🐏 KORAG RISING – Benjamin's Bob Olley Beastmen

Oh boy! Where does all the time go?

Hi! I'm Ben, and this is my first OWAC, and I'm super excited to be part of this.

I've been classically overambitious, and even writing this now I'm feeling the bitter edge of that ambition slipping away...

So where to begin?

This project has emerged over three lockdowns, numerous bidding brawls on eBay, and extensive researching of anything and everything Bob Olley. OWAC emerged as the best opportunity to see it finished.

During Easter 2020 I'd intended to recreate the Beastmen Mordheim Warband of my high school years. Having never been that satisfied with the models available, I stumbled upon those sculpted by Bob, and really wanted to acquire a few. 

The acquisition proved to be far more challenging than expected due to their general scarcity. The mordheim warband never happened - but the general obsession with collecting them just grew and grew. 

I had to have all of them...

Aren't they glorious?

Around the 30 mark it was clear an army was forming - I gathered other figures from the era; centaurs, minotaurs, other beastmen figures for command - but none of them quite felt right. As wonderful and oldhammer as they were - they just didn't match the spirit of his sculpts. The Olley beastmen looked so soulful and unsure, dressed in his characterful and detailed baroque clothing. Everything at odds with what we'd expect from Games Workshop since then.

The Bobsession grows...

Do not speak to me or my son ever again.

I was dimly aware that Bob had sculpted for quite a few companies in the 90s, as well as forming his own company in the 2000s - but hadn't really looked into it - and thanks to the now defunct Bob Olley wiki (that you can find on archive.org) - you can readily find much of his back catalog still cast today.

The threads and thoughts came together, and a mandate was decided. A wall to wall Bob Olley beastmen army was to be mustered. Fully compatible with both 3rd (and later) rulesets.

I like to think it is partially a demake of a 'modern' Beastman army, as well as an idea of what an army might have looked like if he'd been commissioned to do a full range. Pretty much every miniature in the army, aside from the citadel beastmen, is converted. With the exception of the boar bodies, some matchsticks and the horns on the shaman, everything was an Olley figure.

A cup of Bob Olley miniatures.

Korag's Horde

To give a bit of direction to the project, there is a little narrative. So I eagerly present to you - 

As the army progresses each month, the story of KORAG will progress a little bit too - from humble origins as a pit fighter, to a despoiling conqueror.

Who remembers those AD&D character packs from 1985?

Not me! I wasn't born until 1986 - but they're great aren't they.

The intended roster for the next 6 months is as follows (expect all of this to change...)

MONTH ONE - KORAG OF THE PITS (unit 1)

It all starts with the Tzaangors and their fab hats.

NAME	TYPE	Points
Korag's Pit Fighters	24x Beastmen	312
Korag of the Pits	BANEBEAST (lvl 5)	60

MONTH TWO - KORAG THE LIBERATOR (unit 2)

Turns out February 2022 is NOT a leap year this year. Damn.

NAME	TYPE	Points
Deathsteer's Despoilers	11x Minotaur	572
Deathsteer the Indomitable	GOREMASTER (lvl 10)	190
The Liberated of Korag	32x Beastmen	320
Ghrud the Oppressed	BANEBEAST (lvl 5)	60

MONTH THREE - KORAG AND THE WILD HUNT (unit 3)

This was a very heavy session of dremmeling and gluing.

It had the charming by product of completely removing your thumbprint.

NAME	TYPE	Points
Garthor's Wild Hunt	23x Chaos Centaurs	1012
Shadowhoof, Herald of Garthor	Centaur Hero (lvl 10)	190
Garthor, Lord of the Crags	Dragon Ogre - Darkoth	247

MONTH FOUR - KORAG THE DESTROYER (wildcard)

The chariots still need finishing. If I get time I'll paint the tub.

NAME	TYPE	Points
The Iron Claws	4x Chariots (2 boars, 2 crew)	448
Korag the Destroyer	FERALFIEND (lvl 15)	160

MONTH FIVE - KORAG THE CHOSEN (unit 4)

The shrine, champion and standard bearer for this lot are on their way...

