Jaakko and Rugluk - Rank & File month #1

The warband crested the ridge at dawn, tired, hungry, and down to numbers Rugluk could count without taking his boots off.

Smoke rose from the valley below.

Rugluk narrowed his eyes. “Dat’s a camp.”

Hope stirred. Maybe a tribe. Maybe deserters. Maybe lads wot hadn’t heard about the whole “failed siege, mutiny, near-death” business.

They marched down, weapons ready.

They stumbled into a circle of snotligs arguing with a cooking pot. One snotling kicked the pot. Another tried to wear it. The only weapon in sight was a spoon. Bent.

Rugluk stared.

“…Dis is wot fate sends me?”

One of his orcs scratched his head. “Dey’s enthusiastic, boss.”

A snotling looked up, saw Rugluk, and pointed. “Oi! Big un! You 'now how ta make stew?”

Rugluk’s eye twitched.

They heard loud noises and the ground shook.

THUD.
THUD.

Two trolls stood behind the snotling mob, blank-faced, drooling, watching the fire with empty eyes.

One sniffed a snotling.

Rugluk’s grin spread slow and mean.

“You two - you’re hired.”

Hello again! This is one of my favourite stages of the challenge. The first month of OWAC is behind us, and the first batches of painted miniatures are starting to emerge before our eyes. Last season, I focused a lot on the core of the army to meet the minimum requirements in the Warhammer Armies army list. That meant many large units and a lot of batch painting. This year, I hope to add some spice to the mix.

I decided to start the challenge with snotling bases and trolls. I caught a nasty flu and didn’t achieve quite as much as I would have liked, but I’m really happy with these guys. I managed to paint five bases of snotlings (with 28 snotlings) and two trolls. A third troll is nearly finished and will join the force at a later stage.

Enough talking, let's move on.

These little guys are full of character, and I really loved painting them. I hope to paint more at some point, and I have enough of them to fill a few more bases and man another pump wagon. But, they are also tiny, and the bases are quite crowded, so I don’t mind moving on to something else for a little while.

Painting the trolls was also a lot of fun. Trolls from different eras have one thing in common: they are all amazing sculpts.

This month in points:

And that's it for the month. See you later!

ChrisP's Orks - January - Rank and File Month 1

War Buggy with heavy plasma gun - 50pts

Deathskull Nob with bolter and chainsword - 18pts 

6 Lootas with 3 kustom kombi-weapons, 2 heavy plasma guns and 1 autocannon - 185pts 

 

Really happy with how this lot turned out. I stuck to my new year's resolution to paint for at least a few minutes every day, and I think it paid off. The buggy was fairly straightforward - I looked for some good examples online, and brought in the elements I liked most. Deathskulls can be more of a struggle, since it's easy to make them very visually confusing, so I stuck to a limited pallette for the clothing. There's also a little tribute to my Deathskull wierdboy from a a couple of years ago, with his pinkish sunglasses. I hardly ever risk freehand work, but I have no regrets this time.

Sybou's Chaos dwarfs - OWAC 9, January Post [Rank and file 1 - 345 points]

 Hello everyone! Let's go for our first posts of Owac 9!

I started with one of my two big units : The Berserkers!

You can run but you can't hide!

This unit of 20 fighters are ready to take care of monsters units and won't break easily.

Here we got rank 1 with a dwarf slayer who betrayed his old kins. Three classic chaos dwarfs berserkers and a ral partha more recent sculpt.

Rank 2: Again, more traitors! These old slayers are not all with their classic mohawk haircuts and could go easily with chaos dwarfs. I also gave them some different skin colours in order to make them more chaotic.

Rank 3: More bearded fellow with different kind of weapons. I like the one on the left the most, he's like a dwarven Conan the barbarian.

Here is the command group, with more mutated fellas. The boss is the famous Foaming Mad Furrikson!

The complete unit

In order to control these frenetic guys I had to add one of my character to keep them under control:

A half daemonic chaos dwarf wizard!

Here is my post for january a total of 345 points!

For next month, some firepower in order to blast the ennemy.

Cheers                                                                                                                            Sybou

JohnR's Month 1 - Rank and File Month 1 (177.5 Points)

 Rank and File month #1

 

I decided to start with some of the BMT minis this month so this is Jos Crabbe and his band of Space Pirates.

 

 

Crabbe and his lieutenant - Silas Reiss 

 

 

 

A couple of BMT mutants that I included to bulk up the numbers and provide some variety. 

 

 

Missile Launcher and some pirate goons.

 

 

More pirate goons

 

So that's it for this month - off to a steady start. Think I'll do the mutants next month, or possibly some of the GW minis.

