Category: Personal

3 Pumpkin Headed Generals and a Harvest Witch (Wars of Ozz)

In my previous post about King Jack and the Great Pumpkin Heads of the Great Land of Harvest, I discussed his leadership abilities – in that he’s the only one among the pumpkinheads who actually can speak to other races. I am sure that he must be able to communicate (in ways non-pumpkinheads can understand) to his kind like the Lesser Pumpkinheads, the Harvestland Artillery, and other Land of Harvest units and individuals. There must be something to the guttural moans emanating from the menageries of vegetable troops of the Great Land of Harvest that is a form of communication in some way.

But wouldn’t King Jack need some able-bodied lieutenants to help him to command his army? Plus, hell, he’d need some type of witch or wizard to even out his forces against enemies with their own magic users? And yes, I know he needs cavalry – which exists in that world – and I eventually hope to add them – but not right now…too many figures are already in the queue!

For these reasons, my immediate need pre-HUZZAH 2023 was to get a few subordinate general officers for my Harvest forces – as well as a Harvest witch. Having more brigade commanders would allow me to field several brigades (albeit smaller at first) of maniacal veggies. And a adding a witch would make playing that side more fun too.

Way back, I accidentally ordered two Zoraster the Wizard figures during the initial Kickstarter. I was able to trade my excess wizard with Greg Priebe of the Harford Maryland H.A.W.K.’s for a generic witch.

I have named her Lady Thistlethorn, the Harvest Witch. It’s a good a name as any. She’s an Ozz figure, and was part of the random wizards and witches for Ozz available as OZZ-513. Of course, Lady Thistlethorn will have her spells assigned randomly each game.

As for the three generals, they came from OZZ-531, “Pumpkin Headed Generals”. In the rules, they are listed as General Gourdvine, General Squashblossom, and General Crustfiller. Each has a single defined benefit and a random one – and all can serve as either brigade or army commanders.

The figures are not identified/associated with a particular name, so I chose to make General Gourdvine as the figure with the traditional jack-o-lantern head, General Squashblossom as the jack-o-lantern-headed figure with the carrot nose, and General Crustfiller as the figure with the burlap bag over his head (?). All 3 are mounted on skeletonized horses. The three are metal, 28mm scale, and came in two pieces (rider trunk and mount with the legs).

As with the Lesser Pumpkinheads, my goal was to use the basic colors of the Great Pumpkin Heads for these – and especially the yellow-green eyes. Once again, I also needed to show straw (like the stuffing of a scarecrow) coming out of the holes in their clothes and near their wrists.

For Lady Thistlethorn, I went with a black outfit with green facings – and a slightly different green for her skin. I am not fully happy with her, as the two green shades are too close, but in the rush for Huzzah 2023 prep, I decided that she was good enough for now. She’s a bit sexy with her thigh-high boots and leather bustier – and certainly I will get some more witches in the future.

I’ll share a few WIP shots of the PHG’s and the HW and then move onto the eye candy for both types. I will list my paints etc. at the end as I normally do for those interested (and for my own reference in the future should I need that information as often is the case).

Pumpkin Headed Generals

PHG WIP Shots…

The Pumpkin Headed Generals and their mounts – from left to right, General Gourdvine, General Crustfiller, and General Squashblossom.
Painting progress
Painting completed pre-varnish and pre-flocking.

Harvest Witch (Lady Thistlethorn)

Harvest Witch WIP Shots…

Now-named Lady Thistlethorn the Harvest Witch after cleanup.
Early work on Lady Thistlethorn.
Lady Thistlethorn pre-varnish.

Eye Candy

Pumpkin Headed Generals Eye Candy

General Gourdvine

General Squashblossom

General Crustfiller

Harvest Witch (Lady Thistlethorn) Eye Candy

Group shot

That’s the Pumpkin Headed Generals and Lady Thistlethorn, the Harvest Witch. They did all debut at Huzzah 2023.

Thanks for taking a look and for any feedback. The next post will round out my pre-Huzzah 2023 painting scramble. Hint:

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 PUMPKIN HEADED GENERALS:

  1. Mounted Brigade Commander MDF bases from Old Glory/Wars of Ozz Miniatures
  2. 1 1/4″ x 1″ steel bases from Wargames Accessories (#FOW1)
  3. 2″ square steel base from Wargames Accessories (#21)
  4. Gorilla Glue
  5. Poster tack
  6. Vallejo “Flow Improver”
  7. Vallejo “Airbrush Thinner”
  8. Vallejo Mecha Surface Primer “Black”
  9. Vallejo Model Color “White”
  10. Citadel “Tesseract Glow”
  11. Battlefront “Black”
  12. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Dusk Red”
  13. Vallejo Model Color “Black” (metallic)
  14. Battlefront “Gunship Green”
  15. Hataka “Beige”
  16. Citadel “Mechanicus Standard Grey”
  17. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Striking Scorpion Green”
  18. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Bad Moon Yellow”
  19. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Contrast Medium”
  20. Tamiya “Orange”
  21. Tamiya “X-20A Thinner”
  22. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Nazdreg Yellow”
  23. Vallejo Model Color “Light Orange”
  24. Vallejo Model Color “Clear Orange”
  25. Vallejo Model Air “Gun Metal”
  26. Vallejo Model Air “Steel”
  27. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Skeleton Horde”
  28. Army Painter “Mid Brown” (wash/shade)
  29. Citadel “Nuln Oil GLOSS” (wash)
  30. PS Model Color “US Olive Drab”
  31. Vallejo Mecha Varnish “Gloss Varnish”
  32. Vallejo Mecha Varnish “Matte Varnish”
  33. Elmer’s PVA Glue
  34. Army Painter “Battlefields Grass Green” (flocking)
  35. Army Painter “Battlefield Field Grass” (flocking)
  36. Army Painter “Battlefields Field Grass” (flocking)
  37. Army Painter “Battlefields Meadow Flowers” (flocking)
  38. Shadow’s Edge Miniatures “6mm Dark Forest Orange Tufts” (flocking)
  39. Gamer’s Grass “Orange Flowers” (flocking)
  40. Small stones (flocking)
  41. Small oak twigs (flocking)

PAINTS, INKS, GLAZES, SHADES, WASHES, PIGMENTS, FLOCKING, GLUES AND MORE THAT I USED ON THE HARVEST WITCH (“LADY THISTLETHORN”):

  1. 3/4″ steel washer
  2. Gorilla Glue
  3. Poster tack
  4. Vallejo “Flow Improver”
  5. Vallejo “Airbrush Thinner”
  6. Vallejo Mecha Surface Primer “White”
  7. Vallejo Model Color “White”
  8. Citadel “Tesseract Glow”
  9. Battlefront “Black”
  10. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Forest Sprite”
  11. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Striking Scorpion Green”
  12. Citadel “Squid Orange”
  13. Vallejo Model Color “Wood”
  14. Reaper MSP Core Colors “Blackened Brown”
  15. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Nazdreg Yellow”
  16. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Black Legion”
  17. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Space Wolves Grey”
  18. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Snakebite Leather”
  19. Citadel “Waystone Green” (Technical)
  20. Army Painter “Green Tone” (wash/shade)
  21. PS Model Color “US Olive Drab”
  22. Vallejo Mecha Varnish “Gloss Varnish”
  23. Vallejo Mecha Varnish “Matte Varnish”
  24. Elmer’s PVA Glue
  25. Army Painter “Battlefields Grass Green” (flocking)
  26. Army Painter “Battlefield Field Grass” (flocking)
  27. Army Painter “Battlefields Field Grass” (flocking)
  28. Army Painter “Battlefields Meadow Flowers” (flocking)
  29. Shadow’s Edge Miniatures “6mm Dark Forest Orange Tufts” (flocking)
  30. Gamer’s Grass “Orange 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.

Mushroom Creatures (Wars of Ozz)

In my last blog post I promised something “fungal” this time – and here it is – a regiment of Mushroom Creatures for Wars of Ozz!

