Jaakko and Rugluk - Wrap-up

And here we are again! We've finally reached the end of another season of OWAC. It was an okay season, but I was hoping to get much more done. It was hard to find enough time to paint this spring and I also discovered that painting the same army for two seasons isn't my thing. Anyway, I'm in good spirits at the moment and really looking forward to starting a new project. There's still plenty of goblinoids left to paint, but for the time being I'll be taking my orky work underground and turning my attention to something different.

As usual, I continued painting more models during July, and a hero riding a wyvern and a snotling joined the army. The snotling was glued to the double-decker Pump Wagon from last season (that's why it's in the army picture) to complete an artwork-inspired miniature. There were a few easter eggs hidden in the project, (some of which?) which I'll reveal now. I had planned to include a couple more this season, but I ran out of time.

I already teased the artwork last year. I noticed that the snotlings in the artwork were actual miniatures and decided to recreate the scene. There wasn't room for that many snotlings on the wagon, however, so I settled on the five that I happened to have, placing them in roughly the same positions. This was a salvage project, so I had to leave the guy with the net in place, as it wasn't possible to remove him without breaking something. The miniature is missing the chaos of the original artwork, but hopefully it's still somewhat recognisable. Well, most importantly they've had the chance to mow down a few of those dwarfs!

Rugluk and his bodyguard, Drodab Ironbrow, are both tributes to their respective combat cards. The colours have been adapted to my less saturated palette, and the shield designs aren't identical to the originals as I didn't want to remove the shield bosses.

The wyvern is an upcoming model from Heavy Metal Hordes. It's an impressive sculpt and was an absolute joy to paint.

I also made some terrain, which you can see in the pictures above: a few small fields and a signpost for The Owl. I also started making some swamps, but the water effect resin I used had gone bad, so I'll have to start over.

Here are the points for the project:

+ the siege stuff from last season.

And here's what two seasons of OWAC looks like:

All in all, I'm very happy that I started painting this army. I've had the chance to play several games with it, and it's been an absolute joy. The most recent game was played a week ago, and here are a few photos from it:

Grom charged a unit of Dwarf Crossbowmen after his chariot was destroyed and managed to rout them. A nearby unit of Dwarf Clansmen fled at the sight of the bloodthirsty Grom, who pursued the fleeing dwarfs and hasn't been seen since.

On turn two the Savage Orcs (in the right flank) charged a neighbouring orc unit, succumbed to frenzy, and spent the rest of the battle fighting their own side. The joys of playing orcs! In the previous game, the Savage Orcs panicked at the sound of cannon firing at them and routed. Hopefully they'll manage to reach an enemy one day! Anyway, orcs did good enough and it was a fun game.

And that's it, I guess. My attention is already starting to shift to Season 10, and I'm already planning my next project. Next season will be a special edition, giving us more options than usual, so I'm trying to decide between going 6mm by finally opening my box of Space Marine or starting a Rogue Trader Genestealer Cult project. We'll see what happens!

Thank you, everyone! It has been a pleasure watching your projects grow. Happy painting, and see you again in Season 10! And apologies for the missing Ansell pose. I took the pictures on the literal last minute and I did't have my usual minions to take a picture with me in it.

Oh, and by the way, that's me in the picture, chilling on my throne and commanding my cult.

Jaakko and Rugluk - Rank & File month #3

Act 3

Rugluk Backstabba stood on the edge of a valley, surveying a mob of orcs, goblins, and whatever else had been dragged along in the valley below. Gronk was dead and the warboss’s name was already half-forgotten. The tribe had come round quick once Rugluk bashed enough heads together. A few warlords needed “convincin’ ”, but after a couple of suspicious “accidents”, no one argued much.

Now, they marched "to da stunties’ fort" while Rugluk looked at the troops he had gathered.

The ground shook as a snotling pump wagon rattled ahead, the little runts cackling as they crashed through anything too slow to dodge. Rugluk watched as it flattened a goblin who didn’t jump quick enough.

“Least dey'r keen,” he muttered.

To their left, a mob of orcs marched, their armour clanking. They were big and as cheerful as a hungry wolf. They only followed Rugluk because he was bigger - and because the last boss who questioned him had been found missing a head.

In front of the main force, a pack of Wolf Riders scouted ahead, their mounts snarling. One of them tried to show off his riding skills - right before his wolf sent him head first into the mud. The rest cackled as he limped after them.

Rugluk smirked. It was a proper mob alright.

Still, something nagged at him. The wyrm’s words slithered in the back of his mind. It promised he’d be da biggest, da best… but did it say fer how long?

Rugluk shook his head. “Ain’t no git strong enuff ta take me down” he said to himself. But he wasn't sure if he was convinced.

 

 

Welcome back! Another month has passed and another group of painted models joins the ranks of Rugluk's mob. I wanted to avoid painting another large unit and decided to paint some war machines. That's enough enough talking - let's move on to the miniatures!

I managed to finish two Lead Belcher Goblin Organ Guns and two Snotling Pump Wagons. I misestimated my energy levels and the time taken to paint a Pump Wagon and failed to finish a third one. I try to paint the rest of it next month.

I'm pretty happy with how the Pump Wagons turned out. I could have jammed more snotlings into the big one but I think they are good enough as they are. Also, I'm a bit limited with non-duplicate snotlings that fit them.

 

 

I mentioned the plan of painting war machines every month and I try to stick to it from now on. These Lead Belchers were an obvious choice after a busy February as they have such a small crew. 

 

In the original backstory the face is flayed from a Troll but I went with a skintone more compliant with a Giant. I had forgotten about it but the other gun was incomplete. I dont mind it though, as the chances of these guys killing and skinning two Giants are slim.

 

I wanted to have some variation in the skintones (and painting routine) and decided to paint Snotlings with a colder green. I have previously used this with some Blood Bowl Snotlings and enjoyed painting the scheme.

 

This month in points:

 

 

 

 

I am not sure if the crew in the Snotling Pump Wagons should have been taken into account in the model count but I decided not to. (But I did make a mental note that there are 12 of them for a later tally.) I also separated the siege themed models from the regular models and present them in the siege section from now on. If I stay true to my plans there will be many more siege models to come.

SIEGE

I wanted to include something siege themed to this month and decided to pick a low hanging fruit. These ladders I painted are from the Mighty Fortress and hold the promise of a mighty Wild Card month for season 9 (I have other plans for this season).

Ladders might seem simple but the rules for using them are three pages long. In short, you need a group of 2-6 models to carry them to the wall, and they are erected once your models hit the wall. Then you may climb up (and fight) on the next turn. The long ones reach from the ground to the parapet of the ramparts, and the short ones can reach between levels in a tower or from the courtyard to the rampart.

 

 

 

I end this section with a fitting quote from the Warhammer Siege:

"It is a brave commander who decides to storm a castle. Many troops will be killed as they push lumbering machines towards the walls, and many more will be cast from the battlements or slaughtered as they try to hold crumbling ramparts against determined defenders.

Of course, some troops are simply ideal for this sort of tough, demanding and generally fatal work - Goblins, for example! After all, why waste time having your Goblins build complicated and probably ineffectual machines when they can be doing what they do best - dying in droves!"

That's it, I think I'll rush to paint some Goblins!