2 Regiments of Skeletons (Wars of Ozz)

In the game of Wars of Ozz, there are skeletons that can be part of Winkie brigades. They can be part of other types of brigades as well as allies, though they must be purchased at a higher point cost. There are additional nuances to their use as well.

During my last few games of Wars of Ozz, I had GM’d games with Arella the Witch, the Gillikin Leader. She acted as both a witch and a leader. As a witch, she has a “Raise the Dead” spell that according to the Wars of Ozz rulebook:

When successfully cast, this spell creates one base of skeletons that touches the witch or wizard’s base. This skeleton base gets its own command die. The skeleton base may be combined with other skeleton bases in contact with the wizard or witch to create a “regiment” of skeletons. The witch or wizard may not have more than 5 skeleton bases in the game at the same time.
Wars of Ozz rulebook, page 109, section 8.8, Consolidated Magic Tables

Other witches or wizards (such as lesser ones) may also possibly get this spell when they are set up at the beginning of the game. So, anyone could have skeletons in their forces.

Additionally, as part of the game there is a “Summoning Bell” that could be owned by either Arella or her sister, Evora the Witch, the Empress of the Winkies (but not both). Evora does not have the “Raise the Dead” spell that Arella has in her spell list, but could use the bell. The rules discuss the history of the bell in section 2.2.2.2 on page 24. Its use is more fully described in the Winkies section 4.3.1 as follows:

Evora the Witch created the Summoning Bell. The Winkies and Gillikins often wrestle for control of the bell…the Summoning Bell is led by ‘the Taskmaster’ and is pulled by skeletons…as long as (it is) within command radius of Arella or Evora (it) may execute the equivalent of the ‘Raise the Dead’ spell…
Wars of Ozz rulebook, page 82, Section 4.3.1, The Summoning Bell

The section goes on to describe that if Arella has the Bell she can both attempt to throw the “Raise the Dead”spell and have the bell generate even more skeletons as well.

I do not yet have my Summoning Bell painted, but you can see it on the website here. It’s in my painting queue but not likely next up.

However, I do have Arella and I did need to have skeletons for her in case that she did throw the “Raise the Dead” spell in one of my games. I also knew that having a regiment of skeletons would work to expand my available forces – but also that having two regiments would be even better!

I had some experience in painting skeletons as seen in The Nightmare Legion (my first blog post way back in 2015) and in Grenadier Models Dart Thrower and Undead Crew (130), circa 1984 (from my blog in 2016). Painting skeletons is relatively straighforward, but this time I would try to add the new tool of speed paints to these. Basically, I airbrush primed the skeletons in black, then heavy dry brushed them in white. Then to get a sepia tone on the bones I went with Army Painter “Pallid Bone” Speed Paint 1.0 that I cut 50% with Army Painter “Speed Paint Medium 1.0”. This gave me the tone I wanted without getting too dark. Then I tried to rust up and age all the weapons. As is my habit, for those interested, I do list all of the paints and more that I used on this project at the end of the post.

For the SKU OZZ-314, there are 20 figures – with no regimental commander, so with two regiments that was 40 figures for this project – all cast in metal and 28mm in size. The skeletons are of course infantry and are less affected by musketry (but not cannon). The skeletons are based 4 apiece to a 2″ square base – so five bases for each 20-figure regiment.

The figures came in two pieces – and some minor assembly was required as there was an upper and a lower torso . Assembly was indeed facilitated by my having forceps that could stay clamped down for a brief time on the figures while the Gorilla Glue set.

A skeleton regiment is better than average with a Melee value of 6/10, and an Elan value of 6/10 as well. Where they really shine is at Resolve (not running away from a fight) – with value of 9/10. The unit costs 5 points for the Winkies, and 6 points for everyone else (Winkies get a discount). They are armed with an assortment of swords, hatchets, axes, and pole weapons – all of which I aged and/or rusted up, as you will see shortly. You will also see how I based them so as to mix and match the poses and the warriors’ weapons and the figure types such that no two bases in each regiment were identical.

For basing, I wanted to differentiate between the two regiments for the tabletop. As the Gillikins are purple-oriented, and the Winkies are yellow-oriented, I went with these colors as themes with the flocking. I also incorporated some spikey green flora to hide the middle of the bases where there was a depression between the figures’ bases after early flocking. On one base of each regiment, I affixed two Pendraken 12mm dice frames – one on top of the other – to hold activation dice. Now I’ll share some WIP shots showing what I just discussed.

WIP Shots

Each of the two regiments ready for assembly after filing off any mold lines and flash and a giveing the figures a good washing to remove any oils.

Thank you Mr. Forceps! No sticky fingers!

Example of an individual skeleton after being dry brushed.

You can see three examples of the Speed Paint effect below. Yes, this is 1.0 and I do have 2.0 as well – but I thought the “Pallid Bone” looked better on swatches.

After varnishing the regiments with my airbrush, and letting that cure, it was basing time. Given the figures are mounted on 2″ square bases, the flocking needed to be done sequentially for best results.

First, I needed determine which types of figures were EXACTLY the same. Many of these had to be differentiated by the placement of the feet on the bases (as differences were slight). The figures did bend easily so between that and affixing different heads it was simple to create unique bases for each regiment.

Then it was time to mock these up on bases before gluing them down. I also needed to find space for the dice frames on one base.

As you can see, I traced out the approximate positions for each figure then glued two at a time to each base. After that had dried, I then flocked the areas outside the two glued figures and the open spaces on the bases. When that had dried, I mounted the remaining two figures per base and continued flocking. I needed to wait for each step of gluing to dry.

