Iannick's Red Templars - An introduction

And they shall know no fear

So when I decided to include Rogue Trader\40K to the OWAC (after some polite lobying from a few members) I decided I would join that wave. 

I have a complicated relationship with the 40K universe. Like many 80s Oldhammerers, I started with Fighting Fantasy books, then RPGs, then Warhammer Fantasy (3rd edition). After some fantasy gaming with mostly unpainted figures, I got Rogue Trader in my early teens and I played a lot of it for around 2 years with my best friend, my Imperial Guards vs his Eldars. Then puberty came, along with parties, drugs, girls and we stopped playing. When I came back to the hobby in my college years I didn't really like the direction 40K had been going, and I plunged back into fantasy, never to look back.

Since then, I painted a few sci-fi figs, lots of Epic, but never 40K, although the aesthetics of Rogue Trader, and to a lesser extent 2nd, still pleases me. 

I figured this edition of the OWAC was my opportunity to get back into the far future, after more than 25 years! I contemplated rebuilding an IG force, but quickly settled for Space Marines. When I was younger I always wanted to paint marines but I found them intimidating. Lots of flat surfaces, edge highlights, and the need to do free hands on those pauldron put me off. No more! 

The real and agonizing choice came next. What chapter to do?! I didn't want to do one of the classic ones, I wanted something unique, and none of the Badab wars colour scheme really tempted me that much either. And there was also the question of transfers, as I'm still shite at freehands.

So I decided to go with my childhood dream and build my own. Looking at my favourite iconography, I settled on using Fleur de Lys (I'm from Québec, with french ancestors, and I have a soft spot for them). And then while perusing the Web I realized there was already a Chapter sporting the Fleur de Lys, the Red Templars. I even liked their colours, which were classics and had an old school RT vibe to them. So a decision was made! Even better, transfers were easily available from a number of vendors specializing in historical transfers. Case closed.

The Red Templars are also a very obscure Chapter, and its lore has never been explored by GW. That leaves me tons of creative options when it comes to its history, markings, etc. Yes, the pieces of the puzzles were coming together nicely.

Then it was just a question of putting a force together. I wanted to stay true to a Rogue Trader force as much as possible and wanted to make it infantry heavy as a core. Obviously painting all those classic models I saw in WD as a kid. Beakie heavy, as I still don't understand to this day the dislike GW has for that fine helmet. 

I almost had a huge disaster late November, when I realized the 20 odd plastic beakies I had were pretty much useless, but fellow challenger John Ratcliffe came to the rescue and saved my ass with not only a squads of RTB01 beakies, but a RT dreadnought to boot! One of the many things I love about this hobby, the helping each other out!

So, let's look at that project shall we?

1st Company, Red Templars, Harrowing of the Night Reapers campaign

2nd Tactical Squad (crappy picture, as you can see these are already sitting pretty on my painting table. Just a few hours left before paint is applied)

3rd Tactical squad (all RTB01 plastic marines)

1st tactical (veteran) squad, with Lieutenant. Bit short at the moment, I know. I'm waiting for reinforcements before deciding the other figures I'll use. My plan is to use helmetless marines, marines with weird armours, terminator honours marines, etc. to make this a bad ass looking veteran outfit.

Terminator Tactical Squad, with Captain

Specialists (Medics, Techmarines)

My Wild Card stuff; Dreadnought, Robot and an Assassin. Because it's Rogue Trader and I want an assassin!

Command group; Lieutenant-Commander Martin (with the mechanical leg, of course), Company Standard Bearer, Chaplain and Librarian

There might be a surprise or two depending on how things go

Tentative Army list (I went pretty vanilla on upgrades. After all the goal is not the min-max a list but to paint) :

- Lieutenant Commander Martin (Major Hero) : 94 pts

- Lieutenant (Minor Hero) : 50 pts

- Chaplain (Champion) : 19 pts

- Librarian (Epistolary) : 50 pts

- 2 Techmarines : 34 pts

- 2 Medics (Champion) : 68 pts

- 3x Tactical squads : 750 pts

- 1x Terminator squad : 450 pts

- Terminator Captain (Hero) : 150 pts

- Contemptor Dreadnought : 201 pts

- Conqueror Robot : 160 pts

For a nice total of 2026 pts! 