NAME	TYPE	Points
The Chosen of Murgrog	24x Beastmen, spears	312
Rambrok the Champion	BANEBEAST (lvl 5)	60
Murgrog the Seer	FERALFLUXER (lvl 15)	225
The Shrine of Bolobyle	Chaos Altar	66
Battle Standard	BANEBEAST (lvl 5)	60

MONTH SIX - KORAG THE CONQUEROR (general)

This will be the surprise centre-piece hopefully, and will look totally different by June.

NAME	TYPE	Points
The Iron Tyrant	Chariot (8 boars)	176
Korag the Conqueror	SPASMGHAST (lvl 25)	260
Shengrob the Mage	MARAUDER (lvl 10)	160
Togruk the Bodyguard	BANEBEAST (lvl 5)	60

The Overlord's Offering

The tribute to the benevolent and wise overlord in the choice colours of baby pink and blue...

A Bob Olley Chaos Warrior from ESSEX MINIATURES

in the requested palette.

Finally...

It's a pleasure to be working on this - and especially on this platform. Hopefully HOPEFULLY this will all pan out as intended - but let's see!

There are quite a lot actually aren't there...

Graeme's OWAC V Introduction post: Wood Elves - Forenrond’s Last Stand

Graeme's OWAC V Introduction post: Wood Elves - Forenrond’s Last Stand

In the early ’90’s a few of my friends and I decided to hold a small Warhammer 3rd edition tournament between ourselves, over a summer holiday, with 3000 point armies. We bought one or two of the Fantasy Regiments boxes between us, to help build up the core armies. One of my friends took the Goblins and Orcs, another took the Dwarves, and I took the Elves and Skaven.

I managed to built up the Skaven army quite a bit (as you might have noticed from OWAC III), but just didn’t have enough models to field a full 3000 points, due to the low points cost per model. So I resorted to my second-choice army - Wood Elves. A small, flexible, well-equipped, archer-heavy army, with a wealth of heroes and wizards. The lovely Jes Goodwin sculpts were a huge factor in choosing them. Thus, they became my first ever Warhammer army.

A plastic bag of second-hand Elf stuff bought from my friend’s younger brother provided me with a cavalry unit and some Wardancers. I then built up a few more units of archers, and a unit of spearmen. I also invested in the newly-released Marauder Dragon, Treeman, and Unicorn, for some serious muscle, with a slightly different style.

I've only been able to find one photo of my army at the time. Here it is in action in the tournament, held on the dining room table at my parent's house, around '93 or '94, I think... :

The bright-red Dragon really should practice his sneak-attacks...

In the end I was third in our summer tournament. I got off to a promising start, decimating an infantry-heavy Dwarf army with a Treeman and Dragon-mounted champion. I suspect the picture above is from that game.

However, I was trounced by the Orc and Goblin army (helped in no small amount by my opponent rolling the ‘invisibility’ Chaos Attribute for his army general’s Wyvern - yes, it was as bad as you imagine… ). The one highlight of this game was attacking a unit of Chaos Warrior allies in the flank, on my first turn, with my Eagle-mounted hero with magical blade. They promptly routed off the table, never to return... all 500 points of them… 

There was also a meat-grinder confrontation between my Cavalry, Wardancers and Spearmen against a unit of Skeletons, Skeleton Chariot and a Corpse Cart (where pushing back the undead caused instability which, due to the Corpse Cart in the vicinity, proceeded to increase the size of the enemy units and/or make them invulnerable to wounds the next turn…). A shortage of magical weapons meant it did not end well…

Despite the ignominious defeats, the Wood Elf army remained my favourite - let's say they were the moral champions! 😀

After going to University, I followed the usual path of losing touch with my friends and the hobby. Luckily, I kept all of my minis in storage, so a good chunk of the stuff you see here are from my original collection, which I’ve just been adding to over the last 20 or so years.

I’ve spent the last few months stripping the majority of my Wood Elf collection, to give me fuel for the OWAC. I suspect I have enough models for multiple challenges. I first considered re-creating my original army, but decided to go for something a bit different:

Forenrond’s Last Stand!

