The 2023 Tour of the Brookfields FINALS DRAFT was held on Thursday, September 28th at Quail Hollow Golf Course and Country Club. The teams for Saturday’s FINALS are below:
You can also download this below:
Good luck to all and see you Saturday!
I have not painted any Ozz figures since last month – and while I did run a Wars of Ozz game at the Hobby Bunker, and finished my Frost Ogres for WOOD, it was time to jump back on my Ozz stuff. I wanted to finish off my last Gillikin units – which are not really Gillikins but are aligned to them in the game as allies. These would be the Dire Lions (OZZ-500), Dire Tigers (OZZ-501), and Dire Bears (OZZ-502), all large intelligent beasts that normally fight alongside the Gillikins. They are listed in the “Allies and Mercenaries” section on the website, and in the rules are listed under the Gillikins as well as in the “Allies and Mercenaries section”.
These figures are all large enough to fit 1 figure apiece on a 2″ square base. They come 5 to a unit, are 28mm in scale (for giant beasts that is) and are resin and metal – and most needed some minor assembly and prep. Each grouping of five had two types of poses – one with the animals on their rear haunches in an attack position and one with three or four paws on the ground. After cleaning them, I used a blow dryer to heat the legs of the lunging ones and bend them so as to make them even taller. I also assembled those with metal heads in various and slightly different positions so they would be facing forward somewhat askew from each other.
A big difference with what I did with these figures versus my normal painting process was that I resolved to use my three airbrushes as much as possible. For priming and varnishing I used my Iwata Eclipse HP-CS with a 0.5mm needle. For large areas, I used my Iwata Neo with a 0.35mm needle. And for detail, I used my Iwata Custom Micron CM-B with a tiny 0.18mm needle. At the end of this post, I’ll share all the different paints, and other supplies that I used. I also did some detail work with regular brushes. My goal here was to airbrush as much of the figures as possible to achieve fur blending and a different level of detail.
As with all Ozz infantry units, they are based on 2″ square bases – so five bases for each regiment. There is no regimental commander for any of the units, but I did add a Pendraken dice frame to one base of each unit.
As one would expect, in the game,they are good melee troops across the board, with Melee values of 6/10, 6/10, 8/10, Resolve values of 5/10, 5/10, and 6/10, and Elan values of 6/10, 7/10, and 6/10 for the Dire Lions, Dire Tigers, and Dire Bears respectively. The Dire Lions are cheapest at 4 points, with the Dire Tigers and Dire Bears costing 5. All can move sideways or backwards with no movement costs, and all can pass through woods without any penalty.
I started these on September 4th and completed them on the 26th. I’ll share some WIP shots and then some eye candy pics below.
My first step was to have a decent painting plan – so I downloaded some photos of the animals as guides. Of course, the models differed slightly as befits Ozz, but a good start nonetheless. I primed the models all in white.
I initially decided to go with the painting order of “Lions, and Tigers, and Bears” for some reason…but I did apply a base coat to the bears before the tigers. When I painted the tigers, I kept hearing “Eye of the Tiger” in my head…
As for order of work though, I primarily stayed with the order with the lions first and the bears last with the tigers in the middle.
Then, it was on to the Dire Tigers, where getting the right mix of orange, black, and white on the fur was really made easier with my airbrushes. They were also saber-toothed, which was a cool aspect of the sculpts.
Next, I moved on to the Dire Bears. Here I wanted a brownish blended paint job – which sounds easier than it was.
At that point, I could begin to finish the bases. The models’ bases on the steel bases were raised up and in some cases overlapping the 2″ steel bases. To level it all out, I used up an umopened box of black Milliput that I had hanging around -and ended up running out of it on my last Lion – so I used green stuff there on the last lion.
Before I get to the eye candy – a brief and happy segue. I had a fun chat with Dave – (aka Guru from Guru PIGS blog down under in Australia). A wonderful package from Dave subsequently made the 10,470 mile trip to my home. What, pray tell, was in the package? Well, just a great collection of whimsical hand-made stuff! The most wonderfully Ozz-appropriate terrain, a “Mouse Metropolis”, along with a fun golf book (for you know I love golf). Thanks so much Dave, I look forward to incorporating this great collection into my games! I just have to figure out a boxing solution (which I will of course!). You can see Dave’s blog post on the Mouse Metropolis here. So much appreciated Dave, thank you! You are a gentleman and a scholar!
