JohnR's Axis of Evil Wrap Up

The Dark Lord surveys his minions.

But you're not here to see me in my dressing gown lol so I also took pics of the different contingents within the Axis of Evil:

Gobbos

Skaven

Dark Elves

Half Orcs

Aksys, Mittens and the Zombies.

All in all I had an excellent challenge this year. I survived the 'rona, managed to (mostly) keep my motivation and churned out over 240 minis - an average of 40 a month.

The Roster:

Aksys - Level 20 Human Sorcerer                                                                 240 points

Mittens the Jabberwock                                                                                 200 points

20 Zombies                                                                                                        0 points

Bogrot (level 25 goblin hero): light armour and double handed weapon       69 points

Wozgrub (level 10 goblin hero): light armour and contingent standard         80 points

Zogga (level 10 goblin hero): light armour and additional hand weapon       31 points

42 Goblins, light armour, shields and spears, standard and musician:          220 points

3 goblin fanatics:                                                                                             90 points

Level 15 Goblin hero: Wolf mount, spear, light armour and shield                 52 points

11 Wolf Riders: standard and musician, spears, light armour and shields     169 points

Hen-pecked Giant:                                                                                          250 points

Lead Belcher:                                                                                                102.5 points

Nigel (level 20 Skaven Hero) heavy armour and halberd                                 100 points

Brian (level 10 skaven assassin) additional hand weapon                                  54 points

Steve (level 15 skaven sorcerer)                                                                       147 points

Derek (level 10 skaven hero)                                                                              50 points

29 Clanrats, light armour, hand weapon and shields, standard and musician:  188 points

19 plague Monks: standard and musician:                                                          94.5 points    

2 Plague Censer Bearers (hidden in  the clan rats unit):                                      80 points

2 Plague Censer Bearers (hidden in the plague monks unit):                              80 points

2 Poisoned Wind Globadiers                                                                               50 points

3 Warpfire Thrower Teams                                                                                243 points

3 Jezzails                                                                                                            117 points

Skaven Beastmaster with 2 Rat Ogres                                                                85.5 points

2 Clan Moulder Beastmasters and 8 giant rats:                                                   35 points.

Level 15 dark elf hero: light armour, shield, crossbow, poisoned weapons:     137 points

Level 10 dark elf assassin: light armour, poison, additional hand weapon:        94 points

Level 5 dark elf hero: lance, light armour, shield, warhorse and barding:          63 points

Level 5 witch elf hero: light armour, shield, crossbow, poisoned weapons:       56 points

17 witch elves: standard and musician, crossbows and poisoned weapons:     374 points

4 doom steeds (+2 shock elite): light armour, lance, shield, barding:               164 points

12 Dark Elf crossbows:                                                                                      156 points

12 Giant Wolves and 3 Dark Elf beastmasters                                                   135 points

Level 10 Half Orc Witch                                                                                       85 points 

Level 5 Half Orc Hero, light armour, shield and halberd                                      35 points

20 Half Orcs, hand weapons, light armour and shields                                       160 points

                                                                                                                  Total 4287.5 points.

What can I say, I like large armies. But looking at the finished armies of the other challengers I'm in good company. I was constantly awed and impressed by the quality and quantity of everyone's output.

So see you all in about six months I guess!

Is it weird that I have my next 3 OWAC's planned out?

Or maybe it's weird that I ONLY have my next 3 OWAC's planned out 😅

Also, just realised I never did paint those last 10 skaven...

JohnR's Month 6 - Rank and File (415 points)

Things I have learned this month:

Firstly Covid is significantly more serious in men than women*.

Secondly, it's very difficult to paint or even photograph miniatures while your body is trying to explosively eject your own lungs.

Fortunately I'd already painted most of what I wanted to get done for the month by the time Papa Nurgle came calling. The bits that remain unpainted (mainly Lord Waac and his Slaaneshi chaos contingent) will have to wait for another OWAC.

But enough about what didn't get painted; here's what did.

12 wolves with 3 beast-masters. Dark elves value their own lives highly and war-beasts are common in their armies. Starved and abused and then driven into combat by the whips of their masters the beasts rarely survive long. But whether they kill an enemy, catch an arrow or just provide a distraction they have done their job and there is always a ready supply of replacements.

Half orc scabbies. Wherever you have human slaves and greenskins you'll get half orcs. Mother Magaera, the half orc witch, cares for these mongrel infants. At least until they are old enough to be put to work with the other slaves in the mines beneath Aksys' Tower. Those few that survive to adolescence are recruited into the raiding parties: themselves becoming willing slavers and creating more victims for the mines.

Magaera is obsessed with Aksys. In her youth he took her as an apprentice into his tower and taught her some rudimentary magic. Word around the campfire is that he also took her as his lover and that she even bore him a child - though what became of it no one knows. 

