The Old World Army Challenge: January 2026

Thursday, January 8, 2026

Ben D's Skellibobs - Intro Post

Well Owackers, its that time of year again (take a shot,) where we pledge our axes to a cause and dedicate the next six and a half months of our hobby lives to making something beautiful. I, like the rest of the mugs on this blog, have had a whole year to think of something cool to do for OWAC 9, and I figured I’d do something a little bit different to spice it up a bit. That’s right, this year’s army will be good old fashioned Undead, bones and warts and all…

Wait…

What’s that?

Why are they so small?!

Alright, as per usual (three years running bay-bee) I’ve made it my goal to gnome it up, and this time is no different, except for it literally being different because these gnomes are of the boney variety. Some Halloweens ago, our lovely Byron made a handful of minis to celebrate the spooky season, and as the story goes, I jumped in with two feet. Originally, a number of this horde were a force I made for Dragon Rampant, but after I finished two armies of gnomes for the Warhammer system, I simply had to redo the whole thing so that they’d all match!

There’s been much talk about the Field of Bones amongst participants given the shape of the year ahead, and to make certain that I won’t take any arrows to the knee, I’ve formed a force that should be plenty easy to accomplish before the summer. Should 2026 do me dirty, I ought to be able to manage about 10 skellibobs a month, with plenty of surprises waiting in the wings in case things go smoother than expected.

Here’s the list in all its ghoulish glory.

Undead Lord - Vampire Lord on Dragon - 825 pts

2 Necromancers - 68 pts/each

20 Skeleton Warriors - Full Command and Halberds - 257 pts

10 Wights - Full Command, Spears, Shields, Heavy Armor, Skeletal Steeds - 528 pts

Total - 2003 pts

I’m personally delighted by this collection of miniatures, not just because they are a continuation of a theme, but because this force has afforded me the chance to sculpt more and use pieces from my collection that I’d been saving for a special occasion.

I can’t think of many things more special than our community’s annual project, so I’m proud to haul out this tiny pile of lead in celebration of the new year and the ninth official Old World Army Challenge.

But wait! There's a rub! This year's OWAC has an underlying theme: your project has to draw inspiration from some Oldhammer Art!

Here is the virgin cover of the 4th edition Undead Army book, illustrated by David Gallagher. Its gaudy, busy, and full of pop, so of course I had to pick it as my piece to draw from. While the undead in my army are gnomish and are beholden to their quaint sensibilities, I can at least draw from Gallagher's palette and general vibe. With any luck, by the end of the challenge you'll be able to look at the army and then at the painting, and nod sagely from the commonality of it all.

Best of luck to all participants, and a hearty thank you to our organizers! Be well, and paint wisely!

Monday, January 5, 2026

JohnR's OWAC IX Intro Post - Rogues from Beyond the Stars!

One of the things I love about the OWAC and the Oldhammer movement more generally is that it gives me an excuse to collect, paint and play with miniatures in much the way I did as a kid.

There's no one telling me I'm collecting, painting or playing 'wrong' and no massive multinational corporation trying to get me to buy their latest thing.

If I like something, and it fits with the setting and the story I'm telling, it's in.

On the downside this is a somewhat unstructured, scatter-gun approach to wargaming. Which is fine with me.

To that end here is my entry to OWAC 9: the Rogues from Beyond the Stars. Space Pirates!

Group Shot.

Old GW Rogue Trader Space Pirates / Adventurers. These have been in my collection pretty much forever and they really deserve some paint, having waited so long.

Some Geedub goodness and some more recent figs. My leader model in the center is a BOYL mini - perfect as a Space Pirate boss!

Space Mutants by Bigmrtong - the main inspiration for this army.

Old Grenadier armed civilians - suitable as space ruffians and ne'er-do-wells, at a push .

More Bigmrtong minis - privateers and space brigands. I have a few more of these but I already started painting them.

Leader types, aliens and psykers.

Imperial Robots - captured and reprogrammed. These didn't quite make it into my last Rogue Trader OWAC entry - hopefully they'll make it in here.

Finally the artwork that, obviously, inspired this madness.

I also have a few other bits and bobs that didn't make the photos - mainly vehicles - an RT Predator and Rhino and some Toon Tanks. I might include them, if the mood takes me, though most likely they'll wait for a MKVI beaky Space Marine army in a future OWAC.

Anyway, on to the painting. "Avast you planet-lubbers and break out the hyper-rum me space hearties, Yaaaar !!"

Paul's Dwarf Army - Intro Post

Hi, I'm Paul and this is my first time taken part in the OWAC and I'm very excited about it, especially after seeing the amazing armies that are created each year. I used to play 8th Edition and have Empire, Tomb Kings, Burgle warriors of Chaos and Bretonnian armies. I've always liked Dwarf minis and have been collecting metal sculpts for a few years now. I thought I'd try and mimic the fabulous Paul Sawyer and paint these guys up in yellow and black as I think that's a great colour combo. The photo is a test model for the colour scheme I have in mind.

Below are a few shots of the models I've cleaned up ready for priming. There are some others including a general, gyrocopter and some clansmen but they will be shown in future posts.

The army composition hasn't been based on a tactical, game playing process but purely on the models that I have managed to collect for this. I would like this to be a full metal army so I'm limiting myself to the models that I can get with this constraint in mind. I have the general and hero to purchase.

