JohnR's Intro Post - Aksys of Evil and the Axis of Evil

Mornin' all

This is my second crack at the OWAC. Last year was a modern historical minis Estalian force, which was fun, but for this year I've gone all old metal.

The army is an unholy alliance of 3 evil races: goblins, skaven and dark elves lead by an utterly evil and clearly insane human sorcerer. All chosen from 3rd edition WFB and Warhammer Armies.

Inspiration was obviously George W Bush's "Axis of Evil" speech and all those Fighting Fantasy books I wasted my childhood reading when I should have been getting a 'proper' education.

Here is our primary antagonist: Aksys the evil warlock and his pet jabberwock Mittens. Both by Ral Partha. 

Da Gobbo Contingent. 48 gobbos (inc 3 fanatics), 12 wolfboys, a Lead Belcher and a Drew Day Williams cloud giant. 

The Skaven. No doubt outcasts from skaven society, just waiting for an opportune moment to betray everyone in the most underhanded and duplicitous way possible: 40 clanrats (10 are still in the paint stripper) 7 gutter runners, 8 giant rats, 2 rat ogres, 3 jezzails, 2 warpfire throwers, 2 poisoned wind globadiers, an assassin and a sorcerer.

Last, but not least, The Dark Elves. No doubt wondering how the F they got into this situation and just hoping to survive, nick a few slaves and escape back to Naggaroth in one piece: 20 witch elves, 12 crossbows and 5 heavy cavalry.

So yeah, I know, this is a lot of figs to paint in 6 months. 

And I know what you're thinking.

"What if he runs out of stuff to paint?!"

Don't worry.

Just like the rest of you I have more stuff to paint 😊 Extra bits for each of the three main contingents and a small chaos contingent which didn't make it into these photos.

Finally: "For the Overlord!"

Chaos Champion of Slaanesh, Ex-evangelist of the Church of Holy Sigmar, Founder of the first Mega Church of Chaos and all round total scumbag: Pennith Gropeland.

Driven out of the Church of Sigmar for tax evasion, orgies in the vestry and questionable relations with the choir boys, Gropeland narrowly avoided the Witchfinder's torch and fled into the waiting arms of Slaanesh. In the chaos wastes he found his true calling: preaching to a flock of willing fanatics and building evermore grotesque and extravagant edifices to his own debauched excess.

Good luck everyone. See you on the other side!

Nathan’s Slaaneshi genestealer cult

Another year slips away; whilst the new year holds more Covid based uncertainty it thankfully also sees the start of OWAC V. That is something to look forward to. This year I decided to paint up a slaaneshi genestealer cult army. The variety of figures I had to choose from was a real attraction for picking this army; the figures can also be used in Advance/Space Crusade and Space Hulk all of which I have. Finally I can use the slaaneshi daemons in my very slowly expanding Emperor’s Children and Slaaneshi daemon armies that I have. Anyway here are pics of what I plan to paint up:

And finally the offering to our benevolent overlord which is a marauder dark elf with lots of pink. A Slanneshi Dark Elf Army was my other army option for OWAC V…

Mustafa’s Genestealer Cult

 For this years challenge I’ve decided to go with a Genestealer cult and a small Tyranid allied force.

I figured it would make sense as the bulk of the army will be genestealers so I could effectively end up with two armies if I pull my socks up and paint quick enough!

The core of the army will be the following:

Genestealer Patriarch: 72

Magus: 107

Icon bearer: 45

22 Genestealers: 616

11 Neophytes: 99

20 Acolytes: 160

5 Acolytes on bikes: 140

TOTAL 1099

I’ve not included any points for weapons or abilities in that as I consider them the icing on the cake. I want to make sure that the total points I need are covered by the just boots (talons, claws, etc) on the ground first and foremost

The Tyranid allies will be the following:

Hive Tyrant: 164

12 Termagants: 72

3 Tyranids: 165

TOTAL 401

Again, no points included for all the weapons and mutations.

I am planning to chuck in some more genestealers and termagants, as well as a couple of biovores but those are all still in the post so aren’t included in the first draft of my list.

Here are pics of everything in its unpainted glory!

And as for my offering rather than paint a mini I offered to do an illustration as a prize, here's last year’s winners, Mariano Sanchez :)

ChrisH's OWAC Introduction Post - 3rd Edition Empire Army

This is my first OWAC army, I’ve had a Perry sculpted Empire Army in mind for a few years and built it with the current foundry models and a few older models from late 80’s early 90’s.  It’s almost a 3^rd edition list with a few minor tweaks.

My interest is mainly in 3^rd edition oldhammer but I have played modern(ish) 40k, LoTR and ancient/medieval wargames.  For 3^rd edition, I have large painted High Elf, Wood Elf, Dark Elf, Orc & Goblin and Chaos armies and have just finished a Norse Army.  I am more of a painter than a gamer but happy to do both.  I have a large painted Elf army which I recently finished after 30+ years painting.

 

 

I am a big fan of pre-slotta GW and have painted one of the original Dwarfs as my OWAC offering.

