JamesG's Twilight of the Norse

This year's goal was to create a what-if start to a force of Norse for 4th edition using just the rulebook and Battle Bestiary.  Sticking to that idea was pretty straightforward, taking standard units and making slight thematic tweaks. The Giant became a Frost Giant, trolls were swapped for yetis, and anyone that could find something to stick to their helmets did so immediately: feathers, horns, corn cobs, doesn't matter.

Heroes

Model-wise, this force is all over the place.  Above/center is the general (Foundry viking), with a Reaper fig to the left (totally not Red Sonja) and a RAFM sculpt to the right. 

Spearmen

The rank and file plastics are Gripping Beast vikings, but they're led by some far more fantasy-leaning Foundry metal command models.  I can't say enough good things about how quick and easy the Gripping Beast figures are; this was my first time working with them and it was a chill Northern breeze.

Frost Giant

The Frost Giant sat on the sidelines throughout the challenge until I needed a no-rank-and-file month. Where he's 200 points, the idea was to move to him when the burnout started to set in, which helped quite a lot.  The giant model is from Ral Partha.  He may be half the height of contemporary giants, but he's a solid hunk of metal and I'll take that any day.

The army, ready to raid

A valkyrie hero on pegasus added a little bit more Wagnerian flair and I believe she was also from Ral.  Then we have the yetis; they were my first-ever attempt at painting Reaper Bones.  I learned a lot of new things there.  While they don't feel 'right' (i.e. I'm old and they aren't metal.) they did come out a lot better than I expected.  I'm hard pressed to think of a better way to get a unit of three buggers that size for $12 USD.

 All told it's a fun collection of figures, but not a competitive 4th ed force by any stretch of the imagination.  It probably took all of 10 minutes for Brennan and me to come up with the short list of Dwarf runes that would spell doom for these hapless barbarians.   If there was a codified 4th ed Norse list, though, I think I'd have a pretty good start on a painted army.

Final Points Tally
General (Lord): 100
Red Sonja (Hero) with three Yetis (Trolls): 260
Valkyrie (Hero) on Pegasus: 115
9 Spearmen with musician and hero: 160
14 Spearmen with command: 170
Frost Giant: 200

Army Total: 1,005 points

JamesG's Feathers and Bears (200 points)

Agnor Njogginsplitter

Some of May's minis were real treats to paint.  This hero was my first RAFM figure and he was a blast.  The depth of the sculpt on the beard really took the paint layers very nicely.  The helm feathers were done in a corvid motif and highlighted dark blue in classic "Wonder Woman's hair highlights" fashion.

We've been sitting on a shelf since 2000; thanks for having us.

Some Foundry viking command are next, to lead one of my spearman units.  I like Brennan's observation that they're just fantasy enough without going too crazy.  That champion must weigh ten pounds on his own...just an enormous dude.  They are surplus from a Foundry army deal I bought about 20 years ago for Warhammer Ancients; it's great to have a reason to finally get them done!

Sounding the horn or drinking from the wrong end? You decide.

 Last is some more rank and file for the spearmen, as well as a Foundry musician.  Nothing much here that hasn't been trickling in along the way!

Points for May 2020:

-Agnor Njogginsplitter, Hero of Norsca......65 points
-Champion, musician, and standard............60 points
-Musician and six more spearmen..............75 points

Total: 200 points

JamesG's The Frost Giant's Daughter's Father (200 Points)

April's entry is the short list with the tall guy.  

On paper, he's your every day run of the the mill Warhammer giant, but of course he's got to be a Frost Giant to go with the theme.  To that end he's rocking the Smurf color scheme to give him that hypothermia fashion appeal.  

If you look in the bottom left of the picture you'll see an interesting phenomenon; I woke up this morning and found that the basing substrate had begun to peel up from the base.  That's usually a sign that I've grabbed the kids' ancient PVA instead of the good stuff.  Nothing some super glue won't fix.

I gave myself the personal challenge to go back and try my hand at the ol' Eldar spirit stone technique, which was always a huge pain in the tookus for me.  This is definitely the best I've done on it to date, so  cheers to OWAC for giving me an excuse to get a little better!

April's highly detailed breakdown:

1 Giant: 200 Points.

JamesG's Abominable March (200 points)

Some of the units in the army are finally rounding out now that we're wrapping up month three.  I like doing piecemeal selections of different units to offset lower cost models and provide a little variety, but it's nice to get these yetis done so I can move on to other things!

First up we have the Yeti Shaman. He thinks he's the boss, what with his big hittin' stick and tooth necklace, but we know his mighty Ld of 4 isn't going to cut it. He was a fun one, again a Reaper 

Bones fig that came together pretty easily.

The actual yeti handler is this Reaper metal fig.  She's labeled Jana Frostmourne, which I'm told is a Warcraft Dad Joke.  Her job is to wrangle the yeti clan and help them pass their Stupidity tests, just like so many goblins heroes have done for trolls in the past.

 Finally we've got more plastic viking dudes.  I've got enough of these guys painted now that the first unit will be completely done once the command models are in place.  Those may come in April if I don't decide to drop a big ol' 200 point Frost Giant.  That'll be up to the Great Enemy (my work schedule).