Back to the dire beast models at hand – and the flocking. As Gillikins love purple, I added some purple flowers to each base, along with different grass ans grassy tufts to give an “beast in ambush mode” feel to the miniatures. Without further ado, let’s look at some…
I now have 2 regiments of Dire Bears, and one each of Dire Wolves, Dire Lions, and Dire Tigers – a Dire Beast Brigade!
I hope that you found this somewhat post as interesting as I found painting these figures. I do have another Harvest unit to do, then some terrain and then maybe the Quadlings. I have 394 painted Ozz figures to date, and 200 this year alone.
And yes, I still have more to come…
For all of my previous posts on Wars of Ozz games, figures, units, and other related projects – please see this page.
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.
NOTE: these sheets were updated on Tuesday, September 26th to reflect an A player change -with Ken Dorman out and Lex Varney in. This is reflected in the UPDATED FILE below and you can download the updated file below:
Remember that the draft night on September 28th at Quail Hollow at 7:00 PM is open to all – and a good idea if you want to help your team with a pick.
Here are screenshots of the update – there are only a few changes in ranking and the pick order:
Any further updates will be shared at the Draft Pick night, thanks!
In preparation for the 2023 Tour of the Brookfields FINALS Draft pick night, some of you have requested the actual Excel files of the results. I will share those files below here in a consolidated Excel workbook as well as on the TOB Facebook page so all players have an equal access to the data.
The download is below:
As for timing – the A players will be ranked, the flights will be determined, the pick order for A players will be finalized, and the player pool selected by the evening of September 24th.
The draft night pick will be on Thursday, September 28th at 7 PM at Quail Hollow. All players are welcome and encouraged to attend.
Our last regular season TOB event – the September 2023 Tour of the Brookfields Tournament – the 308 Lakeside Open – was held on the Sunday the 10th at Quail Hollow Golf and Country Club in Oakham, MA. The weather was dry until after we were done which was great! We thank 308 Lakeside in East Brookfield for their sponsorship of the event.
We had another strong turnout of 23 teams with 92 players total in three flights. Each of the three flights was again very competitive with once again -two of the three flights ended up being tied after 18 holes and went into playoffs. What was different was that for the first time EVER, we had a 4-way playoff in addition to a two-way playoff.
Once again – NO team won by more than a single stroke over a second place team. There were 5 skins won this time.
The results table and some photos will follow the narrative below.
In the Nicklaus Flight, the team of Jim Kularski, Dean Malin, Rick Gendreau. and Greg Wypych shot a stellar 12-under par to win the Nicklaus Flight by a single stroke. They edged out two other teams that came in at -11, that being the the teams of: Reece McLeod, Brandon McEvoy, Brad Earle, Jackie LaPierre as well as the team of Josh Russell, Steve Mansfield, Pete Peloquin, Sr., and Bernie LaPierre, Sr.
In the Player Flight, there was a two-team tie at a strong 10 under par, so there was a one-hole playoff. The team of Kevin Paradis, Amanda Pierce, Jeff Ford, and Jarrod Dandurant birdied the 10th hole (the playoff hole for them) and narrowly defeated the other -10 team, that being the team of Dennis Jennette, Ron McCann, Tom Foley, and Keith Tytula. Congrats!
In the Palmer Flight, there was the unprecedented 4-way tie for first place after 18 holes! The four teams played the 16th, 17th, and 18th holes in an aggregate score playoff. After the three holes were played, three teams remained tied at 2 under par for the three playoff holes. As lightning was threatening with imminent thunderstorms, there was no further playoff. So, the three teams that tied for first were:
The other team that qualified for the Palmer Flight playoff was the team of John Markey, Jerry Dufresne, Ray Rawlston, and Paul Wyman. Kudos!
There were five skins won as shown below – with 4 being Eagles! Congrats to those 5 teams! Additionally, closest to the pin was won by Ken Burnham for his team on the par-3 17th hole at 4′ 1″ away! Nice shot indeed Ken!
The results – and some photos I took – are below – and click on any of the photos for a bigger image. Congrats again to the winners!
The FINALS are coming up quickly. The sign up closes on September 23rd. You can sign up on the Facebook event page, as well as on physical sign up sheets at Quail Hollow and Still Harts Café.
The list of the available players for the field and the ranked A players as selected by the TOB committee will be published on SUNDAY NIGHT, September 24th. I will post this the Facebook page and on this blog as well.
