Tom's Goblins and Orcs: Rank and File #3

March. Another month gone, and it feels like I'm slowly running out of time, and well - I guess we're now over half way through! This month I painted the lovely goblin archers from the Warhammer Fantasy Regiments set, and added another ogre too. 

Here's a classic breakdown of the archers, with GW standing for Games Workshop, PA for Pro Acryl and AK for AK Interactive...

GW Moot Green - skin

PA Orange Red - tunic

PA Black - bow

PA Warm Brown + PA Black - pouch

PA Warm Yellow - arrow flights

AK Deep Sea Blue - knife handle

Vallejo Metallic Black - metals

Then an all over wash of GrimDark Shadow from The Army Painter

Then the magic highlight! 

Either by adding white and/or yellow to the base. Although with the skin I used PA Bismuth Yellow (and then added white). This Bismuth Yellow is the main difference between the skin of the goblins, and the skin of the orcs. I use the Warm Yellow for the orcs... 

I also used GW Luxion Purple - for nails and shade in eyes, and a Vallejo Air Silver to highlight the metals.

The base is:

AK Grass Green, and the rim is GW XV-88 

The green is shaded with watered down PA Camo Green.

And then highlighted with AK Interior Yellow Green, and then again with a tiny bit of white added to the Interior Green.

Quite a few of these steps I could have cut out - for example, I think I could have just used the Silver and not used the metallic black. And I could have painted the knife handle black. And not done the extra highlight on the grass... 

But they're all done now!!

And here's all the lads in all their glory!

And I painted this ogre too, to 'match' Januarys OWAC submission :)

I very much enjoyed painting him, and now I plan to add a third, for when I paint my last rank and file unit - the orc boys.

That's my March month complete!

I just need to show my Tribute model - now with Byron in the States. Many thanks for your hard work!

He's a lowlands troll from Knightmare miniates - here's a store link:  LINK

I loved painting him too - very different to how I would usually. He's mostly wet blended, and was painted in one sitting, in about 2hrs. I think he's one of my best. It was mentally exhausting though, and had to have a few days rest after. 2hrs (I think) is absolutely crazy, but it was one hell of a super fixation! There's no way I could have painted another.

I used the hairdryer (a new addition) a lot.

The initial basecoat👇

Refining the highlight 👇

Very nearly finished 👇

And here's him finished with one more highlight - mostly on the blue skin. And some black reed things on the base 👇

The base is milliput, with holes poked in by a cocktail stick, with milliput stones on top. The black grass is painted toothbrush bristles.

I've wanted to paint him for aaaages. And I nearly chose to paint the knightmare range of Orc and Goblins for this OWAC, but the call of the monopose plastic was (thankfully) too strong!

All that's left is the links back through this Challenge, and the monthly total....

Intro: link

January: Rank and File - link

February: Rank and File - link

March: Rank and File 

54...   18 x Goblins (short bows)

40...   1 x Ogre

Total...   94

This brings my current army points total to 294. Which is low. But fear not. I have painted the giant, which neatly brings the total to just shy of 500. I'm just keeping him in reserve in case of a terrible April...

Anyhow - that's it. See you next month for that giant!

Maurice suspect the points total is a little low for three months work!

Introduction - BenF's Epic Orks

I've enjoyed following the entries to the previous OWAC.  Now there's the chance to join in and help clear up my backlog of Epic miniatures I'm excited to give it a go!  

My plan is to add a Snakebites clan and a Kult of Speed to my Orks, using the NetEpic army book as my guide.  This pretty closely follows 2nd Edition Epic Space Marine - the first boxed game I ever bought, now sadly lost to the mists of time and house moves - but I try to make it so the forces will also be useable in Epic Armageddon.  

I've accumulated  figures from a mixture of editions, plus some newer figures from Vanguard miniatures, which all need (re)painting and mounting on 25mm round bases to match my other boyz.

The 1750 point list I'm building comprises:

[Company] Kult of Speed (5 Nobz Warbikes, 2 x 5 Warbuggies) 400 pts

[Special] Warboss (Warboss, 5 Nobz, 2 battlewagons) 250 pts

[Support] Evil Sunz Spleenrippa Squadron (3 Spleenrippas) 125 pts

[Support] Traktor Kannons (5 Traktor Kannons) 75 pts

[Company] Snakebite Clan (4 Nobs, 5 Boarboys, 15 Boyz) 600 pts

[Special] Runtherd 75 pts

[Support] Gretchin Mob (4 Gretchin) Free

[Support] Mega-Squiggoth 250 pts

This gives me plenty of troops for the rank and file months and a Warboss and Squiggoth for the leaders and monsters month.  For the wildcard I'd like to add some terrain plus any other support I can fit in.

