Tuesday, March 31, 2020

goblinpaladin's Gnomes - a March update (200* points)

This project is being kindly sponsored by Old School Miniatures.

January was fire and smoke, March is plague. If April is locusts, I quit.

The March gnomes.... march to war

This month, we have my under-strength Burgher Gnomen regiment and a lance of the Order of the Red Fur, a Gnomish chivalric order of Gnome-an-Armen.

  • 5 Gnome-an-Armen + standard bearer* + musician. 77 points
  • 8 Burgher Gnomen with shields + standard bearers* + musician. 90 points
  • Guildmaster + shield + light armour. 33 points
  • Total: 200 points*
Let's start with the regiment of Burgher Gnomen raised from the Guild of Wool Manufacturers and Merchants.
Two bannermen, a musician, a shop steward and the Guildmaster


As mentioned in the introduction, these guys are under-strength. The minimum size is actually twenty (20), but given the international shutdown, I might hold off a bit on increasing their ranks.

A spear regiment of the Guild of Wool Manufacturers and Merchants

I've given them grey coats of undyed wool, as they aren't equipped at the city's expense like the Guarden Gnomen, and they each wear their own caps in a mix of colours. I think the effect is quite handsome, and I can't wait to expand them out to a full twenty or so.

swallow's eye view

They bear the white-stag-on-black of the Guild, which was inspired by some of the similar standards in Swiss cantonal heraldry, although Gnomes have more gentle heraldic animals, with rather fewer bulls and bears.


Gnomish cavalry aren't the heroic heavy knights or the youth with experimental weapons that you may find in the neighbouring great powers. They are instead light-to-medium cavalry on the swift and silent fox, capable of dispersing skirmishers and light infantry. They harass longshanks' baggage trains and flanks, disrupting their formations, rather than charging headlong into pike.

european

I like to call these guys the Order of the Red Fur, because I think I'm funny.

Technically, the rules stipulate that a banner only counts if it's painted. I'm hoping that our great overlord (long may he reign!) will give me a bit of a bye this month. My partner and I have designed the banners, but she printed them at her work last month. This month, she's working from home.

However, they are now right there for other people to use as well, if they like. That's something. (The fox on the pennant is public domain but the other designs are owned by Old School Miniatures, so please check with them first.)


Coming up next month: Artillery! Happy birthday to me.

(Overlord note : In light of the current events, and because they are lovely banners, I shall allow it.)

Sam's Savage Orcs - The one where we all realized the plague is awful, but it sure works wonders for the painting schedule (203pts)

Now, I don’t want to be the one to point fingers, but it seems to me that there are an awful lot of Skaven players succeeding at the challenge this time around, at the same time as which we have a nasty spreading plague. Coincidence? Some might call it so, but me, I’ve got my squeaky suspicions! (Definitely that Adam H.) I mean lets face it, in previous challenges when they all respectfully failed to finish painting ridiculous amounts of Skaven slaves and succumbed to the inevitability of two point models, as any reasonable person would, we never had such problems. I imagine they all slunk back down to the under empire, tails between their legs, taking their nasty plague with them. Now though they are rife, brazenly out here knocking out scores and scores per month like there is nothing too it. A veritable vermintide! I wouldn't be surprised if it was their nefarious plan all along, to be the last ones standing! Well, they didn't think that through did they, overplayed their hand. Now that we are all stuck indoors, there is nothing else left to do other than the bloody painting that we'd previously been avoiding like the plague, the irony.

So anyway totally reasonable suspicions aside, this month, I decided with all that time on my hands, it would be agreeable if I got my shit together and came up with an actual painting system. Not just wait for work to fuck me over and force me to furiously paint until 4 in the morning! So I decided to paint one layer of a single large or two small colours per day, and see how that went. The results in general were pretty good, and far less stressful. Especially for models that I already know the paint scheme for like the back of my hand. More importantly I finished the month without destroying my sleep schedule.