This months total:

12 Giant Wolves and 3 Dark Elf beastmasters                    135 points
20 Half Orcs, hand weapons, light armour and shields       160 points
Level 5 Half Orc Hero, light armour, shield and halberd      35 points
Level 10 Half Orc Witch                                                        85 points    

*No disrespect to the fairer sex, and jokes about man-flu aside, apparently men have accounted for 70% of Covid deaths and hospitalisations. Even triple jabbed it flattened me. Don't want to think about how bad it could have been if I was a flat-earth antivaxer...

JohnR's Month 5 - Rank and File (573.5 points)

This month I wanted to finish off the minis that had made up the initial forces of the Axis of Evil, as presented waaay back at the beginning of OWAC V, and I’m happy to report mission accomplished. (Mostly*).

First up: wolf riders. The wolfboys are the eyes and ears of the Axis of Evil and their leader Zogrog takes his duties very seriously. He spends his days shouting and strutting about, drilling his troops to peak efficiency. Which for goblins means about as disciplined as a bunch of semi-feral five year olds.

Secondly: leadbelcher, very kindly donated to me, mint in box, about 10 years ago by my old friend Matt P. Matt, if you’re reading this, I finally got it painted buddy!

Aksys might be insane but even he can see that giving an organ gun to the most argumentative and chaotic group in a multi ethnic army is probably a bad idea. So in one of his more lucid moments Aksys introduced the goblins to the concept of civilised discourse and debate, in the hope that it would prevent them simply clubbing each other over the head at the first sign of disagreement.

Unfortunately, being goblins, the loudest and most obnoxious gobbo (who had an opinion about everything and never knew when to shut up) assumed that he was winning the debate by simply drowning out all opposition with an endless torrent of verbal diarrhoea, delivered at maximum volume.

At least, until his mates remembered they could just club the ignorant gobshite over the head. 

Debate over :D

Finally: the splendid Drew Day Williams cloud giant.

Known affectionately as ‘Tiny’ by the gobbos he just turned up at camp one day and began following the Axis of Evil on their raids. Everyone assumed that he was attracted by the mushroom beer the goblins were brewing and the cages of human prisoners available for lunch but in truth he’s avoiding his giant, nagging wife and just glad to be out of the house.

Bonus stuff: Zombies

Probably the most terrible, garbage unit in all of 3rd edition but as an evil sorcerer I want Aksys to be able to cast demonic and necromantic magic and that means being able to summon stuff. Besides I like the idea that these unfortunate wretches are the victims of raids carried out by the Axis of Evil and / or the remains of Axsys' depraved experiments.

Life in the Old World folks: nasty, brutish and short. And sometimes followed by a bout of unlife where you get to nom the brains of your nearest and dearest.

This month's total:

11 Wolf Riders: standard and musician, spears, light armour and shields     169 points
Level 15 Goblin hero: Wolf mount, spear, light armour and shield                 52 points
Hen-pecked Giant:                                                                                          250 points
Lead Belcher:                                                                                                 102.5 points
20 zombies:                                                                                                    Free (and overpriced at that!)

*So yeah I finished most of the above with time to spare so I dutifully pulled the remaining skaven out of the leadpile.

I spent a couple of days staring at them on my paint station then stuffed them back in the 'to do' pile and painted the zombies instead lol. I don't know why, but I just couldn't motivate myself to paint those rats! Maybe next month :)

JohnR's Month 4 - Leader and Monster Month (525.5 points)

A trip to wales for a get together for multiple significant family birthdays (18th, 21st, 40th, 50th, 50th, 50th and 80th!) was followed by two weeks in South West France this month, severely curtailing my painting time and I was going to take a mulligan*. But then we got back to Blighty with 6 days to spare and I just wanted to sit quietly and paint for some reason...

So here is my offering for April. Our eponymous (anti)hero, the pro/antagonist of my challenge, the man, the myth, the legend himself: Aksys the Evil.

Aksys is completely bonkers. His mood swings between black depression and gregarious friendliness, acute paranoia and a narcissistic, manic megalomania.

Sometimes he’ll wander through the camp, trying to strike up friendly conversation with plague monks or shake hands with goblins. Asking them about their day, what they do and whether they enjoy their job? At other times he’ll refuse to leave his tower, brooding in a black fugue, coiled inward, engaged in whispered arguments with himself. Then he’ll appear at his balcony and rant and rave, through spittle flecked lips, promising to drown the world in blood, all the while watched from below by his bemused minions.

Still he is a powerful mage and possessed of a devious cunning. His followers live in awe and fear of him: the fact he has a Jabberwock as a devoted pet probably helps in that regard.

