JohnR's OWAC IX - Wrap Up Post. Final Tally = 1602.5 Points

Honestly I didn't think I'd finish this OWAC and I certainly came the closest I've come to crashing out. I'm involved in some changes at work at the mo and only the fact that I was painting a small skirmish force saved me from an ignominious trip to the Field of Bones!

Anyway - that aside I did manage to finish the challenge and even added a few minis in the Wrap Up month :)

 Left to right these are: Tammy the Torso, Dan Solo, Grok the heavy and Renko the sniper. All are incredibly characterful Diehard minis. They'll be added to my leaders entourage.

Points wise they have frag and crack grenades plus the following:

Tammy - Human Champion, Plasma Pistol, Chainsword and Refractor Field = 17.5points

Dan - Human Major Hero, Mesh Armour, Bolt Pistol = 89.5points

Grok - Human Minor Hero, Carapace Armour, Shotgun = 41.5points

Renko - Human Champion, Flak armour, Autogun, Targeter = 17points

 Total = 165.5points

The Army.

 

 

 

Pirate Captain 'Silver' Ansell and his expanded retinue.

 

 

 

Citadel Space Pirates

 

 

Grenadier Civilians

 

 

BMT Mutants

 

 

 

Elite Space Pirates

 

 

BMT Space Pirates

 

Those last few photos seemed to come out very dark, dunno why? Photographing the minis is 100% my least favourite part of the challenge lol.

 

Points for the army:

January - Crabbe's Space Pirates = 177.5 points

February - Butterbean's Mutants = 195 points

March - Rogue Trader Space Pirates = 97 points 

April - Copplestone Civilians = 71 points

May - Elite Space Pirates = 633 points

June and July - Captain 'Silver' Ansell and Retinue = 429 points

 

Total for the Challenge = 1602.5 points. Not bad for a load of Space Scum :D

 

That's it for this year. Kudos to all who finished and looking forward to the next challenge - apparently we're allowed to stray from the strict remit of early WFB and 40K so I'm hoping to do an Eldar army for Epic Armageddon.

 

Andrea's Space Elves (or Eldar, as most people says) wrap up post

 Hi fellow OWACers, 

finally, mission accomplished. It is a small satisfaction to get till the end of the challenge which started very easy but become a bit stressful during the last months (in fact, no further addition for july...).

I planned to paint more than I actually have done, but eventually I kept almost at minimum necessary to meet the 1000 points (and the monthly quota). Better than nothing and I am very happy anyway!

So, first off, the family picture:

As you may recall from the first post, I painted some for the 40K 2nd edition and some for the Rogue Trader edition. I just wanted to keep separate RT warriors (not yet guardians ;-)) and the dreddy to match other RT forces I am painting from others typically 2nd edition: this can be clearly seen from the base decoration. Actually, aspect warriors were introduced in the late RT, in a White Dwarf article (WD#127), just a couple of years before 2nd edition was released. I also realized that the Farseer too was released in this article, while space elves never get a psyker before (rule-wise)!

Here is how Howling Banshees and Farseer appeared, in the artwork of Mark Gibbons (the Banshee) and Jes Goodwin (the Farseer):

From WD#127

From this blog

Oh, and I forgot to say that the Avatar too was released in the WD article, although a "little" different: the Jes Goodwin artwork "The Avatar Walks" return a fiery demon with bloody hand, armed with a spear. It happens I got one and painted as extra (you may remember, a few months ago); since the start of the 2nd edition, though, the Avatar was the one armed with a sword and so was for long years! Moreover, and better in some regards, the Avatar size increased to the one of a monster.

The Avatar (still) Walks

Anyway, here are the two forces:

Rogue Trader Space Elves, with dreadnought Demon pattern and the Farseer

Eldar Aspect Warriors, the Avatar, Wraithguards and the Wave Serpent from 2nd edition

Well, one day I will put some order and write some post somewhere about the story of space elves/eldar/aeldarii across editions!