The FINALS player draft will be held at Quail Hollow. It is scheduled for Thursday, September 28th at 7 PM. All players are welcome – and encouraged to attend.
For a listing of all the links that will bring you to the results of all of the 2023 Tour of the Brookfields results, go to this page. If you are curious as to who’s been successful, this is where you would go. Here is the flyer that was distributed Sunday and that explains where to go:
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 these events on Facebook – but if you are not on Facebook and want to sign up, you can use the comment section here on this blog.
Thanks again to all the players, to 308 Lakeside for sponsoring this event, 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.
And once again, 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. Or you’ll think I’m nuts…or both. For me, it’s golf time or toy soldier/wargaming time!
After all, this blog is titled, “Life, Golf, Miniatures, and Other Distractions”. Feel free to subscribe as an email follower! (and it is free).
Not sure why (WordPress mystery) but this is showing up in August feed – reblogging here!
I have been developing a Wars of Ozz scenario to use at upcoming gaming conventions, especially at Fall In!® in Pennsylvania in November. The genesis of the idea for it came to me when I painted up the Adventurers of Ozz figures. The Kansas Farmgirl figure (probably “Dorothy”😁 ) had a small dog in a basket on her waist – and there was yet an extra separate Toto figure in the group. Well, I decided that I could use the other separate Toto as an objective marker – which led to my wanting a scenario for that use. And here we are!
The scenario title is “The Battle for Toto” – I’ll get you my pretty, and your little dog too!”. My flyer with the game description is below.
The scenario involves two converging – yet potentially opposing -attacking forces and one defender. On one side, are the Gillikins under Arella the Witch with two reinforced brigades. On the other side, under Evora the Witch, are the combined Winkie/Great Land of Harvest forces consisting of two allied brigades.
Meanwhile, a single reinforced Munchkin brigade is holed up in a nearby small town and some surrounding defensive cover outside of that town. Also hidden in that town – in an unknown location – is the Kansas Farm Girl’s little dog, Toto – the object of the game of course.
The Gillikins and the Winkies can choose to fight each other or collaborate and go for the Munchkins. To simulate the “sibling rivalry” aspect of the game, I allowed Victory Points for the two attackers differently. If the attackers took out a Munchkin base, it was worth 1 point, while taking out a sibling’s base was worth 1.5 points. While collaboration between the attackers is possible, I created an incentive here for sororicidal tendencies to assert themselves (never used that word before!). The point values for the game are shown below:
The biggest point value is possession of Toto at the end of the game at 10 points. Toto is placed randomly and secretly under one of the buildings using playing cards face down. Even I, as the GM, won’t know where Toto is.
I have GM’ed this game twice. I ran it at a Mass Pikemen game day back in July on the 22nd, and also at the Hobby Bunker Game Day event on August 26th. I took a few pictures but as always when you’re the GM it’s difficult to be a great photographer and run the game effectively. I always prefer to be an effective GM and as good a photographer as possible. Still, I think you’ll find these pictures interesting – and this post will be photo-heavy.
As is my wont, after each game, I tweak it a bit for the next iteration based upon player feedback my own observations. In both of the games here, I acted as the GM and the Munchkin commander. If I had more players, I would defer. As I would expect the Munchkins to take advantage of their initial hard cover, little movement on their part is expected. This leaves more game time for the attackers, as the Munchkin’s actions during their activation tends to be over pretty quickly for the most part.
A quick aside – I needed to determine a special order of play with three sides. Normally, in Wars of Ozz, for activation purposes, there is an activation deck of cards with 12 cards: 1-6 red and 1-6 black. They determine the order in which a side can activate a unit or individual based on a dice pool controlled by the brigade commander. The number of dice in a brigade commander’s dice pool corresponds to the number of units or individuals that the player controls. So if a 6 is pulled on a card – the player can choose a unit to activate with any available sixes on the dice. For this three-way game, to see who would go first, I needed to set up a special order of play. I used red cards for the Munchkins (which would let them go first on a red card) and odd black-numbered cards for the Gillikins and even black-numbered cards for the Winkie/Harvest brigades. Each turn, all get activated, it’s just the order of activation that is affected. For example, if a black 3 card was pulled, all Gillikin 3’s would activate, followed by Winkie/Harvest 3’s, followed by Munchkin 3’s. If the next card was a red 6, the activation order of play would then be Munchkin 6’s, followed by Winkie/Harvest 6’s (as an even number), followed by Gillikin 6’s (who only go first on odd numbers). As all 12 cards are played each turn – it does evens out.
