Sleestak-Inspired Miniatures for Wars of Ozz

Back in the mid-1970’s, there was the live-action show “Land of the Lost“. It was a Sid and Marty Krofft production that aired on Saturday mornings alongside all our other cartoon options. It was easily my favorite back then – and I eagerly watched every episode that I could. My daughter informed me that it was also rebroadcast in the 1980’s and 1990’s so her generation saw that too. It was also made into a Will Ferrell film in 2009 (that was apparently a box office flop that I never saw).

Short version: The premise of the original TV show concerned a family of three – Dad Rick Marshall, his son (Will), and his daughter (Holly). While rafting on a camping trip, the family is transported to another world through a portal. In this world, they hole up in a cave and try to find a way back home. Their new world has dinosaurs (stop-action and puppet-animated), friendly and diminutive hominid Pakuni (notably their friend Cha-Ka), and Sleestak.

The Sleestak are slow but aggressive bipedal reptilian creatures. Some carry crossbows and in the show have all the accuracy of an Imperial Storm Trooper. The Sleestak inhabit the ruins of an ancient city and temple complex, and are occasional nemeses of the Marshalls. Among the Sleestak is a differently-colored Altrusian named Enik. The Altrusian civilization fell 1,000 years prior to the Marshalls’ arrival – and the Sleestak are their corrupted barbaric descendants. Enik had similarly been transported through a portal from his time to the ruined Altrusian city of the show. He sometimes helps the Marshalls – and the Sleestak generally yield to him because of his powers.

So, what the hell has that got to do with my Wars of Ozz projects ???

Well, I was getting ready to paint up my Pollywomps and make a brigade of them. Pollywomps are swamp-dwelling reptilian humanoid that are ruled by Prince Dismal, ruler of their swamp. They have a passing resemblance to both 1954’s “Creature from the Black Lagoon” AND the Sleestak. For my Pollywomp Brigade, I have an infantry regiment, a cavalry regiment, and an artillery battery. All are VERY cool and I will share in due course in future posts. But unfortunately I needed a brigade commander – and Prince Dismal is not yet sculpted and available for purchase.

However, in surfing the internet I found Forge of Ice Miniatures up in Alaska that has a few extremely cool “Saleesa” figures that are pretty much Sleestak. As they brought back nostalgic feelings, I ordered some, and I was very pleased with them and especially the customer service from Alex Bates. The figures that I got were:

1. Saleesa with Slingshot Crossbows (2 figures)
2. Saleesa Leader (2 figures) (Enik and Index Skull)
3. Saleesa Warrior Number One (1 figure)
4. Saleesa Warrior Number Two (1 figure))

I’ll share below how I made these into a brigade command base for Wars of Ozz. My plan was to have the Sleestak surround Enik and his “Index Skull” on a base that would look like a ruined city overgrown by jungle.

WIP Shots

I used popsicle sticks and PVA to set the figures up for painting. These are metal and 28mm in size.

As for the base, I decided to use a balsa wood base left over from my Minifigs World of Greyhawk Cairn Cavemen project from 9 years ago. I would need to add a space on the base for the both the leader ability placard and the 12mm dice frame. To those ends, I additionally repurposed part of a placard frame from Wars of Ozz miniatures OZZ-BA5 and a square of basswood I had lying around.

Using PVA, I glued metal supports under the base and set with binder clips. I even reused a metal garage door sample that would adhere to my magnetic sheet-covered Really Useful Boxes that I use for storage and transport.

I painted up the miniatures in the theme of the TV show – and did not take any WIP of them except as you see immediately below. Here, you see the wooden base – and I used a black Sharpie to try to create tiles. While I was not happy with it – it was a start.

I had some “Make It Fun Project Bricks” made of hard foam. I crushed several of them, put them in a Solo cup, added craft Americana gray paint, and mixed them until the paint covered it all. They were then useful as texture flocking together with Citadel “Astrogranite Debris”.

The next step was to mount the figures, let that dry, and then add the debris flocking. Then, I added undergrowth once the debris was dry, as well as the dice frame and support.

And then I added the undergrowth/foliage:

I tried to give the eyes a reflective look. Enough WIP, let me share the finished work with you!