And now, preparing the brianansellization which officially state the end of my OWAC9:

Adjusting for brianansellizing the army

But before the end, let's have some listing:

 Unit                                       points

 Avatar of Khaine                    300

Farseer                                   170

 Exarch Howling Banshee      62

 Guardian Squad (x5)              55

 Guardian Squad (x5)              55

 Howling Banshee (x4)              108

 Wraithguards (x5)                     175

 Dreadnought War Demon     160

 Wave Serpent                             150

 Total                                         1235

Ok, fellows, I wish to thank you all for the fun, the inspiration, the sharing of your experience and, overall, to keep the old world still alive!

And now, finally, let's close the OWAC9!

ciao! A.

James WRR’s Wrap Up: The battle at the end of time

 We are the edge of the sword, the tip of the spear, the hammer of the immaterium and we will suffer not the daemon to exist. The Daemonhunters of the Ordo Malleus are coming for you.

Mighty, Dark-Winged, Avenging Inquisitor, James, with his Might, Avenging Ordo Malleus Army.

That’s it! My second OWAC attempt completed and another (nearly) 4,000 points worth of models painted for Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader.

Now I can try get a game in.

The experience of painting this Ordo Malleus army has been markedly different to that of painting my Emperor’s Children. Not that I’ve not had a great time with the project, just that I’ve found myself a bit less… absorbed in it.

That might be because I’ve been decorating a new flat at the same time as ploughing through this batch, and navigating a whole host of new responsibilities. It might also be because I’m a Chaos guy deep down, and painting “holy” warriors goes against my instincts.

But I am proud of this army, just as I am of every project I manage to complete. It’s not every Warhammer player who can say they’ve painted thousands of points in just a couple months. God knows I’ve got so much more waiting in the wings, but that’s a problem for another day… another OWAC, perhaps. 

Collecting this force was a joy and putting it all together was a real education. I’ve got a whole new appreciation for those who managed to construct and paint armies of RTB-01 marines back before we had so many modern tools and paints. I’ve also been surprised, even blown away, by the quality and charm of many of these models — the Terminators and Daemonhunters being obvious stand outs.

This challenge attempt hasn’t been without its, well, challenges. I’ve been rushed at times, uninspired in others and very distractible. But seeing my challenge companions and friends build such amazing armies of their own has really pushed me towards this success. 

Once again, I'm also impressed at how well deadlines work for my brain and my workflow. Having the structure of monthly quotas and small goals really helps make a big project manageable. If you've got your own major army project to get done, I can't suggest enough following along with the next OWAC, or even just make your own mini challenge to motivate yourself.

I think my next project is going to have to be a colourful one. Painting an all-metallic, largely monochrome force has been great for speed and efficiency, and they do look as mean and brutally efficient as I was hoping they would, but I need a bit of whimsy back in my life.

I think that might call for a Second Edition-era force of some kind. Oh, I know a Death World that’s lovely this time of year! How about we visit Catachan next OWAC?

And with that, I reckon I can close the book on this project. I can’t wait to see these guys on the tabletop, burning away the corruption and naivety of a doomed galaxy. As always, please do join me on my ongoing hobby journey on Instagram at @Illuminator_Hobby.

Until next time, keep watching the skies. 

Army list

Inquisitor Halfthor
Daemonhunter
Tactical Dreadnought Armour, Bio-Scanner, Displacer Field

Plasma Gun, Power Glove, Digital Weapons, Psyk-Out Grenade

Bionic Leg

Psychic Mastery Level 3
201 points

Inquisitor Clavicus
Daemonhunter
Tactical Dreadnought Armour, Bio-Scanner, Displacer Field

Psycannon, Force Rod, Scare Gas

Psychic Mastery Level 4
454 points

Captain Torkamadus
Grey Knight Terminator Captain | Hero
Tactical Dreadnought Armour
Nemesis Force Weapon

Psychic Mastery Level 4
450 points

Techmarine Tarantus
Techmarine
Basic equipment
Vincent Black Shadow motorcycle
97 points

Squad Deza
Grey Knight Terminator Tactical Squad
1 Sergeant and 4 Marines in Tactical Dreadnought Armour

