I have not painted any Ozz figures since last month – and while I did run a Wars of Ozz game at the Hobby Bunker, and finished my Frost Ogres for WOOD, it was time to jump back on my Ozz stuff. I wanted to finish off my last Gillikin units – which are not really Gillikins but are aligned to them in the game as allies. These would be the Dire Lions (OZZ-500), Dire Tigers (OZZ-501), and Dire Bears (OZZ-502), all large intelligent beasts that normally fight alongside the Gillikins. They are listed in the “Allies and Mercenaries” section on the website, and in the rules are listed under the Gillikins as well as in the “Allies and Mercenaries section”.

These figures are all large enough to fit 1 figure apiece on a 2″ square base. They come 5 to a unit, are 28mm in scale (for giant beasts that is) and are resin and metal – and most needed some minor assembly and prep. Each grouping of five had two types of poses – one with the animals on their rear haunches in an attack position and one with three or four paws on the ground. After cleaning them, I used a blow dryer to heat the legs of the lunging ones and bend them so as to make them even taller. I also assembled those with metal heads in various and slightly different positions so they would be facing forward somewhat askew from each other.

A big difference with what I did with these figures versus my normal painting process was that I resolved to use my three airbrushes as much as possible. For priming and varnishing I used my Iwata Eclipse HP-CS with a 0.5mm needle. For large areas, I used my Iwata Neo with a 0.35mm needle. And for detail, I used my Iwata Custom Micron CM-B with a tiny 0.18mm needle. At the end of this post, I’ll share all the different paints, and other supplies that I used. I also did some detail work with regular brushes. My goal here was to airbrush as much of the figures as possible to achieve fur blending and a different level of detail.

As with all Ozz infantry units, they are based on 2″ square bases – so five bases for each regiment. There is no regimental commander for any of the units, but I did add a Pendraken dice frame to one base of each unit.

As one would expect, in the game,they are good melee troops across the board, with Melee values of 6/10, 6/10, 8/10, Resolve values of 5/10, 5/10, and 6/10, and Elan values of 6/10, 7/10, and 6/10 for the Dire Lions, Dire Tigers, and Dire Bears respectively. The Dire Lions are cheapest at 4 points, with the Dire Tigers and Dire Bears costing 5. All can move sideways or backwards with no movement costs, and all can pass through woods without any penalty.

I started these on September 4th and completed them on the 26th. I’ll share some WIP shots and then some eye candy pics below.

WIP Shots…

My first step was to have a decent painting plan – so I downloaded some photos of the animals as guides. Of course, the models differed slightly as befits Ozz, but a good start nonetheless. I primed the models all in white.

I initially decided to go with the painting order of “Lions, and Tigers, and Bears” for some reason…but I did apply a base coat to the bears before the tigers. When I painted the tigers, I kept hearing “Eye of the Tiger” in my head…

As for order of work though, I primarily stayed with the order with the lions first and the bears last with the tigers in the middle.

Then, it was on to the Dire Tigers, where getting the right mix of orange, black, and white on the fur was really made easier with my airbrushes. They were also saber-toothed, which was a cool aspect of the sculpts.

Next, I moved on to the Dire Bears. Here I wanted a brownish blended paint job – which sounds easier than it was.

At that point, I could begin to finish the bases. The models’ bases on the steel bases were raised up and in some cases overlapping the 2″ steel bases. To level it all out, I used up an umopened box of black Milliput that I had hanging around -and ended up running out of it on my last Lion – so I used green stuff there on the last lion.

Before I get to the eye candy – a brief and happy segue. I had a fun chat with Dave – (aka Guru from Guru PIGS blog down under in Australia). A wonderful package from Dave subsequently made the 10,470 mile trip to my home. What, pray tell, was in the package? Well, just a great collection of whimsical hand-made stuff! The most wonderfully Ozz-appropriate terrain, a “Mouse Metropolis”, along with a fun golf book (for you know I love golf). Thanks so much Dave, I look forward to incorporating this great collection into my games! I just have to figure out a boxing solution (which I will of course!). You can see Dave’s blog post on the Mouse Metropolis here. So much appreciated Dave, thank you! You are a gentleman and a scholar!

Back to the dire beast models at hand – and the flocking. As Gillikins love purple, I added some purple flowers to each base, along with different grass ans grassy tufts to give an “beast in ambush mode” feel to the miniatures. Without further ado, let’s look at some…

Eye Candy

Dire Lions

Base 1

Base 2

Base 3

Base 4

Base 5

Dire Lions Group Shot

Dire Tigers

Base 1

Base 2

Base 3

Base 4

Base 5

Dire Tigers Group Shot

Dire Bears

Base 1

Base 2

Base 3

Base 4

Base 5

Dire Bears Group Shot

Dire Beasts Group Shots

I now have 2 regiments of Dire Bears, and one each of Dire Wolves, Dire Lions, and Dire Tigers – a Dire Beast Brigade!

I hope that you found this somewhat post as interesting as I found painting these figures. I do have another Harvest unit to do, then some terrain and then maybe the Quadlings. I have 394 painted Ozz figures to date, and 200 this year alone.

