Jaeckel's Dwarfs: an Introduction

Well, I guess we're back for 6 months of shortened nights, where every day off counts to finish these damn miniatures, and promised, this is the last time I'm doing this! 

In the meantime, puff and slash dwarfs again 😜

For those who followed last year's edition, I had solved my "landsknecht painting issue" by adopting the colours and coats of arms of the Old Swiss Confederation to paint my mercenary dwarfs, leading to very basic color associations (red / black, yellow / black, blue / white) and let's say "reasonnably simple" banners.

So, for OWAC V, the plan is simple: complete the basic troops started in 2021, to reach the 20 mandatory crossbownmen and 40 mandatory warriors, and enrol two new regiments of thunderers.  Thanks to the two characters I wasn't able to finish last year, we shouldn't be far from the 1000 points:

• 10 pikemen with fife player and standard-bearer: 132 points;
  
• 10 crossbowmen with horn blower, standard-bearer and the renowned Wilhelm Tellson (Lvl 5 hero): 194 points;
  
• 10 thunderers with drummer and standard-bearer: 156 points;
  
• 10 thunderers with horn blower and standard-bearer: 156 points;
• the Mercenary Captain (Lvl 20 hero) with lance and mithril armour: 197 points (poney for free!);
  
• the Bishop of Grungni (Lvl 15 wizard): 203 points.

If time permits, I will paint a few extras, including wild dwarfs, new bodyguards for the paymaster, and a "mystery" cart for the bishop (preparation on-going). We'll see...

 

My prepared miniatures so far (I still have the bases to work on):

 

 

without forgetting the offering to the overlord! (never thought I would use Tentacle Pink on a dwarf miniature 😜)

 

See you next year for the first regiment!

Bill's Greenskins II: The Legend Continues

 

After OWAC IV, I still have a lot of Orcs and Goblins left over awaiting paint. In preparing for OWAC V, I really only had to buy a few more figures to round things out, which I think decided me on the path of continuing the Waaagh for another year. 

This year I'll be placing an emphasis on areas of the army list I either didn't touch on at all last year or just barely included; namely, I'll be doing cavalry and magic-users, adding more archers and war machines to my army, and potentially adding to my Hobgoblin Mercenary contingent. In some ways it's a more ambitious plan than what I went into OWAC IV with; I've got a few wizardly point-bombs to help out but I'm still looking at 17 cavalry figures, 35 infantry and some miscelleous crews and such. I've bounced a few ideas around for a second Baggage Cart but nothing really stuck and I'm not sure I'll have the time for it this year anyways. It might end up being a project for the off-season. 

 

Anyways, on to this year's army, story-wise...

Once the screaming died down, Yorzolg and his orcs emerged from the ruined keep they'd been besieged in for weeks to greet their rescuers. His piggish little close-set red eyes swept over the scene before him: Warboars the size of oxen grazed on the bodies of the slain, occasionally squabbling over a particularly juicy bit; between them wound lean, vicious-looking wolves picking at the remains and leaner, more-vicious looking goblinoids plucking greedily at bits of armor or rifling through pockets.

These weren't the fat, dopey orcs Yorzolg was familiar with and saw reflected when he looked into a polished shield; these were cruel, ugly creatures, hunched and snickering as they made their rounds. And many of them were older, creatures of gristle and scar-tissue that had seen more fights than Yorzolg had hot meals. With them came stunted, almost pygmy-like orcs, dressed in tigerskins and armed with flint-tipped arrows. They barely spoke, even among themselves, but Yorzolg could see the fire of madness in their eyes. 

"Oi. You Yorzolg?" rumbled a query from the depths of a blackened iron helm bedecked in horns and tassels. Its wearer sat astride a four-tusked Warboar as big as a rhinoceros, a bearskin cloak draped across armored shoulders. He was without a doubt the biggest orc Yorzolg had ever seen.

"Y-yeh, dat's me. Who'z askin'?" Yorzolg managed to reply, trying to force himself to sound braver than he was feeling.

