Owac VIII Intro post - Sybou's Baronny

 Hello everyone,

glad to be again a part of the Owac.

For these year 2025, i'm going to carry on the Baron's army.

Back in the days, i started it with mostly Foundry Miniatures and a green & white colors scheme ; i found lots of old empire and stuff to bulk the army and now it's time to make some good progress on the army.

The background of the army focuses on the Greyhald Baron who's an old prick. Only his powerful axe allowing him to survive his old years.

The baronny is located in the border princes where everyone can do what he wants if you have enough men and/ or money.

Here is the army:

We have:

• 24 billmen with a merchant
• 13 crossbowmen with a merchant
• 15 good to no good free companies
• 1 canon
• 1 hellfire canon
• 1 captain on steed
• 1 outcast wizard named "Tim"
• 10 riders from a strange misty land ready to work against money

The baron is not part of this batch but if I'm good enough maybe i could insert him there.

For my offering, I choose JB as we are in the same country and it will be easier to send him the miniature.

It s a confrontation miniature, really chaosy and the whip makes him a bit Slaanesh like.

Well, here we are. Close to the end of year.

Happy new year to everyone and get your brushes ready!

AdamH’s OWAC VIII Intro Post – Green rats? What is going on here?

If you have been following the OWAC for a while now you will know that I like Skaven. I like the look of big hordes of models together and the play style of throwing loads of disposable bodies in waves at your enemy until they are overwhelmed with sheer numbers. 

However, for a painting challenge it is a lot of effort to get through so many models. A small, elite army would be a much better idea right?

Anyway I am doing a goblin only army this year.

Specifically I am doing a Forest Goblin army, full of wonderful, characterful (i.e. goofy) Kev Adam’s sculpts. As well as some of my all time other favorites from the 5th edition lines (Trolls, Marauder Giant etc.), I honestly can’t wait to paint these figures! Let’s take a look at what I am planning then:

Here are the characters for the army, Goblin characters are so cheap so there are plenty of them (and I have more I can add if I make good progress).

The rank and file Gobbos, unlike my Skaven (in which all of my clanrats are mixed together) I am separating them into defined units armed with each weapon type.

Some of them are even riding spiders! These are the top of my list of “goofy” sculpts, I still like them but I am a little unsure how well they will paint up in my style. I guess we will see :).

Finally, as mentioned above these are some of my favorite models from this time period. I was so happy when the recent Orcs and Goblins Made to Order rolled around and they became available again since it meant I didn’t have to spend hundreds to pick them up second hand on fleebay. I also have another six trolls which I will try to get done but again these are outside of the initial scope of the challenge just in case they take longer to paint than I expect.

Finally just to mention why the models are not on bases (and have had tabs removed), this is because I am trying something new with the bases. I will be using resin bases with 3d printed forest plants. Due to the complexity of the bases it would be hard to paint the models while attached so I have them all separate and will attach after painting.

For this year’s challenge I am targeting the following list:

UNIT	EXTRAS	#	TOTAL
CHARACTERS
Forest Goblin Warlord (50)		2	100
Forest Goblin Battle Standard (56)		2	130
Forest Goblin Big Boss (33)	Gigantic Spider (50)	1	83
Forest Goblin Big Boss (33)	Giant Spider (4)	2	74
Forest Goblin Shaman (28)		2	56
Forest Goblin Shaman Champion (83)	Giant Spider (4)	2	174
Forest Goblin Master Shaman (159)	Gigantic Spider (50)	1	209
REGIMENTS
Forest Goblins (2.5)	Standard (2.5) Musician (2.5) Shields (.5)	15	50
Forest Goblins (2.5)	Standard (2.5) Musician (2.5) Shields (.5) DHW (1)	15	65
Forest Goblins (2.5)	Standard (2.5) Musician (2.5) Shields (.5) Spears (.5)	15	57.5
Forest Goblins (2.5)	Musician (2.5) Short Bows (.5)	10	32.5
Forest Goblins (2.5)	Musician (2.5) Short Bows (.5)	10	32.5
Forest Goblin Spider Riders (9)	Standard (9) Musician (9) Shields (1) Bows (1)	5	63
Forest Goblin Spider Riders (9)	Standard (9) Musician (9) Shields (1) Bows (1) Spears (1)	5	68
River Trolls (65)		3	195
Spider Swarms (100)		4	400
Giant (200)		1	200
TOTAL			1989.5

I appreciate that the above list isn’t technically “legal”, for example having two of both the Warlord and Battle Standards. This is because I want flexibility with the army so have both mounted and unmounted versions of a lot of the characters.

