CopperOracle II. 6. Wrap-up

The Severed Hand Orcs and King F'yar

My second OWAC and this one was far more of a  uphill struggle than my first one. Real world distractions and a loss of mojo kept the challenge quite heavy for the majority. My own added pressure of not wanting to compromise and thinking about all the extras I wanted to get to ended up getting to much and I had to just stop and reset. focusing on a couple of other figures to clear myself and then coming back to just focus on what was needed each month helped a lot as well as the boost from seeing the force come together. 

Looking back over it all and what I have achieved I am happy, I had not done as much as I had planned but I have not compromised on what I have done and they can take pride of place next to the rest of the collection and brought me a big step towards its completion. OWAC did what is does and I have painted far more than I would have done without it!

I will certainly be back for next year, either with some Slann or another Bloodbath force, though it will be either the humans or the elves to give a bit of variety! 

Hagar Sheol

Hagar Sheol and King F'yar

The Full Severed Hand Horde!

The Bloody Fingers, Lesser Goblins

Hobhound handler Grashak Kra

Hobhounds

Orc Archers

Severed Hand Orcs alongside the Vile Rune Tribe

The obligatory Ansell Pose

Byron's Army of Zargon - Wrap up post

Having dabbled with the ruinous energies of Chaos in his pursuit of Power (and trolling his Girlfriend's kids in quests), Byron became Zargon.

Before I can get into the wrap up stuff, I first have to share additional rank and file models I painted for this month:

Orcs with shield x3: 25.5 pts

Zombies x4: 16 pts

Goblins with shields x3: 9pts

Link to the Fan Army Book I made so I can play Warhammer with my army.

And, with that I have fulfilled my Oath to paint all of my HeroQuest Minis from 3 boxes of HeroQuest and the Return of the Witch Lord expansion. 

But, before I can share pictures of the complete army and talk about my travails and struggles, I have further additions for the final month: terrain!

Bone piles to liven up the battle field! (pun intended)

I also added stalactites to this terrain piece. I also positioned
minis on it to convey an allusion to the box art :) 

Okay, Now for the big pictures of the whole army that you have all been waiting for!

2925 Points

The whole army in one shot on my custom-made HeroQuest bookshelf (link for how I did it). 

15 Chaos Warriors bearing the Black Banner of Zargon and flanked by 2 warlocks

9 Fimir shading themselves from the midday sun with their shields.

3 Gargoyles guarding the catacombs of evil.

10 mummies lurching forwards, spreading their dire graverot.

21 Goblins chittering away.

27 Orcs ready to march on Zargon's enemies

16 skeletons (one is not in the picture since he was on Zargon's castle)

10 Zombies shambling in the dark corridors.

Terrain from the Realm of Zargon:

A small mountain range with a walkable pass.

A small mountain range with an entrance doorway.

Castle Zargon.

Reflections

Last year I noted about moving in with my partner and her kids and how my free time evaporated. That still largely holds true. I had to get assertive about carving out times in the evenings after the kids had gone to sleep to hobby. 

Prior to beginning the project I was playing HeroQuest with some friends in Portland. This really helped with my enthusiasm. However, we finished the game fairly quickly into the Challenge and this really sapped the creative energies for the project. 

I tried to keep up the pace of painting minis to match the quests to make my posts more thematic, but this was a hard pace to maintain. 20-30 minis a month is rough. 

Interim

Last year I speculated "Between now and the next OWAC I need to finish the remainder of my Gusseldorfers, sculpt up some more Gusseldorfers (knights, and a queen). I might then start sculpting some nordic dwarves." Frustratingly, this is the same interim plan this time around because I didn't get around to doing these tasks since everyone got dire sick and we had to relocate to a new home in December.

Next OWAC

Just like for the interim, last year I speculated 

    "I am very enthusiastic about the next OWAC. I have an odd collection of old citadel and marauder         wood elves. I have so many ideas! My plan is to paint them up like hippies from the 60's! I'm gonna     sculpt extra flowers in their hair. I've created a random name generator that pays homage to the             naming conventions of Forendron's last stand. I've gonna give them some banners with toxic                 positivity slogans on them like "We gave peace a chance!" "Good Vibes Only!" as well as some             alterations of beloved hippy songs! And, if the timing works, I'd like to recreate the famous Olley         "Pint Pals" with elves smoking."

This goal stands the same except that I have since accumulated even more elves for the project. :) 

My girlfriend took this pic of me after dying my
hair for the Zargon pic; I include it here to show that
 I am, in fact, not an evil wizard.

Chris Pridmore's Wrap-up Post

So, I painted an army! I'm honestly a little surprised that I got it all done. And I did the things I intended to do with it. The colours are bright, and I got to try out some new ideas and techniques, from the rainbow chaos symbols to colour-changing paint. I like to think that I've captured something of the mid-90's I remember, and it's been great to paint some minis that I've owned since those days, as well as a few more recent purchases and a whole lot of stripped and rebuilt second-hand stuff. It's recycling!

The final list is as follows:

Chaos Lord 91pts

Chaos Champion 58pts

Army Icon Bearer 55pts

Chaos Sorcerer 52pts

Aspiring Champion 30pts

9 Chaos Terminators 459pts

Aspiring Champion 30pts

9 Chaos Space Marines 225pts

Aspiring Champion 30pts

9 Plague Marines 315pts

10 Plaguebearers 350pts

Great Unclean One 275pts

Chaos Dreadnought 135pts

Total 2105pts

That's a lot of points for a compact force, and although I very rarely play any flavour of 40k, I think its reasonably balanced and playable, if perhaps a little slow-moving. Chances are I'll never play it, but I've finally got the glass cabinet that I've wanted for years, and I love the way it looks in there. Took a quick photo of a few of my favourites marching into town, and of course, the classic cheesy picture!

 

Skål's Necro95 wrap up post

 Another OWAC in the bag. First off congratulation's to everyone who finished this season. We had a lot of great projects this season and it was awesome to see how much everyone did. You all have done some impressive painting as well as put up some outstanding Oldhammer vibes. Well done everyone.

I had a lot of fun finally painting up some Necromunda gangs. I have been wanting to do this project for quite some time now and OWAC was the perfect excuse to break into my old gangs and get some paint on them. Here is my OWAC entries for this season.

Thoughts enviability start to wander into what should , nay what could I possibly paint next season. Will we be allowed to do like we did this season and I can dive into more Necromunda gangs. I mean I really do need to paint up more gangs and I could do another whole season to get through the rest of them. Or do I wander into the far reaches of 1997 and break out some Chronopia? I do have enough to perhaps build two forces to contest the great lands that the Old Gods deserted? Or perhaps the Great Overlord brings us back to the old ways and we are only allowed to do Oldhammer and Rogue Trader. What then? Do I continue to build my Wood Elves or Dwarves? Do I keep going with my Eldar? Or just maybe I dive into a new Oldhammer project? Do I finally let Chaos into my welcoming heart and rip the Old world asunder with the mighty forces from the Realms of Chaos?

So many choices. So much time to change my mind a thousand times before we kick off the next season. 

But wait I am getting ahead of myself. I will enjoy the victory of completing another OWAC and not sub-coming to the Field of Bones.

To the profound ignorance which we brought to this endeavor; because had we known what was ahead, we never would have started.

Here's to the sweet smell of success.

Here's to General Douglas MacArthur, who said, "There is no substitute for victory."

To victory. As Alex Haley said, "History is written by the winners.”

Let's have a drink,

Let's have some fun.

Because at last

The job is done.

SKÅL