I will share the pics below and give some descriptions – though it is far from a complete battle report to be sure. I just thought you folks would enjoy the photos and the flavor of the games.
Here is the game as set up:
Close ups of the attackers are shown below at the start of the scenario – the Winkies are screening their flank with zilk cavalry, while the Gillikins are doing the same with a regiment of giant Dire Bears.
The Munchkins are in good cover – with Colonel Tik Tok and a medium battery both in defensive positions on the town’s flanks in a walled positions. In the town are a light cavalry regiment with carbines, the Munchkin Guard infantry, a wizard, and the Aerostat providing overwatch musketry. In reserve are the Great Owls. In this first game, I used 4 buildings in the town as possible Toto locations, so there was a 25% chance that Toto was in any one building.
Now, some play shots:
Very quickly, sibling rivalry did take over as the Winkie Light Cavalry got the initiative and attacked the Gillikin longbows once the Dire Bears moved forward and left them open.
This move also left open the cavalry’s flank, and the Dire Bears subsequently hit them on that flank. In short order, after a few rounds the Winkie cavalry was routed by the Dire Bears and was eventually driven off the board. The loss of this key unit would haunt the Winkies, but now there was definitely a 3-way fight on the tabletop.
At the town, the Munchkin Aerostat kept up covering fire from a safe location, as Harvest melee troops hit the defenders in waves. One such attack triggered the Munchkin Light Cavalry to charge out of the town and hit the Mushroom Regiment.
Similarly, Colonel Tik Tok was hit with multiple frontal melee assaults by the Great Pumpkinheads, the Carrot Creatures, and the Lesser Pumpkinheads. All failed to dislodge them from their walled position.
Meanwhile, on the Munchkin’s left flank, the Munchkin medium battery took a toll on multiple Gillikin units. The Gillikins sent out their Dire Wolves to flank the battery, and the Munchkins countered with their mobile reserve – the Great Owls.
With the main objective in mind, the Dire Wolves ran around the Great Owls to the town (Dire Wolves are FAST), where they prepared to search a building for Toto.
Similarly, the regrouped Mushrooms stormed a gap in the town’s defenses (left by the undesired sortie of the Munchkin Light Cavalry who kept charging away at other enemies). The Mushrooms prepared to search yet another building.
The next activation, the Dire Wolves found Toto – and carried him away.
The game ended, with the Gillikins winning, the Munchkins in second place, and the Winkies/Harvest in third. I think the points were Gillikins 28 (with 10 for Toto), Munchkins 19, and Winkies/Harvest 18.
After this game, I added some 12 mm Pendraken dice square frames to some of the Gillikin regimental commanders and to one base apiece of regiments that do not have regimental commanders. I got the Gillikin regiments from an estate sale in the UK. I had wanted to have a number of Gillikins, so they were not painted by me – but were quite good. I also made MDF placard holders for the Gillikin regiments with commanders and glued them to their bases as it would have been too impractical and time consuming to rebase the figures. This would make play easier because having the placards on the regimental commanders’ bases negates having them fall off during movement. I also updated some player charts to one piece of card stock. I was then ready for the:
Matt of the the Hobby Bunker store in Wakefield ran a game day on August 26th. I ran an Aztec game here last year but did not do a blog post on it, but it was well-attended. For this one, I volunteered to run the Battle for Toto scenario twice – once at 10 AM and again at 2 PM.
Unfortunately, turnout was a bit low, and we also started late, so I ended up running the game just one time across both time slots. That is to say, I kept the tabletop as it was at 2 PM and rotated in new players. It saved time as the game was still developing, and resetting the game was not a good option for the time we had left. In the end, it worked.
The game went similarly to the previous iteration – but not totally. I did modify some of the troops initial locations within the brigades, plus the table was of a slightly different size than I had in July.
Once again, at the start, witch sibling rivalry took over – though this time it was the Gillikin’s Dire Bears hitting first instead of the Winkies. And once again dice rolls favored the Gillikins and saw the Winkie Cavalry being routed and ultimately driven off of the board! (As Boston Bruins fans know – don’t poke the bear). Also, that cavalry rout went through several other Winkie units, disordering them and slowing their initial movements in the game.