The OWAC can now officially begin in a mere two hours. They are 39 challengers this edition, which is our record (what have I done?!) and they are some truly great and unique projects this year. I wish best of luck to all the challengers ballsy enough to join this event, and a personnal thank you for all the great offerings you worked on. Now, fuck 2020 and let's get this party started!

Stonewall Street's Dwarf detachment

 Grumble, grumble, grumble...low 2020 production despite plenty of free-time. Still two units of Gaul noble cavalry to complete the Warmaster Ancients army. Sunburn playtesting and gang painting plus scenery to do. Chaos, Dwarf and Greenskin Warmaster armies to complete. Confederate and Union divisions to complete in 6mm to add to my brigade level Fire and Fury armies before the U.S. embarks on Civil War 2.0. Don't take on anything else you idiot. You have 3 Oldhammer comic pages to run through photoshop for goodness sake...finish what you have Goddam it.

Well  it's been a while since I posted on the OWAC and many, many hours over the first right to publish have passed. So just in case that introduction post never gets published here it is.

I spent many a long second deliberating over whether I would accept a tentative (probably slightly worried) invite to compete this year.

NEWS FROM HELL BEFORE BREAKFAST: Warmaster Interlude - Taking on the Old World Army Challenge

 "Street will upset someone...Street will combine short vowels and harsh consonants into swear-words which aren't suitable for Oldhammer under-fourteens and make them cry...Street will paint a banner of a politician with bad hair in keeping with Oldhammer's tradition of political satire that will be reported by grown-up babies as hate-speech when he forgets to snowflake pixelate it..."

But hey, no-one can argue that any of that stuff won't be fun.

"Snowflakes Saar....Faarsands ov 'em..."

So what to do? When absolutely everything you have is Dwarfs apart from a small human militia contingent, there's not a whole load of scope. I'm guessing that I'll be doing some Dwarfs.

I'm a bit hamstrung by the fact that I thought it would be sensible to move over Christmas. While that may sound like something that only a total £u(&ing idiot would do (guilty as charged) - since in the UK I will either be working or stockpiling weapons to protect my Brexit apocalypse food reserve and freezer come January the 1st I figured this was a good time to do it. Plus my new place looks slightly easier to defend with easier access to the upstairs gun safe and an easily booby-trapped outside toilet.

However I took some advance photos at the end of November of what I intend to embark on. Apart from filling in a few holes - er....like painting all of my 2nd edition Bugman's Rangers apart from 3 of the heroes and the beer cart. I have a bunch of stuff I need to get done.

I have Jorri and maybe 20 Rangers to complete, I'm posting this photo so you know what is already done so I don't try to sneakily include them in my totals.

So I have no %^£$&&*ing idea how many points my units are. The great thing is about dwarfs is that if you're a few points short each month you just say "actually these are Hammerers and they're worth 50 points each mofo..."

But there goes with a preview. Apologies with the bad, kitchen countertop pics but I was packing these away for the move.

THE BLACK BAND

This is a 20 strong unit of Hammerers or simple Dwarf warriors with 2-handed weapons (depending on how many points I need to faff in a week). These will be my "Black Band"/"Black Guard" of Zweihanders or "DoppelSoldiers". These consist of a mix of Citadel, Marauder, Runecast and White Knight models (now available through The Assault Group).

FANTASY TRIBES REGIMENT

I picked up these lovely pre-slottas about 3 years ago in a collection. I stripped about 35 years worth of enamel and car primer off them and was delighted to find them in good, shiny nick underneath. I have 25 of these and am looking forward to painting them. Not sure whether I will give them a uniform colour scheme or whether I will give them a variety of Saxon/Norman shields. The previous owner had already removed a weapon and drilled out a fist for a brass rod so I will be doing a spectacular tomato paste banner for the unit.

