Whim Whim Spearmen Regiments and Brigade Commanders (Wars of Ozz)

It’s been a while since I had a chance to finish a blog post on any new Wars of Ozz units. That doesn’t mean that I have not been working on any – in fact between golf since April (which you have seen a bit about here in this blog), HUZZAH in May, I have posted about the Noobi, allies of the Whim Whim. I have been working my way through some Whim Whim units.

The Whim Whim are nomadic tribesmen who hail from the southern “underbelly” of Ozz. This faction has many very cool units, especially in terms of cavalry and infantry. (However, artillery? Nothing – as is appropriate for these nomads.)

Still, I have enough figures to build two brigades for the Whim Whim in concert with the Noobi. I decided to start with an infantry core – with 2 Whim Whim Spearmen Regiments (WWSR’s). As a Whim Whim brigade can have up to 6 WWSR’s, this seemed to me to be a good start on the brigades. Of course, the two brigades would need leaders. My good friend Greg Priebe also 3D printed some “Ottoman Noble Admirals” for me that will serve as either ersatz brigade or divisional commanders until more are avaialble from Old Glory. I worked on the leaders at the same time as I did on the WWSR’s.

The regiments are listed on the website under “The Kingdom of Whim Whim Tribes” as SKU#1400, “Whim Whim Spearmen with Command”. There are 4 command figures, 16 spearmen, and a regimental leader mounted on a siliyiplix in each regiment. Don’t worry – I cannot pronounce it (the mount) either – but it’s the common one for the WW. Apparently it’s a camel-like animal with 6 eyes and a double tail. This is Ozz after all… That makes a total of 42 figures for both WWSR’s together.

As the WWSR’s are only armed with long thrusting spears, Marksmanship is irrelevant for them. The WWSR’s are, however, very good in Melee with a value of 7/10 – plus they get an extra die in the first round of Melee, giving them a nice shock advantage. As far as their ability to stand against an attack, the WWSR’s are average with a Resolve value of 6/10. They do more enjoy more getting into and remaining in a fight with an Elan value of 8/10. Point-wise, they cost 5 points per WWSR. The figures are 28mm and metal. There are a few very subtle differences among the spearmen as far as the individual sculpts go.

On the website, the WWSR photo has them with paper pennons attached to their spears. Additionally, there are no protrusions from their shields where the little holes are. The website photo is below.

I decided that I would modify my WWSR’s in these two areas. First, I would change the spear tips with an Iron Wind Metals spear tips product that I remember using in my Ral Partha Rooman project that I did a while back. That product is now sold under IWM, is very reasonably priced, and is called SKU#DH-507 “Banner Spear Head Sprue”. There are 6 tips per sprue.

The other modification that I made was to disassemble the little balls from a pull-chain (the kind that lights use), and add them to the shield fronts where the holes are. As for colors, the 1st Regiment would have a purple theme, and the 2nd an orange theme – which is completely fine with the canon. I started working on these back in late May.

As for the leaders, Greg printed up Wargames Atlantics SKU WAAD00063, “Ottoman Noble Admirals”. He mailed me 5, of which 3 bodies and 5 heads survived the USPS journey.

I started work on all of these (45 figures in total) back in May – and with my modifications it took a while (there was a LOT of drilling and gluing). Another issue really added to the time for this project – 1.0 versions of Speed Paint.

I mistakenly forgot that one of the the purple paints that I used (Army Painter “Purple Alchemy”) and one of the orange ones (Army Painter “Fire Giant Orange”) were not 2.0 but were instead 1.0 versions. As a result, I didn’t mix them initially with Citadel “Contrast Medium” – which I normally do to avoid the notorious bleeding in the 1.0’s. AARGH!

This led to a lot of repainting, but luckily it was mainly on the shields. I do want you to know that after mixing with the Citadel “Contrast Medium”, no bleeding occurs in my experience. I just have many more 2.0’s than 1.0’s, so I forgot – and I have had no bleeding issues with the 2.0’s.

Now onto WIP shots for both the WWSR’s and the leaders!

Whim Whim Spearmen WIP Shots and Discussion

I mounted the figures themselves on popsicle sticks for painting instead of the specimen jars that I usually use to save space.

