Jeff McC's Dark Elves - Wrap Up (1097 points)

Alright, another OWAC complete!  I'm already looking forward to OWAC III next year.  Having a deadline is wonderfully helpful for getting things done, and painting miniatures is no exception.

A quick review is in order:

JANUARY

5 Dark Riders & Level 5 wizard on Cold one (210 pts)

FEBRUARY

5 Dark Riders with Standard, and Ogre Mercenary (190 pts)

MARCH

Mulligan (Apparently designing and painting sets for the kids' school 

play and painting miniatures is too much painting for one month...) 

APRIL

4 Ogre Mercenaries (232 pts)

MAY

10 Witch Elves with extra hand weapons & poison, Ogre Champion (250 pts) 

JUNE

5 Hell Drakes with Lances (215 pts)

And here's the completed force for OWAC II, weighing in at 1097 points

The Dark Elves pose with their Dread Overlord

As I had hoped, combining the dark elves I painted for OWAC I with OWAC II's output and upgrading a couple of unit leaders to champions and promoting a couple of heroes allows me to put a 3000 point army in the field:

19 Warriors with standard and musician - (231)
Warrior Champion - Hero 10 with light armor, double handed weapon - (92)
10 Dark Riders with standard - (142)
10 Witch Elves with extra hand weapons and poison (140)
10 Witch Elves with extra hand weapons, crossbows and poison (170)
5 Hell Drakes with lances (215)
11 Crossbowmen with standard (156)
Crossbow Champion - Hero 10 with light armor and crossbow (93)
12 Crossbowmen with standard (169)
Hidden in unit - Assassin 10 - with light armor, extra hand weapon and crossbow (94)
2 Whelp Masters (30) leading 5 Chaos Hounds (115)
2 Repeater Bolt Throwers (116)
5 Ogre Mercenaries with heavy armor and double handed weapons (290)
Ogre Mercenary Champion (Hero 5) with heavy armor and double handed weapon (110)
Chaotic Host - Hydra (200)
General - Hero 20 with barded warhorse, shield and light armor (181)
Wizard 10 (118)
Wizard 15 with Cold one and protective runes (235)

Total: 2997 points

Technically not completely legal per Warhammer Armies, as I'm short 20 warriors, but that's more like guidelines anyhow...right?

Sybou's endgame

Hello everyone,

that's it. The end of Owac ...

it was really cool to be part of the band during these months. I really enjoyed what you guys did and it was really inspirational for me.

As I already said, it gave me the occasion to give love to the undeads who were just another side army next to my chaos guys. Owac allowed me to paint like maybe more than 50% so it was a big push for them.
Anyway, I decided that 2019 was going to be year of the undeads and i'll try to complete this army before end of the year.

Especially for owac, i made this little board of 600*800 in order to make photos on a kind of gameboard. I think miniatures look better on a gameboard.

It was my first one and i'm pretty happy with it.

I d need a scenic background in order to avoid my furnitures being behind my minis like ...

Jungle of gameroom

I'm still not 100% happy with my photos and i'll keep going to try to improve myself with that.

a couple of closeups

Well thank you guys for the challenge, i m glad i made it until the end.
Now i ll go back to finish my other 40 zombies or Morgan Freeman won't be happy ...
Cheers everyone!

Paul's Gribbly Beasts - Wrap up post

Well here we are, the end of a long but rewarding road. My Chaos Beasts of Nurgle army is complete (for now) and I managed to finish everything I had planned for my first OWAC and a little bit more. Am I chuffed with this result? You bet I am!

Here's the break down of monthly points values....

Month One: Total 200 pts

2 x Beasts of Nurgle 75 pts each = 150 pts

5 x Beastmen 10 pts each = 50 pts

Month Two: Total 200 pts
Beastman Lord = 200 pts
Month Three: Total 265 pts

5 Beastmen - 10 pts each = 50 pts

2 Minotaurs - 40 pts each = 80pts

2 Plague Bearers - 35 pts each = 70 pts

1 Troll = 65 pts

Month Four: Total 235 pts
5 x Chaos Hounds (8pts each) = 40 pts
3 x Minotaurs (40 pts each) = 120 pts
1 x Beast of Nurgle (75 pts each) = 75 pts

Month Five: Total 654 pts
Beastman Shaman Champion = 134 pts
Beastman Hero = 130 pts
19 Beastmen = 190 pts
2 Musicians, 2 Standard Bearers = 80 pts
2 Beastmen Champions = 120 pts
Chaos War Altar = zero

Month Six: Total 354.5
5 Nurgling Bases (30 pts each) = 150 pts
5 Chaos Goblins  (2.5 pts each) = 12.5 pts
8 Chaos Warriors (24 pts each) = 192 pts
Grand Total : 1908.5

A few more shots of the whole army as it would actually be fielded, with the addition of a few more Plague Bearers and a couple of Trolls that were already painted to make those units legal. This would push it above 2000pts and with magic items etc., and the Beastman Lord upped to a Shaman Lord, I could probably field 2500 pts in 4th/5th edition. I'd like to say thanks again to everyone involved for making this such a great challenge as there is no way I would have this army painted and playable in six months without the OWAC. Special shout out to Iannick for all his hard work running it :)

So if we were lucky enough that there was a third OWAC what might my plans be for next time?

