With it being my late winter-early spring “wargaming convention season”, I have been working on multiple projects simultaneously. As I mentioned in my last post Jungle Bases from Wargames Terrain Workshop, I’d be sharing a post on my Winkie cavalry which I finished recently – along with the Winkie Brigade Commander on his specially-shaped MDF base.

All are riding Zilks, which are carnivorous huge birds. The SKU# is OZZ305 and can be seen here. The figures come in two pieces (rider torso and a zilk combo rider’s legs combo). I had ordered/selected OZZ304 during the Kickstarter a while back, but got shipped OZZ305. The OZZ304 SKU is for the Winkie Heavy Cavalry – but they are the same price and I had no problem with having them in my brigade. There are 10 figures based on five 2″ square bases, plus the Regimental Commander on his own MDF base.

The Winkie Light Cavalry costs one point less than the Winkie Heavy Cavalry (6 vs 5) – and only loses one point of Melee (8 versus 9) and Elan (8 versus 9), so it’s still a pretty potent unit to have. Plus, I needed a Brigade Commander which came in the Kickstarter, so all is good by me.

According to “The History of Ozz”, after the Madness Bombs fell at the end of the Last Great War, Ozz was founded. East of the Emerald City, Evora the Wicked Witch of the East, conquered and molded the Winkies into her own fighting force. Winkies are believed to be mutated humans, perhaps even descended from genetically-created super soldiers at the end of the Last Great War.

As for the Winkie Cavalry, according to The Wars of Ozz:

After Evora lost her first battle to goat-riding raiders from the Great Endless Desert, she suddenly wanted cavalry. Perhaps inspired by the Madness, she had a vision of zilk-riding lancers sweeping down on her enemies. There were only two problems with this. First, the Winkies were not a mounted people. Second, nobody had ever thought of riding a zilk – – and with good reason. Zilks or “terror birds”, weren’t ridable – they were giant, carnivorous, two-legged birds of the high mountain valleys. Simply getting close to one was risking death.

Of course, after a few executions, nobody wanted to tell Evora it couldn’t be done. An expedition was mounted and a herd of zilks was corralled and broken to saddle. The Winkie survivors had the honour of being the first commanders of the Zilk Squadrons. For the rank and file soldiers being promoted to Zilk trooper is seen as a punishment rather than an honour. Everyone knew a terror bird would find a way to kill its rider sooner or later. Since drilling was almost impossible and the riders could barely get their mounts to cooperate on the field, Zilk regiments were and are poorly trained. Still, if the riders can get them to go in a straight line, the Zilks can land a charge with a powerful impact.

Wars of Ozz, section 2.2.2.3, page 25

I designated this Zilk Regiment the 20th Winkie Light Cavalry Regiment (WLCR). It, and the Brigade Commander, joins Evora, the 21st Winkie Infantry Regiment (WIR), the Winkie Sharpshooters, and the Winkie Light Artillery Battery in my Brigade. Plus the Brigade has available the Lesser Apes and the Great Flying Apes.

As discussed on previous posts, the Winkies (the orcs of the Ozz world) consider melee as their preferred means of combat. No missile weapons here!

I began prepping the unit back on Monday, February 13th by cleaning up and filing off as many mold lines as I could without taking off any details. I then washed the figures with soap and water to remove any oils left over from the casting process. I decided to paint the riders and the mounts separately as I thought that might be easier given the proximity that the Winkie lances would be to the Zilk mounts. After drilling with a pin vise, I carefully put small balls of poster tack into the wells where the riders would be affixed – so as to prevent any primer from compromising future glue adhesion when I was assembling them. I then applied primer with an airbrush, followed by a wash of Citadel “Nuln Oil”. As usual, I will list all the paints I used on this project at the end of this post for those interested in that sort of thing. There were 82 this time!

One different approach that I took on for this project was to have every zilk be painted totally differently from every other zilk in terms of a painting scheme. To accomplish this, I chose a range of pastel craft paints from Michaels and mixed them with Vallejo Thinning Medium. These are shades that I would not normally use – and I used these pastels for the legs and necks, and married those to other paints (mainly contrast and speed paints) on the beaks, claws and feathers. I used a lot of different paints here! For that reason, I definitely needed another Excel spreadsheet – like this one:

Let’s move on to some WIP. Click any picture to get a better view.

WIP shots…

Below is my progress through 2/20:

With TotalCon37 looming, I pushed as far as I could before I needed to pack the car with all my Aztec, Maya, and Conquistador stuff. When I returned, I jumped back into working simultaneously on them and the Jungle Bases.

I chose a variety of tufts and grasses for flocking – plus some small rocks from near my driveway that I washed. After that, all I needed to add was the 20th colors – purple just for Roger!

Now that you have seen the WIP, how about some…

Eye Candy

Winkie Brigade Commander

This figure had its own mount – and is free to have in your force in the game. The Brigade commander will have attribute tabs (which is why there is a tab well at the back of the figure). Early on I decided to freehand the stripes on all of these zilk-mounted warriors. His colors are unique in the brigade – I went with a red and yellow theme here.