For the horror-themed participation fee, I'd like to submit the fierce and fearsome Epic Chaos Minotaur!

Cheers,

Ben

Nicolas' Slaanesh Minotaur Herd

 For many years I have had this idea behind my head...  There is this old drawing of a minotaur by Adrian Smith that have fascinated me since my very first moments in the hobby. I would go back and forth in the 4th edition Realm of Chaos book for hours but always go back to see this page.

And so I began buying minotaurs with the budget I had as a fifth grader... Playing for years the only 2 I had initially bought. Now fast foward 27 years later, happy me sorting through my stuff to find Slaanesh demons for OWAC VI, with the firm intention to expand the demon horde I started the previous year. I had got 3 minotaurs out, telling myself they could be fit for Slaanesh demon princes, after all the original Keeper of Secrets was not to far in style. And I kept digging, going through absolutely all of my boxes to realize I had collected a great herd of minotaurs!

So out goes the demons, for the moment, and now comes the age of the Slaanesh angry bulls!  

And now the army;

1 minotaur lord 290 pts

Lo'Gom the Sumptuous

His origins are mysterious, filled with the mysticism of the tribal chiefs that tells of Lo'Gom stories. But everyone tells about how he came down from the Chaos Wastes and crossed the Frozen Sea by foot. He would have spent days of euphoria, feeding on rotten kraken meat and listening to the songs of monstrous sirens hidden under the ice. The pinnacle of his journey would have been the slaying of a giant ice crab with his bare hands, spreading its claws and cracking the shell of the creature with a mighty headbutt. The gruesome scene that followed captured the eye of Slaanesh himself, who became his guide out of this iced hell with Lo'Gom's promess to repeat his acts of repulsive lust all across the Oldworld.

Over 3 decades, Lo'Gom and his growing horde of beasts have sold their services as mercenaries to all the most vile warchieves possible with the promess of fresh meat and riches.

5 minotaurs 200 pts

6 minotaurs 240 pts

6 minotaurs 240 pts

10 hounds 110 pts

15 Slaanesh Beastmen 165 pts

And maybe...

Keeper of Secrets 0pts

15 beastmen skeletons 150 pts

A lot 

And finally, a little thing that goes "BOOM" in the night for the Overlord  ;)

A Legion Thirty-Five Years in the Making

I am Frank Thompson. I just turned 49 and have been fooling around with toy soldiers for nearly forty years. I started with the second edition Warhammer Fantasy Battle back in like '85. By "started" I mean I started collecting models and painting some to a questionable standard. I don't believe I actually found an opponent and played a game until I was using the third edition hardcover and Warhammer Armies.

Then in '88, just starting high school and living in the mid-West, I acquired Slaves to Darkness and my tiny mind was blown. The crazy in that book left deep impressions, the scars of which I carry still.

I loved everything in that book, but it was Slaanesh and his/her wild color schemes made without reason or constraint that really pulled me in. I managed to cobble together enough models to play a modest chaos army, but what I really wanted was to assemble a Legion. 

The daemonic legions as described in Slaves to Darkness were a far cry at what Games Workshop settled on later. Balance between them and "ordinary" mortal armies was abandoned entirely, and the madness and power levels of the forces turned up to eleven. Slaves to Darkness included quite a bit of daemon vs daemon art but had only a single page in the color section (yes, only one section was in color) showed a Daemonic Legion battle in progress. It was, of course, glorious, and I have always wanted to build one and settle scores on behalf of the gods themselves on the table.

But I was a mere teenager, my funds were limited, and in the midwestern US the acquisition of proper Realm of Chaos daemon models was problematic. At most, I cobbled together a unit of Daemonettes, a couple of Fiends, and single lovely Keeper of Secrets. Oh, I had plenty of champions and beastmen and monsters, but these were all the extras in a Daemonic Legion army, or "Auxiliaries" as Slaves to Darkness called them. Then I went off to college, started playing more and more 40k, and eventually went off to the military, and in the process lost most of my toys. I recovered that single Keeper from my folk's place years later and he lurked in a box niggling at me.


