The Old World Army Challenge: July 2025

This month's models

Soooooo.... June.

All my army list is painted, plus some extras along the way (the Arrer Boys and Snotlings for example).

The pressure is off, and this month is the Wildcard!

I've a long term goal to paint the contents of the WFB 4th ed, (or is it 5th? I always get confused) box set. Anyway, this one 👇

I'd like to paint the cardboard standees' metal equivalent too, and on that note here's a quick timestamp pic I took before painting the Wyvern!

I've yet to paint the shaman model I'm afraid, so here's just the wyvern with a bit of colour on him.

Everything is pinned, except one wing which I couldn't separate from the body due to the previous eBay owners glue. Milliput used (poorly) to fill some gaps. I know there's some errant paint blotches - that red around the scales by the horns for example, but he's done enough for me!

The base is an old Rackham one I found in by bitzbox. It's slightly thicker and taller than the GW ones.

The scales and wings are contrast paint and drybrushed, everything else painted as usual.

Eventually I imagine the weight all on one leg like that will bend the wyvern. At a later date I will add a pin from the base to the belly to brace it - in the motivation to paint it I forgot that this would be a Thing. I've no plans to hide the pin, I'll just paint it black.

There's a cardboard house that came in the WFB box, so here's one I made for this OWAC wildcard month, following the instructions given on pg59 of WHITE DWARF185.

Whilst not the most orcish, it certainly fits the oldhammer vibe! I remember making this back in the day, although I never had the balsa wood coffee stirrers so I just used cereal cardboard for everything. I remember it looking terrible, and I never painted it.

Anyway.

A little timestamp using the OWAC rock lobba crew...

And another angle...

I used Gorilla Wood Glue, coffee stirrer sticks, card from a pack of cereal Wheat Biscuits, and some foam board I had left over from the a display board I made for my orks from OWAC 2022, (pics of that included here cos who doesn't like a pic?!) 👇

Ahem... Anyhow, the base for the house is a material called hardboard (3mm), with sand glued on top for grass 👇

The coffee stirrers were trimmed a bit all round with a hobby knife, to imitate wooden beams. I've made a bit of a boo with the wooden lean-to, as there's no door on it 😂

The worst part was individually cutting out and shaping the tiles....

The doorless outhouse 👇

But in the end, I think individual tiles were worth the extra effort. Even if some of them are as big as paving slabs!

Before painting, I covered it all in Modgepodge, so that the topcoat of paint should sit evenly on all the surfaces and not soak into the wood, or 'float' on the smooth surface of the foamboard. Everything was then undercoated in two coats of crafting poster paint black - I was too nervous to use the spraycan!.

I didn't anticipate that the poster paint that I used to undercoat would rub off, and reactivate with the water when applying the rest of the paint.

It wasn't too bad, but I will reapply a modgepodge coat to seal off the undercoat from the topcoat on the next one.

I kinda like this random square of grass where a model might go👇. Or a barrel, if I ever paint one for it! You can see where the paint rubbed off on the wooden lean-to, but I can live with it...

I really like this crack 👇. Made with the hobby knife directly into the wall. The foamboard really does facilitate this well.

The windows are just painted quite crudely on, but I'm super happy with how they came out

I added a brush on varnish - the same I use for the models (vallejo premium colour, satin).

And then, rather than build the stone tower, I went for another classic - the townhouse from WHITE DWARF 131, pg45, which I built alongside the cottage.

Even more tiles! I made these purposefully smaller this time round🙄.

Here's the build, still drying in it's coat of modgepodge 👇

Different chimney though 👇

I also cut out a piece of cereal card to box in the foamboard chimney so that it is the same texture all the way round. On the other house, you can see the difference between the foam side and the board side quite easily.

I've left the sand off for now, and I aim to add it after painting the house. It'll stop me from splodging paint on the sand which sometimes shows through the green paint for the grass..

And here it is. 👇

I kinda know that it took roughly 3.5 hours to paint, including drying time... Most of that was probably the tiling 😂😭

I've also neglected to have any downstairs windows!

It's a bit rushed - certainly I prefer the other, more basic, house for build and paint - but this is an iconic house anyhow and I'm stoked to have it done!

The other cracks are painted on, using a new paint for me - Citadel Contrast Ratling Grime.

