Winkie Light Artillery Battery (Wars of Ozz)

Any good brigade in Wars of Ozz games will need a bit of artillery. As I mentioned in my last post on the Winkie Sharpshooters, Winkies (the orcs of the world of Ozz) are much more interested in fighting hand-to-hand in melee with a foe versus shooting a weapon at one. Winkies are not overly bright in general, and certainly are not very educated. According to the Wars of Ozz rulebook,

“…Winkie artillery is something of an afterthought. Numerous battles and sieges have shown the usefulness of a strong artillery arm, but it is simply not a glorious or honourable role according to the Winkie mindset. Few Generals are chosen from the ranks of the artillery. Chieftains’ sons would much rather be leading a regiment of spearmen or jaegers. The artillery requires too much thinking, the guns can’t compete with the workshops of the Munchkins, and there is too much heavy lifting to be glorious. Consequently, the commanders of the batteries are an eccentric lot. They range from brilliant to simply odd. Except for the master gunners, most of the crew are conscripts secretly happy to be well back from the front line.”

Wars of Ozz by John R. “Buck” Surdu, Section 2.2.2.5, page 25

I therefore decided to have a Winkie Light Artillery Battery (WLAB) for my Brigade, and save some points for other troops. This unit (#OZZ306) has 5 figures plus the gun in total. I use an MDF sabot base for all of the figures and the gun similar to the Munchkin Medium Artillery Battery that I completed earlier. The WLAB is also 28mm in scale, and the figures are metal. It is worth 4 points versus a regular Winkie infantry unit which costs only 5. In the game, light artillery has a short/long range combination of 6″/18″ versus that of a medium battery which is 8″/24″.

The WLAB are supposed to have red coats, with white vests and trousers. Of course, being Winkies, the carriage of their gun had to be yellow. To me, their uniforms evoked a British look with the red coats. I again felt that the Winkie fur caps HAD to be black (but I think I’ll be changing some future Winkie units’ headgear on that score).

I began prepping the unit back on December 22nd in anticipation of my end of year surgery. My goal for the mass priming was to have some more units ready for painting in early 2023. I started painting the WLAB in earnest on New Year’s Day – and managed to complete the battery on January 5th.

This unit also qualifies as my second entry for for Dave Stone’s “Paint What You Got 2022/2023” challenge. As is my custom, I will list all the paints I used on this unit at the end of this post for those interested. This list really is mostly for my own use for later reference as well – I do forget stuff on occasion – and this listing has saved me on multiple occasions when I need to repeat a painting process! First, I’ll share some (well a few) WIP shots, then some eye candy of the WLAB.

WIP shots…

I mostly followed my usual process – but here are some photos of the WIP below. I primed back on December 22nd in a mass-priming exercise as noted earlier. The rest of the WIP photos are from January 1-January 3rd.

I finished the flocking on January 4th, which left me only to add a wisp of smoke (a shred of painted pillow batting from one of my smoke markers) – to the match wielder on January 5th – and the WLAB was done. On to…

Eye Candy

The WLAB is on an MDF sabot base – that I also magnetized for easy transport and playability.

Group shots

I am definitely going to continue to build my brigade of Winkies in 2023, as well as more Ozz goodness. I have now completed 104 of my 268 planned figures for the game – so I have a ways to go. It’s only slightly fewer figures than my Spanish Conquest/Mesoamerican period stuff, but hopefully it will go quicker.

And note to Roger of Rantings from under the Wargames Table, yes, Roger, I do have an Excel spreadsheet for all these figures! Like Roger, I hope that you will stay with me on this path. And also check out Roger’s blog too.

As a second side note – and another recommendation – coincidentally my Aussie buddy Luke (IRO – the Imperial Rebel Ork) is also working on some black powder fantasy stuff for his Turnip28 project. Think anthropomorphic marsh rutabaga trolls (try to say that three times quickly)and Napoleonic zombies. So, he’s doing black powder fantasy as well. He’s even getting into sculpting for it – so I recommend you check him out. He’s done some cool artillery that you can see here and here is his sculpt post – both of which are outstanding, but there is a lot to see on his blog. His stuff is more grim dark than Ozz, but very cool, and it’s quite interesting that we are on a similar wavelength at the same time cross-globally.

Lastly, I had planned for this post to be about a 2022 roundup and my 2023 goal setting – but that will be the next one sometime this week (sorry Roger – but I do promise at least one Excel shot next time for both you and John from Just Needs Varnish! (another fine blog indeed).

I that roundup post, I’ll review and hold myself accountable for my 2022 predictions and goals of a year ago. I did fall short in some areas, which I am hoping to improve upon in 2023. I will set my 2023 goals in “blogging stone” as well. I am really going to push myself to finish as many Ozz figures as I can until preparing for conventions or even (shudder) playing a game take up more time – after all I need to game sometimes…

And I still have more Ozz stuff 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 ARTILLERY BATTERY:

1. Gorilla Glue
2. 1/2″ x 1/2″ square steel bases from Wargames Accessories (#16)
3. Artillery Battery MDF sabot base from Old Glory/Wars of Ozz Miniatures
4. 1 1/4″ x 1″ steel base from Wargames Accessories (#FOW1)
5. Poster tack
6. Vallejo Premium Primer “White”
7. Vallejo “Flow Improver”
8. Vallejo “Airbrush Thinner”
9. Citadel “Nuln Oil” (wash)
10. Vallejo Model Color “White”
11. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Ork Skin”
12. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Contrast Medium”
13. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Black Legion”
14. Vallejo Model Air “Bright Brass”
15. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Ironjawz Yellow”
16. Createx Airbrush Colors “Pearlized Black”
17. Vallejo “Thinner Medium”
18. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Baal Red”
19. Citadel “Cryptek Armourshade” (wash/shade)
20. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Holy White”
21. Citadel “Seraphim Sepia” (wash/shade)
22. Vallejo “Gloss Varnish”
23. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Runic Grey”
24. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Striking Scorpion Green”
25. Vallejo Game Air “Black”
26. Citadel “Ironbreaker”
27. Vallejo Model Color “Wood Grain”
28. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Snakebite Leather”
29. Citadel “Warpfiend Grey”
30. Vallejo Model Air “Gun Metal”
31. Vallejo Model Air “Steel”
32. PS Model Color “British Brown Drab”
33. Army Painter “Red Tone” (wash/shade)
34. 1/8″ neodymium magnets
35. Elmer’s PVA Glue
36. Army Painter “Battlefields Grass Green” (flocking)
37. Army Painter “Battlefield Field Grass” (flocking)
38. Army Painter “Battlefields Field Grass” (flocking)
39. Army Painter “Battlefields Meadow Flowers” (flocking)
40. Shadow’s Edge Miniatures “6mm Dark Forest Red Tufts” (flocking)
41. Pillow batting (for smoke)

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 Wars of Ozz 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.