Meanwhile, on the Munchkin’s left flank, the Gillikins moved up their forces into an effective attack formation with their musket-armed infantry in line (for better musketry) and melee forces in column (for better movement towards the town0. They detailed a small force to hold the Winkies at bay on their left flank.
After this movement, the Harvesters activated again, and were able to change formation and hit the medium battery – wiping it out completely.
The fight went badly for Tik Tok. The Regiment lost two bases and a third was heavily damaged. Even the Kansas Farmgirl took damage.
The Harvestland Artillery activated, and hit the Munchkins, eliminating yet another base, and routing the unit. Alas, the Kansas Farmgirl also took damage, and yes, again, sadly bought the farm…
Both Munchkin flanks had now been compromised – and as the Gillikin Goat Riders were in the process of routing the Great Owls, things were not looking up for the Munchkins. At 2 PM we rotated in new players to take over.
The Carrot Creatures decided to fire their bows at and then charge the Munchkin Light Cavalry. The Munchkin Light Cavalry’s Reaction test to that fire dictated that they would countercharge the Carrots – with impetus and double hits…the result was massive damage to the Carrots, who also quickly fled the battlefield in a hurry.
The Munchkin cavalry then took a reaction test, which made them continue to attack the nearest unit – which ended up being the Gillikin Longbows. The bowmen damaged the cavalry and broke up their attack with little damage. Subsequently, Evora successfully hit them in the rear with a fireball, taking out a base. A terrible Reaction test die roll then sent the Munchkin Cavalry fleeing.
In the end, Toto by chance was in the building searched by the Harvesters. The little dog was seized, and put under the control of Arella and the Gillikins.
The final scores were:
Obviously, possession of Toto by any of the three sides would have resulted in victory. Yet again, the Gillikins won, but it was definitely a different battle. I like the scenario and will tweak it for Fall In!®. I am hoping to realign the forces a bit and add a few surprises. I will also have some new terrain and possibly a new gaming mat. The core of the scenario will remain as I think it works and I think is fun.
At Fall In!® I will be running the game in the HAWKS room twice – on Friday morning and also on Saturday morning. I will also team up with Chris Palmer on Friday night for another Ozz game – featuring the Harvest folks seeking seasonal revenge – “The Vegetables are Revolting”.
Thanks for looking at this longer post. Next up (hopefully by this weekend) will be a special post on the Challenge Ogres “Paint What We All Have” painting challenge organized by Roger from “Rantings from Under the Wargames Table” in conjunction with Dave Stone of “Wargames Terrain Workshop” . Dave sculpted the figures and Roger set out the painting challenge.
Any feedback from you – let me know!
For all of my previous posts on Wars of Ozz games, figures, units, and other related projects – please see this page.
Earlier this year, two UK bloggers, Roger from “Rantings from Under the Wargames Table” in conjunction with Dave Stone of “Wargames Terrain Workshop” set out a painting challenge poll. I think Roger came up with the idea of a painting challenge where we all would paint the same figure. Roger sent out a poll on what type of figure would be chosen, and Dave volunteered to sculpt it.
The poll results ended up with the selection of a common figure for us all to paint and share by the September in a “Paint What We’ve All Got” painting challenge. That figure selection ended up being an ogre: “Savage, armoured fantasy Ogre with a hand weapon”.
The genesis of this was Roger’s post on back on March 8th with the aforementioned readers’ poll. Dave’s March 28th post on the Challenge Ogre is here. Roger followed up on his blog here. Dave, who is a masterful sculptor and modeler, came up with the figure. The ogre figure carries a massive stone ax. He wears lots of bones on his wrists, and an animal pelt on his lower torso and a shoulder pelt. The shoulder pelt is festooned with multiple animal horns as well. Dave went with a Norse motif with the sculpt. Here is the original photo of the ogre sculpt from his blog:
Once the challenge was set, I contacted Dave Stone and ordered five of the figures, which arrived in the spring. Why 5? So that I could have an entire regiment of them!
I had no idea as to when I would get to painting them -until recently – when I had decided that this was a good opportunity to accomplish a few things. First, this would let me have a small “palette cleansing” (pun intended) chance to paint something a little different than all the Ozz stuff that I have been painting lately. I do love the Ozz stuff but variety is the spice of life as they say.
Second, painting up a unit of these would be useful for a game of WOOD (Wars of Orcs and Dwarves). WOOD is basically a similar set of rules by Buck Surdu using his Wars of Ozz engine for mass fantasy battles with a few changes.
