Second Wyvern Done

There is now only two weeks until Moonstruck. I've been trying to ignore the fact, but I'm starting to get a bit short on time. On the bright side however, the final Wyvern is now in a usable state.

I painted this guy up in a similar vein to the previous one, but with a slightly more subdued, modern lack of bright red. I was happy with how the browns and greens worked on the other one, so took a lot of cues from that.

Old and semi-new. The greens and browns are similar, but the detailing is different.

First Wyvern Done

Time is ticking away in the lead-up to Moonstruck, but I am making progress. I have now completed the first of the Wyverns, and have made a very small start on the second one.

This first Wyvern is the old Marauder one - the one that was current when I started into the hobby. I was excited when I found this model at an affordable price in a second-hand stall, however for all that it included the saddle, it didn't have the correct rider. I may have to convert one. For now though, I plan on painting the Wyverns without riders. I can steal painted Boar Boyz for the job if I don't have time to do new riders before the tournament. It's called prioritization. The things that have a viable backup plan can wait until last.

The Marauder Orc Wyvern, painted in a scheme inspired by the one used in White Dwarf (it's similar but not identical)

Moonstruck: Going back to my Worldroots?

I mentioned previously that Moonstruck had sold out, and that I am one of those who entered. The tournament is in a few weeks, so I really need to make a list.

This will be my first tournament since Cancon in late January, and it is also my first using the End Times rules. This means 50% Lords, access to the Lore of Undeath, and Legion lists, as well as Battlescrolls from the End Times books. This all stacks up to mean that I have absolutely no idea what to expect. The scope for the creation of terrifying armies has increased dramatically, and I don't have a feel for how well the comp system will reign it in.

With all this in mind, I took a long time to come up with an army. I couldn't really make an army based on what I expected to meet on the table, because I have no idea what that will be. What I needed was a concept I wanted to play with, and eventually I settled on one I have been wanting to use for a long time: The Court of the Everqueen.

From a background perspective, the High Elf Everqueen holds court in the forests of Avelorn (or did, before the End Times). She is protected by a maiden bodyguard, and the forests are full of forest spirits and the like, much like Athel Loren. It has always seemed like a good theme for a list, however the High Elves never had the ability to put things like Treemen into their list, so any effort to recreate the army as a whole would generally have been using Wood Elves.

The End Times changed this, by combining the different Elf armies into lists like the Host of the Phoenix King and the Host of the Eternity King. Suddenly it has become possible to field forest spirits alongside High Elves. I don't really know how long the End Times rules are going to be doing the rounds, so it makes sense to take the opportunity to finally field my Avelorn list at Moonstruck.

In keeping with the confusing nature of the End Times, there is now more than one version of the Everqueen to choose from. I have decided to go for the full-blown crazy version of her: Alarielle, Incarnate of Life. She's ridiculously powerful, but she's 540 points. And the plan is to surround her with some pretty sub-par stuff to fit my theme, so I figure she will be OK. Here is the list I think I am going to use:

• Alarielle, Incarnate of Life
• Durthu
• High Elf Noble (BSB) with Sword of Might, Enchanted Shield, Dragon Armour
• Wood Elf Spellsinger (Level 1, Lore of Undeath) on Unicorn with Dragonbane Gem
• High Elf Noble with Dragonhelm, Heavy Armour, Great Weapon
• 18 Maiden Guard (Lothern Sea Guard) with Spears, Bows, Light Armour, Full Command
• 18 Maiden Guard (Lothern Sea Guard) with Spears, Bows, Light Armour, Full Command
• 18 Dryads with Branch Nymph
• 6 Treekin
• 5 Dragon Princes of Caledor with Standard, Musician
• 5 Sisters of Avelorn
• Eagle Claw Bolt Thrower
• Eagle Claw Bolt Thrower

The list should be interesting. Alarielle gives everything within 12" Regeneration, and can heal wounded models each turn as well as having her Life magic to work with. It could mean things like Treekin and Dryads grow a fair bit of spine so long as they stay within her range. A few of the characters have fire protection to help resist Flaming Attacks - the easiest way to bypass Regeneration. Durthu is the only significant combat punch in the list, although at least I have a moderate amount of shooting.

The characters. I need to re-base Durthu, I guess. Sigh.

Wyvern and Arachnarok progress

I see that Moonstruck has now sold out, with all 90 places gone. That's pretty cool. It's nice to know that people are still able to get excited about a Warhammer event despite all the uncertainty around the game at the moment.

Over the weekend I managed to make a bit more progress with the stuff I am working on for the Orcs and Goblins. First up was the salvaged Wyvern. After building a basic shape for his neck out of wire and green stuff, I was able to sit down for an hour or two on Friday night and add most of the detail. A brief bit of fiddling at the club on Saturday saw me add some horns and clean up a few things, and the Wyvern himself is basically finished...

One scaly Wyvern neck. Not identical to the existing parts, but close enough.

Salvaging something scaly

Recently I managed to find a chance to dig through my Orcs and Goblins and do a proper inventory of what I still have sitting around in boxes, waiting for their chance to be painted and played with. It took a long time. One of the things that I did establish is that I have a good reserve of Wyverns and riders...

3 Wyverns and 5 Riders (3 old Azhags!). Actually, it's 2.5 Wyverns. The silver one is missing bits. Like a head, neck and shoulders.

A friend dropped past whilst I was doing this and suddenly got excited at the prospect of how many Wyverns one could fit into a list under the new 50% Lord restrictions introduced with the End Times. For 2600 points (the size of Moonstruck, the next major tournament), the answer is 4. You can jam 4 Wyverns into a single list, and have quite a few points left to equip them. Apparently this is enough to be exciting and/or silly, and now I am under instructions to paint up 2 more Wyverns to accompany the 2 I already have ready to go. Oh, and the second Arachnarok. Kill me now...

Anyway, I am an idiot and agreed to this plan. And if I actually survive painting the second Arachnarok, I will be very happy to have it finished. But I have decided to focus on the Wyverns to be begin with. Specifically I am working on the one with no head, neck or shoulders. Details, really. It's not like half the model is missing. 

Something old, something new

Over the last couple of weeks I have continued to make gradual painting progress. The game a bit over a week ago highlighted to me that my Dwarfs really needed some additional characters to plug some gaps, so I've been working on that. Here we have to two latest additions: Belegar Ironhammer and Kragg the Grim.

Belegar is a modern model - part of the new era of multi-part plastic characters. Kragg is a bit older - he's a Runelord from back when metal models still contained lead.