The regiments flocked with their final glued flocking in the process of drying.

Now, I will throw you, my readers, a bone – or rather several bones – it’s time for…

Eye Candy

Regiment 1

Base 1A

Base 1B

Base 1C

Base 1D

Base 1E

Skeleton Regiment 1 Group Shot

Regiment 2

Base 2A

Base 2B

Base 2C

Base 2D

Base 2E

Skeleton Regiment 2 Group Shot

Both Regiments Group Shot

These were fun and very quick to do – I started on Sunday November 12th and took the photos of the finished regiments on November 16th. I’m still working on the right combination of lights for my photo booth but am getting a bit better.

Like other units I have shared, these skellies will make excellent allies to other brigades on the tabletop.

My next post will be a surprise to us all as I have actual gaming to do now!

And yes, I still have more Ozz 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 THE FIGURES FOR THESE TWO SKELETON REGIMENTS:

Gorilla Glue
3/4″ steel washers
Poster tack
Vallejo Black Surface Primer
Vallejo “Flow Improver”
Vallejo “Airbrush Thinner”
Vallejo Model Color “White”
Army Painter “Speed Paint Medium 1.0”
Army Painter “Speed Paint – Pallid Bone 1.0”
Vallejo Model Color “Dark Sea Grey”
Army Painter “Speed Paint – Runic Grey 1.0”
Army Painter “Speed Paint – Gravelord Grey 1.0”
Vallejo Model Air “Bright Brass”
Vallejo Model Air “Black Metallic”
Vallejo Model Air “Steel”
Vallejo Mecha Color “Dark Steel”
Citadel “Nuln Oil” (wash)
Battlefront “Tommy Green”
Vallejo “Thinner Medium”
Vallejo Mecha Weathering “Rust Texture”
Vallejo Mecha Varnish “Matte Varnish”
Vallejo Mecha Weathering “Dark Rust Wash”
2″ square steel bases from Wargames Accessories (#21)
Elmer’s PVA Glue
Pendraken 12mm dice frames
Army Painter “Battlefield Field Grass” (flocking)
Battlefront “Sherman Drab”
Gamer’s Grass “Spikey Green” (flocking)
Army Painter “Wilderness Tufts – 4mm” (flocking)
Army Painter “Meadow Flowers (yellow)” (flocking)
Gamer’s Grass “Yellow Flowers” (flocking)
Shadow’s Edge Miniatures “Dark Forest Plum Flowers” (flocking)
Shadow’s Edge Miniatures “Dark Forest Purple Flowers” (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.

Wars of Ozz Games and More at HMGS Fall In!® 2023

The 2023 HMGS Fall In!® was held in Lancaster, PA from November 2-5. I attended and was fortunate to run 2 Wars of Ozz games by myself, plus be a co-GM on 1 with Chris Palmer, play in one run by Dave Wood, and assist Dave in his Wars of Orcs and Dwarves game. All of these were run in the H.A.W.K.’s (Maryland’s Harford Area Weekly Kriegspielers) room. As always, I am appreciative of their adoption of a wandering New Englander like myself!

So, how am I to post all of the photos and links related to my experiences at the convention – given that the convention was spread out all over the convention center? This is especially challenging as I was pretty much lucky to find any time to hit the vendor’s hall, let alone be an effective photographer. I have decided to break out these photo sections and video links by game and by category. I hope it makes more sense this way. Just enjoy the eye candy – and I thank all who played in my games, collaborated with me, or helped me in any way. Special thanks go out to Chris Palmer, Dave Wood, Russ Dunaway, Buck Surdu, and all of the H.A.W.K.’s. So, let’s start!

I arrived on Thursday afternoon after a 6-hour drive. I set up my game on Thursday night. On Friday morning, I ran my Wars of Ozz “Battle for Toto” scenario – the first iteration of two. Sign up was light, so I needed to play the Munchkin defenders as well as GM.

Thursday night set up – Chris Palmer surveys my tabletop with a lot of the Guru terrain incorporated into it.

Friday Morning – The Battle for Toto

Bruce (Gillikin commander), Allen (Winkie commander), and Peter (Harvest commander) at the start. I acted as the Munchkin commander.

Winkies and Harvest move up towards the Munchkin defenses.

On the defender’s left, the Gillikin’s ally, the Great Menacing Hammerheads, breach a fenceline for a following light battery. In the rules, the Hammerheads don’t have that ability – but as a GM and former combat engineer, I had to give them to ability to destroy a fence. I mean, their heads are…hammers…

The two “bad guys” advance – and at this point are collaborating against the Munchkins.

Allen ponders his next move for his Winkies – can he trust the Gillikins not to stab him in the flank? In the event, he became the stabber!

Bruce, not trusting the Winkies – turns his Gillikin longbowmen to face the Winkies…he said it was to make deployment room, but the Winkies felt threatened…

No fighting between the bad guys yet – the advances continue.

Allen moves against the Winkies Lesser Apes with his Gillikin Goat Rider Cavalry. Photo by Chris Palmer.

Colonel Tik-Tok faces an assaulting group of Carrot Creatures. Photo by Chris Palmer.

The Carrot Creatures are held at bay, while the Munchkin Light Cavalry is disordered and routs from the field of battle. Photo by Chris Palmer.

The two attackers turn on each other as the trust is over – or the need for victory points drove them to it! Gillikins and Winkies turn on each other along their flanks – and the Munchkins feel a sense of relief watching their enemies fight each other and not them.

Not involved in the Winkie scrum – the Gillikin Beast Brigade (Dire Wolves, Dire Lions, Dire Tigers, and Dire Bears) move up to assault the Munckin Guard on their left so as to try to get into the town and search for Toto.