I always wanted to play this battle when I got the 3rd Edition rulebook, but never had enough models (from either side). After many years of collecting, this is no longer an issue… It also gives me an excuse (as if I really needed one) to put together another big group of Jes Goodwin sculpts.

There are no points costs mentioned in the scenario in the rulebook, so below is an overview of the force with points taken, or inferred, from Warhammer Armies for 3rd edition:

CHARACTERS

• Corma Lightmantle (leader of 1st Elven cavalry)
  General - Level 15 Elf Hero
  Lance, hand weapon, shield, light armour, barded warhorse
  143 pts
  
  
• Atlanta
  Level 5 Elf Wizard
  Hand weapon, warhorse
   184 pts
  
  
• Philander (leader of 2nd Elven cavalry)
  Lieutenant - Level 10 Elf Hero
  Spear, hand weapon, shield, horse
  93 pts
  
  
• Labriele (leader of elite Elven archers)
  Level 10 Elf Hero
  Hand weapon, longbow, light armour
  93 pts
  
  
• Sola Brighthelm (leader of Elven archers)
  Level 10 Elf Hero
  Hand weapon, longbow
  91 pts

Character total: 604 pts

RANK & FILE

• 1st Elven Cavalry
  10 mounted lancers, with standard bearer and musician
  Lance, hand weapon, shield, horse
  264 pts
  
  
  
  Yup, still some prep work needed for these...
  
  
  
• 2nd Elven Cavalry
  10 mounted lancers, with standard bearer and musician
  Spear, hand weapon, shield, horse
  220 pts
  
  
  
  
  
  
• 3rd Elven Cavalry
  10 mounted archers
  Hand weapon, longbow, light armour
  240 pts
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Elite Elven Archers
  9 archers (+1 missile elite), with standard bearer and musician
  Hand weapon, longbow, light armour
  143 pts
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Elven Archers
  9 archers, with standard bearer and musician
  Hand weapon, longbow
  121 pts
  
  
  
  
  
  

Rank & File total: 988 pts

Total points:        1592

Bonus ideas

Out of the rest of my Wood Elf collection, I’ve got a long list of potential ‘bonus’ and ‘super-duper bonus’ units.

The ‘bonus’ units are my fall-back to give me a change of pace from the archers and cavalry.

Bonus

• 10 Warhounds
  40 pts
  
• 2 Warhound beast masters
  26 pts
  
  
  
  
  
• 4 Bears
  80 pts
  
• 1 Bear beast master
  13 pts
  
  
  
  
  

Allies:

• Zoat Wizard
  Hand weapon
  275 pts
  
  
  

Realistically, I won’t get round to the ‘super-duper bonus’ stack, but I’m including them to reflect the good chance that my focus will drift and I’ll pick up something random and shiny near my painting desk and start working on it.

• Dragon Lord (Lvl 10 Hero, on Dragon 1, winged)
  Hand weapon, spear, light armour, shield
  392 pts
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Wain Lord Chariot
  128 pts
  
  
  
  
  
• Treeman
  280 pts
  
  
  
  
  
  
• 23 Spearmen, with standard bearer and musician
  Hand weapon, spear
  225 pts
  
  
  
  I'm quite happy with my rescue-job on the leader
  
  
  
• 23 Warrior Kindred, with standard bearer and musician
  Hand weapon, light armour, shield
  275 pts
  
  
  
  
  

This gives me plenty of options, and the freedom to paint what I feel like during the challenge, and it shouldn’t be a tall order to meet the points requirements.

One last thing - and it’s still just an idea - for a Wildcard month (if I suddenly find lots of spare time) I’m tempted to build the scenery for the battle, so that when I complete the Orcs and Goblins part of the scenario, I have something to play it on…

Finally, the Overlord’s Offering! I picked an Elven Wardancer from my Wood Elf army, with Iannick’s favourite colours - which are usually outside my normal palette. For the first time, I used a hobby magnifying lamp while painting, and realised how bad my eyesight is… I really noticed the difference and was able to pick out a lot more detail than normal. This is too slow a process for the main challenge, but I may just use it when painting the leaders... It gives a taste of how I'm planning to paint my army.

Hope you like it Iannick!