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 FIGURES:

Dire Lions

1. 2″ square steel bases from Wargames Accessories (#21)
2. Green Stuff (kneadatite)
3. Poster tack
4. Vallejo Mecha Surface Primer “White”
5. Vallejo “Flow Improver”
6. Vallejo “Airbrush Thinner”
7. Vallejo Game Air “Beastly Brown”
8. Vallejo Model Air “Wood”
9. Citadel “Balor Brown Air”
10. Vallejo Game Air “Black”
11. Vallejo Game Air “Dead White”
12. Createx “Pearl Copper”
13. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Murder Scene”
14. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Familiar Pink”
15. Citadel “Ushabti Bone”
16. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Volupus Pink”
17. Createx Wicked Colors “Pearl Black”
18. Vallejo Model Air “Light Brown”
19. Vallejo “Thinner Medium”
20. Vallejo “Glaze Medium”
21. Army Painter “Light Tone” (wash/shade)
22. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Basilicanum Grey”
23. Citadel “Lamenters Yellow” (glaze)
24. PS Model Color “British Brown Drab”
25. Black Milliput
26. Vallejo Varnish “Satin Varnish”
27. Vallejo Varnish “Gloss Varnish”
28. Vallejo Varnish “Matte Varnish”
29. Elmer’s PVA Glue
30. Army Painter “Battlefield Field Grass” (flocking)
31. Pendraken 12mm dice frame
32. Shadow’s Edge Miniatures “12mm Jungle Tufts” (flocking)
33. Gamer’s Grass “6mm Dense Green” (flocking)
34. Army Painter “4mm Wilderness Tufts” (flocking)
35. Gamer’s Grass “Autumn XL” (flocking)
36. Shadow’s Edge Miniatures “Dark Forest Plum Flowers” (flocking)
37. Army Painter “Battlefield Field Grass” (flocking)

Dire Tigers

1. 2″ square steel bases from Wargames Accessories (#21)
2. Green Stuff (kneadatite)
3. Poster tack
4. Vallejo Mecha Surface Primer “White”
5. Vallejo “Airbrush Thinner”
6. Vallejo “Flow Improver”
7. Vallejo Model Air “White Grey”
8. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Murder Scene”
9. Vallejo Game Air “Hot Orange”
10. Vallejo Game Air “Black”
11. Vallejo Game Air “Dead White”
12. Vallejo Game Air “Beastly Brown”
13. Createx “Pearl Copper”
14. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Volupus Pink”
15. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Familiar Pink”
16. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Ironjawz Yellow”
17. Army Painter “Light Tone” (wash/shade)
18. PS Model Color “British Brown Drab”
19. Black Milliput
20. Vallejo Varnish “Satin Varnish”
21. Vallejo Varnish “Gloss Varnish”
22. Vallejo Varnish “Matte Varnish”
23. Elmer’s PVA Glue
24. Army Painter “Battlefield Field Grass” (flocking)
25. Pendraken 12mm dice frame
26. Shadow’s Edge Miniatures “12mm Jungle Tufts” (flocking)
27. Gamer’s Grass “6mm Dense Green” (flocking)
28. Army Painter “4mm Wilderness Tufts” (flocking)
29. Gamer’s Grass “Autumn XL” (flocking)
30. Shadow’s Edge Miniatures “Dark Forest Plum Flowers” (flocking)
31. Army Painter “Battlefield Field Grass” (flocking)

Dire Bears

1. 2″ square steel bases from Wargames Accessories (#21)
2. Green Stuff (kneadatite)
3. Poster tack
4. Vallejo Mecha Surface Primer “White”
5. Vallejo “Airbrush Thinner”
6. Vallejo “Flow Improver”
7. Vallejo Model Air “Dark Brown”
8. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Murder Scene”
9. Vallejo Game Air “Dead White”
10. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Familiar Pink”
11. Vallejo Model Air “Armour Brown”
12. Vallejo Model Air “First Light”
13. Vallejo Mecha Color “Brown”
14. Vallejo Model Air “Light Brown”
15. Vallejo Game Air “Black”
16. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Ironjawz Yellow”
17. Army Painter “Mid Brown” (wash/shade)
18. Army Painter “Light Tone” (wash/shade)
19. PS Model Color “British Brown Drab”
20. Black Milliput
21. Vallejo Varnish “Satin Varnish”
22. Vallejo Varnish “Gloss Varnish”
23. Vallejo Varnish “Matte Varnish”
24. Elmer’s PVA Glue
25. Army Painter “Battlefield Field Grass” (flocking)
26. Pendraken 12mm dice frame
27. Shadow’s Edge Miniatures “12mm Jungle Tufts” (flocking)
28. Gamer’s Grass “6mm Dense Green” (flocking)
29. Army Painter “4mm Wilderness Tufts” (flocking)
30. Gamer’s Grass “Autumn XL” (flocking)
31. Shadow’s Edge Miniatures “Dark Forest Plum Flowers” (flocking)
32. Army Painter “Battlefield Field Grass” (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.