As always I have a few surprises planned, as well as some stretch models if I get through things quicker than expected (for example I actually have nine Trolls all prepped, as well as an extra rank or two for most units). So fingers crossed I can get through them at a good pace.

Finally here is my test model/tribute to give you an idea of the scheme I will be going for:

Anyway, looking forward to putting together something different this year and at the end of it having a new army that plays very different to my Skaven… well, is a different colour at least.

Ben's Stirland Undead - OWAC VIII - Intro Post

I have fond memories of sticking together an Undead Horde box, and using the models to play a campaign against a friend's Empire army.  Little of the undead army survives, but my plan for this army challenge is to resurrect the survivors to fight anew.

Nachthafen, Stirland.  The year was characterised by a plague of bats that seemed to be everywhere in the stormy night skies.  Trying to drive them from his tower one lightning-swept night, the Count, who had been driven to despair by the never ending flapping and keening, fell to his death.  Later that same night, the new ruling family clattered through town, in a black coach with drawn curtains, and took up residence in the tower.  No-one left the tower, until the town militia stumbled out, pale and carrying blank expressions, and holding picks, spades and iron bars.  They no longer speak to their families, but march off at night to who knows where, returning at daybreak escorting carts laden with piles of old bones and rusty metal.

The models are from a mix of sources: Citadel knights, bats, heroquest miniatures, skeletons and screaming skull catapult; Foundry skeletons, mummies and ex-Citadel militia; Westwind vampires, coach and wraiths; Dark Art Studios characters and skeletons; and a few Mantic models from a dungeon-crawl game.  I also picked up some sprues from Wargames Atlantic and Fireforge to replace missing weapons, heads and horses.  This lead to a much bigger variety of scale than I was expecting; I've tried to mix things around to disguise this.  If (!) I am able to paint this all, it will total 2,856 pts, as follows:

Characters: 782 pts

Mannfred von Carstein 475
Undead Battle Standard, steed 89
Wraith 75
Wraith 75
Necromancer 68

Units: 1444 pts

5 Skeleton Horsemen, shields, spears, standard 132
24 Skeleton Warriors, shields, standard, musician 234
24 Skeleton Warriors, double handed weapons, standard, musician 260
24 Zombies, standard, musician 104
5 Wights, spears, shields, heavy armour, skeleton steeds, standard 264
6 Mummies, standard 315
3 Carrion 135

War Machines: 230 pts

Undead Chariot, scythed wheels 78
Undead Chariot, scythed wheels 78
Screaming Skull Catapult 74

Monsters: 400 pts

4 x Bat Swarms 400

My aim is to achieve something like the classic art: a shambling horde under a sky filled with banners and bats.  It will be lead - eventually - by my Mannfred von Carstein, my favourite of the characters in the Undead army book.

I painted a couple of test models, and think I might go with green rather than red as the key bright colour; red has great impact, but green will help the army contrast with my red-and-blue Altdorf army.

Shadespyre's Introduction Post - OWAC VIII - 3rd Edition High Elves of Lothern

Shadespyre Intro Post - OWAC VIII - 3rd Edition High Elves

Introduction Post

It was always likely to be Elves again. For OWAC VI, I painted a rather idiosyncratic Dark Elf army, loosely themed around AD&D Drow and made up almost entirely of ancient pre-slotta miniatures. For OWAC VII, I painted a much more traditional 3rd edition Wood Elf army, consisting mostly of mid to late 80s minis much like those pictured in the Warhammer Armies book. And I added allied contingents from the Zoats and Halfling lists in the same source.

And then once the OWAC had ended, I pushed on and added three more Wood Elf units to the army.

I still have a lot of Elf options open to me, though.

For the second time, I started prepping a force of Rogue Trader Space Elf Raiders for an OWAC. And for the second time, I've let the lack of a clear concept for a colour scheme and the fact that several fellow OWACers have similar plans put me off committing to it. That and the fact that I've had a Big Idea for it which I haven't yet worked out how to implement. So maybe next time?