5 Nemesis Force Weapons

Psychic Mastery Level 4
1,200 points

Brother Bethor
Deredeo Dreadnought
Missile Launcher, Heavy Plasma Gun
Standard Sensor Package, 2 Power Fields, Power Field Synchroniser
270 points

Squad Heliod
Tactical Squad
Sergeant with Bolt Gun, Bioscanner and Power Glove
1 Marine with Missile Launcher
1 Marine with Flamer

7 Marines with Bolt Guns
275 points

Bright Sword
Rhino APC with Techmarine Pilot, assigned to Squad Heliod
2 Bolt Guns
387 points

Riot Corps
Adeptus Arbites Squad
1 Magister with Bolt Pistol and basic equipment

5 Judges with Bolt Pistols and basic equipment
102 points

Squad Apollo
Devastator Squad
Sergeant with Bolt Gun
2 Marines with Beamers
2 Marines with Heavy Bolters

5 Marines with Bolt Guns
379 points

Grand Total: 3,815 points

JohnR's Month 6 - Leader Month (263.5points)

Evening all, super hectic month this month so only a few figs finished and I almost didn't even get them done!

 

This is my leader and a few of his retinue (read drinking cronies). There's 2 Diehard mini's 2 BOYL minis and a modern Copplestone in there. There were going to be more but...

Left to right they are Jak 'Luckless' Gibbs, 'Blot' Snake-tail, Captain Silas 'Silver' Ansell (captain of the pirate ship 'Lazarus' and leader of the army), Bartholomus 'Bart' Speirdyke (a rogue Navigator) and Eliza 'Red' Rythkil - Ansell's three armed bodyguard and lover.

Points.

All get frag and crack grenades plus the following:

'Luckless' Gibbs - Human Champion, Flak Armour, Sawn-off Shotgun, Laspistol 

'Blot' Snake-tail - Human Minor Hero, Mesh Armour, 2 Autopistols

'Silver' Ansell -  Human Major Hero, Mesh Armour, Refractor Field, Power Sword 2 Laspistols

'Bart' Speirdyke - Human Champion, Laspistol, Refractor Field, Level 1 Psyker

'Red' Rythkil - Human Minor Hero, Mesh Armour, 3 Laspistols, Vortex Grenade

Total = 263.5 points

Well, I managed to struggle over the line this month and finish the challenge. I've just worked a seven day stint and we're not even into the silly season yet so army photos will have to wait for next month!

Take care y'all.

James WRR’s Wildcard: Blue Aquila Down

G’day! 

It’s Wildcard month, which means we’re allowed to go a little… wild with our projects. And so, in the spirit of bringing my latest Imperial army to life, I thought I’d take the opportunity to paint one of my favourite pieces of terrain ever:

The crashed Aquila Lander from Battle for Macragge.

Despite my undying love for all things 80s/90s Games Workshop, my actual career in the hobby began shortly before this 4th edition starter set was released. I remember sharing the box with my little brother (now long-retired from the hobby in favour of skateboarding and making smart financial decisions). I took the Space Marine side and painted them up as Ultramarines (of course) while my brother took his inspiration from Alien to paint his ‘Nids mostly grey and green.

I don’t think either of us really took the rules all too seriously when we did get some poorly painted minis on the field. In fact, at some point, I think my Space Marines once ended up fighting an army of Dwarfs from The Battle for Skull Pass among the ruins of this crashed starfighter.

But it was never really about the game. It was about the vibe. 

And boy was that vibe good. I don’t think we appreciated, at that moment, that “modern” 40k was pretty much at its aesthetic and mechanical peak. Naturally, it couldn’t match the vibe of Rogue Trader, or even Second if that’s more your vibe, but Battle for Macragge was really a high point in my view of what Warhammer could be.

This crashed Aquila Lander is a good physical representation of that nostalgic ideal. It’s not an L-shaped ruin. It wasn’t designed to give balanced cover to both sides of the table. No, it’s a piece of plastic that tells a story, of which us gamers play a big part.

