With regards to my available troops for Wars of Ozz games, I have pretty much gotten some of the main factions. I have Munchkins, Winkies, and a lot of Harvest. This is fine – except for the Gillikins and the Quadlings. I do have an unpainted Quadling Brigade that I got from Greg Priebe that is in my painting queue. What I did not have – until recently, was a Gillikin Brigade.
Gillikins soldiers and forces are more known as “the Imperial Gillikin Army”. Gillikins are humans who have mutated into the goblin-like inhabitants of Ozz after the Last Great War.
They serve under Arella the Witch, also known as the mistress of Beasts. She is the witch sister of Evora, the ruler of the rival Winkies. Theirs is indeed a fierce rivalry. Arella has subjugated multiple tribes of Gillikins, and created her Army. It is composed of four branches: Infantry, Cavalry, Beast, and Sorcerer League. The Infantry Branch is composed of units fashioned mostly after those of the Munchkins. The Munchkins had previously defeated Arella’s attempt at conquest, hence Arella’s desire to up her conquest game by copying her rival. The Cavalry Branch is made up of goat-riding Gillikins. The Beast Branch is composed of giant allied (or subjugated) intelligent animal units – such as Dire Lions, Dire Tigers, Dire Bears, (oh my)…as well as Dire Wolves. The Sorcerer League is made up of various lesser witches and wizards.
I have the Lions, the Dire Tigers, and the Dire Bears in my painting queue. And, as discussed on two of my previous game posts, here and here, I have been lucky enough to have been able to borrow Gillikins from my good friend Chris Comeau. But, I really needed to have some of my own. However, my current unpainted Ozz lead hill is already at nearly 400 figures – and I did not want to increase its size – or wait to get Gillikin troops.
Enter eBay. Several quite decently painted units – and really whole armies have come up on eBay for Wars of Ozz in the last few months. It is my understanding that they are part of an estate sale – but I could be mistaken. In any case, I was lucky enough to win the auction for the forces (7 regiments) below:
- 2 Gillikin infantry regiments
- 1 Gillikin longbow regiment
- 1 Gillikin goat-rider cavalry regiment
- 1 Gillikin light battery
- 1 Dire Wolf regiment
- 1 Dire Bear regiment
They are painted quite nicely, and despite the fact that they were sent from the UK, arrived in pretty good shape. I did need to repair a couple, and the bears needed a bit of a rehab paint job, but they were what I needed…
EXCEPT…
I had no brigade commanders or an Arella figure! Back to help from great friends, Greg Priebe had an extra OZZ-405 “Gillikin Mounted Officers on Goats” – and offered it to me as he did not plan on painting them in the near term. There were three officers mounted on goats and suitable for use as brigade commanders. The figures are metal, 28mm in scale, and came in two pieces. As for Arella, I would borrow that from Chris and then he gifted it to me! More on her in a future post.
With a Mass Pikemen Gaming Club Ozz game in the near future, I wanted, no I NEEDED to finish at least two of the three for my newly acquired Gillikins. I’ll share below the WIP process that I took and some eye candy of the finished paint jobs.
WIP Shots…
For mounting, I went with popsicle sticks instead of my usual specimen jars with poster tack. This made painting each half easier – especially as the legs are already on the mounts. I brush primed them, then let that cure. The following day, I gave everything a dark wash, then after sufficient drying time, dry brushed over the wash with white.
I assembled them as shown below.
Then, I assembled the three MDF bases from Wars of Ozz miniatures. I use the round-edged front bases for brigade commanders and the rectangular ones for the regimental commanders – though that is reverse of what is on the website catalog. I find it to be an improvement, as the rectangular bases match up better against the units with square bases.
After the glue on the MDF bases were dry, I added a brown ink wash to the outside to minimize the cut marks. This worked very well as the MDF drinks that up. Then I mounted the figures and prepped them for flocking.