"Name'z Gorechunk. Heard you wuz throwin' a Waaagh. Came ta find yez hidin' from da Humies."

The rider leaned down, bringing his face close to Yorzolg's. Rancid breath hissed between cracked and yellow tusks as the rider chuckled cruelly.

"Looks like dis 'ere's my Waaagh now. Yez can follow me, so long as yez don't slow us real fightin' Orcs down."

***

List I'm going with is as follows:

• 1 Level 25 Orc Hero, Heavy Armor and Shield, War Boar (163)
• 1 Level 20 Orc Wizard (240)
• 1 Level 15 Savage Orc Shaman (163)
• 14 Orc Big'uns, Standard and Musician (152)
• 1 Level 15 Orc Hero, Light Armor and Shield (91)
• 2 Units of 10 Savage Arrers (75 apiece; 150 total)
• 10 Snortas, Standard and Musician (324)
• 6 Gobbo Wolfboyz, Shortbows (60)
• 1 Goblin Spear Chukka, 4 Crew (37.5)

For a total of 1380.5 points. Now, if I'm extra productive or get some extra time, I'll add to my Hobgoblin Contingent as follows:

• 1 Level 15 Hobgoblin Shaman (155)
• 1 Hobgoblin Contingent Standard Bearer, Heavy Armor (83)
• 1 Hobhound Handler, Light Armor, 5 Hounds (62)

Which will add an extra 300 points. This might be chancy; the Shaman and Hobhound handler are primed and ready to go, but the Contingent Standard hasn't been converted, based and primed yet. So we'll see what happens with that towards the warmer months. 

And finally, my price of admission: A mid-90s Heartbreaker Orc Champion from the hands of Kev Adams. Instead of my usual Goblin Green basing, I went with a suggestion from my better half; noting that this orc looked like he was dressed very warmly, she asked if I was going to do a snow base. I liked the idea enough to go with it, and I think it worked out well. 

 

Prism Power! (Lissanne's Second legion Rainbow Warriors) Introductory post

 First thing I should mention is I'm an absolute freak about the size of the figures matching the fluff.  In the original fluff, marines are supposed to be SITTING inside their terminator armor.  I can't abide the weenie terminators, I had even sculpted my own for personal casting use.  (You will see one of those in this challenge too) But now scale creep has made them a reasonable size! 

  Space Hulk!  I run Space Hulk at a couple of conventions, and will again after Covid.  There is a rather old series of Space Hulk scenarios that need 24 terminators to complete.  I would like to run this series of missions, alas,  I have only painted 7 termies.  But people and fate keep dumping terminators in my lap, so...I intend on painting as many of  the other 17 of 24 in this challenge.  And a few more.

Although it is an old school challenge, these are new school figs.  So our beneficent overlord has agreed to let me do them, as long as I include some old school surprises, some of which I have already planned.  What would an army of old school space marines be without a squad of (mostly) monopose old space marines.  Modified to fit the challenge, of course!  Followers of the OWAC may remember my love of doing lots of modifications! This OWAC is no exception!

Now these Terminators in the previously mentioned scenarios are all Rainbow Warriors, 2nd legion, one of the two redacted original legions.  (The other being Andy Chambers Valedictors (11th legion) who were a camo green epic army.) The Rainbow Warriors are from the planet Prism, and have a Primarch with a 7 letter name.  Let's call their leader Pavonia.

The Rainbow Warriors accept male and female applicants, but the Emperor, being a misogynous dick, does not. (However, it is the height of rudeness to ask a marine what their original sex was.) I never play (non-chaos) Space Marines for this reason, but for Rainbow Warriors I'll make an exception.
And I have swapped out the horrible man heads for better looking Sisters heads!

Here is the baggie brigade of primed terminators.  Since I paint piecemeal, it's just a field of mostly blue pieces atm.  Baggies keep them sorted.