MORE PRESLOTTAS

So I have a unit which I call "The Doughty Dozen". A unit of 12 pre-slotta Dwarfs which I have loved since I saw them painted up in the old "Heroes for Wargames" book in the '80s. I want to make them up to a unit of 40 but for the OWAC I will be doing a 30-strong unit from the models in the bottom two pictures which I'll add to the Doughty Dozen for the full unit of 40.

The middle photo mainly consists of broken and damaged minis which I'll add to the bottom (largely intact) 20 models. Six of these are not technically "pre-slottas" but in my own head the models with cast-on shields are from a similar era and often scale better than they do with the placcy shield models. YMMV.

MARAUDER HAMMERERS

Marauder Hammerers. What it says on the tin. x20.

PUFF AND SLASH CROSSBOWS

x10 "Puff and Slash" crossbows. I already a unit of ten of "Sven Surebolt's Flash Harrys" painted up. These will be painted up using the same crimson and cream colour scheme but will have their own Marauder champion so that I can use them as both a separate unit or combine them for a larger unit of 20. Two models are Marauder, the rest are White Knight/TAG.

WAYNE ENGLAND TRIBUTE UNIT

Every Dwarf army has to have a Wayne England tribute right? I'm not really one for having the whole army in the same livery. In fact I'm trying not to have more than one unit in the same colours.

When it comes to Wayne England's Dwarf army (the models that launched a thousand obsessions) - most people initially think of the blue and white halved uniforms of his Longbeards. I know I have a unit of "Thorgrimm Rockschafft and his Big Swingers painted thus:

Despite the fact that we automatically think of this as Wayne's "signature" Dwarf colours, he only ever painted one unit in blue and white. His Clansmen were black and white with blue belts and braces, his pikemen were green and yellow.

I'm not sure quite how I'll treat this tribute unit yet. I think maybe the often overlooked black and white would be fitting. Like Wane I'll be using some classic ME33 LOTR Dwarfs in there. And also a big massive tomato paste banner obviously.

THE OFFERING TO THE DARK GODS

When I was about seventeen my parents' house was burgled for about the fifteenth time. In this particular theft I had three 2nd edition Blood Bowl teams stolen. A human team, a Skaven team and my Stuntinutty Bengals Dwarf team. I have since recreated these stolen teams using the new GW models and some third party metals - but scalecreep has meant that these days a 2nd or 3rd edition BB Ogre is the same size a new GW human.

As such, what says Oldhammer to the Oldhammer Gods more that an Ogre who has had his legs sawn in half by Street and had half an inch of pinned and badly sculpted legs inserted  in to make him taller?

Nothing. That's what.

And thus, number thirteen "Jonah Jonah" has been replaced with number sixteen "Igor Biscan". Otherwise known as "Max Fleischgewehr". Jonah Jonah will now live in the Land of Chill or "The New World in which all Warhammer scenarios were set before thirty years of GW fluff u-turns."

Stonewall Street is a failed Rock Star; failed professional footballer; failed professional cricketer; failed comicbook artist; failed artist; failed poet; failed author; below average miniature painter; failed actress; reasonably decent management accountant and all-round Facebook agitator. He lives in the shadow of Heathrow's north runway in a slum that real estate agents describe as "vibrant". His main ambition in life is to survive into month 3. Enjoy the ride.

RobO's Blood Axe Introduction

 Ok, here we are just a few hours before the deadline and as is typical...I am pounding out something that has been assigned for months in the 11th hour.

I have been cowed by the previous entrants creativeness so I will keep the intro of my "rookie season" project short and sweet.

My army will be a 1000 point 2nd Edition 40K Ork Army focused on the Blood Axe Klan. I have some models still inbound so the list below is really just the 600-ish Core. I am not sure if and when some of the models will arrive, so I am leaving some room for flexibility.