This unit was yet another part of my painting scramble to get ready for HUZZAH! 2023. It joins my other forces for the Great Land of Harvest. The unit is composed of 10 figures to be based each on 5 stands, 2 per stand. Similar to some other Great Land of Harvest regiments, the Mushroom Creature Infantry Regiment is comprised of 10 metal figures armed – with differently-sized stone sledgehammers and hammers. The figures are of different heights, but did not need assembly as each figure came in a single piece.

The photo of the unit on the Wars of Ozz website served as a starting point for me for painting. I liked the spotted mushroom caps – but wanted to have a greater variety of colors. This is, after all, Ozz! Plus I had a lot of new Speed and Contrast Paints to try as I got the 2.0 set.

OZZ-519, from the Wars of Ozz website.

I varied the different models so as to create a variety of bases. I took the same approach with the colors so that no two bases would be the same. They are based in the game on five 2″ square bases without a Regimental Commander. Their melee value is pretty strong at 7 out of 10. Their Elan and Resolve values are the same as the other Harvest units at 6 out of 10. In fact, they have the same stats as the Great Menacing Hammerheads.

These also have a facial look of intent to do great harm to their enemies, but were pretty easy to paint up. Again, to match my other Harvest troops, I did paint the eyes with a glowing yellow-green (Tesseract Glow). I’ll share a few WIP shots and then some eye candy of the Mushroom Creatures regiment. I’ll briefly describe the painting process that I used with the contrast and speed paints. All of the paints that I used will be listed at the end as I normally do for those interested in that stuff.

WIP Shots…

The figures as received – very cool and pretty easy to paint up. I mounted the figures on 3/4″ steel washers, then onto poster-tack covered specimen jars for ease of painting.
I primed these white so I could get the best results on the mushroom caps (the most visible feature on the tabletop). That white also “absorbs” colors from Speed and Contrast paints the best. You can make out the penciled dots that I have placed on the caps – which I would line out with black and then regular white paint before adding colors.
Very simple to paint! I decided that the caps should vary, but that the rest of the figures colors should be relatively uniform.

Once painted, I airbrushed these with two coats of varnish sequentially – first a coat of gloss then a coat of matte. Then I flocked the bases with the same color themes as my other Harvest troops.

Who doesn’t love anthropomorphic mushrooms armed with stone hammers anyways?

How about some…

Eye Candy

As the figures are really uninteresting from behind , I decided to stay with frontal shots. Sorry to disappoint all you miniature mushroom figure butt fans out there…

Stand 1

Stand 2

Stand 3

Stand 4

Stand 5

Group shot

Similar to what I found with the Great Menacing Hammerheads, photographing these was difficult – this time due to the mushroom caps shading the figures. I think you get the idea of how they look in the group shot. From above they look quite fungal!

I did find that the contrast paints tended to have cracks/microfissures on wider surfaces like the mushroom tops when they dried and were “stretched out”. Adding a second coat was enough pre-varnish to fix that problem. Not my finest work, but I like them, and they will be just fine on the tabletop.

That’s all for the Mushroom Creatures Infantry Regiment. Like me, I’m sure you want a pizza now with mushrooms now! Well, I always do…

I hope that you liked this slice of Ozz wackiness as much as I did.

I currently have just 2 more Ozz blog posts in the queue and then I can get back to painting more stuff – so stay tuned.

My next post will make you consider – who would work for or under King Jack?

Thanks for taking a look and any feedback is always appreciated

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 THIS MUSHROOM CREATURE INFANTRY REGIMENT:

  1. Gorilla Glue
  2. 3/4″ steel washers
  3. Poster tack
  4. Vallejo “Flow Improver”
  5. Vallejo “Airbrush Thinner”
  6. Vallejo Premium Surface Primer “White”
  7. Vallejo Mecha Surface Primer “White”
  8. Army Painter Airbrush Primer “White”
  9. Battlefront “Black”
  10. Vallejo Model Color “White”
  11. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Contrast Medium”
  12. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Holy White”
  13. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Dark Wood”
  14. Citadel “Mechanicus Standard Grey”
  15. Vallejo “Thinner Medium”
  16. Citadel “Tesseract Glow”
  17. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Purple Swarm”
  18. Army Painter “Speed Paint Medium”
  19. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Baal Red”
  20. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Dusk Red”
  21. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Familiar Pink”
  22. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Battleship Grey”
  23. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Caribbean Ocean”
  24. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Beowulf Blue”
  25. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Aggaros Dunes”
  26. Citadel “Nuln Oil GLOSS” (wash/shade)
  27. PS Model Color “British Brown Drab”
  28. 2″ square steel base from Wargames Accessories (#21)
  29. Army Painter “Light Tone” (wash/shade)
  30. Vallejo Mecha Varnish “Gloss Varnish”
  31. Vallejo Mecha Varnish “Matte Varnish”
  32. Elmer’s PVA Glue
  33. Army Painter “Battlefields Grass Green” (flocking)
  34. Army Painter “Battlefield Field Grass” (flocking)
  35. Army Painter “Battlefields Field Grass” (flocking)
  36. Army Painter “Battlefields Meadow Flowers” (flocking)
  37. Shadow’s Edge Miniatures “6mm Dark Forest Orange Tufts” (flocking)
  38. Gamer’s Grass “Orange Flowers” (flocking)
  39. Small stones (flocking)
  40. 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.

Great Menacing Hammerheads (Wars of Ozz)

In my painting scramble to get ready for HUZZAH! 2023, I painted a number of regiments, leaders and individuals for my Wars of Ozz games. You may have noticed several of them in my last post. Most of these projects involved regiments from the Great Land of Harvest. One of them was the Great Menacing Hammerheads, SKU#528. The unit is composed of 10 figures to be based each on 5 stands.

The photo of them on the Wars of Ozz website intrigued me:

What exactly are these?

Great Menacing Hammerheads on Wars of Ozz website.

They are listed in the rules as part of forces available to the Great Land of Harvest. Still, again…

What exactly are these?

The rulebook is silent on this, except to suggest that these creatures may be one of many mutations that occurred after the Madness Bombs fell 300 years ago. I am by no means expert on the original Baum Wizard of Oz works that inspired the game. With a little digging on the old internet, I found a couple of clues. Apparently these do appear in the Oz books around the year 1900 – and are quite xenophobic and weird. There is an Oz Wiki site – and there I found this:

“They had nearly reached the first rock when they heard a rough voice cry out, “KEEP BACK!” “Who are you?” asked the Scarecrow. Then a face showed itself over the rock and the same voice said, “THIS HILL IS OUR HILL, THE HILL OF US HAMMER-HEADS, AND WE DO NOT ALLOW ANYONE TO EVER CROSS IT!” “But we must cross it,” said the Scarecrow. “We’re going to the country of the Quadlings to see its ruler, Glinda the Good Witch, so we must.” “BUT YOU MUST NOT!” Replied the voice, and there stepped from behind the large rocks the strangest man the travelers had ever seen. He was quite short and stout, standing no more than three feet high and had a big, oversized head, which was smooth on the top and as flat as a hammer. The head was supported by a thick, long, fat neck full of many layers of wrinkles. But the body had no arms at all, not even stubs.“―The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900)

from the Oz Wiki

A little more digging found these images from the original books:

It appears that their attack mode is a whipping-extending forward-head-butting action. How they button their clothes, tie their shoes, or perform acts of personal hygiene are certainly left to the imagination…

Another site (The Creature Codex)shows an interesting artist’s concept of these as monsters as shown by the photo below:

“Hammer-Heads” © Orion’s Bell LLC, by Daniel Silberberg.

These look more menacing and Ozz-like, but lack the “hammerheads”. As for why the Great Menacing Hammerheads (let’s call them the GMHH) are listed as part of the Great Land of Harvest forces, I am not 100% sure given the above. I can accept that given the previous quote and their alleged xenophobia, they probably would only fight alongside their nearest neighbor mutants? In any case, I happily bought them and proceeded to build and paint the regiment.

