

Finally for the tree-folk the equally iconic Marauder Treeman, a chunky beaut of a sculpt that was a must have for Wood Elf armies when I was growing up. This one has waited nearly 30 years to be painted, so I hope I've done it justice by choosing to accentuate the Chrace/Winter colour scheme from the established tree-folk colour pallet. 

Keeping the theme of being inspired by local wildlife I decided that my Warhawks would in fact be War-buzzards, the Buzzard being the most common bird of prey in the British Isles and a regular sight in the skies over the woods near our house.

The riders are inspired by Dexy's Midnight Runners again, as Wood Elf Sky-jockeys definitely seemed like the sort who would go for double denim. I finished painting them after returning from a family holiday in Brittany, where we also saw lots of birds of prey, so they ended up having French accents in my head, and then for some reason I kept thinking of Jean-Claude Van Damme, who is not French but is definitely into double denim...

Actual image of a Wood Elf Sky-jockey. Just look at the hair and cheek bones.

Standing by a menhir on the NW Atlantic coast I was struck by the sense of connection of the ancient megalithic cultures of the western coast and this lent some inspiration when I was back at my painting table, so the shield design is a very poor freehand attempt at the 'Triskelion' design common in Brittany, and the basing is intended to be more 'coastal' which will hopefully tie them in with both the Ellyria/Tyranoc (as will the blue and yellow colour scheme) and Lothern elements of my High Elf force.

"In Brittany the Triskel is still widely present, a symbol of regeneration, it represents independence and autonomy and is worn for protection and good luck"

A truly ancient motif it has had many meanings over the years, but this one works in this instance as it fits with how I am beginning to think of my Wood/Coastal Elves as representing more rural or remote peoples of Ulthuan within my High Elf army.

Despite having started this year with enough Wood Elves for two OWACs I nevertheless acquired some more along the way, mostly because inspiration struck me when I saw a second Giant Eagle sculpt and an old school Wardancer with her tab already cut off going for a reasonable price on one of the trading groups. Turns out this combo will also pass as a good proxy for Master Mage Thalandor riding Gwandor the Black, and wielding the Spear of Daith. 

Sadly my mojo ran out before I could bring myself to sculpt on the Talisman of Qwarr, but I might go back to add in the magical war paint in the future to complete the not-Thalandor look. Gwandor is painted in the style of a White Tailed Eagle as the easiest native eagle colour pattern to darken down to 'black', but it is also fitting as it is the British Isles largest bird of prey. 

The other Giant Eagle has been painted in the style of the Golden Eagle, also native (and more common) to the British Isles, a theme which is continued with the Giant Barn Owl (not a Trish Carden sculpt this one, but available from Otherworld Miniatures 'Wilderness Encounters' series). I think I will do some more work on the base in the future, and as the first element of my Wood Elf 'baggage train' I fancy adding some bundles or nets full of supplies for the owl to be swooping in to pick up or drop off.

Also from Otherworld (and part of a lovely Father's Day gift so painted up in record time to be included here) is this Black Bear. A satisfyingly chunky lump of metal. More work needed on the base again, but it will do for now. 

My final Trish sculpt of the month, this juvenile unicorn has such a cheeky and mischievous expression I've named it "Rascal". The unusual blue and orange colour scheme and two tone coat is intended to signify that Rascal is the offspring of my other two Unicorns. I suspect that Rascal eats more of the supplies than they help carry :P 

Last but not least we have the 'Kippine' a a forest creature from D&D which I will use as a proxy Griffon for my Wood Elves. This is a 3D print that was a gift from a very good friend (even if she does collect thrice cursed Dark Elves!) and it took me far too long to paint it, but it deserved to be part of a big project like this. The base was completed first as it allowed me to test out my bark recipe before painting the tree-folk, and it was only after I painted the giant Barn Owl that I decided on a similar colour scheme for the Kippine itself.

Total for the month:

10 Dryads - 350 pts
2 Treemen - 560 pts
5 Warhawk Riders - 150 pts
Giant Eagle - 75 pts
Wood Elf Hero w/Spear on Giant Eagle - 181 pts
Kippine (counts as Griffon) - 150 pts

"Baggage Train"
Black Bear
Giant Barn Owl
Juvenile Unicorn

Total:  1466 pts

Tom's Bony Bit

For my wildcard month I painted some carrion from forlorn hope miniatures. I wanted to use contrast paints on my carrion so I started with a zenithal highlight of wraith bone and then use red, purple and bone, the same colours as my zombie dragon.

They needed some drilling and pinning to stay on their stands so that was something to learn about with my dads help. The bases were fun to do because I could use some shields and a part of a skeleton horse to add some detail. 

The riders turned out well but the purple was a bit to much on the swords. I liked using Rakarth Flesh on the wings to add some sickly highlights.

This is the ghoul king from the zombie dragon kit that I painted up separately and will count as a wight lord for warhammer 5th edition. I experimented with slap-chop painting to get the highlights painted in first, then I used a blue ink for the  underside to make the shadows darker and a green ink on top to make the highlights pop. I used skeleton horde for the bones and rags and Tamiya clear red for the blood effect. The bone and red tie him to rest of the army but the sickly green is a new colour for zombies and ghouls if I add them to my army.

Total for the month:

3 Carrion - 135 pts
Wight (Ghoul) Lord  - 65 pts

Total: 200 pts

That's it from us for the final month of OWAC VII - congratulations to everyone who made it this far, we'll see you next month for the wrap up with our best Avenging Dark Destroyer poses ready!