Up front there you'll see what I will be starting in January. 10 "Close Combat" grots. I'll try to squeeze in the RuntHerder and 2 Grot Assistants...that said, I won't even be looking in their direction until the unit is well under way.

I will follow those up with the core Blood Axe component of the list. As this army grows in the future and I will try to grow these to at least two units of 10 of Blood Axe boyz. As it stands I have 3 "official" Blood Axe Boyz and 5 Blood Axe Kommandos.  (There are 3 more boyz on the way, and I hope they are in-hand by February. If not I will replace those short-term by other models in the list. Possibly the sentinel that still needs a Mekaniak's touch.)

I'll also be painting-up a Drill Boss and a unit of Storm Boyz all with jump packs. Depending on what comes when, I may include the Ogryns in the same month...but may need to add some additional big boys to the project to bulk-out the points.

Here are some of the boyz that are currently MIA...including the Warboss which needs to be unconverted once he arrives.

Finally, I am consistent if nothing else, so here is the offering to the OWAC God. I am not a fast painter and started after Christmas. (11th hour)

  

Mike's Waaagh Grotgut Introduction Post (1131pts)

Is it that time again, it barely feels like the last one has ended! So for the 4th edition of the challenge had big dreams of a rogue trader Ork force, sadly that wasn't going to happen with only being able to acquire 10 Orks. So what is a man with a plethora of green paint to do! Well the simplest way was go back to the the heady days of OWAC and as they say in the badlands give the Orc's annuver go!

So I dug into my still vast piles of unfinished orcs and made I thought a pretty interesting list using the 4th edition list. As I went to type this post on the last possible day as usual, I decided to review what I did the first time through. Thus I discovered I almost duplicated the list I had the first time with some minor exceptions. So back to the lead cave I went and dug out a more different waagh! I decided it was time to finally paint my personal favorite war wyvern.

and some black orcs are always good...

And some savage orc boar boyz that have been sitting in blisters forever and their less mobile brethren (though I had to buy a command off eBay so I'm waiting for that). ..

and I might as well finally get some various night goblins done since they've only been waiting for 10 years....




So my list is as follows


Black Orc Warlord with heavy armour and shield on a Wyvern 329

10 black orc boyz with extra hand weapon and command 120

10 Savage orc boyz with shields and command 97

5 savage orc boar boyz 175

10 night goblin archers 60

10 night goblin archers 60

3 night goblin fanatics 90

3 night goblin fanatics 90

4 night goblin squig hoppers 100

and maybe if I get everything done with time to spare I'll do some bonus goblin chariots, because there is never enough chariots in a orc and gobbo army right? I mean I'm just checking if there is a number because I think I have 8-9 others already done....

And lastly the offering, which I think will be the color scheme for the black orc unit.

Here's to another OWAC!

(Just) John's Undead Introduction Post

Hello all. This is my first foray into the madness of the Old World Army Challenge so I decided to keep things simple. And then I changed my mind. And then I changed it again - well you get the idea. Too many ideas and not teough OWAC's! I finally decided on a small undead army and the nimmediately got carried away. When I went looking through the lead pile for undead figures I thought I would find a small enough selection to make life easy but no, it would appear that I have a lot of undead minis that I have no recollection of buying. Must be a necromancer at work somewhere in the attic.

Which brings me back to the chosen project. I have decided to base the force on the ones in the Terror of the Lichemaster and its sequel The Vengeance of the Lichemaster. Hereos were easy enough to choose as I have the originals (well 3 of the 4, see more below) First up is Krell who is described as a Mighty Hero in the scenario so I went with him being a Lvl 20 hero (105 points)

Next is Ranlac the Black, a champion in the original so I pointed him as a lvl 5 hero (30 points).

The final champion is the lieutenant of the dcaying zombie legion Mikeal Jacsen, another lvl 5 hero (30 points).

This brings me to Kemmler himself. It's a little known fact that the stories of Kemmler contain a very imnportantfalsehood, one that perpetuates the bias against people of a shorter stature. Turns out even necromancers and lichemaster are biased againast certain races (who would have thought it). I present to you therefore one of the rarer images of the true Heinrich Kemmler, former inhabitant of the Moot.