Plus these aforementioned conventions are mission statement LBGQ friendly, and space marines are not, so the Rainbow Warriors are perfect!

Did you know, the Rainbow Warriors symbol is identical to the My Little Pony Wonderbolts symbol? So these are the Wonderbolters!  And they will all have Wonderbolt pony names!  Deal with it.

So... my goal is to paint as many of the 17 necessary terminators as I can,  and few more.  At least 20.   Bolstered by some old normal marines, and vehicle or two.  Why is this old school?  Did I mention I scratchbuild all my vehicles out of paper?  Like this properly sized rhino (because the official Rhinos, like the termies, are way too small!) Stay tuned... I am planning a big surprise too!

Go Prism Power!

GW body rhinos are tiny!  Here is the comparison.

Here are a couple of my chaos rhinos, so you can see what I'm going for.

And the points
Well space hulk has no points per se,  so I'll just use the 3rd edition points because it is handy and close enough to the others for government work.

Names to come
 
Leader Librarian- 200pts
20 Terminators- 42 pts each, for 840 pts (this will include a hero and chaplain, and several odd weapons, so an approximation)
10 Space Marines 15pts each 150 pts
(Decently sized) Rhino- a big 50 pts
A big surprise for Wild Card month, and maybe other surprises too!

That is already 1240 pts, so I'm not too worried about making a pt total.  I might tweak this a bit, but it is what I've planned.

BTW, as many OWACers may know, my Overlord offering is a prize painting of one of the winner's generals, so comes at the end of the challenge.  Good luck to everyone, and happy painting

ZeroTwentyhree's OWACV Intro Post

Hi.

I'm Thomas, aka ZeroTwentythree. You may remember me from such Old World Army Challenges as Elves...

...More Elves...

 

 ...and Still More Elves Yet, But This Time In Space...

This year I'll be painting... NOT Elves. Maybe. I guess they could be the skeletal remains of elves. I'm not saying they are. But who can tell? Their pointy ears, silken hair, and arrogance may have all decomposed and returned to the soil. Look I'm going to paint skeletons and not question it too much beyond that...

No, this year, for the fifth installment of the Old World Army Challenge, the fourth in which I will be participating, it will be...

The Season of the Liche

Look it's right there on the track list. ;)

 

I've got a pretty well established undead force, but I've started creating unique sub-divisions within and branches outward from that. So this will be one of those. In true OWAC spirit (unlike my last one...), this will be motivation to work on a bunch of unpainted figures I already have and are in need of paint.

The core will be some old lead armored skeletons, a bag of busted up plastic cavalry I inherited from a fellow Oldhammerer who passed away a few years ago, and three new (gasp!) death turkeys from Knightmare Miniatures. To be honest, I never had an interest in adding carrion to my almost exclusively skeletal force until their KS a year or so ago. However, now that I had them, they provided the impetus to this particular project.

This is a fast attack force set on a quick raid and then harvesting the spoils in the form of fresh recruits. As such, I will be utilizing the flying and mounted troops for the quick strike on some poorly defended village or caravan, and then the infantry to fall in afterward as escort to those who come to reap the rewards. I have been after the classic Citadel Corpse Cart for years. But since I can not get one for a reasonable price (especially here on the wrong side of the pond) I will be scratch-building my own. In addition to that, there will be (former) man himself!

"When I make my mind up, you are going to be mine..."

Like I said, it's the Season of the Liche. Tripping his way through the Old World, infiltrating, recruiting, turning on, tuning in, dropping out...

My proposed list is:

• (3) Carrion = 135 pts.
• (25) Skeletons (lt. arm., shield, spear) = 350 pts.
• (10) Death Riders (lance, shield) = 230 pts.
• (1) Liche (lv. 20) with Undead Horse = 355 pts.
• Bonus: dismounted version
• (1) Undead Hero (lv. 10) with Undead Horse - 65 pts.
• (1) Undead Hero (lv. 10) - 55 pts.
• (1) Plague Cart = 100 pts.
  