Just John's Orcish Chronicle

It's great to be back for a second OWAC, I learned quite a bit from the last one and was determined to go into this one better prepared and ready to hit the ground running. Well that didn't happen - mainly due to me managing to get sick in early December with something that's like COVID but most certainly isn't.  Still I've managed to get enough done to get this post ready and I am looking forward to starting the prep and painting.

Way back in the mists of time, before the internet was anything more than a gleam in the eye of its creator/ inventor I picked up a copy of these two magazines 

Within the pages of these (at the time) weighty tomes were pages and pages of photographs of miniatures that I had never seen before and, with a few exceptions, were virtually impossible to get in the Dublin of the mid-80s. For some reason I particularly enamoured with the range of Chronicle miniatures, which were sculpted by Nick Lund. There was something different about them that really appealed to a young me, possibly because they were equipped like serious warriors but had horrific faces and rode giant wolves. These hobgoblins and wolfriders have always been among my favourite miniatures.

I managed to pick up a blister pack of the hobgoblins in the old Virgin Megastore (which was unlike anything we had until that time) and that was about it until much, much later when the now invented internet combined with eBay and an income allowed me to over indulge myself and gradually pick up  the miniatures that I had drooled over in my youth. Fast forward another 5 or 6 years and we are now in 2021 and it seems like a perfect time to start painting them. But where to start? Well, there is really only one option and so I decided to attempt to paint an army of mounted orc riding their giant wolves and then fill in any points gaps with other bits and pieces. 

I started going through the box of minis and paired off wolves with riders, added a few Grenadier wolf riders to add a few command figures and then realised that I had 36 wolves and riders. I've split these up into 4 units of 8 rank and files and a four  figure command unit. I'm hoping that I will be able to paint 8 wolves and riders a month but if not I will catch up in the Wildcard month. If I do manage to keep the Wildcard month free I have a couple of idea for what I would like to do.

The 3rd edition army list doesn't allow orcs to ride wolves, which are reserved for goblins instead. For some reason Citadel went with orcs on boars, possibly as they made the boars more vicious than the  wolves. Rather than messing around with points and stat lines I decided that these orcs would ride larger giant wolves (gianter wolves?) with the same stat line as the boars. Let's call them Wargs instead. This keeps things simple and means that the army works out as follows:

Rank & File 1

8 x Orcs on Wargs. The orcs are equipped with light armour and shields. 

8 x 25 points (19 + 2 + 4) = 200 points

Rank & File 2

8 x Orcs on Wargs. The orcs are equipped with light armour and shields.

8 x 25 points (19 + 2 + 4) = 200 points

Rank & File 3

8 x Orcs on Wargs. The orcs are equipped with light armour and bows.

8 x 25 points (19 + 2 + 4) = 200 points

Rank & File 4

8 x Orcs on Wargs. The orcs are equipped with light armour, shields and spears.

8 x 27 points (19 + 2 + 2 + 4) = 216 points

General & Command all mounted on Wargs

General Lvl 20 Hero with light armour & shield 135 points (116 + 16 + 2 + 1)

Shaman Lvl 15 179 points (163 + 16)

Champion Lvl 10 with light armour & two-handed weapon 81 points (61 + 16 + 2 + 2)

Champion Lvl 10 with light armour & shield 80 points (61 + 16 + 2 + 1)

That comes to a total of 1291 points not including anything done in the Wildcard month.

Here are a few photos of the army in its unpainted state. There is still a fair bit of prep work for most of the figures and quite a few figures need repair or conversion. Unfortunately its one of the downsides of these minis - they are generally so old that there are a lot more damaged versions than whole versions on eBay. I have to say I am looking forward to painting these now. Whether I will still be as enthusiastic as I work my way through 36 wolves I'm not sure. 

The contents of this box make up my hoped for Wild Card entry. Its all the parts that I have collected over the years to make up the Grenadier Orc warlords chariot drawn by four wolves. I think there are 2 complete ones in the box and maybe part of a third. I hope to get one of them made in the Wild Card month.

And finally here is my offering to the overlord with baby blue shirt and pink guts as requested.

All that's left is to wish everyone the best of luck for OWAC V.