Gillikin artillery and musketry begin to take a toll on the Munchkin Guard, who nevertheless hold as the Beast Brigade tries to get to the town.

The scene at the end of the game. Toto remained safely in the town controlled by the Munchkins.

The scorecard I used for the Friday morning game – Munchkins win!

Then, on Friday afternoon, I got a chance to get to the vendor hall – and I was excited because Russ Dunaway had previously asked me for some photos of my Great Pumpkinhead models. I took a few in my photo booth – and he used them for T-shirts! When you have a t-shirt with one of your own favorite painted minis, well, that’s a no-brainer – got to get some! Russ did gift me with some as well – thanks Russ! They are available for purchase on the Wars of Ozz miniatures web site as well.

My Great Pumpkinhead life-size and his bigger image on my T-shirt!

A fashion trend! Chris Palmer, Dave Wood, and myself, sporting the latest haute Ozz couture…

For Friday night, Chris Palmer and I combined forces (and figures) for a massive 8-player game of the Wars of Ozz. I acted as a player and a co-GM with Chris. Chris made some excellent posts on the Wars of Ozz Facebook page (CHECK IT OUT!) on this game – and with his permission I’ll share the photos and his descriptions of the game that he posted in the next section:

Saturday Night – A Wars of Ozz scenario – “The Vegetables are Revolting” – photos and write up by Chris Palmer

A birds eye view from the Munchkin Balloon gives us an overview of the table before the game began.

Quadling troops linger around one of the Sweetie Carts at the game’s start.

Harvest troops charge forward into the Munchkin right flank.

Great Pumpkinheads prepare to march through a mushroom patch to get at the enemy.

Another shot of the action on the left wing of the Harvest attack.

On the defenders’ left flank The Quadlings quickly deploy into line to meet the oncoming enemy; as the Munchkins in the center take up a position on a nearby hill.

Munchkin Light Cavalry bravely charge at the Great Pumpkinheads.

Meanwhile, in a patch of woods on the defenders’ left, the Quadling Lancers discover a hidden group of Savage Apple Trees.

Quickly forming their banquet tables into a barricade, a unit of Munchkin Landwehr attempts to fight off a charge by some Dire Lions.

Another unit of Great Pumpkinheads charge at some Quadling Infantry.

Assistant Gamemaster Mark Morin, helps two players work through a melee combat.

A view of the battle lines midway through the game.

Munchkin Light Cavalry charges the remnants of a unit of Corn Creatures.

That finished off Friday night. I can’t say enough about this game – so much fun, thanks Chris! My table for Saturday morning’s Battle for Toto was adjacent to this one – so I just brought over the figures that fought in this scenario, and I was ready for Saturday.

Saturday Morning – The Battle for Toto – My Pictures

I had a full table for Saturday morning – which was excellent!

Professor Nitpick and his Mechanical Tin Axemen and the Munchkin Light Cavalry in reserve behind the main Munchkin defenses.

A view of the game start – lots of terrain, yes? Some from our Aussie buddy Guru!

The attackers move forward – have not fought each other yet.

The attackers – Terry with the 2 Gillikin Brigades, Allen with the Winkie Brigade, and Geoff with the Harvest Brigade. Photo by Chris Palmer.

Here you can see my Munchkin players – one on the right with his daughter and Mark and Charlie on the left. Photo by Chris Palmer.

I brief the scenario. Photo by Chris Palmer.

The dad (sorry that I forgot your names) and his daughter on the Munchkin side discuss strategy. Geoff prepares for war. Photo by Chris Palmer.

Allen came back for a second try with the Winkies – while Geoff took over the Harvest Brigade in this game. I had two Munchkin players.

I remove a fence section after the Great Menacing Hammerheads breach it. Photo by Chris Palmer.

Harvest forces menace the Munchkin Medium Battery – supported by the Light Cavalry. Meanwhile, the Winkies deploy into line to hit Colonel Tik Tok’s infantry.

The Corn Creatures make a devastating melee attack and overrun the Munchkin artillery and send them running for home.

As the Corn Creatures overrun The Munchkin battery, Harvest tries to get to the the town.

Mark and Charlie hold off the attackers as I assist the gamers. Photo by Chris Palmer.

Professor Nitpick moves up to support the Munchkins against the Gillikin assault. Photo by Chris Palmer.

Savage Apple Trees show up unexpectedly in the Munchkin rear! They were too slow to affect the battle though.

The Munchkin Guard loses discipline and abandons their wall for a charge at the Gillikin infantry. The Munchkin Aerostat provides covering fire, but the Winkies and the Gillikins are at the town – and the Gillikin Bears would seize Toto. The ballon would then fire at them, and they would run away. Still, the Dire Tigers would refind Toto and take possession of the little dog.

While the Gillikins did get Toto for 10 points, they were light on taking out enemy as casualties. The Winkies/Harvest did take out a lot of Munchkins, but took just one Gillikin base. The **Munchkins were victorious** having made their enemies pay with 23 base losses. Had the game continued (time ran out) I believe that the game could have gone in any direction.

Thanks so much to all of the players. Mark and Charlie from Mark’s Game Room did play in this game as you see from the pictures. They also did a wonderful video recap of the ENTIRE convention (with a minor mention of this game at 8:48). Well worth a view – and a subscribe – CHECK IT OUT!:

https://youtu.be/4dkEDEz3QC4?si=uqZICrhzPOP9Yv7j

Saturday Afternoon – Dave Wood’s Wars Of Ozz Game: Munchkins and Winkies

After a quick break, it was time for a Saturday afternoon game with Dave Wood – anothe Ozz game! I did not get many pictures, but here is one (yes just one):

I played on the defending Harvest side – and we on the Munchkin side achieved a minor victory over the attacking Winkies, Impkins and Gillikins. Dave did a nice job with 8 players!