Lastly, it was an opportunity to participate in an intriguing and fun painting challenge with fellow bloggers across the globe.
Again, the figures arrived sometime back in the late spring/early summer timeframe. Since then, I worked on other things that you’ve seen this blog. The packing Dave did of the figures was outstanding – they all arrived in excellent condition. After looking at the figures, I decided that I wanted to make them “frost ogres”, as they looked to me to be perfect for a winter environment. I debated between ice ogre and frost ogre. In the end I went with Frost Ogre. Yes, I know there are frost giants, ice trolls, and the like, but for fantasy stuff you can do whatever you want!
I gave them all a good scrubbing as I hate when paint does not stick well to resin.
As far as basing goes, I knew that I would have to base them on larger bases than the 2” x 2” normally used for Ozz and WOOD. The figures are too large otherwise. And the WOOD rules happily accommodates such a situation. After some consultation with both Dave Wood and Buck Surdu, I decided to go with 2″ x 4″ in terms of basing. Instead of taking 4 hits like a 2” x 2” base, each Frost Ogre base will take 8 hits. So this will be a mighty regiment of Frost Ogres.
The figures themselves were 28mm scale and resin with wire internal supports (nice call on that Dave). They required a little bit of assembly as both hands needed to be attached. I assembled the figures by using green stuff instead of glue to affix the hands and to attach the feet to the steel bases. I’m not sure if that was a right or wrong decision, but I always feel a little bit cautious with regards to resin figures in terms of what might work for glue. As I ordered them without bases, so I could base them appropriately for WOOD, I would need to deal with that aspect, too. Initially, I considered adding a few secondary weapons in their left hands. However, as those hands has wide open palms, I eventually passed on doing so because it just didn’t look right. I initially based the figures on 2″ x 2″ steel bases for painting – with an eye to then base them permanently on 2″ x 4″ bases.
While giving them secondary weapons would have given me a chance to differentiate the figures, I decided that I would differentiate them instead by altering the position of the hands as well as through painting. By painting, I thought that I would give each of the ogres a slightly different bluish, flesh color, as befits a Frost Ogre. I would also differentially paint their pelts.
I started dabbling with/working on them at different times since June while I worked on this, that, and the other Ozz thing. While I am definitely not a hobby butterfly (apologies to IRO, I have nothing against hobby butterflies!), I did want to finish more of the Ozz stuff that I was working on that I’ve shared previously. But, finally, it was time for a short break to work on these…but in the process of working on them, I accidentally tipped over and broke one of the figures horns on the shoulder pad. This ticked me off – as it was shattered and not easily repairable. I didn’t want to risk resculpting the horn as I knew whatever I did would never look as good as what Dave done originally. In any case, I think that damage just added to the figures’ differentiation because the horn looked like it was battle damaged in the end. You can be the judge when you see the final figures in a bit.
Below, you’ll see some work in progress, pictures, and then afterwards, I’ll show some eye candy with a new background that I printed off that I think shows off the Frost Ogres in a nice winter environment.
My approach to painting was to manually prime these with some white Vallejo primer that was left over. It wouldn’t flow through my airbrush anymore, but was still useful. Then, I washed the non-flesh parts with a dark wash, and the flesh parts with a Reaper MSP blue liner. That blue liner had laid unused in my paint collection for at least 5 years. This blue liner, I hoped, would give me an appearance/depth of color underneath for the future flesh tones.
Subsequent to this, I would dry brush back over the blue and the dark with white.
Then I focused on the non-flesh areas of the models – horns, bones, pelts, and weapons.
Lastly, I would then go with colors over the white that hopefully would be speed or contrast paints, washes, and highlights that could help with the looks I wanted. I initially chose the five colors below for flesh tones:
All were fine, except for the Citadel “Briar Queen Chill”, which was really more of a ghoulish green. I applied it, as I though “chill” and “frost” went together. But, I was not very happy. It was not bluish in the least – it was green. As I did not want one figure to look like the Incredible Hulk, I just went over this green with a Citadel “Drakenhof Nightshade” blue shade, which gave it a nice, somewhat turquoise-looking color. Not being a GW guy, I really wasn’t aware of what a briar queen was! I guess it’s sort of a witch. Another item, I also used a 7,000 RPM paint shaker on these – and it worked great to get the pigments really shaken up. The Army Painter speed paints all have steel balls in them, but the shaker is something I highly recommend, especially for the paints that tend to settle out a bit. At $46 US, its pretty good – you just have to recharge it with a USB cable.
