Lissanne's Chaos Demons- A closing cheer! (105 pts)

And a little something for my last month- three more demonettes.  Each one takes me so much thought that three is really all I've ever managed in a month.  It leaves me the last two of this set of 10 to finish on my own, not too bad.  I went over 1000 pts last month, but wanted to try to finish this squad, anyway.  Almost!

Two of these demonettes are based on Rem and Ram from the anime Re: Zero.  Ram started life as the Demonette Heartvex, and is the Red Ogre Ram.

And Rem is the lovely unnamed 'Miss 13' from the second casting, as the Blue Ogre Rem.

 

The third demonette is Warptongue, done strictly to the Slave of Darkness color description to see if I could.  The book just arrived recently (long story). White skin and hair, luminous green eyes, pastel tattoos, and bright pastels.  Sort of works, but I much prefer the others.  She blends in well enough though.

The SoD description is rather too lawful for me, one right breast and all the same, when there are so many colors to choose from!  (not to mention body parts to choose from!)  The writers certainly needed to up their chaos game!  SoD turns out to be so tame.  And I don't think pastel tattoos work, but it sure sounds good in the book.

Not to mention I was busy with work (again) and distracted this month painting things like a group of 10 'Beastmen' with musician, (1/2 size killer rabbits LOL! alas, they don't fit in the army, except figuritively ie f*** like bunnies) and fiddling with homemade 'Kontrazt' paints which works like gangbusters!

The Killer Rabbits!

Final Fluff:
Ram and Rem, the Red Ogre and the Blue Ogre.  Immensely strong sisters who are fight together, they are always there when things get too much to handle. And the last sister, Warptongue was adopted from another group of demonettes of which she was the only survivor.

3 Demonettes (35pts) 105pts

For the record- Ignatz's family gets their names from the family of Ignatz the mouse from Krazy Kat, his wife Magnolia, and his kids Milton, Marshall and Irving.  Maybe Marshall and Irving will show up in some later challenge. 'Ignatz the Handful' comes from an old obscure Dennis the Menace strip, where Dennis asked his mother his zodiac sign, and she said 'Ignatz the Handful'  It just stuck for our D&D demon.

Two successful OWACs for me with no mulligan month. Happy to have the challenge behind me!

goblinpaladin's Wood Elves - a June update (235 points)

oink

'We are here to kill the humans and save the forest...'

We're here! We've done it, friends. It's a good feeling, being so productive! If only I were in similar challenges for all 64523 of my other projects, might I be as productive elsewhere? (no.)

For the final month of the challenge I offer up:

1 glade runner. 16 points

Celarn, Level 10 Hero + shield + light armour. 91 points.

Jos'Mel, Level 10 Hero + shield + light armour. 91 points.

1 beastmaster. 13 points.

4 boars. 24 points.

Total: 235 points. That's mathematics!

This means I've painted everything I hoped to get done for the challenge, an absolutely fantastic feeling. Of course, I've still got enough lead and plastic to keep me busy until Pryp'yat' is again safe for human habitation. Just gives me something to do next challenge, right?

boar clan

I've been looking forward to painting these guys all Challenge. I love the animalistic, totemistic aspects of the third edition take on wood elves. Shapeshifters, beastmasters, falconers - they all combine to give a really feral edge to the elven subrace that is lacking from the later editions. Sixth edition brought in spites and a kind of bloody grim/dark brutality, but it lacked a certain earthiness that can only come from literal animals.

go on, say 'bacon' again, buddy

I mostly painted them with drybrushes and washes. The sculpts would probably work perfectly with the new Contrast paints, but I've been too lazy to get any to try 'em out. Instead, I used a much more simple version of this chap's method, involving much less repainting. The nose rings are bronzey golds, to reflect their status as sacred animals.

"Nago was beautiful and strong!"

Princess Mononoke is such a great film. The markings are just rough dryish strokes of Pallid Wych Flesh. 

i just want to touch him

How hot is this sculpt? Bloody hell. Those muscles were a lot of fun to paint, let me tell you. Whew.

why does he have a belt-pouch?