Similar to some other Great Land of Harvest regiments, the GMHH unit is comprised of 10 metal figures, and each is unarmed – save for their heads, which are different types of hammers. The figures are of different heights, and needed assembly insofar as each figure came in two pieces – a torso and a long neck/head combination. The figures reminded me a bit of malevolent sneetches – if Dr. Seuss had disarmed them…(sorry for that)…

Let’s move on to the figures shall we?

I needed to assemble the unit and affix the two pieces. I decided to channel my inner Roger and use green stuff and sculpt a type of sneetch-inspired ruffled collar on them which would also serve as a bond for the models. I varied the heads so that no two bases would be the same. They are based in the game on five 2″ square bases without a Regimental Commander. Their melee value is pretty strong at 7 out of 10. Their Elan and Resolve values are the same as the other Harvest units at 6 out of 10.

I wanted them to look wild and crazy – and certainly as “menacing” as I could. Their varied head positions helped with this as did varied base flocking. Lastly, to match my other Harvest troops, I did paint the eyes with a glowing yellow-green (Tesseract Glow).

As before, I’ll share a few WIP shots and then some eye candy of the GMHH regiment. I’ll start with assembly of the figures and then move to describing the painting process. I used a number of contrast and speed paints, but did also use highlights and washes. All of the paints that I used will be listed at the end as I normally do for those interested in that level of detail.

WIP Shots…

The GMHH Regiment assembled with the green stuff-sculpted “collar ruffles”.
After priming and some initial work on their flesh. I went with green flesh as they are part of Harvest forces.
Made their hammerheads quite metallic, and their bodies brown like a quail. The neck collars are fiery orange.
Close up of face and body work – left 4 figures…
…and 6 on the right of the work area.

I varnished these with a coat of gloss followed by one of matte. Then I flocked the bases with the same color themes as my other Harvest troops. How about some…

Eye Candy

Stand 1

Stand 2

Stand 3

Stand 4

Stand 5

Group Shot

Photographing these was difficult due to the number of heads that were downward facing – such that illuminating them was tough – let alone catching their faces – but I think you get the idea of how they look in the group shot. From above their hammerheads resemble – well – actual hammers. And I think that is the point.

I don’t think they are the best I have done – but they are ok, and will be fine on the tabletop.

That’s all for the Great Menacing Hammerhead Infantry Regiment. I hope that you liked their wackiness as much as I did. This makes 128 figures that I have painted for Ozz this year! I do have three more posts in the queue and then I can get back to painting more stuff. The next one will be quite fungal…

Thanks for taking a look and any feedback is always appreciated

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 THIS GREAT MENACING HAMMERHEAD INFANTRY REGIMENT:

  1. Green Stuff (kneadatite)
  2. Gorilla Glue
  3. Poster tack
  4. Vallejo “Flow Improver”
  5. Vallejo “Airbrush Thinner”
  6. Vallejo Premium Surface Primer “White”
  7. Vallejo Mecha Surface Primer “White”
  8. Army Painter Airbrush Primer “White”
  9. Citadel “Tesseract Glow”
  10. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Baal Red”
  11. Battlefront “Black”
  12. Vallejo Model Color “White”
  13. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Forest Sprite”
  14. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Gore Grunta Fur”
  15. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Contrast Medium”
  16. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Zealot Yellow”
  17. Vallejo Game Ink “Yellow”
  18. Vallejo Model Air “Gun Metal”
  19. Citadel “Runefang Steel”
  20. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Dark Wood”
  21. 2″ square steel base from Wargames Accessories (#21)
  22. Citadel “Nuln Oil GLOSS” (wash/shade)
  23. PS Model Color “British Brown Drab”
  24. DecoArt/Americana “Honey Brown”
  25. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Gryph-Hound Orange”
  26. P3 “Blazing Ink”
  27. Vallejo Model Air “Chrome”
  28. Army Painter “Light Tone” (wash/shade)
  29. Vallejo Mecha Varnish “Gloss Varnish”
  30. Vallejo Mecha Varnish “Matte Varnish”
  31. Elmer’s PVA Glue
  32. Army Painter “Battlefields Grass Green” (flocking)
  33. Army Painter “Battlefield Field Grass” (flocking)
  34. Army Painter “Battlefields Field Grass” (flocking)
  35. Army Painter “Battlefields Meadow Flowers” (flocking)
  36. Shadow’s Edge Miniatures “6mm Dark Forest Orange Tufts” (flocking)
  37. Gamer’s Grass “Orange Flowers” (flocking)
  38. Small stones (flocking)
  39. 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.

Huzzah! 2023 – my recap and photos of my 3 Wars of Ozz and 2 Feudal Patrol Games

As I wind down from Memorial Day weekend activities, I wanted to share some of my photos from the Huzzah! 2023 gaming convention. I ran 5 games there – two Wars of Ozz games on Friday, two Feudal Patrol games based on the Spanish Conquest in Mesoamerica games on Saturday, and a final Wars of Ozz game on Sunday. Each game slot was 4 hours long.

As usual, setting up and running a convention game (let alone 5) takes away from being a photographer. In the end, I want the games to take priority – and find a moment or two to take some shots for you, my readers. I do not have a good play-by-play to share, but I will give you the general gist of the games and hopefully the pics will suffice – there are a lot here.

If you like wargames photos – or you were at Huzzah! 2023 – this post is up your alley!

As background, the Huzzah! 2023 gaming convention was held in South Portland, ME, from May 19th to May 21st. It is run annually by the Maine Historical Wargamers Association (MWHA). There are two Facebook pages associated with the group, one is for the MWHA and one for the Huzzah! convention that you can access.

I arrived early Friday the 19th – around 11 AM – so that I could check into my hotel and move all my stuff from my very full car into my room and get my first game set up for 2 PM. Unfortunately, the hotel would not let ANYONE check in before 3 PM – and yes, that was during my game slot. The staff of the hotel claimed that they needed to keep rooms free for flight crews (not the fault of MWHA btw). In any case, my car was not packed such that I could just grab stuff and go – and after a bit of transloading in the parking lot I got my stuff into the convention space and set up my first 6-player Wars of Ozz game. The table was smaller than I had planned – and had a lot of figures on it, but with all of the scrambling, I made it work.

Friday Afternoon Wars of Ozz Game

I set up all of my Ozz games as “meeting engagements”. The idea was to expose the players to the rules and for them to have a fun and straightforward game. In the first game, on the “bad guys side” I had a brigade of Gillikins (loaned to me for the convention by my friend Chris Comeau), my brigade of Winkies, and another Winkie brigade (loaned to me for the convention by my friend Chris Palmer of the Maryland HAWKS club). On the other side I had my Great Land of Harvest Brigade, my Munchkin Brigade, and a Quadling Brigade (also from Chris Palmer), At future conventions, I should have enough of my own Ozz troops, but thanks to the two Chris’s, and Eric Schlegel (the HAWK who brought the Maryland-based figures m to the convention), I was set. Each player had a brigade – and here below are some shots of the action.

The players ready to play. The bases with more than 1 building represent towns.
Brad advances his Lesser Apes and Winkies.
A view of “the good guys” side – from nearest to furthest are the Great Land of Harvest Brigade, the Quadling Brigade, and the Munchkin Brigade. Some of the units will be the subject of future posts (I had not had enough time before HUZZAH!).
A Winkie zilk-riding regiment is disordered after fighting and routing the Great Pumpkin Heads. Moving up to challenge the Winkie cavalry is the Carrot Creature Regiment – supported by both Mushroom Creature and Corn Creature regiments. You can also see the Great Pumpkin Heads routing to their right.
Carrot Creatures and Winkie cavalry are disordered after melee. A Harvest Witch prepares a spell.
The Great Owl regiment attacks and disrupts the Gillikin goat-riding cavalry in front of Munchkin infantry. The Gillikin cavalry had just routed the Munchkin Light Cavalry at the top of the picture.
Munchkin infantry and artillery move up – while Munchkin cavalry continues to flee the battle.
Later, the Winkie cavalry broke the Carrot, Corn, and Mushroom Creature regiments. Unfortunately the Harvest player’s dice were set on rolling badly – very badly.
In the middle of the battle, Quadlings and Lesser Apes collide – while the other Winkie cavalry moves forward.
The aftermath of the Quadling/Ape scrum was a routed Quadling infantry.