The collection so far

March Breakdown
Yeti Handler Hero: 65 points
Yeti Shaman (troll): 65 points
7 warriors: 70 points

Total for the month: 200 points

JamesG's Yeti Hamlet Audition (205pts)

February's selection is a simple group of warriors with their general, and a yeti.  The general is a suitably heroic-looking Foundry viking who abides by 40K law: important people must carry their helmets.  The warriors themselves are Gripping Beast plastic vikings and paint up pretty darn quickly, all things considered.

The second yeti/snow troll in the army is an oddly-posed dude.  He's either swatting at a bi-plane or reciting Shakespearean quotations.  Either way, he ripped the head off a saber tooth tiger and used it for a pauldron, so he can do what he wants.  He's another dollar bin deal from Reaper Bones and cooked up pretty well once he was appropriately primed.  I've actually been pretty surprised with the facial detail on the Bones figs; much better than I would have expected.

The full Feb breakdown:

• General/Jarl: 100 points
• 4 Spearmen/Huscarls: 40 points
• Yeti #2: 65 points

          Total: 205 points

JamesG's Nibelung Valesti (200 pts)

The goal for this first month was to come up with a color scheme that can work with a variety of armored and natural figures and maintain the overall feel of the Norse army.  I picked a couple of line infantry, a Yeti, and a hero that was both armored and natural (a Valkyrie and a Pegasus) to try and accomplish this.

First up was the Valkyrie.  I had planned to paint her later in the challenge, but once I got started I stuck with this figure for a while. The Pegasus gave me a chance to try some different  techniques working with white that I spent a lot of time on.  The wings received a few different thin washes with white drybrushing and that worked well.  We were watching a lot of Bob's Burgers at the time, too, so Tina Belcher demanded that attention be paid to all of the horse's body details.

The Valkyrie herself was a little odd in that she has large armor plates along with lighter armor and then areas of skin that are completely...let's say...unprotected.  I altered this style a little by using a Space Wolf greyish color to make it look like there's a second layer of lighter armor.  I ended up liking this a lot and then added brass on the largest armor pieces to make them stand out.  The lance got a spiral because hey, I used to have Bretonnians and it's just muscle memory at this point.

Our friend Umaro the Yeti/Snow Troll was up next.  He's a drybrushing dream and I played around with a few different base colors before settling on this.  Picking out the exposed skin of the face, hands and feet in a different but complimentary color was meant to make him a little more believable as a primate and potential henchman of Gorilla Grodd.
This guy is my first Reaper Bones success, so thanks to all the OWAC members that shared tips and experience working with this wack-a-doo material.  I can't complain about a 40mm base critter for $3.99.

Then we have a couple of line infantry to round out the points for the month.  These little pillagers are vikings from Gripping Beast, a kit that I've wanted to pick up since it was released.  I chose to make them a little less dark-agey for the purposes of being in a fantasy army, so they've got some nice bright blues and yellows to go along with their 4th ed-style goblin green bases.  They may be ready to ransack the Empire, but they still need to observe the vibrant colors of the day, back before we got all angsty and started painting everything black.

All in all there were few models, but this foundation gets me moving forward with a clear plan for everything else; we all know the paint flows faster when you already know which colors to grab!

      January's Roster

• Valkyrie Hero on Pegasus...115 points
• Yeti...65 points
• 2 Spearmen....20 points

• January Total....200 points

JamesG' Intro - We Come From the Land of the Ice and Snow

"It's fine, we're just here to cheer on the Norscan Blood Bowl team."

OWAC III is going to be a what-if collection for me, as in  'what if that enticing Norse entry in the 4th ed rulebook got a real army list?'  Why not use the 3rd ed Norse list?  We have three OWACers in New Hampshire this year, and our newest recruit is a 4th ed guy all the way, so we're all building off the same edition with the intent to play a few rounds at the end of the challenge.

Valkyrie Heroine's mighty steed

Looking around the lead pile, I have a bunch of Foundry vikings from a big purchase in 2000 that still need some attention and that got me thinking about the Norse.  Some of those Foundry vikings are heavily romanticized and would make great fantasy battle figures.
Add to that a few great deals I found on Gripping Beast plastics and some old Ral and RAFM metal and it came together quick and cheap.

Jana Yeti-Herder, preventer of Stupidity

The list itself is pieced together using just the 4th ed rulebook's points values and the stats from the Battle Bestiary.  I'm shooting for it to be more than just vikings with monsters, though;  the infantry themselves will probably be more uniform than typical dark age soldiers and the more fantastic creatures are intended to evoke the theme rather than just look like random add-ons.  We have yetis instead of trolls.  The giant isn't the standard brutish drunk; he's a brutish drunk with an axe and a Wagnerian helmet, by Crom.  There's no magic in the list, but we've been kicking around the idea of using Dwarven runic magic instead of Battle Magic for the project to add to the flavor.

I have some berserkers on the bench, both naked dudes and Ulfhednar, that I may toss in at the end, but here is the rough plan for the first 1,000 points:

Yeti getting ready

Lord on Foot - 100
Valkyrie (Hero on Pegasus) - 115
Jana Yeti-herder, (Hero on Foot) - 65

13 Hirdmen (men with lt armor, shield, spear, javelin, sword),champion and command - 170

12 Hirdmen (same), champion and command - 160

3 Yetis, (Trolls) - 195
Frostbeard the Giant - 200

1005 points