Using the 5th Edition Army book it breaks down as follows

1 General 160 pts

1 Hero 104 pts

10 Thunderers 130 pts

15 Miners (plus 204 pts

standard and musician)

12 Slayers 132 pts

10 Warriors 110 pts

1 Flame cannon 119 pts

1 Cannons 110 pts

1 Gyrocopter 100 pts

1 Bolt Thrower 54 pts

Really looking forward to this so here goes...............

Sunday, January 4, 2026

Jaakko and Rugluk: Season II - The Reinforcements - Introduction

Rugluk Backstabba stood on a ridge of broken stone and looked down at his army.

It didn’t take long. There weren’t many left.

A handful of orcs leaned on chipped axes, arguing about whose fault it was they were hungry. Goblins huddled near a fire that wasn’t really burning. A pump wagon sat on its side, crew gone, probably eaten.

Rugluk bared his teeth. “Dis ain’t an army,” he growled. “Dis a bad joke.”

No one laughed.

The siege, the mutiny, the empty fort-it had all taken its toll. Some had wandered off. Others had challenged him and lost. A few had challenged him and won, at least enough to run away afterward. Fear carried only so far when there was no loot and too much marching.

Rugluk clenched his fist. He was still alive. Boyz will always find the real boss.

“Dey’ll come,” he muttered. “Dey always do.”

A goblin scout scurried up the slope, panting. “Boss! Found tracks”

Rugluk’s eye twitched. “Orcs?”

The goblin hesitated. “Uh… not exactly.”

Rugluk grinned anyway.

“Well, I ain’t picky.”

And so another season of OWAC is about to begin! And, as promised, the second season of painting Orcs and Goblins for the Horde of Rugluk.

The theme of season IX is to draw inspiration from Oldhammer artwork. I knew this beforehand, and since I’m working on a multi-season project, I already snuck this picture into the introduction post for season VIII:

Or rather, a part of this larger artwork from Warhammer Armies:

I love everything about it and hope to capture the style of this orc horde in my slowly materializing army-to-be. I’ve also snuck in some smaller details that fit this year’s theme into last season-but there will be more of them next month (as I’m not writing this from home and forgot to take pictures). More small surprises are also hopefully still to come. Anyway, here are some photos of the unpainted models waiting for their turn!

This unit will feature two banners, so the fellow in the middle seems to be a rival of Rugluk.

I painted some Goblin Fanatics last year, but I saved my favourites for this season. As far as I know, all the different pre-slotta sculpts will be featured. I can’t imagine a scenario where I’d actually need so many Fanatics, but I enjoy painting them.

And here they are in a list:

That’s still more than I can manage to paint in one season, but we’ll see.

If I have time, I might also finish these Goblin Wolf Riders that I didn’t manage to complete last season. They won’t be included in the model count or points, of course, since they already have some season VIII paint on them.

Good luck to all of our challengers! See you next month!

Nicolas' Chaos Army of Tzeentch

As I wrap up 2025, getting the house in order to receive family to celebrate the New Year, I realize shrimp cocktails and bacon rolled sausages are not the first things to come on my mind. Nope, my mind is racing over final touches to the composition of this year's OWAC challenge. You know, priorities!

So here they are, my chosen Tzeentch minions for this years challenge!

General - Hero on disk, leader of the Thrall Warband - 125pts

Heroe on disks - 125pts

Lord of Change - 0pts

1 Thrall warband - 200pts

1 unit of chaos warriors of Tzeentch on disks - 815pts

1 pink horror unit - 1260pts

1 blue horror unit - 0pts

1 flamers units - 1260pts

1 Tzeentch chaos spawn - 25pts

1 hydra - 200pts

I am back in the game with a theme I already visited 4 years ago. I had such a blast creating a full unit of 10 Tzeentch Flamers, which still to this day gives me that feeling of pride for building something I have not seen often.

My main influence for this new part of my Tzeentch cult follows the idea of creating a unit I have never seen before... that yet is possible to play in 3rd edition. There is that old image of a group Tzeentch warriors on flying disks, which I used to find odd since I grew up with 4th edition, where disks were only meant for heros.

And that is how I convinced myself to build a full 10 warriors of Chaos on flying disks! Every other miniatures in this project are sort of... justifying this main unit.

Selection of miniatures was quite a process, I wanted to get miniatures that matched the disk right away with poses that made sence, plus having fighter types and not straight out sorcerers. These ones made it to the Thrall warband!

Finaly, special mention to the hydra, the Spectral Dragon II from Grenadier, which I plan to paint in the same fiery color scheme than the Flamers. I may even add some green stuff to change the dragon heads into Flamers... time will tell!

Saturday, January 3, 2026

Pokrzyw's Empire Army - Introduction post - OWAC IX

Hello OWACers!

This is my fourth OWAC. After WFB Dark and High Elf armies and WH40k Sisters of Battle force I will back to the Old World with Empire army in 2026.

My one and only adventure with Empire starts in 5th edition, in 1997. I borrowed army from a friend that couldn't participate in '97 Polish Championship. I won silver medal using this army first time (great pre-internet times that you cannot use forums nor armylists that won tournaments). The only stopper from collecting it was a budget. I was back to the Empire during pandemia time. I was always impressed by paintworks in 4th edition armybook - I plan to add all that units in the challenge.