About a decade ago, I restarted this childhood quest with a good deal more patience and significantly more funds. The Keeper and his handful of followers were stripped bare, trades were arranged, and purchases made. This past year I concluded that I had enough to begin the great work.

Slaves to Darkness and The Lost and the Damned lay out very different rules for Daemonic Legions. There is a clear departure from the "battles as ritual" vision in Slaves to Darkness and the "Chaos Mashup" vision of The Lost and the Damned. This divergence is vast enough that there is significant adaptation required to fight Khorne or Slaanesh Legions against Nurgle or Tzeentch. For the most part I have chosen to remain 'true' to the vision of "battles as ritual" in Slaves to Darkness, because it puts the daemons front and center and leans into the otherworldly nature of the engagements. It is also more restrictive than what The Lost and the Damned lays out, so could be easily adapted to that format if desired, while doing so in reverse would be difficult or even impossible. With all that in mind, I plan to build the daemonic core of the Legion for this challenge. My goal, Slaanesh willing, is to nearly max out the lesser daemon allocation for the Legion and top it with a solid spread of hero/commander models.

Greater Daemons of Slaanesh = x3 Keepers of Secrets, one with the Rod of Command (Free)
Lesser Daemon Infantry = x6 units of 6 Daemonettes (600 points each)
Lesser Daemon Cavalry = x2 units of 6 Daemonettes on Mounts of Slaanesh (720 points each)
Daemonic Beasts = x3 units of 6 Fiends of Slaanesh (240 points each)

Spawn Pack = x1 unit of 6 spawn and a Daemonette 'handler (700 points)
Daemon Princes = x1 Slaaneshi Daemon Prince (810 points)

Yes, gentle reader you read correctly, greater daemons are free of charge in a daemonic legion. Keeping that in mind, this will come out to 7750 points of Slaaneshi daemons, leaving me 250 points to buff up the character models with magical toys for a total Legion value of 8000 points. As an alternative a Champion could soak up that final 250 points, but I want mortals for the Legion to be an expansion project down the road or maybe a future OWAC.

For the purposes of this year's Old World Army Challenge, I will be building a total of 5860 points of models...
x30 daemonettes (another six who are already done and painted and will join the new ones, pic below)
x12 Daemonettes on Mounts of Slaanesh (very much the pride of this collection as they were absurdly difficult to find)
x12 Fiends of Slaanesh (I still need to find five more of these to finish a final third unit, they may have to come post-challenge)
x1 Keeper of Secrets with a Battle Standard (the other two are already painted but may be getting converted time permitting, pic below)
x1 Daemon Prince (he is a gorgeously odd minotaur conversion)
x1 Daemonette as Spawn handler (her six spawn are already done and awaiting her, but are Hasslefree sculpts I converted, not old lead)

So, to sum up, this will be (to quote Slaves to Darkness page 172) "in short, no petty collection of mortals squabbling on an insignificant battlefield." (I shall leave that role to my fellow challengers 😜) but rather "an instrument of a Chaos god's will, wielded in the eons-old struggles of the gods." ...And it shall be glorious.

Lastly I have taken the Overlords desire for creepy and horror themes to heart and provide this swarm of Advanced Heroquest Giant Spiders skittering across a grimy dungeon floor.

JamesP RT Khorne Army

Hello again!

I am returning to the OWAC after a year hiatus. I have taken part in 2 other OWAC (III & IV), each year painting half of my dream Empire army. It was quite an undertaking but so worth it and I’m happy to say they have seen a fair bit of table time. I am not happy to say that 2022 was a rough year with only a dozen or so minis painted. The OWAC is the best way I found to paint a force. What can I say? Without our benevolent overlord’s rants of “HAVE YOU SUBMITTED YOUR ENTRY YET?!” along with my fellow competitor’s encouragement and seeing all the progress of beautifully painted armies I just can’t get motivated.

I want to ease back into the challenge after my break, so I’m doing a small project that has taken me years to collect. I’ll be painting a Rogue Trader Khorne army. 

 

This force will consist of:

·        Month 1 – 8 tactical marines and 1 marine on jet bike (a cheeky 10 model minimum)

·        Month 2 - 8 tactical marines and 1 marine on jet bike (another cheeky 10 model minimum)

·        Month 3 - 8 devastator marines and 1 marine on jet bike (more cheekiness)

·        Month 4 – 5 marines on jet bike (will the cheekiness never end?)