The first game was an overwhelming bad guy victory. I reset the game, finally got checked into my room, and prepared for the next band of players. As for dinner – a bag of crackers and a Coke had to suffice for the time being.

Friday Night Wars of Ozz Game

When I reset the game, I removed some of the terrain to alter it a bit. I also deployed the forces closer to each other. Here below are some shots of this game.

The game 2 players – and yes the gentleman on the left middle (James) played again – in fact he played in all 5 of my games! This game had several of the “Berkshire Boys” playing, as well as Sam and Matt who are veterans of many of my convention games.
As before, the Great Pumpkin Heads made contact with the enemy first, and again they were routed! This time though the Harvest troops fought better.
An overview of the battlefield.
Some Winkies advance – while others are routed…
The battle develops – and the casualties (on the blue tablecloth) mount.
Forces of good and evil collide!
With a bold move, Sam fly’s her regiment of Great Flying Apes towards the Quadlings and Munchkins.
The Munchkin Light Cavalry hits the Great Flying Apes.
The end of the game (due to the hall closing!).

At the game’s end, the bad guys had the advantage – but the tide was (in my opinion) turning in favor of the good guys. All had fun in these first two games.

At this point, I grabbed another Coke, a bag of Goldfish crackers, and a microwaveable frozen mini-pizza for the room, and crashed.

Saturday Morning Feudal Patrol Game – The Battle of Centla

The next morning, I got in early and set up my next game – the Battle of Centla. This is a Feudal Patrol skirmish game based on the first encounter between the Conquistadores and the Maya (Cortes would later fight the Aztecs).

I again sold out! It was nice to have a full table.

The players assemble on Saturday morning.
Leif and Brad – veterans of the game – brief their teams and strategize.
The Spanish advance towards the Maya city. Their victory conditions were to get to the city, or inflict excessive casualties on the Maya, or to incapacitate their leader, Tabscoob. To win, the Maya needed to inflict excessive casualties on the Conquistadores, incapacitate Cortes, or just avoid any Spanish victory conditions being met by the game’s end.
Brad advances his warband led by Alvarado.
Alvarado (red hair at bottom left) sends his war dog at the Maya in the bushes.
Maya atlatls hit the Spanish advancing on the middle road.
The Spanish players coordinate their actions.
As the Spanish move toward the city, the Maya take up a defensive position astride the jungle path.
The Maya get timely (and lucky) reinforcements to confront the Spanish bringing a smile to Michelle.
The Spanish under Alvarado try to hack their way through the Maya, but are stunned by atlatl fire, slowing their advance.
In desperation, Alvarado hurls himself at the Maya, but is stunned by an atlatl hit.
Back in the middle of the table, the Spanish are near a breakthrough as well.
However, the Maya hold.
The game ends with a narrow Maya victory – the Spanish nearly succeed!

Thankfully, I was able to get this game dismantled (with a lot of help especially from Leif and Brad) and put away and moved to my final table of the weekend. Fortunately, this was going to be a BIG table – five 6′ x 3′ tables of watery battlefield – Lake Texcoco – where the Aztec capital used to be.

Saturday Evening Feudal Patrol Game – The Battle of Lake Texcoco

This game would be in the evening on Saturday – so I set up during he afternoon – all 23 war canoes (with 5-6 Aztecs inside) and 5 Spanish brigantines (with 13 or so figures in each ship). Each side gets Victory points differently. The Spanish get points for successfully firing their primitive lombards and falconets (cannon) at the city. The Aztecs get points for successfully boarding each brigantine. Both sides get points for inflicting casualties on the enemy – with the Aztecs getting more points for inflicting them than the armored Spanish do. There were 9 players.

At the start – Spanish on the right, Aztecs on the left.
The Aztec players advance their war canoes,
The Spanish players try to advance their brigantines.
The Aztecs move quickly as the Spanish do not raise their sails and instead rely on rowing.
Close up of the war canoes.
Another shot of the war canoes as they advance.
Long view of the battlefield from the other side of the table.
El Dolar is boarded!
James eyes the approaching war canoes and fires his lombard (in the stern castle obscured by the sail) at an approaching canoe.
It’s a bad scene on El Dolar – half the crew was killed or jumped overboard – plus it got damaged hitting an island.
Near the end of the battle.
The massive number of Morale pips on the dashboard of El Marcos tell a sad tale…

In the end the Spanish lost the game – as not a single shot hit the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan. The Spanish players were somewhat cautious in their advance but also too willing to fire valuable cannon opportunities at war canoes. While they inflicted a lot of casualties, the lack of cannon hits doomed their chances at victory. Meanwhile, the Aztecs boarded all of the brigantines, and that was the difference in points.

After a cleanup, I had help setting up Sunday morning’s upcoming Ozz game on this same table.

Sunday Morning Wars of Ozz Game

I only used 4 brigades this time as I dropped the Winkie and the Quadling brigades that I had borrowed from Chris Palmer. There was a LOT more maneuver space and several of the players were from Friday’s Ozz games. Also there was lot of action in this game as you will see below!

Ready for action!
Stephen advances the Gillikins.
The Harvest Brigade here – with the Munchkin Brigade to their right. The two opposing forces were deployed at opposite corners of the tabletop.
The Mushroom Creature Regiment enters a town.
A view of the Munchkin Brigade.
Gillikins move through and around a town with their skeleton allies.
Harvest forces try to get into the town before the Winkies.
Munchkin forces advance.
The Munchkin Medium artillery battery safely in the hard cover of the town with their infantry on the right flank.
An amazing Ozz scene as Union Civil War reenactors watch the Ozz game unfold – black powder weapons on the table and around it!
Forces close on the town.
The Harvestland artillery (the pumpkin chucker) is wiped out to a man (or pumpkinhead) by Winkie Infantry. Meanwhile, the Great Pumpkin Heads seek revenge and deploy into line.
The Great Pumpkin Heads repel the Lesser Apes.
The Great Flying Apes manage to get behind the Great Pumpkin Heads and attempt a rear hit. The GPH manage to turn to face them, but now have enemies to the front and to the rear.
A Great Pumpkin Head base close up as they are surrounded.
The GPH have had enough and rout…
On the Munchkin front, the Winkie zilk-riders attempt to charge the Munchkin Medium battery – and fail to make it – and are staring at the business end at point-blank range.
Meanwhile, Evora the Witch cast “poppies” in front of her Winkie Light battery to deter any assaults on the gun.
Gillikins have turned the flank of the Harvest left side,
The Harvest center begins to weaken.
Forces converge.
The zilk riders are smashed by the Munchkin battery and flee, pursued by the Great Owls.
The Lesser Pumpkin Heads form line, and turn to face the rear attack of the Great Flying Apes.
The Harvest left flank crumbles!

That was the end of the game as time expired. It was not really over as the Munchkins were still intact and the Winkies had taken losses too. Had it gone on longer, I expect that it would have been very close – but as it ended the Winkies and Gillikins made it a three for three weekend.

I hope that you enjoyed the photos – and I want to thank all of the MWHA folks for all of their hard work – and I want to thank the players as well. I do believe that everyone had a very good time at my games – plus I think I will see some of them at future Mass Pikemen games – and I really look forward to that!

As always, I appreciate any feedback from you in the comments section. Thanks for looking!

The Tour of the Brookfields – May 2023 Tournament – Still Harts Café Open

The Still Harts Café Open was held on Saturday, May 27th, 2023 at Quail Hollow Golf and Country Club in Oakham, MA. It was a beautiful day – and we had a great turnout of 110 players. Because we had so many players, we once again had 4 divisions/flights of teams of 6, 7, or 8.

All of the four flights were very competitive. No team won by more than 2 strokes over the second place teams. That’s a testament to the competitiveness the committee is trying to establish (and yes, being on the committee I am a bit biased!).