Back to the models. As I went “blue” with these, I made sure that the colors would vary.
One of the major challenges in this project was dealing with the left hands. On one figure (base one), I had assembled the left hand too low to the ground. So, when I adjusted the basing to the 2″ x 4″ bases it, I just used some green stuff to alter its pose. I added each Frost Ogre’s Wargames Accessories 2″ square steel base (which I had mounted the ogres to with green stuff initially) to a 2″ x 4″ polystyrene plastic base. Then, I added two more steel 2″ bases underneath for transport/storage and magnetic attraction purposes.
As for the snow flocking on the bases, I used several products. I started the gray Vallejo Ground Texture “Rough Grey Pumice”, followed by two Citadel texture paints (Mourn Mountain Snow” and “Valhallan Blizzard”. You can see all the paints that I use. at the end of this blog, for that special person who wants to know what I used, or for me because when I want to re-create an effect – or a painting scheme – I will never remember – unless I write it down. I also added a Pendraken 12mm dice frame to one figure, plus some rocks and oak twigs. And lastly, I sprinkled some Citadel “Snow” that had been in my supplies unused since 2015 over a light PVA on the bases.
Given that I used a number of contrast and speed paints in this project, and that I did not want to have any bleed, I did take a lot of time in between steps to let things dry. Or that’s just an excuse because I went golfing…
As promised, here is some:
This is the base with the broken horn. Flesh tone is primarily Citadel “Frost Heart”. I gave this, the most blue figure, the dice frame.
Flesh tone is primarily Citadel “Pylar Glacier”.
Flesh tone is primarily Citadel “Briar Queen Chill” washed with “Drakenhof Nightshade”.
Flesh tone is primarily Citadel “Aethermatic Blue”.
Flesh tone is primarily Army Painter “Caribbean Ocean”.
Thanks so much to Dave and to Roger for the opportunity to work on these! I am sure that there will be others’ entries which will put these to shame – and I do look forward to seeing everyone else’s take.
Meanwhile, I hope that you found these interesting! I am very happy to have the unit ready for a game of WOOD, even though that game may be far off in the future. I do have a number of older fantasy figures that I do plan on painting and basing or just rebasing for WOOD going forward. But this was the first unit that I decided to give a shot at doing because of the wonderful painting challenge. Again, I’m really looking forward to my fellow bloggers take on these ogres as well, PLUS the bonus of seeing yours!
If you have any comments, as always, let me know in the blog comment section below. As for my next project, I think I am going to get to some more Gillikin beasts completed as well as finish off the Great Land of Harvest forces for Ozz . Appreciate your taking a look here!
For all of my previous posts on Wars of Ozz games, figures, units, and other related projects – please see this page.
For all of my previous posts on Wars or Orcs and Dwarves (WOOD), fantasy battle games, figures, units, and other related projects – please see this page.
If want to acquire the rules for Wars of Orcs and Dwarves, there are two options (and I make no money from this btw).
You can get the rules from Sally 4th as a book (here) or as a PDF (here). Also, Noble Knight Games in the US has them – though currently they are listed as out of stock (as of September 2, 2023). They are due to have more hard copies in soon – and that link is here.
Our August 2023 Tour of the Brookfields Tournament – the Hardwick Crossing Tournament – was held on the Saturday 19th at Quail Hollow Golf and Country Club in Oakham, MA. The weather was great! We thank Hardwick Crossing for their sponsorship of the event.
We had a great turnout of 20 teams with 80 players total in three flights. Each of the three flights was again very competitive with two of the three ending in ties. Because of another follow on tournament – and with agreement of the affected players, no playoffs were held. Once again – NO team won by more than a single stroke over a second place team. There were only 2 skins won this time.
The results table and some photos will follow the narrative below.
In the Nicklaus Flight, we had a two-way tie between the team of Jim Kularski, Jim Gregoire, Jason McCarthy, and Bernie LaPierre, Jr, and the team of Corey Heyes, Amanda Pierce, Jake Malin, and Bob Weighill. Both came in at a stunning -10. Hot on their heels was the team of Dennis Jennette, Tom McCarthy, Rick Gendreau, and Paul Wyman at -9. Again, there was no playoff.
