Filippo's Bretonnia - Rank and File 4 (195 pts)

The Crusades against Araby (1448 to 1451 IC)

In the year 470 (1448 IC), the war-torn southern realm of Estalia was invaded by Sultan Jaffar and the armies of Araby. Diplomatic envoys pleaded with Bretonnia to send aid, and the king sent a call to war out to all of Bretonnia. Throughout all the dukedoms, this call to war was heard, and countless knights pledged their lance to their king's holy cause. In his noble wisdom, King Louis the Righteous gave permission for warriors of the Empire to cross Bretonnia on their journey to Estalia, for they too had pledged their aid, despite the lack of unification during the Age of Three Emperors. This military campaign has since been named the Great Crusade, in homage of the zeal of these warrior-knights.

Within time, the armies of Jaffar were pushed back by the more mobile and heavily armoured forces of the Crusading Knights, forcing him to relinquish his hold on most of Estalia. Retreating back to Araby, but leaving a token force of troops around the important city of Magritta, Jaffar's armies were hounded by the Bretonnians, who pursued them tirelessly. The Crusader army eventually reached the sandy beaches of Araby and invaded the major city and trade-port of Copher.

As the crusaders sailed with the aid of Estalian ports and Tilean warships, Jaffar and his men prepared for the coming invasion by fortifying most of the major sea-ports. When they finally arrived in the spice-trading city of Copher, it was heavily fortified and the defenders were well prepared for the coming battle. Yet they weren't prepared for the wrath of the northern kingdoms that Jaffar had brought upon them, and once the defenders first started faltering against the onslaught of knights and siege towers, a breach was made and soon the high spires of Copher were pulled to the ground and much of the population were put to the sword.

Not even the harsh desert conditions could perturb the knights, and their fervour very slowly took its toll on Jaffar's warriors as many desert tribes under Jaffar's control began growing tired of this war of attrition. Despite Jaffar having a vastly larger army than the crusaders, Jaffar's armies began to disband, for many of the tribes of Araby grew weary of the despot's incompetence. After frustrating months of minor skirmishes, the Bretonnians faced Jaffar at the Battle of El Haikk.

Elemental spirits of the deep deserts were summoned to fight alongside Jaffar's armies, and with their numerical superiority, they overwhelmed the outnumbered crusaders on all sides. Just when all hope seemed lost and the army was almost at the breaking point, a host of both Empire and Bretonnian knights charged furiously at the tightly packed army, mowing down the lightly armoured soldiers until finally the armies were scattered by the sudden death of Jaffar by a Bretonnian lance. Disliking the harsh, dry lands, for it proved too vast and hostile to be completely conquered, the Bretonnians sailed back home, with cargo-ships laden with exotic goods and treasures, whilst the Empire knights remained behind to hunt down the remnants of Jaffar's army for another century, which would eventually lead to the creation of several more knightly orders.

Imagine.. wearing a heavy armour over a padded gambeson, a great helm on the head an surcoat on the armour, riding a barded horse under the scorching sun of Araby.

Almost as hot as the weather now in Italy.

This month has been the toughest so far, with little time and condition not great for painting, but still a little progress has been made.

I (almost) painted a small unit of Knights of the Realm. Almost painted because I over estimated my ability to paint the heraldy. It's still beyond me. 

Such a glorious sight

Unfortunately I do not have the original decals, but there are some great options I can buy online, just not in time for this month.

With this unit the project is completed! Not as much as I wanted but still another small army I can play with.

I'll be back in july with some addition, now that I have a little bit more than the core 500 point army I can easily add something to reach 1000 points (and comment on the other splendid armies posted!)

See you in July!

George's Imperial Guard, Leader, Month 6

Colonel Audacian was growing impatient. He had spent his entire career winning. Conquering worlds, reclaiming imperial outposts from heretics. And throughout he had kept his men alive. An unusual feat for an imperial commander.

But now the imperial authorities had grown suspicious and they were testing his loyalty with an order to send his men to almost certain death.

Audacian stood and watched the massed ranks marching past towards the heavily defended heretic fortifications. He felt the cold stare and the mirthless smile of the commissar behind him.

But he wasn’t going to abandon his men now. Without warning, he raised his sword and charged.

I had great fun painting these glorious lead minis, mainly Mark Copplestone command figures, and the commissar a beautiful gift from fellow Challenger Graeme. Thanks Graeme!

It felt great to crack out some bright colours again (I do love bright colours!) I was inspired by Mike Mcvey's Warhammer 40,000 painting guide from 1993. He used lots of red hats and helmets, so I went for it and thoroughly enjoyed it! I like the contrast with the drab tones from the rest of the regiment. 

It was insanely hot while I was painting and I was slow, even by my own slow standards! So I will be using my final month to add the flags and banners that the original John Blanche artwork deserves!

June Points:

Command Section: 280 points

Commissar: 45 points

June Total: 325 Points

Army Total:

Command section: 280 points

Commissar: 45 points

Support squad: 425 points

2 x Tactical squads: 400 points

Army Total: 1,150

Colonel Audacian and his command! Sinister commissar courtesy of Graeme!