Saturday Night – Dave Wood’s Wars of Orcs and Dwarves Game: The Elves against the army of the Professor of Post-Mortem Communications (formerly called the Necromancer)

Glad Dave chose a short scenario title for a meeting engagement! Anyways, I was not able to initially play in this game as it was sold out. So, I helped him out as an assistant GM until late in the game when one of the Elven players left. It was a narrow bad guys victory – and to my teammates mea culpa as my unnecessary attacks cost us the one base loss. Hey, it was late!

View of the game tabletop as Dave briefs the scenario.

Warg cavalry (old Ral Partha I think) facing Ratlings with crossbows.

I wish I took more photos – but I did not. Anyways, that’s the wrap for me on HMGS Fall In!® 2023. For me, it’s wargame season again as golf opprotunities have dwindled. Thanks so much to HMGS for a great convention!

For all of my previous posts on Wars of Ozz games, figures, units, and other related projects – please see this page.

Professor Nitpick & His Mechanical Tin Axemen (Wars of Ozz)

Here, as promised in my last post, is the second Wars of Ozz unit that I finished in October 2023 in preparation for HMGS Fall In!®. It is OZZ-511, Professor Nitpick & His Mechanical Tin Axemen. According to the Wars of Ozz rulebook, in the world of Ozz, there is the “Industrial City”, a “haunted ruin”, inhabited by one man – Professor Nitpick. The section from the rules that describe him and the Industrial City are superb – just a short excerpt:

Before…this unnamed city was a powerhouse of production, one of the last great cities of the world. Now it is an unknown ruin, bombed into ruins…no building remains untouched, the result of a terrible vengeance for a crime of the citizens here. Some claim they started the Last Great War, others claim they invented the Madness bombs that stilll infect the land…no historical mention of the city survives…only one person…might know the crime that earned the city such punishment – the reclusive Professor Nitpick…

The Professor is a legend. According to him, he was born before the Last Great War, more than 300 years ago…the witches suspect Nitpick was actually created by the science-wizards of that time, an experiment to create a superman…(but) Nitpick is frail and certainly no superman…

…he is, however, a mad and ruthless genius…(who) remembers the old technology and…has created…his Auto-Mechanical Axemen. With them as his army, he has claimed the Industrial City as his private estate…
Wars of Ozz rulebook, section 2.6.2, page 43

The section goes on to describe how Professor Nitpick has been previously attacked by Evora the Witch, the Empress of the Winkies. Despite their martial prowess, her Winkies were trounced by Nitpick’s forces. Since then, no one has dared to approach the Industrial City to steal its secrets while Nitpick has his army on guard. Yet, in exchange for devices or artifacts, the Professor can be persuaded to join other armies in Ozz with his Mechanical Tin Axemen.

For the SKU Ozz-511, there are 11 figures – with Professor Nitpick as the regimental commander and 10 Axemen. All are metal and 28mm in size. The axemen look like very cool steampunk robots. In the game, they are infantry that, due to their sturdiness, lowers an attacking unit’s melee value by one – reflecting their armored nature.

In the game, the axemen are based 2 apiece to a 2″ square base – so five bases for the Mechanical Tin Axemen regiment plus Nitpick on his own regimental commander MDF base. Some minor assembly was required for the unit other than the basing – such as choosing and affixing which heads you prefer for the axemen (and there are several extra in the kit). The Professor Nitpick figure has an oil can and an oversized wrench. The regiment is exceptionally superb at combat with their axes – with a Melee value of 8/10, a Resolve value of 8/10, and an Elan value of 8/10 as well. The unit costs 6 points.

They are armed with a motley assortment of axes. As I have with other units, I based them so as to mix and match the poses and the figure types such that no two bases of the five were identical. I gave the Axemen the shaded metallic look similar to my Archive Warbots.

I definitely wanted them to appear as if they were truly in the ruined Industrial City in accordance with the Ozz canon (as opposed to the Oz of Baum). While that means that their bases will differ visually on the tabletop from grassland terrain and other typical Ozz terrain, I thought it appropriate to their origin and nature. To that end, as shown below, I added broken bricks, wooden debris, rusted pipes, and twisted rebar to this regiment’s bases. It was fun to do these bases with this theme as it’s been a while since I painted anything even close to it.

Let’s see some WIP shots and some more pics below!

WIP shots…

The unit is shown here getting cleaned up – you can see that there are several heads to choose from on the metal sprues.

After assembly, I primed them in black so as to accentuate any recesses down the line. I primed the Professor in white.

Simple dry brushing brought out the base metallic colors over the black primer.

As for the bases, I had some bricks that I saw on The Imperfect Modeller’s blog. At least that is my memory – Dave may have just told me about them at some point. I bought some of these Juweela® 1:48/1:50 scale terracotta bricks a few years ago on Noble Knight games – in anticipation of a future need that I might have for rubble. And here the need for rubble had indeed arrived!

I took one of my old specimen jars that I use for mounting figures to paint the bricks (and btw contrary to any other assertions (Guru), my specimen jars are never used for actual specimens!!).

I dumped all of the 1,000 bricks in (no I did not count them) and added in red ink. I then swirled the bricks around in the jar before dumping them all out helter skelter on plastic plates. After having spread the bricks out, I let them dry – and they were indeed clumped together in a very rubble-like fashion. Perfect – and later I would give them a red-black ink treatment to boot to age the bricks and vary their color a bit.

