Brennan's Wrap-up Post (1,203 points)

Hello!  Well this is the end of my third OWAC and I'm excited to get through this chunk of the old lead pile.  First I want to thank the Overlord and all the other folks who have supported the challenge.  It has been a difficult year, but this part has been as good as ever and I appreciate that.

On to the final pictures!  Worksite army photo below...

10 Iron Breakers with Musician and Standard: 240 pts

10 Crossbowmen: 130 pts

16 Longbeards with Musician and Standard: 270 pts

21 Warriors with Musician and Standard: 253 pts

2 Bolt Throwers: 120 pts

1 Dwarf Hero Heavy Armor and Double Handed Weapon: 109 pts
1 Runesmith w/ Heavy Armor (under his clothes ;)): 81

So this was fun.  I haven't done a heavily armored force for the OWAC yet and it had been a while since I had done this much armor anyway.  I tried to keep it bright but with one finger on reality.  I wanted a good bit of contrast from the orcs and gobs I have been working on.  I think fantasy, or sci-fi, works best when there is a hint of reality to keep the brain anchored.  Otherwise, you just descend into a computer generated realm of disbelief... 

Well this is me signing off for about 6 months!  Paint well and be excellent to each other...

Brennan's May Post (200 Points)

Hello!  This is exciting and sad all at the same time.  This month I painted the final two castings that I had planned for the challenge.

It's sad in two ways:
     1.  Its two figures, because I forgot to mix in the command figs over the other months like I usually do...
     2.  It's the last of the planned figures, and I'm not sure what else to add to this challenge

But!  It's exciting to be through this new contingent for my Dwarf Army.  In my wrap up post, I'll have the whole throng in one place for you review, but a focused spotlight on the figures that I did for this challenge.  That way you can let me know if they are separate enough looking 'brigade'.

Dwarf Hero Heavy Armor and Double Handed Weapon

I tried to have him mirror the Iron Breakers, but have a slightly different style.

Runesmith w/ Heavy Armor
Ended up very blue....  But I like him.

And the double shot!

1 Dwarf Hero Heavy Armor and Double Handed Weapon (109) and 1 Runesmith w/ Heavy Armor (81)

Brennan's April Post (253 points)

Oh this regiment!  I was tickled pink to have a go at it!  I have always wanted one, even when I younger and the RoR box sets like this were going away.  I was lucky enough to get the box and a set, I've added a few figs, in a bulk buy a couple of years ago. I thought they would be a great edition to the army challenge.

First the negative.  They are absolutely horrible to rank up.  I really like my figures facing the enemy head on and not looking to the side when in line.  To get these guys to do this was tough.  I got there.  I have to use the three fig unit bases with the tiny round piece.  I only had 2 of these so the use was very strategic.

Other than that I kept to the pallet I have been using all along, but I muted it a little.  These guys aren't elites, even if they are festooned with pistols...  So I wanted the unit to be a little toned down.

I also added a very similarly uniformed chap with a pistol in a dramatic pose.  I though it fit.

A few more pics...

And the command...

And some shields

So that's 21 warriors with musician and standard: 253pts!

Brennan's March Post - The Wooden Gun Line (250 Points)

Hello!

Well, it's March and I live near a US Covid hot spot so I'm trying to keep everybody far away from me!  So, I've painted up a wooden gun line and stopped taking the showers.  More on the paint below...

As these fellas aren't elite, I've gone for a simpler paint scheme, especially on the armor.  I kept the color scheme on the tabards to help pull the look of the whole force together.

I got a comment last time, positive, on the color of the skin.  I've always liked a browner tone for dwarves.  I'm not sure why, but it has an earthy feel that I think suits them.  I know lost of folks like the very light and ruddy skin tones, but I tend to save those for elves.  

First up are the bolt throwers.  In 4th ed we called them SAMs... because of a certain magic rune.  I like how in 3rd they are more like battalion guns, get lots of them and they have a moderate effect.

Next up at the 10 xbows.  Those 2 Marauder miniatures in the unit were fantastic to paint.  The older Citadel were fun too, but there was something really nice about the Marauder figs, maybe the extra details.

Well here we are:
120 for two bolt throwers
130 for 10 xbows
250 for the month!

Ummmm....  next up on the painting table?  Well, its work dependent.  With being at home, I might paint up two character models and make it easy, or I might take on Prince Ulthars...

Brennan's February Post (240 Points)

Hello!  I'm back again with the unit of Iron Breakers!

So, if I went for shiny metal on all of these figures then it really would have been a lot of the same color.  I decided to go for a blue steel look on the plate armor to break things up a bit.  I used a series of washes and dry-brushing to get the effect.  It's not perfect, but I think it gets the point across.  PBS had a good documentary on an electric blue suit of armor that provided the inspiration.  That and I wanted to keep the corn flower blue and forest green core colors that I'm doing for this section of the army.  The forest green was used for some armor trim and any random shirts or capes that snuck there way in...

For the banner, I wanted something stormy so I went with a lightning bolt.  I like lightning bolts for the dwarves.  if you have ever been up in the mountains during lightning storm, then you will know what that raw power feels like.  Seems fitting for what is, effectively, a unit of foot knights.

And now all of them together!

10 Iron Breakers with musician and standard: 240 pts

Brennan's January Post (240 Points)

Well, these have been different than the Slann I did last year!  The Slann were blue, with lots of earth tones and neat fabrics.  These dudes are all metal and hair.  I felt like I was painted the aged remains of a hair metal band....