The Empire army colour scheme is inspired by the Osprey men at arms Burgundian Army book – there is a tournament picture where all the characters are in white, and I want to pair it with black armour (no pressure).  A lot of 16^th century armour was black and as the empire background has an early 16^th century feel it seems to make sense.

 

I can paint fast when in the zone so am not particularly concerned about the large pike unit.  To add more pressure it will be my first army using airbrush, zenithal highlighting and contrast paints.

 

My preference it to have a theme underpinning a new army.  In this case it’s the Grand tournament army of Klaus, Count Palantine Von Reikland.  He has an eye for smart uniforms in matching Reikland colours Red, White and Black.  History will tell if he is any use as a general.  This matches with the Burgundian theme as the Burgundians looked great but their performance on the field was generally poor!

 

Klaus can call on the Temple knights from the Orders of the Blazing Sun and the Order of the Black Rose of which he is the Grand Marshall.  He also has a local contingent of Reiksgard.  The temple of Sigmar provides him a contingent of flagellants and the remainder of the troops are from his own estates.

 

The army composition is as follows

 

Klaus, Count Palantine Von Reikland riding Hippogriff, 334 points

10 Knights of the Blazing Sun , 390 points

10 Knights of the Black Rose, 310 points

 

20 Reiksguard, 220 points

 

10 Hackbutschutzen (Handgunners), 80 points

 

60 Ersatsolder lead by Burgomeister Reinhard standard and musician, 709 points

 

20 Helblitzen, 180 points

 

20 Helblitzen, 180 points

12 Flagellants, 108 points

 

Sam's OWAV V Intro Post - Got wood

Hello all I’m back again. You might know me from such things as “bright red spears and bows”, “red guns are good camouflage, right?” and “bloody ‘ell, not more red weapons Guv” brought to you by Catachans and Orcs of the eye wateringly bright 90s. For this year, the delectable OWAC V, I’ll be taking on another army I always wanted but never quite got around to, and an ever popular choice around these parts, some Woodies. However, unlike most who normally opt for the 80s range, my army will be consisting exclusively of the 90s metal range sculpted by Aly Morrison and Trish Carden with a few cameos by Gary Morley.

The inspiration for my army is Paul Smith’s wonderful broody Wood Elf Host featured in WD 212. This was one of the very first WDs I ever bought, and the army has stood out in my memory over all these years. So much so that whenever I think about Wood Elves I’ve always been brought back to the image of this great army. So as is fitting, I’m going to attempt to replicate it to a certain degree.

My list is very flexible at this point with what I will paint for the challenge, but what I have is as below minus a couple of models and horses still in the stripping juice:

163pts - Wood Elf General (Elven steed) 

124pts - Mage Champion (Elven Steed)

345pts - 26 Archers (including champion, standard and musician) 

192pts - 15 Glade Guard (including champion, standard and musician)

176pts - 7 Scouts (including champion, standard and musician)

126pts - 7 Waywatchers

294pts - 8 Glade Riders (including champion, standard and musician)

280pts - 8 Dryads

75pts - Great Eagle

280pts  - Treeman

Total: 2,055pts

Following with the theme it does mean that I will opt for the first time ever not to paint my weapons in red (shock, horror!) although calm yourselves, there will be plenty of red gems to make up for it. Generally, Mr. Smith used a very limited palette, and I will follow suit to certain extent. With Dark green and white being the predominant colours, and dark brown leathers/woodskin, a pale flesh tone, silver and gold weapons, and dark red gems making up the spot colours. So mine will have a little more colour, but still hopefully retain the broody feel.

For the ever benevolent Overlord, as I hear he likes pink, I have just the thing to provide appeasement from my collection:

And that's all from me. Very much looking forwards to seeing everyone's projects, especially Adam H's pesky rats whom I hope to riddle full of arrows in the near future. If they'll just kindly stop spreading the plague a little first.

Peace out

Sam

Matthew Street and the Tale of OWAC Dwarf Failure (continued)

I think we've been here before.

"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.

Covid has caused us all a lot of upheaval over the last 2 years. The same nonsense I had last year is the same I have this. We are still not in a new house and we are still cooped up in our old place with half of my stuff either in the new place or in storage.

So last year I tried to get a whole bunch of my pre-slotta dwarfs painted for the OWAC. 

It didn't work out quite the way I planned. 

Mainly because I didn't read the rules properly and spent my wildcard month painting up a rather large addition to my baggage train, not realising that this was my rest month.

So anyway...Puff and Slash will be the first order of the day.

Sgt. Borri McCockinner and the Longpoles

How about something smaller:

I'm looking at many of the units I failed to even prep last year.

Just to make it a proper challenge I haven't even assembled anything yet. everything is still in bits, untrimmed, unfiled.

Every unit needs at least a bit of conversion including all the banner poles.

Brilliant. 

"THE BLACK BAND"

x21 Hammerers. Puff and Slash Two-Handed Swordsmen.

x10 Crossbows. The second ten of the "Flash Harrys".

x20 Elite Marauder Dwarfs. 