Paul M's 90s High Elves Intro Post

The first thing to say is, it's good to be back! Having completed OWAC II and III with Nurgle-Beastmen and Border Princes Armies, I had to take a break last year as the dreaded Real Life took precedence... but, boy did I start to miss you guys and the monthly grind of the OWAC. 

I rode the wave of enthusiasm post OWAC III and finally felt confident enough to paint my Marauder Giant to fit my Border Princes Army, but barely painted a thing for the next year until signing up for OWAC V which finally got my painting mojo back and I finished a bunch of projects in quick order. Next up was a unit of  24 'not Nuln Spearmen' a set of fan sculpts by Geoff Solomon Simms that were produced as a group project for BOYL 2021. I added black to the colour scheme to pay homage to their Nuln background.

Next up I added 14 Chaos Goblins to the four I produced during OWAC II. These are a mix of Foundry Chaos Goblins and 'Bogles' from Oakbound Studios. They have a strong Labyrinth vibe to me and I hope to add some Goblins with a similar feel from Knightmare Miniatures in the not too distant future. Last but not least I brushed 12 months of dust off this Tim Prow sculpted Undead Minotaur from Die Hard Minatures, who will lezd the pack I produced for OWAC II. 

Rounding out previous OWAC entries was satisfying, but no substitue for the real thing. There were some outstanding entries last year, and some good hobby-friends participating, so I'm really looking forward to this year ☺

Offerings to the Overlord!

As a hobby group admin and erstwhile painting project organiser myself I know how much time and effort running something as awesome as the OWAC takes, so I will take this opportunity to say thank you to Iannick (and other helpers!) - it really is a great project to be a part of.

I've decided to send three minis as my tribute this year, partly to make up for the previous two tribute minis not actually making it to Iannick! The first one, a Chaos Marauder in sea-green armour, was lost in the post to Canada (we can only assume he is even now wandering the frozen Chaos wastes of the north!) and the second one (a plastic Battle Masters Archer from my Border Princes army) never even got sent as aforementioned 'Real Life' asserted itself :( 

The OWAC is clearly important enough to have it's own standard and champion, and to warrant a drum roll when it enters a room, so I've painted up a set of Geoff Solomon-Simms not-Nuln Spearmen Command. I'm afraid I failed to read the memo about pink and blue being the colours to go for, but the inspiration here were the colours of the OWAC Blog banner, so there is still a touch of blue in the mix.  

OWAC V - For Caledor and Glory!

For an added dose of personal nostalgia for OWAC V I'm finally going back to my very first WFB army and building on the 4E High Elf Army I've had since I was 12. As you would expect, that means I've already got a lot of very badly painted plastic monopose spearmen and archers in garish primary colours... and, although they might be making an appearance in some fashion, I'll be looking to diversify a bit and add in some elites for my OWAC V entry.

Here is the provisional army list:

5 Dragon Princes of Caledor - Heavy Cavalry - 215 pts
5 Ellyrian Reavers - Light Cavalry - 125 pts
10 White Lions of Chrace, inc. full command - 245pts
20 Lothern Seaguard - 280pts
"Leader Month" - 200 pts

Total - 1065 pts 

This year my OWAC prep list has included plenty of the normal basing and undercoating, plus lots of fixing horses tails; swapping heads on second hand cavalry; press molding extra shields, bows and quivers, and spear tips; stripping down a metal dragon that had been stuck together with three pints of araldite; sourcing additional contemporary Elf sculpts for possible stretch goals (because you gotta treat yo'self!); panicking when you find you are a single plastic archer short for a unit when you are sure you counted correctly but can't find the bugger anywhere...

Various failed experiments in press molding and two empty bases still to be filled...

I've already committed heresy by using 25mm Square Bases for my Lion Warriors

Will I live to regret black undercoat for High Elves?

I already hate this thing!

I'll admit to being a little further behind than I would have liked, but I've got most of that ticked off now. As usual the most difficult thing has been to stop myself diving in and painting one of the freshly prepped units before Jan 1st!

I'll sign off by saying how much I've enjoyed the other intro posts, and how much I'm looking forward  to seeing all the other armies take shape. 

Happy new year and good hobby fortunes to all!