This is another Goodwin sculpt that shows tons of character and narrative with just a few careful sculpting choices. I painted his ragged fur vest in the same colours as the boars. Makes sense, given the boar is his totem. The trousers were done in neutral browns, mostly with washes, as I figure that he's a rough, on-the-edge-of-acceptable-society type. 

yeah, close-ups aren't great for my painting style

I usually steer away from close-ups for a reason, but I wanted to point out that the boarmaster has a nose ring like his charges. I considered painting them all iron, including his, to reflect his kinship with the animals. After I decided to paint them with bronze nose rings to reflect their sacred status, I figured that his should match.

twang

I couldn't show this model off at the beginning of the Challenge, because she was still in production! Ember the wood elf was part of Tim Prow's last Diehard Miniatures kickstarter. I pledged to get her specifically so that she could join the glade runners. I'm really pleased she arrived before the end of the Challenge so that I could get her in. She's a real pleasure to paint.

always love a good ragged quiver with big stitches

She's a great sculpt, but she is a little tall next to my other elves from the early-to-mid-90s. In her power crouch, she's still about the same height as her kin. That means she'd stand about a head taller than most of them, if she were standing tall. It's not a deal-breaker for me, mostly because the glade runners are a deliberately eclectic regiment, but it's something of which to be aware.

another close-up! get it together, goblin

Because I'm an idiot, I didn't clean her up properly, and I missed a vicious mould line right across her face. I applied a thin red wash before highlighting, and I think it works okay as an oddly straight scar. Just adds to her ranger cred, right? yeah

the mace is just a cigar

As promised, I did paint up the two Melnibonean officers! I had a bit of trouble with deciding on colour schemes and basing angles for them, but after some good advice from my last post, I went with white leathers and diagonal basing.

elves have the best conditioner

To emphasise their status as officers and aristocrats, I gave them some royal purples. To hint back to the decadence of their intended use as Melniboneans rather than elves, I used some pale grey-pinks on the clothing. I thought that strong colours like the reds or magentas I've used on some wardancers would be too much against the white leather armour. The exception is their belts, but those tie in with other sculpts with similar wide belts.

a fencing pose. a giant axe. definitely has a high weapon skill

Jos'Mel got a bronze helm. Again, this ties him back to the Melniboneans, but also reflects my occasional use of bronze elsewhere in the army. Plus, it could be an ancient artefact, from before the Age of Iron. Too often, the 'distant history' in fantasy bears a strong resemblance to the current period, so having Bronze Age-esque artefacts helps emphasise just how ancient and eternal elven cultures are.

Plus, it looks cool.

presumably the muster was called before labour day

The fur cloaks were done to appear roughly like a golden lion and a wolf, respectively. I wanted at least one to be other than the very common 'grey' that fur seems to default to, but then decided I did like that for Jos'El, to contrast with his big yellow helmet. I think it works.

These two were intended to lead a regiment of spearmen - but I was only going to get one. Now that I have two, maybe I should get two regiments - one of spearmen, one of axemen or something. Then again, I don't know that 'expand the project just because of one model' is a great and rational plan.

From Princess Mononoke, directed by Hayao Miyazaki. © Studio Ghibli, 1997.

This Challenge has been such a pleasure. It's great to be able to work on a project surrounded by like-minded and supportive folks, who offer great advice and unwavering encouragement. I can't wait for the forthcoming wrap-up posts, and get to see everyone's phenomenal projects in their final form.

Brennan's Lizard Riders (185 Points)

Hey Ho, Let's Go

Hey Ho, Let's Go

Hey Ho, Let's Go

They're forming in one short line

They can't charge without planning

The Lizards have like no minds

Lizard-Krieg Plop...