The List:

1 x Savage Orc Big Boss, DHW (100pts)


10 x Savage Orcs, bow (95 pts)


1 x cheeky leftover War Boar (8pts)


Total: 203pts



Da Bossman



Dat cheeky lil' boar

Da job so far

This month was basically much of the same, just cracking on with the rest of the Perry twins sculpts. The highlight being the wonderful bull horned big boss. I also added the cheeky little war boar that I somehow missed last year. Figured out right at the end of last years challenge that I'd forgotten to paint it, so that puts a lid on that. Next month will see the last of the remaining savage orc sculpts, which is a shaman, a banner and a fistful of bow boyz, plus hopefully a couple of snotling stands to round it out.

So that's that, loving all the armies coming together and looking forwards to going through all of this months entries. And Skaven jokes aside, please everyone stay safe out there and wash those hands.

Joe's Compact Chaos Company - March- Chaos Sorceror (272 points)

I gave myself an easy month in the circumstances- just one figure for me this month,  but still the required points value.



1 Chaos Sorceror: Grumbulligan of Clothpile, level 20 Soulflayer, Mounted on Chaos Steed- 272 points.

The base model is an old Citadel wizard. I'm afraid I don't know which one. I think he used to hold a staff with a hand on the end (?), but he's long been drifting around my bits box without a head on his stick. I replaced his staff with a wire spear, and top it with the plastic ball from a large map pin, which  I lightly 'cooked' over the hob for a second or two to give it texture, so I could paint it as a planet.

The Chaos Steed is a Pendragon 'Axe Beak', a sculpt from the distant past, but available today from Wargames Design Workshop. I added the tail with Milliput.

Andrea's High Elf archers and mage (239 points)

Hi guys, 
here we are after the mullingan month! After the recovery of a small shoulder fracture and a particularly busy working month, I started painting again selecting the bigger units (in term of number of me... ahem, elves): the archer unit. It is a mix of 4th edition plastic monopose and some metal from the same age, while the banner bearer and the musician are of the Lothern Sea Guard from the 5th (or 6th?) edition.

Before painting, I drew the banner. Well, actually, I found the blank banners of High Elves and colored it. Here it is:



I selected the dragon as it is also on the top of the banner pole.
Finally, the unit is accompanied by one of the two mages (a 5th edition one).

So, let me introduce the archer unit and the mage.


 The first rank:
 And the second rank.

And here is the mage. I am particularly happy about the coat (and I had to confess that I never liked this miniature but after seen it painted I am quite satisfied!).

So, summing up all entries: the archer unit is 180 pts and the mage is 59 pts, for a gran total 239 pts.

I hope you'll enjoy this month painting; next month I plan to paint the Sword Masters. Pretty excited about this!

Ciao, Andrea

Monday, March 30, 2020

JamesG's Abominable March (200 points)



Some of the units in the army are finally rounding out now that we're wrapping up month three.  I like doing piecemeal selections of different units to offset lower cost models and provide a little variety, but it's nice to get these yetis done so I can move on to other things!


First up we have the Yeti Shaman. He thinks he's the boss, what with his big hittin' stick and tooth necklace, but we know his mighty Ld of 4 isn't going to cut it. He was a fun one, again a Reaper 
Bones fig that came together pretty easily.


The actual yeti handler is this Reaper metal fig.  She's labeled Jana Frostmourne, which I'm told is a Warcraft Dad Joke.  Her job is to wrangle the yeti clan and help them pass their Stupidity tests, just like so many goblins heroes have done for trolls in the past.


 Finally we've got more plastic viking dudes.  I've got enough of these guys painted now that the first unit will be completely done once the command models are in place.  Those may come in April if I don't decide to drop a big ol' 200 point Frost Giant.  That'll be up to the Great Enemy (my work schedule).

The collection so far

March Breakdown
Yeti Handler Hero: 65 points
Yeti Shaman (troll): 65 points
7 warriors: 70 points

Total for the month: 200 points

James P Armbrustschutzen and ASB (264 Points)

Hello to my fellow OWAC participants. More State troops this month as we reach the half-way point. I wanted to comment on the lack of banners in my units. I plan to attach the banners in the last post's family picture. And now on to this month’s entry.