In the Player Flight, the team of Tom Orszulak, Stan Nolin, Dave Fiske, and Mark Bruso won out with yet another -10 AND another one stroke victory over, edging out he team of Ken Frazier, Pete Peloquin, Sr., Bill Gaudette, and Lisa Persson who came in at -9.
In the Palmer Flight, there was yet another first place tie. The team of Steve Whitman, Doug Judd, Jim McKeon, and Keith Tytula as well as the team of Phil Woods, Tom Savage, Ray Rawlston, and Christopher Thibaud tied at -5. Three other teams came in at -4.
There were just two skins won as shown below – with congrats to those 5 teams! Additionally, closest to the pin was won by Matt Desimone for his team on the par-3 17th hole at 10′ 4″ away!
The September Tournament is the 308 Lakeside Open. It is a SUNDAY EVENT to be held at Quail Hollow. It is scheduled for Sunday September 10th. You can sign up on the Facebook page, as well as on physical sign up sheets at Quail Hollow and Still Harts Café.
The cut off to sign up for the 308 Lakeside Open will be Saturday, September 2nd. 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. In terms of signing up, for any new players, the committee will want to get a good idea of your golf game, so reach out to any of us on the Committee (myself, Ed McLeod, George Fiske, Mike Kularski, or Brad Earle).
Remember that the registration time is 7:30 AM at Quail Hollow. PLEASE SHOW UP BY 7:30 AM!!!!! NOT 8 AM!!!
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 these events on Facebook – but if you are not on Facebook and want to sign up, you can use the comment section here on this blog. The purpose is to give full data to every player in advance of the FINALS draft picks.
Thanks again to all the players, to Hardwick Crossing 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.
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. Or you’ll think I’m nuts…or both. For me, it’s golf time or toy soldier time!
For a listing of all the links that will bring you to the results of all of the 2023 Tour of the Brookfields results, go to this page. If you are curious as to who’s been successful, this is where you would go.
The results – and some photos I took – are below – and click on any of the photos for a bigger image. Congrats again to the winners!
See you next month!
As I promised in my last post…I now present to you some creepy and scary scarecrows for the Great Land of Harvest Army! These are from OZZ-507, “Harvesters – Fearsome Scarecrows of the Night”. They are listed in the “allies and mercenaries” section on the website, and in the rules are listed under the “Land of Harvest”.
There are 20 figures, all are metal and 28mm in size. They look like creepy scarecrows – and they do bear a strong resemblance to many of the Lesser Pumpkinhead figures. In the game, the Harvesters are infantry, but they are less affected by musketry (not cannon though). I assume that is because bullets pass through them relatively easily. They are based 4 to a 2″ square base – so five bases for the regiment. There is no regimental commander. No assembly was required for the unit other than the basing. They are reasonably good melee troops with a Melee value of 6/10, a Resolve value of 7/10, and an Elan value of 7/10 as well. The unit costs 4 points.
They are armed with a motley assortment of weapons – rakes, scythes, pitchforks, sickles, axes, hatchets, and even a hoe. As you will see below, I based them so as to mix and match the poses and the figure types such that no two bases of the five were identical. I needed to get these done for a game and I got them in under the wire – and I will share a post on that game soon.
Harkening back to my Scarecrow figure from the Adventurers of Ozz, and my other Harvest figures, I gave these zombie-colored flesh and glowing eyes. Some of the figures had pumpkin heads but I still gave their limbs a zombie flesh treatment. Other figures had hoods or sacks over their heads, so the glowing eyes tied them together too. I made sure that their clothes varied in color as after all, these are scarecrows.
I wanted them to appear as if they were coming out of a grassy overgrown field, so my basing choices reflected that in terms of the mixed flocking you’ll see. I also wanted to hide their feet as I felt that would look more creepy in the grass. You can decide for your self if that worked. Lastly, for playability, I added a small stone at the back of each base for alignment – as it’s not easy to see which way is “forward” given the rabble-look in which I arranged these guys.
I started these in June and worked on these in July – and finished them up in July. Let’s see some WIP shots and some more pics below!
I was able to finish painting them on July 18th, as seen below.
After varnishing them and letting them dry, I mounted them on the bases and went to town on the flocking – and to hide the feet.
I hope that you found this somewhat late post interesting. Next, I hope to share a post of their first battle at the Mass Pikemen Gaming Club.
And yes, I still have more to come…
For all of my previous posts on Wars of Ozz games, figures, units, and other related projects – please see this page.
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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