Aksys raised Mittens from an egg and the creature follows him everywhere like a love sick puppy. During Aksys’ spells and rituals Mittens mimics his movements with gangly limbs, chattering and braying childishly as Aksys chants words of power.

Of course should anyone threaten Aksys, Mittens would tear their limbs off. A fact not lost on Aksys’ more ambitious captains and lieutenants.

I also put paint on a couple of Rat Ogres and their Beastmaster.

This month's tally:

Aksys, level 20 human sorcerer                240  points

Mittens, jabberwock                                  200  points

Skaven Beastmaster with 2 Rat Ogres        85.5 points

The army so far:

I'll try to get some better photo's next month...

*on the plus side it also meant several weeks off Facebook, which I didn't miss at all and don't plan on going back to :)

JohnR's Month 3 - Rank and File (1063.5 points)

 Another month of painting, another month of wrestling with the camera trying to get decent photos :)

I started with the dark elves this month and their contingent is pretty much done. 5 doom steeds, 18 witch elves, an assassin and the contingent commander to add to the crossbows done in January.

Dark elf characters. On the left is the contingent commander: Baron Susrucha. He was sent to the empire of the Hobgobler Khan as an ambassador by a minor Naggaroth noble house. However the house was wiped out in one of the interminable internecine struggles of that dark kingdom and Susrucha has found himself adrift in a hostile land. He's joined the Axis of Evil while he works out his next move. He's very loosely based on Hasekura Tsunenaga.

5 doom steeds led by a level 5 hero.

The witch elves. I took a few photos of the unit on its own but they were all cr*p. At least this one shows the shields (which are drawing pins). Their hair also got a bit 'Bubblegum Crisis' but I think it looks pretty cool and adds some colour variation to the army. Also I never repaint anything: once it's done, it's done.

I finished the dark elves with some time to spare so dipped into the reinforcements / lead pile and painted a unit of plague monks for the skaven. Plague monks are pretty bobbins in 3rd. If I remember correctly they don't get frenzy, can't have more than basic hand weapons and are limited to a unit size of 20. They're led by the plague priest Derek (front right with warp scroll) and include 2 censer bearers.

Derek loathes Aksys. He suspects that the names the skaven have been given are not, as Aksys giggling told them, those of mighty human heroes but rather some kind of joke. Jabberwock or not he thinks they should slit the old codger's throat in his sleep.

This month's output:

17 witch elves: standard and musician, crossbows and poisoned weapons:     374 points

4 doom steeds (+2 shock elite): light armour, lance, shield, barding:               164 points

Level 5 witch elf hero: light armour, shield, crossbow, poisoned weapons:       56 points

Level 5 dark elf hero: lance, light armour, shield, warhorse and barding:          63 points

Level 10 dark elf assassin: light armour, poison, additional hand weapon:        94 points

Level 15 dark elf hero: light armour, shield, crossbow, poisoned weapons:     137 points

19 plague Monks: standard and musician:                                                          94.5 points                      

2 Plague censer bearers:                                                                                      80 points

Level 10 skaven hero:                                                                                         50 points

The army so far. Not sure what I'll paint next month - work and home life have got a bit hectic and we're supposed to be going abroad for the last two weeks of April. So if I haven't posted by then it'll probably be a mulligan lol.

JohnR's Month 2 - Rank and File (979 points)

February is definitely my least favourite month of the challenge: 28 short days and sh*t weather. 1 out of 10, would not recommend.

On the upside though, I got some stuff painted :)

Just skaven this month. The original plan was to paint all 40 clanrats but 10 were still in the dip at the start of the month and by the time I'd gotten them cleaned up I wasn't in the mood to paint them so did the characters and support-rats instead.

30 clanrats with full command and 2 censer bearers.

3 jezzail teams, 3 warpfire thrower teams and 2 poison wind globadiers. I can't help feeling this is too much support for 1 unit of clanrats. Is this too much support? I feel like this is too much support. Probably have to paint at least one more regiment of rats...

Skaven characters. Skaven names are basically unpronounceable for non-skaven so, in the interests of clear communication within the Axis of Evil, Aksys has given each skaven a human name. Left to right these are: Brian the Assassin, Nigel the Sewertyrant and Steve the white skaven Sorcerer.

29 Clanrats, light armour, hand weapon and shields, standard and musician:  188 points

2 Plague Censer Bearers:                                                                                    80 points

2 Poisoned Wind Globadiers                                                                               50 points

3 Warpfire Thrower Teams                                                                                243 points

3 Jezzails                                                                                                            117 points

Nigel (level 20 Skaven Hero) heavy armour and halberd                                 100 points

Brian (level 10 skaven assassin) additional hand weapon                                  54 points

Steve (level 15 skaven sorcerer)                                                                       147 points

The Axis of Evil so far.