Audacian leads his regiment into battle!

Paul's Dwarf Army June Leader Month

 The last two months have been pretty hectic and having the time to sit down and do any painting has been a bit of a luxury. As a result I had to skip last months post. However, I have managed to get a little bit more on track and this month can show my leader, a fine sculpt in an action pose with his foot on the severed head of a green skin. The quality of finish on this model is probably the highest I have achieved for this army. I am very pleased with the way that he has turned out. 

As well as the leader of the hold I have managed to get a cannon fully painted and the crew almost painted up. Once again the NMM approach has produced a nice final result but was very time consuming. It probably didn't help that I tried to show all the wood grain on the cannon body and then opted to add a highlight to that as well. To tie the war machine in with the rest of the army I originally painted the wheels yellow and black stripes but I wasn't happy with the final result and ended up stripping and re-painting them as you can see in the photo below. 

This is one of two cannons, the other which is almost finished. The crew are almost complete but still have little bits and pieces that need doing. The second cannon and all six crew will be ready for final overview next month. Below shows the current state of the crew so far. 

Adding to my spearmen (which I showed in a previous post) I have managed another six models including a full command of champion, musician and banner bearer. 

I am especially pleased with the banner bearer and the banner pole which was mainly due to the influence of Frogbug who insisted that I do a stripey maypole effect on it. I was reticent to do this but I have to admit it does look pretty good and was a motif I carried on to the next unit finished for this month. Below is a close up of the banner bearer.

At the start of the challenge I had lots of models which I had acquired from a friend many years ago after we exchanged armies. I had some 40K imperial guard which I passed over for the dwarves. Amongst these were what I had thought to be dwarf clansmen but after starting the challenge and purchasing the 4th edition codex I realised that they were longbeards. These were too good not to get a coat of Deep Sea Blue and Volcanic Yellow so they joined the production line.  Below you can see the unit without shields. 

The biggest pain with these guys were the shields which took an age to paint. I'm still not happy with them and will need to revisit them and neaten up the final result. I initially painted up the shields with a Yellow Field as you can see from the photo below. However, when you put them against the minis I'm not sure that it works so I then painted up a shield with a black field. I'm still trying to make my mind up before I commit to gluing them to the models.

As I like gun line armies I added another 10 Thunderers to join the first unit. I believe that some of these sculpts may predate the thunderers shown in the army book. I have to admit that I like the variety in sculpt as I wasn't going for. mono-pose army with these guys. 

Finally, what Dwarves Hold would be complete without a unit of Quarrellers. I have a unit of twelve, all individual sculpts. I would like to get the final two sculpts which are illustrated in the army book but despite scouring the obvious sites I haven't been able to locate them. That's a job for the future. You can see the dirty dozen below.

Looking back at what I have just typed I have realised that there are a fair few models that are completed. The challenge has led to me developing techniques in order to get the army finished. Looking at the models as a collective I feel that the quality of finish on these later models isn't as refined as the earlier ones but in order to cater for volume of models something has to give. However, I believe that I have got better at adding details which cause the models to 'Pop' on the table and so when seen all together the sum of the parts is much greater than the individual models or units. 

A few units that I started painting and are in progress are a Runesmith and a Gyrocopter. I was desperately hoping to have them completed for this month but it wasn't to be. However, below is a photo of the current state and they will be completed before the end of July. 

Part of the reason that these aren't complete is the fact that I am not the most focused when working and I tend to jump around a lot as I have the attention span of a gnat. One of the things that I have loved about this forum is the creativity of the people involved. There are some amazing painters in this group but there are also some brilliant writers and scenery builders. Whilst I do not have the imagination or the literary skills of many in this blog I have been inspired by the scenery and display aids that are frequently on show. This has been both a blessing and a curse as it has led to me losing painting time as I have endeavoured to create a display board for the army. I'm trying to go for a more vertical look with models on lots of levels rather than the traditional 2' X 2' board that I would normally go for. Therefore I have made a start on some scenery. I have built a couple of dwarves towers and battlements together with a gate which needs the top completed. I'm hoping that these raw builds will be completed for the final round up next month but in case they aren't then here is the current state. I've included a couple of figures to give an idea of scale. 

Well that's it for now. It's 23.59 on the 30th June so this ic cutting it fine. Hope you like what you've seen.

Andrea's Space Elves - Vehicle month - June

 Hi OWACers, 

so we are at the last month, and for me this is the vehicle month!

I have got the possibility to 3D print a model of Wave Serpent, the old one: do you remember that goofy and strange vehicle taken directly from Epic? Yes, exactly that one!

Well, it is not exactly identical to the AmourCast one, but this is what I got ;-)

There is one think that I clearly remember about the Wave Serpent livery: the wave along the hull. So, I wanted to reproduce the same scheme on the mine. Since I suck at free-hand, I just designed and produced a template which helped me to draw precise wave lines onto the hull:

Basically, I first made a template of the area that will be occupied by the wave pattern; then, I digitalized it along with a ruler to keep proportion and successively print of the appropriate length. Once digital, I superimposed the wave pattern with a design program (each single wave is a separate layer, so I can make them of different sizes). Then, printed, cut out and reproduced on paper tape; the final step was to stick the paper tape template onto the hull and make the contour. Et voilá, waves are designed and painted. 