January Points:

Jos Crabbe - Human Minor Hero, Carapace Armour, Chainsword, Laspistol = 40.5 points

Silas Reiss - Human Champion, Mesh Armour, Bolt Gun, Las Pistol, Frag Grenades = 11.5 points

10 Pirates - Ordinary Humans, Mesh Armour, Las Pistols, Frag Grenades. 9 Autoguns and 1 Missile Launcher with Frag and Krak Missiles = 125.5 points. 

 

Byron's invasion of Ulthuan - landing party (359 pts)

 The invasion of Ulthuan begins!

Grom sends Boss Scraggit and his lot to explore up the coast while the main army continues to unload on the beach.

The first unit pondering up the coast is a chariot (86 pts)

Next, Scraggit sent two trolls (130 pts) to check things out.  They didn't make it very far and stopped to check if the rocks tasted different on Ulthuan. 

Assuming the path was now safe-ish, Scraggit (16 pts) led his mob (42 pts) along the beach to check things out for himself. 

The goblins with bows (30 pts), who naturally like to put some distance between themselves and the enemy, lagged behind. 

Finally, Scraggit had the wolf riders (55 pts) explore the valley near the coast. 

Little boss Scraggit then brought his lot together and tried to march them up the coast, in column, to find the enemy. 

Somehow the enemy found him first and his column was ambushed by shore riders and archers!

Finally, Progress on the shelf. I tightly packed all the newly painted goblins on the shelf. I am well on my way to filling out the whole shelf by the end of OWAC 9. 

George's Imperial Guard, Rank n File Month #1

 The regiment advanced with colours taut in the wind, shouted orders cutting through the din.

The regimental commander, Colonel Audacian marched ahead of his troops. Sword drawn, he called instructions to his orderlies, remaining calm despite the impending carnage.

The heretic defences were still out of range. But without warning, a hidden bunker burst open and three rhinos sped out. Captured and converted to heretic purposes, they opened fire with deadly bursts from their twin bolters and guardsmen in the front rank fell to the hail of shells.

Audacian pointed at the oncoming APCs with his sword. Orders were barked from the lines and a ten-man support squad dashed into firing positions. Their sergeant, Hakeman, was well known to Audacian for his meticulous aim whilst under fire.

“Hold fire!” Hakeman ordered, even as the three rhinos bore down towards him and his men. “Find your target and await the order.” His men trusted him absolutely and held firm.

Just as it seemed inevitable that the tanks would crush him and his men, Hakeman gave the order.

“Fire!”

Three lascannons fired a volley and each hit its target. Two of the rhinos exploded, fuel and ammunition igniting to destroy the vehicle and the doomed heretics within. The third took a hit to its track, spinning in a wild circle before over-turning.

After a moment’s pause, a hatch was thrown open. Smoke bellowed out, and then the heretics came, in shock, but still driven beserk by their battle lust. They launched into a mad charge towards the imperial guard ranks, firing side arms and readying grenades.

“Finish ‘em boys!” the heavy bolters and lasguns in Hakeman’s squad opened fire, immediately wiping out the heretics and sparing further imperial losses.

Audacian gave a small nod towards Hakeman, who acknowledged him with a salute before returning to the line with his squad. The commissar by Audacian’s side looked almost disappointed that so few of his men had fallen. But he looked back towards the heretic fortress and a small smile flickered across his cold face.

There would be plenty of opportunity for the guard to prove their devotion to the emperor with the ultimate sacrifice.

 

I’ve dreamt of painting these figures for a good 35 years. Since getting the plastic imperial guard box as a seven year old, I’ve always wanted to recreate that John Blanche artwork and now is my chance!

And I must say, I’m bloody loving it! I didn’t make life easy for myself this month: After a hectic December I started January with an army that still needed priming and assembly, far from ideal! So much of the month was spent undercoating the main body of the army.

In the end I had about a week for the actual painting. Again, not ideal! I’ve had to skimp on some detail, but I’ll come back to that later!

Once I got going, I decided that this is one of the best things I’ve ever done. These miniatures are absolutely fantastic and it’s an honour to be coating them in thick layers of original Codex Grey!

I’ve largely stuck to the schemes and details from the box art and painting guides in White Dwarfs 109 and 110. The slight deviation is the regimental numbering – I’ve decided to mark the type of squad, rather than regiment or platoon number. As this is a support squad, they get an “S” (turns out an “S” is harder to paint than I imagined!)

Now that I’ve finished all that priming and got into more of a groove, I’m excited to crack on and to get more done in February.

For the emperor!

 

Points:

Support Squad (3 x lascannons, 2 x heavy bolters, 4 x lasguns, 1 x sergeant): 445 points

 

And finally, my offering to Jaako, the Goblin Overboss: Chorsheema the Impaler, Goblin Champion. Sculpted by the late, great Bryan Ansell himself!

Sergeant Hakeman leads his support squad into battle!

Hakeman and his troopers take up firing positions!

Time to finish off those heretics!

Chorsheema the Impaler, Goblin Champion (sculpted by Bryan Ansell) 

prepares for his flight to Finland!