I'm tempted by a mixed force of Humans, Dwarves, and Halflings as a Dogs of War contingent, but I'm not sure my current mix of models would conform to army list minimums, although it would be loads of fun to paint. 

High Elves might also be an option, as I am falling behind in my ongoing project to complete the Elven Host I started when I was 14. I'd want that to be an entirely new contingent to my existing largely infantry based force, so that would be fun to plan and paint, but then it might be more fun to add a force of Wood Elf allies which I've always said would only come after my High Elves were finished (so never at this rate). That's another great thing about the OWAC, it really gives you license to indulge and enjoy all that mental army building that so many of us enjoy. I'm sure I'll come up with something completely different by the time it comes round again :)

What next for the Gribbly Beasts? Well, they are going straight into foam storage and carrying cases...

...

...

... ready to go to BOYL next weekend! WOOOHOOOOOOO! Nurgle's Rot on Tour 2019! :D

Anthony’s wrap-up post

Friends, I am happy to be in such distinguished company. This my second, completed Old World Army Challenge, as it is for many of you. I won't lie, it was tough to paint all these greenskins, although I have only myself to blame for making that choice. I present to you, Rifgit Snapjaw's marauding horde of greenskins:

The army is composed of the following:

Organ gun ...... 102.5 points
10 Gobbo Wulf(spider)boyz ..... 110 points
Orc Man Mangler ..... 93 points
3 Trolls .... 220 points
10 Big 'Uns ... 95 points
Rifgit's Guard. 5 Snortas .... 135 points
11 Arrer Boyz with crossbows .... 126.5 points
2 goblin chariots .... 108 points
Orc Stone Thrower .... 42.5 points
5 Snotling Bases .... 125 points

Total: 1157.5 points
Nothing makes me happier than having my points total contain a numeric fraction. I feel like that alone wins Oldhammer

So where is the big man himself, you may ask? Here he is. He was busy leading the raid of a local empire town,  so he couldn't make it for the picture.

Talking of photography absenteeism, I must apologize for the lack of an Oldhammer pose. You see, I hate taking army shots, mainly because I have trouble bringing everything in focus when I stand in front of the camera with models on the table.

So what's on the table next? Well, I'm not painting more green skin - I can confidently tell you that much! I've gotten into some cool kickstarters (The Others, Rising Sun), so I may take a crack at those before continuing on the greenskins. Next in line for my greenskin army is a forest goblin contingent (60 forest goblins, 20 forest goblin spiders, giant spiders and araknarok's galore etc.)

I must thank the Overlord for organizing this challenge for the second consecutive year. I realize that his relentless shaming, snarky comments and over-inflated ego were necessary tools to motivate a bunch of curmudgeonly grognards to complete the challenge. Although I do find his 'marriage' and 'personal life' excuses to be a little on the whiny side!

Until next time, happy painting amigos! And thanks again, Iannick, for strengthening the Oldhammer community through your efforts with the OWAC.

James' End Times Gazette

Between the time when the oceans drank Atlantis and the rise of the sons of Aryas, there was an age undreamed of. And unto this, miniatures, destined to drain my bank account for decades and give me a troubled brow.  It is I, their painter alone, who can tell thee of their saga.  Let me tell you of the days of OWAC II.

The end is here!  What a blast.  Putting together a playable undead army for 3rd ed while I got to watch everyone else's amazing collections come together has been a ton of fun.  Aside from actually getting off my butt and finishing a project, this put me in contact with some new manufacturers that I otherwise wouldn't have looked into.  That helped me find a new scifi game that I'm really digging, so there's plenty more on the painting table. These rabbit holes really do go pretty deep sometimes.

Legion of the Dinner Table

Some of this stuff, like the Death Riders, has been sitting around unpainted since Brennan and I started playing with minis back in the BattleSystem days of Middle School, so getting it fully painted and into an army is a real treat.   I took a minute and called my mom to tell her I'd finished painting my Christmas presents from 1994; she was pretty happy to hear that, but she says I'm still not getting any new ones this year. 

I swear we never actually played it properly.

Many thanks to Brennan for coercing me into doing all this work and to the Overlord and the rest of the crew for having me along for the ride.  It's a good group of folks here and I've enjoyed working alongside you all.  

May your dice roll many 6's...except for Ld tests and when you're playing Axis & Allies, of course.

Attempted Andy Chambers Glam Shot

Andrea's wrap-up post: the Chaos Undivided warband finally done!

Hi Guys!

So, we are at the real end of OWAC2. Before to start the presentation of the painted army, let me say that this year’s challenge was particularly satisfying.
First of all, family and professional progressions make the challenge time sweeter, even though a little bit tiring: luckily, this year’s choice was a Chaos warband, notoriously made up by a few figures (and not... it was not deliberate ;-))! 
Second, I have given life to a long waited and desired army: an old style Chaos warband, in fact.
Third, to carry out this project make me knowing more on the vast production of chaos miniatures, something I wasn’t expecting, and especially pieces older than my entering into the Warhammer world.
Last but probably the most important think, and being a veteran it was expected, I really enjoyed the so many wonderfully painted armies as well as the comments and suggestions of you, fellow OWACers!