·        Month 5 – A land Raider and a Predator (Lovingly restored to their former glory)

·        Month 6 – Command consisting of 1 terminator general, his lieutenant, a tech marine (who is currently navigating the warp i.e. The Royal Mail) and a dreadnought.

Points will be listed every month along with unit descriptions. I am doing the bare minimum for most months as I have to travel a few times in the beginning of the year. Hopefully this will not hinder my efforts.

For our master of ceremonies: The celebrant of the macabre, My personal Freddy Krueger who haunts my dreams not with fingers ending with blades but with tiny paint brushes for digits I humbly submit a Citadel Fiend Factory (FF58) Vampire to keep the FF1 Fiend company.

 

I look forward to watching the armies grow!

Good luck!!

Journey to the City of the Damned – Maciek’s intro post

 

Greetings!

For my third attempt at OWAC I shall reap the benefits of the “special edition” and go full scale into Mordheim. A game where rival warbands fight over the ruins of a former capital of Ostermark in search of magical "wyrdstone". For me it will always be – hands down - the best miniatures game that Games Workshop has ever produced.  

The haunting cover art by Geoff Taylor

There are many reasons why I found this game so alluring. First, the mad apocalyptic artwork - reminiscent of (and clearly inspired by) Hieronymus Bosh. A print of the cover hangs on my wall and I still like to pore over all the disturbing details. Second, the grim-dark atmosphere that is somehow both post-apocalyptic and yet full of portents of even more impending doom… When released in 1999 it stood out from the colourful Warhammer 5th edition and harkened back to Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay – just the stuff I loved.

 

Then there are the extensive role-playing elements – individual equipment, experience, skills and injuries for warband members. All great for building stories and personalizing the members. Chaos and chance are always close – I had warbands rise to glory only to have mighty heroes laid low by critical hits, crippled by injuries or dying from minor wounds after the visit to the barber-surgeon. To add to the immersion the warbands collect the most unmistakably Warhammer resource of all:

 

Aaaah.... Waaaarpstone!*

The project

For OWAC VI, I plan to paint more damned denizens of Mordheim! I already have a number of warbands but some iconic actors are missing. The plan is to build at least four full-sized warbands and more terrain.

- Sisters of Sigmar

The excommunicated Sisters are the true force of good more than capable to smite the minions of chaos and evil. For this OWAC I focus on the original metals but some alternatives are added for variety.

- Witch hunters

Fuelled by hate and gold from the coffers of the Church of Sigmar these merciless zealots will cleanse Mordheim of all they consider heretical. Or unnatural. Or mildly suspicious. There are too many good witch hunter models to fit into one warband, so I went a bit overboard with numbers to have some extras.

- Middenheimers

Mighty men and women of the north. High concentration of hammers, wolf cloaks and some fierce hairdos. Low on helmets. However they are still soldiers of the empire so not all mercenaries follow the “barbaric” style, which is a good excuse to use models dressed in a classic imperial fashion.

- Beastmen raiders

The obligatory minions of chaos - savage beasts intent to defiling and dancing on the rubble of civilisation. Those of you with good memory may recall these models from my attempt at squad challenge in late 2021. Sadly I got as far as… one model. The rest remained untouched and a painful addition to the pile of shame. Their time will come in OWAC VI.

- Wildcard and Leader months 

Primary objective for the wildcard month is to build and paint at least one building, preferably more. True to the original intent, buildings will be crafted form easily available materials, no 3d printing. As secondary objective I have couple of hired swords (elf ranger, witch/warlock) and some quick-quick Skaven reinforcements.

For the leader month I will deliver the four warband leaders and the minotaur (if things go well, also the ogre bodyguard).

There may still be some additions or replacements of the models picture above, but I will document any changes.

Offering 

 

As offering to our mighty Overlord, considering his love of horror, I present one of the early 90s mummies by Gary Morley. This one has crawled out from the vaults of the Imperial History Museum in Mordheim, awoken from slumber by the hit of the warpstone comet.

Good luck to all challengers, I look forward to seeing all the projects of OWAC VI… and to bringing more souls (and fish and apple cores) to the merry dance of Death in Mordheim!

Cheers,
Maciek 

* Image originates from Shadow of the Horned Rat, another 90s classic  :-)