The bricks after the first red ink application.

The bricks are shown here after they got the red-black ink aplication. Note how they stuck together. Pigment additions would come later.

Then, I moved onto making some twisted rusty rebar and crushed and rusty pipes. I took some paper clip wire for the former and some plastic tubing for the latter, bending aand crushing both as needed. I then swirled the both of them in a specimen jar with some iron paint (Army Painter Warpaints “Rough Iron”) and some rust washes (Vallejo Mecha Weathering “Rust Texture” and Vallejo Mecha Weathering “Dark Rust Wash”). As with the bricks, I dumped them out on a plastic plate to dry – moving them around so that they did not stick to the plate. As before, pigment additions would come later. For those interested, I do list all of the paints and more that I used on this project at the end of the post.

The rebar and pipes after the iron paint swirling.

The same materials after a rust wash swirl, plus a good application of rust pigments, after drying on a plate.

The last materials I wanted to add to my bases were pieces of broken and burned wood. For this I went with shards cut from popsicle sticks. Yet another swirl was done with a dark grey ink (Secret Weapon Washes “Stone”). I let these dry and again, pigments would come later, mainly soot and ash.

During this process, I continued to paint the figures – adding various lights and LED-like buttons to the axemen. I did not want to overwhelm the axemen figures with color – so the little lights were nice highlights. I gave Nitpick a somewhat “Willy Wonka” look with a white lab coat. For the bases, I used Citadel “Astrogranite Debris” on them as a base for the addition of all of the rubble in the future.

Professor Nitpick with a base of wet “Astrogranite Debris”.

An 2″ steel axemen base with mostly dried “Astrogranite Debris”.

Now it was time to add the rubble in a haphazard way – as ruined-looking as possible. I did this by adding and gluing the brick clumps, individual bricks, wood shards, rebar, and rusty crushed pipes sequentially with PVA and letting them dry. I subsequently used pigments to make the wood look burned and ashy, as well as adding ashes and soot on the base with attention to the rubble of bricks, wood, pipes, and rebar.

Professor Nitpick on his ruined base with his oil can in his left hand. I put the massive wrench on the base to his right on a piece of burned wood. I added a Pendraken 12mm dice frame on the side for game use. This would all get an airbrush matte varnish application as well to knock down any shine.

Similar to the previous shot, here you see an axemen base prior to varnishing, but with the base having been treated with rust, soot, and ash pigments.

Now, I can’t wait to share…

Eye Candy

Professor Nitpick

Base 1

Base 2

Base 3

Base 4

Base 5

Group Shots

A group shot with a better view of Professor Nitpick.

A group shot from a slightly higher angle showing the bases and the axemen a little bit better.

A top view showing the full bases as well as the **Wars of Ozz** leader ability placard I used for the regiment at Fall In. That placard can always be changed to another ability depending on what is drawn by chance. The slot in the MDF base allows for this.

I enjoyed painting and building this unit a lot – and am hopeful that more will be coming for Professor Nitpick’s forces in the future – perhaps even enough to be a faction in and of themselves. In the meantime, the regiment will make excellent allies to other brigades on the tabletop.

My next post will cover some photos from my games and experiences at HMGS Fall In!®.

And yes, I still have more Ozz 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 THE FIGURES FOR PROFESSOR NITPICK AND HIS MECHANICAL TIN AXEMEN REGIMENT:

Gorilla Glue
3/4″ steel washers
Poster tack
Vallejo White Surface Primer
Vallejo Black Surface Primer
Vallejo “Flow Improver”
Vallejo “Airbrush Thinner”
Vallejo Model Air “Steel”
Vallejo Model Air “Armour Brown”
Reaper MSP Core Colors “Blackened Brown”
Vallejo Model Color “Wood Grain”
Army Painter “Speed Paint – Dark Wood”
Army Painter “Speed Paint – Enchanted Steel”
Vallejo Mecha Color “Dark Steel”
Army Painter “Speed Paint – Broadsword Silver”
Vallejo Model Air “Gun Metal”
Citadel “Nuln Oil GLOSS” (wash)
Vallejo Game Air “Dead White”
Secret Weapon Washes “Blue” (ink)
Secret Weapon Washes “Just Red” (ink)
Vallejo Mecha Color “Green Fluorescent”
Secret Weapon Washes “Sunshine” (ink)
Vallejo Model Air “Fluorescent Red”
Vallejo Game Ink “Red” (ink)
Citadel Technical “Tesseract Glow”
2″ square steel bases from Wargames Accessories (#21)
MDF base from Wars of Ozz miniatures
Citadel “Astrogranite Debris” (texture)
Pendraken 12mm dice frame
P3 “Brown” (ink)
Secret Weapon Washes “Heavy Body Black” (wash)
Paper clip wire
Small polystyrene tubing pieces
Popsicle stick shards
Juweela® 1:48/1:50 terracotta bricks
Army Painter Warpaints “Rough Iron”
Vallejo Mecha Weathering “Rust Texture”
Vallejo Mecha Weathering “Dark Rust Wash”
Secret Weapon Washes “Stone” (wash)
Elmer’s PVA Glue
Vallejo “Pigment Binder”
Vallejo “Carbon Black” (pigment)
Vallejo “Old Rust” (pigment)
Vallejo Model Color “Black”
Battlefront “Dark Leather”
Army Painter “Speed Paint – Battleship Grey”
Army Painter “Speed Paint – Crusader Skin”
Army Painter “Speed Paint – Brazen Copper”
Army Painter “Speed Paint – Purple Swarm”
Army Painter “Speed Paint – Satchel Brown”
Army Painter “Speed Paint – Holy White”
Army Painter “Speed Paint – Cloudburst Blue”
Army Painter “Speed Paint – Aztec Gold”
Army Painter “Speed Paint – Hoplite Gold”
Vallejo “Titanium White” (pigment)
Vallejo Mecha Varnish “Matte Varnish”

In the US Old Glory has a site – Wars of Ozz Miniatures.