“By bolt or by sword.” “By bolt or by sword!!” repeated the Wardens in unison. Sargant Pfeffer was going through the daily training and target practice with his troops. Every day he repeats the unit’s motto and every day the response is the same. His men fully understand the importance of their task; to protect the cannons at all cost. Canons are rare in Solland and his two charges even more so. Gifted to The Sons by the dwarf lord Ardrit Runeflayer for their role in the relief of his outpost which was under siege from Orcs in the Montdidier pass. Very few know that Runeflayer himself trained the canon teams on the deployment and use of the weapons. The benefit of that training has paid off in many conflicts since. Runeflayer also provided the Wardens with dwarven made crossbows and explained the importance of protecting the canons to allow them to preform with peek efficiency. Pfeffer swore to the dwarf lord that the Wardens would protect the canons by bolt or by sword. Runeflayer was so pleased with Pfeffer’s dwarf-minded response that he invited the Wardens to train with his Quarrellers to fine tune their use of the crossbow. The Wardens pride themselves as the most well-trained unit in the Sons and their training has paid off on many a battlefield.

10 Armbrustschutzen – (champion and standard) 120pts
·        Crossbow, Hand Weapon, Light Armour
Level 10 Hero – 144pts (Army Standard Bearer)
·        Hand Weapon, Heavy armour, Shield, War Horse, Barding and War Banner


Jesse's Undead - Wraiths (300 points)

After last months mulligan due to moving house I didn't want to risk missing the target so I went for two high cost models, two wraiths that clock in at a clean three hundred points.


I was interested in how to make the black robes look a little more 3D and it seemed to go all right. My biggest success was getting the wood on the scythe to look decent by accidentally using black ink on it.

I have started cleaning and basing next months unit and it is going to be a little more substantial - 15 Grim Reapers and an army standard. After that is is going to be interesting in terms of what to paint. My original plan would have been to paint my final unit, the Nightmare Legion, but I now have a few more options after some recent trading.


This is enough for two more units of skeletons and one unit of Samurai undead. As the Samurai are in various states of decomposition then I think I would just use them as skeleton warriors given that zombies are a liability in 3rd edition. At this point maybe Nightmare legion and then another twenty skeleton warriors would be the best path forwards.

Brendan's Clan Moulder- Month 3 (240 points)

Month Three and the Swarm Continues to Gather


March completed and in the bag.  I'm feeling pretty good so far with what I have accomplished! Being that I am working on a clan Moulder theme I went back to my sturdy troop choice of giant rats instead of clan rats.



24 more giant rats completed for a total of 60 points!  I got smarter with these giant rats and I staggered them on one side of the base or the other where I could.  This way they would rank up better and not always have to contend with a tail in the face.

Next I moved on to their handlers, the ever trusty pack-masters for 40 points.



I bent an arm one direction or a whip another to attempt to give the illusion of different models.  I also ran out of pack-masters so don't look too closely at that guy on the right...

Finally I was able to repaint my favorite Skaven model of all time.  He was one of the first models I got when I was 12 and I hard an internal struggle if I should strip him and repaint him from his original paint scheme.  Eventually I convinced myself that he deserved to be brought up to my much better painting ability and repainted my Greyseer.  For the competition I will count him as a Warplock champion.



Warplock Champion 140 points.

For March my grand total came out to 240 points. Here they all are together:



And last but not least, the horde assembled from the last  3 months.  It is getting more difficult to take them all out of the case to photograph them each month.  But I guess that is a good thing!

Sunday, March 29, 2020

Glyn's Orc Waaaaggghhhhhh - The Boyz are back in town! (241.5 points)

'Guess who just got back today

Them wild-eyed boyz that had been away

Haven't changed that much to say

But man, I still think them orcs are crazy'

A clatter of steel, the clang of shield rims one heavily armoured and muscled mountains of green flesh and a feral roar of approval greated Balgagz orders. The big uns of Gorfangs Red Fang tribe swarmed behind Gorfang at whose growled command they surged forward....