I remember scenarios from the starter set booklet that involved your heroic Space Marines fighting through never-ending hordes to make off with the ship’s power supply, or defending the downed passenger with his container of scientific samples. 

Ahh. Officially licensed narrative gaming. Bliss. 

The ruins I now have in my collection came from a second-hand lot, made up of mostly Battle for Macragge bits in pretty rough condition. Though that meant a bit more work, it really told me that this was a collection that someone had loved, maybe in the same way I had. Or, at the very least, they’d given the hobby a red-hot go.

It worked out for me that they’d given it up at some point. I’m certainly not complaining that I get to relive those glory days.

Anyway, painting this set seemed daunting at first, but actually proved fairly simple. I hit the whole lot with a black spray then sprayed the edges of the crash site with red to better match my Grey Knight’s bases.

As you’ll see, I’ve ended up putting some flock down, and a few “alien plants” on the base. I want to keep most of my Oldhammer 40k stuff on red desert-adjacent bases, so adding some natural elements should help blend this terrain more easily into future boards and armies. 

To paint the ship itself, I picked up an iconic, time-tested tool: the sponge. 

Nicking a little yellow block from beneath our kitchen sink, I built up a few layers of successively brighter, desaturated blues (and whites on the wing tips). I really like using a sponge on a big piece of plastic, as not only does it neatly avoid recesses, you can really modulate the intensity of your colour in a similar way to drybrushing - or even airbrushing - without the faff. The trick is, like drybrushing, to build up more gradually, with lots of quick stabbing dabs rather than a thick “splodge”.

I finished off the ship with simple glossed black for the shattered windows and some cabling details. I really love painting hazard-striped cables, the quickest way to do so being basecoating them with Scale75 Sahara Yellow, laying down some neat(ish) black stripes, then painting a thin line of Tenere Yellow over the whole length with the edge of your brush.

I weathered the ship with sponges, again, using a really dark Blue Steel metallic to add chips and battle damage. Games Workshop rust effect was watered down and applied to recesses, before a dark red pigment powder was jammed in mostly where the ship parts meet the ground. This final step really brought the whole thing together, so I’ll definitely be repeating it across future models.

And so, that’s it! All the painting done for my 2026 OWAC challenge. It’s been a fun ride, with a few ups and downs and funny little unforeseen challenges. But, all in all, it feels like it’s absolutely flown by. 

I did also manage to paint up this Bob Olley Ogryn for the Olden Demon challenge in May, as well.  The sculpt is just absolutely brilliant, full of character and attitude. I decided that he needed an appropriate beverage for the sweltering jungles of Catachan, and seeing as I’ve met plenty of Australian blokes who look like this (wrap-around sunnies and all) in my time, I had to paint him a few tinnies of Aussie-as VB. 

Drongo the Ogryn

This fella marks the start of my next big army project: an all-metal Catachan army for second-fourth edition. Watch this space!

Thanks for joining me on this journey so far. Some final full-army shots and a good write up is set to land next month.

Emperor protect you, citizen. 

JohnR's Month 5 - Rank and File (633 points)

Just 10 minis done this month. They were originally going to form part of my Boss's retinue but since I didn't get him finished I guess they can be an elite pirate squad instead :)

 

They're a pretty mixed bunch: mostly GW and Iron Claw with a few Stargrave thrown in.

I must confess I haven't put a lot of personality into my entries so far - between traveling and work it's all I could do to stay on the painting. So I decided to go ham and give everyone names this month 😁 

 

 

Fobba Bett the ex-bounty hunter and Margo the Space Amazon

 

 

Siddartheous the rogue astropath and 'Zeno' the Pirate Hero

 

 

Docia 'Doc' B'fra and Hans the goon

 

 

 

Zhu Khung inscrutable alien psyker and 'Cybergirl'

 

 

 

Altun the Alien Giant and Glaxo, Space Pirate of Ventolin

 

 

Got to admit making up the names was great fun. You can probably guess where most of them came from, I'm not the most original I'm afraid.😅

They're very much a team of individuals - think Guardians of the Galaxy / Dirty Dozen / Ice Pirates etc.