Its June and I painted some cold one riders!  I found out that running a infantry only army was going to give me some headaches in a game that James and I played.  The long and short of it, was that I really could have used something that could charge out of the line a little faster than armored infantry.  I'm used to using some light cav to screen my flanks too.  Slann don't really have that and cold-ones are a bit of challenge to use in third ed.  You have to plan the charges a turn ahead, they suffer from stupidity and they smell really bad.  I think I will deploy them in the center, so any potential targets will have a harder time getting away.  I think flank security duty will have to go to some animal handlers.

I went for a green lizard for the blue froggy.  I realized that I ended up doing the exact opposite that most folks do!  Maybe I should have done yellow frogs...  Kinda late now though!

I really enjoyed shading and coloring the mouths, with all the tongues and the teeth.  It really brought the model to life.

I counted the riders as wearing light armor and carrying shields.  The stats say they have spears, but umm my guys must have lost theirs or something....  That brings me to 185 points for June! 

AdamH's Brets - Follow. But! Follow only if ye be men of valour... (295 points)

...for the entrance to this post is guarded by a creature so foul, so cruel that no man yet has fought with it and lived!

So this final month was a light one for me, because I hit all of the other months (i.e. didn't use my joker) then technically I didn't need to paint anything for this month however I didn't want to lose my momentum and I still needed to paint a model to finish the Grail Knight unit:

Also since I was done with the challenge I thought I would paint the best model in the Bretonnian line, perhaps even the best model GW have ever produced...
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Are you ready for this?
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I'm not sure that you are...
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OK fine, since you kept scrolling this far, I present to you...
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King froggy frogerson! Master of the whole of Bretonnia, the most fearsome warrior to ever step... foot? in the old world.

So there we have it, my entire month of painting in these two models:

My submission for this month is:

45 - 1x Grail Knight

0 - King froggy frogerson

For a total of 45 points.

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What is that you say, you want to see more of one of the models? I think I know what you mean and I have your back don't worry:

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Hmm... more?
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OK sure:

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Still not enough?
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fine:

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Man you really love this frog don't you? I don't blame you, he is pretty rad.
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Well here is the french view:

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Oh crud...
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It seems he got snuck up on by something a little meatier... I suppose you want to see that now as well:

So yea I may have also painted the lord for my army, I used the old Louen Leoncoeur model simply because I liked it. I don't plan to run it as him though, just as a regular Lord on a Griffon. Although if you have this model and have a keen eye you might notice that something looks off/different with the right arm. The model I had was missing this piece so I had to sculpt a new one myself. I would be keen to hear what you think. Now that it is painted I think it looks OK, although it was a bit touch and go when I was sculpting it.

So therefore my actual submission for this month is:

100 - General of Bretonnia

150 - Griffon

45 - 1x Grail Knight

0 - King froggy frogerson

For a total of 295 points.

So there we have it, it looks like I made it through the challenge. I had a few touch and go points and had to pull a few long knights of painting but I am quite proud of the army I have ended with. Still a few little touch-ups here and there but I will go into those in a bit more detail in my wrap-up post. Until then best of luck to the other challengers, I can't wait to see all of the glorious pictures of fully painted armies!

- AdamH

James' Grave Fillers (201 points)

 

When Slange's force hit 1,000 points in May I was pretty jazzed. I got a lot painted, I saw a lot of other people's excellent minis get painted, and I even took the bone pile out for a dry run game of 3rd ed against Brennan's Slann.  But this is Oldhammer; when are we ever really satisfied with our armies?

What to fix in June, then?  First off, I made 5x3 movement trays and there were some gaps to fill.  

Second, when I was getting ready for OWAC, I bought the Skeleton Legion set from Alternative Armies.  Most of it was used throughout the challenge, but there were a few unused pieces left, so for completion's sake I opted to finish the last of them in June.

The lone axeman here fills in the second to last spot on the Grim Reaper's movement tray. The spearmen were just unused figs, so here's a small starter unit of spears. In the back middle you'll see one of the chariot drivers that got displaced by the Wight Hero in the undead chariot.