Total: 1290 pts.

(There may be "stretch goals" but this is the core of what I hope to accomplish.)

The price of the OWAC may be high, but the Liche will pay. Behold the summoned Offering he presents to the Benevolent Overlord, full of undead menace and fearful Grimdarkness.

...and that's how it starts off...

Byron's Introduction Post

I'm Back for my 2nd round of OWAC!

Like the first round I've sculpted some minis to paint, but unlike last time I have a handful already in my possession to start the challenge. 🤞Fingers crossed🤞 that the rest arrive in a timely fashion or I am SOL. 

Lately, I have put my gnome sculpting aside and aimed my Sauron-like eye at sculpting fairytale Germans. The range will include many staples of traditional fairytales as well as conventional troop types for wargaming. For this OWAC I plan to use them as proxies for a 4th ed Empire army.  I sculpted various standard tops so others can choose ones that are more thematic to their force. For my army though, I think I am going with a goose theme. All the banners will have gooses on top. 

My tentative armylist:

Characters

General with Light Armor, Lance, and Shield mounted on a Griffon                    225 pts

Hero                                                                                                                     65 pts

(maybe a few other characters for good measure)

Troops

Handgunners x12 w/ command                                                                           116 pts

Archers x 12                                                                                                         96 pts 

Spearmen w/ shield x 20 w/ command                                                                154 pts

Halberdiers w/ light armor x 20 w/ command                                                       198 pts

Greatswords w/ light armor x 16 w/ command                                                     162 pts

War Machines

Cannon                                                                                                                 100 pts

Total                                                                                                                      1142 pts

That's 87 models! That's going to be tough. It's doable but it will mean a constant output of minis. No chances for breaks. Starting to miss my slightly expensive dark elves already.

       

So! Now the models I have on hand.

At the top of the order I have some characters. These should fill my hero and spell caster roles.

Left to right: witch, wizard, prince and princess

Next, I have some archers. I have at least ten with a handful of extras. 

After them, I have halberdiers.

this pic shows their poses better.

Armed Women. Their role is a bit ambiguous at the moment - maybe flagellants? rank fillers in other regiments? baggage train attendants? armed citizens in scenarios? We'll see. 

 

Finally, I thought that I would share a bunch of pics of greens to tease what will hopefully be coming later. Many of these are WiP pics I took, so they don't represent how the minis looked when I crammed them in the mail last Wednesday.

A few handgunners and spearmen

Cannon crew

Huntsman

musician for handgunners

cannon crew

cannon crew

cannon

dog handler

Opinicus (Off-brand griffon)

zwiehanders

another dog handler

assassin

1 of 3 dog poses

Horses (still working on these, maybe they'll get knights or wagons)

OWAC IV Overlord Offerings

The first two OWAC's, I encouraged members to "Pay the piper", i.e. to paint one figure for the Challenge's founder and administrator, me, AKA the Challenge Overlord. This was a way for me to be able to see "in the flesh" the painting style of each challenger, and a small payment for my work on the challenge (I love administering the OWAC but it is very time consuming). 

With time these came to be known by the challengers as "Overlord offerings". Now, last year was a bit different as the Offerings were mandatory, and had to be be painted as admission fees and submitted in the intro post. It makes for a great and fun intro post, and I've started working some themes into them (this year will be everything pink and baby blue, my favourites colours!")

So as the OWAC V is about to start, here's last year's offerings!

Lots of great painting in there, and I truly enjoy everyone of them! It's so fun receiving them through the year! I got one that says "Vive le Québec libre" on the base, some contestants sent me hand written notes and postcards. It was great! And then there's Byron who actually custom sculpted a figure just for me, based on my one of my all time favourite book cover, Fighting Fantasy' Temple of Terror. How freakin' awesome is that?! I am ashamed I haven't painted it yet, and I promise to do so before the end of the challenge!

So thanks to all the challengers. I cannot wait to see the next crop of offerings!