Bill's Greenskins: Hell on Wheels (240 pts)

 Leader Month

"Oi, Nakscrath, wot'choo got fer me?" rumbled Yorzolg, red eyes narrowed as he tried to stare down the gloom inside the tent.

"Yer gonna love dis, boss. Remember dat absolute mad lad Chaos git last summer?" The smaller orc stumped forward on his peg leg, grinning maniacally.

Yorzolg chuckled cruelly, "Haw haw, yeah I do! Remember wot 'e said right afore I gigged 'im?"

The two greenskins recited in unison, "Blood fer da blood - Aaaaggghhhh!"

"Right, well, we still 'ad 'is fancy ride sittin' around, and so's I scraped off mosta da Chaos gubbins an' painted it up proper Orc-like. Figgered yez'd look right Big Bossy ridin' on dis!"

Yorzolg's eyes widened as Nakscrath pulled a tarp off the chariot. The sides sewn out of human faces had been painted a tasteful red-and-black check pattern, a huge, scowling Evil Sun graced the front and the bronze horned skull on the end of the prow gleamed from being freshly polished. 

"Now dis is right Propa," Yorzolg said approvingly. The war boars already lashed to the chariot snorted and pawed the ground. Nakscrath climbed in, taking up the reins as Yorzolg boarded behind him. 

"Yez'd betta not even fink about farting," Yorzolg growled to the smaller orc.

This was a challenging month for me. I got lucky and got most of the chariot finished before the end of May, but June brought on a bad case of the blues; I lost all energy to do anything after clocking out of my day job, and the thought of picking up a paintbrush felt insurmountable. Painting Yorzolg turned into a grueling forced march of 5 minutes of painting here, 3 there, maybe 10 minutes on a Saturday. I used Contrast paints (Iyanden Yellow and Snakebite Leather) to try and speed things along, then cursed myself out for a week straight for not simply quartering the yellow and black color scheme and doing the full puff-and-slash. And there was no way I was going to manage to do the diorama base I'd originally planned on; a 50x100mm MDF base painted Goblin Green would have to suffice.  

But I made it work. And I was able to glue a Yorzolg I was happy with in behind his driver, glue the boars down to the base and flock it, then glue the chariot to the base and to the boars. It was done.

 

The chariot itself is a Beastman Chariot from Warmonger Miniatures, with the occupants replaced and some slight modifications; the horned skull on the beam is originally from Grom the Paunch's chariot from 4th edition WHFB. I had originally thought I'd manage to put two crewmen (a driver and a banner-bearer) in along with Yorzolg but once I had the pieces in my hands it was obvious that the orcs were just too beefy for that. As is the chariot is comically crowded, and I needed to add a platform for Yorzolg to stand on to be able to see over his driver's shoulders. The back of that platform is covered by a "bumper" made of three goblin shields from Knightmare Games glued to a strip of plastic card. 

Overall, even without the supersized diorama base, I feel like this is a suitably impressive piece to conclude my first OWAC on. Even better, it contains pieces from Warmonger, Citadel and Knightmare, making it representative of most of the companies I've bought figures from for this army. We've got some freehand in there which I'm really proud of (I've become such a big fan of painting these Evil Sun faces) and I even worked in the classic Games Workshop checkerboard pattern. 

The chariot rolled to a halt, the heavy boars grunting against the weight. Before him, stretching out as far as he could see down the Black Fire Pass, Yorzolg could see more orcs gathered than he could even begin to count. 

Throwing his arms wide, sword held aloft, he addressed the teeming horde.

"Boyz, gobbos, an' assorted rest of yez," he began, "tha eyes o' Gork and Mork are on yez today, an' I'm tellin' yez dey's grinnin'! 'Cuz dis right 'ere, yez lot o' greenskins, both da big'uns an' da useless 'uns, yez make up da greatest ting ever seen on dis, or any, world - yer a WAAAAAAGH! NOW LET'S HIT DA MOUF O' DIS 'ERE BLACK FIRE PASS, AN' SHOW DEM HUMIES WOT IS FEAR!"

The crowd began to cheer. Yorzolg grinned, baring his teeth. This was his moment.

So that's it for me for June, and for OWAC IV. Let's see what that comes to points-wise:

• Yorzolg himself is a Level 25 Orc Hero, with Light Armor and a Handweapon - 145
• Chariot with a single Orc crewman, scythed wheels, drawn by a pair of War Boars - 95

For a June total of 240 points, and an overall total for OWAC IV of 1248 points!