 

Filling in the final hole on the Grim Reapers' movement tray is this decaying flag-waver from Reaper miniatures. He was an unintended late-challenge purchase.  I really like how the Grim Reaper unit came together and it bugged me not to give them full command, so here he is!  How that skull is fastened to the fabric is beyond me; let me tell you of the days of high adventure.

These figs are the fillers for the core skeleton unit. That third one in is from a previous month, oops.  Photo-bombing undead! It's a real mix in this group.  One from the GW Skeleton Army box, the few in the middle are Alternative Armies, and then there're the dog and handler from Ral's Lich King set.  I put the handler and dog on a 20x40mm (thanks, Warmaster leftovers) and use it as two figs to keep it easy.

OK, so the bolt thrower.  Why a bolt thrower?  It's not in the 3rd ed Undead army list; the HammerCops are sure to take me downtown. 

This is the only piece that would have been left from the Skeleton Legion set so it just had to be painted.  Damn the points, no mini left behind.

A Ral Partha skeleton bolt thrower was also one of the first things I bought for my very first undead army (for AD&D BattleSystem!) so that's fun.  

It doesn't hurt that I play with cool agreeable folks that don't really care if I throw down something fun at a reasonably fudged points cost.  

That's just how we Oldhammer it up here in the hinterlands.

 The participating units all nice and tidy with their filler figs!

1 Grim Reaper standard bearer: 24 points

1 Grim Reaper: 12 points

6 Skeletons with spears: 55 points

5 Skeletons (4 and a dog): 50 points 

1 Bolt Thrower: not even in the army list

Total for June 141 (+bolt thrower 60pts) points

Overlord note : we are going to value that bolt thrower at 60 pts, for a nice 201 pts monthly total.

Iannick's Curses of May (350 points)

I must take you into my confidence and warn you. There is a curse which says that all persons present at the opening of a Pharaoh's coffin and who gaze at the face of the mummy therein, shall die. You have been Warned! 

This month is a thematic month of curses, for I have painted Mummies and a Gorgon! The funny part is it seems my mummies were indeed cursed! When I started the challenge I couldn't find 3 figures of the classic 3rd edition Citadel mummies I knew I bought a few years back. Now this was very unusual as I'm a neat freak with my collections (a place for everything and everything in it's place), bordering on OCD! And yet after looking everywhere I couldn't find the models. Damn! Fortunately a member of the OWAC graciously offered to send me some. But bad luck struck again and they got lost somewhere between continents (once again I've very rarely lost packages. Canada Customs sucks, but usually it does, eventually, reach it's destination). I couldn't believe it, the curse was real! 

But I really wanted to include mummies in my force. I'm a big horror fan and mummies have always fascinated me, and I used to watch on late TV the old Boris Karloff movies. One of my main criticism of the new post 4th edition undead force is indeed the absence of the classic mummies (now part of Khemri, but even then the models don't have that old school vibe to them). So I dug in my collection of bare metal and found a trio of Reapers mummies. Quite nice models, really, if not for their lack of poses. I like their height and their style. If not for nostalgia's sake I probably prefer these ones to the Citadel ones.

Anyways, mummies are expensive rank and file troops in 3rd edition, and are about as close to tanks as the Undead will get. Tough SOB's, really, and at 80pts a pop quite expensive!

That doesn't make for a very productive month, so at the last minute I also added a Gorgon to my month's tally. This model is from the classic and timeless Citadel Night Horrors, sold as "Medusa". It's an incredibly simple figures, and to me that fits very well with the Medusa myth. Gorgons don't need to be imposing monsters, and such a simple and small figures conveys even more the terror of her stare.

Still, a small month in figures counts, even though these four are worth 350 points! I intend to make up for this month's small productivity in June, and the plan is to paint a unit of Zombies as well as my Plague Cart (one of my favourite model ever). 

• 3 mummies : 240pts
• 1 Gorgon : 110pts

Folks, ONE MONTH LEFT IN THE CHALLENGE!!