In the UK go to Sally 4th.

Savage Apple Trees (Wars of Ozz)

It’s been a while since I posted anything about painted figures. As I mentioned in my last post, October 2023 found me busier than I have been for quite some time. In addition to finishing up my Ozz terrain and a storage box for it, I managed to finish off two Wars of Ozz units for use at HMGS Fall In!®. This post is about the first one – the Savage Apple Trees.

In the 1939 Movie, The Wizard of Oz, most of us may remember Dorothy and the scarecrow being assaulted by grumpy apple trees as they picked apples.

The apple trees attack – from the 1939 MGM movie, ***The Wizard of Oz***.

Close up of a grumpy apple tree- from the 1939 MGM movie, ***The Wizard of Oz***.

In the Ozz world, these apple trees are part of the forces of the Great Land of Harvest. They are listed on the Wars of Ozz miniatures site as OZZ-523, Savage Apple Trees. In the game, they have both melee abilities and missile attacks (thrown apples of course). Additionally, they have the opportunity for secret deployment on the tabletop on a predetermined section of woods. This does give them the advantage of showing up unexpected on an enemy rear or flank.

Another advantage is that they are less affected by musketry (but not cannon). Their main disadvantages are twofold. First, the ranges for thrown apples is slightly worse than carbines – with only 4″ for short range with a maximum of 6″ for long range. Second, they also move relatively slowly as befits a tree unit. They are listed in the “Allies and Mercenaries” section on the website, and in the rules are listed under the Great Land of Harvest.

In the game,they are average melee troops, with Melee values of 5/10, Resolve values of 6/10, and Elan values of 6/10. They are even just average apple throwers, with a marksmanship of only 5/10. On the plus side, the unit is relatively inexpensive at only 4 points. As trees, they can pass through woods without any penalty, though still are slow.

The figures are all large enough to fit 1 figure each on a 2″ square base. They come 5 to a unit, are 28mm in scale, and are metal. All needed assembly and foliage attachments. There are two types of branches that can be added, plus the branches on the main trunk. Additionally, there is a base for each tree and 50 apples that can be mounted on the trees or scattered on the bases. Each figure, once assembled, can have its branches bent to allow both nesting of the completed figures in a formation (without hitting a neighboring tree base) as well as to give some degree of individuality. There are no faces on the trees.

WIP Shots…

The Savage Apple Trees after cleaning up of any mold lines and a good washing.

The challenge of their assembly needed a bit of planning on my part. Initially, I decided to assemble the trees, then paint them fully, then add foliage. For attachment of the limbs and bases, I first went with green stuff – but that proved to be ineffective – as the subsequent act of bending the tree branches for nesting detached a few trunks and branches. Ugh! So, I went back to drilling out and pinning the component branches and bases and gluing with trusty Gorilla Glue. I was also able to mount the trees onto their steel 2″ bases for painting – which helped with my validating their nesting arrangements to a large degree.

The next step was to paint the assembled trees on their bases and the extra apples on a plate, which was pretty straightforward.

Early painting. The extra apples are on the plate.

Later painting – I found that I needed to bend the limbs and branches here much more than shown here to facilitate nesting in a game formation. Even though the green stuff had cured, that bending led to repair and pinning!

WIth the branches and apples rebent and repaired for nesting prior to the addition of foliage.

After painting, it was on to varnishing and adding foliage and flocking. As for the foliage, I had gotten some good experience with the repair of the Impkin Artillery (slingshot) that I discussed in my last post.

Additionally, IRO’s help after reading his Bolt Action blog post discussing trees and terrain and his comments helped me immensely, particularly with how to affix clump foliage. If you don’t follow his blog, you should! Thanks Luke!

Based on what I learned from IRO, and what I saw in this You Tube video, I ended up using three types of glue/adhesive. First, I applied Woodland Scenics “Hob-e-tac” to the painted branches and let that dry clear per the instructions. Then I added small bits of mid-green foliage clumps one at a time by pinching them onto the Hob-e-tac. I then let that dry, then followed that step with more Hob-e-tac on the nearby branches. As the foliage grew, I added sprays of Woodland Scenics “Spray-Tac” as well as sprinking little apples from Woodland Scenics “Fruit Apples and Oranges”, and let that dry. In between, I’d also add a few lines of PVA onto the foliage clumps so as to create stronger bondsand “bridges” between the foliage clumps that I was building up. This was tedious as I needed to let the different glues on the foliage dry and harden before moving on to another step. Also, when you use the Spray-Tac, you need to wash out the nozzle and its assembly. As a side note, my nozzle assembly came apart during this process which was a pain to reassemble – so beware! I still do like the Spray-Tac as it dries matte.

The last step was to flock the bases. For this, I added some grass, some scattered random metal and Woodland Scenics apples, some pieces of clump foliage, and some twigs. I have been adding Pendraken 12mm dice frames to my units as well (just one as any unit only needs one).

Eye Candy

They saw their tabletop combat debut last weekend at HMGS Fall In!®. I hope to share some photos of that convention in an upcoming post. I can even see using these in mass fantasy battle games of Wars of Orcs and Dwarves.