Bjorn Grendel's Dwarven Holds - January: rank and file.

 

Bjorn Grendel's Dwarven Holds - January: rank and file.

I don't think I'll ever get used to this posting thing.

Every month I always find myself procrastinating until the last possible moment. Having to fiddle with my phone for hours filling out the forum and taking photos is truly the most burdensome part of the process. Damn, I feel old!

This year in particular, I started out with all the best intentions and found myself in deep trouble: I didn't manage to paint anything for more than half the month, nor did I manage to finish all the models I'd planned for January. But, fortunately, it was more than enough to ensure I wasn't the first loser to end up in the Field of Bones and veterans know that's already a victory.

I'd planned to present a small, cohesive force each month, united under a single, specific commander: something thematic and rational. Unfortunately, many of the models I'd ordered haven't arrived yet (the Gods know why), so the plan, at least for now, has gone drastically awry. So, miserably, here's what I've managed to prepare. 

Bugman. The Brewer. A splendid model that I've always loved. This one in particular is finecast, so I had to plaster and correct it. Also, his banner pole was broken in the box, and I had to reattach it with string. I really like the result; it actually makes me think of a practical solution, suitable for a ranger.

The rangers. Only 8 at the moment, and no shields. To make a complete unit, I found myself using Bugman as a simple champion and adding an adventurer as a guide. The guide is a somewhat scatterbrained dwarf, but he always finds his way home in the end. I would have preferred him to be with the rest of the unit, which is lost somewhere in Old Europe. I sincerely hope they find their way again.

Fundinn Is still unsure if his map Is updated 

The brewer's cart. I hadn't even considered including it at first; I didn't even remember it existed. Then, a customer of mine sent me his own dwarf army to prepare, and there was HIS cart. I immediately thought it might be a fun project to build one from scratch, so I grabbed some coffee stirrers and a few bits from the plastic dwarf kit, and built the structure. Then I added a metal horse, of unknown provenance, too small for Warhammer but suitable for representing a dwarf pony. Not having a cart driver available I modeled one with green stuff and voilà, here is a nice little cart to quench my rangers' thirst along the road.

A cheerful beer vendor.

The Hammerers. 10. Classic scheme. Without shields. Once again, they have disappeared into the depths of Europe. Will they ever arrive? Fortunately, their numbers are sufficient and the command group is present. In the future, they will also have their own King in their ranks, but for now, they fight alone.

The slayers. Here's a sore point. A very sore one. I had planned to make at least ten of them, but suddenly I had to add more to the production line for a commission. I got distracted, and now my desk is cluttered with half-painted dwarves and not enough time to finish any more. So only four this month. What four! One of them is a really old dragon slayer, one of my favorite models. Unfortunately, the weather hasn't been kind, it had suffered a bit of lead rot, but after a brushing and a zinc primer bath, here's a salvageable miniature again. Sadly, many details have been lost and some have been redrawn, but all in all, a great result and a good way to give dignity to this venerable dwarf. Special mention goes to Snorra the Unchained. From the depths of Mordheim, he's returned to his kind... and with a new pair of throusers! (Snorra was a member of my wife's gang, a quick base change, a touch up of the color, repainting of the throusers and there he is at a career breakthrough.) 

The old dragon Slayer reminds me King Fergus from "The Brave".

Originally he sported a maille kilt, now a pelt One.

And here Is Snorra the Unchained...

...with his new pair of slacks!

That's all for now, but I have a few final thoughts:

1: You may have noticed that this year, coincidentally, I've been commissioned to paint a dwarf army IN ADDITION to the one I'm painting for OWAC. Look at the twists and turns of events. So I'm painting two at the same time, which is fine because I can paint some units in battery, but this risks drastically slowing down the process. I've received permission from my client to photograph and publish his pieces here as well, so get ready to see a DOUBLE DOSE of dwarves starting next month!! It goes without saying that they'll be highly recognizable, and according to the rules of our game, only the models from our army will count.

2- Missing models: My son's army is partly made up of his, my wife's, and my dwarf collections. We ordered much of what was missing to form complete units, but one of the orders is currently lost in customs. I hope this situation will be resolved. I'm aware that in 3rd Edition the minimum units are made up of 5 models, but I always aim for a minimum of 10. I'll try to solve the problem with extra models from time to time, hoping to optimize everything by the end of the challenge.

3- Shields and banners: The shields are arriving soon, and fortunately they're optional. They'll be added to the models (and photographed) ASAP. As for the banners, the plan is to keep everything at the totem level, since the vast majority of dwarf standard-bearers only have those. There are paper flagpoles, but they're a distinct minority. At the last minute we'll see whether to add the paper flags or leave the dwarf heads and glyphs as they are, but for now they're painted so I'll count them.

If I haven't completely misunderstood, here's the table with the count as of today, January 30th.

See you next month,

keep painting, stay old school.