Jeff's Black Ark Corsairs (215 points)

This month I painted up Black Ark Corsairs and a Sorceress.

The detail on these is ridiculous. The sculpters were really on their game. These are not quick paint jobs. I did enjoy painting them but it took a lot of time.

I tried some different highlighting techniques. Normally I just wash and drybrush. Good skills to have but I have begun experimenting with blending. Unfortunately these models do not have a lot of surfaces that work well for blending, but I did try a little bit.

I love this model. Too bad my picture washes out the detail

10 Corsairs with Full Command..........156 points
1 Dark Elf Sorceress.............................59 points
Total 215 points for May

I started early on these and did a little bit every day. That is the trick I think. Even just one quick session of doing boots or something. It really adds up at the end of the month. Sorry for the pics, not great quality.  Due to everyday life issues I rushed to get these pics and get the blog post up and I was still late after a trip to the Emergency Room. I'm fine, the figures are painted, and the blog post is done. Now onto the final Month. Saved the best for last, my Army General and Cold One Knights.

Cheers, Jeff

Paul's Gribbly Beasts - Month Five (654 points)

The two rutting packs of beastmen could hardly be kept from ripping each other apart. This was good. Soon their ferocity would be unleashed on the unwitting folk of the nearby town of Tramilar and there would be much carnage for them to revel in.

The Watcher brought it's staff down sharply, the crack of thunder it released quelling the herd into some semblance of silence as the altar was brought forth into their midst. Two beastmen laboured under the weight of the unholy arc, the writhing tentacles and sickly miasma wafting from the censures causing all in proximity to feel their guts squirm queasily, as if they suddenly had a life of their own.

The beastman shaman moved among the throng, bleating out it's foul benedictions. Filthy banners bearing the unholy Octed were unfurled. The packlord, ruddy hide glowing in the reflected glow of the altar's unnatural light, surveyed his troops and nodded his readiness to the Watcher.

Boom! The Watcher's staff cracked once again. The altar was borne high. The herd brayed it's challenge to the stars and stalked away into the night, their coming heralded by the howling of  hounds and their passing shadowed by demons...


Ooomph! That was a hefty month! My own fault though, as some of you may remember from my earlier posts I had sort of painted myself into a corner with colour schemes for my beastmen basically meaning I needed two units instead of one... Well, here they are!

The two colour schemes have (red and purple) have sort of evolved into the idea that although Nurgle currently holds primacy over the warband, the other Gods have their influences too, purple representing Tzeentch or Slaanesh and red for Khorne (obvs).

The back row were painted in a previous month

Of course two units means two sets of command, and luckily I got a chance to pick up a Middlehammer era beastmen command minis at just the right point in the challenge to make this possible. However, I both needed to boost my numbers and wanted to add a bit more interest to my front rank so added a beastman with Mace from the same era (on the left below) and Burly Broo with pole arm and head 13, from the Vile Broo Runequest box set which I picked up from a friend in a job lot a while back. He's a bit diminutive compared to his burly bodybuilding cousins being 25mm scale, and he's damaged his horn-stubs along the way, but he's got bags of character and I like to think of him as a Halfling or Dwarf that has been corrupted into beastly form.

Middlehammer era command in the centre and extra beastman on the left, 1982 Burly Broo on the right

And from the rear

I cut a simple foil banner from the foil from a tomato puree tube and distressed the edges to make it look a bit more like ragged fabric. My freehand skills are seriously poor (but I'm working on it!) so I settled on simple Octed symbol. I went for sickly yellow rather than purple as I didn't want ot overdo it and the yellow seemed more suited for Nurgle, while the Octed will serve if these need to turn out for other deities in the future.

It seemed fitting that the Shaman Champion would be associated with this unit rather than the red  pack with their more Khornate tendencies. That axe makes it an awkward bugger to rank up unfortunately, but I can see myself adding another few platic beastmen to the unit to make this six wide in the future so it can accommodate the Shaman neatly.