By the end of May I had the WWSR’s drilled out (for shields, heads, and spears!), primed, washed and dry brushed.

I needed a jig to hold the spears while they were assembled and paint dried on them – not ideal but it worked.

Then I worked on the two regimental commanders and their siliyiplixes (is that the plural???).

I used a new (to me) pumice sand-basing paint/paste on the bases. I acquired it from Shadow’s Edge Miniatures and it is called Shadow’s Edge Miniatures Earth Works Dirt Colors “Sand Dust”. It comes in a 230ml/8 oz jar and I really liked it a lot. The only downside is that there is no photo on the website – you just have to choose “Sand Dust”. I have a photo below of the jar mid-project after using a lot!

By mid-June I had the infantry figures mainly painted and ready for weapons and shields.

You notice that I alternated drilling out on the forearms and the hands for the shield mounting so as to give more differentiation.

With the final proximity of each figure to each other on a 2″ base, I needed to sequentially add the basing paste. First, I added the basing texture where the figures were to be affixed with Gorilla Glue. I got help from my granddaughter Tabitha who had fun doing this.

After the “Sand Dust” had dried, I added three pigments to give better subtlety to the sand (and all the paints that I used are listed at the end of the post). Then I added varnish and flocking. By the end of June I had them completed and varnished as well as the leaders – but let’s get to their WIP next.

Whim Whim Brigade Commanders WIP Shots and Discussion

The brigade commanders went much more quickly as the drilling was limited to their heads! The figures looked great.

After assembly, I followed the same procedure as with the WWSR’s.

Before basing, I had these looking pretty good.

Then I was on to basing them like the WWSR’s, except this time on MDF bases.

Enough WIP I’d say – let’s jump into some…

Eye Candy

And the leaders:

These did make their first tabletop battle at Historicon in July, as did another Whim Whim unit – but I’ll save those pics for the next post. That will be coming shortly (so I can get caught up)! Let’s just say it will be cavalry units that required some modeling for sure.

I now have a full box of Whim Whim and Noobi – though in retrospect I should have slightly trimmed the spear shafts to fit better height-wise in the Really Useful Box.

I hope that this was enjoyable to read. Your feedback in the comments section is always appreciated – and thank you for looking!

And yes, I still have much more Ozz to come…

Miscellaneous details and references for those interested in that sort of thing:

For all of my earlier 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 TWO WHIM WHIM SPEARMEN REGIMENTS:

1. Number 6 steel washers
2. Iron Wind Metals Banner Spear Head Sprues SKU #DH507
3. Pull chain remnants
4. Wars of Ozz Miniatures MDF bases
5. Vallejo Game Ink “Brown”
6. Elmer’s PVA Glue
7. Wargames Accessories #21 bases (2″ square steel bases)
8. Wargames Accessories FOW #1 (1.25″ X 1″ steel bases)
9. Vallejo Surface Primer “Grey”
10. Vallejo Mecha Primer “White”
11. Vallejo “Airbrush Thinner”
12. Popsicle sticks
13. Green Sharpie pen
14. Army Painter “Dark Tone” (wash)
15. Wargames Accessories #17 bases (1″ X 1.5″ steel bases)
16. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Magos Purple”
17. 3/4″ Everbilt steel washers (ABA)
18. 7/8″ Everbilt steel washers (ACA)
19. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Fire Giant Orange 1.0”
20. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Purple Alchemy 1.0”
21. Vallejo Model Air “Wood”
22. Vallejo Model Air “Chrome”
23. Vallejo Mecha Varnish “Gloss Varnish”
24. Vallejo Mecha Color “Off White”
25. Battlefront “Worn Canvas”
26. Citadel “Seraphim Sepia” (wash/shade)
27. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Contrast Medium”
28. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Crusader Skin 1.0”
29. Citadel “Morghast Bone”
30. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Sand Golem 1.0”
31. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Ruddy Fur 2.0”
32. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Satchel Brown 2.0”
33. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Carmine Dragon 2.0”
34. Citadel “Tesseract Glow” (Technical)
35. Army Painter “Warpaint Air – Blue Flux”
36. Army Painter “Light Tone” (shade)
37. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Apothecary White”
38. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Snakebite Leather”
39. Citadel “Gehenna’s Gold”
40. Vallejo Model Air “Steel”
41. Vallejo Model Air “Black” (metallic)
42. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Black Templar”
43. Pendraken 12mm dice frames
44. Shadow’s Edge Miniatures Earth Works Dirt Colors “Sand Dust” (texture/basing paste)
45. Vallejo Mecha Color “Steel”
46. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Aztec Gold 2.0”
47. Vallejo Mecha Color “Magenta Fluorescent”
48. Gorilla Glue
49. Paper clip wire
50. Wooden toothpicks
51. Blue Sharpie pen
52. Regimental Flags from Wars of Ozz Facebook page
53. Vallejo “Dark Yellow Ochre” (pigment)
54. Vallejo “Light Yellow Ochre” (pigment)
55. Vallejo “Desert Dust” (pigment)
56. Vallejo Mecha Varnish “Matte Varnish”
57. Vallejo “Flow Improver”
58. Army Painter “Battlefield Rocks” (flocking)
59. Shadow’s Edge Miniatures “4mm Badlands Tufts” (flocking)
60. Shadow’s Edge Miniatures “6mm Scorched Earth Tufts” (flocking)