Sleestak Eye Candy…errr…I mean Pollywomp Brigade Commander Base

As you can see, I rolled for the brigade commander’s ability – and it came up with “Magical Protection”. I am now making my unit abilities permanent once they are completed instead of changing them later on.

Gifts from Buck!

As a side note, before I get into the list of paints that I used on the Sleestak, I’d like to share a couple photos of the cool Christmas gifts that I got from Buck Surdu. One is “Nit-Tickers” – which is a single base of walking time bombs for Wars of Ozz. Buck scratch-built these and they will be fun in a game – they are more or less sentient IED’s/walking time bombs that will be part of Professor NitPik’s forces. I do believe that Wars of Ozz miniatures has actual sculpts in the works for these. Still, I love Buck’s creations!

I also got a second awesome gift! Buck took a Whim Whim figure to create a “bannerman”. In the rules he can be added to the Sultan Whim figure at an extra cost to increase subordinate brigade commanders’ command radii to 18″ (normally they are 12″). I rebased the figure on an MDF base and added the requisite flocking and placard as you’ll see below.

As for the Pollywomps, I’ll be sharing those units shortly as they qualified for Dave Stone’s annual “Paint What You Got Challenge”. The Sleestak base does not qualify (as I finished it right before Christmas), but my other Pollywomps will, so stay tuned. At least now they have a leader base!

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 THIS ERSATZ POLLYWOMPS/SLEESTAK COMMAND BASE:

1. Balsa wood hex base
2. Repurposed Frame from Ozz Placards MDF sheet
3. Bass wood square
4. War Games Accessories Steel Bases (FOW1)
5. Garaga garage color sample piece
6. Popsicle sticks
7. War Games Accessories 1″x 1.5″ Steel Bases (18)
8. PVA Glue
9. Vallejo Premium White Primer
10. Vallejo Flow Improver
11. Vallejo Thinner
12. Army Painter “Dark Tone” (wash)
13. Vallejo Mecha Color “Off White”
14. Vallejo Model Color “Off White”Army Painter Warpaints Air “Neon Yellow”
15. Vallejo Model Air “Brown”
16. Army Painter Speed Paint 2.0 “Satchel Brown”
17. Army Painter Speed Paint 1.0 “Dark Wood”
18. Citadel “Contrast Medium”
19. Citadel “Morghast Bone”
20. Vallejo Thinner Medium
21. Citadel Contrast Paint “Nazdreg Yellow”
22. Vallejo Model Air “Wood”
23. Vallejo Game Air “Red Terracotta”
24. Citadel “Spritstone Red” (technical)
25. Citadel “Soulstone Blue” (technical)
26. Secret Weapon Washes “Purple”
27. Army Painter Speed Paint 2.0 “Familiar Pink”
28. Citadel “Tallarn Sand”
29. P3 “Blazing Ink” (ink)
30. Citadel Contrast Paint “Mantis Warriors Green”
31. MSP “Sun Yellow”
32. Citadel Contrast Paint “Karandras Green”
33. Army Painter Speed Paint 2.0 “Bony Matter”
34. Citadel Contrast Paint “Gulliman Flesh”
35. Citadel Contrast Paint “Darkoath Flesh”
36. Citadel “Seraphim Sepia” (shade/wash)
37. Vallejo Model Color “Dark Sea Grey”
38. Secret Weapon Washes “Stone”
39. Pendraken 12mm dice frames
40. Pencil
41. Black Sharpie pen
42. Make It Fun Project Bricks (crushed, painted, and used as flocking)
43. Americana “Slate Grey”
44. Citadel “Astrogranite Debris” (texture)
45. Vallejo “Gloss Acrylic Varnish”
46. Vallejo Premium Color “Matte Varnish”
47. Vallejo Environmental Weathering Effects “Slimy Grime Dark”
48. Gamers Grass “Jungle XL” (flocking)
49. Gamers Grass “Dense Green 6mm” (flocking)
50. Gamers Grass “Alien Toxic 6mm” (flocking)
51. Shadow’s Edge Miniatures “4mm Flaming Light Green Tufts” (flocking)
52. Pendraken 12mm dice frames

Of course, the list above is of FAR more use to me for future projects – like I would remember otherwise!!

Final Note

If you 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.

Thanks again for looking I hope to share the Pollywomps units with you shortly!

Happy New Year!