Anyway, I'm trying to keep a couple of distinct colors as themes for this brigade, but you will forgive me if I refer to this collection of dwarf companies under one leader as a 'battle'...  It just seems proper.  In this case I chose to use a nice medium green and brighter light blue as contrasting colors.  I sprinkled in a few more tones as I worked through the figs, metal painted orange on a helmet as an example, to get some variety.  I wanted continuity but not a uniform.  These colors will repeat in a variety of ways throughout the battle.

What I like about the imperial style of Dwarves is that they have those nice surcoats on, which break up all the armor.  The problem with the Long Beards is that they have so much hair that it makes it hard to see the nicer designs on the surcoats, so I went for some nice taping on the edges.  It's much easier to see from the back.

I did the beards in a couple of different ways.  Sometimes I used just a multiple level dry brush and in other cases I used a couple rounds of inking with a dry brush.  Frankly, I think the results are similar, but I was hoping to get enough variety to create a slight visual variation to break-up the uniform aspect of the figures and the painting.

For January I did...

14 Long Beards with a Standard and a Musician which would be 240 points in 4th ed!

The astute may notice that I had planned to do 16 Long Beards but alas, when I did my count I failed to notice the two short beards that had snuck into the ranks....  They will just have to go somewhere else!

Brennan's Dwarves - Intro Post

Hello! 

Well I'm back again for another round.  I had a very hard time deciding what to paint this year.  I debated doing another round of Slann.  Which would be fun, but the two other painters local to me, were painting up 4th ed armies.  I thought about doing more with my Orcs and Gobbos, which is great army in 4th, but I also had other projects that were calling out for my attention.  That landed me on Dwarves.  I have a third ed dwarf army that I have played with off and on.  I really enjoy dwarves in third because they aren't as slow as they are in other additions, primarily due to encumbrance rules and how they affect other races.  However, in 4th dwarves reward players who use the special troops types, this is mainly because clansmen can't have heavy armor and are not required troops.  BUT they will feature heavily in my list because, I like the figs.

So, I'm going to be doing an army with a fair number of imperial dwarf figures from the Citadel range and Marauder dwarves that I hope match the theme well.  I'm not going to have many puff and pike dwarves, not because I don't like them, but I'm hoping that this army will have a consistent look, like a separate brigade in the army.  So there will be a consistent color scheme but, hopefully it won't look like a uniform.

We will just have to wait to see how that turns out!

10 Iron Breakers with musician and standard: 240 pts

10 Crossbowmen: 130

16 Longbeards with musician and standard: 270 pts

21 Warriors with musician and standard: 253 pts

2 Bolt throwers, with light armor for the crew: 120 pts

1 Dwarf Hero Heavy Armor and Double Handed Weapon (109) and 1 Runesmith w/ Heavy Armor (81)

All together now!  For 1,203 Points!

Brennan and the Final Frog Leg...

Well!  this is my second OWAC and it has been a great ride.  I've had a wonderful opertunity to paint an army that I never thought I would own and actually get a game in with it.  All round a wonderful oldhammer success! And a big thank you to to the over-lord for leadership, cheerleading and being an overall solid leader.

My childhood wargaming didn't involve Warhmmer Fantasy until I was a little older, maybe 14/15.  By that time, 4th edition Warhammer was the newest, greatest thing, and I missed out on the Slann.  I knew about Space Slann from RT, but I was a little too obsessed with Imperial Guard and Orks (with a k) back then to dig into where the idea for those froggy fellas came from.  Later, as my love of old minis turned to the games I hadn't played.  When I realized what I had missed and promptly did the old eBay search for Slann.  I then learned that, somethings would have to wait. But luck was on my side, about 12 years later, I got an opportunity to buy a Slann army at a very decent rate.  I begged and bargained with my spouse and viola!  I now have a bounty of frogs!

What's that? You played a game with them, how'd it go?  I hear you asking.  It went OK. Short version, I lost.  I played against undead.  We played 3rd edition warhammer and used the lists from Warhammer Armies.  We played around 1200 points, so small armies.  I had what was painted at the time, without anything in the realm of a magical upgrade.   Well what does that mean?  Lots and lots of frog infantry!  What I think the army needed was a few more heroes and some cav and light stuff to screen the main advance.  I felt like my flanks were too vulnerable and I didn't have the material to strike out at new developments.  I didn't role the best spells, but there are ways to mitigate that risk too (rings, rings for everyone!).  I also think I need some cheaper, points wise, support troops.  So I'm going to add:
2 units of 8 cold one riders (5 were painted last month)
1 unit of 20 braves
1 more wizard on palanquin
1 unit of two animal handlers with 6 cold one hounds
1 unit of two animal handlers with maybe 5 saber tooth's

The cold ones will get go up the middle, supported by infantry and the hounds will just try to get in the way.  I've have more hounds, but getting them is challenge, unless I just use alligators from the foundry or something like that.

I'd also love another unit with blowpipes.  That is going to take some serious patience to acquire.

So here's what I did:

LV 15 hero with 2 Handed Weapon and Heavy Armor - 117

LV 15 Wizard on a Litter - 199

15 Eagle Warrior with 2 handed weapons and a standard - 240

15 Alligator Warriors w 2 handed weapons and a standard - 208

16 Span Band with shield and standard - 170

10 Venom Tribe - 120

5 Scouts with poison and shields - 70

5 Cold One Riders w/ Light armor and shields - 185

For a total of 1309

A huge congrats to all the competitors who attempted and completed the challenge.  This is one of the best groups I have ever had the pleasure of working with in wargaming and I hope the OWAC continues for many years to come!