I considered swapping to Craftworld Eldar (requires too much shopping) or Harlequins (not a force I want to paint to a time limit) or to one of my non-Elvish options. But then I realised that the answer was obviously High Elves. 

Why? Firstly, they are the next entry in the Warhammer Armies book! Secondly, they are also available as an Allies list for Wood Elves, so I can justify using the same basing style and save my creative energy for thinking about other things. And thirdly, I have a collection of mid 80s High Elves which is big enough to make a small army. And fourthly, Aly Morrison sculpted some of the most distinctive Elves that Citadel ever produced, and I love them in all their bonkers glory.

C08 High Elves

Here's one of my many old Citadel Miniatures mini cases, this layer has at least one of each of all the releases in this range. I completed this collection some years ago, and never really considered it to be a potential army until very recently.

It's a lousy picture, so here are some of the catalog entries for them, borrowed as ever from Stuff of Legends. A bit annoying that Citadel repeatedly advertised the same minis even though there are more than 30 in the range, but they give an idea of the furry-hatted, curly-shoed, overly-feathered silliness of them, as well as the intruging selection of maces, axes and fancy polearms alongside the traditional bows and swords. I'd love to know what brought Aly to use this style, which I think draws on Persian and Indian influences, although some of the minis remain very much in the familar pseudo-European look.

This range came out late in 1984. It's a fully pre-slotta range, part of a brief Golden Era of Citadel minis which has words embossed onto the top of the bases (I'm sure I've talked about this before, I'm obsessed with this phase in miniature history.) In common with the C10 Half-Orcs which were released a little earlier, these guys are each assigned AD&D character classes - Fighter, Cleric, Thief, Magic-user and even multiclass combinations - because the D&D player was still the core of their market at this time. Within a year of release, these were replaced by a new slotta-tabbed C08 range, still sculpted by Morrison but back to a more conventional Elven aesthetic.

I know what you're thinking - some of those silly Elves are quite cute, but an army? It's mostly character models, there's no musicians or cavalry or... anything. And you're right. Which is why, as much as I love them, most of these will be staying in their box for this project.

BUT Citadel Miniatures (and Aly) have us covered - either side of Christmas 1984 they released two Elvish Regiments of Renown.

Regiments of Renown

RR13 Lothern City Guard

RR10 Elwing's Elven Guard Cavalry

As you can see from the art, these are very much in tune with the other High Elves, if a little less gaudy for the rank and file models. These are the minis that I'm mostly going to be using for this army. Worth noting that while the cavalry models are still on solid bases, the infantry are among the first releases with slotta tabs.

So, here's a snapshot of the core of my army, all based up ready for undercoating. This consists of a large unit of Lothern City Guard and a full two dozen Elven Guard Cavalry, which I shall split into 3 squadrons. There's also a couple of other minis in there which I will discuss when I come to paint them.

Yes, this is a much smaller project than I've undertaken recently. This is partly because I felt quite burned out after painting 250 Warhammer minis in the last year, and also because I've started playing in a second fortnightly RPG group, which means less time to paint minis each weekend - and of course I will inevitably be painting minis for that game, too. And let's not forget that painting 25 cavalry will feel like painting at least 50 Infantry.

I do have some extra units that I hope to paint alongside these, and don't forget that big box of characters to dip into. Maybe this will even become the push I need to paint the full set of those?

Bases

A quick bit about basing. For my pre-slotta Dark Elf army I switched to using MDF bases which I drilled holes for magnets into. I liked how they came out, but there was a surprising amount of prep involved - drilling and sanding every base.

So this time round I ventured into CAD and designed and printed my own bases:

These have a 5mm magnet hole and a 2mm high lip around them, the hope being to conceal the solid bases within them and backfill with basing material. I was able to print these out on my very basic PLA filament printer fairly easily with very few mis-prints. I should probably have put two magnet holes in the cavalry bases, but I think one will be enough to protect against jostling even if I wouldn't dare turn the unit upside down like I can with the infantry.

Army List

I haven't written a full army list yet, but looking at the 3rd ed Warhammer Armies book:

20 Silver Helms @35 points each = 700 points

20 Guard @ 13 points each = 260 points

So I'm going to sail past 1000 points just by adding command options, let alone characters.

I'll be compiling a proper 3rd edition list unit by unit, as I go...