ZeroTwentythree's March Undead (198 pts.)

March Entry

Rank & File

6 Death Riders w/lances and shields ......... 138

I really started this project with a 100% serious fast attack type strike-force  in mind. Somehow that devolved (or is it evolved) into skeletons on flamingos. There's a viral photo to blame.

The concept behind this year's OWAC project was born around Halloween 2021. We had a Halloween music station playing in our dining room for weeks. There were two triggers for me. The primary one was Donovan's "Season of the Witch", which became Season of the Liche. The other, which lurked in the back of my skull for a while, was a photo shared on Facebook of some plastic skeletons riding on flamingo lawn ornaments. Not only did I stumble upon it myself but several friends shared it with me. I *think* this is the photo:

I had every intention of rehabilitating some old Citadel plastic cavalry, as explained & photographed in my introduction post as well as some behind the scenes pics in the private OWAC FB group. At some point, for better or for worse, I found these Playmobil flamingos, started experimenting with a couple of test figures, then cutting up & repositioning legs... and here we are.

Except that was not the end of it.

 

Because my garden will now have these (as soon as it stops snowing).

 

And when I needed to travel to Florida for work a few weeks ago, instead of staying at a hotel as I normally would, I booked this Air B&B, specifically because of the decor.

And that's not the end of it... But why dump all the flamingo obsession in one entry. No, best to save some for next time. ;)

 

I had plans for more of my core project, plus bonus figures, terrain, etc. but all I managed this month was another necromancer, The Overlord, Master of the Field of Bones, seen here explaining the rules of the Challenge to the members.

I figured if I'm going to model the Field of Bones (and I'm not done with that yet), it should have an Overlord.

March Rank & File Month

6 Death Riders w/Lances, Shields....... 138 pts
1 Overlord (lv. 5 necromancer)........ 60 pts

March Total: 198 pts
Grand Total: 883 pts.

Mustafa’s GSC and Nids. Total so far 963 points (727 points)

Rank and file month 3 

Banged out a lot this month! 28 minis to bring the army total up to 963 points!

Genestealer Patriarch 72pts

20 Genestealers 560pts

5 Spore Mines 50pts

2 Biovores 40pts

Total 727pts

I wanted to see how much I could manage using just washes and drybrushing. With all their textures, I thought that Nids would be the perfect choice to give it a try on.

First up, the Patriarch and Biovores.

The Patriarch is from the recent Space Hulk. I do have an old school metal one on a throne, but I’m saving him for the Leader month.

The Biovores were great fun to paint. Loads of lovely textures on them.

Next up, spore mines. Simple but quite characterful little minis.

Finally, the Genestealers.  Can’t have a genestealer cult without stealers! They are a mix of Space Hulk and regular ones. Don’t look too closely or the mould lines will get you!!!

And finally, a group shot of  everything that’s been done so far!

Next month will most likely be more from the nid side of the army.

Cheers :)

Chris' Empire Army - March (410 points)

Rank & File month 3

Thankfully it's been a less busy month than February with 4 units, including all the missile troops.

10 Crossbows - 80 points

10 More Crossbows - 80 points

10 Hand-gunners - Handguns and heavy Armour - 110 points

10 Foresters - Scouts with longbows and light armour - 120 points

Everything together - 410 points

MARCH: Tom's Space Orks (R&F month 2 of 4): 199points

A glory shot of all The Glory! I am so pleased  to have painted all the freebooters :)

(here's a link to last years orky OWAC: link)

Eeerrgh! Most of this month was me putting off painting the bikes and not painting anything else because I need to paint the bikes. Anyway, motivation for them has deserted me, so I leave a half painted trio of minis and swap them out for something a bit more fun. 

Fortunately, I'd already made a start on these Freebooters during the previous months in preparation for such an eventuality so the pressure of the bikes is alleviated pushed on to next month 😬

Freebooters:

A happy lil bolta boy - sporting a reconditioned space marine bolta...

A boy with his pride and joy - a plasma gun! Arguments about whether the heavy plasma is better caused this boy to once lose his cool, and unfortunately, his eye as well.

A khorne boy. He has an affinity for red and his stubgun (which makes a satisfyingly loud bang). Not as satisfying as the squishy noise the 'umies make when caught in his power fist...

Just red trouser stripes for this boy. I feared a wider strip would somehow be too red, and this thin stripe would/is be a nightmare to line with blue... His horns are sadly lacking their point, but I'd like to think it's from a ferocious 'eadbutt charge rather than anything else.

This boy's carrying the goods! Also the spikey horns are particularly *ahem* eye catching.

Crabman. This was the very last of the freebooter sculpts that I painted. I found him difficult to get going, and a little tricky on the colour placement. I thought the yellow shoulders would work because of the dark helmet, but maybe I should have switched the colours round. Either way I like him, the scamp :)

The Kaptin! Rumour has it that the fur cloak is actually a common boar with some 'alter-ray-shuns' and not actually a wolf that he killed in a fight with some rock 'ard space marines. 

No one discusses this matter within ear shot of the Kaptin.