In the Nicklaus Flight, the win went to the team of Chris Depasse, Rich Dupell, Jim Lovett, and Kristen Depasse with a magnificent 10 under par. That team also had the distinction of the lowest overall score in the tournament. Their team edged out the second place team of Reece McLeod, Ed McLeod, George Fiske, and Jeff Bennett who shot a very good -8.

In the Player Flight, two teams came in tied at -8. Those two teams were that of Fran Lamothe, Joe Nichols, John Wheeler, and Mark Bruso and that of Kevin Paradis, Rich Casault, Paul Boulette, and Deb Durgin. The ensuing playoff ended after one hole, with the victory going to Fran Lamothe’s team.

In the Palmer Flight, the team of Jim Kularski, Peter Davis, Mike Kularski, and Lisa Persson scored a 6 under par, eking out a 1 stroke victory Ken Frazier, Tom Cocker, and Anne Jette (who were playing minus a no-show D player).

In the Daly Flight, the team of Beth Potvin, Tom Orszulak, Jim Lapierre, and Barbara Orszulak edged out two teams by two strokes. The two teams in second place were the team of Mark A. Morin (yes me), Dickie Ford, Kevin Kokansky, and Tony Woodman and the team of Steve Whitman, George Jette, Brandon McEvoy, and Jeff McLeod.

There was only ONE skin won as shown below – congrats to Beth Potvin, Tom Orszulak, Jim Lapierre, and Barbara Orszulak for the Eagle made on the 3rd hole! Additionally, closest to the pin was won by Jim McKeon for his team on the par-3 17th hole at 3′ away!.

The results are below – and click on any of the photos for a bigger image. Congrats to the winners!

Me and Matt Brown

The June Tournament is the Toomey-Lovett Classic, scheduled for Saturday June 17th – sign ups are on the Facebook page, as well as physical sign up sheets at Quail Hollow and Still Harts Café. The registration time is 7:30 AM at Quail Hollow. The cut off to sign up will be Saturday, June 10th. Sign up early as possible as we are growing and as I’m sure that you understand that the course cannot handle an infinite number of players.

Lastly, if you have any feedback or comments on this blog post – there is a comment section that you can use below. As I wrote, I will be putting up the next event on Facebook – but if you are not on Facebook and want to sign up, you can use the comment section here. The same cutoff criteria applies, as well as the need to vet any new players (the committee will want to get a good idea of your golf game).

Also, if you want to check out my other hobby posts here in this blog – feel free to do so– my guess is you will be surprised at what you see.

Thanks again to all the players, Still Harts Café for sponsoring, and to Gary and Debbie Donlin, Jim LeBlanc, and all the staff at Quail Hollow who work so hard to make the Tour of the Brookfields possible.

For a listing of all the links that will bring you to a listing of all of the 2023 Tour of the Brookfields results, go to this page.

Corn Creatures of the Great Land of Harvest (Wars of Ozz)

I have been continuing to build and paint up regiments for my Wars of Ozz Great Land of Harvest Army. This time, I might get a bit corny…

Ok, that was really bad. Mea maxima culpa.

Anyways, in preparation for the upcoming HUZZAH gaming convention in Maine, I have managed to finish off four regiments, plus some leaders and individuals. I will post each group going forward – starting with this one – a regiment of Corn Creatures, yet another anthropomorphic Ozz unit. I already called the Carrot Creatures Regiment the CCR in my last post – so let’s just refer to these as the Corn Creatures, or CC. The CC are part of the forces of the Great Land of Harvest and their SKU# is OZZ518, and can be seen here.

Similar to the Carrot Creatures Regiment, the unit is comprised of 10 metal figures, and each is armed with a combination of two weapons – spears, pitchforks, rakes, axes, sickles, and scythes – but in this case one in each arm. These guys look quite crazy with two weapons (even if one is a rake).

I needed to assemble the unit insofar as assigning a weapon to each of the two arms for Melee.

They also have a “kamikaze”-style missile attack – a “popping” attack:

Popping Attacks:
Once per game one unit of corn creatures can conduct a popping attack against an enemy to their front within four inches. The corn unit makes an attack as if firing light artillery at short range. This is the unit’s firing action for the turn. After conducting the popping attack, the corn unit receives two hits (all those popped corn creatures are less effective now). Typically, this is done to pop at the enemy and then either withdraw or charge.

Wars of Ozz addendum with new factions

Now that is a different missile attack to be sure – short range artillery fire to boot!

The bigger-than-people figures are just the kind of vegetables to give you nightmares. As with the other 10-figure Harvest regiments, they are based in the game on five 2″ square bases without a Regimental Commander. Their melee value is 5 out of 10, as is their one-time marksmanship rating – so very average. Their Elan and Resolve values are the same as the Carrots at 6 out of 10.

Here, my goal was to get the right shade of yellow on them – and as with orange, most of us understand that this can be difficult. Similar to my other Harvest units, I mixed up their weapons and flocking such that no two of the five bases looked exactly alike – and to match my other Harvest troops, I did paint the eyes with a glowing yellow-green (Tesseract Glow). Like the Carrots, the figures are great – they look like berserking ears of corn to be sure (but you can judge for yourself).

As is my habit, I’ll share a few WIP shots and then some eye candy of the Corn Creature regiment. I’ll start with assembly of the figures and then move to describing the painting process.

Here again I used a number of contrast and speed paints, but did also use highlights and washes. To get the right shades of yellow – and I hope that I did achieve that – took a few iterations. All of the paints that I used will be listed at the end as I normally do for those interested – and selfishly for my own future reference should I need that information – I do forget things!

WIP Shots…

The Corn Creatures as received showing the 4 poses and weapons variety – as well as the filings I made on them on the paper towel – I hate mold lines and I give the bases a good filing as well so that they stick to the washers.
After assembly and mounting to 1.25″ washers.

I then primed the CC in white and started with working on the yellow. My first try was Army Painter Speed Paint (new version) “Maize Yellow” – which ought to be just perfect – but was a bit too dark for my tastes for the corm kernels (remember I said iterations – plural). It did help as a base with shading for later additions.

After assembly mounted the Corn Creatures on the specimen jars with poster tack. This is the first yellow – “Maize Yellow”.

The choice that I made for the leafy corn stalks was a yellowy-green Citadel Contrast Paint “Striking Scorpion Green”. I liked it – but in contrast it made me really want to upgrade the corn color.

Adding the “Striking Scorpion Green”.

I also found that highlighting each kernel in white and then adding yellow helped, as did Army Painter washes. To lighten and brighten the yellow on the corn, I went with another Citadel Contrast Paint – “Bad Moon Yellow”. Then I made the eyebrows orange, and the lips “Panther Yellow”. Lastly, it was time to make the eyes glow an evil green.

Painting progress on the yellow. So much yellow…

Then it was onto painting the weapons, which I tried to make look a bit varied as well in terms of the handle colors and the metallics. Lastly I did the hands in the same green leafy color as the bodies and made the corn “hair” the original “Maize Yellow” washed with Army Painter “Light Tone”.

All painted and ready for varnish.

I varnished once again with a coat of gloss followed by one of matte. Then I flocked the bases with the same color themes as my other Harvest troops.

Time for some (no, not popcorn) – some…

Eye Candy

Stand 1

Stand 2

Stand 3

Stand 4

Stand 5

Group Shot

That’s all for the Corn Creatures Infantry Regiment. I hope that you liked their corniness as much as I did. This makes 118 figures that I have painted for Ozz this year!

Thanks for taking a look and any feedback, especially on the yellow colors – I am again curious as to your thoughts.