Next up are the red pack. Again, the back row of five were painted earlier in the challenge, but this is a bigger unit so another ten monopose beastmen for the pile. I was determined to get these all done this month to keep up with some of the other challengers who have been turning out big units every month, and to show that building a chaos army isn't only about painting massive monsters etc.... Just mostly ;)

All but the back row painted this month. I'm done with beastmen for a bit now thanks!

The front rank of this unit is a bit more unusual...

There are some interesting characters here, just as the Oldhammer Gods intended

First up is a converted standard bearer I put together out of bits from the 6th edition plastic Goblin sprues and a damaged monopose Beastman. Again the simple green cloth ties the unit to Nurgle but the red Octed will serve other purposes if needed.

Next up is a 'Two-headed Troll Giant' from Garrison miniatures Sword and Sorcery line, converted into a musician with the addition of a press mould of the shield from the Marauder Giant to look like a beaten up gong. It's a very soft sculpt and I'm sure that someone with more time, patience and skill could have done much more with it in terms of painting in the detail, but I like it for it's fugliness and I think it breaks up the monotony of the goat-heads nicely.

Then we have this classic Bob Olley sculpt. I love it. I don't think I have done it justice really as the half goatlike, half simian face has more character than I have been able to bring out, and the armour and very ornate helmet have been treated quite simply, but I'm considering this my first step into Bob Olley beastmen as this was enough to get me hooked. (BTW: I'm pretty sure the back of his head should be the same armour colour as it is part of the helmet, but I felt the mini needed more red to balance it out from behind)

Then we have two very different sculpts from Krakon Games recent Axe Grind KS (although not yet on the website at the time of writing). The first is a skinny little runt who at first glance seems a bit out of place alongside all these goat-headed weight lifters, but I really like the pathetic-aesthetic that is often ascribed to some Oldhammer figures and I think this has something of the same feel. Plus it is always the little ones you have to watch out for, feeling like they have something to prove to the rest of the pack. Watch him, he'll f***ing cut you!

I had to use this guy as my Champion for this unit. While he definitely still has a gota-like feel so fits in well, there is something simian about him, like a silver back Gorilla about to hurl the severed elf head at you in bellowing challenge. His yellow fur is a bit too neat for me. I meant to splash some Tamiya clear red over him to act as red gore but run out of time to do it properly, so the red smear on his base is the only indication of gore, but I think I will go back and finish the job so he is properly blood soaked :)

And in addition, or to lead the unit, we have a Beastman Hero. Nowhere near as nice as the version we saw from Andrea, who showed us what can really be done with this sculpt, and I'd want to spend more time on the horns in particular, but I'm still happy with the brute force he manages to portray. I certainly wouldn't mess with him!

Finally we have an added extra in the shape of the Tim Prow sculpted War Altar that Yosef BenSadon (formerly of this parish) put together a while back (and since acquired by Ye Alchemist with some future production plans in the pipeline so keep an eye out on their KS and fb pages and all the usual forums for news!)

It's quite a special piece I have to say and I love all the options you get (different beastman heads and altar tops for each of the four gods plus one for Chaos undivided), many of which I can't wait to use in future conversions for my growing Chaos forces.

In practical/game terms I can see myself using it either as unit filler (it takes up the same space as eight beastmen, but as you can see below it makes the unit off balance, so that is another column of beastmen to be added in the future!) or if my opponent agrees I could see it working as a Battle Standard, or even in place of a low level Shaman!? For OWAC purposes however it has zero points value.

So, the breakdown for May is as follows:

Beastman Shaman Champion - 134
Beastman Hero - 130
19 Beastmen - 190
2 Musicians, 2 Standard Bearers - 80
2 Beastmen Champions - 120
Chaos War Altar - zero

Total for the month: 654 pts

Plans for next month include: everything still on the list! Nurglings, Chaos Warriors, Chaos Goblins, Paying the Pipe... lots still to look forward to!

I can already tell I'm going to get OWAC withdrawal symptoms come July :(