(Possibly) x20 of the long promised Wayne England tribute unit.

x4 Command. Chopping up that standard bearer so I can get a bigger banner pole in that hand. Those who know - know where those helmet wings are going.

(Or possibly) x20-40 Norse Dwarfs. Selected out of these.

Hoping to make it to the end this year even if it's just 40 rank & file and the command.

I don't need to make a lead offering to the overlord as I offer lots and lots of money in the form of artwork prizes. If you get me it means you didn't win. So there.

Stonewall Street is a failed Rock Star; failed professional footballer; failed professional cricketer; failed comic book 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". Last year he added "failed OWAC Challenger to that list. If his parents loved him they'd make better voting choices.

All the best everyone.

Songs Of The Damned - Stephen's Ulthwe' Eldar (Intro Post)

Howdy - my name is Stephen, I'm a rookie participant in the Old World Army Challenge, based in the Pacific Northwest of the United States.

Writing this intro post in the waning days of the year 2021 is wild - looking back over my 25 years in the hobby (which is not so long in the time of wargamers, to say nothing of elves), I have come to the conclusion that I have been caught by a not-insignificant wave of nostalgia.  This Challenge, in which I am honored to participate, came to my attention just as I'd decided to build and paint the army I always wanted, ever since I cracked open my first Codex in the day - I missed the deadline for OWAC IV, but I am excited to be a part of this next Challenge.

A great deal has changed about the hobby since then, but one thing that has remained a constant for me is my love of the Craftworld Eldar.  I've only ever really been interested in Warhammer 40,000, though I appreciate Warhammer Fantasy and respect that game's players and painters.  The Eldar designs in particular (thanks to the incomparable work of Jes Goodwin) hold the only aesthetic in the entire range that truly appeals to me, from that day to this.  The Eldar are a truly distinct faction in Warhammer 40,000, and although in my time playing competitively I took on the occasional Tau or Dark Eldar allies, my collection of Craftworlds models are the ones that remain in my display cases.

Early on, my focus was on gameplay, and getting models to a 'three-color minimum' to get them on the table.  I would do more than just slop colors on, of course, generally I would try to have a theme for each unit, but my armies would never be something I would call "cohesive."  My stuff looked okay enough, and as time went on, I decided on a Craftworld scheme for my army (Alaitoc), and things got a little better...but it wasn't until recently that I found myself playing regularly with a community that was a bit more casual about gameplay...but much, much better at painting than I was.  

It follows that the last few years has been a lot of me trying to elevate my painting so that I am unashamed to put my models on the table alongside theirs...I'm getting there, but speed remains an issue for me.  

I prefer to emulate box art and codex schemes for my Eldar, as I've never been super-comfortable coming up with my own colors.  I've also rarely encountered many "codex-compliant" Eldar armies at events, so I feel like it's a way for my own models to stand out.  One interesting thing that I've discovered about myself as a hobbyist in this time is that I have a reverence for the Mike McVey/'Eavy Metal studio schemes and methods, and it's a style that I feel like I can get pretty close to approximating (I still don't do a lot of glazing, though).  

So, this army that I'm building is one that I didn't really have the ability to assemble at the time, but it jumped off the page then, and has continued to do so ever since - the Eldar of Craftworld Ulthanash Shelwe', the Song of Ulthanash, Ulthwe' the Damned.  Psychic powerhouses leading their highly-trained and disciplined citizen-soldiers into direct confrontation of the forces of Chaos.  

My goal was to paint up 2000 points of Ulthwe' (by 9th Edition points values) by the end of 2021...but work and real life has me falling well short of that goal.  So, my intent is to finish this army for the Old World Army Challenge.  

Among these units are some of the oldest original models in my collection, and the rest have been sourced over the last five years or so.  Here's what I've finished so far!

A unit of Guardians kitted out for close combat

First Blade (leader of a section of four Guardians)

Second Blade (complete with headband outside the helmet)

Third Blade (VERY METAL)

High Blade and unit specialists (meltagunners, standard-bearer, and a musician so that the unit's spirits can enter the Infinity Circuit to some rad synth-tunes)

Some spooky ghost warriors of the Wraithguard

A much larger and even spookier Dreadnaught

A pair of Vypers (to be re-based in Goblin Green as the gods intended)

To the above, I will be adding the following as my entries to the Challenge (all points based on the 2nd Edition Codex: Eldar):

Leader and Command Group Week

Eldrad Ulthran (220 pts) and a conclave of Warlocks (550 pts)

Rank and File Weeks

Eldar Guardians with Lasguns (88 points), accompanied by a Distort Cannon (60 pts)

Eldar Guardians with Shuriken Catapults (128 points), accompanied by a Distort Cannon (60 pts)

Eldar Guardians with Shuriken Catapults (128 pts), accompanied by a Distort Cannon (60 pts)

Eldar Scouts (236 pts)

Wild Card Week

Vyper with Lascannon and Shuriken Cannon (85 pts)

Total Army Point Value:  1615 points

Last but not least, my offering to the Overlord, a Harlequin Solitaire.

All systems go for the Challenge, looking forward to it!