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 THIS CORN CREATURES INFANTRY REGIMENT:

  1. Gorilla Glue
  2. 1.25″ steel fender washers
  3. Poster tack
  4. 2″ square steel base from Wargames Accessories (#21)
  5. Vallejo “Flow Improver”
  6. Vallejo “Airbrush Thinner”
  7. Vallejo Mecha Surface Primer “White”
  8. Vallejo Premium Surface Primer “White”
  9. Army Painter Airbrush Primer “White”
  10. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Maize Yellow”
  11. Vallejo Model Color “White”
  12. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Striking Scorpion Green”
  13. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Bad Moon Yellow”
  14. Tamiya “Orange”
  15. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Baal Red”
  16. Battlefront “Panther Yellow”
  17. Tamiya “X-20A Thinner”
  18. Citadel “Tesseract Glow”
  19. Vallejo Model Air “Brown”
  20. Vallejo Model Air “Wood”
  21. Citadel “Skrag Brown”
  22. Vallejo Model Color “Wood Grain”
  23. Vallejo Model Air “Steel”
  24. Vallejo Mecha Color “Dark Steel”
  25. Citadel “Ironbreaker”
  26. Vallejo Model Air “Black” (metallic)
  27. P3 “Blazing Ink”
  28. Vallejo Model Air “Chrome”
  29. Citadel “Nuln Oil GLOSS” (wash/shade)
  30. Army Painter “Light Tone” (wash/shade)
  31. PS Model Color “British Brown Drab”
  32. Elmer’s PVA Glue
  33. Vallejo Mecha Varnish “Gloss Varnish”
  34. Vallejo Mecha Varnish “Matte Varnish”
  35. Army Painter “Battlefields Grass Green” (flocking)
  36. Army Painter “Battlefield Field Grass” (flocking)
  37. Army Painter “Battlefields Field Grass” (flocking)
  38. Army Painter “Battlefields Meadow Flowers” (flocking)
  39. Shadow’s Edge Miniatures “6mm Dark Forest Orange Tufts” (flocking)
  40. Gamer’s Grass “Orange Flowers” (flocking)
  41. Small stones (flocking)
  42. 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.

Carrot Creatures of the Great Land of Harvest (Wars of Ozz)

In my last post I said that I was next going to share a “surprise unit” – and I hinted that it was actually devoid of any Vitamin A…and here it is – the Carrot Creature regiment of the Great Land of Harvest.

Well, as far as I know, metal figures are not nutritious – so that was an easy claim. Please, as a public service announcement…don’t eat your figures!

Back to the figures! The Great Land of Harvest not only has produced the Great Pumpkin Heads and the Lesser Pumpkin Heads. There are many other mutations and oddities that have armed themselves and organized for the defense of their homeland – or to attack their neighbors – or alternatively mercenary service in other factions’ armies. This regiment is one of them, and I have several more Harvest units that I will be able to share shortly. But, let’s focus on the Carrot Creatures Regiment (we’ll shorten that to CCR but that has nothing to do with Creedence Clearwater Revival…).

Initially, when I looked at the Wars of Ozz website, there were not any photos of the CCR. That since has been remedied and now you can see the website shot of them here. The CCR are part of the forces of the Great Land of Harvest and their SKU# is OZZ532.

The unit is comprised of 10 metal figures, and and is physically armed with axes, shovel handles, shovels, and scythes. The unit required no assembly other than assigning the arm holding the weapons. I said “physically”, because in the rules the CCR is also armed with bows (which are treated as carbines). Rather than either ignore that aspect, or modify the figures, I chose to modify the bases to reflect this weaponry as you will see below. I really did not want to modify the figures for the bows – and I believe specifically bow-armed Carrot Creatures will eventually be made available for purchase. As I wanted my Harvest troops to have a few more missile troops, this choice was ideal.

From the addendum showing the CCR data. From left to right, Marksmanship, Melee, Resolve, Elan, maximum per brigade, Movement Modifier in inches, Regimental Commander (Y/N), point cost, and notes.

The figures are larger (as befits big monster-sized carrots) and are based in the game on five 2″ square bases without a Regimental Commander. Their melee value is 5 out of 10, but their marksmanship is 7 out of 10 (remember why your Mom said to eat your carrots!). Their Elan and Resolve values are at 6 out of 10 – a reasonably stout unit.

My goal was to get the right shades of orange on them – and we all know how painting miniatures either colors of orange or yellow can be challenging. I thought they should be a bit ruddy – to reflect their subterranean lifestyles (I am assuming here, I don’t personally hang out underground).

Similar to my other Harvest units, I mixed up their weapons and flocking such that no two of the five bases looked exactly alike. To match the other Harvest troops, I did paint the eyes with a glowing yellow-green. The figures are great – with a suitably cartoony and menacing look. I thought they looked quite like Tasmanian devil-inspired carrots.

As before, I’ll share a few WIP shots and then some eye candy of the CCR regiment. I’ll start with assembly of the figures and then move to describing the painting process. I used a number of contrast and speed paints, but did also use highlights and washes. Orange is not a simple process. All of the paints that I used will be listed at the end as I normally do for those interested (and for my own reference in the future should I need that information – I forget things!).

WIP Shots…

Filed and washed, the CCR awaits assembly.
Close up of a figure before assembly.

As with the pumpkin heads, I primed the orange parts of the figures in black, then dry brushed them in white, followed by a dry brush of a couple of oranges, and then highlighted and shaded them. For the leafy “hair”, I primed that in green, then moved to highlights and shading. I mocked the unit up on their bases to make sure that they would fit both vertically and horizontally. This has both an aesthetic purpose and a practical one – as I did want them to look good without having their weapons in the other figures’ faces or hanging off of the bases to get wacked in a game.

The CCR mocked up and primed. The figures are actually on smaller 3/4″ square steel bases for attachment to my poster tack-covered specimen jars. Attachment to the 2″ larger bases would come later.
Showing the figure dry brushed white on the specimen jar. Turned out priming the hair green was not overly relevant!
A “conga line” of orange dry brushed carrots. I would need a good amount of color tweaking to get the orange where I wanted (which was not what you see here). But, it’s a process…
Next, I did the “hair”. Note I label the jars to show where each one will go on their final bases, right, left, front, back.
Progress on adding highlights and washes shown here.

After varnishing (gloss, then matte), I flocked the bases with the same color themes as my other Harvest troops. Additionally, I added some small crossbows that I had lying around to the fronts and backs of the bases. I painted these crossbows a brighter green – and hopefully they can serve as player reminder that the CCR actually has a missile capability!

The CCR completed, and ready for…

Eye Candy

Stand 1

Stand 2

Stand 3

Stand 4

Stand 5

Group shot…

That’s all for the Carrot Creatures Infantry Regiment. I hope that you liked their quirkiness as much as I did. This makes 108 figures that I have painted for Ozz this year!

Thanks for taking a look and any feedback, especially on the orange colors – I am curious as to your thoughts.

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 THIS CARROT CREATURES INFANTRY REGIMENT:

  1. 2″ square steel base from Wargames Accessories (#21)
  2. 3/4″ square steel bases from Wargames Accessories (#A9)
  3. Gorilla Glue
  4. Vallejo Mecha Surface Primer “Black”
  5. Vallejo Mecha Surface Primer “Russian Green”
  6. Vallejo “Airbrush Thinner”
  7. Poster tack
  8. Vallejo Model Color “White”
  9. Tamiya “Orange”
  10. Vallejo Model Color “Light Orange”
  11. Vallejo Model Color “Clear Orange”
  12. Battlefront “Gunship Green”
  13. Vallejo Model Air “Escorpena Green”
  14. Battlefront “Sicily Yellow”
  15. Vallejo Model Air “Brown”
  16. Vallejo Model Air “Dark Brown”
  17. Vallejo Model Air “Dark Steel”
  18. Citadel “Ironbreaker”
  19. Vallejo Model Air “Light Steel”
  20. Citadel “Hellion Green”
  21. Army Painter “Mid Brown” (wash/shade)
  22. Citadel “Nuln Oil GLOSS” (wash/shade)
  23. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Magmadroth Flame”
  24. Citadel “Tesseract Glow”
  25. Army Painter “Green Tone” (wash/shade)
  26. PS Model Color “British Brown Drab”
  27. Elmer’s PVA Glue
  28. Vallejo “Flow Improver”
  29. Vallejo Mecha Varnish “Gloss Varnish”
  30. Vallejo Mecha Varnish “Matte Varnish”
  31. Army Painter “Battlefields Grass Green” (flocking)
  32. Army Painter “Battlefield Field Grass” (flocking)
  33. Army Painter “Battlefields Field Grass” (flocking)
  34. Army Painter “Battlefields Meadow Flowers” (flocking)
  35. Shadow’s Edge Miniatures “6mm Dark Forest Orange Tufts” (flocking)
  36. Gamer’s Grass “Orange Flowers” (flocking)
  37. Small stones (flocking)
  38. Small oak twigs (flocking)
  39. Small metal crossbows (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.