Here's a side by side 👇. AS i've said, I do prefer the shorter, simpler house, but it did take a lot longer to paint.

I probably won't make another cottage, but there's still that tower to build. That's for after the Challenge though 🙂

(If you'd like your own blueprints to make these, then the White Dwarf - Through the Years 1977-2014 (Issues 0001-409) Facebook group has an excellent Files section where you can download the relevant White Dwarf pages).

To round off my models, I've painted one more base of snotlings, to take the total to four bases.

I'm sure I was sold these snotlings years ago, very cheaply, and the condition was that I paint them as part of an OWAC - which I'm now very happy to say that I have done!

And the unit of 4 all together 👇

What's a collective noun for snotlings? A bogey?

So, this month, I had a nice cabinet delivered so that I could use it to store some hobby stuff in the front room... And it came packed with a load of this extra thick cardboard! 👇

Only one thing to do, and that's to have a look at making a display board!

First I arranged out the models out to see if they'd fit, and imagined a few hills in there for good measure.

I've left some empty space for a few more units if I ever get round to it (black orcs, I'm looking at you...)

Then cut out the hills, which turned into one big hill rather than two individual hills👇

I then tore up lots of thin paper (which came in the cabinet packing) and mixed it with wood glue and water to make a paper mache . I kept it as strips, not pulped up as I thought it would be easier to cover the holes for the first covering.

Oh no, it warped.

I stuck it down on another big bit of cardboard, and added a ton of books to weigh it down flat overnight

I also added a tiny bit of colour to the paper mache, then pulped it all up into a paste, using my hand, and then added another layer. It filled in any gaps, and hid all the edges of the previous strips of paper.

Couldn't help myself but to arrange all the models out again!

Whilst it was drying, I got into the hobby zone and started basing up some trees which I brought from K&M (link). The trunk of the tree is snipped with a pair of clippers to shorten it so that it would fit flush in the base support. The trunk was then roughly painted, and the base prepped with glue and sand. This is the only pic I took, sorry!

I also made some walls using Das air dry clay, but was so in the zone I didn't take any pics excepting the one above, with the display board. Here they are - same pic, just zoomed in. 👇

(The super glue wasn't used though - only the trusty Gorilla Wood Glue).

The bricks were individually made and pressed together, left to dry, then placed on the base and covered in two coats of thinned down wood glue for strength.

Sand added to the base, and then the walls were undercoated a dark blue. Highlights were via drybrushing, and then a few splodges of a contrast green and brown to add a bit of interest.

A progress pic of the completed walls and nearly finished trees

Here's a fence made from coffee stirrers 👇

I should really make a few more fences, but the motivation for terrain has left me for now.

All the Das clay walls. The sign points to Dinefwr, which is an excellent castle near where I live in Wales.

The K+M trees. I should make some more and put them on a bigger base, but that's for another day.👇

All the terrain! 👇

....

Ahhhh.

In the end I did find some time and motivation to complete the wyvern!

I initially couldn't find the seat for the shaman, so I painted him first in the hope that I could find it in time which eventually I did.

I pinned the back rest to the seat, then drilled through the seat to be able to pin the shaman on it later.

Then placed the seat on the wyvern and drilled through the hole I had already made in the seat so that I could get the holes all aligned.

And here he is in all his glory!

He sits a little wonky, but I can live with that!

I especially like the lil' face on the back of the seat.

Also, I'm sure the wooden banner poles there on the back, should extend out into the seat, but...well - they don't on mine! Maybe it's a previous owner mod, but I couldn't see anything on the model before painting that would have suggested this.

Anyway, I'm really happy, again, with how this model has come out!

Here's some more pics, but this time with some added banners. They're made from regular plain paper, doubled over for a bit of thickness, and stiffened with wood glue.

(There's a slim chance that I'll paint the rim of the Shaman's belly plate, red - to match the one on the wyvern...)

Here's a few great old models that I painted up today (24th June) in a burst of motivations! No timestamp though 👇

I do have another one somewhere to paint up, but for now I need to add the completing elements to the already painted models (banners and shields). Knowing me, they'll either be done for the Wrap Up next month, or not at all...

Anyhow, here's the black orcs that I managed to paint (including the tester). I love the model, I kinda liked painting them too - but for some reason I am super drained of any mojo to ACTUALLY paint more😭