I hope that you found this somewhat post interesting and maybe even helpful. Most diorama builders are probably laughing a bit at my challenges here – as they are more used to using the foliage and associated glues than I was.

Next up is Professor Nitpick and his Mechanical Tin Axemen, then a Fall In recap!

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 SAVAGE APPLE TREE FIGURES:

Savage Apple Trees

2″ square steel bases from Wargames Accessories (#21)
Green Stuff (kneadatite)
Poster tack
Gorilla Glue
Vallejo Grey Surface Primer
Citadel “Contrast Medium”
Citadel “Contrast Paint – Wyldwood”
Vallejo Model Color “Wood Grain”
Army Painter “Speed Paint – Poppy Red”
Vallejo Model Air “First Light”
Citadel “Warpfiend Grey”
Citadel “Skrag Brown”
Battlefront “Firefly Green”
Battlefront “Tommy Green”
Vallejo “Flow Improver”
Vallejo “Airbrush Thinner”
Vallejo “Thinner Medium”
Vallejo Varnish “Matte Varnish”
Pendraken 12mm dice frame
Elmer’s PVA Glue
Woodland Scenics “Hob-e-Tac Adhesive”
Woodland Scenics “Clump Foliage-Medium Green”
All Game Terrain “Foliage Clumps-Medium Green”
Woodland Scenics “FS645 Spray-Tac”
Woodland Scenics “Fruit Apples and Oranges” (just used the apples)
Army Painter “Battlefield Field Grass” (flocking)
Gamer’s Grass “Red Flowers” (flocking)
Small twigs

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 – I just love this stuff).

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.

October 2023 Projects for Wars of Ozz – Amassing Terrain, Gifts of Impkins & Terrain, Building Terrain Transport & Storage, Creepy Fighting Baby Dolls, Rebasing Work, plus a Pikachu for Tabitha

Now that is a pithy title! Indeed, October saw me having a number of projects happening – almost simultaneously – in preparation for the HMGS Fall In! convention this week. It was nearly overwhelming, especially given that I was also involved in multiple golf tournaments as a player and as an organizer/committee member, plus a number of big events that were nice – but I’ll spare you those details for now.

So much terrain!

I had been previously gifted a good number of some wonderful Acheson resin buildings from Russ Dunaway that were perfect for the Great Land of Harvest or the world of the Wars of Ozz. Also, as I mentioned here last month, I received a wonderful gift of some new terrain from Dave in Australia. His blog is Guru PIGS blog and it was a collection from his Mouse Metropolis project. I also got a gift of couple of glowing Mushrooms from Buck Surdu that I also loved! Also my purchase of some walls and fences from Pendraken showed up. Add to this at this point I had around 26 Fairy-style prepainted resin buildings I had gotten from the Dollar Tree store – including a tall one from Dave/Guru. Something had to be done – I could neither store, use, or transport all of this goodness effectively. Plus some of the Pendraken stuff and some of my own stone walls and fences needed an upgrade. Add to this, I got a new brigade of Impkins for Ozz from Buck – more on that shortly – let’s stay on terrain for the moment.

Buck’s cool glowing mushrooms – and an appropriate cozy he got for me at an HMGS South convention in Florida.

All the terrain I had – minus walls and fences…

My first solution to this issue was to share the bounty. I shipped off half of the Acheson resin buildings and half of my fairy buildings to my Tennessee buddy (and former West Point roommate) Dave Wood for use in his Wars of Ozz games. My next step was to finish the resin buildings, fences, and walls so that I could craft a storage and transport solution for them. I also wanted to repaint/upgrade my remaining haphazardly prepainted Dollar Tree buildings. So on to what I managed to do with all of that…

Here are some of the Acheson buildings that I kept. I also kept a tall gourd building that is not shown here. I decided to assemble them and attach the roofs permanently.

After a LOT of scuffing and sandpapering the surfaces of the resin buildings (for proper primer adhesion), I assembled them with green stuff. You can see the gourd building here left of the black Sharpie pen.

Here are all of the ones that I kept – here assembled and awaiting a priming – which I did twice. The buildings are nice, but resin is so fickle.

As shown above, the priming took a couple coats (plus some more touch up) as resin is, well, resin. I tried to minimize the lines where the roofs met the model bottoms – but they still showed up a bit. Still as tabletop terrain, it think its ok, especially as the roofs won’t come off.

Here below are how they came out after painting:

Then I had some Pendraken MDF snakerail fences to assemble and paint

I also got some plastic walls and plastic fences from Pendraken that I flocked and gave some minor washes to in order to make them look a bit better. I also repeated this process with some older used 3″ walls and fences that I already had that were in desperate need of an upgrade. Next, I repainted my remaining 13 Dollar Tree Store Fairy buildings (to varying degrees depending on what could be done).

Now, I was ready for a storage solution. I went with a 64-liter Really Useful Box, and built and installed three custom-made levels to transport and store all of this goodness. Serially, I mocked up each level on sheets of foam board, and used hot glue and toothpicks to secure walls of foam board on each level. The underneath supports were square wooden dowels. I also incorporated empty golf ball boxes for storage on the top level. (very useful too). It’s maybe good I lose golf balls from time to time…

The bottom level was easy – as I only needed to fit the Mouse Metropolis pieces down there. Then it was on to the middle layer – where all the taller pieces like the bigger buildings would be housed.

Mocking up the top level. Here you can see some of the fences and walls that I upgraded with washes and flocking.

Below you’ll see all three levels and how compact it all is in the 64-L box – which weighs about 5-7 pounds full.