Harvestland Artillery of the Great Land of Harvest (Wars of Ozz)

I promised more troops to join my other my Wars of Ozz figures from the Lesser Pumpkin Heads – and here they are – the Harvestland Artillery and Crew.

In my last post I shared about the Lesser Pumpkin Heads infantry regiment, who joined their kin King Jack and the Great Pumpkin Heads of the Great Land of Harvest. These artillerists have – yes – a catapult to launch pumpkins at their enemies. Their catapult counts as “light artillery” and the crew are supposed to be armed with carbines as secondary weapons. The figures are metal and 28mm in scale. The SKU is #OZZ522 and it can be seen here. There are 5 Lesser Pumpkin Head (LPH) figures, a catapult, and a stack of pumpkin “ammo” for the model. I’m not sure that the ammo came from any intelligent source – but as of all the pumpkin heads, only King Jack can speak (and he won’t tell) – so the mystery continues…

Similar to my LPH infantry, I wanted these to appear to be a rabble-type force. Again I varied their clothing no two of the five figures would appear to be alike. I did use the basic colors of the Great Pumpkin Heads for this battery – especially the yellow-green eyes. And again, I also needed to show scarecrow straw stuffing coming out of the holes in their clothes and near their wrists.

As before, first I’ll share a few WIP shots and then I will show some eye candy. I worked on the LPH, GPH, King Jack and one other Harvest unit in various states of completion at the same time – (that other Harvest unit being my next post’s surprise).

I’ll start with assembly of the figures (which was easy) and then describe the painting process. I used a number of contrast and speed paints, but did also use highlights and washes. All of the paints that I used will be listed at the end as I normally do for those interested (and for my own reference in the future should I need that information).

My motivation to get these done was to have some relatively long-range fire capability for the Harvest Brigade. However, there is one other unique game aspect to this unit that is pretty cool:

Pumpkin Patches:

Before the Game begins, King Jack can convert one field to a pumpkin patch. When a lesser pumpkin unit is in the field and King Jack is in contact with the unit, he can use his activation to raise…up to two hits on the pumpkin head unit…

Wars of Ozz addendum

With this, the Harvest battery cannot get bigger than its original 5 figures, but if placed in a pumpkin patch effectively, this means that the unit would be very hard to kill. The LPH infantry could also take advantage of this similarly, but I think the main advantage is for the battery, which could recover up to two hits per turn. The question of LPH artillerist training is not addressed, I guess they just sprout ready right out of the ground – that certainly saves training resources!

WIP Shots…

The unit and movement base as received – started on April 5th.

I used the artillery sabot base (SKU #OZZ-BAS2) for the unit similar how I built my Munchkin and Winkie batteries.

After filing and washing, the battery dries.
As before, I drilled out the MDF base and glued small steel bases under the base and inserted 1/8″ round neodymium magnets into the holes. I also glued another set of 1/2″ square steel bases under the figures’ round MDF bases. This will allow them to both stay in place and be easily removed during a game. For the catapult, I did a similar action with a larger steel base under the catapult, so that it could show either “limbered” or “unlimbered” status.

By April 11th, I had primed the unit and started working on the component figures. I primed the catapult green and the figures black. I also painted in the wells of the sabot base and the LPH eyes with the glowing green color I’d been using. In my view, it is supposed to be the color of the Harvestland figures inner animation – or their blood – or both – you pick.

April 11 progress

By April 19th, the unit was painted, varnished, flocked, and its base was done.

So it’s time for some Ozz-inspired…

Eye Candy

As you see, the battery is very colorful. These photo groups will be two image galleries for the figures.

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 4

Figure 5

Group shots

That’s the Harvestland Artillery. Hope that you enjoyed seeing it and my processes. The next “surprise” unit that I will share for my Harvest Brigade is one that I had a lot of fun painting. Though it was actually devoid of any Vitamin A…I think you’ll enjoy seeing it shortly.

Thanks for taking a look and for sharing any feedback you’d care to write in the comments section.

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 THIS HARVESTLAND ARTILLERY BATTERY:

  1. MDF sabot base from Wars of Ozz miniatures, OZZ-BAS2
  2. Elmer’s PVA Glue
  3. 1/8″ neodymium magnets
  4. 1/2″ square steel base from Wargames Accessories (#16)
  5. 1.25″ x 1″steel base from Wargames Accessories (#FOW1)
  6. Gorilla Glue
  7. Poster tack
  8. Vallejo “Airbrush Thinner”
  9. Reaper “Black Primer”
  10. Vallejo Mecha Surface Primer “Black”
  11. Vallejo Mecha Surface Primer “Russian Green”
  12. Army Painter “Green Tone” (wash/shade)
  13. Battlefront “Gunship Green”
  14. Vallejo Model Color “White”
  15. Citadel “Tesseract Glow”
  16. Vallejo Game Air “Escorpena Green”
  17. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Sand Golem”
  18. Vallejo Game Color “Moon Yellow”
  19. Vallejo Mecha Color “Green Blue”
  20. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Pallid Bone”
  21. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Contrast Medium”
  22. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Gravelord Grey”
  23. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Camo Cloak”
  24. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Striking Scorpion Green”
  25. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Magmadroth Flame”
  26. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Grim Black”
  27. Vallejo Model Air “Brown”
  28. Vallejo Model Color “Wood Grain”
  29. Vallejo Model Air “Green Brown”
  30. Vallejo Model Color “Light Orange”
  31. Tamiya “Orange”
  32. Army Painter “Mid Brown” (wash/shade)
  33. Vallejo Model Air “Dark Steel”
  34. Vallejo Model Air “Light Steel”
  35. Vallejo Model Air “Dark Brown”
  36. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Purple Alchemy”
  37. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Holy White”
  38. PS Model Color “British Brown Drab”
  39. Vallejo “Flow Improver”
  40. Vallejo Mecha Varnish “Gloss Varnish”
  41. Vallejo Mecha Varnish “Matte Varnish”
  42. Army Painter “Battlefields Grass Green” (flocking)
  43. Army Painter “Battlefield Field Grass” (flocking)
  44. Army Painter “Battlefields Field Grass” (flocking)
  45. Army Painter “Battlefields Meadow Flowers” (flocking)
  46. Shadow’s Edge Miniatures “6mm Dark Forest Orange Tufts” (flocking)
  47. Gamer’s Grass “Orange Flowers” (flocking)
  48. Small stones (flocking)
  49. 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.

The Tour of the Brookfields – April Tournament – Country Auto Open

My blog has always been titled “Life, Golf, Miniatures, & Other Distractions“. Usually, the vast majority of my posts have been about my miniatures and wargaming hobby activities. For those new to this blog, that’s dealing mostly with toy soldiers and using them in various games. For golf, and especially the Tour of the Brookfields monthly tournaments, I mainly used Facebook to share information and results.

However, last year I had a few issues – such as FB inexplicably pulling down my posts on my page that I ran for the tournaments. The explanation (such as it was) was that the posts or pics “violated community standards”. These included pictures (similar to the ones that you will see below) of golfers and some videos of folks swinging clubs etc. I never got an exact explanation of how “community standards” were violated – despite my objections that I sent to Meta. I want to prevent that going forward – hence using my blog.

This year, I will be using my blog to share tournament results and pictures (I cannot share videos). As not everyone who plays is on Facebook, by my posting information here I can get and share it more widely as you only need the link. I will still use FB for coordination and sign ups, but I will be posting results here. This will give access to everyone who wants to know the results and/or see the photos.

On to the Country Auto Open – which was held on Saturday, April 29th, 2023 at Quail Hollow Golf and Country Club in Oakham, MA. It was a cold and slightly drizzly day – but we had a great turnout of 104 players. Because we had so many players, we went to 4 divisions/flights of teams of 6 or 7. The results are below – click on the photo for a bigger image.