2oth Winkie Light Cavalry Regiment

There are 5 stands of 2 figures each plus a regimental commander – and I tried to pose, paint, and arrange them as differently as possible. As with all zilk-mounted regimental commanders the one here goes on an MDF stand with a removable tab for an attribute tab in the game if needed. All have white hats per The Wars of Ozz.

Regimental Commander Stand

Stand 1

Stand 2

Stand 3

Stand 4

Command Stand

Group Shots

I thought by having these with a lot of color that they would be wonderful attacking the Munchkin Light Cavalry!

This completes (for now) my Winkie Brigade. Next, I will be moving on to the Land of Harvest faction as well as some terrain for Ozz. But first, I am going to Cold Wars – where these Winkies will see battle!

And yes, I still have more to come…

Miscellaneous details and references for those interested in that sort of thing:

For all of my previous posts on Wars of Ozz games, figures, units, and other related projects – please see this page.

PAINTS, INKS, GLAZES, SHADES, WASHES, PIGMENTS, FLOCKING, GLUES AND MORE THAT I USED ON THIS WINKIE LIGHT CAVALRY REGIMENT & THE WINKIE BRIGADE COMMANDER:

1. Regimental MDF base from Old Glory/Wars of Ozz Miniatures
2. Mounted Brigade Commander MDF base from Old Glory/Wars of Ozz Miniatures
3. Elmer’s PVA Glue
4. Paper clip wire pieces
5. Gorilla Glue
6. 1 1/4″ x 1″ steel base from Wargames Accessories (#FOW1)
7. Poster tack
8. Vallejo Premium Primer “White”
9. Vallejo “Flow Improver”
10. Vallejo “Airbrush Thinner”
11. Citadel “Nuln Oil” (wash)
12. Vallejo Model Color “Glossy White”
13. Vallejo Model Color “White”
14. Vallejo “Thinner Medium”
15. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Ironjawz Yellow”
16. Americana “Bubblegum Pink”
17. Vallejo Mecha Color “SZ Red”
18. Craftsmart “Natural Buff”
19. Citadel “Daemonette Hide”
20. Citadel “Tesseract Glow”
21. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Doomfire Magenta”
22. Vallejo Game Air “Hot Orange”
23. Craftsmart “Neon Yellow”
24. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Black Legion”
25. Vallejo Mecha Color “Fluorescent Magenta”
26. P3 “Sulfuric Yellow”
27. Vallejo Model Color “Light Orange”
28. Craftsmart “Neon Pink”
29. Craftsmart “Grape Taffy”
30. Craftsmart “Lilac”
31. Craftsmart “Wisteria Blue”
32. Craftsmart “Robin Egg Blue”
33. Craftsmart “Beach Glass”
34. Craftsmart “Bright Mint”
35. Craftsmart “Light Pistachio”
36. Craftsmart “Rose”
37. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Snakebite Leather”
38. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Contrast Medium”
39. Battlefields “Black”
40. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Space Wolves Grey”
41. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Holy White”
42. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Baal Red”
43. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Asurman Blue”
44. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Volupus Pink”
45. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Gryph-Charger Grey”
46. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Shyish Purple”
47. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Sigvald Burgundy”
48. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Terradon Turquoise”
49. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Aethermatic Blue”
50. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Striking Scorpion Green”
51. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Dark Angels Green”
52. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Iyanden Yellow”
53. Vallejo Model Air “Bright Brass”
54. Vallejo Model Color “Wood Grain”
55. Citadel “Seraphim Sepia” (wash)
56. Citadel “Ironbreaker”
57. Vallejo Model Air “Gun Metal”
58. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Ork Skin”
59. Vallejo Model Air “Armour Brown”
60. Vallejo Model Air “Steel”
61. Secret Weapon Washes “Parchment”
62. Citadel “Lamenters Yellow” (glaze)
63. Citadel “Nuln Oil GLOSS” (wash)
64. Vallejo Game Ink “Black Green”
65. Vallejo Game Ink “Red”
66. PS Model Color “British Brown Drab”
67. P3 “Blazing Ink” (ink)
68. Army Painter “Purple Tone” (wash/shade)
69. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Imperial Fist”
70. Vallejo Model Color “Light Brown”
71. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Skeleton Horde”
72. 2″ square steel base from Wargames Accessories (#21)
73. Vallejo Mecha Varnish “Gloss Varnish”
74. Vallejo Mecha Varnish “Matte Varnish”
75. Black Sharpie pen
76. Army Painter “Battlefields Grass Green” (flocking)
77. Army Painter “Battlefield Field Grass” (flocking)
78. Army Painter “Battlefields Field Grass” (flocking)
79. Shadow’s Edge Miniatures “6mm Dark Forest Red Tufts” (flocking)
80. Small stones
81. Army Painter “Battlefields Meadow Flowers” (flocking)
82. Winkie Flags from Buck Surdu printed on card stock

Again, as you may want to check out the Wars of Ozz figures’ range – there are two places to get them (and I make no money from this btw). The game rules and the figures are available from the following two places:

In the US Old Glory has a site – Wars of Ozz Miniatures.

In the UK go to Sally 4th.