These freebooters have obviously spent a little too long floating in the warp abroad their spacehulk, and have been slightly, um, well, modified.

They join the rest of my freebooters - and: HAPPY DAY! They complete my collection of catalogued freebooting sculpts. There are a couple more models to eventually join them, but they are either 3rd party or not in the dedicated freebooter range, or a goblin. And as we all know - goblins don't count :)

Rol Call please :) From the Citadel Miniatures Catalogue section one (the Blue one)

And from the Citadel Miniatures Catalogue Three (the Green one)

And this from the Citadel Miniatures 1998 Annual...

No one needs to mention this guy who I do not have. If anyone has him going for swapsies or cash monies, please get in touch!

Aaaaanyway, whilst painting them I did manage to paint one (1). Single. Solitary. Bike. All on it's own:

I think this brings me up to a full squad of five boys and one nob - which is relieving.

Bike:

And also,

Some grotty gretchin:

A punk, feelin' lucky:

Mind you I have neglected to paint pink/purple onto his nose and knuckles, but hopefully once he's mixed in with the crowd he'll be right at home. I did paint his trousers in freebooter fashion, which might continue with the rest of the grots...

This guys a little sweaty already. I wouldn't count on him to stay in the fight.

This is more like it. Mean, green and with a massive gun.

EXTRAS

This squig is a fan sculpt, although other than that I have no knowledge of its history/maker. I believe it's part of a set - and if anyone has any more info I'd love to know!

This helpful chap. Hopefully he realises that's not a hammer he's carrying...

This king daddy grandfather squig, from knightmare miniatures. Fun fact - I added that 'beauty' spot cos I accidentally botched a thick bit of cream paint there (also just above the left eye brow...) and couldn't really match the green skin colour to cover it up.

Another squig from the Knightmare range

I realise I've neglected to show a pic of all the GW squig sculpts - tune in next month for that extra gravy yo :)

And that's just about it for March. Hopefully see y'all in April with the rest of those flipping bikes. Fingers crossed!

Intro: (link)

Month One: Leader (link)

Month Two: Rank and File (1of4) (link)

Month Three: Rank and File (2of4)

129...  Freebooters x6 (with WYSIWYG loadout) 

47...  Warbike

20...   Gretchin x4

3...  Grot assistant

FREE Squig

FREE Squig

FREE Squig

Total: 199

goblinpaladin's Wood Elves II - a March Rank & File update (236 points)

Nature, red in tooth and claw...
   - Alfred Tennyson, In Memoriam A.H.H, Canto LVI 

very little red actually

I actually finished my March commitment in February, trying to build a buffer which is now being rapidly eroded by climate change. While I am luckier than my countrymen a few hours to the north of me in that my region is not flooded or annihilated by the rains and neither I nor my family are at risk of death or injury, constant rain for two weeks meant that I couldn't undercoat anything until about a week ago. Fingers crossed for April.

RANK ⁊ FILE

Beastmaster + 3 warhounds (25 points)

Beastmaster + 4 bears (93 points) (3 bears count-as 4)

Beastmaster + 5 wild cats (118 points)

Mostly classic Jes Goodwin sculpts this month, as I've managed to get all the original beastmasters and at least one of each animal.

chúnna (chulainn)

The dogs are Jes Goodwin's, but are a weird size compared to other dogs on the market, so I'm not sure if I'll be able to expand the pack.

hound beastmaster

hound

I'll show off the Jes Goodwin sculpts in these kinds of images for those who don't know them.

no not those kinds of bears

The leftmost bear is Goodwin's Citadel sculpt. The mama bear in the middle (who counts as two, sitting on a 50mm square base) is from Crooked Dice. The cuddly fellow on the right comes from Bears Head Miniatures.

bear beastmaster

bear

He actually looks quite gentle, really.

faster, pussycat! kill! kill!

A range of cats here, with only the centre lynx coming from Goodwin. The other two are available at Ral Partha; cougar; tiger.

beastmaster

Beastmaster is, of course, a gender-neutral title.

kitties

Tried to paint the tiger like a lot of paleoart depicted sabre-toothed tigers in my childhood, to get a sense that species extinct elsewhere in the Old World still dwelled in Loren. The black panther-types were to echo those species, which usually dwell in hotter climates than Loren but, uh... elves, man.

The giant cats thing leans more into Wood Elves' indigenous American influences than Celtic anyway, although there was a European lion until the late BCE.

elven hunting cat

Finally, we end with Jes Goodwin's elven cat sculpt - a surprisingly rare miniature, and one I don't think I did a great job on. Still, painted is better than not.

we're gonna eat your bones, outsiders

Lo, those many years ago in my first OWAC, I did paint some boars for this selfsame project. Therefore let me present all the animal packs and their beastmasters I've completed so far. Almost certainly absolutely useless on the table, but they do look pretty cool.

Interior illustration for "The Beastfriend", Warhammer Companion, p.20
Specific artist not credited. © Games Workshop. Reprinted by Cubicle 7, 2020.

Coming up next: Characters! Hopefully!