PAINTS, INKS, GLAZES, SHADES, WASHES, PIGMENTS, FLOCKING, GLUES AND MORE THAT I USED ON THESE WHIM WHIM BRIGADE COMMANDERS:

1. Number 6 steel washers
2. Gorilla Glue
3. Paper clip wire
4. Vallejo Surface Primer “Grey”
5. Vallejo Mecha Primer “White”
6. Vallejo “Airbrush Thinner”
7. Popsicle sticks
8. Army Painter “Dark Tone” (wash)
9. Wars of Ozz Miniatures MDF bases
10. Vallejo Game Ink “Brown”
11. Pendraken 12mm dice frames
12. Vallejo Mecha Color “Off White”
13. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Contrast Medium”
14. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Crusader Skin 1.0”
15. Vallejo Model Air “Chrome”
16. Vallejo Mecha Color “Steel”
17. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Carmine Dragon 2.0”
18. Army Painter “Warpaint Air – Blue Flux”
19. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Bad Moon Yellow”
20. Citadel “Tesseract Glow” (Technical)
21. Vallejo Game Air “Chainmail Silver”
22. Citadel “Gehenna’s Gold”
23. Citadel “Spritstone Red” (Technical)
24. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Battleship Grey 2.0”
25. Wargames Accessories FOW #1 (1.25″ X 1″ steel bases)
26. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Aztec Gold 2.0”
27. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Aged Hide 2.0”
28. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Magos Purple”
29. Army Painter “Warpaints Metallic – Plate Mail Metal”
30. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Snakebite Leather”
31. Shadow’s Edge Miniatures Earth Works Dirt Colors “Sand Dust” (texture/basing paste)
32. Vallejo Model Air “Black” (metallic)
33. Army Painter “Warpaints Metallic – Rough Iron”
34. Vallejo Model Color “Wood Grain”
35. Elmer’s PVA Glue
36. Wargames Accessories #17 bases (1″ X 1.5″ steel bases)
37. Vallejo Mecha Varnish “Gloss Varnish”
38. Army Painter “Light Tone” (shade)
39. Vallejo “Dark Yellow Ochre” (pigment)
40. Vallejo “Light Yellow Ochre” (pigment)
41. Vallejo “Desert Dust” (pigment)
42. Vallejo Mecha Varnish “Matte Varnish”
43. Vallejo “Flow Improver”
44. Army Painter “Battlefield Rocks” (flocking)
45. Shadow’s Edge Miniatures “4mm Badlands Tufts” (flocking)
46. Shadow’s Edge Miniatures “6mm Scorched Earth Tufts” (flocking)

As you may want to check out the excellent Wars of Ozz figures’ range – there are two places to get them and to get the rules (and I make no money from this btw). The game rules and the figures are available from the next two places:

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

In the UK go to Sally 4th.