So, thanks to the rats of Clan Pestilens, painting time has been much more readily available this month! 😳 As promised last month, I present you Gorfangs Big Un's. These guys are a mixture of the early 90's Citadel and Marauder orcs; spear welding orcs from the former Heartbreaker miniatures range (now available via RalPartha Europe); and the boss and standard figure from the Citadel range of the early 2000's. With the exception of the Marauder and latter minis, all from the fantastical mind and supremely talented hands of the immortal Kev Adams 🙌🙌


So, by rank..

The last of the front rank heavies! I might even make this guy my boss (in preference to the spear armed Marauder mini)





The second rank. From left to right as viewed, 4 x citadel and last one a Heartbreaker mini.




The third rank. 4th along is also Heartbreaker.




Rank 4


Rear rank


Got to say that I have really enjoyed painting up these guys. Tried to keep them earthy and dirty, using red or blue to add a splash of colour here and there to the minis. Below are a couple of group shots. The shields were added after these shots were taken. Group shot below



And so, this month I give you 241.5 points of big 'ard Orcy menace! 21 big uns armed with double handed weapons, light armour and shields at 11.5 points per mini. Added to the points for last months command minis (69) and Gorfang (90), a unit of 400.5 points.

Next months plan was to do 3 stone trolls......but with a concern about the level of blue and grey paint presently in stock, coupled with COVID - 19 seriously impeding my movements, I'm going for the a unit of 20 boyz inc. Boss, Std & Mus, with sword, LA & Sh for 195.5 points. I'll be making up the shortfall in points with a little something for our mighty overlord 😉🤔 



See you next time guys 👍💚

Friday, March 27, 2020

Lissanne's Undead- We are the Dead (558pts)


First up this month, another unit of skeletons, and another bit of terrain in back, which takes care of the mandatory points.  They have different shields than the other painted unit.  Skeletons are cool!  More skeletons are more cool!


Then, I found the mystery bag in my figurine room.  Surprise! A bag o' undead horses and a carrion, plus some others


Immediately, I got distracted and painted the carrion.  Here it is.


And then I painted 2 of those horses.  Alas, what I haven't found is most of the undead riders.  If I can find them (or cobble them up), more will be painted.  So 2 death riders on Ral Partha undead horses.



Back to my personal goals: One, to finish the unpainted Karr-Kell zombies by challenge end  This month we have a death rider and 3 zombies
Death Rider viking



Zombie Sword Swallower



Zombie Night Watch (where I tried for a bit of lighting effect)




And a zombie Chainsaw Goblin



And my second goal to finish the WQ Catacombs of Terror minis by challenge end   This month I painted the two tomb guardians, who in this army are Level 15 heros to lead skeleton units. I tried something with the bases that wasn't worth the time, but looks nice.  Carden is in the red, Charlotte Greenlaw in the green.



Plus a little cutie skull bomb thrower I found, I'll make him an L5 hero [Nicodemus]to command the 3rd skeleton unit.  Skeletons and zombies seem to need to be directed in WF.


And for good measure, 16 WQ bats.  I tried something with the bases that didn't work at all, and will have to rethink it.   (I plan on doing a wraith host, so I don't think both will count, but they are only 2pts each)  I'll subtract their points from the wraith host later on.


The forces of Dirge rising up in earnest and spreading pestilence, plague & fear throughout the land...
20 Skeleton Unit (20 shields, 10 spears) 230 pts
2 Tomb Guardians (Hero 15)                 85 pts each (170 pts)
Carrion                                                   45pts
3 Death Riders  light armor                   23pts  (69 pts)
3 Zombies                                              12 pts
16 bats                                                   2pt each- (32pts)
Total this month                       ............558pts

And the whole army after 3 months- [already 1000pts and playable, I think.]
I also found and painted the bolt thrower for my undead rhino plague cart! Hooray!


Next month- yet more skeletons, continuing my personal goals, plus other extras!

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