Well, here is the final list for my Chaos Undivided warband, including the few additions, following the 4th army book:

Characters
Chaos Hero (the army General)................  193 pts
Beatman Shaman Champion....................  134 pts
Beastman Champion................................     60 pts

Regiments
Beastman (x 11).........................................  110 pts
Chaos Warriors (x 10)...............................  240 pts
Harpies (x 5).............................................    75 pts
Dragon Ogre (x 3).....................................  261 pts

Gran total ................................................. 1073 pts

This force is, actually, part of something bigger I would like to assemble (and, hopefully, to play in some battle!). As I already shown in one of the first post, there was already a Chaos Warrior unit (8 men worth) made by champion miniatures only. Well, but this is another story I will show you one day...
Anyway, what I really liked during this OWAC was to (or trying to) replicate the color choice and the vibe of the old pictures on the White Dwarf magazine: basically, the ones the make me falling in love with Warhammer Fantasy.
 

Now, let’s the show begin! In order to give a more ancient touch to pictures, I used a filter from my phone camera that will be known henceforth as the "Oldhammer filter" (instead of a boring "vivid warm").

 

The army General, an old guy spreading badassery at every step, 

and the Shaman

The retinue: Chaos Warriors, red’n’black unit

The beastman herd, a really composite unit with models ranging from 80s to 90s

 

The harpies, probably the most neglected unit in the painting panorama (and there are good reasons for this...)

The big ones: the three dragon ogres

And the family pict

At the end of the story, I think I have accomplished the mission and it has been rewarding! One thing I am  particularly enjoying of this new army is the homage to the red era of Warhammer and that I have found a decent recipe for the beastmen skin tone ;-)

Me, happy!

Now, the only thing I still have to do is to use the OWAC1 and the OWAC2 warbands and let them fight each other... and, of course, also to start thinking about OWAC3 (you know, in Italy we say that “non c’è due senza tre” which sounds like “there is no two without three”). I already have a project that could bring me along the shores of Ulthuan (settled up about 15 years ago and never really started) or maybe I will let the green waaagh rising. We will see what to do at the right time. 
So, thank you fellow OWACers for your company during this journey. We will probably meet again sometimes, somewhere in the web and I hope to see you all at the next gathering of challengers!

Ciao, A.

Lissanne's Chaos Demon Army Wrap-up

or How to do figs for Warhammer 40k in a Warhammer Fantasy Challenge

Since I really don't play fantasy much (and already have a high elf army from OWAC I)  I chose Chaos Demons in order to paint some of those lovely figs that were gathering dust.  They are useful for WH40k, and also D&D, which I play several times a month.  Ignatz was designed with a D&D demon in mind actually!
 

Pluses:  Chaos, especially demons, is a small enough force I can get the figs painted to an acceptable standard to me.  Some of the elves I did last year I felt a little rushed, but I didn't feel rushed with this army, nor did I slack off.  I got to paint my demon lord Ignatz to the nines, the way I wanted to.  Which was my main goal.  Not to mention the painting on the traditional Dragon Ogre and the Chaos Spawn which I am very happy with!  Actually, I am pretty satisfied with everything this time around!

Regrets:  Not having time to do the fiends, which were more meticulous conversion.  Turned out it was demonettes or fiends, and the demonettes won.  Ah well, the fiends wait for the future.

And some more photos:

So, the rundown is:

   Demon Lord Ignatz the Handful (275 pts)
   2 Dragon Ogres 2x87pts  (174pts)
   6 Flamers of Tzeench 6x50pts (300 pts)
   8 Demonettes 8x35pt (280 pts)
   3 Chaos Spawn  3x75pt (225 pts)
   3 Chaos Hounds  3x12pt (36 pts)
   23 figures in total  (1290pts)

I was wondering about next OWAC.  Like I said, I don't really play much fantasy.  Maybe more chaos?  Maybe Bloodbowl?  THEN, an entire army of skeletons on the sprue was dumped in my lap this month (no, I mean literally)  Nearly 200, with the promise of more, many more.   I run painting classes at conventions, you see.  And then my bestie gave me a pile of undead hobbits.  It seems the dead are calling to me. So, this seems the perfect time to finish those Catacombs of Terror figures, and the Upstream Game House figures, and my unfinished Warhammer Quest monsters, who are all undead allies for some reason. Which makes an army.    I already put everything in a tupperware. This should be similar time wise to demons, because Contrast-y painted skeletons are super fast and look great, and I can do meticulous painting on my Catacomb/Upstream figs then!  There is an extra month to clean and assemble, and I have tested the skeleton painting, and it is indeed super fast.  Surprise, surprise! 

Well, we will leave that in the future.  Cheers to another successful OWAC!  And Cheers to painting figs that will see the tabletop,  and more Cheers that some of these already have!

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!