He is described as a level 4 necromancer in the scenarios so I went with a Lvl 20 Necromancer for this list (240 points). Thats a total of 405 points in villains. The figure requirements for the two scenarios work out at 40 skeletons and 20 zombies (Citadel really did have a problem between description, ie Legion and reality, ie 20 zombies). This is where I am going to cheat a bit. Your basic skeleton is 10 points but I have been trying to paint the Nightmare Legions figures since I first got them way back in the mists of time. They are also one of the few sets of figures I have that survived the 90s and 2000s beer cull. So step forward the Nightmare Legion as my skeletons. 2 units of 24 to be precise. At 10 points per skeleton and shield (+1), light armour (+2) and spears (+1) this works out at 356 points per unit.

Next up are the zombies. These figures are mainly the old ME range of Dead Men of Dunharrow - one of each of the variants with a few Kev Adams zombies thrown in to bring it up to 20 strong. Zombies are a whopping 4 points each! These guys are mainly armed with 2 hand weapons (1 point) and light armour (1 point) or a shield (1/2 point) so I reckon counting them all as 2 handed weapons with light armour makes for 120 points.

Finally the undead riders. I have a bunch of the original metal ones in front of me here but they look, well to be honest complicated. So I've decided to go with the plastic skeleton cavalry and as it turns out I have enough for the 10 strong unit. These are 21 points each with 5 having lances (+2 points) and 5 having spears (+1 point) for a grand total of 225 points.

Thats a grand total of 1462 points (I think). Wish me luck. My offering to appease his vile overlordishness, blessed be his vileness is a Heroquest Mummy.

JamesP's Empire Army Part 2 - Intro

…and I’m back!

Here I am again at my second OWAC eager to complete my Empire army. But enough about me, let’s get to it. I’ll be adding this year’s entry to my entry of last year.

Upgrades:

3 Hohensknechtes – 111pts

·        Lance, Hand Weapon, Heavy Armour, Shield, Barding

Additions:

Olin: Level 15 Wizard – 155pts

·        Hand Weapon

23 Ersatzsolder – (champion, musician and standard) – 240pts - The Spirit Cleavers

·        Spear, Light Armour, Shield

Conrad Ortmann : Level 5 hero

·        Heavy Armour, Shield

23 Ersatzsolder – (champion, musician and standard) – 240pts - The Widow Makers

·        Spear, Light Armour, Shield

Helmer Voight: Level 5 hero

·        Heavy Armour, Shield

10 Bergjaeger – (champion) – 140pts

·        Longbow, Shield

 

Estalian Mercenaries:

Gregorio de la Cruz: Level 20 Hero (Mercenary Leader)– 113pts

·        Hand Weapon, Light Armour, Shield, Lance Horse

9 Estalian Caballeros – 198pts

·        Lance, Hand Weapon, Light Armour, Shield

18 Estalian Pike – 180pts (Nuln Landsknechtes used for cost and stats)

·        Pike, Hand Weapon, Heavy Armour

10 Estalian Bandolleros Gringos – 110pts

·        Arquebus, Hand Weapon, Light Armour

 I'll be using Warlord Games Defenders of Malta as Estalian Mercenaries. They size up well and have a dynamic pose that I like.

Coming in at a total of 100 pieces on the table and 114 minis to paint I have my work cut out for me. My plan is as follows.

Month 1 – 24 Spearmen

Month 2 – 24 Spearmen

Month 3 – 18 Pikemen

Month 4 – 10 Archers and 10 Hand gunners

Month 5 – 12 Cavalry

Month 6 – 2 Command

And here's the payment to the tax man

I’ll also be painting a FF1 Fiend during the challenge as an addition to our benevolent overlord’s collection.

I’ll provide a bit of fluff here and there as I love a bit of story to go along with my armies.

The stage is set.

Good luck to everyone and brushes at the ready!!