Munchkin Medium Artillery Battery (Wars of Ozz)

Any Munchkin Brigade needs a good dose of heavy firepower to fend off the enemies of the Emerald City at long range. For my Munchkin Brigade for Wars of Ozz games, I finished off a Munchkin Medium Artillery Battery with Crew (OZZ107). Let’s call it MMAB.

In the game, the MMAB is the stronger of the two artillery choices (the other being a light battery). For comparison, a medium battery can fire at targets up to 24″, while a light battery range is out to 18″, with musket range being at max of 14″. In the game, firing at half ranges is more effective as one would think, and short range for the MMAB is 8″, while a light battery is 6″, and muskets are 7″. So this MMAB gives the brigade a bit of standoff firepower.

The artillery batteries in Wars of Ozz are composed of 5 figures plus a gun. For close combat, they are armed with carbines (which are slightly more than half of the range of muskets – but hopefully they don’t have to get into melee – but the odds are that they will!). While an infantry or cavalry regiment has 5 bases – each of which can take 4 hits – the battery can take 5 hits (one per figure). Each hit removes a figure and loses a die for attacking. The scale is 28mm and these figures are metal.

I started parallel-working on these while I worked on Colonel Tik-Tok’s Infantry Regiment back on November 25th. When I needed to let something dry, I did a little work on this unit. The gun with its carriage required assembly. With the carriage needing serial painting – so as to get the right bluish look per Ozz canon (pun intended – see how I did that!) – and the gun being pretty big, the parallel approach got it done without causing me impatience. I followed the same procedure as to painting these figures as I did with the previous units, by priming in white, then washing with a dark shade, then painting, highlighting, and shading.

A major consideration for me was how to paint up the cannon and carriage. First, there were undersides to the gun and carriage to consider for painting and assembly. Second, there were the choices of colors. I experimented with several blues and bluish craft metallics for the gun. Initially, I went with a classic grey gun metal look for the gun, but changed it to brass as I liked the look better. As Munchkins are being very fond of blue, I thought that was appropriate. As is my custom, I list all the paints I used on this unit at the end of this post for those interested in that sort of stuff (and for my own use for later reference as well). First, I’ll share some WIP shots, then some eye candy of the MMAB.

WIP shots…

As discussed, I started on November 25th. This was mainly preparatory work on filing, washing before priming. My main effort was the CTTIR during this time.

There is an MDF base available for artillery batteries with slots for the gun and figure – that even allows for removing casualties and for denoting if the gun is limbered or unlimbered. That needed assembly, so another thing to do while other things were drying. I also was thinking about transport and storage – so I added steel bases under the MDF ones for the artillerists and the gun.

Then, I slowly worked on painting the cannon and carriage components and assembled them by December 1st.

The figures came next, but unfortunately do not have any WIP shots of them. I followed Ozz canon (yes, I did that again) for the colors.

On December 4th, this brought me back to completing the magnetizing the unit for gaming, storage, and transport. My artillerist figures were mounted on 3/4″ steel washers. These would be glued to the MDF bases, which had 1/2″ steel squares glued to the their undersides as seen above. I drilled out 1/8″ holes in the center of each of the base’s recesses. Then, I glued another 1/2″ square steel base below the holes with 1/8″ neodymium magnets in each hole. In the end, the figures were removable from the base (but won’t fall out), and the base will store safely in my magnetic sheet-lined Really Useful Box with my other units. You can see this below in the photo.

By December 7th, I had the unit painted and was ready for final assembly and flocking.

And…by December 9th I was done!

How about some…

Eye Candy…

The unit can be shown as limbered (as above) or unlimbered as you can see below. A casualty is taken out on the right.

My favorite shot:

So now I am up to three units plus two Wizards. The Munchkin Light Cavalry is next. As you may want to check out the figures range – there are two places to get them (and I make no money from this btw). The game rules and 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.

Thanks for checking this post out and please let me know what you think in the comments section. 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 MUNCHKIN MEDIUM ARTILLERY BATTERY:

1. Vallejo Premium Primer “White”
2. Vallejo “Flow Improver”
3. Vallejo “Airbrush Thinner”
4. Gorilla Glue
5. 1/2″ x 1/2″ square steel bases from Wargames Accessories (#16)
6. MDF Artillery base from Wars of Ozz Miniatures
7. 1/8″ neodymium magnets
8. 3/4″ steel washers
9. Poster tack
10. Citadel “Nuln Oil” (wash)
11. Vallejo Model Color “White”
12. 1 1/4″ x 1″ square steel bases from Wargames Accessories (#FOW1)
13. Elmer’s PVA Glue
14. Vallejo Model Air “Gun Metal”
15. Armory “Dark Blue”
16. DecoArt “Peacock Pearl”
17. Tamiya XF-6 “Copper”
18. Vallejo Model Color “Dark Prussian Blue”
19. Martha Stewart Crafts “Pale Bronze”
20. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Dark Wood”
21. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Contrast Medium”
22. Army Painter “Blue Tone”
23. Secret Weapon Washes “Golden Brown” (wash)
24. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Crusader Skin”
25. Citadel “Nuln Oil GLOSS” (wash/shade)
26. Citadel “Cryptek Armourshade” (wash/shade)
27. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Hardened Leather”
28. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Grim Black”
29. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Frostheart”
30. Vallejo Mecha Varnish “Matte Varnish”
31. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Baal Red”
32. Vallejo Model Air “Bright Brass”
33. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Bad Moon Yellow”
34. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Karandras Green”
35. Vallejo Model Air “Armour Brown”
36. Vallejo Model Air “Steel”
37. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Holy White”
38. PS Model Color “British Brown Drab”
39. Army Painter “Battlefields Grass Green” (flocking)
40. Army Painter “Battlefield Field Grass” (flocking)
41. Army Painter “Battlefields Field Grass” (flocking)
42. Shadow’s Edge Miniatures “6mm Dark Forest Dark Blue Tufts” (flocking)