 

Everyone gets frag and crack grenades (30points) plus the following:

Fobba Bett - Human Minor Hero, Carapace Armour, Plasma Gun, Laspistol = 43.5points

Margo - Human Champion, Refractor Field, Lasgun, Laspistol, 2 Plasma Grenades = 12.5points 

Siddartheous - Human Champion, Level 1 psyker, Refractor Field, Laspistol = 44points

 'Zeno' - Human Major Hero, Flak Armour, Refractor Field, Melta Gun, Laspistol = 93.5points

'Doc' - Human Minor Hero, Conversion Field, Laspistol, Med Kit = 43points

Hans - Human Champion, Flak Armour, Autogun = 9points

Zhu Khung - Elder Major Hero, Level 3 psyker, Carapace Armour, Displacer Field = 247.5points

'Cybergirl' - Human Champion, Flak Armour, Heavy Stubber, Bionic Targeter Eye = 57.5

 Altun - Human Minor Hero, Mesh Armour Neuro-Disruptor = 42

Glaxo - Human Champion, Carapace Armour Lasgun and Laspistol = 10.5

Total Points = 633 

 

Well, that's as much as I got done this month - hope everyone else was more productive and see you in 4 weeks time for the finale I guess!

Andrea's additional Leader month - The Seer and the Dreddy

 So, Owacers,

this is the second leader month and I can't be more happy as 1) I turned 50 and still feeling good, 2) I painted the most spectacular Eldar Farseer ever sculpted: the finger-pointing, mosquito-helmet, dramatic-pose Farseer!

The best thing is that, being a fine sculpt, it is as funny as expected to paint: a real pleasure! The shape of the helmet (marvellous, despite - or maybe, thanks to - its mosquito appearance) was abandoned in favour of a more technological-looking and mysterious version (cool, nothing to say) and only very recently recovered in the last Farseer incarnation (that I still have to get it!). 

But, this month is not only about the Farseer but it is also about another old friend, whose aesthetic remained longer on the shop shelves: the Dreadnought. Actually, in the RT era there were three version of it, but all based on the same body which remained basically the same even throughout the 2nd and the 3rd edition. Of the RT three patterns, I got the War Demon one: a Dreadnought apparently made to slap enemies, rather than shoot them down!

And now, of course, a little comparative analysis of its changes through time:

Here are the three main incarnation, form the left: RT, 2nd/3rd edition and 4th edition (the Wraithlord, although the full plastic kit like this one is more recent). 

Ok, I would have like to paint more but time is very tight these days, but still these are 330 points (Farseer, 170 pts; Dreddy, 160 pts). I hope to get more time in the next month!

Keep painting, fellows! and see you in June!

ciao, A

JohnR's Month 4 - Rank and File (71 Points)

 Another month long on traveling and short on painting but I do have the Grenadier civilians done!

 IIRC these were sculpted by the legendary Mark Copplestone in the before times, long ago. Mark is one of my favourite sculptors and I have miniatures by him from Grenadier, foundry and GW as well as his own recent ranges. No doubt this doesn't come close to doing his extensive career justice and I'd be interested to hear who else he has sculpted for if anyone knows?

 

The civvies join the pirate army. They're a poorly equipped bunch with no clear 'leader' model and the points reflect that. I like the idea that they're simple citizens of the Imperium caught on the wrong side of a factional power struggle or bureaucratic SNAFU and forced to fight for their lives in a situation they don't understand. (Think Jonathan Pryce's character Sam Lowry from Brazil, one of my all time favourite films.)

 April Points:

12 Basic Humans: no armour, 6 stubguns, 5 autopistols and 2 autoguns to share between them: 71 points 

 

Finally, while continuing our European road-trip, we happened across the hot springs at Saturnia and I was struck by what a chaos tainted landscape it seemed to be. The photo's don't capture the stench of sulfur, but you can see the steam rising from the water which gushes out of the ground at 40 degrees. 

 

We also found a Bretonnian Castle, just up the road from fellow OWACer JamesP's house :) 

 

So, that's it for this month, hope everyone else's challenge is progressing well !