As previously, I varnished these with a single coat of satin followed by one of matte and let them dry. Once the varnish dried overnight, I glued the figures to the assembled MDF bases. And waited for more drying. And once that dried, I began serial flocking work.
Without further ado, here’s some Gillikin Mounted Officer…
Eye Candy
Officer 1
Officer 2
Officer 3
Group shots
I just got two of these into an Ozz game last weekend, but that recap will be in a few posts as I am a bit behind. Yes, I blame golf. Or rather my addiction to golf…stay tuned, I’ll get there…
Thanks again to Greg Priebe and Chris Comeau…and to Russ Dunaway and Buck Surdu for bringing this all to life. I’ll still need to get some witches for a Sorcerer’s League in due time…
I hope that you found these fun. Up next…some creepy and scary scarecrows for the Great Land of Harvest Army!
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 THESE GILLIKIN MOUNTED OFFICER FIGURES:
- Green stuff (kneadatite)
- Popsicle sticks
- Vallejo Mecha Surface Primer “White”
- Secret Weapon Washes “Heavy Body Black”
- Vallejo Model Color “White”
- Army Painter “Speed Paint – Ghoul Green”
- Citadel “Contrast Paint – Ratling Grime”
- Citadel “Contrast Paint – Contrast Medium”
- Citadel “Contrast Paint – Black Legion”
- Army Painter “Speed Paint – Bony Matter”
- Army Painter “Speed Paint – Sand Golem”
- Citadel “Contrast Paint – Luxion Purple”
- Vallejo Mecha Color “SZ Red”
- Battlefront “Black”
- Citadel “Contrast Paint – Baal Red”
- Army Painter “Speed Paint – Charming Chartreuse”
- Army Painter “Speed Paint – Purple Swarm”
- Citadel “Contrast Paint – Imperial Fist”
- Vallejo Mecha Color “Green Fluorescent”
- Martha Stewart Crafts “Pale Bronze”
- Army Painter “Speed Paint – Hardened Leather”
- Citadel “Warpfiend Grey”
- Hataka “Gris Claire Neutre”
- Reaper MSP Core Colors “Blackened Brown”
- Citadel “Ushabti Bone”
- Vallejo Model Air “Ivory”
- Vallejo Model Air “Gun Metal”
- Army Painter “Speed Paint – Broadsword Silver”
- Vallejo Model Color “Black Green”
- Vallejo Game Ink “Black Green”
- Vallejo Model Air “Bright Brass”
- Vallejo Game Ink “Yellow”
- Citadel “Contrast Paint – Apothecary White”
- Citadel “Seraphim Sepia” (wash)
- Citadel “Agrax Earthshade” (wash)
- Gorilla Glue
- PS Model Color “USAAF Olive Drab”
- Paper clip wire
- P3 “Brown Ink”
- Vallejo “Flow Improver”
- Vallejo “Airbrush Thinner”
- Vallejo Varnish “Satin Varnish”
- Vallejo Mecha Varnish “Matte Varnish”
- MDF bases from Wars of Ozz miniatures
- Wargames Accessories Steel Bases FOW#1
- Elmer’s PVA Glue
- Army Painter “Battlefields Grass Green” (flocking)
- Army Painter “Battlefield Field Grass” (flocking)
- Shadow’s Edge Miniatures “6mm Lavender Flowers” (flocking)
- Shadow’s Edge Miniatures “6mm Dark Forest – Purple Flowers” (flocking)
- Shadow’s Edge Miniatures “6mm Dark Forest Plum Flowers” (flocking)
- Shadow’s Edge Miniatures “12mm Wild Tufts” (flocking)
- Army Painter “Lowland Shrubs” (flocking)
- Gamer’s Grass “Green Meadow” (flocking)
- Army Painter “Battlefields Green Grass” (flocking)
- Gamer’s Grass “Wild” (flocking)
- Shadow’s Edge Miniatures “6mm Light Blue Tufts” (flocking)
- Army Painter “Meadow Flowers” (flocking)
- Small stones (flocking)
- 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.
Mark A. Morin 