Since I returned home from the HAVOC convention, I have been busy trying to complete a new faction for games of The Wars of Ozz. This faction will consist of several regiments from “The Great Land of Harvest” and features many anthropomorphic troops – especially of the garden variety. This post will focus on their leader, King Jack, and the scariest unit in Ozz – the Great Pumpkin Heads.

According to The Wars of Ozz the Great Land of Harvest was spared the destructive forces of the Last Great War – primarily because of the need to protect its fertile lands…

However, the same could not be said for the inhabitants. Madness bombs, plague gases, and mutagenic viruses were unleashed on soldiers and civilians alike. By the time the war ended, the natives of the Great Land of Harvest were twisted and raving mockeries of what they once had been…Most of the mutations were grotesqueries, little more than piles of mewling flesh that died quickly. Some clung on, just viable enough to survive for a few generations. Fewer still thrived. Most successful of these are the pumpkinheads. Were they once humans who developed bizarre pumpkin-like heads – or did the pumpkin plants suddenly stumble up on new legs, dumbfounded by their new forms? Nobody remembers and the pumpkinheads have no language to explain themselves, only wordless moans and roars. Still, they are intelligently wonderful mimics who learned how to survive and fight by watching and copying their neighbours…One among them developed the ability to speak and with that proclaimed himself the King of the Pumpkinheads…so the reign of King Jack began…under his guidance, the pumpkinheads have formed several organized warbands that he hires out to whatever general will hire them.

Wars of Ozz, section 2.6.2 The Great Land of Harvest, Page 42

The figures in this faction are wonderful – and I will be sharing several of them in separate posts. I’ll share a few WIP shots and then some eye candy. Given that all pumpkinheads needed a lot of orange, it made sense to combine the painting – so unusually for me – I simultaneously had King Jack and 4 of his units in various states of completion at the same time.

King Jack’s SKU# is OZZ504 (I bought the unmounted version) and can be seen here. For the Great Pumpkin Heads, The SKU# is OZZ505 and can be seen here. The figures come in multiple pieces (two pieces for the heads, a lower torso and two arms with various weapons). The unit consists of are 5 relatively large figures based on five 2″ square bases, but there is no Regimental Commander. The figures are metal – 28mm scale – but giants!

In the game, any unit fighting the Great Pumpkin Heads does so with a point loss of Resolve and Elan!

I’ll start with assembly of the figures and then move to describing the painting. I decided that I would work with subcomponents and then do a final assembly and touch up.

WIP shots…

I then decided that I did not want the eyes to be simple vacant pits of darkness. The origin of the creatures of the Great Land of Harvest suggests some strange way that they were animated to life. To represent this, and for ALL of my future Harvest troops, I decided that glowing yellow-green eyes would look great. For the Great Pumpkinheads, that meant sculpting their eyes with green stuff before assembling them.

Under the torso holes, I also sculpted and shaped the wells to match the rest of the legs.

Usually I prime my figures with an airbrush and in white. This time, I brush primed them in black. I would then dry brush serially white then orange on the figures and keep the shape of the recesses of the pumpkin looking darker. Similarly, I could make sure that the arms and the legs looked the same. If I had assembled then painted – it would have been more difficult – especially given the weight of the heads.

Then it was time to give the teeth and the eyes some starting color.

Once I assembled the heads – it was clear to me that I’d need to cover up some mold lines with green stuff. As these are big metal models, this task was not a surprise. I did my best to mirror the pumpkinheads shape and recesses. I’m not Roger, but I did try my best to do what I thought he’d do.

After the primer had dried, I dry brushed with white then orange – Tamiya Orange – that I bought for one of my daughter’s school projects in 1996! (It was a Trojan horse diorama we built together).

After the orange dried, I applied Army Painter Mid Brown wash, and then after that dried I highlighted the pumpkinheads with Vallejo Light Orange (I list all paints used at the end of the post for those who might want to know). Then I affixed the heads to the torsos and arranged a suitable mix of weapons/arms for variety.

Then I attached the arms and removed the assembled figures from the specimen jars – and put them on 4″ square steel bases with Gorilla Glue.

I airbrush varnished the figures with a gloss then a matte coat.

I used a lot of flocking for the bases (I love making bases complex).

King Jack was finished about the same time. He would need to go on an MDF base.

Now, for some…

Eye Candy…

King Jack

Stand 1

Stand 2

Stand 3

Stand 4

Stand 5

Regimental Shot

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 GREAT PUMPKINHEAD REGIMENT & KING JACK:

1. Green Stuff
2. Gorilla Glue
3. Regimental MDF base from Old Glory/Wars of Ozz Miniatures
4. 2″ square steel base from Wargames Accessories (#21)
5. Mounted Brigade Commander MDF base from Old Glory/Wars of Ozz Miniatures
6. Elmer’s PVA Glue
7. Reaper “09214 Black Primer”
8. Vallejo Surface Primer “Russian Green”
9. 1 1/4″ x 1″ steel base from Wargames Accessories (#FOW1)
10. Poster tack
11. Vallejo Mecha Surface Primer “White”
12. Vallejo “Airbrush Thinner”
13. Army Painter “Green Tone” (wash/shade)
14. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Imperial Fist”
15. Citadel “Tesseract Glow”
16. Battlefront “Gunship Green”
17. Vallejo Model Color “White”
18. Battlefront “Black”
19. Tamiya “Orange”
20. PS Model Color “British Brown Drab”
21. Vallejo Model Air “Green Brown”
22. Vallejo Model Air “Dark Brown”
23. Vallejo Model Air “Brown”
24. Vallejo Model Air “Dark Steel”
25. Citadel “Ironbreaker”
26. Vallejo Model Air “Light Steel”
27. Citadel “Nuln Oil GLOSS” (wash)
28. Vallejo Game Color “Livery Green”
29. Army Painter “Mid Brown” (wash/shade)
30. Vallejo Game Air “Escorpena Green”
31. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Grim Black”
32. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Holy White”
33. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Contrast Medium”
34. Vallejo Model Color “Light Orange”
35. Martha Stuart Crafts “Pale Bronze”
36. Vallejo “Flow Improver”
37. Vallejo Mecha Varnish “Gloss Varnish”
38. Vallejo Mecha Varnish “Matte Varnish”
39. Army Painter “Battlefields Grass Green” (flocking)
40. Army Painter “Battlefield Field Grass” (flocking)
41. Army Painter “Battlefields Field Grass” (flocking)
42. Army Painter “Battlefields Meadow Flowers” (flocking)
43. Shadow’s Edge Miniatures “6mm Dark Forest Orange Tufts” (flocking)
44. Gamer’s Grass “Orange Flowers” (flocking)
45. Small stones (flocking)
46. Small oak twigs (flocking)

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.