As terrain was the order of the day for my Fall In preparation, I also ordered two Cigar Box Battles 4′ x 6′ + Grassland Battle Mats as I needed a bigger tabletop area. The terrain will go on this mat for my upcoming game of The Wars of Ozz – the scenario is The Battle for Toto – but I have upgraded it as well. Herebelow are some shots as a sneak preview of what I will start with at Fall In.

Overview of my approximately 12′ x 4″ battlefield for “The Battle for Toto”.

A view of the town the Munchkins are defending – which holds Toto. But where?

The terrain gifts that I got were not the only ones I got. Buck Surdu had painted up an entire brigade of Impkins – and asked our little group on our group text if there was any interest. I of course jumped at the chance to get some wonderful Buck Surdu originals! In the discussion, it came out from someone that they reminded somebody of “creepy fighting baby dolls”. I suggested to Greg Priebe, that sounded like an 80’s metal band – and could he put that into AI somehow? He could, and without further ado, and with a bit of hilarity, here is the CFBD’s in concert:

The Creepy Fighting Baby Dolls

Ah Greg, they definitely make me laugh! A band worthy of IRO for sure down under – at least image-wise!

Anyways, in the midst of all else that I had happening in October, this VERY complete brigade arrived in the mail in two packages. The painting was fantastic – Buck’s painting work is always amazing. There were two regiments of infantry, two of cavalry (one riding roosters, and one riding St. Bernard dogs), one Border Swamp Guardian Fairy (flying) regiment with bows, a cool slingshot light artillery battery, two leaders, and a sorceress:

There was minor damage to the units in the mail, and most was easy to fix with some glue. The biggest challenges were twofold. One, I wanted to add some flocking to the bases for tabletop differentiation – and two, I wanted to upgrade the slingshot unit. By upgrade, I mean that the base was not magnetized for the placement of crew, and the trees supporting the slingshot had lost their foliage (see below). I was inspired by – again – IRO, who recently had a cool post about making model trees. He had advised me about the right glue to use and more – so I used that information as best as possible.

Without further ado, here is my….

Gift of Impkins

The first shipment came – and I was excited – the base with the slingshot and the fairies came second.

The two infantry units looked a bit similar – even though one has a rooster-mounted commander and the other one on a St. Bernard. So in addition to adding a Pendraken 12mm dice frame, I added different flocking:

The Swamp Guardian Fairy (flying) regiment was really cool. I mainly had to drill out some of the wires that came loose and reattach a few wings.

There were two cavalry regiments:

I think those will be easy to differentiate!

There were the three individuals – King Kittcut, Queen Garee, and Sorceress Mother Ophelia and her Cats. I based all three on MDF bases and printed out placards for them.

Queen Gare, King Kittcut, and in the back Sorceress Mother Ophelia and her Cats on the MDF bases. Buck’s painting on all of these is phenomenal.

This leaves the Impkin “Artillery”. It’s a slingshot firing apples – that moves on the battlefield- somehow. So how, I don’t know, it just acts like a light artillery piece – so suspend belief – it’s Ozz! Anyways, I magnetized the base for the crew, and added some blood stains under the figures for when they are casualties. I also redid the foliage per IRO’s suggestions and added some Woodland Scenics apples for effect. It was fun and a bit messy, but good preparation for a subsequent project I hope to blog about soon – Savage Apple Trees (to come soon)

Here is the Impkin artillery base shorn of the foliage on the trees. I drilled out the base, added magnets for the crew and flocking. The dice square glue is shown drying here.

After finishing up the re-foliage and the apples – voila! I was very happy.

The figures – once removed as casualties – display a blood stain on the grass.

More Rebasing!

While I was at all this, I rebased my Zoraster, my Evora, my Arella (gift from Chris Comeau), and my Lady Thistlethorn (Harvest Witch) on the MDF bases:

A Pikachu for Tabitha

Gifts also went from me! One more model that I worked on was a Pokemon Pikachu model that I assembled together with my 6-year old (nearly 7) grandaughter. It was fun, but the tail broke off easily. No worries, Papa repaired it and affixed to two points on the model such that it should not twist off again. She loves it, and it was a fun modeling experience for her.

Sending Guru Dave the Wars of Ozz & Wars of Orcs and Dwarves rulebooks, and a Mark 1 Sphere Tank Down Under

I did want to reciprocate Dave’s great selfless terrain gift – and I knew he loves rule books. So unbeknownst to Guru Dave, I sent him the rulebooks for both the Wars of Ozz and Wars of Orcs and Dwarves. As he was into Xenos Rampant, I also sent him a cast of my Mark 1 Sphere Tank Down that he could use there. You can read about his reactions in his post here.

Much thanks to Russ Dunaway, to Dave (Guru), to Buck Surdu , to Greg Priebe, to IRO, and to Chris Comeau for all that you did to make this all work! I appreciate you all so very much.

As I finish this post, I am about to pack for Fall In, with all the Ozz stuff you see. I do have a couple more units to post about once I have gotten back, as well as an October golf roundup. I’m sure that I will have a Fall In! post as well to do. My apologies to those whose blogs I am behind in catching up on – I will get there. I hope that this post was enjoyable for you and that maybe I can meet some of you at Fall In!

	John@justneedsvarnis… on Wars of Ozz at MAYHEM 202…
	Pete S/ SP on Wars of Ozz at MAYHEM 202…
	maenoferren22 on Wars of Ozz at MAYHEM 202…
	bucksurdu on Wars of Ozz at MAYHEM 202…
	Dave Stone on Wars of Ozz at MAYHEM 202…