COUNTRY AUTO OPEN RESULTS

Country Auto Open Results for 2023

Most of the flights were very tight – and the Nicklaus Division went into 3 playoff holes before a tie was declared. Congrats to the teams of Jackson Davis, Jim Wilson, Jake Malin, Bob Tilton and Corey Heyes, JP LeBoeuf, Mike Kularski, and Bernie LaPierre Sr. for enduring the 18 holes and 3 playoff holes as well. As my good friend Bob Tilton is approaching 91 – and played 21 holes – that was something to see. Additionally, this marks the 4th tournament in a row that a team with Bob on it came into the money!

In the Player Division, the team of Kevin Paradis, Tom Foley, Amanda Pierce, and Greg Wypych eked out a 1 stroke victory at -7 over two teams (both the teams of Matt Brown, Dickie Ford, Ed McLeod, Wyatt Alm and that of Leon Wetherell, Ron McCann, Jason Kenney, and Spencer Rice came in at -6).

The team of Chris Smith, Shane Chabot, Brian Egan, and Leo Egan won in the Palmer Division with a -7, giving them a narrow two-stroke victory over the team of Jeremy Moran, Tom Orszulak, Jim LaPierre, and Clayton Rice.

In the Daly Division, the team of Matt Desimone, John Markey, John Davis, and Dick LaPierre at -9 edged out the team of Tom Waugh, Joe Nichols, Dan Foley, and Ed Sanborn by one stroke. That team also had the distinction of the lowest overall score in the tournament.

There were three skins won as shown above – all by winning teams. Additionally, closest to the pin was won by Paul Sanborn for his team on the par-3 17th hole.

Photos

I don’t always get a chance to take a number of photos – but here are some to share that I took while everyone was waiting to start (and trying to stay warm).

The next TOB is the Still Harts Café Open and will be on May 27th – with a registration time of 7:30 AM at Quail Hollow. I will put a sign up on Facebook and there will be physical sign up sheets at Quail Hollow and at Still Harts Café in North Brookfield. The cut off to sign up will be Saturday, May 20th.

Lastly, if you have any feedback or comments on this blog post – there is a comment section that you can use below. I will be putting up the next event on Facebook – but if you are not on Facebook and want to sign up, you can use the comment section here. The same cutoff criteria applies, as well as the need to vet any new players (the committee will want to get a good idea of your golf game).

Also, if you want to check out my other hobby posts here – feel free – my guess is you will be surprised at what you see.

Thanks again to all the players, Country Auto for sponsoring, and to Gary and Debbie Donlin, Jim LeBlanc, and all the staff at Quail Hollow (like Tara!) who work so hard to make the Tour of the Brookfields possible.

Lesser Pumpkin Heads of the Great Land of Harvest (Wars of Ozz)

In my last post I shared about King Jack and the Great Pumpkin Heads of the Great Land of Harvest. I’m sure that some of you thought – hey – are all of their inhabitants that big? Surely, to have greater pumpkin heads – there must indeed be lesser ones, right?

Indeed there are!

There are several units of lesser pumpkin heads and individual pumpkin head generals – more human-sized ones anyways. I have completed a couple that I will be sharing, starting with this post on my regiment of Lesser Pumpkin Heads. The lesser pumpkin heads are pretty skinny dudes. They can move effortlessly (without cost) through woods, but otherwise they are an average unit.

The Lesser Pumpkin Heads (let’s shorten that to LPH) are part of the Wars of Ozz figures and their SKU# is OZZ506 and can be seen here. The unit is comprised of 20 metal figures, appropriately armed with hatchets, axes, sickles, and scythes – but the unit required no assembly. As with all standard Ozz units the figures are based 4 at a time on five 2″ square bases, but there is no Regimental Commander here.

My goal was to organize them to appear to be a rabble-type force. Unlike the disciplined units of the Munchkins or even the Gillikins, I don’t see these as being very organized in battle with regards to uniforms and drill. I also mixed up their clothing colors, weapons, and flocking such that no two of the five bases looked exactly alike. I did use the basic colors of the Great Pumpkin Heads for the LPH – and especially the yellow-green eyes. Here though, I also needed to show straw (like the stuffing of a scarecrow) coming out of the holes in their clothes and near their wrists.

I’ll share a few WIP shots and then some eye candy. These were also worked on (especially due to the need for orange) simultaneously with King Jack and 4 of his other units in various states of completion at the same time.

I’ll start with assembly of the figures and then move to describing the painting process. I used a number of contrast and speed paints, but did also use highlights and washes. All of the paints that I used will be listed at the end as I normally do for those interested (and for my own reference in the future should I need that information).

WIP Shots…

The Lesser Pumpkin Heads here all cleaned up and ready for priming.

I chose to “pre-base” the LPH on 3’4″ square steel bases for three reasons. First, so that I could more easily attach them to my poster tack covered specimen jars, second so that they would be easier to paint, and third to make it easier to affix the LPH to their final resting place – the 2″ square steel bases – done later in the process.

The LPH are primed in black here and are on the 3/4″ steel bases with a couple of 2″ square bases in front for reference.
Early painting progress on April 11th.

By April 17th, I had made some progress on the LPH.

April 17th progress.
By 4/20, the LPH regiment was done.

As you can see, the regiment has a lot of color – which will be better viewed in the next section. Some of these photo groups will be four image galleries and some three.

Eye Candy

Stand 1

Stand 2

Stand 3

Stand 4

Stand 5

Group shot…

That wraps up the Lesser Pumpkin Heads infantry. I also have a unique artillery unit of theirs next that I think you’ll enjoy. Thanks for taking a look and any feedback.

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 THIS LESSER PUMPKIN HEAD REGIMENT:

  1. 2″ square steel base from Wargames Accessories (#21)
  2. 3/4″ square steel bases from Wargames Accessories (#A9)
  3. Gorilla Glue
  4. Poster tack
  5. Vallejo “Airbrush Thinner”
  6. Vallejo Mecha Surface Primer “Black”
  7. Vallejo Model Color “White”
  8. Citadel “Tesseract Glow”
  9. Vallejo Game Color “Moon Yellow”
  10. Battlefront “Gunship Green”
  11. Vallejo Mecha Color Green Blue”
  12. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Contrast Medium”
  13. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Pallid Bone”
  14. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Gravelord Grey”
  15. Tamiya “Orange”
  16. Vallejo Model Color “Light Orange”
  17. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Camo Cloak”
  18. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Striking Scorpion Green”
  19. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Highlord Blue”
  20. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Gryph-Hound Orange”
  21. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Hive Dweller Purple”
  22. Citadel “Contrast Paint – Magmadroth Flame”
  23. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Grim Black”
  24. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Absolution Green”
  25. Vallejo Model Air “Dark Steel”
  26. Vallejo Model Air “Light Steel”
  27. Vallejo Model Color “Wood Grain”
  28. Vallejo Model Air “Green Brown”
  29. Vallejo Model Air “Dark Brown”
  30. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Sand Golem”
  31. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Purple Alchemy”
  32. Army Painter “Speed Paint – Holy White”
  33. Army Painter “Mid Brown” (wash/shade)
  34. Army Painter “Green Tone” (wash/shade)
  35. PS Model Color “British Brown Drab”
  36. Elmer’s PVA Glue
  37. Vallejo “Flow Improver”
  38. Vallejo Mecha Varnish “Gloss Varnish”
  39. Vallejo Mecha Varnish “Matte Varnish”
  40. Army Painter “Battlefields Grass Green” (flocking)
  41. Army Painter “Battlefield Field Grass” (flocking)
  42. Army Painter “Battlefields Field Grass” (flocking)
  43. Army Painter “Battlefields Meadow Flowers” (flocking)
  44. Shadow’s Edge Miniatures “6mm Dark Forest Orange Tufts” (flocking)
  45. Gamer’s Grass “Orange Flowers” (flocking)
  46. Small stones (flocking)
  47. 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.

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