Ok, now I have my troops transport and can carry Banshees across the battlefield.

Now, the rules for using it. Maybe my google-fu start to be a little less reliable, but I can't find the original datafax and special rules on the web. I just got some instruction which, apparently, were translated in french and back-translated in english, and a picture of the original ArmourCast model EXACTLY ABOVE the original datafax... 

... it took to me some hours, but I think I have got correctly the rules and decided to make a new datafax.

And, of course, I made also the Warp Template (following instructions and by printing waves on transparent slides)!

Sorry for the non-backdrop, but the warp template is only visible on white...)

Ok, this is all for this month although I planned to paint more. Though, you know... family, work and a temperature up to 38˚ C (about100 F) do not help! I still have some more space elves, and maybe I will achieve completion by the wrap up post, but with this 150 points the minimum requested is done!

See you next month, ciao

A

Jaakko and Rugluk - Leader month

Morrslieb was full and seemed to smile as Rugluk's warband crept from the trees.

The dwarfs had made themselves comfortable. Some still drank beneath The Owl's sign while others snored beside dying campfires.

Rugluk raised a clenched fist in silence.

Goblins slipped between the wagons while a group of boyz crept toward the sleeping guards. Even the trolls, after repeated threats from Rugluk, managed to stay almost quiet.

Then Rugluk dropped his hand.

"WAAAGH!"

The night exploded.

The dwarfs fought hard but the surprise was complete. Before long the survivors were retreating into the darkness, dragging their wounded with them.

Rugluk climbed onto an overturned ale wagon, looked over the wreckage and bared his teeth in a satisfied grin.

"...Maybe da old ghost knew a fing or two."

Welcome back! I'm in good spirits as I write this post, as I came very close to not finishing anything this month. There was never any fear of dropping out of the challenge, though, since I had already painted a half-orc shaman back in January. Byron shared a picture of the chariot riding Grom he was working on, and it gave me the needed inspiration to paint my version as this season's leader.

I had intended to paint more (and have a few half-finished heroes and shamans on the painting table), but I'm quite happy with these guys. I'm not sure what happens next with the army, but I might present some of the remaining leaders in the wrap-up.

I wanted to make a chariot-riding version of the original Grom the Paunch of the Misty Mountains. So I simply cut the puddle base from under his feet and stuck him on a chariot. He has grown a lot since the first two sculpts.

This sculpt is quite busy and not one of my favourites, but I wanted to include a model that could pass as a half-orc. In fact, I'd also like to include a unit of scabbies in the army, but I need to do some collecting first.

This month in points:

And that's it for now. See you again next month!

Ian's Goblin Army (part II) - OWAC IX - June: Leader month

June was a particularly difficult month to keep the motivation and finish the challenge. I only had to paint my leader, Skarsnik and Gobbla, but had a pretty hard time finishing it. There is so many details! At the end I rushed it and I'm not quite satisfied with the result.

I'm leaving for Mexico for vacation from June 28th to July 18th. As I couldn't focused too well on my leader, I started a few other miniatures that I might be able to finish when I come back, before the end of July.

 

 

 OWAC IX Goblin Army (4th edition)

January 2026

10 Goblin Wolf Riders with spear, light armour and shield - 130 points

February 2026

10 Goblin Wolf Riders with spear, light armour and shield - 130 points

March 2026

18 Goblin Wolf Riders with spear, light armour and shield - 234 points

April 2026

5 Goblin Doom Divers - 500 points

May 2026

5 Goblin Wolf Riders with stuff - 65 points

2 Trolls - 130 points

3 Wolves - extra, no points

June 2026

Skarsnik and Gobba - 205 points

Total : 1394 points

Waill And Roll's Wildcard Month

 It's travel sized 40k not Epic!

For this months wildcard entry I have spent the majority of my time working on Tyranid themed terrain, it's a mixture of modern terrain kits from GW, a few objective markers from the old Battle for Macragge boxed set and one sad looking burned out Epic scale Land Raider. I mounted it all on 1mm plastic discs to and most of it can serve double duty as terrain for 28mm scale games. This is the first time in years that I have had such a complete and cohesive set of terrain and I could not be happier.

Of course I couldn't go a whole month without painting some bugs too so I chased the terrain with a 3d printed Hierophant Bio-Titan and a vintage metal Screamer Killer Carnifex.

I finished up the month by test driving the new terrain with a battle between my Hive Fleet Leviathan Tyranids and the Eldar of Craftworld Saim-Hann.

Hive Fleet Leviathan prepares to cross no man's land.

The ever cautious Eldari take cover and plan their next manoeuvre.

The brave warriors of Saim-Hann find themselves outclassed by the larger Tyranid bioforms.

The Swooping Hawks ambush a pack of Genestealers.

The Battle was decided as The Tyrant and Wraithlord wrestled each other, the Tyrant enentually cracking open the Wraithbone body of the Eldar Lord.

See you next month for images of the full army and my thoughts on the project as a whole.